A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews to last chapter! I can't describe how happy I was after the response to the last chapter...I saw that many of you were concerned about Derek dying or Derek cheating. Welp, I think this update will speak for itself.
When You're Gone
I always needed time on my own
I never thought I'd
Need you there when I cry
And the days feel like years when I'm alone
And the bed where you lie
Is made up on your side
Meredith tried her best to focus on the abdomen of the man that lay open on the surgery table. Her head was full, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not shuck the galloping thoughts from her head. She was operating on a rare islet cell tumour; it could very well be called a once-in-a-lifetime surgery and yet, Meredith was having trouble in preventing her mind from straying around. For the first time in her life, Meredith Grey could not find peace of mind inside the OR and all of it was her husband, Derek's fault.
Meredith closed her eyes for a split second to inhale a deep breath before opening her eyes and carrying on with her work. However, this action of Meredith did not go unnoticed by Jo Wilson, the resident who was assisting Meredith in the surgery.
"Dr. Grey, are you okay?" Jo asked solicitously, having noticed the attending's distracted behaviour all morning.
Meredith's eyes snapped up to look into Jo Wilson's concerned dark brown ones. Meredith narrowed her eyes and replied testily, "Of course, I'm okay. I'm peachy. Why did you ask, Wilson? Do I look not okay to you?"
Jo was visibly stupefied by Meredith's less than friendly rejoinder. She stammered back, "No – it's not – I just – I thought that –"
Meredith cut Jo's sentence short. "Don't think so much, Wilson. If you stop using your head and start using your hands, I'll appreciate it. Now, use your hands and suction," Meredith snapped back.
Meredith's retort shut Jo up effectively and Jo cast her eyes downwards in silence. Meredith noticed the crestfallen look on the younger surgeon's face and immediately felt guilty for snapping at Jo for no reason at all. Meredith had not wanted to snap at Jo, but what could she have done? Meredith's foul mood that had been looming over her since the beginning of the day, was making her live up to her nickname of Medusa. And what, or rather who was the reason of Meredith's foul mood? Derek.
Meredith sighed inaudibly as she continued with the tumour removal, random thoughts still circling her head like hawks. It had been two whole days since she had had the talk with Derek, and after a lot of humming and hawing, Derek had finally left for D.C. that morning. And Derek leaving for D.C. earlier that morning was the source of all of Meredith's testiness and foul mood.
Meredith knew that she was the one who had decided that Derek needed to go to D.C. one last time in order for them to get some kind of closure on the whole chapter, but Meredith had never envisioned how difficult it was going to be for her when Derek would actually be gone. It had hardly been a couple of hours since Derek had left for D.C., and Meredith was already trepidatious and going crazy by the minute.
Meredith hated the fact that she was full of so much trepidation and insecurity only a few hours after Derek's departure, but she had no control over her mind. Her mind was already concocting various ominous scenarios, all of which included Derek not coming back from D.C. She had thought that maybe being inside the OR and cutting up someone's body would help her feel calmer, because whenever she was inside the OR, things kind of quietened down inside her otherwise messy head. But that day, none of her tricks were working; even surgery could not help her to get rid of her overwhelming worries.
"Retract the tissue, Wilson," Meredith ordered softly as she clamped the artery bypassing the area. As Meredith continued with the removal of the tumour, her mind strayed back involuntarily to the events of that morning.
Flashback to a few hours earlier –
Meredith leaned against the doorjamb as she watched Derek stand in front of the mirror and tie his necktie. Her green eyes met Derek's in the reflection in the mirror, and Derek turned around, his hands finishing up with the job of tying the tie. He then walked towards his wife and came to a halt in front of her.
"Meredith," Derek whispered, noticing the worries darkening Meredith's face, and he placed his palm against her cheek gently."I don't have to go, you know. Just say the word and I'll cancel the flight in a minute. If me going to D.C. worries you so much, then it's not worth it," Derek murmured, stroking her cheek gently with his knuckles.
Meredith leaned into her husband's familiar and oddly comforting touch and closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the feeling. She could not remember the last time Derek had stroked her cheek so lovingly, but she was sure that it had been a long time ago. Probably before he had received the first call from the White House, or maybe, before he had wanted to move to D.C. permanently. That had been so many months ago, and Meredith could not believe that she had not felt Derek's palm on her cheek in aeons. This was something that they had a habit of doing; this was something that used to happen almost every day, then what had gone wrong? How did they fall out of the habit? How did they lose all these little things in the span of only a few months?
