Zola Grey Shepherd



"I was holding her yesterday, and she was crying and then she stopped. And I've held a lot of babies, I've fixed a lot of babies. But, I looked down at Zola, and I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't imagine her being with any other parent or with any other family. We've been trying so hard to start a family, and she needs one. Let's adopt her. I'm serious, let's adopt her."

- Derek Shepherd "Derek, is that our baby?" "Yes. Yes it is."

- Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd thumb|300px|right|Meredith and Derek get Zola back

Character
Zola Grey Shepherd is Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd's daughter. She landed at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital thanks to Alex Karev's Africa Project and Meredith and Derek decided to adopt her. While filling out the forms for her adoption, they decided to get married, for real. Derek was the first one to take a shine on Zola: while he was holding her in order to visit her the baby suddenly stopped crying and Alex Karev remarked that she liked him. On the very same day he suggested the adoption to Meredith and she agreed. Later on Meredith developed a strong bond with the baby as well.

Meredith and Derek were granted unpermanent custody of Zola in Unaccompanied Minor. However, Meredith brought her home alone, because Derek was mad at her for tampering with his clinical trial.

Two weeks later in She's Gone Zola was taken away from them due to Meredith being fired and lying to the social worker Janet about the status of their marriage.

In Love, Loss and Legacy Zola underwent a major surgery performed by Arizona Robbins and Alex Karev. Meredith and Derek were disraught by the situation, even because they could not see her as their adoption was still under examination. When finally Alex told them the surgery had gone well Meredith burst into tears and Derek comforted her, finally forgiving her for what had happened with the clinical trial. Later that night they sang a lullaby to her over the phone while Cristina Yang was taking care of her at the hospital.

In Put Me In, Coach Meredith and Derek got a hearing in order to get Zola back. This was probably caused by the fact that Alex Karev, without telling anyone, had traced down the judge in charge of Zola's files, trying to persuade him that Meredith and Derek were the best possible parents for her.

In Dark Was the Night the social worker called Meredith and told her that as their hearing had been cancelled they were probably not going to get the baby. However, she was wrong: in fact the following morning in Suddenly she showed up at Meredith and Derek's house and she gave them Zola, telling them that she was theirs.