Fairytal Gone Bad

I stood in the bedroom Derek and I had shared since our wedding night three years ago. Every fiber of my being is shaken from the fight we had just engaged in. We´ve had arguments in the past, some of them rather heated, but none of them like the one we had just had. He had come home late again, and I couldn´t keep quiet, not when there wasn´t a reason for his tardiness. If it was just the two of us, I might have kept ignoring it. It wasn´t just us though; we had a two year old daughter, Melinda Grace. She´s my everything, the one thing I had done right in life, and I would do anything for her; even hang on to a marriage that was quickly going south.

"You can´t keep doing this Derek,"I said again, knowing that he probably wasn´t really hearing me. "Melinda needs her father"

"She has me" Derek snapped, his eyes a cold blue I didn´t recognize. He had changed, grown more aloof, over the years to the point that I didn´t know him anymore. "I´m right here, right in front of you."The cockiness is something I would have expected from Mark Sloan, not Derek. "What more do you want?"

"What I want is for you to come home when you say you´re going to" I yelled, not caring any longer about keeping my cool. He had pushed me beyond remaining calm and if blowing up got a reaction out of him it would be worth it.

"I´m the Chief of Surgery, Meredith. Do you have any idea how much stress comes with that?"

The answer is the same as it always is. He´s under stress. He´s the Chief. It was a lame excuse at best, one I am sick of hearing. "Oh please, Derek, give me some credit."

"What do you want Meredith" His voice raised, higher than I had ever heard it. I flinched. He´s yelled before, but never directly at me, and never with that cold, hard look in his eyes.

"I want you to take more time for your family. I want Melinda to know her father. Do you want her to grow up thinking her father loves his job more than her? She needs you. I need you." I whispered, wrapping my arms around my middle. "We wanted this Derek. Our fairy tale. Don´t throw it away. Not for some job."

Derek sighed, his face relaxing. "I´ll be home at six tomorrow. We´ll do something as a family then. Happy?"

I relaxed. "Don´t be late, Derek. If you are, I´m going…" I paused and took a deep breath. "If you can´t start keeping your promises I´m going to take Meli and leave."

There was only a moment of silence after I spoke my threat before his fist raised. I didn´t see it coming until it was too late. A burst of pain flashed through my head. In a haze of stupor and pain I stumbled into the wall and then slid to the ground. I sat there in disbelief. If I hadn´t been there, if I hadn´t felt him hit me, I wouldn´t have believed him, Derek Shepherd, capable of hurting me. "Derek?"

"You don´t get to threaten me," he hissed, crouching down so that our gazes were level. He gripped my chin in his fingers, digging his nails into my flesh. "I´m the boss, remember? I´m the Chief of Surgery. You´re a lowly resident who wouldn´t have made it as far as she has without her mommy´s name and me. I made you. Don´t forget that, and don´t threaten me again. If you do, you won´t like the consequences."

"You can´t do this" I whispered, yanking my face out of his grasp. It was like he was warped, like something had infected his mind with a disease that made him insane. The doctor in me wanted to examine all the scientific possibilities, but the woman and mother in me wanted as far from him as possible. "I won´t let you do this. I´m leaving."

I stood up, intent on doing just that. I made it half way to the door before he grabbed me by the hair and pulled me back. I let out a shriek at the pain radiating through my head. My shriek turned into a gasp as he slammed me into the wall once more, knocking the air from my lungs. "Where do you think you´re going?" he asked in an icy voice.

It took all my courage to say

"I'm going to Alex and Izzie's tonight."

My heart pounded as he asked me why.

"Do you really need to ask that? Do you honestly think after what you did I'm going to sleep in the same house as you?"

"You're not going anywhere," he said coldly, grabbing the collar of my shirt.

I let out a small cry as he slammed me against the wall. This time I braced myself for the blow that came.

It didn't hurt any less, but I was prepared.

I started to fight back, to tell him I was nobodies victim when I heard a familiar cry coming through the monitor on our night stand.

Melinda.

He stared at me for a moment and then relinquished his hold.

My body must have gone into shock, shutting down from the abuse it wasn't accustomed to, because I slid to the floor. I landed at an awkward angle, a sharp pain cutting through my wrist and hand.

For a moment I thought I had broken it, but a quick exam told me it was just bruised and would be sore for the next couple days.

I rose on my trembling legs and hurried out of the room, racing down the hall to Melinda's room.