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Meredith stared at the file in front of her. She was checking the resumes for new interns. After the program was shot down no one wants to come the hospital and she needs to find interns who will want to come but other places don't take them, people with bad grades or ones who dropped out from program in another hospital. She didn't like it but they didn't have other options. But this file in front of her was the one who jumped right away. The name of the person the resume was belong to was Lucas Shepherd Adams, and that name rang a bell. Meredith read the resume and she has more reason to suspect she knows this boy now. It was written he has many doctors in his family and that his mother is an OB/GYN doctor. "I need to talk about this with Amelia." Meredith muttered and asked someone to paged Amelia.
After few minutes there was a knock on her office's door. "Meredith, you paged me?" Amelia opened the door. Her sister was the chief she knew she could open the door without waiting for an answer. They were close enough for that.
"Yes, I need you to look at this resume." Meredith handed her the file.
"You giving me a glance before the intern selection committee?" Amelia smiled and started reviewing on the file.
"Just read it. Is he who I think he is?" Meredith asked.
Amelia's eyes widen when after she saw the name on the file and realized who he is. "No, Meredith! No, no, no! We can't bring him? I don't want him here!" Amelia called.
"So, am I right? He is Nancy's son?" Meredith asked.
"Yes, and we can't bring our nephew here, they'll accuse us in nepotism!" Amelia reminded her.
"We are not deciding it alone, he will be presented to us in the interns selection committee as any other intern. I just wanted to talk to you before I'm putting his resume in the stack because he is our nephew." Meredith said.
"It's still nepotism, Mer," Amelia objected.
"No one blamed Richard in nepotism when I start my internship here, he is from doctors' family every place he'll go everyone think he got there because of connections, at least in our new program no one think the interns want to come so this is the last place he'll be blame getting a spot by nepotism because no one really wants to come here." Meredith said.
"I appreciate that you are talking to me before, but come on, don't you think it'll remind us Derek all the time if he'll work here? How can we work with him? He was Derek's favorite nephew after all." Amelia mentioned.
"I hope not, but Lucas deserves a chance, if his resume got to my stack that means the other hospitals didn't want him, and he has potential, he deserves his opportunity to be a surgeon." Meredith told her.
"Mer, his grades at med school weren't good, he barely passed." Amelia pointed on the file.
"I know, but I want to give him a chance, because he deserves one, not because he is our nephew." Meredith clarified.
"I don't think he has what he takes to be a surgeon. He is too sweet for the job, too naive, too nice." Amelia reminded her.
"Maybe, but at least if he'll fail it'll be after he tried. I just wanted to know you're going to be okay with him being in Seattle, I know how complicated your relationship with your family and I want to know you can handle it." Meredith explained.
"Thanks, I can handle with him, he is not one of my sisters, it's might be fun, but I don't think he'll pass the committee." Amelia stated.
"We'll see about that, if he won't pass the committee, we can't do anything about that." Meredith shrugged.
"Alright, I'm actually curious to see him again after all those years, he hasn't met Scout yet, and your kids would be glad to meet their father's favorite nephew, maybe it could be fun." Amelia said, trying to cheer mostly her.
When Lucas got the offer to come to Grey Sloan memorial hospital he was torn. He was glad to finally get a summon to a hospital but it was Grey Sloan. This hospital has a family history for him. The hospital is literally named after is unofficial uncle! His two aunts work there, they will be his bosses, everyone will think he got his spot because of nepotism. Most of the times people going to work to avoid their family, but if he'll accept the spot in Grey-Sloan memorial he'll do the opposite of what he truly wants to do and that is to run away from his family's name and creating a name for himself. He'll be everyone's nephew, nothing beyond that. He would be related to half of the hospital because everyone there related. But if he wants to be a doctor, he needs a place to start.
