I don't own Grey's Anatomy, any of its characters or rights, I just like embellishing on the story lines. Please read, hopefully enjoy, and review.
Zola was still in the custody of strangers.
Derek still wasn't talking to her, let alone looking at her.
She was overwhelmed with guilt about the Chief taking the blame for her.
She was pregnant, but she didn't know it yet.
4:30 am
Meredith stared in the bathroom mirror at her reflection, she was ghostly pale, with bags and dark circles under her eyes, she had beads of sweat forming on her clammy skin, and her once sparkling blues were now missing nearly all of their luster.
How did everything come to be like this, just a month ago, Derek and Meredith were eagerly working on the adoption papers for Zola, making tremendous progress on their clinical trial, and happily building their home.
Now Meredith felt so alone, she knew that Christina would be there for her if she needed her to be, but Christina and Owen were going through their own thing right now, and on the mend, she couldn't tear Christina away from the progress they were making.
Lexie, Alex, April, and Jackson were all working starting 18 hours ago, so she didn't want to bother any of them with her troubles, they were going to have a hard enough shift as it was.
Meredith was lost, but she knew she had to hold on, keep focused if she ever wanted Derek and Zola back again, and there was nothing in the world that she wanted more.
Finally, pulling her eyes away from the mirror Meredith ambled into the bedroom to put on her scrubs, as she pulled them up she realized that they were falling saggy down her slender form, when was the last time I ate? She thought to herself. Honestly, she couldn't quite remember, but at the moment that didn't matter, she was already late for work, she would grab something when she got there.
Grabbing her purse Meredith ran down the stairs and out the door to her jeep, racing towards work at a snails pace with all of the Seattle traffic.
6:00am
When Meredith finally pulled into her parking space at the hospital she jumped out of the car and immediately felt light headed, everything was spinning for a brief moment in time. "I really do have to eat something." She muttered to herself after regaining her balance and making her way into the hospital.
Once inside the doors Meredith ran into Bailey. "Good Morning." She said breathlessly, but Meredith received no kind words from Bailey who just shook her head and walked the other way.
Tears pricked at Meredith's eyes, did everyone hate her? She thought to herself as she forced the tears back, walking to the elevator and pressing the "up" button a little too aggressively.
9:22am
As Meredith stood at the nurses station signing a few charts, she caught sight of Derek down the hall, she forced a smile on her face, but the moment Derek saw her he changed directions and went the other way.
Meredith's shoulders slumped and for what felt like the millionth time that day, tears threatened to spill over Meredith's eyes.
Mark had been witnessing the whole thing, and walked up behind Meredith placing a comforting hand on her back. "It's going to be ok, he'll come around." Mark tried to reassure her. Meredith turned around to face Mark, and he was taken aback by her poor complexion. "I don't know if he will ever forgive me…I am unforgiveable." Meredith said in between sobs as she let herself break down.
"Meredith, if he can forgive Addison and I for what we did he can certainly forgive you for just trying to save a friend." Mark said matter of fact. "Thank You." Meredith squeaked out.
"On another note, are you feeling alright? No offense but you look like shit Meredith." Mark asked concerned.
"Oh…um…yeah I'm fine, I think I might have a little bug or something." Meredith said suddenly self-conscious of her appearance.
"Why don't you go home, I will cover for you for the day." Mark said trying to help out this woman who had actually helped him so many times before.
A little smirk came across Meredith's face, "You are going to cover for me?" She asked surprised. "Ok, you caught me, I was going to make Avery cover for you." Mark said laughing a little. Meredith just smiled and headed towards residents locker room taking him up on his offer. Halfway down the hall Meredith turned around and looked back at Mark. "Thank You Mark, I needed a friend today." Meredith said before heading back on her way.
Mark watched her walk away, even more concerned than he was before, she looked thinner, much thinner, was that possible, she was already a toothpick as it was. He needed to have a serious talk with Derek, this had gone on long enough.
