Day 10
All though Meredith sleeps soundly through the night, my internal doctor clock wakes me up at 6 AM again. I don't try to fight it, instead I try to use the time productively by checking up on things at the hospital.
Just because I'm on leave doesn't mean I'm off duty.
I sit at the kitchen table with my laptop and bowl of cereal as I check up on all my patients and scroll through my email. It's all said and done pretty quickly because all my patients are a few days post-op and anything new or emergent is handed off to Nelson and Weller. It's about 8:30 and I figure Meredith will be awake soon so I decide to make her breakfast. I quickly make French toast batter and fry up some bacon. It's truly an artery clogging, Meredith style breakfast. I arrange it all neatly on a tray; I also add a glass of orange juice and a pitcher of syrup which I know she'll use all of. I make my way upstairs and set the tray down on Meredith's bedside table. She's still asleep and I contemplate whether or not I should wake her. In the end I decide she'll more than likely go back to sleep later.
"Meredith." I whisper and rub her shoulder through the blankets.
"Mmmm?" She mumbles sleepily as she tries to pick her head up.
"I made you breakfast." I say.
"Okay." She sighs and burrows deeper into the blankets. I have to hold back the urge to chuckle. Mornings have never gone well with Meredith regardless of if she's sick or not.
"Do you want to eat?" I ask.
"Eat what?"She mumbles from under her blanket cocoon.
"The breakfast I made you." The urge to chuckle is barely held back by the seal of my lips.
"Oh." She doesn't say anything other than that and I almost think she's fallen back to sleep. "Yeah." She pushes the covers back some. I help prop her up on some pillows before I slide the tray into her lap. She blinks a few times before she slowly picks up the fork and knife and begins to eat.
"Thank you for making me breakfast." She says after a while. She's demolished most of her toast and all of the bacon.
"You're welcome." I say as I kiss the side of her head. "You're due for a pill." I reach around and grab the bottles off her bedside table. She swallows them with her remaining orange juice before she lets out a satisfied sigh and lies back against the pillows. I quickly take the tray downstairs and clean up before I head back upstairs. I expect to find Meredith asleep again but instead she's flipping through an old New England Journal of Medicine. She doesn't seem particularly engaged but I make no comment. Instead I climb into bed beside her and grab my book off of my end table. I find my way to the place I left off and begin reading.
When I look over at Meredith no more than fifteen minutes later the magazine has dropped from her grip and her head is tipped to one side. All though she's not snoring I can tell she's fallen back to sleep. I take the magazine from her lax grip and place it on the nightstand. I adjust her pillows so that her head is better position before I tuck the blankets around her and tiptoe out of the room. I continue my reading downstairs on the couch. I'm another chapter through my book when there's a soft knock at the door. I silently thank whoever it is for being quiet as I stand and answer the door.
"Hey man." Mark says as he steps into the house.
"Hey" I say as I close the door behind him. He sets a plastic bag on the table in the kitchen and begins pulling takeout containers out of it.
"Why…Oh." I think it's too early for lunch until I look up and see it's almost one in the afternoon.
"Yeah I figured you might be living on a slightly normal person schedule so I picked up some food." Mark shrugs.
"What are you doing here anyway?" It isn't that I'm not happy to see him, I just wasn't expecting him.
"I have the day off and you mentioned moving the TV and stuff but I thought I'd at least stop by and see how Grey's doing." Mark has a devilish smirk on his face. "Get some fresh gossip and insider information for my bets." I roll my eyes at him and turn back to the takeout.
"What did you get?" I ask.
"Italian, there's some for Grey in there too if she wants it." He says. I nod and grab the takeout container that's for her and put it in the fridge.
"Thanks man." I say as we sit down to eat. We eat quietly for a minute before Mark breaks the peace.
"How is Grey anyway?" He asks as he winds a particularly long strand of linguini around his fork.
"She's okay." She's mostly just been sleeping or resting. Nothing interesting for your gambling habit, sorry." I tease him. He fakes disappointment before going back to his food.
"How's her incision healing? I'm sorry I would've come stitched it up myself but Lexie kind of fell asleep on me." Mark says.
"Good. She ripped a few stitches day four post-op but other than that it's okay. I really haven't gotten much of a chance to look at it." I make a mental note to look at it tonight, possibly after she showers. "Thanks for offering though even if it is a little late."
After we finish eating, I go check on Meredith while Mark makes himself at home. Meredith is still sleeping and when I come downstairs Mark is on the couch watching a baseball game. I head to the kitchen and grab beers for each of us before I sit down beside him. He takes his drink wordlessly and we watch the TV. The game is in the 4th inning and its pretty close although I don't recognize the teams playing. We make the occasional remarks on different plays but all and all it's pretty quiet.
"Derek!" The voice is way to high pitched and far away to be Mark's but I look at him anyways. He's looking in the direction of the stairs and I look in the same direction before all the pieces fall into place.
