Her eyes adjusted to the light streaming from the open window. The smell of pine and wood filled her nostrils, as she silently got up from bed, yawning thoughtfully before jumping in the shower. She turned it on cold, shivering as the icy droplets hit her body. She drew in a breath, leaning back her head. The water fell onto her face, traveling in circles before dripping down into the drain. The air was already cold, March quickly approaching. She suddenly began to cry, her tears mixing with the water. Before she understood what she was doing she grabbed the lavender shampoo bottle, holding it upside down before squeezing it with all her might. Thick, lumpy shampoo oozed out, falling in globs onto the tile floor. She pounded her foot against it, blocking out the strong smell. It crept between her toes and stuck onto the soles of her heels before being washed out by the water. Water. It seemed to dissolve everything. Shutting the water off, she shimmied into a towel, her lips blue and chapped. She threw on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, wiping away some tears as she ran outside, sucking in the chilly air. It whipped against her cheek, practically air drying her soaking wet hair. She began to cough violently, dropping onto the concrete.
"Are you okay?!" she heard a voice yell down the road.
"Leave me alone!" she sobbed, pulling her hood over her face. Whoever it was, needed to give her some space.
"Are you sure?" the voice asked again, now inches away from her face. She silently pulled the hood down, gazing into the eyes of a man no older than her. His hair was messy, golden brown. His eyes were a fierce blue, the color of the sea. And his breath smelled like peppermint and cigarette smoke. "My name's Anthony."
She shook her head, feeling completely stupid. "Meredith," she nodded before compressed laughs began to escape her mouth. "I must look crazy right now."
"I've seen worse," he reassured her, smiling. "Do you need help?" He offered her his hand, which she gladly took.
"Thanks," she sighed, ruffling up her hair. "I just had a mini-panic attack."
"I get those sometimes," he grinned, rubbing his shoe against the ground. "You know what's good for them though?"
She shook her head, pressing her lips together to prevent him from seeing how chapped and purple they were. "What?"
"Coffee." He winked, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Would you like to grab some with me? I'm just on my way downtown to visit a friend, do you have work?"
Her eyes grew large as she glanced at her watch. "Shit," she mumbled, "I have to go."
"Wait will I see you again?" he yelled, hoping that she would look back.
"I don't know, but if I don't…thanks." Then she hopped in her car and drove to the hospital, leaving Anthony alone with the shoes that she forgot to put on.
"What's the worst thing you have ever done?" Mark questioned, grunting as he helped Tessa carry a huge karaoke machine into the bar.
"I don't know," she panted, sighing dramatically as she dropped the machine. "All I know is that a karaoke machine is a gay ass idea."
"Oh you know you love it," Mark smiled, setting it into the correct place. "I'll be doing this thing all night."
"Dirty," Tessa joked as she hopped behind the bar. "Want anything?"
"Woo, trying to get me drunk this early? That's kinky Tess, way too kinky."
"Shut up," she instructed, pouring him a glass of coffee. "How uhm," she cleared her throat, "the Meredith issue? Did she say yes?" She hated talking about this. In fact, she hated talking about Mark with any other woman but her. It ate at her core, seeming to rip at the insides of her soul. But he was her friend, and she knew that he really loved this Meredith person, even if she didn't want him too.
He shook his head solemnly, looking into his cup. "Nope. She didn't say anything."
"Oh," she let out her breath, "So anyway, how is work?"
"Fine," he murmured, stirring his coffee for no reason.
Tessa huffed, groaning loudly. "This always happens!"
"What?" Mark looked up, taken aback by her sudden attitude change.
"Every fricken time we talk about Meredith you get all depressed and sad and just…UGH!" She screamed, throwing her hands up. "It's annoying." She began to clink and clank glasses and cups onto the shelves, making sure to produce as much noise as possible.
"You are the one that brought it up!" he retaliated, standing up from his chair. "If you don't want me to get all sad and depressed then do not bring it up!"
"I'm trying to help you get over her!"
"What if I don't want to!?"
The room fell silent as he snatched his coat from the rack and stormed out of the bar.
"I hate Mondays," Rose sighed as she handed Derek a chart. "So much work."
"Mmhmm," he nodded, scanning over the writings. "Me too."
She glanced over her shoulder, deciding whether or not she should bring up the fact that she knew he gave Meredith Grey her engagement ring. "So…" she began, fidgeting with a pen.
"Deliver these to rooms 312," he ordered, slapping the chart back into her hands. "Page me when you do."
"Derek this isn't my job," she stopped him, pushing the chart forward. "Get an intern to do it."
"Come on Rose just deliver the damn thing, okay?!" he yelled, causing a number of heads to turn and watch the spectacle.
"Derek, what has gotten into you?" she whispered, backing up. "You're not who you used to be."