Tears pricked Meredith's eyelids at the very thought, and she opened her eyes to gaze into the two pools of midnight blue that were staring back at her with concern and gentleness and – love. "Derek...We have talked about this a million times. This is something that...that you need to do in order for me to trust you again. This is something that needs to be done if we want our marriage back. And I wish there was another option, because this is a lot harder for me than it is for you, but...But, sadly, there isn't one," Meredith said softly, averting her eyes from Derek's face. She could not keep looking at Derek's face, because the more she looked at him, the more she felt like this was the last time she was seeing him. Meredith knew that her trepidation was baseless and nonsensical, but she could not help but think that Derek would not come back to her this time. She could not help but fear that this time, Derek was going to realize that he did not need her in his life and that he wanted a new life with someone new in D.C.
Derek let out a defeated sigh, knowing that there was nothing he could do to change Meredith's mind. And, if him going to D.C. could really help restore a jot of Meredith's trust in him, then he was willing to do it. Seeing Meredith so worried and vulnerable was not the best feeling in the world, but if that helped them to get their marriage back on track, then he would have to go with it.
"Okay, then...My flight is at 8:30 a.m., so I guess I need to get going in order to make it in time," he said in a soft tone, his reluctance to leave Meredith alone seeping into his voice. Meredith nodded her head silently, her eyes trained on an invisible spot on Derek's shirt in an effort to avoid looking in his eyes. Breathing out loudly, she raised her hands and smoothed her fingers against his tie, pretending to fix the impeccable knot.
"Meredith..." Derek whispered, noticing the way her eyes avoided looking up at him. "Meredith, look at me," he commanded gently, knowing full well that she was all but falling apart at the seams inside.
Meredith kept her eyes fixed on Derek's tie, refusing to look up at him, for she feared that if she looked up at him, she would not be able to let him walk away from her.
"Mer..." Derek murmured, tipping up her chin with his index finger and forcing her to meet his eyes. As Meredith's green eyes clashed with his cerulean ones, he noticed the faint sheen of tears covering Meredith's grey-green irises.
Meredith gulped and stared into his eyes for a minute, before throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him, taking him by surprise. Derek wrapped his arms around her waist, taken aback by her sudden embrace.
Meredith inhaled sharply as she buried her face in his shoulders, breathing in his scent one last time. She mentally chided herself for being so spineless; Derek was only going away for a day, not forever. And yet, Meredith's inner insecurities nagged her in the back of her mind, telling her constantly that this might be the last time she was getting the chance to embrace her husband.
"C – Come back to me. Just, come back home, to me," Meredith murmured into his shoulder, relishing the feeling of being in his arms.
Derek pressed his lips softly in her hair. "Of course, Mer. No matter where I go, no matter which part of the world I go to, I am always gonna come back home, to you," Derek stressed, trying to reassure her in the moment of departure.
Meredith nodded her head once more and then pulled back from him, smoothing her fingers against his shirt one last time. Neither of them said it aloud, but both of them knew that the time had come. Derek walked over to the bed to shrug on his jacket and Meredith gathered all his files and shoved them into his bag in the proper order. She held out the bag to him and he smiled, taking the bag from her and leaning forward to drop a chaste kiss on the crown of her head. Meredith wrapped her arms around herself and walked over to the front door to bid him goodbye.
"Call me when you land," Meredith murmured, her eyes watching his every move as he made his way to the door and opened it.
"I will," Derek replied, looking back at her one final time as he held the door open and the cold air rushed in from outside. There was a moment of long, pregnant silence stretching between them as they looked at each other.
Finally, Meredith broke the silence by saying, "You should get going. You will be late." She was surprised by how raspy her voice sounded.
Derek breathed out inaudibly and giving her a last lingering look, he turned around and walked out of the house.
Meredith hugged herself tighter as she leaned against the door and watched him walk away towards his car. She trained her eyes on his legs, counting the steps that he was taking until he got inside his car and whisked it away, vanishing from her line of sight.
When you walk away
I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?
When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missin' you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missin' too
When you're gone
The words I need to hear
To always get me through the day
And make it okay
I miss you
Meredith took a deep breath as she closed the forceps around the artery, preparing to take the tumour out. With delicate ease and impeccable skill, she excised the affected tissue and the surrounding healthy tissue successfully from the pancreas. Having removed the abnormal tissue successfully, Meredith looked up at Jo and then said, "Wilson, would you like to close after I finish here?"
