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A/N: Thanks for all of the great feedback! Stick around to see why they split up.
Three Thousand Miles
Chapter Two - Fire and Rain
"I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I would see you again."
The flight had gone exceptionally well; Andrew, Jilly, and Emma slept almost the whole way. Meredith stayed up and obsessed about seeing Derek. They were about a half an hour from Seattle. Meredith would wake up the kids soon. She was not excited about seeing Derek at all. She had only talked to him a handful of times in the past four years. They did converse via e-mail occasionally.
But she had lied to Emma earlier; she had seen Derek once in the last five years, two months, and 27 days. When Meredith became chief of surgery at Beth Israel she went to a conference for chiefs of surgery in large inner city hospitals. The conference was in Denver, Colorado. She saw Derek there, but Derek did not see her.
May, 2025
Three years earlier Meredith sat in a fancy hotel conference room with hundreds of other chiefs of surgery. She took her seat in the conference hall towards the back. She was new at this whole chief thing and the last thing she wanted was to be sitting up front. She opened up her program and looked at tonight's schedule, when she saw what was going on at 7:30 she almost dropped dead.
7:30 pm- The Grey-Shepherd Method – Presented by Dr. Derek Shepherd, Chief of Surgery, Seattle Grace
"Oh my God." Meredith muttered to herself, how could she not have known this was going to happen? She had gotten the schedule in the mail a week ago and she checked it over. She slowly ripped off her name tag which said "Dr. Meredith Grey, Chief of Surgery Israel Beth Deaconess Medical Center". The name tag stuck to the material of her dress, "Stupid expensive good for nothing dress." Meredith mumbled to herself.
"I'm sorry?" An older woman sitting next to her asked, she must have heard Meredith muttering to herself.
"Oh nothing, sorry about that." Meredith said.
"Oh well that's okay, Hi I'm Dr. Groves, Chief at Hermann Hospital in Houston." The woman shook Meredith's hand.
"Hi, I'm Dr…." Meredith recovered quickly, "I'm Meredith." She smiled shaking the woman's hand. She did not want anyone to know her name was Meredith Grey, after all, after her clinical trial with Derek the Grey-Shepherd method had become infamous. Grey-Shepherd was not only the last names of her three children but it was one of the most ground-breaking brain tumor treatments out there. It was published in medical journals all over the world and practiced by thousands of surgeons. Meredith and Derek had even made it into mainstream magazines such as Time and Newsweek as the power couple who had come up with a way to save lives. No one covered anything when they got divorced fifteen years later.
"Well nice to meet you Meredith. Doesn't tonight look like such an exciting line up? I am so excited to see Dr. Shepherd. I have read about him everywhere. They must have added him last minute, because I don't remember it being on the original schedule." The woman sounded excited.
"Oh yeah. It looks like a good night." Meredith said trying to sound happy.
"I mean I am a neurosurgeon myself and I have used to Grey-Shepherd method countless numbers of times. I love the story of it too. It's all too perfect. I have to say I am a tad bit disappointed that Dr. Shepherd's wife is not here to help him present. I heard that they used to go on tour together occasionally, supposedly they presented well together."
Meredith could not even believe that this was happening, "Yeah I guess she must be busy now."
"Well I suppose, I heard that they have children. She must be with them while he is at conferences. Some life." Dr. Groves said as the lights started to dim.
"Some life." Meredith repeated. Part of her wanted leave and never enter that room again, but part of her was interested in seeing Derek. Meredith wanted to know what Derek had to say about their method. She remembered the old days before Andy was born. She and Derek would go to a couple conferences and present. Derek would be witty and Meredith serious. Every so often they would be asked about their personal lives. At one of the conferences a person had asked how their marriage was going. Meredith thought the person had a hell of a nerve. But at that point it was going great and Meredith had just found out she was pregnant with Andrew. She responded that life was great and they were expecting. Derek however, had no idea and he just simply kissed Meredith in reply, in front of the whole audience. Their picture had been printed in a medical magazine a couple weeks later.