9:47am
When Meredith reached the residents locker room another wave of dizziness cam over her, she clutched the wall for support, and then steadied herself once it had passed. Grabbing her purse, Meredith decided to just leave her car at the hospital and take a cab home, not trusting her bouts of vertigo while driving.
So quickly Meredith made her way downstairs, and haled one of the taxi cabs that were always lingering around the hospital waiting to be called. After giving the gruff looking cabbie her address, Meredith leaned back in the seat and shut her eyes, oblivious to the menacing way that the cabbie kept glancing at her in his rearview mirror.
10:13am
It wasn't too much later that Mark found Derek sitting in his office head in his hands. "Dude, this has gone on long enough." Mark said walking in and shutting the door behind him, before plopping down in the chair across from Derek.
"What are you talking about?" Derek snapped at him.
"Whoa, whoa!" Mark said holding up his hands. "Let me ask you a question, how is it that you can forgive Addison and I for cheating on you, but you can't forgive Meredith for trying to save the chiefs wife? She couldn't save her mother, she couldn't save Susan, and now there is a drug in an envelope that could help her save the chiefs wife, and you pretty much leave her for trying to save the last mother figure she has?"
Derek put his head back in his hands. "I don't know why I can't forgive her, I want to I do, but every time I see her, it just infuriates me back up again, and I don't know when that is going to pass, but I can't forgive her until it does. I can't even look at her anymore."
Mark stood up angry about Derek's stubbornness. "You're an idiot Derek, and you're going to hate yourself when you lose the best thing that ever happened to you." Mark said storming out of Derek's office.
10:40am
Derek took a deep breath and shook his head, throwing his pen across the room, why did everything always have to be so complicated.
Derek reached in his desk drawer and pulled out a frame that he had tossed in there weeks ago, it was a picture of he and Meredith standing on the ferry. She was looking at him with those intense blue eyes, that said that they were the only two people in the world.
Rubbing his face, Derek couldn't stand to look at the picture anymore and jammed it back in his desk, he just wasn't ready yet, he needed more time.
11:00am
Derek still couldn't get over his conversation with Mark, why was it that he couldn't forgive Meredith? Derek's thoughts drifted back to that day some months ago when he stood down at the lab reading Meredith's test results for the Alzheimer's gene…he had told her he didn't care what the results were…he had told her not to look, but he couldn't help himself, he had to know. He had gone down to the lab early in the morning and requested her lab results, and read them over and over again, she was positive for the gene.
There was no way he could tell her that, it would ruin her life, it would influence every decision she made, it would destroy her. He couldn't let that happen. That's when he became so passionate about finding a cure, things were going well, and she had ruined it. She had ruined his chances of being able to save her. That's why he was so mad. But could he be mad at her when all she did was try to save Adele?
The more he thought about it the more he realized that she most likely felt that she owed Adele, after what her mother had done to their family. Richard and Adele were just now starting to become that happy couple that they should have been years ago, and then Richard started losing Adele, and he started pressuring Meredith…there were just so many things to take into consideration, but the bottom line was that she should have trusted him enough to discuss what she was thinking.
Derek began rubbing his temples as a headache made its way to the forefront of his head. All of this was becoming too much for Derek. The way he was feeling reminded him of that day so many years ago after Addison had come back, and Meredith told him that it was exhausting to hate him.
11:00am
As Meredith paid the cab driver and stepped out of the vehicle, she was surprised as the cabbie got out as well and rushed around to her side. She looked at him confused for a moment, until she felt something sharp and cold jabbing into her back. "Get in the house." The man ordered his voice cold and laced with aggression.
Meredith rolled her eyes, of course, this is how her life went, but then a light snapped in her mind, she couldn't give up now, she would fight whatever it took, she would fight for her friends, she would fight for Derek, she would fight for Zola, she would fight for herself.
With all of the voice she could muster up Meredith let out a blood curdling scream hoping to attract some attention in her direction. No sooner had the scream left her lips though, was the cabbies sharp knife plunging deep into her low back.