Jo's eyes widened upon hearing Meredith's words. "Um – yeah, sure, Dr. Grey," Jo rejoined enthusiastically as her dark brown eyes remained suffused with surprise at the turnaround in Meredith's demeanour.
Meredith nodded her head and then turned her eyes back to the man's abdomen. "Cathy, what time is it?" Meredith asked one of the nurses.
"1:55 p.m., Dr. Grey," the nurse replied.
Meredith immediately looked up from her work, the thought crossing her mind that Derek must have landed in D.C. by then. She looked towards the nurse, Cathy and asked, "Cathy, would you mind checking my phone? It's on silent mode, so will you please check if I have any missed calls or new text messages?" Derek had said that he would call when he landed in D.C., and Meredith did not want to miss Derek's call.
Meredith tried to concentrate on her work as Cathy checked her phone for her. After a few minutes of never-ending wait for Meredith, Cathy finally said, "No, Dr. Grey. There are no new text messages or missed calls."
Meredith's heart deflated faster than an air balloon on hearing Cathy's reply. No missed calls or text messages? But, but, Derek had said that he would call when he arrived in D.C. It took about five hours to travel from Seattle to D.C., and those five hours were already over. Then, why had Derek not called her? Meredith's head presently buzzed with unanswered, brooding questions and thoughts; thoughts about why Derek had not called her. Was Derek – no, that could not be – was Derek with someone? Was that why he had not called her? Because he was preoccupied with...Meredith's thoughts trailed off into dangerous, darkly menacing territories.
Meredith's heart dropped into her stomach at the thought crossing her mind. No, she could not think like that; she had to get a grip on herself. Maybe, maybe, Derek's flight was late. Yeah, that could be the case; Derek's flight was late and so, he was still on the flight and he had not called her. She could not distrust Derek like this; he would never do that to her. He would never lie to her like that; she could not forget the sincerity and the love that she had seen in his eyes when he had left the house in the morning. She could never doubt the veracity of his love and his commitment like that. Besides, it had barely been five hours since Derek's departure; it was highly possible that he had just landed and was preparing to call her. Yes, it was either of the two cases; Derek – he would never betray her again.
Meredith tried her level best to convince herself, but the incessant internal struggle continued inside her head. She aspirated deeply to dispose of all the unpleasant thoughts from her head, but she failed abysmally. Soon enough, Meredith's stomach was in knots and she felt the bile rise in her throat, making her want to throw up. She swallowed back deeply and looked up at Jo, her head feeling light-headed.
"Wilson, I'm finished with the critical part. Can you come and take over from here?" Meredith asked, her voice holding a silent plea in it. She needed to get out of the OR as soon as possible; she felt suffocated inside the jam-packed room and could hardly breathe.
Jo looked up at Meredith and gave her a concerned look. "Sure, Dr. Grey," Jo replied and moved over to the other side of the table to take the instruments from Meredith's hands.
Handing over the instruments to Jo, Meredith asked for the sake of asking, "You sure that you can manage it from here?" In reality, Meredith wished, no, she needed Jo to be able to manage the rest of the procedure on her own.
"Yes, Dr. Grey, I am sure," Jo rejoined confidently, eyeing the attending carefully.
"Oh – okay, that's great. I will scrub out then," Meredith said and all but bolted out of the room, leaving a bewildered Jo in her wake.
Meredith barrelled into the scrub room and quickly discarded her surgical gown and gloves. She pulled off the surgical mask covering her face and bent over the sink, taking in mouthfuls of air to calm herself down. She gripped the sink with her hands and was surprised to see that they were trembling slightly. Meredith closed her eyes as she leaned over the sink, her breath coming in short, harsh pants. Her whole chest burned from inside, as if it had been set on fire; her legs trembled as they struggled to balance her body weight.
Meredith tried to regain her composure with all her might, but her body revolted and her quivering legs gave out. She collapsed on the floor, her whole body trembling and her lungs imploding inside her ribcage. Meredith gave up on her attempts of trying to regain her composure, and sat slumped against the wall beside the sink, struggling to breathe. The burning sensation in her chest intensified, and her vision started to become blurry. Meredith clutched the part of her scrub top covering her chest and blinked rapidly in a feeble attempt to clear her blurring vision. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a subconscious thought about panic attacks passed, but Meredith's chest was burning so fiercely that she became unaware of everything but the burning sensation. It was like time and matter, everything ceased to exist at the moment, everything except Meredith and that burning sensation rooted deep in the very fibre of her being.
