One of Their Own
(A Grey's Anatomy fanfiction)
Spoilers: not so much
Summary: A re-write of sorts for the episode "The First Cut is the Deepest"
Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy but I wish I could get my hands on Patrick Dempsey. Dr. McDreamy indeed!
Pairing: Derek/Meredith
It had been a hell of a day at Seattle Grace. Meredith Grey was exhausted. Her feet were killing her. She shouldn't have worn these damn shoes but they were adorable. She rarely wore them but today she had and now she regretted it. She and the other interns had spent the day trying to diagnose a teenage girl named Katie who seemed perfectly healthy but was having seizures. As it turned out it had been Meredith that had seen the mass on the MRI that had been a tumor. Katie was taken to the OR immediately and she'd assisted Shepard and Bailey with the procedure. Meredith was still on edge about the newborn baby. Burke was waiting on the labs. She waved goodbye to Izzy and Christina as they stood at the admit desk doing notes and thanking their lucky stars for some down time. All Meredith wanted to do was go home, take a hot bath, maybe have a glass of wine and get as much sleep as she could before George and Izzy got back to the house.
Meredith got in her car, with an exhausted sigh and tried not to think about Derek. She knew she couldn't get involved with him but she couldn't deny the attraction between them. She couldn't jeopardize the career she'd worked for or her place as an intern. For as long as she could remember, she'd always wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps.
Never mind that world-famous surgeon Ellis Grey has no idea who she is anymore.
Meredith stopped at a red light, thinking about the glass of wine she wanted.
Oh damn! I think Izzy drank the last of it the other night.
The light changed and Meredith changed lanes and made a right turn into the mini-mart near the house.
With her body on auto-pilot Meredith walked into the store, bought a bottle of white zinfindel, and walked back to her car. She got in and was about to pull away when the sound of bare knuckles on glass made her jump. Despite her fear Meredith put down the window.
"Hi, sorry to scare you but my car stalled about a mile back. You think I could get a ride?"
Meredith sighed, "You know what, I've had a really long day and I just want to get home. I have a cell phone if you'd like to call a cab."
The stranger shot her a suggestive look. "I've got a better idea,why don't we just go home together?"
"I don't think so." Meredith replied as she reached for the power window button and the door locks.
"C'mon, you know you want to..."
"Actually I don't," She said firmly as she reached one hand under the seat and felt the glass neck of the wine bottle.
As Meredith started the engine, the guy reached in the window as it was going up and grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on...Meredith's long blonde ponytail.
"Get the fuck out of the car, bitch!"
Meredith could only nod as fear took over. She tried to get a look at her surroundings. The parking lot was deserted. She opened the door widely as if she was going to step out but before she had a chance to hit her attacker with the car door he pulled her out roughly by the arm and then shoved her up against the car. Meredith held the bottle behind her back, waiting for the right moment to surprise him. He reached for ties on her scrub pants and Meredith swung the bottle at his face. The glass shattered, spraying wine on the pavement and Meredith herself, drawing blood from her assailant.
"Bitch!"
Meredith kicked him in the groin and he took a swing at her. The blow landed across her cheekbone. Then something solid struck
her temple and everything went black.
The emergency room at Grace was complete chaos when the main doors opened and paramedics ushered in a trauma victim.
"Twenty-eight year old female, found unconscious, severely beaten and possibly sexually assaulted." The paramedics shouted.
Dr. Bailey and Dr. Shepard appeared immediately flanked by Izzy and Christina.
"What do you see?" Bailey asked her interns.
"Blood loss, bruising and possible facial fractures." Christina answered.
Derek went into action, "Any i.d on her? Let's get an MRI !" At that moment he got a good look at the victim.
"Oh my God! It's Dr. Grey!"
"What?" Bailey shouted.
"It's Meredith Grey." Shepard repeated in a low tone.
For a moment everyone was silent save Izzy's gasp when she noticed the leopard print shoes on Meredith's feet.
"Why aren't any of you moving? The procedure for a trauma doesn't change just because it's one of our own! Let's go people!"
"And somebody page Webber. He knows how to get in touch with her mother."
While Christina and Shepard took the unconscious Meredith to MRI,Izzy went through Meredith's purse to see if anything had been stolen.
"That's weird." Izzy mused.
"What's weird?" George asked.
"Meredith's keys are gone, everything else is here, her wallet, credit cards, cash, but her keys are missing."
"You mean some psycho did that to Meredith just to steal her car?"
"That's what it seems like to me. Call the police and report it stolen."
There was nothing left for them to do except return to their other cases, even though their minds were on Meredith.
