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Chapter 14 – Telling the Friends

In four days Meredith and Derek were scheduled to leave for Maryland. Meredith put her lunch tray down on the table, that was already occupied by her friends.

"I am so exhausted, you have no idea," Meredith said, taking a sip of her water. She just came out of a very long but successful spinal surgery with Derek. Immediately before that, she had scrubbed in with Bailey on a General case. She had been in the hospital for 48 hours straight by now. Meredith could barely keep her eyes open and her head was about to explode. By the end of the last surgery, she had felt tingling in her feet and the beginning pins and needles in her left hand, signaling her to slow down for the day. After lunch with her friends, she would head home and sleep for a while before she had to start packing.

A lot had happened in the last three and a half month. The new interns had invaded the hospital, one was more stupid than the other. One intern turned out to be her other half-sister Lexi, who relocated to Seattle after her mom's death. Meredith wasn't really interested in any contact to her half-siblings, but Lexi had made an effort so that she had a hard time keeping this promise. She was friendly and smart, but she was brought up in a happy family, which slightly bothered Meredith. Over the months Meredith came to know her a little more, understanding that there existed some darkness under her happy facade. She wasn't sure about her feelings toward her younger sister maybe she actually started to like her. When she first introduced herself Meredith was less than impressed and swore she would have no more than necessary contact with her, but after some gentle pushing from Derek, Meredith actually reached the point where she somewhat would acknowledge her as a sister.

As a motivational tool, Bailey had conducted a surgical contest for the second year residents every surgical or medical procedure earned them points, by the end of the contest the one with the most points would win a highly praised mystery price. Since surgeons were a competitive bunch, the game was on to the point that the second years would be camping out in the hospital for days without leaving.

A week into the competition Meredith hadn't come home once, staying at the hospital trolling for surgeries, basically not sleeping nor resting. Derek had to pull the emergency brake. She had been in the OR with him for hours assisting him on a tumor resection when he noticed the first indications of her overdoing it, were affecting her health. After surgery Derek had pulled her aside checking her neuro functions. It had been part of their arrangement with Dr. Welch and Richard to be able to push her decompression surgery back a little. Derek could and would be checking her if he deemed it necessary. He had to threaten her with a 24-hour c-collar and a call to Hopkins if she wouldn't go home, rest and take care of herself. To say that Meredith was not ecstatic was an understatement, but they could take away her surgical clearance. The only thing she could do was being mad at Derek, and that she did with a lot of passion. Even though she knew he was technically right.

Nevertheless last week Meredith had won the contest and the sparkle pager after diagnosing a patient with a medical mystery. The brain tumor later turned out to be an inoperable malignant glioma, a diagnosis which mostly signed the patient's death sentence, tinting her victory in a darker color. Meredith had thrown herself into research about those kinds of brain tumors, spending hours and hours in the research library. Unfortunately, her time had been very limited with their impending departure. She wanted to work as many hours as possible before she had to leave, so she wouldn't be too far behind after her return.

Everything was planned out. A handful of people knew about her impending surgery, to keep the gossip to a minimum. Their last surgeries were scheduled, her interns would be temporarily transferred to different residents, the plane was booked, Amelia had coordinated with Hopkins, all they had to do was pack and leave.

"You've been working like crazy Mer there is no need to work yourself into the ground" George stated. Meredith and Cristina shared a knowing look.

Alex slumped down on the last remaining chair at their table completing their group.

"I am so glad when this week is done. I did the tenth liposuction in the last four days, I think I hate plastics." Alex exclaimed.

"Because it's not real surgery, Alex," Cristina told him. "I told you should stick with Paeds after you got your test score, but you were to cool to be a paediatric surgeon, now you are on Sloan's service, deal with it."

"We got our work schedule for next the month." Alex changed the subject holding a piece of paper and sending Cristina an evil glare. "Mer, you are not on it, you should probably check with Bailey."

Meredith swallowed hard, she hadn't told Alex and George, yet. Both had become like her brothers over the last year. George had moved in early her intern year. With his sweet caring personality, he had an easy way into people's hearts. He was a good doctor, with a lot of potential but he hadn't found his place yet. Meredith didn't want to tell him, she was dark and twisty and couldn't handle compassion and pity very well. She feared that he would watch out for her and bring attention to her condition when all she wanted to do is ignore it all along. And having Derek, Bailey, and Richard on her back all the time was more than enough.

Alex, on the other hand, was a totally different story. Cristina was her person, but Alex was her brother from another mother. At first, she hated him, his cocky frat boy attitude, trying to sleep with the entire female hospital population. But then she got to know him. Under his facade, he was just as twisted as she was, messed up by his childhood. They were different in so many ways but understood each other's struggles. He had moved in after Izzy left and she was happy that he did. There was no particular reason why she hadn't told him, other than that she didn't. She had procrastinated until the very last moment. Now she had to let the cat out of the bag, she had missed too many opportunities already, to tell them. Now or never Meredith thought.

