Day 11
This morning I realize there is no food in the house. At all.
We don't usually keep the fridge stocked to the brim because the life of a surgeon is unpredictable and in the 72 hours it takes to deal with a trauma a half gallon of milk can go bad. So we thrive on non-perishables and half dozen eggs at a time. However as I go to pour my cereal only the little shredded crumbles of what was my cereal fall into the bowl and when I check the fridge we are completely out of eggs and have only a smidge of milk left. Which leaves me with a dilemma: I have to go grocery shopping but I don't want to leave Meredith alone. I know Mark is on shift and after a quick conversation with him I know that so is Cristina and Lexie is still taking care of Thatcher. That leaves me with Alex Karev. I don't dislike Alex I just don't know him that well. The only reason we hang out is because of Meredith and that camping trip that happened years ago. He seems nice enough and he cares about Meredith which I can appreciate I just don't know what to say to him. Nonetheless I'd rather not have Meredith starve so I grab my phone and call the number Meredith programmed into my phone after we got back together.
"Hello?" The voice of Alex Karev greets me on the other end of the line.
"Alex? It's Derek." I say.
"So?" He sounds irritated.
"I need you to do me a favor." I say.
"No." He says.
"It's for Meredith." I try.
"Why? What's up?" His tone turns from aggravation to concern.
"I need to go out and I need you to stay with her." I say.
"I thought you weren't working." His voice hardens again.
"I'm not but we're out of food." I say dejectedly. I hear him sigh and there's some rustling in the background.
"Fine I'll be there in forty minutes tops." He says. "I want surgeries for this though."
"Three surgeries. You can assist and there will be no Mercy Westers." I promise.
"Cool." He says then the line goes dead. I head upstairs to change into more presentable clothes and to check on Meredith. She's still asleep which is to be expected. I change quietly before I kneel down beside her so that I am eye level with her.
"Meredith." I whisper as I run my fingers along her cheek. "Meredith."
"Hmmm." She mumbles and shifts a little but shows no signs of true wakefulness.
"Meredith." I try again. "Hey I need you to wake up for a second."
"Whaa…" She opens her eyes this time and squints at the change in light.
"I need to go to the store." I squeeze in my whole agenda while I know I have her attention. "Alex is coming over to stay with you, okay?"
"M'kay." She mumbles into her pillow. I brush the loose hair out of her eyes and peck her cheek. I grab my watch off the dresser and head downstairs to wait for Alex and leave Meredith to sleep.
True to his word Alex knocks on the door forty minutes after we talked looking exhausted and carrying a Walmart bag in his right hand.
"Hey man." I say as I open the door and let him in. He grunts in place of a greeting and immediately kicks of his shoes.
"So Meredith is still asleep and she'll probably stay that way; feel free to make yourself comfortable." I say gesturing around.
"Dude you sound like a parent talking to a babysitter. Mer's a grownup I'll just make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." He shrugs and trudges over to the couch where he collapses and pulls a box of cereal out of his Walmart bag. I don't really know what to say to that so I just grab my keys and leave.
The grocery shopping goes by pretty quick and I even manage to pick up a few books, movies and magazines for Meredith. When I return home, Alex's car is still in the driveway but he's nowhere to be found when I enter the house. I bring in all the groceries and put stuff away before I go on my search for Alex and Meredith. Finally when everything is in its place I head upstairs to the master bedroom. I find Alex camped out on my side of the bed and Meredith on her side. They're both sitting up and Meredith is leaning her head on his shoulder. They appear to watching some crappy daytime TV and passing Alex's cereal between each other. I almost want to leave them be but Meredith notices me before I can back out of the room.
"Hey." She smiles at me.
"Hey." I reply. Alex looks up from the TV screen and when he sees me he gets up off the bed.
"Kept her alive for you." He says, thrusting his thumb in Meredith's direction.
"Oh yes because I was soooo difficult." She rolls her eyes at him. He smirks and gently pushes past me on his way out of the room.
"Alex!" Meredith calls out, "you forgot your cereal!"
"Keep it." He yells back. I hear some scuffling around downstairs then the front door slams.
"So you had fun?" I ask as I sit in the spot Alex had just been occupying. Meredith nods as she shovels a mouthful of cereal into her mouth.
"Do you want a real breakfast or are you happy with your cereal?" I tease. Meredith smirks mockingly at me and throws a piece of cereal at me and I take that as my answer. She then snuggles up next to me and I wrap my arm around her.
"What are we watching?" I ask.
"Don't know, don't care." Meredith says.
"Well aren't we in a mood this morning." I say mockingly. Meredith sneers at me playfully.
"I've reached that point in my recovery where I feel well enough to do things but I can't and it's annoying." She says.
"You've only been home for three days." I point out.
"I knooow" Meredith moans as she flops back on her pillow. "I'm still bored though."
"Now I regret offering the trailer to Izzie and Alex." I say as I roll onto my back.
