Derek Leaving for D.C.

Edit
Despite his promise to Meredith to take care of the kids so that she could have a year to focus on
her work, Derek started to consult on a time-consuming brain mapping project for the White
House. The presidential team asked him to become more involved in the project, but he initially
refused the offer in an attempt to keep his promise to Meredith. While at April and Matthew's
wedding, Derek received a call from the president himself and ended up accepting the offer to
put his name on their federal research initiative.[25]
This caused Meredith to become upset with him since she had wanted to continue with her own
research work. Derek later learned that the federal team wanted him to run the project's advisory
board. While on a trip to Washington, D.C., Derek was offered a full-time job at the National
Institutes of Health, and he found a job for Meredith at James Madison Hospital.[26]
However, Meredith later told Derek that she refused to leave Seattle after Cristina reminded her
not to let what Derek wanted eclipse what she needed. Forced to choose between his family and
the brain mapping job, Derek decided to stay in Seattle as well and rejected the offer.[27]

However, there was excessive tension between Meredith and Derek. Derek was unsatisfied with
his job at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, especially because his sister Amelia had taken over as
head of the neurosurgery department.

Meredith was upset with Derek for being so attached to the federal initiative position and told him
that she never wanted him to give it up for her. Deborah Curzon, a special assistant to the
president, came to Seattle in a last attempt to recruit Derek for their team. Derek told her that he
was unfortunately unable to accept the offer, but he took her card anyway. Later that day, he got
into a fight with Meredith, who told him to take the job in D.C. and leave. Derek called the woman
he had spoken to earlier and told her that he did want the job after all.[28]
He packed some clothes and went to the airport while Meredith threw away the Post-it note that
had signified their marriage. The next day, Meredith and Derek talked on the phone and decided
that they can make their relationship work, even if Derek had to take the job with the president.
She told him that even though she could live without him, she did not want to, and Derek
reciprocated. They both agreed on wanting to work on their marriage after his resignation.[29]
Although Meredith found it hard to sleep in their bedroom alone, she carried on with her life in
Seattle without Derek for the time being.[30]

Derek's Death Edit

Meredith says her last goodbye to Derek.

Derek was involved in a car accident with serious injuries. Ultimately, he was declared brain
dead, and Meredith had his ventilators turned off. He had been on the way to the airport for a
final trip to D.C. where he would wrap up his work and hand in his resignation. After Derek died,
Meredith took Zola and Bailey and left Seattle in the middle of the night, much like her mother did
with her when she was a child. All Meredith left was a note saying that she and the children were
safe. Her friends tried to contact her repeatedly, but she didn't answer. Finally, Meredith
answered on Thanksgiving, telling Alex to stop calling her, that she and the kids were fine.[31]

Building a New Life Edit

Meredith put out feelers with a real estate agent to see whether anyone would be interested to
buy her house. But she forgot to inform Amelia, which sparked a fight between the two. Amelia
was mad at her for not having called her before pulling the plug on Derek, so she couldn't say
goodbye. Meredith broke down after the confrontation. She later went to Alex and explained that
her house didn't feel like her home without Derek, so she asked if she and the kids could stay
with him and Jo for a while. He agreed to that, [32] but Jo got mad at him for not consulting her
first. Meredith felt guilty about forgetting that Amelia was also supposed to be her sister, and
gave her her old phone with Derek's last voice mail message. Later that day, she intervened
when Catherine and Richard were too angry to get married. Meredith played the dead husband
card and got them to the altar after all. That evening, Meredith hosted a party for the newlyweds
at her house. At the party, she told Maggie, who was upset about her own parents' divorce, that
she could always come talk to her, about anything. Amelia joined them as Meredith said that a
house filled with happy people would be the perfect last memory, as that had been what Derek
had wanted. She took Amelia and Maggie's hands and they went inside to dance it out
together.[33]
As Jo found a loft for the two of them, Alex moved out of the house and sold it back to Meredith,
who moved in with her kids and sisters. The sister started carpooling to work, and Meredith
started to teach an intern anatomy class at the hospital. Initially, there were some tensions
among Meredith and Amelia, including an argument over whether or not they were going to tear
down the wall between the kitchen and the living room, as a drunk Meredith had mused about.
Maggie intervened to call a truce. Meredith and Amelia apologized to each other, and Meredith
admitted she doesn't know how to talk to Amelia as she's a lot to handle sometimes, and
Meredith doesn't totally like her. However, she considered Amelia as family, so she didn't have
to. She then decided it was okay to tear the wall down.[34]
After a busy day where Bailey, the new Chief, dumped all her patients on Meredith, Bailey
rewarded Meredith with a promotion to Head of General Surgery.[35] However, Bailey made
Meredith an offer with a low salary. After consulting with other department heads, Meredith stood
up for herself and asked for the salary she deemed fit. It turned out that Bailey was actually
testing her to see if she would stand up for herself.[36]