He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "People change Rose," he said, walking towards the elevators. "People change."
"What do we got?" Meredith asked as an EMT rolled out a victim of a gang attack.
"30 year old Caucasian female, was raped by a member of a gang. She has severe injuries to the shoulder and back areas. She also seems to have been burned on her hands and knees and obvious trauma to the head."
"Oh man," one of her interns gasped, removing the string of gauze on the women's head. "Check this out."
Meredith pushed several people out of the way before resting her feet at the young women's gurney. "What is it?"
"Check this out Dr. Grey," the intern swallowed, moving to the side to show her the injury.
"Oh my God," Meredith gaped, her eyes drilled onto an open, severed skull flap of the women.
"What do we do?" the intern asked, fear ridden in his voice.
"Page Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Sloan immediately," she instructed, moving the gurney into the hospital. "Find Dr. Torres as well."
The timid intern nodded, running off to fetch the surgeons.
"Oh my God," Meredith repeated, the words strung into her brain. "Oh my God."
Derek and Mark responded almost immediately to the page, dropping everything they had in order to help Meredith with her patient. Mark hurried into an elevator, not checking to see who else was on it.
He quickly pressed the ground floor, backing up slowly to watch the numbers descend one by one.
"I never thought it would come to this," Derek said, looking down at his feet.
Mark whipped his head around, swallowing hard at the sight of his former best friend. "Come to what?"
Derek looked up, training his eyes on Mark's. "People change. Do you know that?"
Mark slowly nodded, thinking about the last year. His life had completely turned upside down, and he found himself in the middle of it, falling in love with Derek's love of his life. "People change," Mark repeated.
"And we're left wondering why the hell they do," Derek mumbled before stepping out of the elevator, the sea of EMTs and interns swallowing him whole.
"You paged?" Derek and Mark said at the same time, stepping into the small cubicle in the pit.
"Yeah," Meredith nodded, pointing at her patient. "She's in critical condition. Her skull flap is nearly off, and her burns are extraordinary. I'm stitching up her arm, which was sliced with a butcher knife and I just…" Her voice drifted, her eyes falling onto the woman who was tortured by a group of men who thought it was fun to kill people. "It was a gang."
Mark glanced at Derek who refused to look his way. "Let me see," he said, pulling a chair toward the skull. Snapping on the rubber gloves, he slid his index and middle fingers over the flap, squinting his eyes at the slice. "We need to get her into surgery, but before that we need," he began to count off his fingers, "A CT scan, an MRI, blood test, everything…I can't operate unless I know who this girl was."
"You can't operate on her skull before I operate on her burns," Mark stepped in, outlining the burns with his eyes. "She needs a skin graph, a major one. Those burns are beyond any degree I could imagine. I need to get those underway."
"Do you not see her skull exposed?!" Derek snapped, pointing a finger at her head. "There is no way in hell you are operating before me."
"Come on Derek, don't let our…issues get in the way," Mark tried, taking a step towards him.
"This is NOT about our issues! This is about allowing this girl another chance to live. This is not about me, or you, or Meredith…it is about her!"
"Okay then we can help each other out on this. I could take some skin from the skull flap; that could be the donor site. We can operate at the same time…it shouldn't be hard."
"No," Derek insisted. "The donor site is usually the thigh anyway; the skull flap would do no good."
"Yes it would! It would work just as well!"
"I'm not working in the same OR with you!"
"Oh so this is about our issues!"
"SHUT UP!" Meredith screamed, allowing both Derek and Mark to be quiet. "You two are acting like complete babies! Shut up, get this girl healthy, and then beat the shit out of each other after! Just shut up!"
Mark looked at Derek, the silence too agonizing for him to bear. Sighing, he extended his hand. "She's right."
Derek glanced down at Mark's hand, waiting patiently to be shaken. Mark wanted a truce. He wanted to end the fighting. But Derek made a promise to himself. He was not backing down without a fight. "Get away from me you son of a bitch," he spat before slamming the door with all the force he could manage on his way out.
Mark shut his eyes, gulping hard before asking, "What should we do?"
Meredith looked up. "We can't get married."
A/N: I'm bad. I'm sorry I have not updated this! I'm in the wake of my first novel (Yay!!) and graduation is coming up and high school stuff and it's just been hard. I'm sorry!! But I promise more updates will be on the way. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I did…a lot actually because the reason Derek is acting so stand-offish will be determined in the next chapter. (Does he know that Mark proposed? Could be. Is he pissed that Meredith STILL hasn't answered him about the marriage proposal? Possible. Or is it something else? Hmmm, oh how I love this story) And that Anthony dude…pay close attention to him. Alright so I'm gonna leave you with this and another chapter will be coming up! PLEASE REVIEW SO I KNOW I STILL HAVE READERS AFTER MY LAZINESS!
