Dreams of Love
Chapter 25: It's a Girl... and a Boy
Meredith had just finished telling a wound up Zach to be careful and to have a good time when Derek opened the car door for her. She climbed out of the car protected from the soft rain by the umbrella he held. Before she could sprint for the overhang at the entry, like Izzie already had, Derek pulled her into his arms. She couldn't resist, her arms were full of her purse and duffel.
"Hey, lady, kiss me."
"Derek!" Meredith was very aware of the interested interns and staff parking their cars and walking towards the surgical entry all around.
"Kiss me, I'm not going to see you again until late afternoon," he nuzzled her neck, nibbling her into submission. He laughed and teased behind his charming little boy pout. God, he was cute. As always in the morning he was playful and happy. He was such a morning person, she thought a little enviously. It turned out Zach was the same way. He had chattered non-stop to all three adults since he'd awakened. Meredith took this as a good sign, he was becoming accustomed to them very quickly. Plus, they learned a tremendous amount about Zach's adoptive parents, Pauline and Jack Harrington Smith, and his life with them.
"Derek... it's going to be shouted all over the hospital... that we were having sex.. in the rain, in the parking lot... by one minute after five... if you keep doing that where everyone..."
Derek's lips lightly touched hers over and over as she spoke and he breathed her breath. Then his tongue slid between her lips and stroked her own tongue until she couldn't resist twining around it. He sealed his mouth over hers and kissed her. When her breath came hard and ragged and she clung with her two free fingers to his jacket he was finally satisfied.
"Mm, you taste so good, Meredith," he buried his face in her throat and breathed her lily of the valley fragrance again, "Smell good too. Have a great day and I'll see you and Zach this afternoon in my office," he gave her amazing tush a fond rub.
"Derek..." she clung to him weakly, swaying on her feet.
"Hm?"
"Derek, what was that all about?"
"Just reminding you."
"Reminding me?" she was utterly bewildered as she gazed into his sparkling deep blue eyes.
"Yeah, reminding you that you're my girl, and I'm proud of you, and I don't care what fools gossip about. And, by the way – I love you."
Derek smiled his 'the sun is rising behind the clouds' smile and kissed the tip of her nose, before he let her go, and ran back to the driver's side of the car. She watched Derek drive away, for a soggy minute, so in love it astonished her. She hugged his love to her and turned to hurry into the building.
Derek was driving Zachary to the docks for her since he didn't have to be in to work until seven. He was going to check out the guys and the boat for himself before he let Zach go. They all knew Mickey, from the lab, but they didn't know his brother.
Izzie and George and Cristina were all heading for the elevators, having seen the show. Izzie just smiled at Mer. She liked how happy Mer looked this morning, especially since she'd been totally stressed out last night. Iz was beginning to really trust Shepherd with her friend. It had taken awhile, but he was being there for Meredith when it counted, and the trust-o-meter was climbing. All of Meredith's friends had initially been suspicious of Shepherd when he came back into Mer's life.
George had a funny, pasty look. He kept fiddling with his duffel strap, opening his mouth as if to say something, and then closing it again. Izzie and Cristina had already ragged him but he still wasn't spitting it out. The girls shrugged. Bambi had been weird since he'd joined the dead dads' club. They didn't push him.
The interns piled into the locker room and a momentary silence swept the room. All eyes swept towards Meredith and then away. She sighed resignedly. The gossip mill was definitely grinding away this morning. She knew she and Derek had been the grist for the mill. Not to mention Zachary. She thought of Derek's sexy, playful send off and then didn't regret it. She thought of Zach's Botticelli face and felt her heart swell. Let these jerks talk. She had McDreamy. She had a baby brother. She tossed her head and walked sedately to her locker.
Bailey's interns gathered around her for rounds.
"Where's Karev?" she barked.
"Here, I'm here," he puffed, hustling down the hall from post-op. He looked bleary eyed and strained.
"Long night, Karev?" asked Bailey, caustically.
"Yes, ma'am. It was," he said simply.
