*MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON SIX FINALE*

Meredith retells the story of that fateful day with the shooting. A happy twist at the end.

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"It was a day that I shall never forget. The horror I felt that day … the fear, the pain… thinking I had lost my husband and then the experience of that making me lose my unborn baby. It was the worst day of my life."

"How did it happen? Tell me the whole story this time." The listener asked with keen interest.

"Well, the day had started out wonderful. Truly wonderful. Ok, maybe a little surprising at first. I hadn't planned on getting pregnant. It just sorta happened –"

"Feel free to leave out the details on that one." The listener interjected. Meredith laughed a little and continued.

"Anyways, it turned out that I was pregnant, whether I had planned it or not. And naturally, the first person I had to tell was Christina –"

"Normally, wouldn't one tell their husband first?" The listener asked. Meredith shot a look of mock annoyance.

"Are you going to keep interrupting or can I tell the story?" she teased.

"Sorry, I'm done."

"Ok, where was I? Oh yes, I was telling Christina. Boy, was she excited. She gave me the biggest hug. Then I got a page from Derek and I was going up to tell him. I got to his office and he was stressing out about something. I don't remember what. It wasn't important, but I thought it wasn't right to tell him while he was so preoccupied. I made the decision to tell him that night. I had no idea what was coming. Nobody did.

"I left him sitting there in his office. I wish I hadn't. Then maybe I could've stopped that stupid girl. April something… Well, I'm getting ahead of myself anyways. I met up with Christina later. I told her she would be the godmother of the baby. So should anything happen to me and Derek, the baby would have Christina to look after him or her. I think I always thought of the baby as a boy. I don't know why. Maybe because I wanted a little boy with Derek's hair and his blue eyes. Anyway, Christina was too excited at the prospects of being a godmother. She would have done a good job, too. I remember walking with her through the empty halls of the hospital, not aware of the current threat. And then we ran into Derek. God, did he freak when he saw we weren't obeying protocol! With good reason, though. He led us into a closet and told us to stay put because a shooter was lose in the hospital. I hadn't realized… I didn't know it was that serious. I watched him close the door and fought back the urge to run after him and stay by his side. Instead I was stuck in a closet with Christina and I was starting to feel morning sickness coming on. That's when Christina saw him. The shooter. She had ridden the elevator with him this morning. I'd never felt such panic when she told me that he was looking for Derek. I grab the nearest object that looked like it could hold puke as I felt my stomach lurch."

"Oh my god, what did you do after that?" The listener asked with wide eyes. Meredith could see she had their complete attention by this point.

"There was no way I could just stay there in that supply room. Christina and I went looking for Derek, hoping that somehow we could get to Derek before the shooter. Maybe we could warn him in time and save him."

"Did you? Did you find him?"

"No." Meredith sighed. "No, the shooter got to him first. I rounded the corner to see Mr. Clark pointing a gun at my husband's chest."

"You knew the man?" The listener asked in disbelief.

"I knew of him. You see, his wife had been a patient of Derek, Lexie, and Richard. She didn't live. They had to pull the plug and Mr. Clark was very upset over the death of his wife. He blamed the doctors on the case for not doing enough. He tried to sue and wasn't able to get a case against Derek and the others. So I guess this was his next try at revenge.

"Well, there I was, watching in horrified shock as Derek pleaded for his life. I didn't know what he was saying at the time, but I was relieved when I saw Mr. Clark start to lower his gun. For a moment, I thought he was going to be ok. But then she came in and jeopardized everything."

"Who?"

"April Kepner. She ran in and startled both Derek and the shooter. I watched Mr. Clark raise the gun again and with only a moment's hesitation, he shot my husband in the chest. Pointblank. Somehow, Christina dragged me all the way to that supply closet. I was fighting her the whole way, trying to break free and get to Derek. She got me in the supply closet and stood in between me and the door. She told me that if I went to him, the shooter would find me and I would die. I remember pleading with her, telling her we had to go. I finally grabbed her and threw her into a shelf of supplies and ran out to find Derek. He was just laying there, blood pooling around him from where the bullet had hit him. I knelt in his blood and covered his wound with just my hands. I begged him to live, to just stay awake with me. There was no way he could die on me. I would die myself if he did."

"How did you stop the bleeding?" The listener asked urgently.

"We knew he needed surgery. We thought we could get Teddy to do it if we could find her, but Christina and April ran into Avery in the hallway and he informed them that Teddy wasn't even in the building any more. She had gotten out. So that meant that Christina had to do it."

"Was she nervous?"

"She was scared out of her mind, but she kept her composure pretty good. She was strong for me."

"Did she do ok?"

"You're getting ahead of the story."

"What could have possibly happened before that?" The listener asked. Meredith shot the listener a look that said she was just getting started.

"They were prepping him for surgery when Christina told me I wasn't allowed to be in the room. As you can imagine, that didn't go over too well with me. But she said she would end up killing Derek if I was in there staring at her with big, sad, don't-kill-mcdreamy eyes. I was to sit on the floor with April and not move until Christina was done. And for the most part, I was good. I didn't even peak. There wasn't a problem until Owen walked into the room where April and I were sitting on the floor. Christina was operated just in the next room, but I had no idea just how serious the situation was."

"Was the surgery difficult?"

