Chapter 12

"Wait here," Terry orders. He steps out of his car and draws his gun. Derek watches him make his way to the cabin.

While Terry and his team tread towards the cabin, Derek's eyes wander over its exterior. He is enraptured by the cabin and its sense of history. He doesn't spend much time thinking about the cabin, however. He looks back at the front door of the cabin waiting to see Meredith, but Terry emerges without neither Meredith nor Scott. His posture slips. He steps out of the car and towards Terry.

"They at least were here," Terry explains upon seeing Derek's arrival.

Suddenly, the loud, horrifying sound of a gunshot fills Derek's ears. He jumps and immediately looks towards the woods to his right where he perceives it to have come from. He looks at Terry to see the same shocked expression. Derek immediately turns and runs to his right heading for the tree line. He vaguely hears Terry shouting at him to stop before he disappears into the woods.

Derek's mind races. The gunshot could have come from a hunter in the distance, trying to kill dinner or a car backfire. He knows the most likely scenario is that it's a shot from Scott's gun.

Derek frantically searchers for Meredith, shouting out her name but hearing no answer. The cold begins to nibble at his body as he is only wearing jeans, a light jacket, and tennis shoes. He ignores the cold and continuously searches for Meredith, dodging sporadic trees.

Once again a gunshot goes off and he stops dead in his tracks taking only a few seconds to decipher the direction of the sound. He takes off running but stops when he sees Scott simply walking through the snow, looking down. The gun is dangling in his right hand.

Derek jumps behind a tree, disappearing from Scott's sight. He watches Scott move as slow as a sloth through the snow, shuffling his feet as if he was coming back from an exhausting day at work.

Derek weasels himself around some trees to get closer to Scott without being spotted. He takes a running start and throws himself at Scott, easily knocking Scott to the ground and the gun from his hand. Derek pins Scott on his back using his weight as restraints. His left hand with the cast on it makes it that much more difficult. "Where is she?!" Derek screams.

Scott simply smiles. His response is a fist to the jaw, violently snapping his head to the right to absorb Derek's punch. Anger boils over in Scott and he manages to throw Derek off of him. He turns on his belly and scatters to his feet for the gun.

Derek lands on his butt with a painful thud. He sees Scott going after the gun. Ignoring the pain, he quickly gets to his feet. This is one fight he cannot afford to lose. As Scott is bending over to pick up the gun, Derek dives for him. As Derek's stomach collides with the ground, his outstretched arms latches onto Scott's ankle, knocking Scott to the ground beside the gun. Scott begins to kick his foot trying to unlatch Derek's hands from his ankle.

Derek, determined to hang on even though the pain in his hand is excruciating, begins to claw his way up the length of Scott's body for the gun located by Scott's upper thigh, out of reach from both men. With a burst of energy, Derek painfully holds Scott's legs together to prevent him from kicking and snatches the gun. He scrambles to his feet and points the gun at Scott who is still lying in the snow. "Where is she?"

Scott slowly crawls to his feet. "Kill me and you'll never know," he says.

Derek wants nothing more than to kill Scott after all he has put his family through but he knows he is right. He does not lower the gun though.

Just then Terry emerges into sight with his gun trained on Scott. Without glancing at Derek, he says, "I got this."

Hesitantly, Derek lowers the gun and backs away from Scott. He takes satisfaction when he sees Scott wiping blood from his face.

"It's over now, Scott," Terry says. "Tell me where Meredith is." He orders his men to move in to arrest Scott.

Even with the handcuffs on, Scott does not volunteer the information.

Derek grits his teeth and prepares himself to punch Scott again.

Realizing there's nothing more, Scott opens his mouth. "Wait," he shouts. Derek stops. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? We heard two gunshots," Derek yells.

Scott looks around. "I was going to shoot her but she got up and ran away. I tried to shoot her while she ran but I missed twice."

Derek wraps his hand around Scott's neck, squeezing ever so slightly. "Then what happened?"

"As she was running she fell down an embankment. I looked down but I didn't see her so I figured she's as good as dead," Scott manages even with Derek's hand around his throat. He points in the direction where he was coming from. "It's over there."

Derek lets go of Scott's neck but not before pushing him backwards hard. He sprints in the direction that Scott pointed. When he reaches the embankment, he stops and looks down. Fallen trees and rocks litter the slope. The snow makes everything that much more dangerous. With worry in his heart and in his mind, Derek descends the slope with Terry right behind him. The embankment is at least 50 feet, making the descent almost impossible. Both men reach the bottom of the slope having slipped at least once.

Derek scans the bottom of the embankment to his left while Terry scans to his right. Within moments two more officers join the search.

Derek runs along the embankment, looking for any sign of Meredith. Up ahead he sees a track in the snow as if somebody has fallen down the embankment. He picks up his speed and quickly sees a lifeless Meredith at the bottom. He runs up to her and kneels down beside her.

Derek takes in Meredith's condition. The dress that she is wearing provides no protection against the cold causing her body to go into hypothermia. The little body heat Meredith has retained has caused the snow around her to melt, soaking her dress. She has a few scratches on her arms and legs probably from her fall. The old cuts on her face remain in the first stages of healing but a new, deeper cut on the back of Meredith's head caused Meredith to lose blood and consciousness. All the feelings of dread, fear and worry come rushing back from the time Meredith drowned. She looks exactly how she did back then.

"Can I get some help over here?!" Derek screams.

He reaches for Meredith's hand. Tears roll down his face. He can't imagine his life without Meredith nor can he imagine Zola's life without a mom. His heart aches for his wife. He has missed her so much in these past days since Scott had her. He would give anything to take Meredith's place. He bends down and kisses her on the forehead, holding back more tears that threaten to escape. He takes Meredith in his arms and begins to hike back up the embankment. Her extremities dangle lifelessly. Terry tries to support Meredith's head while the other two officers provide Derek with support.

Once in the car, Derek sits in the back seat with Meredith, holding his jacket to Meredith's head wound to stifle the bleeding while Terry drives, with his sirens on to the hospital. He constantly keeps checking Meredith's pulse and breathing because at any moment she can slip away.

xoxo

Meredith's eyes open slowly as if she's afraid of seeing where she is. But she doesn't see wooden cabin walls. Instead she sees flowered wallpaper. She begins to cry as she realizes where she is. A soft, gentle touch of her hand startles her. She looks to her right. She sees Derek beside her hospital bed, stroking her hand.

Derek stands up from his seat. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asks gently. He begins to stroke her hair.

Meredith smiles. "Nothing. I'm just so glad to be here with you."

Derek smiles from ear to ear and bends down to kiss her on the lips. Without a word he crawls into the hospital bed and encloses Meredith in his arms with her back against his stomach. He smells Meredith's hair and smiles. "I missed you so much," he tells her.

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed my fanfic. Thanks to all of you for reading and a special thanks to those who reviewed! I may do an epilogue but I don't know yet.