As Derek examined the results from Meredith's MRI and saw the swelling around her brain he couldn't help but wonder if there was anything he could've done to prevent this brutal attack. Rationally, he knew this was ridiculous of course but emotionally it was all he could think about.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Derek looked up to see Dr. Webber standing in the doorway.
"Did you reach Dr. Grey?"
"No, the number I have has been disconnected. We'll have to ask one of the interns to go through her things."
"I'll ask Stevens or O'Malley, they're Meredith's roommates."
Dr. Webber nodded and gave Derek a serious look as he glanced at the film. "What course of treatment would you pursue?"
"Leave the skull flap off until the pressure in her brain goes down. Then wait for her to regain consciousness. She's going to be fine."
"If she ever wakes up." Webber said solemnly.
"If she ever wakes up." Derek repeated barely letting his mind consider the possibility.
"Would you do it if this were any other patient?"
Derek ran his hands nervously through his dark hair, "What do you mean?"
Chief Webber smiled, "Don't play dumb with me Derek, I know you care for her."
"Yes, I do and I would do the procedure on any other patient in this condition."
"Glad to see you can be objective Dr. Shepard because you're going to scrub in on Meredith's procedure with Dr. Bailey, Burke and Yang in the OR right away."
Without another word Webber turned on his heel and left.
By the time Derek got to the OR, Christina, Burke, and Bailey were already waiting for him.
"Glad you could join us, Dr. Shepard." Bailey said sarcastically.
Derek ignored her and focused on Meredith's motionless form on the operating table. He wanted to cause the person who did this to her a world of pain.
"Did the rape kit come back yet?" He asked reaching for the electric razor to shave away the necessary portion of her blonde hair.
"Yeah, it was negative," Christina answered.
"If I know Grey, she wouldn't go down without a fight." Bailey said with satisfaction.
Remember to tell Meredith that she impressed Bailey.
"That's my girl." Derek whispered under his breath.
"What was that Dr. Shepard?" Christina asked even though she'd heard him clearly.
"I said that's our girl." Derek answered but he could see Christina's smile take shape beneath her surgical mask.
I'll have to tell Meredith that Dr. McDreamy called her 'his girl' Christina thought.
"Okay people, we're done here. Let's close up and page me once she's in recovery."
After scrubbing out of the OR Derek wandered the hospital seeing his patients until he crossed paths with Izzy.
"Dr. Stevens, you have a minute?"
"Sure, any news on Meredith?"
"That's what I needed to talk to you about. Can you get your hands on her address book? I'm still trying to contact Ellis Grey."
"I put her things in her locker. It seemed wrong somehow to keep them anywhere else. We're still waiting for the police to find her car."
"Keep me informed."
"Will do, Dr. Shepard. I've got a cardiac patient to see."
Derek passed by the locker room during rounds, forced open her locker. The space smelled faintly of her perfume. He inhaled deeply and rummaged through Meredith's purse His fingers brushed against her address book and he flipped through it until he located a number with "Mom" written next to it in Meredith's elegant script.
You'll have to learn to write messier if you want to be a doctor, Grey.
Curiosity got the best of him and he continued to search through the bag and he couldn't help but smile when he found a matchbook from the bar where they'd first.
Guess it was pretty memorable after all, he thought with a cocky grin. Satisfied with his discovery, Derek left the locker room to call Dr. Grey and waited uneasily for a page from recovery.
Before he could make the call he ran into Dr. Burke. We need you to assist on this trauma with a nod Derek followed Burke.
"What have we got?"
"Twenty-three year old male with excessive lacerations and blood loss. Paramedics said there were glass shards in the guy's face."
"Any i.d. on him?"
"All he had on him was a set of car keys."
Warning bells went off in Derek's mind. Izzy said Meredith's car was stolen.
"Burke call, Bailey and tell her this is the would-be rapist and then call the Seattle P.D. Page me the second that scum-bag is sutured up."
The phone rang twice before someone answered, "Seattle Institute for Extended Care. How may I help you?"
"I'm sorry, I must have a wrong number. I'm looking for Dr. Grey. This is Dr. Derek Shepard, I'm a neurosurgeon at Seattle Grace Memorial Hospital. I'm calling regarding her daughter Meredith."
Why in the hell would a surgeon like Ellis Grey be working at an extended care facility?
"We do have a patient here by that name but I'm afraid she's unable to carry on a coherent conversation. Miss Grey is suffering from the advanced stage of Alzheimer's disease."
" Are you sure? Dr. Ellis Grey?"
"That's correct Doctor."
"Thank you very much for your help."
Derek hung up the phone and was still trying to process this development when his pager sounded from the waistband of his scrubs.