Maybe Amelia and Meredith will respect him and won't tell anyone about their connection. It's not fun to have the Shepherd's shadow looming over his head and he'll go to a place where he will feel all day long that he is the Shepherd's Black sheep. But Seattle was Derek's place and he missed Derek so much, he always wanted to visit him in Seattle and never got the chance. He still thought it was bad idea, he will be a mess and he will be a mess in front of his aunts and that's going to be awkward, it would feel like he is a little child again. But he doesn't have another options. Well, his mom offered to talk to the hospital she is working at and arrange him a spot, but being in a hospital with your mother, it's even worse than your aunts. So, he prefers to go to Seattle, he wants to be a doctor, that's the end goal. He needs to achieve it. He can't be the disappointment of the family. To be the first one who tries to be a doctor and fails.
Lucas contacted Dr. Grey and asked her when to come to the interview. He wasn't sure if he should have told her to make sure no one will figure out they are related. Derek always admired Meredith so he should trust her and ask her to honor his wish. Amelia will probably be the bigger problem in convincing to hide it from everyone. She might hate her sisters but she always been the cool aunt. She was the youngest so she was the most outgoing and fun of his aunts. It's going to be really weird. He decided to ask Meredith to keep their connection as secret. Meredith agreed and scheduled an interview for him to the evening so no one else will see him. He will probably be sorry for going to Grey Sloan Memorial but he doesn't have a choice.
It was afternoon, almost sunset. Lucas got to the hospital for his interview. He stopped in the entrance and looked at the hospital name 'Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital'. He remembered how devastated they all were after they heard Mark died. The airplane crash was a really scary ordeal because both Mark, Meredith and Derek were there. He was really into aviation as a kid but the plane crash caused him to drop the subject completely. Lucas remembered he tried to convince his mother to come to Seattle to donate a nerve for Derek but she didn't agree and eventually Liz was the one who did it. He never set foot in this hospital, he actually never visited Derek and Meredith or Amelia in Seattle, they were on the other side of the country to isolate themselves from the family. He was in Seattle only for Derek's funeral and it took him a lot to convince his mom to let him come.
"Excuse me, do you need something?" An Afro-American doctor with curly hair asked him. She wasn't wearing a lab coat so she probably finished her shift for today.
"Um, I'm here for an interview with Dr. Grey for the internship program." Lucas explained.
"Do you want me to shepherd you to her office?" The woman asked. Lucas flinched from her question but nodded. The way she said it was so weird. Everyone is already know he is a Shepherd or it was a coincidence? The last thing he needs is everyone knows about his family ties. "We're here." The doctor said after they arrived to Dr. Grey's office.
Inside Meredith and Amelia waited for him. "Lucas, I'm so glad to see you again! I see you met Maggie," Amelia embraced him the moment he steps inside.
"Wait, you know him?" Maggie asked, puzzled.
"Maggie, this is Lucas Adams. He is our nephew, Nancy's son. Lucas, Maggie is my sister, she is also Ellis' daughter." Meredith introduced them to each other.
"Hold on, you invited your nephew for an interview here? Maggie asked, puzzled. "Are you allowed to do it? Isn't it nepotism or something?"
"That's what I'm saying! Look, I really appreciate you invited me for an interview but I don't think working here with you is the best idea." Lucas said, breaking Amelia's hug.
"I'm the chief and it's going to be my decision. Besides you didn't work here yet, you still need to do an interview like everyone else." Meredith mentioned, signing him to sit at the chair in front of her.
"But I'm your first one? It's does feel a bit of nepotism." Lucas muttered.
"You're are not my first interview, the other ones were interviewed virtually because they couldn't come to Seattle, but you are not the first one." Meredith clarified.
"Yes, don't worry Lucas. Derek gave me the job of chief of neurosurgery and no one blamed him in nepotism." Amelia told him.
"That's reminds me, can you take me to his grave? Besides the funeral, I never been there." Lucas asked his aunts, forgetting why he came there in the first place.
"What are you doing after the interview?" Meredith asked.
"Didn't plan anything, so we'll go after the interview?" Lucas asked, smiling.