"You didn't really offer so much as force." Meredith grumbles as she too rolls onto her back.
"Mmmm." I mumble in agreement. We're quiet for a few minutes before an idea strikes me.
"We could go watch the ferryboats."
"What?" Meredith picks her head up to look at me.
"We could go to that spot you took me to when we were first dating, with the cliff where you can see the ferryboats." I feel like I've struck gold but Meredith looks a little hesitant.
"It's a good idea but…" She trails off and bites her lip.
"But…?" I push.
"It's just…the car was really uncomfortable." Meredith says sheepishly. "I mean it's a good idea and all. I just don't think I can sit in the car that long." She looks really apologetic.
"Meredith it's okay." I soothe. "It was just a suggestion but if you don't think you can handle it we can save it for when you're feeling a little better." Now I feel bad because the whole idea was to get her out of the house and make her feel better but that appears to have failed.
"Do you want lunch?" I ask. It's four o'clock so it would be more of an early dinner but I have an idea and I don't think I want to wait two hours to execute it.
"Sure." Meredith shrugs dejectedly.
"Okay. I'll go make it." I say as I get up off the bed and head downstairs. Once in the kitchen I begin pulling out all the ingredients for lunch/dinner and preparing my plan.
It's over an hour later when I finally head upstairs to get Meredith. My plan is working perfectly and all I need is Meredith. When I get to the bedroom Meredith is dozing, softly snoring with the blanket half covering her.
"Meredith." I whisper as I sit down on the edge of the bed and rub her shoulder gently. Her eyes crack open and her jaw opens wide in a yawn. I back off and let her wake up some more.
"Dinner's ready." I tell her when I think she's sufficiently awake.
"M'kay." She mumbles as she sits up and looks around. "Where is it?"
"Downstairs, I figured you might want a change in scenery." I say as I stand and slide my arms under her knees and shoulders. She doesn't protest, instead choosing to wrap her arms around my neck and leaning her head on my shoulder. When we reach the bottom of the stairs I take her hand and lead her to the living room. She looks confused but it quickly morphs into surprise when she sees what I've planned. I tore all the cushions off the couch and put them on the floor. I then surrounded them with an abundance of pillows and blankets. In front of the makeshift pillow fort-like structure is the coffee table. On it are my laptop and two steaming plates of mushroom risotto. The plates are on placemats and I poured apple juice into wine glasses seeing as how Meredith can't have alcohol; it's fancy but not over the top.
"Woah." Meredith says from beside me. When she looks up at me her eyes are sparkling. "You did all of this?"
"Yep." I smile at her. "Do you like it?"
"It's great." She steps into the room to take in the scene in front of her. "You know I never built a pillow fort." She turns back to look at me.
"Really?" I'm surprised but I shouldn't be considering the little snippets she's told me about the lonely experience of being Ellis Grey's child.
"Nope." She shakes her head before she steps further into the room. She ungracefully uses the coffee table to lower herself onto her knees before she crawls over all the pillows and finds herself a spot that is comfortable. I drop onto the pillows beside her and she rests her head on my chest.
"What's the laptop for?" She asks.
"I figured we could watch a movie. It'll be like a drive in theater kind of."
"Those were way before my time." She chuckles.
"Mine too," I say, "but I still think it will be fun." She nods in agreement before leaning forward to examine her meal. I take that as my cue to set up the movie. As the opening credits begin I start eating but I'm shortly disrupted when Meredith realizes what we're watching.
"Schindler's List, Seriously?" She looks disbelieving.
"Yeah it's a good movie." I shrug.
"But it's so sad." She pouts a little. "Wasn't the whole point of this," She gestures at my elaborate setup, "to cheer me up or whatever?"
"Yeah and I thought a good movie might help." I defend.
"But it's about the persecution and genocide of millions of people!" Meredith exclaims.
"No it's about the hero that saves some of them from the genocide." I argue. I appear to have rendered her speechless as she slouches in defeat. She sits back and watches the movie in silence while we eat. Personally it's one of my favorite movies. I like the idea of there still being some good people in the midst of the Nazis' final solution. Eventually we finish eating and end up wrapped around each other in a tangle of limbs and blankets. When the final credits roll Meredith lets out a big yawn. I rub her arm shoulder elbow and she nuzzles her nose into my neck.
"Do you want to go back to bed?" I ask her.
"Kinda but I don't wanna move." She mumbles and her breath tickles my neck.
"I could carry you." I offer. She just shakes her head so I don't move. We sit there in silence and it's kind of nice. Eventually though Meredith is breathing evenly and my back is starting to hurt so I make the executive decision to bring her to bed. Conveniently she is already in her pajamas so all I have to do is tuck her in. I quickly change and climb into bed beside her, turning the light off as I go.
"Goodnight Meredith, I love you." I say as I throw my arm over her sleeping body.
AN: Personally I really like this chapter but you can leave you're opinion in the reviews. I'm glad y'all are sticking with the story and enjoying. Drop a review and I'll see you next week.