The irony of the situation wasn't lost on Derek as he headed for the suture room and then recovery with thoughts of Meredith floating through his mind.
Ellis Grey is possibly the world's most famous doctor and she can't remember her own name.
His thoughts drifted again toward Meredith.
God, it must be killing her to show up at the hospital everyday and listen to the staff talk about her mother like she's The Second Coming when the truth was that Ellis Grey wasn't the same person that she'd been.
He'd been guilty of that himself.
Derek tries to maintain his composure as he walked into the suture room. The asshole that attacked Meredith was handcuffed to a gurney and moaning.
"Shut up," Derek said as he rattled the metal railing on the gurney. "The woman you attacked tonight is very important to me. She's a damn good doctor and because of that little stunt you pulled, she's at risk for extensive brain damage. We gave a report to the cops and as soon as you're out of here you'll be arrested for grand-theft auto and assualt. Have a nice life asshole."
He stepped into recovery, glanced at the monitors and flipped through her chart. Meredith was still unconscious but her blood pressure and other vitals were stable. Her face was swollen and bruised but it didn't diminish her beauty.
Derek sat in the chair at her bedside and didn't even noticed when his shift ended. Izzy passed through recovery on her way to the lobby.
"I came to check on Meredith before I went home. How is she?"
"Still, unconscious but the procedure went well."
"That's a good sign." Izzy said with a smile.
"Yeah it is."
"Hey, Dr. Shepard isn't your shift over?"
"Two hours ago but I'm going to sit with her."
"Did you get in touch with Dr. Grey?"
Derek nodded, "She's not coming."
"Why not?" Izzy asked.
What was it Meredith always said?
Then it came to him.
"She's travelling. Goodnight Dr. Stevens."
"Night Dr. Shepard. "
The critical post-operative period of seventy-two hours had nearly passed and Meredith had not yet regained consciousness. The hospital was in the midst of the night shift but luckily he wasn't on call and no one knew that he was still in the building.
"The cops arrested the punk who did this to you. I'm sorry you had to go through that."
He rose to his feet and kissed her bandaged forehead softly before he sunk into the chair exhausted.
When Derek awoke the lights in recovery had dimmed considerably but had not gone out. Meredith remained unconscious.
"You know I have four sisters. Very girly. Tons of kids. If I was in a coma, they'd all be here. I'd want them here. Having no one. I can't imagine that. I'm sorry to hear about your mother. I thought for sure she'd be here ordering all the surgeons around. She'd fly these cowboys in from Prague to do these amazing medical procedures."
"You know, I've been living here six weeks. I didn't know there were ferry boats. Now I have to like it here. Wasn't planning on liking it here. I'm from New York. Genetically engineered to dislike everywhere. Except Manhattan. I have a thing for ferry boats."
"So we're kissing but we're not dating? Don't get me wrong. I like the kissing. I'm all for the kissing. More kissing I say. "Is it going to happen again? Cause if it is, I need to bring breath mints. I've got a condom in my wallet."
His eyes drifted from Meredith to the machines as her heart rate spiked.
He was on his feet instantly, ready to call for a crash-cart if necessary.
"C'mon Grey I know you're in there somewhere. I already did all the hard work and I know for a fact that I did a hell of a job in the OR so all you've got to do is wake up."
"Meredith, can you hear me?"
She drifted into consciousness slowly and when she opened her eyes the florescent lights of the recovery room burned her retinas. Her throat was raw from intubation.
How long was she intubated?
Who had done the surgery?
And then realization dawned on her.
Of course it had to have been...
"Derek," Meredith whispered, as she tried to raise her head to take in her surroundings.
He smiled when he heard his name pass through her lips.
"Welcome back, I knew you'd find your way."
"My mother? Does everyone know? she asked in a sudden panic.
He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"I wanted to tell you but..."
"Meredith...Meredith...It's all right. No one else knows and I understand why you didn't tell me."
She smiled, "Have you been here all night?"
"Mmm hmm. Yep."
"Why?" She asked incredulously.
This handsome neurosurgeon had spent the night in recovery for her?
"I just didn't have anything better to do. "
He gave her a cocky, flirtatious grin and she held back laughter.
"Jackass."
"Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor, Dr Grey."
"One more thing...There was this baby up in the nursery. He's brand new. No one's neglected him or damaged him yet. How do we get from there to here?"
"I don't know Meredith I really don't. Get some rest."
"I'm not dating you and I'm definitely not sleeping with you again. You're my boss."
Derek smiled, "So, it's intense. This thing I have for ... ferry boats, I mean."
Finis