"No, first you are coming to dinner, I'm going to make dinner, you need to meet your cousins and none of your aunts good in these family stuff so I'm going to do dinner." Maggie declared and went to the door.
"I'll go to help her, she is right, you are coming to dinner, you haven't met Scout yet and you also didn't meet Ellis, right?" Amelia asked, trying to recall.
"No, I did not meet them, but I don't want to bother you, look I came here for an interview, nothing more, and I really don't want to come to work here and be the nephew." Lucas mentioned.
"But you don't work here yet, so right now it's just a family visiting." Amelia reminded him.
"Yes, you should come for dinner, Zola and Baily would be glad meeting you again and Ellis and Scout need to know you. Come to dinner, and we'll go to the grave after we finish eating and you can sleep in our place because it'll be late." Meredith offered.
"Fine, thank you." Lucas nodded.
"Great, I see you both in an hour or so." Amelia called and left the room.
"I'm sorry, Meredith, it's so awkward." Lucas mumbled.
"Don't worry, I'm the one who should apologize because you asked me not to made this a family thing and it's somehow did become a family thing." Meredith apologized.
"Well, as long the family part is going to be outside the hospital I don't mind." Lucas told her.
"Good, but if you will come here to be an intern, we are going to respect your wish if you don't want your fellow interns to know you related to us." Meredith assured him.
"Thanks, but are you sure it's a good idea? I'm your nephew after all, you are not going to be in trouble or something because of it?" Lucas asked her.
"No, I'm the chief, I can do whatever I want. And you need to do an interview before so shall we start?" Meredith smiled.
"What you want me to say? You know anything about me." Lucas mentioned.
"You should say whatever you would say in any another interview. Besides, I know only about your private life not about your work dedication or other things that relevant for this interview." Meredith reminded him.
"So, my name is Lucas Adams, I'm the oldest of five siblings, my mother is also a doctor, she is OB/GYN..."
After they finished the interview Meredith drove Lucas to her house. The interview was good, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that if he'll come to work here it's going to be only because he is Meredith's nephew.
"They are going to be thrilled to see you again." Meredith told him at the house' entrance.
"I'm glad to see them as well." Lucas smiled.
"We're here!" Meredith called after she opened the door. Inside the three children picked at the door from behind a wall.
"You told them who I am?" Lucas whispered in Meredith's ear.
"I was with you, so no, but Amelia or Maggie might have mentioned this." Meredith shrugged.
"You can come say hello," Meredith told her kids to close to them.
"Hello, I'm Zola and these are Baily and Ellis. Aunt Amelia said we have a surprise guest, but she didn't agree to say who. So, who are you?" Zola asked politely.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Lucas and I am your cousin. My mom is one of your father's other sisters, besides Amelia." Lucas explained sheepishly.
"It's nice to meet an older cousin. What are you doing here?" Zola asked excitedly.
"I... came here for an interview, I finished med school." Lucas answered while they walked to the dining table.
"So, you are a doctor, like everyone in the family. That so cool, you are starting your internship soon? What specialty you'll want to take? Wait, what's your mother's specialty?" Zola overwhelmed him with questions.
"Zola, please let him breath, he only arrived." Meredith chuckled.
"Luke, this is Scout, my son," Amelia introduced her baby who was sitting on her.
Lucas gave him his finger to grab, "Who would believe that you'll be a mother at some point?"
"Yes, I surprised even myself." Amelia smiled.
"Kathleen said that you were horrible when you babysit us when we were younger." Lucas mentioned.
"Well, I can't deny that, I wasn't very responsible back then," Amelia muttered, "and they barely even let me babysit you guys."
"You are great, you took care of us really good when mom was in the hospital with covid." Ellis mentioned.
"You had covid?" Lucas asked, surprised.
"Yes, I was in the hospital for weeks, Amelia and Link, Scout's dad, stayed here with the kids." Meredith explained.
Maggie put all the food on the table, "let's eat." She wanted to lighten up the conversation.
"You are moving to Seattle?" Bailey asked Lucas after they start eating.
