A/N Derek forgot to take his medicine and his dreaminess got a bit out of hand as a result :P

Everything hurt. Her chest. Her throat. Her head. Pain was the first thing Meredith was aware of when she woke up. Her stomach churned and she felt nauseous. She sighed.

"Hey." Suddenly a presence was looming over her, stroking her cheek. "You're in the hospital. They brought you down from recovery an hour ago. You were awake and we talked a bit before you fell asleep again." She had already talked to him? She didn't remember anything past him kissing her right before her surgery. Meredith forced her eyes open and stared right into his blue eyes.

"Hey." her voice was hoarse.

"Do you want some ice-chips for your throat? The nurse left some here during her last round."

"I need to sit up." Derek nodded and tilted the bed further before handing her an ice-chip. The cold felt good in her mouth at first, but when it trickled down her throat her stomach clenched. Desperately she tried to calm her stomach, but it wouldn't be held back. "Derek." god, she was going to throw up. His arms went around her back as she tried to sit up. Meredith choked and then the bile was all over his shirt. Her throat burnt and her incisions throbbed. Some of it must have gotten in her nose, as it burnt as well.

"Sorry." she choked out as she started to cry. She had just thrown up own him was there anything more embarrassing in the world. Her chest hurt and even though she had just thrown up she still felt nauseous.

"Sshhh, it's okay, it's just a shirt. Don't worry about it. Just try to take deep breaths." He guided her back so she settled against the pillows again. His hand was running through her hair again in a soothing motion. A moment later a nurse came into the room, he must have pressed the call button.

"Hi, she just threw up, so we need some water for her to rinse out her mouth, and … Mer are you still nauseous?" Meredith nodded weakly. She still felt tired from the anaesthesia. Her body shook from her crying and it made everything so much worse. The throbbing in her chest intensified. "Do you want something against it?"

"Yes please."

"You heard her, lets get her something against the nausea. 25mg Promethazine should do. Oh and if you could find me a clean scrub shirt, that would be great."

"I have to get a doctor for the medication."

"I know, so go." The nurse left the room in a hurry.

"Sorry" she apologised again.

"It's okay, you couldn't help it." Derek vanished for a moment as he walked into the bathroom. She felt unsettled when she could no longer see him. He came out with a wet washcloth. He leaned over her.

"Urgh."

"What?"

"The smell." A moment later he was standing over her again, only this time he was bare-chested.

"Admit you only threw up on me, so I would be your naked nurse." he joked as he wiped her face, first her tears, then the snot and bile that encrusted the lower part of her face. Her chest would be covered in scars and she would loose her hair at least for some time, why should she care that he'd never find her sexy again after he wiped her face of snot and bile. She was too tired to care about that right now.

"You're not naked." her hand rose up on its own, running over his chest, teasingly pulling on his chest hair. His skin was warm under her hand. The cool wash cloth felt amazing on her face.

"I am as naked as I can be here. This isn't Grace, you know. But once we're home I'm going to be your naked nurse." he wiggled his eyebrows and Meredith giggled, but that made her chest hurt worse, so she stopped again.

"Naked-naked?"

"Naked-naked."

"Good." she yawned. He wrapped his hand around hers as he leaned against the bed.

"If you're tired, you should sleep. The operation you had, it takes a lot out of you. You need your strength." She hesitated. Sleep sounded wonderful but he was here, he had stepped up and he had stayed like he had promised. The first thing she had seen when waking up was him. It felt wonderful to be this important to him. "I'll be here until they kick me out. I'll wake you up then, because they're going to drag me out of here kicking and screaming." He leaned in.

"No kissing. I just threw up."

"I don't care." he brushed his lips against hers softly. Quick, like a habit, like they were going to do it for the rest of their lives. For some reason it made Meredith want to cry again.

"Miss Grey. The nurse told me you asked for medication for your nausea." a bubbly red-haired intern walked into the room.

"We asked for 25mg Promethazine Dr..." Derek's voice trailed of.

"Kepner" the intern smiled brightly at Derek. Meredith didn't miss how the interns eyes lingered on Derek's bare chest. "25mg is an awfully high dose, we usually prefer to use droperidol injections, Mr..."

"Dr. Shepherd."

"The neurosurgeon?"

"Yes, but..."

"I read your article about the guy with the nails in his head."

"Dr. Kepner, I am here with a patient, not to talk to you about my work. Now how about you do yours and get the Promethazine."

"Like I said, Sir, we usually use droperidol injections unless there is an allergy."

"And I said we use Promethazine as droperidol has too many unwanted side effects."

"I'll have to talk to my resident."

"Then do that, and hurry up please, we didn't ask for the medication just for fun." The doctor hurried out of the room.

"Stupid Interns."

"I am an intern, you know." Meredith said tiredly.

"Yeah but you're my Intern. Besides, Bailey's your resident. I know she's complaining a lot about her pariahs, but the truth is the five of you are some of the best interns I have ever seen."

"We are?"

"You can't ever tell anyone I told you that, especially not the others, but yes. Why do you think the head of all departments always request you for themselves and pawn the other interns of to their attendings?"
"I never thought about that."

"I know. You never see how extraordinary you really are." he leaned in again, his lips hoovering over hers.

"I got the Promethazine" a bright voice interrupted their tender moment. Meredith wanted to slap Dr. Kepner, she made Derek take a few steps back and let go of her. She watched the intern tie her arm of with the turniquet and clean the inside of her elbow with alcoholic wipes.

"What are you doing?"

"I am giving an IV-push Promethazine."

"You don't give Promethazine as an IV-push. Either give it intramuscular or put it in her IV."

"What's wrong with an IV-push? It causes almost instant nausea relief."

"And with Promethazine it carries a high risk of gangrene if you even make the slightest mistake and the medication comes into contact with arterial blood or you inject it too fast into the vein."

"I don't make mistakes."

"Everyone makes mistakes. Taking such a risk, against FDA advice even is foolish."

"Can I just get the damn medicine." Meredith groaned. They were giving her a headache and her arm was starting to hurt.

"Look, Dr. Kepner, she already has a IV line. Dilute it and give it to her threw the IV or give it to her intramuscular, but for godness sake take of the turniquet, the arm needs blood." Derek walked over and loosened the belt that tied of the blood supply to her arm.

"Yes, Sir."

"Thank you."

"I think she's going to hide in a closet and cry, Derek."

"What?"

"You scared her."
"If she'd do her job right, I didn't have to scare her. Jesus, Promethazine as IV-push. Where did she study medicine? Where did her resident study medicine? She'd made the slightest mistake and you'd have lost your arm."

"But you were here to look out for me. I didn't even realize." That was probably not the smartest thing to admit after he just praised her medical skills.

"You've just come out of general anaesthesia. You're not supposed to realize stuff like that." Meredith nodded.

"Dr. Shepherd?" a nurse walked into the room with a red scrub shirt in her hand. "I found a clean scrub shirt that you asked you."

"Thank you." Derek slipped the shirt on. "Look a red shirt, like my good looking shirt." he grinned at her.

"You look better in blue scrubs." Meredith yawned. "Brings out your eyes."

"Go to sleep, Mer."he settled in the chair next to her bed, holding her hand as Meredith slowly drifted of to sleep, her body whipped out from the anaesthesia and the general stress of the day. The last thing she felt were his lips brushing over her cheek.