Meredith leaned her head against the wall, gasping for breath as she continued to clutch her scrub top with all her might. The ceiling of the room spun in and out of her vision constantly, and her throat started to close up from the inside. The burning sensation that had been restricted to only a part of her chest, now spread out to her entire chest and came up to her throat. Meredith's chest heaved as she gave in to the cataclysmic sensation overmastering her entire body, and the world started spinning out of her view. Slumping against the wall, Meredith's body trembled like a leaf as she closed her eyes and the cataclysm ripped through her body, leaving her a tremulous, gasping and panting mess.
Minutes ticked by and the burning sensation slowly ebbed away, leaving Meredith short of breath. She opened her mouth to allow large intakes of air, her trembling hands finally letting go of the material of her scrub top. Her breaths gradually evened out, and she waited for the aftershocks of the panic attack to pass. Breathe and wait, breathe and wait, breathe and wait – she followed the same pattern as her heart regained its normal rhythm. A remnant of the earlier burning sensation remained lodged in a small part of her chest, terribly weakened by then. Meredith finally opened her eyes and the ceiling of the room swam back into view, and she let out a relieved sigh.
Much more conscious now, Meredith realized that she had to get up from her current position before someone found her. She could not risk other people see her breaking apart, and so, gathering her remnant strength, Meredith placed one quivering hand on the floor and endeavoured to get up. She failed and slumped back against the wall, letting out a frustrated, unsteady breath. She waited a few seconds and then tried again with all her might, but she only managed to raise herself up an inch before falling back to her position. Meredith groaned in frustration and exasperation, but the groan came out more like a strangled, guttural noise.
Meredith rested her head against the wall, staring up at the ceiling for a few minutes and waiting for her strength to come back. As a few more minutes passed by, Meredith made her third attempt to get up from her position beside the sink. This time, she succeeded in raising her body to a standing posture, having regained some of her earlier strength. Shaking, Meredith gripped the sink with her hand for support and grabbed the sponge with the trembling fingers of her other hand.
Inhaling an unsteady breath, Meredith let go of her support slowly and started scrubbing out. She needed to get to an on-call room pronto in order to gather herself before someone saw her. With that resolve in mind, Meredith held her hands under the warm, gushing flow of water, letting it wash away all the dirt from her hands.
Suddenly, an outré, random thought came to Meredith's mind out of nowhere. It was in this scrub room that Derek had kissed her when she had been an intern. Meredith still remembered vividly how she and Derek had been elated that day after they had finished a complicated procedure successfully, and in all the excitement and elation, Derek had kissed her. It had been a soft, sweet, lingering kiss that had made Meredith's toes curl in her shoes and had made her want more.
But, that had been ages ago, why was she remembering it now? It seemed to her that all of those past, pleasant memories were of another lifetime, and she was living in an entirely different lifetime right now. Meredith let out a soft sigh as the memory faded away as suddenly as it had appeared, and she grabbed one of the paper towels to dry her slightly trembling hands.
I've never felt this way before
Everything that I do
Reminds me of you
And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor
And they smell just like you
I love the things that you do
Carrying her trembling legs forward, Meredith made her way out of the scrub room and over to the nearest empty on-call room. Entering the dark room and pushing the door shut, she leant against the closed door and finally took the time to mull over what had just happened. Now that the storm had passed, Meredith could barely believe that she had just had a panic attack in the scrub room. She had all but passed out in the scrub room only a few minutes ago, but the whole experience already felt so surreal to her. It had been ages since she had had a panic attack, and Meredith could barely recollect that experience. Then, why did she have a panic attack today, all of a sudden and apparently, for no reason at all?
Meredith pushed herself off the door and walked over to the empty bed and slowly lowered herself onto the mattress, taking a deep breath as she sat down. She would be lying to herself if she said that she had no idea why she had the panic attack; she might not know the whole reason, but she did know part of it. The thought of Derek with another woman, the very thought of Derek cheating on her had made her spiral into an awful panic attack, and Meredith could not deny that fact.
Meredith tried not to think of Derek with another woman again lest she experience another panic attack coming her way. But, the more she tried not to think about it, the more her mind wandered in that territory. Ghastly images of Derek with an imaginary woman made their way through her mind at warp speed, and Meredith felt the bile rise in her throat once more. However, this time, she could not swallow back and so, she made a dash to the bathroom in order to throw up.
Meredith bent over the toilet and dry-heaved a few times, before spilling the little contents of her stomach into the toilet. She panted as she leant back slightly to gather herself, before she felt the urge to vomit once more. She threw up again, this time, nothing coming up from her empty stomach but clear liquid and Meredith sat down on the cold floor in defeat.
