A/N: Welcome to… my new fic! I know what some of you may be thinking. "Wow, she's in way over her head." Well, I just might be. This fic will add to Secrets, and Blur (which is currently on hiatus) but this idea just wouldn't get out of my head. Basically, it's a slightly AU Meredith and Derek fic. You'll see what happens as you read, and I'll explain a little more after. Please give it a chance! Reviews would be fantastic, it'd help me get this story up and running!

Summary: Workaholic Meredith Grey meets, under unfortunate circumstances, easy going, free spirited Derek Shepherd. Work is all she thinks about. Work is what got her into a mess. So, is it really true that chemicals react? Do opposites really attract?

Clasping the steering wheel tighter, Meredith Grey looked at her watch. It was already 8:15. That meant it was well past the time her meeting was going to start. Meredith Grey, the overachiever, the workaholic, the perfectionist, was going to be late. Her fingers began to tap in a nervous rhythm as she clutched the steering wheel even tighter. The rhythmic tapping wasn't easing her nerves.

Across from her, the traffic light was a mocking shade of vibrant red.

Tap, tap, tap.

Meredith Grey was about to have the biggest meeting of her life. A meeting so important, it could change the entire direction of her career… her career she had worked her entire life to work on, to build up, to help. She depended on this meeting… this meeting that started five minutes ago.

Some people- including some of her friends- called her a workaholic. To Meredith, that wasn't a threat, and it certainly wasn't an insult. It came with an unintended sense of dry pride, the kind that came with props; like being able to brag to her friends that she was finally an attending.

But, could she become an attending if she ever got to her meeting?

No.

Tap, tap, tap.

How long was that light going to last? Was it there to torment, to mock her? To make her sit there, staring in a maddening rush against time that she knew she couldn't win? Work was her life. Without work, what would she ever have accomplished? Nothing, that was what.

Her cell phone blinked and beeped in a monotone ring from her pocket, and in frustration, she dug it out rapidly. The dim caller ID displayed Bailey. She groaned internally. Her boss.

Tap, tap, tap.

She didn't pick up in fear she'd get a lecture, an unforgiving, angry, what-did-you-do lecture, but she let it go to voicemail. Waiting for the confirmation that she got a new message was one of the longest waits she'd had to suffer through in a while. Then, in a rapid tap, she began to shoot what she'd hope would be a successful text to her, explaining why she was late and why she couldn't talk. No texting and driving, she thought to herself.

She paused, looking down at her small screen. Should she do it? Bailey was stubborn, in a maddening way that showed she couldn't, and wouldn't, be messed with. What would happen if she didn't respond? What if she was bumped down again? That couldn't happen… She shrugged rapidly and continued typing. Before she could realize what she was doing, her small foot began to press down on the pedal. It was a gentle, small movement at first, barely making a difference. Her eyes were focused on the small screen of her blackberry, her eyes blocking out anything else. Without knowing it, her foot pressed downward a little more, weight shifting more, pushing on the pedal a little harder.

And that was all it took.

Her foot had pressed too hard, something she did my impulse when she was stressed, and she felt a jolt of energy as the car rocketed forward. Before she could react to the quick and unsettling movement, she heard something. A large crash exploded in her ears and she dropped her cell phone to the ground, trying to grasp what was going on. Everything was moving too quick, edges blurred, colors mashed together.

The car moved to the right with a fast move, a jolt, an angry bolt filled with power. Her whole body swayed and she felt her arm twist uncomfortably, stuck behind her. There was the sound of a puff and the airbag in front of her exploded open, expanding right before she was shoved into the steering wheel. She could barely make out the image of her windshield cracking into a puzzling spider web in front of her. She panted, gasping for air as she craned her neck. Sirens screamed in the background. Her head was fuzzy, but she could remember what happened.

An accident. She had caused an accident.

She bit her lip and flexed her fingers. They moved. She wiggled her leg as much as she could. They moved. Her head throbbed, but not in a nerve-inducing way. She let out a sliver of a sigh that escaped her lips, content that she seemed okay enough. She blinked as she heard muffled shouts of people outside of the car, partially blocked by sirens. With trembling fingers she tried to undo her seatbelt, fumbling to click the red button downwards. Where was it? She searched with unsteady hands until she found it, pressing down on the button firmly. The click confirmed it as she wriggled her way out, letting a sigh escape her lips again. Her airbag was shoved up against her, and she tried to wriggle loose. It was hard, but she still had strength. Thank goodness.

"Ma'am, don't try to move," A low, husky voice came from beside her. She craned her neck, and it was a firefighter and a paramedic. The firefighter was inspecting the damage to her car, and the paramedic was talking to her. His voice was dipped low, "You best wait. We don't know what kind of damage you've done."