Meredith doubled over as the pain seared through her whole body. Now the man was shoving her in the house even faster, "You bitch!" He hissed into her ear. The man kicked open Meredith's door and shoved her down to the floor. "Where do you keep the drugs?" He demanded.
Meredith looked at him in confusion, "What drugs?" She panted trying to keep her breathing stable. "Oxy's, hydros, methadone! Where the hell is it? I know you're a doctor!" He screamed at her getting right up in her face.
"I don't keep any drugs here…" Then Meredith thought about it, the pain meds from Derek's surgery. "Wait, upstairs in the bathroom there is a full bottle of Oxycodone take that!" Meredith pleaded hoping that this would appease him enough to leave.
The man bolted up the stairs and began kicking open every door he passed looking for the bathroom, she could tell that he found it when she heard the sound of bottles and jars falling into the sink, and scattering on the floor.
Moments later the man was running back down the stairs, bottle in hand. "Where's the rest?" He demanded after popping three of the pills out of the bottle, not even bothering to drink water to wash them down.
"There is no more, but I have a small stash of cash in the den, please take that and go!" Meredith was begging, she would give him whatever she could to get this man out of her house.
He yanked her up by the arm, causing another bolt of pain to rip through her body. He forced her to show him the way, and pull out the cash box. There was at least about $3,000 dollars in the box, and this made the man very happy.
Seeing the smile on his face Meredith felt a since of relief, hoping that this was enough to make the man leave. "Thanks for your hospitality." He said in an evil tone as he walked past Meredith. She let out a sigh of relief but it was too soon, because a moment later the man was behind her with his knife to her throat. "I forgot, one more thing!" He said snickering as he slid the knife across Meredith's throat causing an instant waterfall of blood to come cascading down Meredith's body, which had now become limp and was falling to the floor.
"Thanks again." He said as he left her there to die.
The man adjusted the door so it looked like it was closed and raced to his cab and sped off. This had been a very successful cab ride he thought to himself.
11:33am
A few minutes after the man had left Meredith suddenly regained consciousness, but the pain in both her throat and back were unbearable and she was becoming weak from the loss of blood. She tried to think like a doctor, and with all the energy she could gather she felt the wound in her neck, it was somewhat shallow, he hadn't cut her major artery, that must be why she was still alive.
Knowing that she needed something to slow the bleeding Meredith felt around her for something, it was then that she felt the tassels of an old blanket on a chair near her. The blanket was heavy but it would do Meredith thought as she pulled on the tassels with all of her strength causing the blanket to tumble to the floor next to her in a heap. Then Meredith pulled the blanket over to her and pressed it as firmly as possible against her throat.
Then Meredith reached into her scrub pocket and retrieved her cell phone, thankful that the man hadn't noticed it in the first place. Feeling around the buttons, her vision going in and out Meredith pressed speed dial 1 which of course was Derek. She wouldn't be able to talk if he did answer but she prayed that he would know by the silence on the phone that something was wrong.
The phone rang once, twice, and then she could tell that he pushed the ignore button. Silent tears fell down her face, but Meredith was not going to give up, so she pushed redial again and again but each time the same response until she slipped back into unconsciousness.
11:35am
Derek looked down at his phone, as he missed call after call from Meredith. She had been doing this lately, calling him over and over again in spurts trying to get him to talk to her. He just didn't know what to say though. Why was this so hard from him?
Derek needed to talk to someone, this needed to get figured out, he needed to make some sort of decision, no matter what it was. Derek went to the one person who may understand. "Chief?" He said knocking on the door to what was once his office. "Derek? What can I do for you?" Richard asked.
"I don't know what to do about Meredith, I hate her right now!" Derek spat out as he kicked the leg of a chair in front of him.
"Derek, why can't you understand all of the pressure she was under to try and help Adele? Why can't you understand that she did this so I could have a future with my wife? Why can't you understand that she did this out of guilt for what her mother and I did? Why can't you understand that she didn't tell you, so as not to tamper with the trial even further?" Richard asked question after question calmly trying to see the light.