After a few minutes had passed, Meredith finally pushed herself off the floor and walked over to the basin to splash some cold water on her face. She felt strangely light-headed at the moment, and the room seemed to spin around her. Splashing the water on her face, Meredith closed her eyes and willed the room to stop spinning. She splashed water on her face again and turned off the faucet, letting the water droplets cling to her skin.
Closing the door of the bathroom, Meredith came and lay down on the bed and closed her eyes, hoping that she would feel slightly better. This time, Meredith really had no idea why she was feeling so queasy, but she certainly hoped that it was a momentary thing and it would pass. Because, Meredith did not want to fall sick when Derek was away; the mere implication that Derek's absence had been enough to make her ill, was something that Meredith did not want to encounter. The last thing she wanted was for Derek to think that she was a pathetic, needy, clingy, spineless woman who needed her husband with her at all times.
When you walk away
I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?
As Meredith was lying, the door of the on-call room parted slightly, letting the light from outside illumine the dark room. The sudden light startled Meredith out of her somnolent state, and she opened her eyes slowly to see that someone was standing in the doorway. She blinked a few times to let her eyes adjust to the sudden light and tried to discern the person who was entering the room.
After a few seconds, Meredith could make out the form of Jo Wilson standing in the doorway, wearing a dubious expression on her face.
"Wilson?" Meredith asked as she raised herself from her lying position to a sitting posture.
Jo bit her lip and remained silent for a moment. After a few seconds, Jo spoke. "Sorry, Dr. Grey. I did not mean to disturb you; it's just that you left your phone in the OR. I just came to give it back to you and to tell you that the surgery finished smoothly. Mr. Thompson is in post-op now."
Meredith's eyes filled with comprehension as Jo walked inside the room and timidly handed Meredith her phone. Meredith could see that the younger surgeon was concerned, but did not have the guts to ask her again.
"Jo, I'm okay. A little tired, that's why I was having a lie-down. And," Meredith paused, then continued, "Sorry for snapping at you earlier in the OR. I'm just...having a bad day, I guess."
Jo's eyes suffused with sympathy as she said, "It's okay, Dr. Grey. I didn't mind. We all have bad days...I hope you feel better soon...Um, I will let you rest, then."
Meredith nodded her head as Jo walked back to the door and exited the room. Meredith sighed softly before lying down on the bed once more and closing her eyes. But, her phone had already triggered thoughts of Derek again, and even as Meredith tried to go back to sleep, she failed to do so. Thoughts of Derek with another woman kept haunting her, plaguing her, nauseating her.
As Meredith rolled onto her side, her phone suddenly beeped, the shrill tone of the phone piercing the silence of the room. Meredith thanked the universe for providing her with a distraction from her ominous thoughts and raised herself up on an elbow to reach for phone.
The bright light of the cell phone's screen was the only source of light in the otherwise dark room, and it cast a ghostly shadow on Meredith's face as she looked at it. She saw that she had just received a text message, and she decided to leave it unread for the time being. Plopping down on the bed, she tried to go back to sleep again, but her thoughts kept on haunting her to no end.
Finally, giving up on the idea of sleep, Meredith grabbed her phone from its position beside the pillow and swiped her finger across the screen to unlock it and check the message she had received. She casually tapped the message open, but the minute she saw who it was from, her eyes popped out of their sockets and she bolted to sit in an upright position. The message was from no one else but Derek – Derek, who was the source of all the haunting thoughts crowding her mind.
"Meredith, I just landed at the airport. The flight was an hour late. I hope you are okay. I miss you; every moment that we are apart, you are in my thoughts. Love you and take care. –D"
Meredith read the message over and over again, feeling a wave of warm, joyous relief sweeping over her body. Suddenly, all her earlier worries, qualms and queasiness drained away from her body, and she felt better than she had felt all morning. Derek had texted her, Derek was thinking about her, Derek missed her – the very knowledge of that fact eased Meredith's brooding thoughts away from her mind, at least for the time being. Breathing out softly in relief, Meredith felt the tears pooling in her eyes as she read Derek's message once more. Derek had texted her, he was thinking about her and he was not with another woman, he was not cheating on her, Meredith kept playing it again and again inside her head, effectively shutting up the small voice in the back of her head that always made her distrust Derek.
