Title: How to Save a Life

Characters: Meredith, Derek, Cristina

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy or anything to do with it.

Author's Note: So I wrote this about a year and a half ago now, a long time before I ever started watching Grey's Anatomy. So if something seems out of place, or doesn't seem to fit a character that would probably be why. I just wanted more people to read it and to get some more opinions of it.

How to Save a Life

I would have stayed up with you all night

Prologue

Meredith Grey sat the phone back down on the receiver. She couldn't believe what she had just been told. Everything had been fine last night when they left the coffee shop. He told her everything was fine, and she of course believed him. He was, after all, her best friend. He wouldn't lie, not to her. At least that's what she thought.

Meredith sat herself down in the chair in the front foyer of her house. She ran a freshly manicured hand through her messy dark blonde hair. Staring down at her fuzzy blue slippers she began to wonder what went wrong. Where had she screwed up?

She had sat there for a good twenty minutes staring at her slippers before her best friend, Cristina Yang, who was staying with her since her mother was out of town again, came up to her.

"Hey Mere, what's up?"

Meredith shrugged her shoulders and stood up. She didn't really feel like talking.

"Is something wrong?" Cristina questioned.

"I don't feel like talking Cris. I'll be in my room." Meredith shuffled down the hardwood hallway toward her bedroom. As she reached her door she turned to face her friend. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll tell you everything."

Meredith entered her room and shut the door. She dragged herself over to her bed and toppled down onto it. As her body hit the bed the tears began to flow out of her. She racked her brain, trying to figure out what had happened after she left the coffee shop last night. It had to have been something terrible, it just had to have been.

Cristina stood rooted to the spot. She wasn't sure how long exactly she should give her friend. She knew something was up. Sure, Meredith wasn't known for being overly energetic and peppy. She was typically laid back and relaxed and nearly always had a smile on her face unless, of course, something was put out of place in the kitchen. That was Meredith's biggest pet peeve; she absolutely hated it when someone would put something out of the place she'd designated for it. Even the forks and spoons had to face the right ways in the drawer. Normally, Meredith would have the kitchen looking spotless and orderly before Cristina even opened her eyes in the morning. This morning though, the kitchen looked as messy and disorganized as it had the night before when Cristina went to bed. That was how she first knew something was up, then seeing her friend sitting blank-faced in the front hall, just confirmed that something was, indeed, wrong.

Meredith wiped away the tears on her face and clenched her back teeth together to stop herself from crying more. She needed to talk to someone. She needed to talk to her friend. Cristina would be there for her, she knew it. After all there is no better friend than your surrogate sister. Except for maybe him, but he's not around anymore.

"Cris," Meredith called. Her voice was still shaky from crying, but Cristina could hear it.

"Yeah?"

"You can come in now." Meredith opened the door to her bedroom and Cristina went in.

The two of them walked over to Meredith's bed and sat down.

Cristina started to shiver from the chill of Meredith's room. It was the middle of winter and Meredith had both of her windows wide open, her fan going full blast, and the air conditioning on high. "Why is it so cold in here?" Cristina asked, her teeth chattering violently.

"It feels better this way," Meredith stated. Her voice was as void of emotion as her face. "You can wrap up in my blankets if you want to."

Cristina tugged on Meredith's comforter, pulled it up around her shoulders, and wrapped it around her body. "So Mere," Christina started, "what's wrong?"

Meredith sighed; this was going to be harder than she'd originally thought it would be. "Well, you know how I've been dating Derek."

"Oh my God! Did he break up with you? That bastard! I'm going to kill—"

"Cristina!" Meredith interrupted. "Just listen okay? I just need you to listen right now." Tears were beginning to well up behind her eyes again. She sucked in a long breath of the crisp air, letting the cold penetrate her lungs. Can I do this? she wondered to herself.

"Okay, I'll listen," Cristina said quietly.

"Good," Meredith said nodding. "Good," she repeated in a whisper Cristina barely heard.

Meredith took another deep breath and rose from her seat on the bed. She walked over to the window and stared at the snow piling up on the ground. It was a typical Thursday morning, during Christmas break in Fort Collins, Colorado. All except for one thing: this morning Meredith's heart was broken in a million tiny pieces and she felt like it could never be repaired.

"Derek had been going through a really rough time," Meredith began. "After his sister killed herself, his parents began fighting a lot. They finally decided it would be best if they got a divorce. Everything was finalized last week."

"Mere, I know all this." Derek's family, the Grey's, and the Yang's had always been good friends.

"Just listen, okay Cris?"

Cristina nodded. "Sorry, continue."

"On Friday we were given our report cards for the past semester; Derek hadn't done to well. Given everything that has happened lately it wasn't unexpected and it was totally understandable. His parents didn't think so though. They were both pissed as usual. They're both just mad at the world, I think. He felt like his world was falling apart and he was convinced I would leave him because of it. So, last night he phoned me to break up with me, but I wouldn't let him; not over the phone at least. If he really wanted to break up with me, he had to do it in person. I told him that we'd meet and the Starbucks and we would talk."