Growing Closer to Nathan and Supporting Alex Edit

When Nathan Riggs arrived at the hospital, it did not take long for Meredith to discover the
reasons regarding his feud with Owen. Out of loyalty, Meredith asked Owen if they hated Nathan,
to which Owen said yes.
The day Owen sold Derek's trailer, Meredith witnessed Amelia being happy in her new life with
Derek's job and a possible engagement to Cristina's former husband. This all resulted in a
particular bad day for Meredith, resulting in her snapping at everyone in the OR, including
Nathan. Alex later told her not to crap on everyone's life just because she was choosing to be
unhappy and pointed out she had choices. Later that night in the parking lot, Nathan brought up
her behavior and that he understood the way she felt about living a life without Derek, comparing
it to Megan's disappearance. Things got heated and resulted in her kissing him, which led to
them hooking up in her car four times in one night.[37]

On the day of Owen and Amelia's wedding, Meredith and Alex talked about possibly having only
one true love in your life. At work, Meredith made it clear to Nathan that she didn't want him to
get too attached, which he assured her he wasn't.

Maggie confesses her crush on Nathan.

She then went to the church to get Amelia down the aisle, which included a quick getaway and
more debating about having one true love. Meredith concluded it would be better if you believed
you can have more than one. This led her to open up to Nathan shortly before the ceremony,
when they discussed her wedding and his wedding plans with Megan. During the ceremony,
Nathan gave Meredith a loving look. However, Maggie misinterpreted his look as being for her,
and she confessed to Meredith that she had a crush on Nathan, leaving Meredith in an awkward
situation.[38]

At the wedding reception, Nathan invited her to dance but she declined. As he was suggesting
they get out together, Maggie interrupted and ended up dancing with Nathan. Meredith continued
to avoid Nathan after Maggie's confession and told him they had a problem. Before she could
elaborate, Jo called her about Alex assaulting Andrew. She went to the hospital to check on
Andrew's status and, knowing what really happened, kept Alex updated on Andrew while lying to
Maggie about what had happened to Andrew. She and Ben both knew that Alex was the culprit,
but she kept protecting Alex to make sure his good side would win. She learned the truth about
DeLuca being with Jo through Stephanie and went to tell Alex, whom had thought that DeLuca
was raping a drunk Jo. She advised Alex to go and tell Bailey what happened, but he went to try
and stop Andrew from pressing charges.

Nathan supports Meredith.

Nathan found her sitting in a lounge and sat with her at her request as she decided to tell Bailey
the truth. She did so, but Alex turned himself in before Bailey could have him arrested. Maggie
was upset when she learned that Meredith had lied to her. Meredith said she just did so because
they were still figuring things out and promised not to lie to her anymore, like a real sister.
However, she immediately broke that promise when she hid the fact that Nathan came to see her
that night, asking about the problem she had mentioned as he really felt something between
them. She replied someone would get hurt and, since Nathan brushed it off, then lied and said
she didn't feel the same way about him.[39]