Soon enough someone introduced Derek and there he was, he walked onto the stage. He looked the same, and Meredith couldn't help but think he was looking as gorgeous as ever. His hair was perfect and he was wearing a suit and a tie that she had bought him for Christmas the previous year and sent out to Seattle. They always sent each other tiny gifts to show their kids that they were coexisting somewhat. Derek had sent Meredith a book that same year. No cards were exchanged. Just gifts. Nothing that required them to actually talk to one another. Meredith couldn't believe he was wearing the tie.
"Hello everyone, my name is Derek Shepherd. You may have heard about the Grey-Shepherd method before. But the story all starts when a young, eager resident came up to me telling me she had a way to save lives." Meredith looked down quickly, her emotions getting the best of her. She watched as Derek explained all that they did together in order to figure it all out. At the end he opened it up for questions. A man near her had his hand up and Derek called on him, Meredith ducked a bit when he did so.
"Where is Dr. Grey?" The man asked. Meredith rolled her eyes at how nosey people could be.
Derek paused for a moment and looked down; he looked to the left of the man, right where Meredith was sitting. She thought he saw him wink briefly but she knew she was just imagining it. The pause was so brief that no one could have noticed and Derek coolly answered with a smile, "She is at home with our three kids." Derek replied naturally, like no divorce had ever happened.
He went on to answer more questions about the 97 success rate the method had and other scientific facts. Meredith zoned out the whole time. Every so often she thought Derek was gazing at her but in reality she knew that she was being paranoid. When the night was over she went up to her hotel room as fast as she could. She dialed her home number where Andy, Emma, and Jilly were spending time with Christina who had flown in just to see them while Meredith was at the conference. Every so often an old friend from Seattle Grace would come to Boston. Meredith and Derek had an unwritten rule that Derek would never come to Boston, the kids would only go to Seattle. Meredith had never been back to Seattle, the kids had been back a few times, but they always went alone. George, Alex, or Derek would greet them at the airport. When Christina picked up the number at home Meredith explained to her what had happened and that she was coming home as soon as she could. She did not want to risk bumping into Derek. She begged Christina not to tell the kids that she had seen Derek.
The next morning Meredith checked out of the hotel and was waiting for a cab outside to take her to the airport. As she was waiting, Derek walked out of the hotel. She looked down quickly and avoided any eye contact. But curiosity got the best of her. She looked up, behind him was a skinny brunette. Meredith had no idea who it was. She was laughing. He was laughing. She could not tear her eyes off the scene. Suddenly out of nowhere a loud honking sound startled her.
"What are you doing lady, trying to get killed?" A rude cab driver shouted. Meredith then realized she in the middle of the street. People were looking at the scene. She looked up again and saw the skinny brunette. Her eyes were quickly distracted by the sight of Derek, looking right at her sort of disoriented. He shook his head and started walking towards her but before he could get there Meredith had hopped into the very cab that had almost hit her. She told the driver to drive to the airport and she never looked back at the skinny brunette. And she had never looked back at Derek.
December, 2027
"We are twenty minutes from Seattle-Tacoma folks. Fasten your seatbelts because it could be a rough landing, it is raining in Seattle currently and it is 38 degrees. Thank you for flying with us and let's have a save descent."
It was raining in Seattle – of course. Meredith slowly came back from her memory. She shook a sleeping Emma and Jilly next to her awake, "We're almost in Seattle." She smiled at the two of them as they both woke up slowly.
She looked back and saw Andrew already awake, "We're almost there bud."
"I know, I heard." Andrew said quietly.
Meredith braced herself for the landing. She braced herself for seeing Derek. She hoped to God that Derek did not recognize her three years ago. But most of all she braced herself for the fact that Derek might not be alone when she got to Seattle.
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Fire and Rain is a James Taylor song.