Derek plopped down in the chair. He stared off in the distance for a moment before answering. "I can't forgive her because she ruined my life. Richard, she has the Alzheimer's gene, what does that give me fifteen, twenty years before I start to lose her? And what will that do to Zola? She threw away her chance." Derek said finally getting it off his chest to someone else.
Richard put his head down for a moment at the news, and then his head shot back up. "Derek, there will be other trials, someone will find a cure. Meredith has time, you both have time, Adele and I didn't so Meredith gave us the best chance we could get." Richard said rubbing his head.
Derek looked closely up Richard and a small crack started to form in the wall that Derek had built around himself. Derek then glanced at the clock. "I have a surgery." He said blandly standing up.
As Derek was walking out the door he turned around and looked at Richard, "Thank You." He said before making his exit.
Richard hoped more than anything that Derek would forgive Meredith, and soon this had gone on long enough.
4:40pm
Meredith lay in a pool of blood barely conscious holding on with every fiber of her being. As her blood had spread out around her, it had pushed her cell phone just out of reach, and so now she was left there in agony to wait for her knight in shining whatever to come and save her. He would save her, she knew he would, she had a feeling, and her feeling tended to be right.
5:20pm
Derek had just finished up his last surgery, changed, and was walking through the parking lot on his way to the Porsche, getting ready to head up to work on the house while there was still a little bit of light out. As he neared his car he caught sight of Meredith's jeep out front, it was strange he had thought she wasn't at the hospital today, he hadn't seen her once. Lately, she had been practically stalking him outside of his surgeries, waiting for him to come out so she could try to talk to him, which he always refused. A pang surged through him for a moment at his coldness towards Meredith, but then he just kept walking and got in his car. She was probably playing the avoiding game now, trying a new approach.
Without giving it another thought Derek got in his Porsche and drove off towards the house he was building.
6:18am
Meredith was terrified, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on for, the pain was starting to subside and she knew that was a bad thing, she was slowly bleeding out. She had done everything she was able to in her position to slow the bleeding but it just wasn't going to be enough she needed to do something more. If she was serious about wanting to live, she needed to figure out something. A new bout of pain ran through Meredith's veins as she moved her body over slightly to reach her phone better. Triumphantly, she was able to grasp it between her fingers and pull it up to her face, the breath was seemingly knocked out of her though when she realized that her phone had died.
With energy that she should have been saving Meredith threw the phone, and it hit the desk. "Please someone…" She whispered to herself unable to talk.
It was then that Meredith noticed the clock hanging on the wall, it was 6:30am her shift should have started already, surely someone would notice her absence soon. She prayed that they would come and look for her.
Keeping hope alive Meredith worked on controlling her breathing, and kept positive that Derek would save her.
6:10am
When Derek pulled into the parking lot of the hospital he noticed that Meredith's car was in the same place that it had been parked last night, which surprised him because he didn't recall her name being on the list of residents working the dreaded 48 hour shift.
Curiosity getting the best of him Derek walked up to the blue jeep and lay his hand on the hood, it was cold as can be, she had never gone home last night.
This was a good thing though Derek thought, last night he had sort of come with terms with everything and was ready to talk it out, he wanted his wife back, he couldn't go on hating her anymore, especially when she didn't know the real reasons why he was mad.
Eagerly, Derek made his way into the hospital hoping to find Meredith before either of them got too busy.
6:36am
Once Derek had set his things down in his office, and put on his lab coat he walked over to the board to see if Meredith was in surgery.
He didn't see her name anywhere, he was sort of hoping that she would have been in surgery though, that way she would be easier to track down.
Derek noticed Mark leaning against the nurses station and decided to ask if he had seen Meredith. Just as he approached Mark and got his attention April came bounding up to him.
"Dr. Shepard?" She said tentatively, "Yes?" He said turning to face her. "I know, well…I know that things are a little weird right now…but ummmm….have you seen Dr. Grey? She hasn't shown up for her shift, and uh I was just wondering, you know, if you had seen her?" April was a nice girl, but sometimes it gave him a headache talking to her with all of her rambling.
