MERHAYES - the big "what if"

Chapter 18 - Again?

Meredith's POV
Amelia and I are on a plane off to Minnesota for the 3rd time this week. The kids have all gotten used to us not being home by now that when we are actually home, they're surprised we are.

"Hey, Mer," Amelia whispered in my ear as we sat in the 36th row of the plane, "do you have any gum?" she finished.

I rummaged through my purse to find an empty pack of gum. "Are you actually kidding me? I love them, but oh god, these kids just get on my nerves sometimes."

"I'll take that as a no," Amelia said.

The plane then took off and Amelia and I didn't really talk for a long time. That was until some turbulence started.

Amelia's POV
"Woah," I said as I tightened my seatbelt a little bit more.

I looked over at Mer to see her clutching her seats arms with her eyes closed. It was obvious that she still doesn't enjoy planes ever since the accident in 2012 which killed Lexie. Still sad how I didn't get to know her better. She seemed like a nice person and perfect for Mark.

I put my hand on Mer's to try and comfort her. She flipped her hand over and squeezed mine.

"It's fine, Mer. It's just a little bit of turbulence. We're going to be fine," I said to reassure her.

Mer nodded slightly but stayed quiet.

Meredith's POV
The turbulence still hasn't stopped. It's been about 5 minutes. I feel like my heart is about to leave my chest or that I will just pass out at any moment.

"Mer? Are you okay?" I heard Amelia whisper to me as I squeezed her hand even tighter.

"Yeah," I started, "just been in this situation before... twice.

"Twice?" she asked.

"Yeah." I said before opening my eyes to look at her in the eyes. Her eyes were filling up with tears. She had no hands to wipe her face because I was squeezing both of them so tightly that I think I may have stopped the circulation in her fingers by accident.
"Remember when Riggs and I went to that conference?"

"Ohhh yeah... right," she said as a couple tears streamed down her face.

I reached my free hand that wasn't squeezing hers and wiped her tears off her face, "Yeah, it was bad. But obviously not terrible because we didn't end up crashing. You know the story," I said before we hit another huge and violent turbulence.

To Be Continued...