Chapter Eighteen

After a few minutes, he pulled himself together and stood up slowly. This is not a time for self-pity or weakness. He couldn't just sit there and fall apart. Not while she could be hurt or injured.

He hadn't found her yet.

Whether it was going to be horrible, or whether there was hope that she was alright, he had to keep trying. Sitting there and giving up was not an option. Not for him, and certainly not for her. There was nobody else who could help. If he did not even try, who would?

He scanned the chaotic room with his flashlight again as he tried to decide where to resume his search.

Different angles. I've looked everywhere I can think to search, but I'll go back over it all again from different angles to get a different view of things. Maybe that will generate new ideas or provide clues.

He breathed a little easier just finding something microscopic to be positive about. Taking a few deep breaths, he turned to head over to the corner of the room nearest "the thing," an overwhelming sense of dread filling him as he did so.

As he turned, he caught a flash of something in his peripheral vision. Snapping the light back in that direction quickly, he stared at the spot where he had seen something…. or where he thought he had seen something. He couldn't be sure that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, but he didn't care.

Any sign was a welcome possibility.

Not seeing what he had convinced himself he had seen earlier, he sighed and turned again to leave. But something made him turn back around. He just had to make sure it hadn't been his imagination.

He knelt down, ignoring the pressure of broken glass and wood and other debris against his knees. They'd been pricking his feet since he had entered the room without gaining any notice by him. He knelt with his face near the floor and focused the beam from the flashlight under the object nearest to him.

As he looked under it, his heart literally stopped.

He had found her.

Meredith lay there, wedged underneath the bed. Luckily it was an inexpensive hospital bed that didn't go all the way to the floor. However, the bottom of the heavy bed was only about an inch above Meredith and there was no power to lift it any higher.

Her head was turned to the opposite side, so close that she wouldn't be able to look at him. Heavy tree branches were covering the floor on the opposite side, so he couldn't see Meredith's face. She must have moved her arm. That had to be what he had seen earlier.

He reached under the bed and took her hand in his. Careful not to pull on it at all, he gently squeezed her hand and then sat there waiting. He was hopeful, and that was something he had not let himself feel in a while.

There was a faint pulse, and then a slight movement against his palm. She lightly squeezed his fingers. His heart nearly burst. She's alive! Oh, my God, she's alive!

He leaned down as closely as possible and started speaking loudly to her. "I'm here, Meredith. I'll get you out. You're OK. Everything is OK. I'll be right back. Squeeze my hand if you hear me."

She squeezed his hand, and he uttered a silent prayer of thanks. Squeezing her hand tenderly, he slowly released it so that he could figure out what to do next. Walking all around the bed where he could, he realized that he'd have a really hard time trying to move it. Part of the tree had landed on it. It was wedged pretty tightly into place. Besides, he couldn't risk having any of the weight fall on to Meredith. He'd have to pull her out.

Bending down and using a broken board, he swept the floor by the bed as clean as possible. Then he leaned back down and took Meredith's hand again. "Meredith. I'm going to have to pull you out from under the bed. Is…. Is anything pushing on you, hurting you?" He confirmed her negative answer.

"Can you feel your right arm?" She squeezed his hand. "Is your arm free?" She squeezed his hand again. "How about your leg. Is your leg OK?"

He felt a light squeeze against his palm.

"I know that you fell. We need to be careful. Can you try to stay still when I move you?" She squeezed his hand. "It's going to be OK. You're going to be fine. I'll get you out of there as fast as I can."

Derek squeezed her hand and released it, turning to position his flashlight so that he'd be able to see what was happening. Derek tried reaching under the bed to put his hands on the other side of Meredith's body, but he couldn't reach that far.

Sighing, he leaned back down and told her that he was going to have to try to move the bed over a little bit. He wasn't very optimistic about how far he could push the bed, but he had to try.

Derek leaned over and gave the bed a good push. Nothing. Didn't budge. He moved back to the floor, "Did that hurt?" No squeeze. He assumed that had to be good.

He stood back up and put his back against the bed. He used his weight to help him try to move the bed. He was able to move it a few inches. He hit the deck again and took Meredith's hand, "Are you OK?" She squeezed his hand. "Just a little bit farther."

