At midnight, Meredith finally finished her last surgery of the day. Complications had led it to take longer than expected, but in the end the patient had pulled through.
"Inform the family and see him through post-op," Meredith ordered the intern who had scrubbed in with her.
The intern scampered off after a "Yes, Dr. Shepherd."
Sighing, Meredith went up a floor to check on her patients again. She hated working through the night. Unless there was an emergency surgery, there was only intern work to do. But as a resident, she was still assigned to these shifts on occasion, though far less frequently than the interns and second and third year residents were.
Only a month of this crap left, she thought with glee.
Seeing no work that required her, Meredith decided that the most useful thing she could do was sleep. None of the good on call rooms were opened. The new interns were getting too smart. The comfortable couch in Derek's office came to mind. He would never know.
She walked to the office and started to use her key to unlock the door. To her surprise the door was already unlocked, and when she pushed opened the door, she revealed Derek asleep on the couch. Meredith stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to determine why he would stay in the hospital when he didn't have to. After a few moments of watching him sleep, Meredith stepped out of the room and started to close the door.
"Meredith, come back," Derek said softly, scaring her half to death.
Opening the door again, Meredith came back in and walked up to the couch. "I didn't mean to wake you." She kept her voice soft.
"It's okay." Derek opened his eyes to look at her. "I'm a light sleeper, remember?"
He shifted over on the couch, and opened his arms for her. She hesitated, remembering their fight that afternoon.
"Come here, Meri," he coaxed gently.
Stepping closer, she let him take her hand and pull her into his arms. It was such a familiar and comforting sensation that Meredith just melted into him arms and let his hand run up and down the bumps of her spine.
"Why are you still here?" she asked quietly.
"I thought I'd get more sleep here than in an empty bed, missing you." Derek left out the fact that Mark's surgery was weighing heavily on his mind, making sleep anywhere near impossible.
Nestling into a more comforting spot, Meredith read his thoughts and asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really," Derek sighed. After a long silence he said, "It's just, he my brother, you know? I don't want his death on my hands."
Meredith nodded, having suspected all along that it was something like that. "It wouldn't be on your hands," she reassured him.
Changing the subject completely, Meredith said, "I thought you left."
Reading into her question, Derek said in a more teasing tone, "Without saying goodbye to you? Never."
"But we were fighting."
Derek frowned. She really didn't know much about relationships. "I guess we don't fight enough," he teased. "A fight during the day doesn't mean I leave without saying goodbye to you. And for the record that was a disagreement, not a fight. I was never angry with you."
"Oh," Meredith breathed.
Derek chuckled, tightening his grip on her. "I love you," he whispered, moving close enough that his warm breath tickled her face.
"I love you too," Meredith sighed, tilting her head up for a kiss.
They lay in silence for a while until Derek asked her, "Do you think I can do it?"
"Mark's surgery?" she clarified.
"Hmm," he confirmed.
"Yes, I think you can. The tumor's in a difficult spot, and there will be a lot to cut, but I really think you can do it. The doctor that said it's inoperable was wrong."
"I wish I was as sure as you are," Derek sighed. "I just don't want to kill my brother."
"Derek . . ." Meredith paused to gather her thoughts. "Even if he . . . if the surgery isn't successful, it wouldn't be your fault. He knows the risks. He knows there's a 90 chance he won't come out of this. But you'll do your best. That's all Mark expects."
Derek hugged her closer. "I wish you knew how much I loved you, Meredith."
"I do know," she countered.
"No . . . You can't know. It's too big for anyone to possibly understand. You're my everything, Meredith Ellis Grey-Shepard," he declared.
"I love you like that too Derek. I understand." Meredith turned to kiss his jawbone.
Unwilling to argue, Derek just settle for kissing her deeply, and then turning her so she was spooned against him and adjusted comfortably for sleep.
GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA
"So it's Meredith Shepard now, huh?" Mark stated rather than asked when she came into his room the next night to check up on him.
Meredith couldn't help but smile. "It is."
"Hmm, nurse gossip is good for something," Mark reflected. "I can't believe I didn't notice the rings."
"At least you have a good excuse," Meredith teased. He somehow made her comfortable saying things she wouldn't normally say to a patient.
She had judged Mark correctly. He laughed. "You're right. I've got to milk this tumor thing for all it's worth."
"That's right," Meredith agreed with a grin. "So what are the nurse's saying today?"
The expression on Mark's face indicated that it had to be something good. "Oh, just something along the line of Mr. and Mrs. McDreamy have started using on-call rooms for fighting instead of sex."
Meredith rolled her eyes. The nurses had been talking about her private life with Derek since she had started working here. She was pretty much immune to it at this point.
Watching her face carefully, Mark laughed. "You look like you've heard these things far too many times."
Having finished her brief examination of him, Meredith sat down in the chair next to the bed to talk to him.
"Yeah, pretty much since I started here," Meredith agreed.
"You were an intern last time I saw you," Mark reflected. "Now you must be almost an attending. It's been what, six, seven years?"
"Eight," Meredith informed him. "It'll be an attending in a month. Derek's wife for four years."
"And still having sex in oncall rooms," Mark teased. "I guess it's no surprise. You're pretty lusty."
Meredith swatted his arm.
"Hey," Mark exclaimed, "You can't hit you patient."
"You can't call your doctor lusty," Meredith shot back.
Laughing, Mark said, "I can see why Derek married you."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Meredith exclaimed with a laugh.
Mark blatantly looked her up and down. "Lusty, smart, funny, bossy, and damn hot. Derek and I have always had the same taste in women."
Walking into the room at the same time, Derek had the opportunity to hear all the adjectives Mark had used to describe his wife. Luckily, he knew Mark well enough not to take it too seriously.
"Trying to steal another wife, Mark?" Derek questioned lightly.
Mark's face lit up at seeing Derek in a good mood. "I'd steal this one." He took Meredith's hand. "We've talking for about fifteen minutes of our lives and I've already fallen in love with her."
Stepping forward, Derek took Meredith's hand from Mark and grasped it in his own. "She's taken." He was no longer teasing.
"Derek," Meredith chastised. "You're overreacting."
"You are," Mark agreed. "Everyone knows she's yours. Except me because you couldn't bother to tell me you'd gotten married."
The mood lightened with that comment, and the three were soon talking and laughing like old friends. Which they sort of were.
"We'd better go, Meredith," Derek suggested in a lull of conversation. "I've been off for two hours, and it's been half an hour for you."
"Okay . . ." Meredith agreed reluctantly. "We'll see you in the morning, Mark."
Mark winked at her. "I'll be looking forward to it." He turned to address Derek. "You'd better start sexing your wife instead of fighting with her. Wouldn't want her coming to Markie to get some."
Meredith rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, Markie."
"Oh, you will be in my dreams, babe," he teased.
Cutting into their banter, Derek asked, "Mark, seriously, is it you goal to sleep with every woman I do?"
Laughing, Mark immediately replied, "Only the hot ones. Come on, I could be dead in a week and you won't let me do your wife?"
Derek's mood shifted immediately from amused annoyance to dark and angry.
"I won't ever let you do my wife," Derek grasped Meredith's wrist a tight enough to slightly hurt. "We're leaving now."
To show him she wasn't angry with him, Meredith flashed Mark a smile. "Goodnight."
"See you, lusty almost-attending."