Zola Grey-Shepherd

**Zola Grey-Shepherd** born **Zola Limbani**, is an attending neurosurgeon at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. She is the eldest daughter of Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd. She is married to Sofia Sloan-Torres and they have twin daughters, Natalie and Winifred.

## History

Zola was born with spina bifida. She came to Seattle from Malawi with a group of other children who needed surgery, as part of Alex Karev's Namboze Clinic Project. She was six months old at the time.

When Derek was holding her to examine her, she stopped crying, and Alex remarked that she liked him. Later that day, Derek suggested the adoption to Meredith, who agreed. They started to fill out the adoption paperwork and came to the question that asked if they were married. Derek then proposed they get legally married. They went to the courthouse, got married, and then skipped Callie and Arizona's wedding reception to go back to the hospital and spend time with Zola.

Meredith and Derek were granted temporary custody of Zola not long after Derek found out that Meredith had tampered with his clinical trial to ensure that Adele Webber got the active agent. However, Meredith brought Zola home alone. She told her that she had a plan for the day she came home, but nothing had gone according to this plan, though she also told Zola she was very glad she was there and they'd figure it out together.

Two weeks later, Zola was taken away from Derek and Meredith due to Meredith being fired and lying to the social worker about the status of her and Derek's marriage.

While in foster care, Zola came into the hospital because her shunt was malfunctioning and that caused an intestinal blockage. She underwent a major surgery performed by Arizona Robbins and Alex Karev. Meredith and Derek were distraught, but they could not see her because the adoption was still under examination. When Alex finally told them that surgery had gone well, Meredith burst into tears. Derek finally forgave her for what had happened with the clinical trial. Later that night, they sang a lullaby to her Zola the phone while Cristina Yang was taking care of her at the hospital.

Later, Meredith and Derek got a hearing to try and regain custody. This was thanks to Alex tracking down the judge and telling him that Meredith and Derek were the best possible parents for Zola. Despite this, not long after that phone call, the social worker told Meredith that since their hearing had been cancelled, they were probably not going to get custody. However, the following morning, she brought Zola to Meredith and Derek's and told them that they baby was theirs and they had full custody.

For Zola's first birthday, her parents planned a party with their friends. However, when the celebration for Richard's 10,000th surgery had to be cancelled, they used the cake Meredith made for the birthday to celebrate that instead.

When Meredith was offered a job at Brigham and Women's Hospital, the family planned a move to Boston. However, shortly before they were set to leave, her parents were both involved in the plane crash. Derek still wanted to go to Boston, but Meredith looked at the condition the others were in and said she wanted to stay in Seattle because that's where she started her family.

## Notes and Trivia

* She is an INFJ 6w7.
* They don't know their exact birthday and thus cannot determine their astrological placements. They celebrate their birthday on February 1st.
* She started to walk shortly after being returned to Meredith and Derek.
* She is left-handed.
* They love playing cards.
* Her adoption case number was KC2009481.