"No, I haven't seen her. But maybe she slept in, in one of the on-call rooms, her car is still here from last night." Derek said not quite too concerned yet. Maybe she had been trolling for cases last night.
Then Mark piped in. "Wait her car is still here, what do you mean by that?" Mark asked, stepping forward now.
"It hasn't been moved all night so I assume she is here somewhere." Derek said a little confused by Mark's sudden interest in Meredith's whereabouts.
"No, no, something is wrong. I sent her home yesterday morning, she was sick yesterday and looked pretty bad, so I had Avery cover for her." Mark said pulling out his cell phone.
Fear was the only emotion that Derek could feel right now, as he too pulled out his cell phone.
"Voicemail." Both Derek and Mark said at the same time. "Page her over the intercom." Derek suddenly ordered Kempner.
Immediately she rushed over to the nurses station and paged Dr. Meredith Grey to the OR board immediately.
7:10am
They had waited for Meredith to answer the page to the OR board, something really wasn't right. "Christina!" Mark said as he spotted Owen walking down the hall. "Call Christina!" Mark said a little disappointed that he hadn't thought of this sooner.
Owen heard this and came rushing over to them, "No don't call Christina, she's at home sick." Owen said a little bit of that being a lie. Derek knew the truth and immediately understood. "Ok, but is Meredith with her, or has she talked to Meredith?" Derek asked frantically.
"No, no, Christina hasn't had the energy to even get out of bed, let alone talk on the phone." Owen said a little piece of his heart breaking as he remembered what they had done.
"Oh wait, I will check the Residents lounge to see if her stuff is still there." Kempner said running off, Derek, Mark, and Owen in toe Mark explaining to Owen what was going on.
7:23am
When they reached the locker room and checked Meredith's cubby her purse and car keys were absent. Derek's heart sunk, what if she had run…what if he had pushed her so hard that she ran…
Derek sat down on the bench with his head in his hands.
Owen walked over to the window of the lounge and looked outside, and then he spotted something, a row of yellow.
"You said she wasn't feeling well yesterday?" Owen directed the question to Mark.
"Yeah, she looked like crap." Mark said remembering how pale and fragile she looked.
"Do you think she was feeling bad enough that she would have taken a taxi home?" Owen asked eagerly.
Mark thought back to her appearance for a split second and the way she wobbled a little bit when she walked.
"That is definitely a possibility." Mark said as Derek hopped up off of the bench.
"I'm going to the house!" Derek said flying out of the room. "I'm coming with you!" Mark chimed in as he ran with Derek down the halls to his office where he grabbed his car keys and bolted through the hospital.
Once they were all piled in Derek's car the practice Derek had going 125mph came in handy as he zoomed through traffic.
"She's going to be alright?" Derek asked Mark as he focused desperately on getting to Meredith's house.
"You know what she's probably still sick and just sleeping it off, didn't hear the alarm or something…" Mark said not really believing the words he was saying. He had a feeling too that something just wasn't quite right, and he prayed that he was wrong.
8:59am
When Derek pulled into the driveway of Meredith's house there was a light on in the bathroom upstairs. Instantly, both Derek and Mark felt better, that was a sign that at least she had made it home. Maybe she had the flu or something. Derek thought as they ascended the stairs to the house.
When they reached the door however, their feelings of comfort quickly vanished as they realized that the door wasn't really closed, it just appeared to be closed, in fact it appeared to have been damaged in some way. Derek shoved the door open in a panic and called out Meredith's name, "Meredith!" "Meredith!" Both Derek and Mark began to call as they started to run up the stairs hoping that Meredith was in the bathroom where the light was on.
9:01am
Meredith felt incredibly weak, she couldn't draw strength from anywhere in her body, she was falling in and out of consciousness frequently, and she felt so cold, but then something warmed her, the heat from her heart began to spread through her body and a faint smile began to crease Meredith's face as she heard Derek and what sounded like Mark coming to rescue her. Tears of joy were now falling freely down her face, the anticipation of them finding her in the den building.