She eyed him and nodded abruptly, having already read the majority of the reports from last night's insane number of admissions. She liked it that he didn't whine. These interns were finally learning. She headed out and her group trooped behind her.
Cristina and Meredith lagged behind the others. In a low voice Cristina told Meredith about breaking the silence first and asking Burke for a do over.
"It was horrible, Mer. He just sat there staring at me. I told him I was committed. I was in it for the long haul, so I was ready to give in and speak first even if I still thought I'd done nothing wrong," Cristina said shakily.
"Did he finally speak? What did he say? Did he tell you if the tremor is gone?" Meredith asked quickly.
"He... he...," Cristina paled and looked nauseous.
"What, Cristina?" Meredith couldn't imagine what had her usually irascible friend so shaken.
"Heaskedmetomarryhim," she said as one word.
Meredith stopped stock still and stared at her friend.
"Don't make me say it again," Cristina panted, sweating, and shocky.
"And are you? Going to marry him?"
"I... I... maybe. I don't know... yeah, no. Okay, maybe."
"Let me know when you're past the stuttering stage," Meredith giggled, "You'll make such a cute bride, dressed in funereal black and carrying a bouquet of scalpels. You'll be a Korean version of Morticia Addams."
Cristina winced at the words 'cute bride', "At least I don't have to be envious of you and McDreamy anymore. Burke was amazing in bed after..."
Somehow Cristina's words didn't quite match the strain and pressure on her face. Meredith started to ask about it when they caught Izzie's silencing signal and quickly hustled after Bailey into a patient's room. George stammered his way through the presentation earning a scowl from Bailey. Rounds were interminable for all of them for their own reasons. They were all grateful when Bailey finally snapped out assignments.
"Yang, morning assignment: Dr. Yarber in the morgue could use a hand with all the fatalities from last night, you are on paperwork scut with her," Bailey glared down the protest on Cristina's lips before she could even go there. Cristina accepted the assignment with ill grace, knowing that the Nazi was still peeved over her involvement in Burke's tremor cover up. She supposed she was lucky it wasn't rectal exams again.
"Yang, afternoon assignment: rectal exams."
Meredith looked at the floor, letting her shiny honey hair shield her amused, yet sympathetic smile, after seeing the pained look on Cristina's face. She'd been in Bailey's bad books herself over dating an attending, so she knew how it felt.
Unlike Meredith, Cristina had skated over any punishment for dating an attending. She'd also escaped most of the gossip mill grinding it. Unlike Meredith, she actually had used her boyfriend to get her in on the very best surgeries, with still no punishment. She also frequently maneuvered to steal good surgeries from other interns, bragging about doing it and getting away with it, to their faces. Bailey was determined Yang wouldn't skate this time.
Alex, Izzie and George didn't bother hiding their gleeful grins at Yang's fate. She'd been rotten to all of them off and on and now she was getting her comeuppance. None of them minded seeing her haughtiness brought down a few pegs.
"O'Malley: Montgomery. She has three C-sections scheduled this morning. She also has a patient arriving from Idaho who is pregnant with quads. Three of the babies appear to be in some distress. Help her with all the initial workups. You are assigned to that patient for the duration."
Yang couldn't quite suppress a moan of envy – quads.
"Grey, Karev: Sloan. And if he teaches again the way he did yesterday, I want you to type up your notes and be prepared to share with the other interns and residents."
"Stevens, you have completed every rehabilitative step assigned to you. You have received positive progress reports from all the doctors you have followed. You have been released by your therapist to practice medicine again. Because of all this, your review board and I have agreed that you are ready for the next step," Bailey peered at Izzie sternly. She hardly dared breathe.
"The Chief has asked the attendings for a volunteer to sponsor you back into the surgical program. You're lucky. One, and only one, agreed to be responsible for you. Now, if you screw up, he will pay the price alongside you. Do not make him regret his generosity."
All the interns looked at each other, wondering which attending had had the sheer guts to take Izzie on. Her insane actions of the past were exceedingly difficult to forgive or forget, regardless of the massive psychological, ethical, and medical rehabilitation she'd struggled through. Even Izzie wondered who had faith in her when she hardly had faith in herself any more.
