Chapter Text
Chapter 1 – Roseridge
Meredith was running. The suitcase she was pulling behind her flipped over again as Meredith ran through the airport terminal. She cursed loudly. She had already been called for final boarding twice. She adjusted the strap of her heavy messenger bag, flipped her board case over and continued running to her gate. When she finally arrived, it was almost cleared. Two gate agents were handling the last couple of passengers. Slightly panting she put her smartphone on the scanner and smiled at the gate agents, who looked at the young distressed woman with pity. Meredith hurried down the gangway to the plane, made her way to her row, stowed her carry-on in the overhead compartment, squeezed herself into the window seat, and prepared herself for a long flight. She closed her eyes, and exhaled. The plane was pushed back from the gate and the flight attendants began their walk around while the security video began to play on the screens. She had barely made it.
She had rushed out of surgery – already late – had said her final goodbyes, had picked up her luggage, and jumped into her friend's car, who had graciously offered to drive her to the airport. She had stood in the long lines to drop off her bags and to pass security. Every minute she stood there, she had one less minute to catch her important flight. She had made it – barely – but she had made it.
Meredith stared out the window as the plane moved around the tarmac, sped down the runway, and finally took off. She watched as the buildings became smaller and smaller and the cars on the highway became small dots until there was nothing distinct to make out anymore. As soon as the seat belt sign allowed her to, Meredith pulled her laptop out of her bag and continued to work, trying to keep her mind of the inevitable. Just a week ago she had received the phone call that had brought her entire life crashing down.
Meredith sat in the small office she shared with three other people. She was alone. Her night shift playlist played in the background, her snack jar was full of her favorites, and her thermos was filled with coffee. Her cordless hospital phone and her fully charged work cell lay in front of her, both ready to go off at a moment’s notice. Meredith was on call. It was late at night, and she was finishing up some notes that had piled up over the last week. She hated paperwork. It was tedious and exhausting, but unfortunately necessary. It was a call night, and on on call nights she caught up on paperwork and everything else she had put off during the week.
She was typing up a medical report for a patient when her personal cell phone rang. It was midnight on a Thursday. The young surgeon fished her phone out of her purse, which was sitting on the floor.
"Hey, I'm at work," Meredith answered after checking the number and guessing who it was.
"Hello, may I speak to Dr. Meredith Grey?" the woman on the other line requested.
"This is her. Who am I speaking to?" Meredith asked – confused.
"Please hold." The line filled with hold music before Meredith could muster another word. She put her phone on speaker and set it aside while she finished typing the surgical report.
"Hello, Dr. Grey. This is Dr. Johnson calling from the Mayo Clinic regarding Dr. Ellis Grey. You are listed as your mother's emergency contact," an older male voice spoke through the phone after some time. Meredith picked up the phone again and brought it to her ear.
"Okay. What is this about?" Meredith asked carefully.
"Your mother was involved in an accident today."
"Is she okay?"
"She has a mild concussion, a broken wrist, and some bruising."
"What happened?"
"She was disoriented and ran in front of a car."
"Disoriented?" Meredith questioned.
"Yes, because of her Alzheimer's. It's progressing faster than we originally hoped. We did another CT …" Meredith's ears were ringing. She heard the words that were being told to her but had a hard time processing them. Her brain was working in slow motion.
"Excuse me? Alzheimer's?" Meredith questioned interrupting him.
"Yes, I was the doctor who diagnosed your mother with early onset Alzheimer's six months ago. I'm her neurologist," Dr. Johnson told her.
"Six months ago?" Meredith exclaimed.
"I take it she didn't tell you about the diagnosis, based on your reaction?" Dr. Johnson asked the young blonde physician.
"No, she didn’t!" Meredith blurted out, just as she received a message on her other cell phone, which rang moments later. A glance at the message told her about the incoming patient – she was needed. Dr. Johnson had continued talking, but Meredith wasn't listening. "I'm sorry… I'm needed. Could I call you back?" Meredith cut him off again.
