"Yang! Stevens! Karev! O'Malley! Where the hell are my interns?" the firm voice of Bailey interrupted the chat in the intern's locker room. Cristina slammed her locker shut and moved quickly towards her resident. George soon joined her, closely followed by Alex. "Where's Stevens?" Bailey barked. "I'm here!" Izzie replied.

"You're late…" Bailey said, not looking at Izzie, but instead leading her interns into the busy hospital corridor.

"Only a minute late…" Izzie replied in protest. She did not fancy getting on the wrong side of Dr Bailey.

"A minute can be the difference between a patient living or dying. Stevens, you're on suturing duty today; Karev in plastics, O'Malley - Dr Burke wants you; Yang - with me." Bailey replied. The other interns went their separate ways to do their duties for the day while Cristina went into the first patient's room.

"Meredith, I'm Dr Yang - I'll be looking after you today," Cristina said, picking up Meredith's charts.

Meredith smiled her usual smile and gestured to the man sitting beside her. "This is my fiancé Finn," she said. "He's a vet!"

Cristina nodded. "That's very… interesting." she replied, filling in the chart in her hands. She closed the charts and walked to the side of Meredith's bed. "If I could just check your blood pressure." she said, while fitting the strap around Meredith's arm. She then went back to the chart and filled it in. "Any pain? Any discomfort, headaches, dizziness?" she asked.

"I had a bit of a headache when I woke up this morning, it's better now though - ever since Finn arrived," Meredith said, reaching out to hold Finn's hand. "He helps me through this."

"How…lovely." Cristina said with no emotion. "Well, I think that's you all set. Dr Shepherd will be around to see you at some stage, to talk to you." Just at that moment there was a knock at the door and Derek walked in. "Here he is." Cristina said, putting down the chart again and exiting the room.

"Good morning Meredith," Dr Shepherd said smiling at his patient. "And this must be Finn, the vet!" he held his hand out to shake Finn's.

Meredith laughed. "You remembered!"

Derek picked up her chart and studied it. "How could I not remember? Anyway, we didn't really get a chance to talk yesterday after your scan - you had a seizure. But I'd like to talk to you both now. You have a tumour on the left hand side of your brain - it's tiny, but left untreated it'll kill you. Now, I can perform surgery and remove the tumour or you can undergo radiation therapy which won't get rid of it but will get rid of the symptoms."

"What are the.. I mean, will she… what do each of those mean?" Finn asked, concern filling his eyes.

"Well, if the surgery is successful and we can remove all of the tumour then you will live a long, normal life. Of course, there are risks involved - memory loss the main one, as we're working with a sensitive part of your brain. There is also a chance all of the tumour will not be removed. If you leave the tumour untreated, you have about 6 months to a year left. With the radiation therapy, you're looking at about 5-6 years." Derek spoke softly. Finn was holding Meredith's hand tightly, and his face had paled considerably. He then looked at Meredith. He was surprised to find her still smiling, a determined look in her eye. "Obviously, this is a huge decision, so I don't want you to rush anything. I'll leave you two alone to discuss the options, and when you decide, please don't hesitate to get a member of staff to contact me - if you opt to have treatment, we want to get the ball rolling as soon as possible."
"Thank you, Dr Shepherd." Meredith said, nodding at him. Derek left the room and Finn turned to Meredith, sadness in his eyes.

"I want the surgery," Meredith stated simply as soon as he had left the room. "I'm going to fight this."

"But Meredith, the risks… you could lose your memory." Finn said.

"So, you want me to have the radiation treatment, and have 5 or 6 good years with me?" Meredith asked. "What if I have no complications in the surgery? What if Dr Shepherd can remove all of the tumour? What if I can live a long life - we can travel, we can have kids, a family. We can have what we always wanted…"

"But what if you don't? What if it goes wrong, Meredith? Then what? Then you're still here, but you're not you…" Finn asked, standing up. "I need some air, I'm going outside and to get a coffee. I'll be back soon." He leaned down and kissed her cheek and quickly left the room. There was another knock at the door. This time Cristina appeared again.

"Is it time for more tests already?" Meredith asked, an exasperated sigh leaving her lips. Cristina shook her head. "May I?" she asked, gesturing to the empty seat Finn had left. Meredith nodded.

"Look, I don't normally do this, it's really not me, but … I heard some raised voices in here and I was wondering, well, are you alright?" Cristina asked, peering at Meredith for a reaction. "Because, if you're not.. I could.. maybe, talk to him or something for you? Like, give him a medical point of view?"

"Dr Yang, I appreciate your concern, but I can manage him." Meredith said, and then she smiled. "Plus, I always get my way with him."

Cristina smiled a genuine smile at her. There was something about Meredith that people found compelling: despite the fact she was sick, there was something positive about her which gave people hope. She was a determined character, but also warm and caring. And that smile…

-
Meredith turned over in her bed - it was 10pm and Finn had gone home to get a good night's sleep. He had cover in his vet's surgery so working wasn't an issue, but he'd been by Meredith's side all day and the night before and it was starting to take it's toll. A nurse came in to fill her water jug and rearrange her pillows.

"Excuse me, is Dr Shepherd still on duty?" Meredith asked, sitting up. The nurse nodded. "Could you possibly page him? I've made a decision about my treatment." The nurse nodded again and left the room. Meredith picked up a magazine she'd been brought and flicked through it until Dr Shepherd appeared at the door.

"Meredith?" he asked, entering her room and picking up her charts. She laughed. "What's so funny?"

"The amount of times you people look at those charts, constantly filling things in. It's amazing there's so much to know…" Meredith trailed off. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling. I've made a decision."

Derek sat down on the empty chair beside her bed. "And that is?"

"I want the surgery. I'm going to fight this, I want more than 5-6 years Dr Shepherd." Meredith said, looking him straight in the eye.

"You understand all the risks involved with this particular surgery?" he asked. Meredith nodded and reached for his hand. As she squeezed it, Derek felt a rush of something shooting through his body and his stomach jumped again. "I trust you, Dr Shepherd."

Derek couldn't speak, he had to get out of the room. He pulled his hand away and stood up. "It's late, you should get some sleep. I'll be back tomorrow to discuss surgery further." He left the room and leaned against the wall, his heart pounding. At that moment the Chief walked past and stopped and looked at Derek. "Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Derek shook his head and stood up straight. "I'm fine Richard, just fine."

"Well your wife was looking for you about 5 minutes ago." Richard replied.

"My wife." Derek repeated, nodding. He headed off down the corridor and repeated, "my wife" softly to himself.