Meredith Grey looked around the scenery of Seattle Grace Hospital, the large trees, gardens and pretty bushes all designed to distract you from the real reason you were here, to maybe give you a second of peace and calm before entering the building where both God and Satan resided. It seemed strange to Meredith that in one building, there could be such a wide variety of humanity that both life, and death, occurred here. It was a strange place, hospitals. As she stared around the lawn, taking in the people running from the rain in which she was rather enjoying, a sudden thought struck her. She was playing God. Maybe people that were supposed to die she ended up saving, and people that were supposed to live slipped through her grasp before she could help them, before their time had come. How come millions of people all over the world were being charged with murder, and here they were, doctors, holding both life and death in their hands, and hardly ever being second guessed when something went wrong, when the patients heart stopped beating and their life came to an end?

She brushed a stray piece of wet, sticky hair from her eyes and went about her thoughts, watching contently as ambulances came and went, delivering their patients and moving on. It sometimes strained her to move on, to not get emotionally attached to the people in which they trusted in her with their lives, to carry on about her day without giving them so much as a second thought. But that was what she was trained to do. To treat her patients one by one, diagnosing them, treating them, then moving on to the next one. If they died ... well, then they died. Get over it.

But for Meredith it wasn't that simple sometimes. A lot of the time actually. How could you not feel for a six-year old girl with a brain tumor given only three months to live? This was Meredith's newest case, forced to work with Dr. Derek Shepherd. It was hard not to get attached to the little girl who always had a smile on her innocent features, despite the fact that she only had a few little wisps of auburn hair left on her head, dark circles under her bright blue eyes, and skin that hung loosely to her every rib.

Meredith stubbornly pushed the thoughts of the little girl behind, getting up from her spot on the bench, her eyes fully adjusted to the three a.m. darkness. She had been off shift for an hour and yet, despite the fact that she knew she should be at home getting all the rest she could, she had decided to sit on the cold, hard bench, letting the hard Seattle rain soak her from head to toe. Solemnly she walked down the front walk of the main entrance to the hospital, slowly making her way to her car.

"Meredith!" she heard a voice cry from somewhere behind her. She slowly wheeled around, not all that curious about who was wanting her attention despite the fact that Izzie, Cristina, George and Alex had all left until morning. But by the time she had turned around, the person who had called out her name was one of the last she had expected. He had finally caught up to her and they stood there, face to face, the rain dripping off both their noses.

"I thought you left an hour ago?" Derek Shepherd said, running the backside of his hand along the tip of his nose to rid it off the raindrops.

"I ... I did," Meredith tumbled out, wondering where this conversation was going and why he was talking to her. It didn't seem to be leading to the only case they shared.

"Then why are you still out here? You're soaked," he said, trying to hide the concern he felt.

Meredith looked down to her jeans and sweater, both of which were sodden with rain. "Ya. I guess I am," she said simply.

"Why are you still here?" he asked again.

"What does it matter to you?" Meredith asked coldly, turning away and continuing her walk to her car. But he followed and persisted, much to Meredith's dismay.

"Meredith just because I chose Addison," he said, taking a slight pause, "Doesn't mean that I stopped caring for you. I was just wondering why you were still out here if your shift ended an hour ago. A simple concern and I thought I might check it out," he finished.

"Well you didn't have to. I can take care of myself," she said, her voice filled with bitter resentment. But through her mutinous tone he could hear the hurt and pain that she had masked.

"Are you alright?" he asked, picking up his pace to keep up with her increasingly brisk walking.

"I'm fine. Now if you don't mind I need to get home. I have to be back here in," she lifted up her left wrist and glanced at her watch, "two hours. Goodnight Dr. Shepherd."

She made her tone final, decisive, and he got the idea that she wanted to be left alone.

"Goodnight Dr Grey," he concluded with an equally professional tone. With a turn on his heel, Derek walked back towards Seattle Grace, stopping behind a giant oak tree a safe distance away to make sure that she got safely into her car and drove off. No matter what she believed, Derek Shepherd would always have a place in his heart for Meredith Grey.

