All of the Seattle were asleep in their beds save for the staff of Seattle Grace. More particularly, Derek Shephard, Meredith Grey, Alex Karev and Izzie Stevens. Derek and Izzie were gathered in the empty rooms, much to the majority of their annoyance, tending to Meredith and Alex. Derek had chosen to take a night off considering all was quiet, and allow himself the rare blessing of an early night. It was just typical that this was the night that Meredith and Alex decided to get drunk and start placing bets
Derek had learned before that the bets they placed when they were drunk included pain and embarrassment, and occasionally, noisy tears. This was not an exception.
Derek stood in the centre, and had Meredith sat down on the edge of the bed. He was applying some peroxide to a nasty looking cut on her forehead. He had already given Alex a piece of gauze to hold to the small, but still bleeding cut on his forehead. Luckily, neither of them would need stitches as they were just very large and nasty grazes. Alex was sat down on another bed just to the side, clearly sulking, and Izzie stood watch around him, making sure that he didn't run off.
"Honestly, Mer." Derek complained into the silence of the room, which was only broken occasionally with a hiccup. "Will you do anything for a bet?"
"Depends what the bet is." She said, not even wincing at the peroxide cleaning her wound. She was very drunk, Derek could see that because she was crossing her eyes trying to follow the hands on her forehead.
"What was the bet?" He asked her. She had revealed what she had done, but hadn't explained why. He wondered whether it was because it was something completely stupid, or because it was something personal. Meredith wasn't one to make bets, especially with Alex. This was something that only happened over something catalytic combining with tequila.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She said, suddenly becoming very seductive. Izzie burst into quiet laughter as Meredith leaned forward and tried to kiss Derek, but he didn't even notice because he had already turned to Alex.
"How much did you give her to drink?" He asked, getting irritated very easily now with the state that he had gotten her in.
Alex avoided Derek's stare. For some reason, when mildly drunk, he behaved like a scolded child. "...A little.."
"Karev!" Derek cried out.
"Couple of little bottles." He revealed, pinching his fingers together to show how 'little' they were.
"A couple of bottles?" Derek said loudly. "Karev, she's completely intoxicated!"
"I am not!" Meredith protested like a child.
"Mer, sit still, or you'll start the bleeding again." Derek told her, his hands straitening her shoulders so that she wouldn't move again.
This was a mistake. Feeling, in her drunken state, like she was being told off, her bottom lip started to tremble. Derek had only seen her this drunk once before, and started to recall that evening. She got very touchy when she was drunk, in both senses of the word.
"Mer-" He started, trying to repair the damage he had made.
"Why are you so mad at me all the time?" She exploded, bursting into loud cries.
"Mer-" He tried again.
"I was just trying to have some fun. I need a release!" She said, her voice going very high-pitched.
"Mer-"
"Do you know how hard it is to have some fun around here?"
"Mer, your head's-"
"Not like I can just go shopping anymore, is it? Oh no, not now we're interns! And I can't exactly come to you for fun. You're always busy! Too busy to go to Joe's, too busy to talk to people." She burst into drunken tears. "Too busy for me!"
Derek sighed. "Mer, it's been crazy recently, but I'm never too busy for you." He tried to tell her, but, still crying, she was having none of it.
"Yes you are!" She contradicted. "Tell me, Derek! What did I do to make you so mad at me?"
"You didn't do anything." He assured her.
"Then why aren't you talking to me like you used to?"
Derek sighed, again. She was completely hammered. He definitely hadn't seen her this drunk before. In fact, he was starting to think that the only person he had seen this drunk before was his uncle. "Meredith, it's the middle of the night." He told her calmly. "No, scratch that," He added, catching sight of his watch. "It's 2.30 in the morning, and not that it really matters, but it's a Sunday morning, and I've got two people brought to me with head wounds, and one of them is stone cold drunk. It's supposed to be my night off!"
Meredith calmly and quietly looked at him, then she turned her gaze to Alex, and then looked back at Derek, dropping her voice to a loud whisper. "Der, I think you should go easy on him. He's not that drunk." She said, earning more laughs from Izzie.
"I'm talking about you, Meredith." Derek told her.
"I'm not drunk neither!" She insisted, her voice raising an octave or ten again. Derek fixed her with a glare, and she surrendered. "Okay, maybe a little...but it was Alex's fault."
"Was not!" Alex called over.
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Guys, keep it down." Izzie scolded them. "There are patients in this hospital trying to sleep."