"You will join Dr. Shepherd in his OR. He has a spinal astrocytoma removal at seven this morning. Prep his patient for surgery. You are on rotation with him until further notice. It will be his decision when to reinstate your surgical privileges at this hospital and when to release you to other surgeons."
Meredith's jaw dropped as everyone stared at her. Derek had never said one word. Izzie was ecstatic, but scared and overwhelmed too. Shepherd knew about the bathroom floor. He knew about Denny's sweater, and the multi-million dollar check, crazily stuck to the refrigerator. He knew about the horrible grief racked nightmares. She shivered, knowing this was the only chance she'd get to make good again. She'd never thought she'd done particularly well in neuro, but she had to do well now, she had to.
"Thank you, Dr. Bailey, I won't let you or myself or Grace down again," Izzie said humbly, "I won't let Dr. Shepherd down."
"Get to work," Bailey snapped at all of them. They scattered. The expression on Grey's face had plainly said that she didn't have a clue what Shepherd had done. Interesting. Bailey's respect for Shepherd notched up. She'd thought he'd been talked into sponsoring Stevens by Grey. She wondered now why he'd done it. If it wasn't for Grey, what did he see in Stevens that the others didn't see? The other attendings had been quite vocal in their dissent, most of them still in favor of eliminating Izzie from the program.
Bailey headed for the minuscule office she shared with three other residents. She could just barely hear Yang bemoaning her assignment to Grey as they waited for the elevator.
"Tinkerbell gets spinal surgery with the head of neuro! Bambi gets quads! Evil Spawn and you get four cool surgeries in a row, when Sloan is actually teaching. What do I get? I get dead paperwork and rectum wrecks."
Bailey grinned evilly, satisfied.
o-o-o
Meredith stepped off the elevator with three hot cups in her hands. She hurried to join Sloan and Karev. Alex was still damp from the swift shower he'd managed after their first surgery, when she'd gone for a coffee cart run.
"Vente bone dry cappuccino," she carefully handed Sloan a cup. He arched a brow in surprise.
"Espresso, two raw sugars," Meredith said as she handed Alex a cup. He was equally surprised and looked from Mer to Sloan.
Meredith grinned wryly at their identical expressions and said, "Herbal tea," as she sipped from her own cup, "What? I don't mind bringing coffee when it's my idea. I just don't like being your... you know."
Meredith wrinkled her nose and smiled at Sloan. He grinned at her, his perfect white smile gleaming through his devilish short beard. Damn, she was cute. Derek had lucked out with this one. Of course, he'd lucked out with Addison too.
"Aw, I like it when you're my... you know," he said naughtily.
"Rule breaker," she teased him cheerfully, while Alex looked on dumbfounded, "Have a pastry."
Mark and Alex were both suddenly aware that they were starved when she offered the bakery bag. They each wolfed down two of the delectable pastries while Meredith nibbled the last one. Mark had a new appreciation for being treated casually by Meredith, as if he were her friend, like Karev. Maybe he could expand his friendship with Meredith to include Derek. Maybe that was how he'd get his best friend back.
"Thank you," Meredith said to Mark sincerely, "I'm really learning something from you, today. That cleft palate correction was textbook. I had no idea it could be done so quickly. Amazing."
She asked him a few questions while Alex scribbling notes on Sloan's replies. Then they switched over to their next surgery. Meredith and Alex had already prepped Ms. Dixon and wheeled her in to the OR for the plastics residents. She would be ready for Sloan shortly. Sloan told them his plan for her as they walked to the OR and scrubbed in.
"You are an incredibly good teacher, Dr. Sloan," Meredith said, leveling her large green eyes on him consideringly, "I can't understand why you refused to teach before."
He grinned his pirate's grin at her again, "Interns bore me."
She arched her brows and sparkled sassily, "Really?! That wasn't the impression I had."
"The other charter member of the XDM club is, of course, the exception. She's always up to something exciting," Mark brushed a casual hand over her hair and grinned.
