Chapter 25

A/N: I am so sorry this update has taken so long! I have been so busy lately and I hope this update makes up for it.

No one had seen either of the Shepard's since they went home last night. They knew that He-Shepard was here because he had a surgery scheduled on the board that was starting in half an hour that wasn't there yesterday, but nobody had anything on She-Shepard. Meredith was worried about both of them, even though it wasn't her responsibility to worry about them. She knew it was probably because she had been involved in this mess at one point, and maybe even felt a little bit guilty for what was going on. Had she and Derek never been together, they could have simply worked things out when Addison got here, but Meredith had just added insult to injury in this whole thing.

Her attention was brought back to the world when someone snapped in her face, that someone being Cristina.

"Mer. You in there?"

Meredith brought her gaze to Cristina and nodded. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Okay, I'm going to assume you didn't hear anything Bailey just said and tell you that you're on neuro today. Do you want to switch with me? I'm on something with the chief and Bailey."

Meredith shook her head. "No, it's okay. I'll be good where I am."

Cristina nodded but it didn't look very certain or assuring. "Okay. I'll see you later then." She said before taking off to follow Dr. Bailey. Meredith watched her go and then took a breath. It was time for her to go and see Derek for the first time since getting Cristina to be her spy. She only hoped that Cristina had been subtle and Derek had never seen her. Because if he had, he would know that she was there because of Meredith.

She walked up to where Derek was supposed to be, but he wasn't there. She waited there for a few minutes before he showed up, and he looked better. A lot better. He had finally cut his hair and he had shaved too. She noticed that he was walking with the same sort of swagger he had before. She smiled as he approached and he looked down at her, then smiled too.

"What?" he asked her through his own smile.

She shook her head. "Nothing. It's… nothing."

Derek chuckled and passed Meredith a chart. "Lynne Meyers is our patient. She's here for chronic back pain that turned out to be a tumor. Today we are going to remove it and try not to paralyze her in the process. Chances are that if we leave some of it behind the pain will actually get worse, so we need to get the whole thing." he explained to her. She quickly scanned the chart then looked up at him.

"She's twenty-six years old."

Derek nodded somberly. "I know. That's why we can't paralyze her."

Meredith looked at her feet, then handed the chart back to Derek. "So let's go not paralyze a girl."

Derek smiled and nodded again and started leading Meredith to the patient. As they entered they were greeted by a girl who looked to be the same age as Lynne was supposed to be. She held out her hand to Meredith and said "Nice to meet you. I'm Stacy, Lynne's best friend." Meredith shook her hand and introduced herself. "Dr. Grey."

Stacy backed up and they entered the room, where there was a petite girl lying on her stomach with her head turned towards the door, and cold cloth on the small of her back. She saw them and she smiled.

"Dr. Shepard, nice to see you again. This the assistant?" she asked when she locked eyes with Meredith. Derek confirmed and Stacy helped her turn back over. When she was upright, she winced and bit her lip. Then Stacy nodded and Derek started talking.

"So Lynne, today's the day we take that nasty thing out of your back. Do you have any questions before we take you up to the OR?"

Lynne was silent for a moment then looked over at Meredith, then back to Derek. "What is Dr. Grey going to be doing?"

Derek looked over at Meredith and then at Lynne. "She will be assisting me on the removal of your tumor and ensuring that you… that we don't- "

"Paralyze me." Lynne finished. Derek nodded and Stacy looked sad. Lynne grabbed her hand and Stacy blinked away some tears.

"Hey, none of that. I'm gonna be fine, Stacy. We'll be running track together again before you know it. Okay?"

Stacy nodded and she gave Lynne a hug. When she stood back up Lynne was smiling, but it looked forced. She looked back over to Derek and Meredith and tilted her head back. "Let's do this."

During the surgery Derek was stone cold. He didn't say anything to anyone except Meredith and even when he spoke to her it was only about the case. He seemed nervous but that didn't make any sense to her. He was never nervous about a surgery. Then again, it might not be the surgery that was making him nervous.

Derek was preparing to dissect the tumor, now that he had opened Lynne up and properly exposed it. As he looked at the tumor, he blinked. Meredith looked over at him and he looked at her. She glanced back down at the tumor and up at him again. He hesitated.

"What?" Meredith asked. She began to grow concerned. He had never looked at a tumor or a brain bleed like this before, and it scared Meredith.

Derek looked up at her again. "I don't know if I can get all of the tumor without paralyzing her. It's bigger than it appeared on the scans. It's more invasive than I thought it was."

Meredith took a step closer and peered at the tumor. He was right, it looked bigger than they had expected it to be.

"Well we can't just close her up. We have to at least try and take it out."

Derek gently poked around the tumor and sighed. Meredith recognized that sigh. He wasn't going to give up, but he didn't think he was going to do any good.

"Alright people, let's make sure this girl gets to walk again."

At the end of the surgery Derek was still unsure if Lynne was going to be able to walk. They had gotten the whole tumor, but he was afraid that she would suffer from the risks of the surgery.

They were walking through the hallway to talk to Stacy when Meredith glanced at Derek, and he suddenly looked confident.

"You seem better." She said. He looked over at her and then brought his gaze back in front of them. He didn't say anything.

"I just mean that you've been distracted lately, and you seem to be back to your old self again." she pointed out.

Derek laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I have been a little… different the last little while." He confessed.

Meredith nodded. "Yeah. But you seem better. I'm glad."

Now Derek nodded. "Thank you, Meredith. And I'm sorry. For everything."

They turned the corner and Meredith didn't get the chance to answer, for Stacy came up to them. And as Derek told her about the surgery and what to expect over the next few days, Meredith smiled to herself. It wasn't until now that she truly believed that Derek could personally be in her past. Because he was okay now, and she had no reason to worry about him.

Alex was waiting for Meredith in the locker room at the end of the day. As she approached him, he smiled at her. She smiled back and opened her locker. As she did so, Alex came up beside her.

She slipped off her scrub top to reveal a pale pink long sleeve shirt and tossed her scrub top in her locker, then pulled out the jeans she had arrived in this morning. Alex moved and leaned against the lockers across from hers. She quickly changed into her jeans and then shut her locker.

As they walked out of the hospital Alex grabbed her hand. "So how was your day?" he asked. She smiled and told him about Derek.

"Derek is better. He said so himself. And I think he was telling the truth."

Alex squeezed her hand. "See. I told you everything would work out." He said.

She leaned into him and Alex moved his arm around her shoulder. He kissed the top of her head and they walked to their cars. They both smiled and Meredith was ready to move on to her life without Derek Shepard, a.k.a McDreamy, and with Dr. Shepard, neuro attending.

***A/N: Okay guys, I want to prepare you for the fact that I am planning on making the next chapter the final one. This story has reached its end and as sad as I am about it, I think that it has had a pretty good lifespan. Unfortunately, it isn't part of a community so you won't be able to find it anywhere else. I want to thank all of you for sticking with me and coming this far. I will try and update as soon as I can. Xx-S