Alex scoffed. "Well, sooooo-rrrrrrry."
"Karev, shut up." Derek scolded.
Meredith laughed. "Ooooo, you're in trouble." She teased.
"Meredith, stop encouraging him." Derek said to her tiredly.
Meredith hung her head, sulking at also being told off, and Alex laughed. "Ooooo...you're in trouble, too!" He teased her.
Derek turned to Alex. "Alex, what did I just say?"
"Shutting up." He said, going back into his own little world.
Derek turned back to Meredith. "Mer, listen to me. No, don't look at the floor. Me." She raised her head. "That's it. Good. Look at me, and listen to me. Now, I need you to sit still for a while. No, don't look at me like that." He said to her pout. "Sit still, and DON'T touch your head. If you do, then the bleeding will start again and - Meeeredith!" He moaned.
She pulled her hand away, and looked at the blood on her fingertips. She smiled and shrugged childishly. "Oops."
"I'll give you 'oops'." Derek muttered under his breath as he retrieved another piece of gauze.
"What was that?" Meredith asked.
"Nothing." He lied.
"You're doing it again!" She complained, and her bottom lip started to tremble.
"I'm not being horrible, Meredith." He assured her. "I just need you not to touch your head, otherwise we'll be here all night."
She frowned, looking rather heartbroken. "Don't you want to be here all night with me?" She asked in a tiny whisper.
Alex leaned over to Izzie. "Dude, we should get them both drunk." He suggested. "They'll probably tell each other everything."
"Mer, I-"
"Why don't you want to be with me?" She asked. "I try so hard to just get you to look my way once in a while. Not much to ask for! Why can't I do anything right with you? Everything I do just makes you mad!" She said, now shouting rather loudly.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down." Derek said soothingly, one hand on her shoulder to try and calm her.
"I am calm!" She shouted.
"You're not calm, you're shouting." He pointed out to her.
"Sorry...I'm having trouble controlling THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE!" She said, shouting as loud as she could.
How car alarms didn't start blaring and babies in the peads ward two floors above start crying, it was a wonder, because they even heard birds scattering from the window ledge at her noise. Alex burst out laughing, but Derek ignored him, waiting for Meredith's outburst to end before starting again to calm her.
"Meredith, was there really any need for that?" He asked her.
She shrugged. "Got you to notice me, didn't it?" She showed him.
Derek turned to Izzie. "It's okay." He told them. "I can take it from here."
"Ooooo...someone's getting some action!" Alex teased.
Derek turned directly Izzie again and nudged in Alex's direction. "Make sure he gets into an on call room to sleep this off...do NOT let him leave."
Izzie nodded. "No problem." And together, the two left, leaving Derek and Meredith alone in the lab.
He turned back to her, seeing the sad look she was giving him. "What is this really about, Mer?" He asked her.
"What is this really about, Derek?" She asked back.
He sighed, running his hand over his head. "Something I can't understand is why someone as level headed as you would try and walk along the edge of the hospital's roof. How did you get up there anyway?" He said, awaiting an explanation.
Meredith shrugged. "It was just a game." She told him.
"Meredith, you were at least eighty feet above the ground." He told her.
She shrugged again, and quieter this time, said: "Was just a game."
"You're a horrible liar when you're drunk, you know that?" He said, giving her a gentle smile that she didn't return. "Meredith, you were drunk. You could have knocked yourself out. You could have fallen. You could have killed yourself!"
"If I did...would you have missed me?" She asked him.
"God, Meredith! You don't have to hurt yourself to get my attention." He told her.
"Yes, I do." She said quietly.
"Why do you think that?" He asked her, dropping his voice again.
"Because I've hurt myself, and it's the first time in a week that I've been alone with you." She said, and Derek realised that she was right. "Just missed you, that's all." She added.
"Why didn't you just say so?" He asked her.
"Because you weren't there. Only Alex was." Now he was starting to feel bad, because as drunk as she was, she was completely right. "He noticed I was down, gave me some drinks, and then he said that if I could walk around the edge of the entire building then he wouldn't tell you that I was in love with you." She remembered.
"Oh, Mer." He said, and she looked down again, ashamed of her actions. "Wait a minute," He added. "How did Alex get a head wound if you were the only one doing that?" He asked her.
"When I realised how much it hurt slipping off the wall and hitting my head on the ground, I threw a rock at him because he was laughing." She told him, not changing her tone of voice at all.
