Meredith felt her stinging eyes droop slightly as she was curled up in the chair opposite Derek's hospital bed. He still wasn't awake after his surgery.
"Meredith ... honey, what are you still doing here? Why don't you go and get some sleep? Something to eat, maybe?" Meredith smiled at Mrs Shepard, who was stroking her son's hand.
"No ... I'm fine, really. I just ... I'm just gonna stay until he wakes up." Mrs Shepard looked at her sceptically. "I'm fine ..."
"You can't get enough of that word, huh?" She sighed, rubbing her eyes when she realised she would get nowhere with the young woman. "Well okay then ... I think I'm gon-" She was cut off by a low groan from her son. Meredith snapped her head in Derek's direction and jumped up from her chair.
"Derek?" She took hold of his hand. "Derek? Can you hear me?" She felt her tummy fill with butterflies. Mrs Shepard looked panicked, and rushed into the hall to call another doctor.
"Meredith?" His voice was almost in audible. She felt her eyes release yet more tears, but she laughed in relief.
"Yeah ... yeah it's me! I'm here ... I'm here and you're okay ..." She closed her eyes tight. "You're okay." He cleared his throat and opened his eyes slowly. "Don't try to move." Meredith warned.
"What happened? I ... I can't remember ... we ... we went upstairs ... and ... I can't remember." He seemed frustrated with himself. Before she could answer a horde of their friends rushed in. It seems Mrs Shepard had spread news of his awakening fast because there was an endless stream of people who followed her in. Addison, Mark, Izzie, Cristina, the chief, Alex and Aurelia all beamed at their colleague, who looked extremely confused. Bailey pushed her way through the crowd.
"Alright people, you can all come and see Dr Shepard later ... he's a patient and Dr Yang and Stevens have gotta do their post op reports so ... everybody out!" They all looked disappointed but left the room slowly. Meredith nodded towards her friends, kissing Derek's hand. "How're you feeling?" Bailey asked.
"Like I've been kicked in the head." He looked back towards Meredith, noticing the cut on her forehead, along with the slight bruise that had started to form there. "You're hurt ... are you okay?"
Meredith gawped at him. Only Derek Shepard could have come through brain surgery and asked how SHE was! "What happened?" His voice interrupted her train of thought. She swallowed. I forced you to go on an unstable building site and you nearly died ...
"Erh ... the floor ... it fell through ... we ... we went upstairs and the floor fell through." She was very aware of all the eyes in the room burning on her. "But it's okay ... it's okay and you're okay ... we're all ... okay!" She tried to smile, but bright and shiny had never really been her thing.
At that moment, Bailey's pager went off. She shook her head. "Trauma ... Meredith tell Addison to come and say bye to me before she goes back to L.A ... I'll come back and check on you later, Derek." And with that she rushed off.
"Did she just say Addison? As in ... my ex wife?" He asked, perplexed as Izzie and Cristina poked and prodded him.
"Yeah ... you never changed her from your next of kin when you broke up ... she had to sign your surgery consent forms ..."
"I what? Oh god ... I'm sorry Mere ..." he sighed at himself.
"It's fine ... actually she proved a calming person to have around." The pair were silent for a minute when a sudden thought occurred to Meredith. "Oh ... erm ... Derek?" She said cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"Erm ... they ... they shaved your hair off."
-
5 weeks had passed since the accident, Meredith was a fully fledged 6 months pregnant and Derek had hereby banned her from the trailer, land and house until it was safe to go. Mrs Shepard and Addison were back in New York and L.A and all seemed to be getting back on track. Derek had been cleared to perform surgeries again the day before and was in popular demand at the hospital. Meredith was worried he may over do it, but he had repeatedly assured her he was fine. The worry never left her though, because she knew how many times she used the word 'fine', she was apprehensive to believe him. The slightest headache he got she was searching in textbooks and the internet for any explanation, Derek thought she had become extremely neurotic.
"I am not being neurotic! I'm ... I'm taking precaution! To you! And your brain!" She had said stubbornly. Even so, Derek had become slightly concerned for her ... since the accident she had been jumpy at any loud noise and overly panicked at any bad situation. She constantly seemed agitated and questioned everything he did. But she was 6 months pregnant, he reasoned, her hormones were probably in overload ... it would pass ... eventually ... he hoped.
-
"I'm going now, Mer ..." Derek rushed into the kitchen, grabbing a piece of toast off her plate. "I'll call you later ..." He kissed her lips quickly and made for the door. He was running late for a surgery.
"I love you!" She shouted after him, smiling as she heard him yell it back. Ever since the accident she had said it to him whenever she had the chance, feeling like something terrible would happen if she didn't. She flicked through a catalogue of things she would need to buy before the baby was born, the accident had made it apparent to Meredith they weren't going to be in the house by the time she gave birth, so they had started to set up Alex's old room ready for the baby, since he'd moved into Izzie's room as a compromise. "You okay?" Izzie smiled, breaking Meredith rambling mind.
"Yeah ... I was just looking at baby things ..." She mumbled, closing the book, strangely embarrassed. Izzie smiled warmly at her friend.
"Did you hear about Mark?" She sniggered. Meredith frowned.
"No ... why, what's he done now?"
"Bailey caught him and Dr Raous going at it in a scrub room!" Izzie started to laugh.
"What!?" Meredith said, letting her jaw drop. "Aurelia HATES Mark! Or ... at least she did last time I checked!" Izzie suddenly slowed her laughing down and turned towards the sink.
"Yeah ... well ... you've had other things to think of. You've had a lot on your mind, Mer."
"So ... what did Bailey do? How long has it even been going on?! I thought she had a boyfriend?"
"No they broke up a while back from what she told me ... and from what I can gather, Mark's pretty crazy about her ..." Meredith nodded, taking it all in. Had she been so self obsessed over the past month she'd missed something that major?
"Have you and Derek thought of any names yet?" Izzie asked, changing the subject.
"Erh ... Derek has ... not any girl's names cause he's so convinced it's a boy ..." She smiled. "... It hasn't really occurred to me to think that far ahead really ..."
"Really? What's he come up with?"
"Christopher ... cause that's his middle name ... James ... Michael ... Cameron ... he also said Derek but I put my foot down." She giggled. Just then both Izzie and Meredith's pagers went off. It was their day off, so they knew something big must have happened. "911 trauma ... what do you thinks' happened?"
"I'm not sure ..." Izzie frowned, wandering into the lounge to turn the television on. "Oh wow." She breathed slowly, watching the terror on the screen in front of them. "Oh those poor people ..." Izzie shook her head.
"Yeah ...come on, we have to get going."
Reviews make my day :)