XXXXXXXXXX

Meredith drove rather hastily down one of Seattle's busiest streets, her tears clouding over her eyes, the rain making it even harder to see through the windshield. The hazy colour of green could be seen blurrily about where the streetlight should have been and Meredith ploughed on, driving her car through the intersection. There was a sickening crunch of metal hitting metal and Meredith was whipped sideways from her seat, the impact of the car hitting right beside her causing severe damage from the seatbelt to her ribs; the second round of whiplash causing her head to jerk forward, and in a blinding white light, her head smashed through the windshield.

XXXXXXXXXX

Derek was sincerely looking forward to going home, crawling into his bed, and leaving behind all the drama of the hospital, at least until his return the next morning. But as he headed towards the parking lot where his vehicle lay waiting, his pager went off. He sighed and tilted his back in frustration before plunging his hand deep into his pocket and pulling it out. 911 from Webber. Derek sighed, inwardly cursing the small, black box that prevented him from going home and headed reluctantly back inside, walking hastily to Webber's office.

"You rang?" he asked, walking into the chief's office who was bustling about distractedly.

"Yes, Shepherd I did. I know that you're off duty but I really need you here. Car accident off Huntington Way. Twenty-five year old female broadsided by a drunk-driver who ran a red light. Three fracture ribs, definite internal bleeding and, here's where you come in, massive trauma to the head. It went through the front windshield. Seatbelt stopped the body from following. She's probably going to need immediate surgery. I have Bailey on it and she's called in all her interns. She's in prep room four. I'll book OR 2 just in case." he finished in a huff.

"Well what are you waiting for?" the chief asked, wondering why Derek was still standing there, "She's not gonna fix herself," he called through his office door to Derek's retreating back.

XXXXXXXXXX

Miranda Bailey stood over the battered body of one of her interns, wondering how on earth his could of happened to the girl who's whole future had been at her fingertips. Not originally knowing that it was Grey who had been involved in the collision, Bailey had called in all her interns, hoping that they could get some extremely valuable experience from this case. But now as she stood over the young woman who's face bore no signs of trauma but who's lower torso was un-imaginably bruised and who's back of the head bore a hole the size of a tennis ball, she regretted calling in her interns who would have to see their peer, their co-worker, and above all else their friend, in such a condition. As she began to ponder what their reactions might be, her thought were interrupted by four of her interns walking in.

"Meredith never came home and we don't know where she is," George said, walking into the room but not taking a second to look at the patient along with everyone else. "Hopefully she got the page."

"I think I can guarantee that Grey won't be coming in tonight," Bailey said, a somber expression on her features. She moved slightly to the side so she was no longer blocking the view of Meredith's face. Izzie gasped.

"That's not ... that's not," she stuttered, not wanting to accept the fact that it was, indeed, Meredith laying in the bed. "No way," she sadly whispered. Izzie walked over to her bed, pulling up a stool and sitting down, looking into Meredith's expressionless face that simply looked as though she was sleeping. The rest of the interns all gathered around, simply not wanting to believe that one of their own had fallen, that they were not, as many seemed to believe, immortal and untouchable.

"What's everyone standing around for?" a voice asked from the doorway of the room, commenting on the fact that they were all standing there, staring into Meredith's face. "We've got lives to save. Webber said this patient had extreme head trauma and we need to get a move on," he continued, not seeming to notice that all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Bailey was the first to respond.

"Nu uh," she said, moving from her spot by Meredith's bed and over to Shepherd, placing her hands on both his shoulders and pushing him gently from the room. "We'll get another neurosurgeon. You can't be on this case."

But he held his ground and refused to be pushed out of the room. "What's going on here guys? Why can't I tend to my patient?"

"Because this isn't just any patient," Alex said, causing Izzie to give him a quick slap on the arm.

It had finally clicked to Derek that it had something to do with the patient and nothing to do with his doctoring skills. "Where's Meredith?" he asked slowly, rather dreading the answer but not actually letting the possibility that she was his patient to register through his mind.

The interns that were blocking Dr Shepherd's view moved aside and he took a step forward, looking for the first time into the face of the patient that he had gotten the distinct impression from Webber that she wasn't going to make it. Derek felt all the slack from his jaw vanish and the floor seemed to have slipped out from under him as he stared into the gentle face of Meredith Grey.