Derek let out a small laugh. "What am I going to do with you?" He asked her, stroking her hair down on one side.
"I don't know, Derek, what are you going to do?" She asked him seriously.
Derek bit his lip, hesitating for a second, but then speaking once again. "Well, I could kiss you, but you wouldn't remember in the morning. Or I could take you into the nearest on-call room and have my wicked way with you, and you'd wake up in the morning, realise what happened, and would kill me. Or, again, you wouldn't remember. Or, I could do nothing at all, and just walk away."
Meredith nodded, still looking at the ground. "I vote for the wicked way option, that sounds great." She told him.
"But instead," He continued, as if he hadn't heard her. "I'm just going to hold you, because it sounds like you just need a good hug?"
"Doctor Shepherd's orders?" She asked.
"Doctor Shepherd's orders." He nodded.
He leaned forward, taking her in his arms and she slowly leaned forward into his embrace. He held her gently, rubbing his hands up and down her back to soothe her until he heard her sigh gently.
"Mer?" He asked.
"You're comfy. Sleep now." She mumbled tiredly.
"No, come on, lets get you to a bed first." He insisted.
She shook her head against him. "No, sleep here. You're comfy."
Derek gave in, as she had no intention of moving, and put his arms underneath her, lifting her into his arms. He carried her out of the room, and into an on call room, yet when he made to set her in the bed, she didn't let go of him, so he was forced to lay down beside her. He smiled softly as, almost like a child, she turned and cuddled up against him, and closed her eyes whilst she spoke.
"Derek?"
"Yeah?"
"You staying?" She asked him.
"Yeah." He assured her.
"Okay. Derek?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm hungry." She complained.
"We'll get you something in the morning." He told her.
"Okay. Derek?"
"Yeah?"
"My head hurts." She complained in what sounded like a whimper.
He stroked down her hair, careful not to let his hand wander over her aching graze. "That's because you fell off the edge of the roof." He told her.
"Okay. Derek?"
This time, he let out a tiny laugh at her repetitiveness. "Yeah?"
"Love you." She murmured, pressing her face into his chest. "Really do." She added.
If she hadn't been so drunk, he would have poured his heart out to her, and because she was drunk, he expected that she might have done the same if she wasn't so tired. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her properly, to take her in his arms for real and kiss her and kiss her until nothing else mattered. He knew, though, that there was little chance of her remembering much in the morning, so he just smoothed her hair again, latched his arms tighter around her, and kissed the unharmed side of her forehead.
"Love you too, Mer." He whispered, as she shuffled in his arms before settling into a deep sleep with a smile on her lips.
----
"Do we have to do this?" Meredith moaned.
"Yes, both of you." Derek insisted.
"But Deeeeerek." She groaned, tugging on his hand to get him to stop walking. "I'm tired. My head hurts. I feel sick-"
"Meredith-"
"I just want to curl into a ball and die." She complained dramatically.
He fixed her with a firm stare. "You're doing this."
"She has a point you know." Alex piped up from Derek's other side as they stopped walking beside the nurses station.
Derek glared at him. "The reason she's hung over it because of you." He accused him.
Alex rolled his eyes. "This is ridiculous."
"You're doing it." Derek told him.
"But-"
"Do it." He ordered sternly.
Alex looked at her, back at Derek, and then back to Meredith, before down at his feet where he kicked the corner of the nurses station counter. "I'm sorry I made you walk around the edge of the roof." He apologized, half-heartedly.
"Okay." Derek nodded, satisfied with Alex's apology. "Meredith?"
"I'm sorry the rock I threw didn't give you an anuerism."
"Meredith!" Derek scolded.
"What?" She asked, wondering what she had said wrong. "It's the truth."
"Meredith." He warned.
"Okay, okay." She sighed. "I'm sorry I threw a rock at your head. And that it didn't give you an anuerism." Derek raised an eyebrow at her. "But mainly the first part." She added hastily at his stare.
"Okay, good." Derek nodded again.
"Can I go now?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, you can." Derek allowed, and Alex stalked off cursing under his breath. Derek turned to Meredith. "Now, was that so bad?"
She nodded. "Yes. It was." She told him. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to my precious on calll room. I'm severely hung over, and need lots of dark space and quiet."
Meredith stalked off to the on-call room she'd collapsed in last night, in much the same fashion as Alex had, but in a different direction. Derek watched her go, and despite her grumbling, he had to admit that he had fallen for her all over again.
Probably as hard as she had fallen off the wall.