Meredith sighs as she pulls into her driveway. Blaine is crying softly in the back seat so she rushes to get out and remove him from his car seat. He clings desperately to her neck and she can feel the heat radiating from his skin, already more intense than it was when the left the hospital. She runs her hand slowly up and down his back in a feeble attempt to comfort him.
"Mommy's so sorry that you aren't feeling well, Blainey, if I could I would take it away. I would take away all of your pain." Her voice is laced with pain and unshed tears as the suffering of her son pulls sharply at the thin bundles of muscles that make up her heart.
He lifts his head from her neck before throwing up all over the front of her scrub top. He immediately starts crying. Crying from the churning in his stomach, the pain in his head, and the nasty taste in his mouth. Meredith doesn't care about the vomit that now stains the front of her scrubs as she rushes into the house.
Meredith is a doctor. She treats sick patients all the time. But this isn't juts a patient. This is her son. This is her life. This is her everything and the panic begins to rise. He's coughing. He's vomiting. His fever is rising. He is screaming at the top of his lungs. These are the thoughts that stream constantly through Meredith's mind over the next few hours.
She has managed to change into an old tank top and a pair of sweats during one of the short intervals in which Blaine was actually able to sleep. She pulls her hair up into a messy ponytail as she runs down the stairs, not wanting to leave Blaine alone for more than a few moments. Just as her foot hits the last step the doorbell rings. She sighs in frustration before glancing at the door.
Her heart stops at the figure standing there. She can read his pained expression from several feet away. She pauses momentarily as everything fades away. She is snapped back to reality by Blaine's piercing screams. She immediately runs forward and jerks open the door.
"I can't talk right now." Her voice is laced with panic as she turns and runs towards her crying son, leaving the door wide open.
The screams of his son reach his ears and he steps inside and closes the door behind him. He can hear Meredith's voice coming from the living room.
"Oh baby, your fever has gone up."
Derek takes a step towards where Meredith disappears, but she reappears before he is even half way there. She has a screaming Blaine on her shoulder and is rushing towards the door with her purse slung over her shoulder. She stops when she sees Derek and looks up at him with wide eyes.
"I thought you left," she tells him in a voice full of desperation.
Derek furrows his brow with concern as he already begins to fill the worry that is associated with parenthood.
"Is he okay?" he asks as he motions towards Blaine.
He notices that Meredith's eyes are filled with unshed tears. Tears that are the result of an immense amount of worry. His question seems to snap her out of her own little world to which she retreated when she saw that he was still standing in her house.
"No. He's not okay." Her voice is curt as she answers him briskly. How dare he ask her about her son? Sure he contributed half the DNA, but he hasn't been there. He didn't show. He didn't even care enough to show.
"Mer.." His voice is pleading as the shortening of her name comes as second nature to him.
She sticks her hand up in the hair to stop any more words from coming out of his mouth, especially her name. No one has said her name with such reverence since the last time she saw him and she can't deal with this now. She can't have this conversation now. Not when she is already an emotional wreck.
"I can't. Not right now. I just…can't. I have to go."
Meredith begins to walk past him. She is frantic. She is scared as hell. Blaine has never been this sick. He has never had a fever this high and she knows that it needs to come down. It needs to come down right now.
Derek reaches out and grabs her elbow. She looks at him quickly, trying to deny the fact that a shiver just ran from the spot where he is touching her and diffused throughout her body, providing her with a warmth that she hasn't felt since the last time he touched her twenty-seven long months ago.
"Please, Derek. I have to take him to the hospital."
He can hear the tears that are threatening to fall in her voice. He looks at her carefully and at the bright red, tear-stained face of his son.
"I'll drive you."
"No. You don't have to." She responds, hesitation in her voice.
"You shouldn't drive. You are too upset. I will drive your car and you can sit in the backseat with Blaine." There is a pleading in his voice.
Meredith wants to say no. She really wants to tell him no, but he makes a point. She would have to leave Blaine in the backseat all alone while he is feeling so terrible. Plus, she is so panicked she would probably get in an accident on the way to the hospital.
She bites down on her bottom lip and sighs in frustration.
"Fine," she says pointedly while shoving her keys forcefully into his hand.
Derek can't help but allow a small smile to curve the corner of his lip upward as he follows her out the door and to her banged up blue jeep. She is already in the backseat, trying to pry Blaine off of her neck so that she can place him in his car seat. He climbs into the front seat and has to turn the ignition a few times before the old car rumbles to life.
"He won't get in his car seat. Just go."
The sound of her voice causes him to turn back and face her. She has tears cascading down her face as she runs her fingers through Blaine's thick curls.
"It will be okay."
Meredith snaps her head in his direction.
"You don't know that. You do not know that. You have no idea what it's like. No idea." There is fire in her eyes and venom in her voice as she spits these words in his direction. She sees the hurt that reflects in his eyes, but right now, right now she doesn't give a damn about the hurt that he is feeling. He has been hurting her for the past twenty-seven months. She only cares about the pain her little boy is suffering.
Derek opens his mouth to say something, but decides that now is not the time. He puts the jeep in reverse and backs out of the drive way. He can tell that it isn't going to be easy. He can tell that he has hurt her. He just needs to explain. He needs to explain why he didn't show. He needs to tell her how he feels.
He hears Blaine coughing and turns to see him vomiting all over Meredith. His parental instinct immediately kicks in as he begins to drive a little faster.