She was reluctant, but sighed, "Okay, okay. Fine,"

"You're talking, ma'am. That's a good sign," The paramedic reassured her.

"I know I'm talking," She snapped. Then added, "I'm a doctor. Surgeon, actually," Her heart skipped a beat. Her meeting.

"Oh, well you seem like you're going to be fine." Besides the husky guy paramedic, a small woman ran up to him, her feet pounding against the pavement. Meredith could smell burnt rubber.

"Can't say the same for the other guy," The woman whispered nervously, taking gloves out of the truck and snapping them on. Meredith's heart pounded.

"Other guy? What… what other guy?" A small voice in her head taunted her, mocking, you did this. You did this.

"Oh. The other man in the accident. He's not looking so good," She said flatly, yanking out a box of med supplies before fleeing off. Meredith felt a wave of nausea sweep upon her instantly. Numbness crept along her feet. Other guy? It was all her fault.

Instantly, she forgot the meeting. She forgot about herself. She forgot about everything. Shoving the airbag away from her she pushed her way out of the car, her head throbbing, her heart pounding inside of her chest. Pent-up air in her lungs whooshed out and she ran to the other side of the car, all while the paramedic yelled at her to stay where she was. Thoughts buzzed and her vision blurred, nervous tears sprouting before she could tell them not to.

When she got to the other side, she felt weak. Her car… her precious car… was completely totaled on the other side. The passenger seat was completely pressed in, and the entire side was crushed under the blow of the other car. Her car was destroyed, that she knew. But something like guilt made her weaker than she had been before.

The other car.

The other car- a beautiful Mazda- was smashed. The front of it that had nailed her metal beast was scrunched up to half it's size, mimicking something like an accordion. The metal was bent and deformed, and both front wheels had popped instantly on contact. Smoke paraded, billowing from the front of the car, and people were flooded around it. Meredith could barely make out the shape of a medium sized man being pulled from inside.

He was flopped over the steering wheel with no airbag, unconscious. Nothing moved. His chest was distorted, ribs obviously bent and broken, and his head was bleeding slightly. His left arm was bent oddly, and his windshield had cracked and the glass cascaded down on top of him. They had managed to get his distorted door open, but they were stuggling to get him out of the entanglement of metal around his seat. His black hair was matted to his face.

Meredith suddenly didn't care about work, she didn't care about anything except that man in the car. Her head was pounding, and intangible guilt filled her body, reducing her to a sobbing mess. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably. Had she killed this man? This young, innocent man, who was now flopped over like a fish? The paramedics pulled and flexed, finally releasing him from the smoke filled wreck. He was twisted, looking broken. Meredith felt two hands on her shoulders, guiding her away from the wreckage. It was the large paramedic. "Ma'am, you can't be over here. You need to get to the hospital to be checked out, you could be in shock,"

Meredith shook her head, trying to pry herself away as she saw the man being plopped onto a stretcher, "No! I need to m-make sure he's o-okay,"

"Listen, we can take you to the same hospital as him, okay? We just need to check you out to confirm you don't have any internal injuries. The doctors will update you as soon as we're done, but we need to get out of here. Come on," Meredith sniffled, watching as the ambulance that carried the poor man sped off, sirens blaring into the streets as it zoomed away rapidly.

Reluctantly, she agreed. "Fine," She murmured. "What hospital?" They began walking to the other ambulance, as she peeked back to see firefighters working on the smoking mess of tangled metal. She winced.

"It was going to be Seattle Grace, but Seattle Presbyterian is closer," The man responded, helping her onto a stretcher. She lay there as they placed her throbbing head into a firm brace. She was slightly grateful. That meant she couldn't have to face any of her collegues. Groaning, she shut her eyes, guilt ridden and horrified but what had happened in nothing but a blink of an eye.

X X X

"It was horrible, Ryan!" She cried into her phone. The uncomfortable pastel waiting room chairs of Seattle Presbyterian squeaked underneath her as she shifted her weight. Her free hand was clasped around the bar of the chair, as if hanging on for dear life. "He just looked so… so… I don't know!"

"It's okay, Meredith," Ryan, Meredith's stone-faced boyfriend, replied coolly, but there was a hint of frustration in his voice. He hadn't been happy with her call about what had happened.

"What if he died? What if he died and it's my fault?" Meredith gasped again, weakly clutching onto the handle tighter. People were beginning to look at her, eyes searching her weak form. After getting out of the uncomfortable examination she was waiting for news on the man that had hit her.

