"What's up?" Derek asked as he walked into the MRI room. Meredith had left before Derek got there, saying she had another patient to check on when she was really trying to avoid him.

"Mrs. Deston has a tumor pressing against her frontal lobe."

"That's just great. Well all OR's are booked for today, so we'll schedule her surgery for tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm going to go tell her." And he walked out of the room.

Derek entered the room of Mrs. Deston to tell her the results of her MRI.

"Mrs. Deston," he began. "We just got the pictures of your MRI. It turns out that a tumor that is pressing against your frontal lobe has been causing your dizziness and fainting. We're going to have to remove it."

"I guess this is the time now to be scared huh?"

"It is only if you want to be. I am very good at what I do, but with every surgery there are some risks."

"I choose not to be scared then. I trust you. Plus life is too short to worry about a little thing like risks. We take risks everyday, so this is just another one added to my list. When will I have the surgery?"

"We would schedule it for today, but all ORs are full, so we will have to wait until tomorrow. If you could just sign this form, we'll go ahead and schedule it."

Mrs. Deston took a pen and signed her name neatly across the dotted line. She didn't look scared at all. Not even a little bit.

Derek thanked her and left the room. His shift was over, so he headed over to Joe's to meet Mark.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Meredith had gone home early trying to get everything ready before Lexi came. Normally she wouldn't have cared, but for some reason, today she did.

She got out an extra blanket and pillow, setting them both on the couch just in case Lexi didn't bring anything. When she was done with that she decided to catch up on some laundry. As she was looking in her room to see what was dirty, she spotted one of Derek's shirts partly sticking out from underneath the bed. She just stared at it for a long time wondering what she should do with it.

After a moment more she picked it up, walked over to the nearest trashcan, and threw it in.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Hey man over here!" Yelled Mark from across the bar.

Derek waved to acknowledge he saw him, and walked over. "Hey." He said.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, just a long day." Derek sat down in the seat next to Mark and motioned for Joe to get him a beer. He looked down at his hands while he waited for his drink.

"Ok. You're not fine. Something's wrong. So open up, and tell me."

Derek sighed, and looked up at Mark. "I don't really know what's wrong. I mean, I'm getting everything I want, but it's still not cutting it."

"Not cutting it?"

"The feeling of emptiness. I mean, I think I know what it is, but I don't want to think about what I think it is."

"You mean Meredith? Why?"

"Because I'm afraid that it will make me scary and damaged, and unable to move on with my life."

"Ok, I know that I'm the one who told you to get back on the horse, but just for this moment, pretend I wasn't."

"Ok."

"Ok. So you think that because you still could want Meredith, even after you broke up, even after she wasn't communicating, even after you weren't getting what you deserve, that it makes you clingy and someone who is unable to move on?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"God, now I feel like your therapist. If you had one. Anyways, here's the thing. Have you ever noticed that when things get a little hard or complicated in a relationship that you tend to run in the opposite direction? I mean, Meredith wasn't communicating with you. You were ready to take the next step, but she wasn't, so instead of staying and fighting for it, or taking it slow, you run to someone else. In this case Rose. And now that you want to go back to the person where the relationship was hard, it throws you off. It doesn't follow your plan.

I think that you believe in happily ever after too hard. That when the relationship you are in, isn't in happily ever after, you run to find one that is. There is no such thing as happily ever after as much as you want there to be. Just face it, every relationship needs work, and it's not perfect."

Derek sat there for a few moments before he spoke. "You make it sound like I don't love Meredith as much as I think I do. That I didn't fight hard enough for me and Addie and that I just ran to Meredith."

"Oh no! That's not what I'm saying. Honestly I think you love Meredith much more than you did Addie, but you just don't know how to fight for a relationship."

"Wait, wait, wait. I am so confused right now. First you say that Meredith isn't giving me what I deserve and that I should move on, and now you're not?"

"I really don't know why I'm telling you this either, but I think it's mainly because I just want you to be happy. Whether it's with Meredith or Rose. I'm just telling you this because once you decide who you want to be with I want you to know that you're going to have to fight for it. And you can't keep doing what you've been doing."

"I just don't want to be alone, or in this same position for the rest of my life."

"Yeah no one does. But you also have to go slow for a reason. You have to be sure you made the right choice. And no relationship can stay in the same position forever. Eventually it will move to the next step."

"Then why did you tell me to go to Rose?"

"Because you weren't happy. And I was thinking just like you at the time. I always move on when things get hard, so it was easy for me to tell you to."

"What made you change?"

"I don't know. Maybe the fact that I'm still alone." Just then Mark's pager went off. "Got to go. See you later man." He put his money on the table and got up to leave.

"Thanks Mark."

"No problem. But promise me that you won't tell anyone, anything that I just told you."

"Sure."

"Oh yeah and another thing. You know what I just figured out? You run in relationships, and so does Meredith. Weird analogy huh?"

That last statement just threw Derek off.

So what do you think? I almost didn't post this because I didn't know how well it fit in my story, but mainly, Mark did some growing and pointed out to Derek that Meredith wasn't the only one running in the relationship. Please tell me what you think and if I need to change it. Thanks!