Chapter 8

From the minute Derek walked into the collaboration room with Mark, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He could barely stand within five feet of Mark, let alone sit in the same room as him for who knows how long, forced to work with him. Mark clearly knew this, because he awkwardly walked around the table in the center of the room, not saying anything. They stood there in an extremely uncomfortable silence for a few minutes until Mark cleared his throat and spoke to Derek for the first time all morning.

"So, any idea how you want to approach… all this?" he asked, gesturing to the space between them. Derek was unsure if Mark was referring to the surgery or what was going on between them. Not wanting to take any chances, he jumped into his surgical ideas.

"Well, I think I can either remove the tumor by cutting it out, or burning it out with a laser. What it comes down to is which will remove it all without causing more damage for repairs, and – "

"You know that's not what I mean, Derek."

He hesitated before speaking again. "I don't want to get into this. Let's just do what we're here to do."

Mark took a step towards him, making loads of gestures with his hands as he spoke.

"Look, I want to move past this as much as you do, but we can't until we talk about it. Too much has happened to just move on with our lives. We have to talk through things before we can work together sensibly. If we don't, we'll only keep arguing about every little thing."

"Or we can just do what we're here to do, and then you can leave, and we'll pretend we never saw each other." He shot back, starting to become annoyed. He wasn't in the mood to fight with Mark, and he knew that would happen if they tried to talk about things. No matter what they tried to do, they always ended up arguing, and he wasn't in the mood for that right now.

Mark let out an irritated sigh and threw his hands up in frustration. "Shepherd, you know we aren't going to get anything done if we don't set aside our problems – "

"We also aren't going to get anything done if we stand here arguing, which is what will happen if we try and talk about things. Let's just work, please."

Mark cast him a glare, but sat down at one of the chairs at the table anyway. Derek did the same a few seconds later, already anxious for a break.

~0~

Meredith had spent the last hour doing as Dr. Montgomery had told her, without any problems. Looking at the results of the ultrasound earlier, Meredith found no problems or any negative changes from the one Grace had had a few days earlier. Though with the lack of anything to do but write down some vitals and other stats, Meredith found herself growing tired very quickly. Grace was asleep, so she didn't want to do anything that might wake her. She ended up sitting on a chair with wheels and rocked herself from side to side. Another ten minutes passed, and she stood to get a better look at all the screens and monitors that hadn't changed since she last checked them.

Sitting down once again, she began twirling her pen between her fingers in boredom. She had thought she would have been doing more, but on such a case it wasn't surprising that she hadn't been given any major responsibilities.

Unsure of how much time had passed, though it hadn't been a full ten, she heard the door being opened slowly. Figuring it was Dr. Montgomery, but not overly concerned about it, she stayed where she was When she heard the door close, she turned her head to see who had entered. Seeing as she was working with Addison, she was surprised to see it was Derek who walked in.

She smiled at him and for some odd reason, he nervously glanced around the room. After doing so, he looked back to her, a smile now on his face. Pointing to Grace to let him know she was sleeping, Derek nodded then approached her.

"Hey," he said quietly, then crossed over to her. She just smiled at him again in response. He stood behind her, watching Grace for a few moments. Meredith sat there with Derek's body heat radiating against her back, then she wondered why he was here.

"Wait, why aren't you with Sloane? I thought you were supposed to be going over your surgical plan with him?"

He didn't answer right away, he just took in a deep breath. Meredith knew this was going to be hard for him, but she'd hoped that he would be able to just focus on the work. Clearly that was going to be harder for him than she originally thought.

"Oh, I'm just… taking a break."

Meredith though about what he said for a minute. "From work, or from Mark?" she asked, though she already knew the answer. He could tell she knew the answer, and did nothing more than sigh again in response. Resting his hands on the back of her chair, Derek leaned forward.

"I don't know, I just… he kept saying he wanted to talk about what happened and thinks we can't work together properly until we do. But I don't want to talk, I just want to get this over with."

Sensing his distress, Meredith stretched her hand back and grabbed his, rubbing her thumb across the side of his hand. She felt him tense up for a split second before relaxing again. It puzzled her, but she didn't say anything about it.

They stayed like that until Grace stirred in her sleep and it was time for Meredith to write down her vitals again. When she pulled her hand away from Derek's he tensed up again, only this time she didn't know it. She scribbled down the same numbers she had ten minutes ago and brushed some hair away from Grace's face. She paused for a moment, looking down at the woman in the bed, but turned when Derek began walking towards her.

"She'll be okay, Meredith. She's just hit a bump in the path. Frankie will be okay too. I know it."

Meredith nodded her head and turned back to Grace. She looked down at her belly and thought of the little baby that was in there, hoping that she was okay. As though he could tell she was worried, Derek rested his hands on her shoulders and leaned closer to her, his chest against her back and his arms lightly touching hers. He rested his chin on top of his left hand and his cheek was brushing the side of her head. Neither of them said anything, they just stood there watching Grace once again.

After a short time of silence, they became so involved in themselves that they didn't hear the door being opened, or closed. They hadn't even noticed someone else had joined them in the room until that someone cleared their throat.

Derek lifted his head and took one of his hands off Meredith's shoulder, but left the other there. They both turned their heads only to see Dr. Webber standing behind them.

"Shepherd, can I speak to you for a moment?" he asked in a tone of voice that said he wasn't asking, he was telling.

Derek nodded and slipped his hand off Meredith's shoulder and followed the chief into the hallway, leaving Meredith alone once more, a chill flowing over the places where he was touching her replacing the warmth that came from the contact.

Closing the door behind him, Derek knew he was in trouble. He looked to Dr. Webber and opened his mouth to say something, but didn't get the chance to.

"I thought you said you understood what I told you yesterday." He said in a stern voice. Derek shifted his weight from foot to foot and avoided eye contact with the older man.

"Shepherd." Richard said, more stubbornly this time.

"I did. But they weren't there to assume anything, so it's fine."

"No, it's not. You two didn't even notice I had come into the room. What if I had been Sloane or Montgomery? Or one of those chatty, gossiping nurses that don't know how to mind their own business? I meant what I said, and I need you to take that seriously."

Derek looked at the ground and sighed. He really didn't know what to say. Richard sighed too and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Just… just go back and work with Sloane. He's waiting for you in the collaboration room. He never left." With that, Richard walked away, leaving Derek to think about what he had said. He sighed again, then started making his way back to meet with Mark. And as he did so, it pained him to leave Meredith without an explanation.

~0~

Addison was happy to have a break, even though she'd only just gotten to Seattle. There was something about Dr. Grey that she didn't like, and she thought that by leaving her alone a mistake would be made, and she could figure out what. But that didn't happen. Grey did everything right.

But on her way back to Grace Mitchell's room, she overheard a conversation that gave her a hint or two.

Dr. Webber and Derek shared some rather interesting words that Addison found could be quite useful. Maybe this is how she could figure out what was going on. Because even though she had no proof, she knew there was something odd about that intern.