"If your mother will hire me." Lucas winked to his cousin.
"You'll hire him?" Ellis wondered. Lucas blushed but they all looked at Meredith and waited for answer.
"Yes, I believe he can be really good doctor." Meredith approved, mostly to her kids.
"Seriously? I really got into the program? You are not saying that because you're my aunt?" Lucas asked.
"Yes, your interview was good." Meredith answered.
"Don't forget the competition is not that hard." Amelia reminded.
"Wow, thanks," Lucas rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that," Amelia apologized.
"I don't think that how you suppose to notify someone he got the job." Zola mentioned.
"You are really smart child, Zola, and you are right, hearing that in a family dinner is not a normal way to find out you got a job." Lucas chuckled.
"I'll send you an official letter, don't worry, but you deserve the spot in our program." Meredith assured him.
"That's nice to know, but I want to clear things up right now. I don't want any special favors or you treat me differently. I want you guys to act like I'm just as the other interns. I don't want them to think I got into the program because I'm a shepherd. I want a fresh start." Lucas told them.
"Sure, I get how you are feeling, coming to the internship as Ellis Grey's daughter wasn't easy," Meredith said.
"Yes, and living up to the Shepherd name is a nightmare, so I get why you want to avoid it. At least it's only your middle name and not your family name." Amelia mentioned.
"Wait, your middle name is Shepherd? Isn't it a bit weird for a middle name?" Ellis asked.
"It's giving the last name as a middle name. Sofia's name was also like that, her middle name was Robin because of Arizona's last name." Zola mentioned.
"Yes, I was the first grandchild so my mother decided to use her maiden name as my middle name, so for my all life I'm stuck as 'Shep' and that is not fun, because the expectation of the people are very high when you are a shepherd." Lucas sighed.
"But that part of growing up in this family, if you become a doctor you need to know that is the expectations and be willing to face them. You need to be the best. I'll have even higher expectations because my I'm a Grey-Shepherd, but I know that from now, and I know I can be a great doctor when I'll be older, I'm not afraid of my surname." Zola mentioned enthusiastically.
"Well, you are clearly a Shepherd with that attitude," Lucas chuckled, "but it's not about afraid of my family's reputation, it's about creating my own name and be my own person and not just the nephew of half of the doctors in the hospital."
"So, Lucas, are you moving in to live with us?" Bailey asked his cousin, "I'm tired to be the only boy in here."
"What about Scout?" Amelia asked and gestured to him.
"Not count, he is still a toddler, I want someone to talk with him about other stuff besides dancing." Bailey glared at Ellis.
"Believe me I get how you are feeling, I have four sisters like your father. There are always more girls than boys in the Shepherd family, eleven girls and seven boys. We are minority, that why when I was a child I always went to Derek and Add... to your father, I always admired him, it was always nice to hang out with him and M... anyway the second boy in the family is younger than me in five years and we moved to Connecticut when I was seven so it was mostly be with bunch of girls in the family gatherings." Lucas stopped, he was pausing a lot in his speech, like he wasn't sure how he should say what he wanted to say. The kids were a bit puzzled but Meredith and Amelia smiled knowingly.
"They met Addison and they know about Mark, you can mention them." Meredith smiled.
"Phew, thanks, it's good to know." Lucas sighed in relief; he wasn't sure what he could say near the kids. "So, yes I hanged out mostly with Derek and Mark when I was a child, they were my cool uncles. I can be that for you if you want to Bailey, we can go fishing and play soccer or something else you would want." Lucas reached his hand for a high five to Bailey.
"Thanks," Bailey smiled happily and gave him a high five.
"This is sweet you think you'll have time to do this during the internship," Amelia chuckled.
"I'll try, I don't want anyone to know we are related but I'm still the cousin of these kids and I'll be glad to know them." Lucas smiled to the kids.
"You're good with kids." Maggie told him.
"I'm the eldest of five and the first kid in my generation, I know how to do that, well only the fun part I won't recommend on letting me babysit." Lucas joked and they all laughed.