She could here a scraggly, frustrated sigh on the other end. "I don't know. Now, how much did the insurance say they'd pay for?" Meredith gasped against her will. A man, who could be dead because of a mistake she made, was in critical condition in surgery. And her boyfriend just cared about insurance? A chill echoed through her body.

"I don't know, Ryan," She said icily, wiping at her cheeks madly.

"Okay. Meredith, this is going to be a boatload of money…" He moaned into the phone. She felt anger beginning to boil inside of her.

"It just may be. But Ryan, he~"

"I've got to go, Meredith. I've got a cardio case in the pit. We'll discuss this later, bye," Click.

Meredith stared at her phone like a zombie, her eyes completely filled with frustration. She had been sitting in the uncomfortable waiting room for almost three hours, waiting for any sort of news. She hadn't gotten any, though, and the thoughts that swarmed her were making her sick. She plopped her head in her hands and moaned.

She had missed her meeting by hours now. Her meeting that was supposed to determine the course of her career… and she had missed it. It was her fault, and now she had not only fines to pay, but the possibility of jail time… She shuddered. She still hadn't told the police about what had happened. The only person who had seen it were her and the other man. A thick blob of tears rose in her throat again, and she let out a shaky gasp. What had she gotten herself into?

She wasn't going to lie- Meredith Grey wasn't a liar. She would avoid it, though, as long as possible. And she knew that it was a weakness of hers.

"Miss Grey?" A nurse from the front called out to her, her honey-rich voice dipping low and sweet like a melody. "Miss Grey?" She called again.

Meredith shook her head to attention, "Oh, uh, yes. And it's doctor Grey," She stood up, her legs trembling fiercely, and she walked up to the front. She felt like all eyes were scanning her, boring into the back of her head. Especially after that phone call. The nurse swung the door open, and a burst of cool air came into Meredith. Her gulped it down, savoring the oxygen.

"Okay. Dr. Grey, the patient, Dr. Derek Shepherd, is asking for you," The nurse chimed. Meredith had butterflies in her stomach- and they weren't fluttering. They were more like kicking. Or doing an angry mess of karate moves.

"He is?" She murmured, than shook her head, "Wait, he's okay?"

"Yeah. The recovery will be long and extremely hard, but he is alive and about stable now," They patted down the shiny hallways, doctors bolting around them and nurses gossiping, or reading charts, at nurses stations. "He would like to talk to you about everything that happened. I understand you guys were in a pretty nasty car accident?"

"Yeah," Meredith gulped weakly as they turned into the wing titled ICU. "It was pretty bad…"

"Okay then. There are also some police officers waiting to get your statement. Feel free to speak to Dr. Shepherd first, if you would like. Do you know him?"

"I…" Meredith trailed off, shuddering. Dr. Shepherd. No, she didn't recognize the name. Maybe Chief, once or twice, had mentioned hiring a new head of Neuro named Derek something, but that couldn't be the same person. She shook her head, "No. N-not really."

"Oh, well isn't that a shame. Dr. Shepherd has no family anywhere near here, apparently. He just moved to the area," The nurse said, shaking her head solemnly. "We don't know how on earth he is going to get through recovery without a support system, or anyone to help him,"

Meredith's heart hurt intangibly from hearing that. No one? "Oh," Was all she said, barely above a thin whisper.

Finally, they had approached the room. After some urging from the kind nurse, she entered. The atmosphere was different from the rest of the hospital, so different she could barely recognize it. A pungent small whipped into her nose and she crinkled her face up. She should have been used to it. Multiple monitors bleeped at even intervals around her. The smell of sterilized equipment and cleaning materials engulfed the room.

Meredith was more than taken aback by what she saw. Derek- rather good looking- lay in the bed, his body looking abnormally small. Through the outline of his pastel gown, she could see the lines of a chest brace holding him firmly, tightly. He had to have broken ribs, she thought as she remembered the nasty image of the wreck. His sparkling blue eyes were about halfway open, looking at her… into her. She looked down at first, her eyes searching aimlessly along the floor, begging for something to focus on. She found nothing. "I…" She trembled weakly, mumbling, "I'm so sorry, Dr. Shepherd,"

After a moment, she heard the distant noise of a small voice. The voice was rich and deep, slightly scratchy, but soothing all the same. It dipped low and rose faintly, finding its way into the nook of her ear. "It's alright," A pause as she lifted her eyes to meet his. "And call me Derek, please. People who get into car accidents get to call me by my first name,"

She winced. She knew his words were meant to be taken kindly, but the way he said it stung. "Okay, Derek. I'm just… I'm really sorry. I'm Meredith by the way…"

"Meredith…" He hummed, "I like that name,"

She shook her head and began to pace nervously, "Okay. I… I'm so sorry, Dr. Shep- I mean, Derek. I am so, so, so, so sorry! I just… there was a meeting, at work, you know? I'm a surgeon. So it was kind of~"

"Surgeon?" He cut in quietly, "So am I."