9:04am
Derek swung the door to their bathroom open with a vengeance and was terrified by what he saw, pills, bottles, and tubes were scattered throughout the bathroom everywhere.
When Mark saw that Meredith wasn't in the bathroom he began searching all of the other rooms
Suddenly, a thought came to him and he started rummaging through the spread out contents of the medicine cabinet.
His fears increased tenfold when he realized that his oxycodone bottle was gone. Would she do it? Did he push her that far? Derek sat on the ground defeated, he had a feeling, he just knew that she must have done something stupid and now he wasn't sure he wanted to find her, what if he did find her and she was gone, there was a large time frame where she hadn't been seen. If she did…that…he would never be able to forgive himself.
Just then he heard Mark yell at him from the hallway. Derek slowly walked to Mark scared that Mark had found her, "Derek is it usual for everyone to leave their doors wide open?" Mark said pointing out the fact that ever single room had its door burst wide open. "No! The doors are always shut" Derek said suddenly snapping himself out of his former thoughts.
9:10am
Minutes seemed like an eternity to Meredith as she heard Derek and Mark searching for her upstairs, she needed to make some sort of noise, do something to let them know that she was in the den, before they left thinking she was gone.
With every last ounce of energy that Meredith could muster, and a little bit of adrenaline, Meredith scooted herself a little and positioned herself to kick the chair next to her over. It would take everything she had but it would be worth it if she could get their attention.
One, two, three…she counted to herself as she shoved her leg into the chair causing it to topple over. The exertion of energy and the pain in back and throat caused Meredith's vision to blur and call her to the darkness, but she forced herself to stay conscious, to show Derek that she hadn't given up, she Needed to show Derek that she did not give up!
9:12am
As Derek and Mark continued searching upstairs for Meredith in every nook and cranny they stopped dead in their tracks at a loud noise coming from downstairs.
Instantly they both bolted down the stairs taking them 4 and 5 at a time. "I think it came from the den!" Derek said already halfway there.
When Derek pushed the door open he immediately felt sick, there lay his Meredith in a large pool of her own blood, staring back at him, tears in her eyes, pale as a white sheet, but somehow with a tiny smile gracing her lips.
"Oh God Meredith!" Derek cried as he fell down at her side, noting that his khaki pants were immediately soaked in Meredith's blood. He wasn't in doctor mode right now, he was stuck in shock, in terrified husband mode.
"What happened?" He asked as he stroked her forehead, smearing it with the blood that had gotten on his hands.
Meredith gulped as best she could, "I…didn't…give…up…love…you!" Meredith mouthed before giving a deep sigh of exhaustion.
It wasn't a moment later that Mark was in the room, "Derek what are her injuries?" Mark asked stepping over both Derek and Meredith and going on the other side of her. Gently, Mark pulled the blood soaked blanket from over the top of Meredith and both and Derek gasped when they saw that Meredith's throat had been cut.
Meredith winced in pain as the blanket was pulled from her throat. "Back." Meredith managed to mouth before shutting her eyes against the pain she fought off for so many hours now.
Mark gently rolled Meredith over to reveal a deep stab wound in the left lower flank of her back. "We need to get her out of here now!" Mark said assessing the amount of blood they were sitting in. "Derek call and ambulance!" Mark ordered knowing that Derek was in shock and wasn't taking any of this in, just staring in Meredith's eyes.
"Derek!" Mark demanded as he hit Derek on the shoulder. This seemed to bring Derek back to reality. "No we don't have time for an ambulance, I'll drive!" Derek said pulling out his car keys.
"You're in no shape. I'll drive you just apply pressure to the wounds in the back seat!" Derek reached out and put a hand on Mark's shoulder. "You have to get us there in time!" Derek pleaded. "I will." Mark said taking Derek's car keys, Derek scooped Meredith's fragile body into his arms and ran with her out to the car.
"You're going to be alright Meredith I promise!" Derek said meekly as he set her in the back after Mark folded down the backseats. Then Derek crawled in after her. "Go!" Derek ordered as Mark zoomed off through the streets.
