"Come on Alex, whoop his ass!" Christina screamed, as if she were at a wrestling match or the like.
Burke had joined her with equal enthusiasm. "George, get him again!" he shouted as George landed a slap to Alex's neck. "I've got money on you man."
"Money you're going to lose!" Christina declared, hollering loudly as Alex got a solid blow in.
Meredith shook her head in disbelief. Her tent mates were having a slap fight. Because apparently Callie had slept with Mark. Meredith failed to see the connection between that and the fight, and Christina had been too excited to explain properly. So she just sat back on a large rock, and tried not to laugh at the entertainment George and Alex were providing.
Burke and Christina began yelling loudly as Alex broke the rules of the slap fight, and landed a solid punch to George's nose. Blood gushed out of both nostrils, and Meredith doctor instincts took over as she sprang to her feet. But George was too involved in the fight to worry about a little blood, and he literally jumped on Alex and began pounding on his back.
"There you go, George. He fights dirty, you respond in the like!"
"Come on, Alex! Are you going to take a beating from a fetus?"
Apparently, Alex was not going to take a beating from a fetus because he suddenly flung George off of him, and charged the few feet separating them. Unfortunately, the extra force sent the two flying backwards, and even more unfortunately, Meredith happened to be standing right in their line of travel.
Meredith saw them hurling towards her, but didn't have time to react. The wind got knocked out of her as George hit her chest, and she felt herself fall to the ground as Alex hit George. As if in a dream she heard the sickening crash as her skull landed none to gently on a rock, and the ringing in her ears proceeding a splitting headache.
Richard jumped up first at the sight of his favorite intern knocked to the ground, and Burke and Christina were there seconds later.
"You assholes!" Christina shouted as Burke and Richard knelt down next to Meredith. "God, you two are so fucking stupid!" She fleeted between glaring at them, and peering over to make sure that Meredith was okay.
"What the hell is going on?" Derek shouted over the commotion as he quickly jogged over to the group. He literally felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of Meredith lying on the ground with blood seeping out of a cut along the hairline of her forehead.
Shoving Burke out of the way, he knelt down beside her. "I'm the fucking brain surgeon, I can take this."
Ignoring Richard and Burke, who were both in his way and trying to help, he cupped Meredith's face in one hand. "Meredith, Mer, can you hear me?"
She moaned in response, and it broke Derek's heart to see her injured like this.
"Get me a flashlight, a small one," he ordered Burke who was still hovering over his shoulder. "Meredith, can you look at me? Open your eyes, Mer," he coaxed gently.
Groaning, her eyes squinted open, and she winced visibly at the light the action exposed.
"Good. Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three," she croaked, her voice rough.
"Perfect." He couldn't resist rubbing her cheek a little as he waited for Burke to bring him a flashlight. "Thanks," he muttered when it was finally placed in his hand. "Okay, Mer, open your eyes all the way for me."
Quickly, he checked the responsiveness of her pupils. It seemed normal, and she had no trouble following the light or answering his questions.
"And what were those words, Meredith?"
"Fish, tent, bear," she said, even cracking a slight smile.
He smiled back. "Good." He checked her eyes one more time to make sure he hadn't missed anything. "I think you're fine, Mer, but I'll be checking you later today. Now let me look at that head wound."
Digging around in the first aid kit that had been brought over, Derek found a clean clothe to wipe away the blood so he could look at the cut more closely. Gently, he cleaned it, quickly determining she'd need stitches if she didn't want a scar.
"Okay, I'm going to need a fishing hook cut and sterilized, and someone better find me something I can sew this up with." He caught the horrified look in Meredith's eyes. "Its okay, it's no worse than a needle."
Meredith's expression showed she clearly thought that it was indeed worse than a needle, but she didn't verbally express this. With the headache she had, it just didn't seem worth the effort.
Burke made a sound that sounded a lot like repressed laughter. "Um, how about I just get you my suture kit?"
"That will work," Derek responded automatically. A moment later he looked back at Burke disbelievingly. "You brought a suture kit camping?"
"A couple years back I was hiking with a friend, and he fell, and actually the wound was quite similar to this one." He gestured towards Meredith. "We had to walk five miles back to the truck, and then drive two hours to the nearest hospital. It was all made worse by the fact that I could have taken care of it in about ten minutes if I had had the supplies. And let me tell you, I never go anywhere isolated without those things now."
"Okay, don't need the life story," Derek laughed, seeing humor in the situation now that there was an easy solution. "That would be very helpful." He turned back to a much relived Meredith. "Let's get you out of the shade so I'll have more light." He all but carried her over to a spot the guilty George and Alex had prepared and adjusted her head on the pillows brought out.
Burke came back with the kit as Derek used hand sanitizer, and Derek quickly snapped on the gloves from the suture kit. "Okay, someone hold a flashlight to give me more light, but everyone else move back, and let us breathe," he ordered.
"You okay, Mer?" he asked as he prepared his supplies.
"I've got one hell of a headache, but other then that, yes."
He smiled down at her for a minute, before he lifted his needle to her head. "All right, this is going to hurt, probably kind of a lot," he warned before he began.
She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, her little hand fisting around the bottom of his shirt. Derek finished his work as quickly as possible, the entire process taking no more than five minutes.
"That's it," he announced as he finished, gripping her chin so he could move her head to inspect his handiwork. "It should heal nicely."
After bandaging her head with some tape and gauze, he helped her to the nearest chair. "Okay, I'm prescribing these for the headache," he said with mock professionalism as he handed her some over-the-counter pills and a bottle of water. "Drink plenty, rest, and come back to see me in about two hours."
She giggled. "Thanks, Derek."
"No problem. And you can have more of that in about four hours," he told her referring to the medicine. "Unless you want alcohol tonight, then stop, because you really shouldn't mix the two."
"I think I'll stop then," she laughed.
"Just let me keep an eye on you," he said quietly, and she nodded. "Alright, the patient is released. I'll stop monopolizing her," he promised, turning to the rest of the group.
George and Alex were the first ones to come up to Meredith. "Meredith, are you okay? I am so sorry about that," Alex apologized.
"It's okay; I kept you up last night, now we're even."
Alex laughed good-naturedly, and ruffled her hair lightly.
"Sorby, Ber," George said through the wad of tissues he had against his nose. "Dat was an accibent."
"I'm just disappointed you didn't get a chance to win the fight. I wanted to see the fetus conquer the ass."
"Ouch. Injuries make you mean," Christina laughed. "Are you feeling okay?"
Meredith shrugged. "As well as can be expected."
"That's good because tonight is our last night in the wilderness, and we need to make the most of it!" Christina declared.
"Just give me tequila and I'll be up for anything!"
I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever! Life has just been really busy. I'm just starting tennis, and I turned in my history project from hell today. It was awful, this timeline thing we should have been working on year that I procrastinated until the last month or so. All major events of European history described, essay on some, art analysis, reading different historians and writing essay on that. But it's over. But it's also kind of crunch time or something in all my other classes, and I don't get home until 6, so don't be expecting too many updates. I'm really sorry.
Back to the story. Anyone have ideas on afternoon camping activities? I sort of stuck and considering just skipping to the evening.
Please review.