"Yes, of course. Call whenever you have time and we can discuss this further."
"Thank you," Meredith ended the call, picked up the call from the ER halfway out of her office, and sprinted down the hallway, down three flights of stairs to the ER.
Around two in the morning, Meredith walked back into her office, tired and ready for a nap, but the reality of the news hit her as soon as she entered the room. For the last few hours she had been able to avoid the news she had received just before she was called down, but now the reality came crashing back. She let herself fall onto the squeaky chair, took a deep breath and dialed Dr. Johnson’s number, who miraculously still picked up.
"Hello Dr. Johnson, this is Meredith Grey. Sorry for hanging up so suddenly earlier."
"No problem. I know how it is," he replied.
"Thank you. Sorry, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the situation. I could use some help. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's six months ago," Meredith cleared her throat, "How did it come to that diagnosis?"
"That’s very understandable. Your mother came to see me about eight months ago. She had been in surgery the day before and couldn't remember what she was supposed to do. She suspected something wasn't right. So we did some tests that consequently led to her diagnosis. I know this a lot to take in right now, I'm sorry she didn't tell you."
"Not telling me is very on-brand for her. What about her work?"
"She hasn't been in an OR for over six months. She mostly consulted and wrote."
"Okay, good. That's good. … What's the prognosis?"
"Well, her disease progression is quite fast. She is on the highest dose of memantine and donepezil. She’s enrolled in some clinical trials. But her lucid moments have decreased significantly in the last few weeks. It doesn’t look good. And with what happened today, I fear that your mother may be a danger to herself and others. She was incredibly lucky with today's outcome."
"What are you suggesting, Dr. Johnson?"
"Dr. Grey, she can no longer live independently. It is time to move your mother into a home," he told her.
"A home? ... Great, my mother has to move to a nursing home at the age of 58."
"Unfortunately, this seems to be the safest option right now. I'm sorry. Your mother has a very specific advance directive and she went to great lengths to make sure that no one found out about her diagnosis. She made me sign an NDA that prohibiting me from discussing her case with anyone she didn't approve of. She appointed you as her health care proxy and made arrangements for you to take over her guardianship for the moment she wouldn't be able to make her own decisions anymore. And personally, I think we have reached that point now. I doubt that she is going to get any better, she is only going to get worse."
"I'm her health care proxy? And I'm supposed to be her guardian?" Meredith exclaimed, "This just keeps getting better and better. Sorry," she muttered more to herself than to anyone else.
"Yes, and she has made arrangements with a nursing home in Seattle. They have a room for her whenever she needs it."
"In Seattle?! Why? She hasn't been to Seattle in over twenty years!"
"I can't tell you why she chose Seattle, I'm just telling you what’s in her living," Dr. Johnson explained, "Making all those decisions from somewhere other than Seattle, even with the technological advances nowadays … I would strongly advise against it. I am very sorry, Dr. Grey."
"Are you trying to politely tell me that I have to move to Seattle as well? Just because my mother chose a nursing home in Seattle?" Meredith panicked as the reality of it all hit her, "I have a job! I have patients and friends. I … I have a life. I can't … I can't just drop everything and move to Seattle. Are … are there any other options?"
"I understand this is overwhelming, Dr. Grey. You could always move her closer to you and forgo Seattle."
"I'm not even in the country right now," Meredith whispered. The situation was becoming more and more real by the passing second.
"Another family member or close friend could take over guardianship."
"There is no one else. She burned all her bridges."
"The state could appoint a guardian for your mother. For example, an attorney or an agency. There would be no guarantee that a state-appointed guardian would respect your mother's medical wishes. They would also have complete control over her financial and intellectual property."
" No, I can't do that. Damn it, Mother!" Meredith cursed, running her free hand over her face. She didn't want to be in this situation. "How long can you keep her? I mean, how can you keep her in the hospital, based on her injuries? Because I can't just hop on a plane, I still have to figure some things out."
