Chapter Two: Where is Meredith?
At the exact same time, Meredith's name was on the lips of her friends and the Chief of Surgery at the hospital.
When she had not returned home last night and had not gone to work that morning, Cristina, Izzie, George and Alex had started to get extremely worried.
Before reporting it to Bailey or the Chief, Izzie, Cristina and Alex had handled her interns and made them all go to the Pit for the day until Meredith came to work.
They all decided that they would give her an hour before reporting to the Chief about it.
But that hour quickly passed and real worry set in.
Where was Meredith?
All three residents and George set off to the Chief and told him that neither of them had seen her since the end of yesterday's shift and that she had not come home last night.
The Chief had immediately asked them questions like how she had been yesterday, did they suspect she had left somewhere, did she have an appointment for something, was there any reason that she might not be at work, had anything happened recently in her life that could have affected mentally.
At that question the four had all shared uneasy glances but the Chief had just told them to spit it out.
It had been Izzie who had told him about Derek and him sort of cheating on Meredith by kissing Rose the nurse.
Cristina had quickly chimed in that despite that Meredith had still been coming to work regardless and that she was sure that Meredith would be coming to work any minute.
The Chief eyes had widened when Izzie had been speaking but he had looked at Cristina with worry.
"Do you personally know where she was last night Yang?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
"No sir."
"Then never assume that she will be here at any minute. I want to know exactly where Meredith Grey was last night after she left here and if anyone has seen her since then, even if it means having to ask every single staff member in this hospital." He replied sternly.
All four nodded and were about to leave when the Chief quickly added, "Someone go and see Joe first."
They all nodded at him and left his office. In the hall outside it, they all felt the harsh bite of fear and panic begin to rise within them.
"What if she has done an Addison?" George asked fearfully, causing Cristina and Izzie to glare at him.
"No George, don't be an idiot. Meredith would never do that without talking to me first." Cristina said fiercely, but her own worry was beginning to escalate about her best friend. Meredith had always been able to talk to her about everything, so what if maybe she really had gone and done something stupid?
The four friends quickly went their separate ways when it was decided that Alex would be the one to go and talk to Joe while the other three were to keep a sharp eye out for her.
Alex ran all of the way over to Joe's and he burst into it like a tornado, quickly scanning the room to see if she was there.
To his dismay she wasn't so he quickly made his way over to the bar where Joe was watching him with great interest.
"Looking for someone Karev?" he asked with a warm smile.
Alex looked at him with a very serious expression, "Joe, did Meredith come in here at all last night?"
Joe's smile instantly disappeared and turned into one of confusion, "Yeah she did. She's been coming in here every night for the past week and knocking back tequilas like no tomorrow because Shepherd has been the ultimate jackass to her."
Alex's expression turned sombre, "Yeah, Shepherd sure has been more than just the ultimate jackass to Mer."
Anger rumbled in his voice and every fibre in Alex wanted nothing more than to pummel Derek into a pulp for breaking his friend beyond repair.
Joe could see Alex's anger and he understood it too well.
"Alex all I can say is that she left here at about midnight-ish. I offered to get order a cab but she had promised to me that she would go back over to the hospital and sleep in an on-call room for the night."
Alex looked at him in shock then looked away as worry began to travel through him again.
Running a hand through his short hair, he shut his eyes and sighed in frustration.
Where the hell was she?
"Karev what's going on?" Joe asked, now extremely worried at how Alex was acting in front of him at his answers.
Alex looked at Joe with worry, "Meredith hasn't turned up to work today and nobody knows where she is."
Joe's eyes widened and guilt flooded his face, "Oh god, what if she drove home?"
Alex shook his head quickly, "She didn't drive anywhere because her car is still parked at the hospital."
Joe sighed in relief but the feeling of relief didn't last long. Looking back at Alex he asked, "Then where could she be?"
Alex didn't even answer that question as he thanked Joe for his vital information and quickly walked over to the door.
Just before he opened the door to leave, Joe suddenly called out, "Jackass and his nurse might have seen her on the street because she left only a minute before they came in here."