"Yeah. Okay. Um, I shouldn't have been texting and driving. I… I know you saw, and I will take whatever charges you choose to press. I might even get thrown in jail, right? Meredith Grey to the slammer. I just… I'm so, so, sorry! I never meant for this… to happen."

There was a silence for a moment: A stiff, uncomfortable silence that made Meredith want to scream. She had just openly admitted what she did wrong. She knew it wasn't all her fault- he had been speeding a little bit- but it mainly was. She felt like a terrible, horrible person, and the silence was eating away at her. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

"Well…" He began quietly, pondering many things. She tapped her fingers on her waist, full of trembling nerves. "I'm not pressing charges. This is my fault."

Meredith froze, staring at him, gaping widely. What was he saying? Was he kidding? He had to have seen her being distracted. It wasn't his fault, not at all. "What?" She gasped out loud, running her hands through her hair.

"I said, it's okay," He reiterated. "It isn't all your fault. People make mistakes. I'm sure you don't have a criminal record, or anything. You were rushing to get to work. Besides, it really is half my fault. I was speeding to get to work- my first day- as well, and if I had just slowed down, none of this would've happened."

Meredith couldn't believe it. He didn't look like he was joking. His face really showed that he was sincere… that he actually cared. She gulped in air. "N-no. I can't let you do that. I can't," She was trembling again, partially unaware of what was actually happening. She felt slightly numb.

"It'll be your word…" He wheezed, a cough hitting him so hard that he doubled over. Watching in horror, Meredith frowned as he panted, "…against mine."

"Derek, no! This is insane. You can't take the blame for this…"

"Now, it was partially my fault," he coughed. Before she could say anything else, he added, "Enough. It's settled. You made a mistake, I made a mistake, and we're humans. Okay? Okay." She tried to talk one more time, but he intensified his voice slightly as he said, "I'm serious!"

"I…" She trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief. The thought that someone would do this… for her- workaholic, intense, dark and twisty Meredith- was hard to believe. She swallowed a lump that was increasing size in her throat and murmured, "Thank you. Thank you… so much,"

He said it so nonchalantly that Meredith could have believed he was never in a car accident. "Of course. Everyone deserves a break every now and then, you know?"

Meredith bobbed her head and gulped, "Yeah. Yeah." But looking over at him, something was rather unsettling to her. He was letting her go, without even paying the consequences, and she was who got him put in the hospital in the first place. Biting her lip, she sat down in a chair, running her hands through her hair. What he did was unprecedented. She didn't deserve it, did she? "What can I do for you?" She tried.

"Nothing," Derek coughed. More silence followed, swirling around Meredith and bringing on frustration. Meredith was persistent, though.

"Do you have anyone to take care of you? The recovery will be hard," She warned, although he knew already. He was a surgeon. "Do you?"

His eyes cast downward as he averted his gaze. He mumbled, "No. I just moved here."

"Oh," She said quietly, looking down as well. She wasn't sure where she was originally going to go from there. Spontaneously, she got an idea… A rich, interesting, crazy, possibly wonderful, idea. It came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop it. "I'll take care of you. For two months, until you can do things completely on your own."

His jaw hung open, wide with shock. "What? No, I could never ask you to…"

"Listen to me. I'm a doctor, I know what I'm doing. I'll take more break days, and I'll come over and help you with your meds, drive you to physical therapy, you know. You don't have anyone, and ou and I both know how hard this recovery is going to be," He tried to protest, but she wouldn't let him. "Let me do this for you, Dr. Shep- Derek. It's the least I could do, after all you're doing for me."

He paused, pondering the offer. She tapped her foot nervously, and work pounded in the back of her mind. What was she getting herself in to? "Fine," He whispered, followed by a hoarse cough. "You promise?"

"Promise what?"

"That you'll stay."

"Yes," She said earnestly. She then paused, though, wondering what she had done. What would Ryan think of this? "Yes."

A/N: Okay! There it is! How did you like it? Will you come back for more? If you guys aren't too enthusiastic, I'll probably wait a little while before posting the next chapter and getting it really up and running. And vice versa :) This is in NO WAY a fic about Meredith and Ryan, although he'll come into an interesting role as the story progresses. What do you think about how Derek reacted to the whole situation? Too easy going? Hm, we'll see! Workaholic Meredith and free spirited Derek. It'll be a bumpy ride, but a good one at that! Thanks for reading! Comments are really appreciated :)