"Meredith." I say as I stand all though I'm sure Mark already figured that out. I head up the stairs and I hurry down the hall. When I get to our bedroom, I find Meredith sitting up yawning and stretching her arms over her head. The gesture almost could've been some sort of comic bit if it weren't for how she tiredly leaned back against the pillows afterwards.
"Hey." I walk into the room and sit on my side of the bed.
"Hey." She says softly. I reach to brush a strand of loose hair from her forehead.
"How are you feeling?" I'm getting a little sick of asking the question and I'm sure she's sick of answering it but it needs to be asked.
"Okay." She gives a noncommittal shrug. However her stomach rumbles in contradiction. "A little hungry though." She giggles.
"Well you're in luck. Mark came over and he brought you food." I say.
"He's my new favorite person." She jokes and I feign hurt.
"Fine I see how it is." I cross my arms over my chest and pout.
"I'm kidding." She shoves me gently. "Can you go get me food now?" I smile and get up to go heat up her food. When I return to our room with a steaming container of fettuccini, a fork, and a glass of water Meredith is still sitting up and eagerly awaiting her lunch.
"Thank you." She says when I hand her the container.
"Mark's still here so while you're still awake we'll bring the TV up here." Meredith only nods in acknowledgement as she devours her food. When I head back downstairs, Mark is still camped out on the couch watching the baseball game.
"I hate to interrupt your whole relaxing thing you have going on but Meredith's awake so we're going to move the TV now." Mark grunts and stretches before he stands and flicks the TV off with the remote. We begin unplugging things and pulling the TV from the wall. With much grunting and swearing we manage to lug the TV upstairs, down the hall, and into the bedroom. Meredith watches as we go about plugging the setup back in and offers feedback on where to position it.
"Is that good?" I ask as I stand and wipe sweat from my brow.
"Yeah," Meredith nods, "and if not I can always move. I have this whole queen size mattress to work with." Her tone is light and joking with an undercurrent of frustration.
"That's the spirit Grey." Mark says. We do a final check before we turn on the TV to make sure it's working. The screen flickers to life so Mark and I high-five.
"Thanks man." I say.
"No problem." Mark wipes the sweat from his face with his shirt. "I'd like to stay longer but I should probably go home and shower."
"Okay well thanks for coming over." Meredith says from the bed.
"Anytime, I'll see you guys later." Mark leaves and a few moments later we hear the front door slam followed by the opening of a car door and the roar of an engine.
"I need a shower too." I say.
"Yeah you kind of do." Meredith looks me up and down and wrinkles her nose.
"You're one to talk." I tease. "You haven't showered since we've been home."
"I'm injured; you can't make fun of me." She pouts.
"I just lugged the TV upstairs for you; you can't make fun of me." I pout.
"Fine." She sighs.
"How about I shower really quickly then I help you shower?" I suggest. Meredith nods and I head off to take my shower.
When I'm finished I don't bother putting new clothes on. Instead I wrap a towel around my waist and go help Meredith. She's sitting up in bed waiting for me. I pull clothes for both of us from the dresser and set them in the bathroom before I re-enter the bedroom. I scoop Meredith up and carry her into the bathroom where I sit her atop the closed toilet. I help her strip to nothing but the bandage on her stomach.
"Let's leave the bandage on until after then it will just fall right off." I suggest and Meredith nods in agreement. I turn on the shower and make sure it's the right temperature before I help her over the ledge into the shower. I position us so Meredith is mostly in the spray and I am mostly out of it. I'm quick because Bailey's instructions were specific about ten minute showers so in no time lathering her hair with shampoo. I rinse and repeat with conditioner.
"Do you feel okay?" I ask Meredith as she rests her head against my chest.
"Yeah…just…getting tired." She mumbles. I quickly lather her body with soap and let the stream wash it away before I help her out of the shower. She drops onto the toilet lid like a bag of bricks. I quickly help her dress and I don't even bother dressing myself; I just carry her back to our room. I lay her down in the bed and pull her shirt up. The bandage peels off easy and I quickly rub some cream over the incision before replacing the bandage. I tuck Meredith in and kiss her forehead. Her eyes are closed and she doesn't respond so assume she fell asleep at some point. I quickly change into my pajamas and head downstairs for a snackish meal thing. I eat quickly before I climb into bed next to Meredith. When I lay down the clock reads 7:21 and I can't recall a time in the past year when I've gone to bed this early. Hell I can't recall a time since childhood that I've gone to bed this early. Meredith subconsciously adjusts to my presence in the bed and latches onto my hand.
"Goodnight Meredith. I love you."
AN: Heyo! Welcome back. I hope you liked the filler fluff. More to come on Meredith's scar. Keep leaving reviews, they make my day. Can you believe it? This story is already ten chapters long!