Hospital Merger and Richard's Drinking Edit

During the start of the merger with Mercy West Medical Center, Meredith was hospitalized from
having donated a portion of her liver to her father, Thatcher Grey, since he was unable to be
placed on the transplant list due to his alcoholism.[5] Richard's drinking escalated again, causing
him to make an error during surgery which almost killed a patient, until Dr. Bailey stepped in,
fixing the problem[6] and scheduling weekly followups with the patient to ensure he had no lasting
effects.[7] Richard's alcoholism led him to do one-on-one teaching sessions where he showed
Meredith various surgical techniques and she discovered his drinking again.[8] She kept this from
Derek, but he became very angry with Meredith, and made her tell him what was going
on.[9] When Derek found out about the drinking, he reported Richard to the board, forcing him to
either step down from surgery and go to rehab or retire. When he chose rehab, Derek was
named the interim Chief of Surgery.[10]

Shooting at the Hospital Edit

Near the end of their third year of residency, Meredith revealed to Cristina that she was pregnant.
She also planned on telling Derek, but the mass shooting intervened. The husband of a
deceased patient, Gary Clark, entered the hospital and shot many people, killing many,
including Dr. Reed Adamson and Dr. Charles Percy. The hospital was placed in lockdown while
the shooting occurred. Gary Clark also shot Derek in the chest while Meredith watched from afar.
Cristina had to do his surgery herself after barring Meredith from the OR. When the shooter
entered the OR, Meredith entered too and told him to shoot her. However, he ended up shooting
Owen, though his injuries were comparatively minor. While tending to Owen's injury, Meredith
suffered a miscarriage.[11]

After the shooting, all involved were made to go through a psych consult to be cleared for
surgery. Meredith was the last one to be cleared. She was cleared by Dr. Andrew Perkins only
after she admitted her pregnancy and miscarriage.

Derek began speeding to cope with the trauma and was arrested several times for "reckless
endangerment." The only people that knew about Meredith's miscarriage were Cristina, Owen,
and April. Meredith ended up leaving him in jail on the night of Cristina and Owen's wedding. The
next day, angered at having been left in jail overnight, Derek had an argument with Meredith in
the hospital hallway. Derek tried to calm Meredith down and Meredith admitted that she had
been worried about him since he started speeding and the only time she got relief was when he
was in jail, because she knew he was safe. She then told him about her miscarriage. Derek and
Meredith kissed and hugged, and Derek agreed to drive more carefully from that point on.

Alzheimer's Trial and Adoption of Zola Edit

The couple had recently been told that Meredith had a hostile uterus and conceiving a child
would be difficult. Meredith and Derek met Zola when she was brought to the hospital for a spina
bifida operation as part of Alex's program. Derek immediately bonded with Zola and suggested
adoption. Meredith took a little longer to bond with Zola, but eventually, she was unable to avoid
falling in love with the child. However, Derek found out that Meredith had tampered with his
Alzheimer's trial just as the couple was granted temporary custody of Zola. When the social
worker on their case, Janet, discovered that Meredith and Derek weren't living together and that
Meredith had been fired, red flags were raised in the system. Fearing that she would lose Zola,
Meredith hid with Zola in the basement of the hospital for 4 hours. Zola was taken away from
them for a time, during which Meredith and Derek rekindled their relationship. They were given a
date to see a judge about the adoption after Alex went to the judge directly. That date was
subsequently cancelled and Janet told them that it was unlikely that it would end in their favor
and suggested that they move on. But the decision did end in their favor, and Janet brought Zola
to them, finalizing the adoption.