Alex stared at him for a few seconds and exclaimed, "Thank you Joe." Before exiting out of the door in a blur.
Joe sighed and went back to cleaning his bar, slightly feeling sorry for what the jackass Shepherd was going to have to deal with when Alex caught up with him.
It took Alex only ten minutes to find Derek Shepherd having a coffee and talking and laughing with the nurse called Rose.
The sight of the pair made Alex's heart rage with anger at how Derek was just showing off his new relationship without even caring what Meredith and her friends thought.
But then again that had always been Derek in his eyes.
A jackass.
Walking straight up to Derek, he immediately tapped him hard on the shoulder.
Derek stopped talking and turned around to look at Alex with a smile, "Ah Dr. Karev, what can I do for you?"
Alex had to bite his tongue to stop himself from stringing an extremely abusive insult and he juts kept his face and voice completely blank as he answered, "Dr Shepherd I really need to speak to you."
Derek regarded Alex with confusion but the way Alex was looking at him, he knew that it must be something important.
"Ok Alex, what is it?"
Alex glanced at Rose and then back at Derek, "Dr Shepherd I need to talk to you alone."
Derek frowned slightly at him but nodded slightly and turned around to face Rose.
"I'll be back soon." He said with a happy smile before quickly leaning down giving her a small kiss on the cheek.
Alex turned away as he did and walked off into a nearby empty office without waiting for Derek to follow.
The instant that Derek was in the office, Alex shut the door and looked at Derek with a very intimidating expression while Derek just placed both of his hands into the pockets of his long white coat.
"Would you mind telling me what this is about Alex?" Derek asked, feeling slightly annoyed that Alex had pulled him away from talking to Rose.
Alex exhaled in annoyance at the stupid man in front of him, but he did not want to blow his top off now because he did not want to give Derek a chance to have to worry about Meredith.
'Not that he probably would anyway' Alex thought with disgust before he finally spoke.
"Last night when you went to Joe's with Rose, did you see Meredith at all outside before going in?"
Derek looked at Alex with complete confusion and slight suspicion, "Yes I did why. She was completely drunk and stumbling down the street away from us as we approached the door to Joe's."
Alex felt his heart pinch with worry and concern.
God Meredith, where are you?
Quickly nodding at Derek, Alex said, "Thank you Dr Shepherd."
Without saying anything else, he started to walk towards the door but Derek suddenly stood in front of him and blocked his way.
"Why did you ask Alex?"
Alex looked Derek in the eye and glared outright at him.
"It's none of your god damn business jackass." Alex growled and stormed out of the room and slammed the door with a resounding 'BANG!'.
Derek stared in shock at the now closed door.
What on earth was wrong with Alex?
All he knew that it was something to do with Meredith.
Thinking about her made his heart wrack with sadness and guilt at him kissing and now being with Rose, but he found it easier just to not think about her and to avoid her altogether.
He had barely seen her the past week and had not spoken directly to her at all, not even during a consult in which he had had another resident talk to her.
Yes he still loved her, there was no denying that, but he knew that he could not continue waiting for her.
He needed someone that he could be with now, someone that was not dark and twisted, self-loathing and self-destructive, someone who was happy to commit and not scarred, someone who could breathe on their own.
Someone who was not Meredith Grey.
But that someone did not stop the craving he had for her.
He still saw her as 'his' deep down and he knew he always would.
Derek didn't know what he was going to do, but all he knew was that Rose was going to be his salvation from the broken man he had become because of Meredith.
Love was never meant to feel like this, but Meredith still felt to him that she was the piece that could make him whole.
But he had rejected his own yearning body and feelings and was allowing Rose to slowly fill that place that had always belonged to Meredith.
But he was still slightly shaken by Alex's statement.
Something was not right and he wanted to get to the end of it.
Walking out of the room, Derek set off towards Rose with a smile on his face.
I'll find out later…
A/N: Thanks to maya92 and oupoli 19 for reviewing. Any other reviews would be great because I want to make sure I have got characterization correct and what people think of my story. :)