Again the gallery was packed and Karev and Grey had a front row seat to a rhinoplasty and a complicated cutting edge cheek reconstruction. Sloan had also added the breast reconstruction, using two third year residents, to this surgery so that was accomplished too. For the first time Sloan allowed the interns to take the tiny stitches necessary for minimal scarring. They were tediously slow so he only had patience for five or six stitches each. Then he took the job back. It didn't matter. Alex and Meredith were giving each other eye fives across the table. They'd each held instruments and they'd each taken stitches. They were thrilled.
As Sloan left the OR table he murmured into Meredith's ear, in front of Karev's suspicious eye, "Don't forget our deal. I still want Derek to let me in again. I'm counting on you, sweetpea."
Late that afternoon, Guiseppe Giordano sat in Dr. Shepherd's office for what he thought was the last time. Dr. Stevens sat with him having run all the final tests and helped with the final examination. He'd asked after the lovely Dr. Grey when he'd first arrived, and was told she was in plastics today. At that news Armando and Marco Giordano had allowed themselves to be escorted to a waiting area where they'd be more comfortable.
Guiseppe heard a familiar voice talking to Dr. Shepherd coming towards the office. He smiled and shakily stood to greet Dr. Grey. He didn't tell anyone, but she was his favorite here in the hospital. Everyone else had been kind, but, somehow, Dr. Grey was special, his heart somehow recognized her, and Guiseppe trusted his heart.
Izzie stood too and discreetly left the office at a look from Shepherd. She was trying to learn discretion, something that didn't always come naturally. She was so grateful to Shepherd that she'd willingly do her best to be anything he asked her to be – even discreet.
Shepherd watched her go and nodded to himself. He agreed with Dr. Bailey and the Chief, Stevens was worth it. She was going to be an excellent general surgeon in six years. He didn't mind the extra work – not if it meant that Izzie Stevens would save hundreds of lives, probably thousands – in her work life. Wasn't that worth the extra effort?
He thought of Meredith and his old fear that he wouldn't get a true second chance with her. Meredith had been generous and loving enough to give him exactly that. He knew he probably hadn't deserved it. He wasn't a very forgiving man himself when he was injured, look at what he'd put Addie through. But now, the only way he knew to express his gratitude for that second chance with Meredith, was to pay it forward. Izzie Stevens was the logical recipient. She needed a second chance worse than anyone he knew. Mark's face flashed in front of Derek's mind's eye, but he uncomfortably pushed it away.
"Dr. Shepherd, thank you for bringing Dr. Grey to see me. I so wanted to see her one last time before we left," Guiseppe sat down once again at Meredith's gentle urging.
"Actually, Dr. Giordano, Dr. Grey is here to talk with you about something very important. I believe you are well enough to hear the truth. Your family would not agree to this, I know. But I believe, knowing the kind of man you are, that you'd want the truth. Do you?" Shepherd probed.
Giordano's jaw firmed and his eyes narrowed, "Of course, Dr. Shepherd. I am an adult, not a child," he turned to Meredith who sat shocked at Derek's abrupt introduction, "What is it, Dr. Grey?"
Meredith looked into her Papà's warm brandy colored eyes and couldn't speak. She fought for breath and tried again... and failed again.
"Dr. Grey, it can not be that bad. I have survived an unsurvivable brain tumor," Guiseppe said with humor, "Anything you tell me now will not be as shocking as that."
"I... I... am your daughter, and this is... I believe...," Meredith turned to the open doorway and waved for Izzie to bring Zach in, "this is your son, Zachary Xavier."
Brother and sister stood together, in front of their father, and waited.
Okay, I am typed out. I have put up three updates on Dreams and one update on Slave this week. I hope you enjoyed them enough to review. My husband would like you to review, because he has to deal with either my crankiness or my silliness when you don't. So think of my lovely, innocent man, will ya? Hee. My Derek, btw, is based on GA Derek, PD and my husband. Now do you see why we must keep my husband happy? Hm? Hee.