Meredith closed her eyes to push back the tears of relief that had formed in her eyes, and contemplated whether she should tell Derek about the panic attack she had had. What would Derek think about her if he knew? Wouldn't he think that she was too weak and clingy and pathetic? Okay, knowing Derek, he probably would not think that, but the knowledge of her panic attack would definitely unsettle Derek. He might even rush back home upon hearing about her panic attack. No, she could not do that, she needed to prove to herself and to Derek that she could trust Derek not to be unfaithful to her. She and Derek needed to get closure on the whole incident; without closure, they would never be able to move forward and heal.
With that thought in mind, Meredith typed in a reply for Derek.
"I am okay. Thanks for texting me; hope you finish up all the work smoothly. Can't wait for you to be back home. –M"
Meredith tapped the send option to send the text to Derek. She then placed her phone aside and rubbed her palms on her face, relaxing for the first time since Derek had left for D.C. Yes, she had been worried, she had been worried and scared to death that Derek was with another woman, but Derek's message had alleviated her worries for the moment. It gave her hope, hope that she and Derek would be okay at some point along the broken road.
We were made for each other
Out here forever
I know we were
Yeah, yeah
And all I ever wanted was for you to know
Everything I do, I give my heart and soul
I can hardly breathe; I need to feel you here with me
Yeah
Meredith made her way towards an on-call room for the second time that day, but thankfully, this time, she was not rushing to an on-call room because of a panic attack. This time, she was walking over to an on-call room at the end of her shift to have a lie-down before she picked up the kids from day-care and headed home.
It was 6 in the evening, and she had not talked to Derek all day, except that text message he had sent her earlier during the afternoon. He was probably busy with all the work in D.C., and that was probably why he had not called. Meredith could not exactly blame him though; after recovering from her earlier panic attack, she had been too busy to call or text him too. A phone worked two ways, after all. Though, Meredith had been slightly dubious about calling Derek during the day lest he think that she was checking up on him every other minute. Besides, she had to let go of her unnecessary fears and suspicions, and for that, she had controlled the urge to call Derek on her own, even if it made her fret to no end. But, now, as the day winded down, Meredith felt the need to hear her husband's voice, even if it was just over the phone. She might even tell Derek about the panic attack; she had been mulling it over all day, and Derek would probably know all the right words to say to her in order to comfort her. Her husband definitely had a way with words; how could she forget that a simple text from him earlier that day had allayed all her misgivings in a heartbeat?
Entering an empty on-call room, Meredith closed the door and deposited herself on one of the beds. Shucking her lab coat, Meredith took out her phone from the pocket of the coat and opened up her contacts list. She needed to talk to Derek pronto, and she also needed to ask him when he would be arriving home. Derek had told her before leaving for D.C. that he would catch a flight and return home that very day, even though he would probably be arriving in the middle of the night.
Tapping on Derek's name in the contact list, Meredith pressed the call button and placed the phone against her ear, waiting for Derek's voice to come on the other end. The ring went on a few times, and Meredith picked up on a thread of her lab coat as she waited patiently for Derek to pick up.
However, the ring kept on going till it reached Derek's voicemail. Meredith furrowed her brows together and hung up the call, misgivings immediately starting to creep into her mind. Why was Derek not picking up his phone? Was he still busy? But, he had said that he would be returning home that very day, so, shouldn't he have finished up all his work by now? All these questions clouded Meredith's mind as she pressed the call button once more.
The ring went on again, and the call was again diverted to voicemail. Meredith's heart began to race as she disconnected the call and tried again. What the hell was going on? Was Derek so busy that he could not pick up his phone once in the entire day? It was not like she had been bugging him all day with phone calls; she was calling him for the first time since his departure and he still could not receive the call for a minute?
The ring went on four times, and just as Meredith was about to disconnect the call in frustration, someone picked up on the other line. Thinking that it was Derek, Meredith opened her mouth to speak, but she did not get the chance to utter a single syllable as the person on the other end spoke before she could.
"Hello?" The high voice came from the other end, taking Meredith by astonishment, fear and the weirdest sense of déjà vu.
When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missin' you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missin' too
When you're gone
The words I need to hear
Will always get me through the day
And make it okay
I miss you...
A/N: I know, I know, another cliffhanger, and a very mean one. But, just so that we are clear, initially, this chapter did not have any cliffs. But, then I started to write and stuff started coming to my head and things snowballed into this cliffhanger. I promise to get you off the cliff soon, though.
Let me know what you guys think, because that's the only way of knowing how I am doing. I appreciate all your thoughts :)
Song Lyrics from "When You're Gone" by Avril Lavigne