"Sorry…" Meredith tried to mouth to Derek as they raced through the streets of Seattle. "Meredith you have nothing to apologize for, I understand why you did it, it's me that should apologize! I'm so sorry Meredith, if I would have…if I didn't…you wouldn't be…I would have…been there for you!" Derek was sobbing now as Meredith withered in front of him.
"Love…" Meredith started to say before her body went limp and she fell unconscious again. "Meredith? Meredith!" Derek screamed immediately checking for a pulse. "Derek?" Mark asked terrified from the front seat, not pealing his eyes away from the road as he drove 130 through the freeway in and out of cars." Derek looked up at Mark for just a second. "She has a pulse it's very weak though." Derek was frantic.
"Derek you need to call ahead, they need to be prepared for us." Mark said thinking back to the day when everyone was standing outside waiting for Callie after her accident. They would be able to save Meredith, they had to.
Derek quickly pulled out his blackberry and dialed Richard's number.
10:30am
"Derek, where the hell are you? I'm missing a resident and two attendings!" Webber was furious.
"Richard it's Meredith, she's been attacked." Derek said solemnly looking down at Meredith's tiny frame.
"She has a deep stab wound to the lower left flank, and Richard…her throat has been slit. She's lost a lot of blood we are on our way in there now, get everyone ready along with O+ blood, lots of it." Derek ordered finally going into doctor mode again.
Richard didn't ask any more details the moment he hung up he began rapidly getting a team together.
"Chief what's going on?" Bailey asked as they stood lined up outside in the ambulance bay. "It's Meredith Grey, she's was apparently attacked. Derek and Mark are on their way in with her right now. She was stabbed, and…her throat was cut. She has lost a significant amount of blood."
Everyone gasped. Hadn't they all been through enough? Bailey instantly felt guilty for her cool attitude towards Meredith yesterday morning.
Lexie and Alex had not been called down to assist, they would be too close to this.
Impatiently, Richard, Callie, Owen, Teddy, and Jackson waited for them to pull in.
11:12am
Mark pulled into the ambulance bay with squealing tires. Derek jumped out of the back Meredith cradled in his arms running her over to the gurney.
Immediately, everyone rushed off with her gurney leaving Derek and Mark standing outside in a stupor.
Derek glanced back at his Porsche, staring at all of the blood, Meredith's blood, staining the carpet. Derek turned his back to the car and quickly lost the contents of his stomach.
Mark came up behind him and placed a comforting hand on his back. "She's going to make it." Mark asserted as Derek stood up and wiped his mouth.
"But Mark, she lost so much blood, so…so much blood…" Derek said looking down at his own clothes to see that they were saturated with Meredith's blood as well.
"Didn't you hear what she said man, she held on, she fought for you, you don't think she would fight all this time to give up now do you." Mark said. Ushering Derek inside the hospital, on their way in he tossed the car keys to an intern standing close by, "Park this." He ordered as they continued through the ER to the trauma bay.
Derek stood outside the window as everyone worked fervently on Meredith's tiny frame.
Derek tore his eyes from Meredith for a minute and looked at Mark, a thought crossing his mind.
"Mark, what time did you send Meredith home yesterday?" Derek asked tentatively.
Mark thought about it for a moment, and then responded, "I think it was around 9:00 or 10:00."
Derek suddenly felt sick again, "You don't…you don't think that…that she has been laying in a pool of her own blood, alone for that long do you?" Derek was terrified that the answer would be yes, because if he had forgiven her earlier, if he had gone home last night, if he had driven her home when she wasn't feeling well, the what if's bounced around Derek's mind relentlessly.
Mark grabbed Derek by the shoulders. "You can't blame yourself for this! It's the sick bastard that did this, he is the only one responsible for this." Mark said assertively.
Derek returned his attention to the trauma bay as they hung yet another unit of blood and watched it try to catch up with the blood that she had already lost.
All things considered Meredith was fairly stable as they worked on her, Mark turned to Derek, "We need to get changed, we'll go put on some scrubs and come right back here." Mark said looking down at both of their blood drenched outfits.