"Zo Zo, we are going to visit dad's grave with Lucas, do you want to join us?" Meredith asked her daughter when she helped taking the dishes to the sink.
"Yes, thanks mom," Zola answered.
"I'll stay with the younger kids," Maggie volunteered.
"Thanks, Maggie," Meredith told her.
"I'm really appreciate you doing this." Lucas told his aunts.
"Of course, you deserve it, you always loved him," Amelia mentioned.
"We should go," Meredith told them.
Lucas and Zola sat in the backseat of the car, and the four of them got to the way to the graveyard. Meredith drove and Amelia was in passenger seat. "I never been in a graveyard that late before, is that weird?" Zola wondered.
"When I was younger, if I had a fight with someone in my family, I would run away to clear my mind. One of the places I always went to was my dad's grave. I would sit there for hours in the nights, one time I even fall asleep there, that was a bit morbid I know. But us going there now, it's not weird, believe me." Amelia mentioned.
"Yeah, we are just going to say hi to daddy, but sleeping in a graveyard it is weird. Really weird." Meredith mumbled.
"I was a dark kid." Amelia shrugged.
"Dark and twisty," Meredith whispered so only Amelia could hear.
"Lucas, can you tell me some interesting stories about my dad?" Zola asked him.
"Well, when I was a child, I think around Ellis' age, one of my younger sisters decided to ruin my soccer ball and I was so pissed so I left my house and went to Derek and Addie. It was the weekend and I find him sleeping on the couch because Addie was still in the hospital and he returned from his shift, but he wasn't mad at me that I came without invitation he just woke up and smiled and asked me if I want to go fishing with him. And we went fishing and I spent the whole day with him. Not that I actually fished or anything, I don't have enough patience for it. But, the point is, he was there for me, not matter how tired he was, if I needed him, he was there, always." Lucas told her with sparking eyes.
"I remember that story, after the fishing they came with the fishes to my mother's house to cook them and invited everyone for dinner. I wasn't in New York I was in med school but Addie told me that. Everyone said it was a great dinner." Amelia said.
"Yeah, well we weren't actually cooked, grandma did most of the job; we just dismantled the fishes to pieces, Derek explained to me about all the organs of the fish, it was ended with an anatomy lesson more than anything." Lucas chuckled.
"That's an interesting way to learn anatomy," Zola smiled, "I want to be a doctor as well."
"Not surprising, you clearly belong to this family" Lucas told her.
"We here," Meredith told them and stopped the car.
The four of them walked to Derek's grave. Lucas froze when he saw it. "You want us to leave you alone?" Amelia asked and put her hand on his shoulder.
"No, no you can stay, it just... only now that feel real. Like I knew he was gone, but I also had the feeling he is here in Seattle and seeing is grave make his death real." Lucas sat near the grave and hugged his legs.
"Yeah, that how it is," Meredith sighed.
"We all miss him a lot." Amelia added.
"I always thought he would be here, when I'll become a doctor, I thought he would teach me and guide me be a surgeon..." Lucas muttered, tears falling from his eyes.
"He would have been very proud of you if he was here," Amelia assured him.
"Zola, you asked me earlier what speciality I want to choose, of course it's neuro, I always admired Derek and dreamt to be like him." Lucas mentioned.
"That's what I want to choose after I'll become a doctor, neuro is the best." Zola agreed.
"I hope I'll be enough for you," Amelia told them.
"He would be very glad you both want to follow his footsteps, you'll continue his legacy, and he'll shepherd you for greatness." Meredith smirked on the little pun she did.
"Don't pressure him, being a Shepherd at the beginning of the road of the medicine career is not easy. Believe me I know." Amelia sighed.
"Yes, I do have a lot of pressure, all my siblings and cousins are going to watch my path to become a doctor because that their goal as well. But I'm going to do this and I can't wait for all of those beautiful days to save lives." Lucas smiled and looked to the starry sky.