"That’s more than understandable. I'm sorry that you had to learn about your mother's circumstances like this. I can arrange for her to stay for at least a week and, we would have to figure out something else after that."
"Thank you," Meredith told him as her phone rang again. "I'll call as soon as I know more. I'm so sorry I have to go again."
"Okay, Dr. Grey. If you need more information, anything at all, just call. I'll hear from you."
Meredith spent the rest of her call shift operating, blissfully ignoring the fact that her life outside the operating room had been turned upside down in the last two hours.
The following week was filled with phone calls and meetings and surgeries and making plans and telling friends she was leaving and packing.
Meredith was on autopilot, she had made a cripplingly long to-do list that she worked through point by point, not thinking, just doing. She knew that if she allowed herself to stop and think for even a second, she would question her every decision she had made since that phone call.
The very next day, she had handed in her resignation to her bosses, who had been very surprised by her sudden change of heart. Just a month ago, she had been offered a new position at the hospital, and now she had to drop everything and turn her life upside down.
Quitting wasn't as easy as in the movies∞ her bosses sat her down that very day. At this point, she didn't care that her mother had made her own doctor sign an NDA, because the great Ellis Grey couldn't be known for such a grim diagnosis. She had spent more time with these people in recent years than with her mother, and they knew who she was as a person and as a doctor. So she confided in them, told them about the phone call, about her dilemma, about her painful decision to leave, about her mother. They listened and then rejected her resignation. Her contract was up in a little over three months and they encouraged her to take her accumulated vacation days and consult remotely while she was sorted the situation with her mother in Seattle. The plan was for her to return in September to tie up the loose ends she had left behind and to renegotiate.
Her own life had taken a back seat. Dealing with her mother's situation had taken more time than she had expected. There were so many details to think about. When she wasn't working, she spent countless hours talking with her mother's insurance company, the nursing home, airlines and airports, moving companies, car rental companies and hotels – trying to figure out the best way to move her mother within a week.
In stepping up as her mother's caregiver, Meredith left behind friends, a career, and security for a lot of uncertainty.
Meredith packed two suitcases to the brim with the essentials she would need for the next three months and began packing up her apartment in the rare free moments. Saying goodbye to her friends was one of the hardest things she had to do in the week leading up to her departure. They all had come to terms with Meredith’s sudden departure. Plans they had made months ago were now obsolete. Despite their busy schedules they had all managed get together for one final farewell dinner at one of Meredith's favorite restaurants. They had cried and laughed and cried some more.
Meredith woke up with airplane ears. The cold plane window close to her face. They were approaching their destination. She must have fallen asleep somewhere between refusing to eat the horrible in-flight meal and trying to distract herself with the mediocre board entertainment. Meredith's job allowed her to sleep wherever and whenever she wanted. For the first time in a week, she had a decent uninterrupted nap. Meredith didn't mind flying, it was a great way to get from place to place. The plane touched down in Boston soon after. Meredith cleared immigration and customs and took a cab to the house where she grew up.
Her mother loved to buy property. If she worked anywhere for more than six months, she would buy some kind of real estate there, but Boston had been their home since they moved there years ago. The Grey women had moved to Boston from Seattle when Meredith was almost five. Ellis had bought a big house with a pool and a backyard in a nice neighborhood that was still close enough to the hospital where she worked. They had lived in that house until Meredith finished high school. After Ellis had accepted short-term jobs all over the world, but had always returned to Boston.
Meredith unlocked the front door; her mother hadn't been here in months, but the cleaning lady came regularly. It looked the same, not much had changed since she had last been here. She left her suitcases in the foyer and started getting to work. A representative from a moving company was scheduled to arrive in two hours, so Meredith could tell them what items needed to be moved to storage and what needed to be moved to Seattle. Meredith needed to sort through her mother's office, decades of medical books, research and journals, patient records, bank statements, insurance policies, book drafts, awards, and other documents Meredith didn't know the origin of. These documents needed to come with her to Seattle so that she could manage her mother's estate and transfer everything when the time came. Later that night, she met with a real estate agent who would put the Boston house on the rental market, once Meredith had moved her mother's personal belongings. She couldn't sell the house, not yet. Emotionally, Meredith wasn't ready to get rid of the house. She had always liked the house; she had some of her best memories there – not with her mother, of course. The same agency handled her mother's other properties already.