He squatted down and again pushed the bed with his back, straining as hard as he could only to move it a few more inches. He hoped it would be enough. Kneeling down facing the bed, he reached under it and found that he was able to reach across Meredith's body to put each hand firmly on her side.

Making certain that he had a firm grip, and focusing all of his adrenalin on keeping her spine immobile and moving her as little as possible, he slid one hand onto her hip and put the other onto her shoulder. With painstaking care, he inched her body out from under the bed.

Exhausted, but relieved to see that she was all in one piece, he was finally able to breathe. If he had not been so worried about the potential for her to have injuries, he surely would have sat there and hyperventilated from the relief and the stress of it all.

But then he realized that Meredith was trying to move.

"No," Derek said, running around to kneel beside her head. He put his palms on her chin and the back of her head. "Stay still. Let me check you for injuries," he said as he leaned down and kissed her cheek tenderly.

"I'm fine," she croaked.

"Not 'til I say you are," he said, immediately jumping into doctor mode and checking her thoroughly for symptoms of any problems.

Meredith put her hand on his arm, "I'm fine, Derek. Let me up."

Derek shrugged off her affection, "Stay still. I need to examine you."

"I'm a surgeon. I know that I'm fine. Now, let me get up," Meredith was the classical bad patient that doctors so often were. Most doctors believe that they can diagnose themselves when they are injured, which leads to hotheaded mistakes and consequences.

Derek would not be deterred. He became more adamant, "You are the patient. You can't diagnose yourself. Don't make me sedate you."

"Seriously. I'm fine," Meredith half-whined.

Derek was so focused on observing her that he didn't focus much on the conversation, "Can't take any chances. You could have hidden injuries."

Meredith sighed and wished he'd just stop the infernal examination, "I'm just a little bruised. That's all."

Derek finally seemed content that the rest of her body was fine. He turned to look carefully into her eyes and started examining her head again for signs of injury. "You had to bump your head when you fell. Did you blackout?"

"I don't think so," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

He continued to look over her in great detail, "Try to remember. Tell me what happened."

"Well, it was all so fast," Meredith said. "I was standing there and then I wasn't. The bed pushed me backward across the room. I remember falling and bumping the back of my head on the floor. And just when I got my bearings, everything went dark."

Derek stopped what he was doing and his face was flooded dark with concern. He started to pace the floor. "Just what…. exactly… happened?"

"Erm, well I'm not too sure. It was pretty dark."

"Meredith. I need to know what happened," Derek snapped, exasperated that she couldn't just let him help her. Fuck it, he was concerned for her. She wasn't helping the situation.

Meredith realized that she needed to explain the story with more details.

"It was already pitch black in here," Meredith said. "I think everything went even more dark when the bed was pushed back over me. I don't think I passed out. It was so dark and wet and noisy, and I was disoriented. But I don't think I passed out. I landed on my butt as I fell, so it broke my fall. I'm fine, Derek."

Derek did not appear to be convinced. "You flew backward at least ten feet. Probably more. A force like that could really hurt your head. Wiggle your toes," he ordered, looking to see them wiggling.

He turned back to look at her so that he could ask the next question. But he never got the chance.

Meredith reached up and pulled his face down toward hers. The ferocity with which she kissed him had him moaning instantly. The kiss was blazing hot and consuming. Derek forgot everything else except the insanely hot way that her mouth was devouring his.

A few minutes later, Meredith pulled back, dizzy from the kiss. Not from her injury, which was barely even a dull pain. Derek licked his lips carefully, instantly wistful to regain that heated contact with her.

"I'm fine," she said determinedly.

"You certainly are," Derek said, brushing a thumb across her cheek. "And you kissed me out of doctor mode. You're really good at the kissing," he said smiling.

"Desperate measures," she said, winking at him. "Now help me up."

"I need to check you more carefully….," he began.

"Are you fishing for more kisses?" she asked.

Derek chuckled, "Not yet. But I definitely will be later." They both grinned wickedly at one another.

Meredith returned to her pleas for escape from the room.

He eyed her suspiciously and put his palm down on her stomach gently. "If anything, and I mean anything, feels off or painful let me know. Even if it's slightly bad…. stop and tell me. Alright?"

"Alright," she said softly.

"Promise?" he asked, true concern shining in his eyes.

"Promise."