"It is when a man has a gun pointed to your head ordering you to stop." Meredith watched the listener's eyes widen dramatically and their mouth fell open in surprise as they gasped. "Mr. Clark had found Christina operating on Derek and came to tell her to stop, to let him die. Then Owen went in, needing to do something to help Christina. I had no idea anything was wrong except for something in Owen's face made me feel uneasy. When I heard raised voices and shouting, I disobeyed Christina's orders and I stood up and saw Mr. Clark with his gun pointed at my best friend's head, who was currently trying to save my husband. I heard him saying he wanted justice. An eye for an eye. And that meant he needed to kill Derek to get that. I couldn't even think. I just acted. I stepped into the room and ordered him to shoot me instead."

"Oh my god." The listener whispered, completely wrapped up in the intensity of the story.

"Well, I think it's time for a break." Meredith said, standing to leave the room.

"No! No way! You have to finish the story. You can't leave me hanging here."

Meredith smiled and sat back down. "Just teasing you. Ok, well there I was, standing in that OR with a vengeful Mr. Clark. I told him that I was his eye for an eye. The three doctors on the case were very important to me and I to them. Lexie was my sister, Richard considered me family, and Derek was my husband. Shooting me would hurt them the way that he hurt. He swung the gun around so that now it was pointing at me and he took a few steps in my direction. I remember seeing such a look of hate in his eyes and I couldn't believe that someone could have so little regard for human life like he did. He almost pulled the trigger. I honestly think he would have if Christina hadn't said I was pregnant. It was enough to make him hesitate and Owen took that opportunity to try and get the gun away from him. But he saw Owen coming. The sound of the gun firing with the sight of Owen falling to the floor is forever burned in my memory. Then I heard Avery telling Christina to put her hands up because he would shoot again. I watched in horror as they stopped working on Derek and told Mr. Clark that he would bleed to death in a matter of seconds. I panicked. I screamed at them, begging them not to stop. Then I saw his heart stop on the monitor and I collapsed to my knees and started weeping. But only for a moment, because as soon as Mr. Clark was out of the room, Christina and Avery made quick work reattaching the wires to Derek to get a good read on the monitor. He wasn't dead. He was alive and they were going to save him. I'd never felt such relief in all my life when I realized this. And Owen was ok too. I found him breathing but unconscious and I took him across the hall with April to get the bullet out of his shoulder. He was in much better shape than Derek. The bullet went straight through without doing much damage, but he would require a little work to clean up the wound.

"That's when I felt it. The first pain of the miscarriage. The stress of it all had taken its toll in the form of a miscarriage. April thought I was shot and maybe in shock, but I figured it out pretty fast. I knew I was losing my baby. A baby I hadn't realized just how much I wanted until I knew I couldn't have him. I'll never forget the look on Owen and April's faces when I told them. But there wasn't time to dwell on it just then. We had to fix Owen. I had to push all the thoughts of the miscarriage out of my mind for the time being. Once we were through with Owen, I raced across the hall to check on Derek. Christina was just finishing up and I thought he would be fine, but he went into v-fib and they had to shock his heart. He made me nervous, but his heart returned to a normal rhythm and Christina closed up. He lived but my baby died. The shooter took the easy way out and took his own life later on."

"How horrible." The listener whispered. "You went through a lot that day. It was scary and painful and sad."

"It's not the end." Meredith said. The listener looked up and wondered what else could have possibly happened on what could probably be called the worst day of Meredith's life. "The story has a happy ending."

"How?"

"Well, first of all, Derek survived. We both went through a lot but we made it through that day. And yes, I lost my baby and it was sad, but there was something good that came out of that.

"What?"

"You." Meredith reached over and squeezed her daughter's hand. "I got pregnant with you four months after that day. That wouldn't have happened if I had still been pregnant."

Zoe Shepherd smiled, but it was a little sad. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Mom."

"Thanks, Baby. You know, my first pregnancy was a bit of a shock. I didn't realize just how much I wanted to be a mom until that day when I lost the baby. So when I found out I was pregnant with you, I was so excited."

"How did you tell Dad?"

Meredith laughed, remembering exactly how it had gone. "I was at home, waiting for him to get back from the hospital. He walked in the door and I ambushed him. I was just too excited to wait. I told him I was pregnant and he grabbed me and spun me around and I nearly threw up on him right there."

"Ew." Zoe said with a smile.

Derek appeared in the doorway of Zoe's room. "Zoe, I need you to set the table for dinner."

"Ok, Dad." Zoe hopped up and started to leave the room, but she spun around just before she reached the entrance. "Hey, Mom? Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome." Meredith stood and walked into Derek's arms as Zoe left the room.

"What were you telling her?" Derek asked.

"She asked about your scar again." Meredith tenderly placed her hand over the place on his chest where the bullet had torn through him so many years ago. Derek nodded and brought his head down to hers so his lips brushed against hers in a sweet kiss. What Meredith said had been true. They had been through horrible events together; not just the shooting, but the almost-drowning and some rough spots in their relationship, but nothing had ever torn them apart. It had made them stronger. Then the kids had come. Zoe was a welcome healing for both of them after their loss. Greyson and Evelyn completed their family, even if Evelyn had been a bit of a surprise at first. And life still threw some punches, but Meredith and Derek had so much more to live for, to fight for, than ever before.

Well? What did you think?

If you've read my other G.A story, then you are well acquainted with Zoe, Greyson, and Evelyn Shepherd so that was a little treat for you to put them in this story. If you haven't read my other story "Meredith's Nightmare", then I hope now you'll check it out.

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