The meetings with the agencies were quick and easy, they promised to care of everything so she didn't have to worry about anything, she really hoped they weren't lying as she was paying them more than enough money.
Late into the night, Meredith ran around the house putting post-it notes on things she wanted in Seattle, packing boxes and more suitcases, desperately looking for the Seattle house key. Her mother had kept their Seattle home after her divorce and had rented it out for the first few years. As far as Meredith knew, the house had been vacant for the last five years and had just been left to rot, but for now she would have a place to stay.
When Meredith was finally finished, she had to head back to the airport to fly to Minnesota to pick up her mother.
Meredith met with Dr. Johnson that morning to go over Ellis' entire medical record, her medications and the plan of action. Meredith asked a lot of questions that her mother's neurologist patiently answered. She was absorbing the information the way she absorbed case studies in med school, and felt very removed from the situation during the meeting.
The Grey women hadn't seen each other in over two years. Meredith was nervous as she entered her mother's hospital room. Ellis was sitting on the bed fully dressed, her wrist in a cast, bags packed, ready to leave. She recognized Meredith as soon as she entered the room, much to Meredith's relief. But the longer Meredith spent with her mother, the more she noticed the signs of the terminal illness. Her mother was confused, started sentences that she never finished, told stories that were clearly made up, and forgot what they were doing regularly.
Navigating a crowded airport with her disoriented mother was a challenge. Meredith thanked herself for calling ahead to get help getting Ellis to the gate and onto the plane. Ellis kept forgetting what they were doing and where they were going. Unfortunately, they had a layover in Chicago, which didn't sit well with Ellis. The more they traveled, the less Ellis was having it. Meredith tried talking her into boarding the plane to Seattle when Ellis didn't recognize Meredith for the first time. She began insulting her loudly in front of all the waiting passengers. When Meredith tried to calm her down, Ellis hit Meredith in the temple with her cast. People were watching the scenario, whispering and pointing, some even filming. When Meredith tried to give her mother a mild sedative to calm her down, Ellis accused her of kidnapping and other atrocious things. The gate agent called the police, and Meredith had to show the cops the doctor's note explaining Ellis' diagnosis. It was the most humiliating event Meredith had ever been a part of. Ellis had finally calmed down enough for boarding, so they were allowed on the plane.
Meredith survived the flight, feeling the eyes of the other passengers on her back the entire time. After waiting for more than an hour for her suitcases, Meredith finally gave up and filled out the form to report of them both missing. How she managed to maneuver her mother and all her belongings into a cab was a mystery to her.
At Roseridge Nursing Home the staff was waiting for them. They had been great in organizing everything to make Ellis feel welcome in her new home. The home specialized caring for patients with Alzheimer's. Ellis didn't understand what was happening to her as they unpacked her suitcases and hung her clothes in the closet, put some of her favorite things on the windowsill, and went down to the dining room to get her some dinner.
It broke Meredith's heart to leave her mom at the home; her mother was too young for this to happen to her, too young to live in a home with around the clock supervision. The staff assured her that Ellis would be fine. The lady at the front desk called a cab for Meredith. She waited for the cab outside with her board-case and messenger bag, the only things she had with her in her new city. She decided to spend the night in a hotel instead of the house. Not ready to open another can of worms tonight.
AN: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I always wondered what kind of impact it had made on Meredith when her mother got diagnosed. How much her life had changed after. "Turned upside down" is set in the late 2010s post #metoo. I hope you join me on this journey and let's see where it takes us. There is going to be drama, romance, medicine, some trauma, and a kick-ass Meredith.
This is also posted on other platforms, but since there seem to be some issues, I'm expanding my horizon and trying to reach a different audience. Hope you enjoyed!