"Do you find it ironic at all that I gave my father a portion of my liver?" she asked, watching Derek change into his pajamas.
She had another week of bed rest to go, and though she was dying to get back to the hospital, her body still felt weak and tired. The walk downstairs to feed herself three times a day was all that she could manage. She found herself wishing that Izzie were there so that she could be taken care of, in the way that she had been after her appendectomy.
While she lay in bed, staring at the tumor diagram, and contemplating her exhaustion, she
had made a mental list of all of the reasons why she would have never believed that she would be in this position. The number of times that she and Sadie had said: "there goes my liver" was very high up on it.
"Ironic in which sense? Because, I think we've gone over all of the 'what did he ever give up for me?' questions already," Derek responded, sitting on the bed.
She scooted closer to him, resting her head on his chest. "Yeah," she agreed. "We have." His cotton pajama top wrinkled under her fingers as she ran a hand over his chest. She shivered a little when he began playing with her hair, but her thoughts would not be distracted. "It's just… I mean, they did all the screening, and my liver was surprisingly okay. Just… Well, if alcoholism is genetic, then I got my proclivity for tequila from him."
"You're not an alcoholic," Derek pointed out.
She snorted. "Not now. You didn't know me in college. Besides, Lexie and I bonded over tequila and dancing it out in my living room. There is a lot of ironic going on here."
"Yeah, there is," he acknowledged. "You said it all yourself, though, when you decided to do this. It's not about the past. That Meredith has grown up, just like the Meredith who was abandoned by him. The Meredith I am married to doesn't drown her problems. Though, she does look very cute with a glass of wine," he added, kissing her forehead. "It's okay, Meredith."
She didn't know why that phrase made something in her chest relax, but it did. Whatever she had done in the past, it had not affected her donating her liver to her estranged father. It had not stopped her falling in love and getting married. She had a good career, great friends and a life that she would have never dreamed she had. The irony didn't matter.
She smiled, and then made Derek jump when she burst out laughing.
"What?"
"You're probably not gonna get it," she said, when she collected herself. "I've just watched a lot of TV this week, and…."
"And what?"
She shook her head, then muttered, "Don't 'blame it on the ah-ah-ah-alcohol.'"
He stared at her for a second, and then chuckled. "It's a good thing I'm fired. I'm going to get you out of the house tomorrow."