Derek looked back at Meredith and then down at himself, and agreed, he couldn't be covered with her blood anymore.
Slowly, they walked up to the locker room, ignoring the stares as they walked through the halls.
1:03pm
Meredith was fighting harder right now than anyone they had ever seen. Right now they were just waiting for blood work, to figure out how extensive her blood loss was, and in the then they were heading down to CT to see the extent of her injuries from the rear stab wound.
Avery stood outside of the lab impatiently, "Dammit I need those results for Dr. Grey it's been fifteen minutes!" He yelled as he slammed his fist down on the counter.
An attractive technician came around the corner results in hand. "Here you go." She said somewhat timidly as she handed over the papers.
"Thank You." Avery said already running back upstairs reviewing the labs as he went. The blood loss was much worse than anyone had anticipated, but it wasn't the blood loss catching Avery off guard. "Holy Shit!" He said as his pace quickened and he burst through the trauma bay door, shoving the results into Bailey's hands.
"She's pregnant!" He said out of breath, "It looks like she's about 12 weeks based on her HcG." Jackson said in complete shock. Could this get any worse?
The Chief let out a chortle and then snapped into action. "Get an ultrasound down here now, Avery go get Karev, I didn't want to involve him in this, but now that Lucy is gone he is the best we have in OB."
"Yes sir." Avery said as he dashed out the door.
"Hold on Meredith." Callie whispered in Meredith's ear, Callie remembered being on this table and whether Meredith was conscious or not she knew that Meredith would need words of encouragement to get through this right now.
1:20pm
After hearing what Avery had to say about Meredith Alex practically pushed Jackson out of the way in his sprint to get to Meredith and her baby. Inside Alex was blaming himself for all of this, if he would have just kept his mouth shut none of this would have happened, and now that Meredith forgave him something like this happens to her. Life was not fair, and both Alex and Meredith knew that first hand.
1:37pm
When Derek and Mark returned downstairs after having changed into fresh navy blue scrubs, and washing the blood off of their hands, they were both surprised to see Alex in the room performing an ultrasound on Meredith.
Without hesitation Derek burst open the door closely followed by Mark. "What's going on?" He asked trying to take everything in, he had been sure that Meredith would have been in surgery by now to repair whatever damage the stab wounds had caused.
"Derek step outside with me." The Chief ordered grabbing Derek by the arm. "No, what's going on?" Derek demanded more urgently now.
"I will tell you, but you need to step outside with me." The Chief said more sternly now. Derek took one more look at Meredith and did as he was told, "Derek, did you know that Meredith was pregnant?" Richard asked trying to read Derek's response.
"She's what?" Derek asked astounded. "Derek lab results show that she is about 12 weeks pregnant, Alex is in there right now checking to see if…well checking to see if the baby is still viable. Meredith's lab results came back showing that she lost an incredibly substantial amount of blood, so I wouldn't…well I wouldn't get your hopes up." Richard said putting his head down.
Derek was barely listening to him now as he forced his way back into the trauma bay, just in time to hear a loud and strong "whoosh…whoosh…whoosh" fill the room. Everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding, and Derek stepped forward his eyes glued to the ultrasound machine. He reached out a hand and touched the picture, "that's my baby." He said more to himself than anyone else.
Then he went to Meredith's side and grabbed her hand in his. "Meredith you have to live, for me, for Zola, and for our baby." Derek said tears freely falling.
Meredith didn't stir, but Derek prayed that she heard him, he couldn't imagine his life without Meredith, Zola, and this new little baby, it just wasn't possible.
After a moment of taking it all in Bailey cleared her throat. "We need to get her up to surgery now." She said pulling up the rails on the gurney and starting to push Meredith out of the trauma bay. Everyone seemed to have a hand on the gurney as it rolled down the halls, people spreading like the tides. "I love you Meredith!" Derek said again as the elevator doors closed, and he was left standing out in the hall helpless.
Meredith was in Baileys hands now.