"Don't worry Alex, the schedule is correct. I won't be here for the rest of the month." Meredith told them, all of the sudden really interested in her bland sandwich.

"You got off, again? What are you doing this time? Lucky you. Dream vacation with McDreamy?" Alex joked.

"Sure, I will enjoy my all-inclusive, all expenses paid vacation at one of America's finest vacation spots. It will be so exclusive that they even offer room service, around the clock care and if you ask really really nicely they even cut into your brain." Meredith replied sarcastically glaring at him. "No, Alex I will not go on my dream vacation, I will be in a hospital to have brain surgery. Sounds like a real dream, doesn't it."

Meredith looked in George's and Alex's shocked faces. Originally this wasn't the way she wanted to tell them, but Alex gave her the perfect opening for this.

"What?! Oh, Mer. Are you okay?" George reacted just as Meredith had predicted. That's why she couldn't tell him alone.

"Of course she's not, George," Cristina muttered rolling her eyes.

"At least it's a not a stupid cruise you are going on. I would say a once in a lifetime experience." Alex played along, which made them laugh. Then he turned really serious. "No, seriously now Mer, what's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yes, obviously she is not okay. Nobody just chooses to have someone cut into her brain." Cristina pipped in sarcastically.

Two pairs of curious eyes were focused on her, Cristina already knew every single detail about what's going to happen.

"About three and a half months ago – just after the intern exam – Derek dragged me to have an MRI because I was having these massive headaches and a whole lot of other different symptoms. I was convinced that it was stress related, because of everything that had happened. I did it anyway to give him some peace. It turns out that the stress was actually Chiari Malformation. We flew to the east coast for some consults about treatment options. Since I am symptomatic and given all the other occurring factors I got myself a ticket into the OR. I'll be having a posterior fossa decompression to reduce the pressure, stop it from progressing and restore a normal flow of CSF. At Hopkins, in less than a week." Meredith explained.

"But why are you going across the country?" George asked, a very confused and worried expression on his face.

"Because obviously, Shepherd can't help her, O'Malley," Cristina said rolling her eyes again. "By the way, I am taking over the sparkle pager, right Mer?"

"This is so not fair," Alex exclaimed. "I want the sparkle pager."

"Hey, what about me? Mer will give the pager to me. Right?" George piped in.

"And why would she do that, 007? And there is no chance you will get it Evil Spawn. I am her person."

Meredith had just told her friends that she would be gone to have brain surgery and here they were fighting over, who would have the magic sparkle pager. Smiling to herself she watched her friends.

"What's happening here?" Derek whispered in her ear leaning over her shoulder.

"Hey" Meredith turned around and kissed him, they just spent hours in an OR together. "Oh, they are fighting over my sparkle pager. Cristina told them I would give it to her leading to all of this" she motioned her hand to her friends giggling.

"So I assume you haven't told them that the pager stays with Bailey until you return." Derek could see the amusement in her eyes.

"Nope." She smirked.

"Evil."

"It's not evil. Someone is about to cut open my head, I tell them and all they think about is a stupid pager."

Derek laughed at that. Meredith wanted to keep her health condition as private as possible. She had told the people she needed to, including Cristina. Derek had told Mark. Until today they were the only people, besides the Chief and Bailey, that knew what Meredith and Derek would be doing during their absence.

"Are you about ready to head home?"

"I just need to grab my stuff out of the lounge. You want to come?"

Derek nodded smiling at her. He loved the days when he could head home with her. She hasn't been at home a lot lately and now they would have some uninterrupted time together.

"Guys." Meredith interrupted the ongoing argument. "I'm heading home. See you tomorrow. And what you just heard is NOT leaving this table." She shot them a warning look, took her tray and walked away, her friends still arguing about the pager, that would never be theirs.

"We should be packing. We still have a lot to do." Meredith and Derek were naked entwined in their sheets, seeing the pile of laundry that had to be folded and packed.

"But I much rather … do … this" Derek stated, kissing her between each word, "Besides … there … won't … be … a … lot … of … this … for … a … while …."

"Why are you so convincing, Dr. Shepherd?" Meredith laughed, as they continued their uninterrupted afternoon.

3/16/19

Thank you for reading chapter 14. I can't believe we are already on chapter 14. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a little shorter than the others. But chapter length will pick up after that. Next chapter we will start the 'real' adventure. Let me know what you think. Thank you for your reviews, as always I love reading them.