Chap 10

A/N: A much awaited update has arrived! Some physical violence in this chapter, just so you're aware. Enjoy!

Addison wasn't paying that much attention to the board meeting, if she was being honest. She was thinking of how happy she'd been in these last few weeks. Once Derek had stopped harassing Meredith every chance he got, Meredith had begun to relax more. She and the General Attending were taking things slow; despite living together and sharing a bed, they hadn't done more than heavy make-out sessions on the couch and bed. She wanted to make sure that Meredith was ready. Despite her reputation as the hospital slut, as one nurse had named her, Meredith wasn't one to sleep around. Sure, there was the inappropriate relationship with Derek, but that was over and done with. And Meredith had confessed that she'd never been with a woman, so she really wanted to take her time. It wasn't like they needed sex; their attraction to each other went beyond sexual desires. But, at the same time, she wanted to make love to the blonde, to show her that she loved her.

Owen was saying something again, but she'd lost interest. Don't get her wrong, board meetings weren't all bad. Getting a chance to talk with the heads of the departments like this was a good thing. She actually wished Meredith was here. General had no true department head, so Richard was sitting in, being the senior most member. She supposed that was a good thing. If Meredith had been here, she'd probably be staring at her the entire time.

The sudden buzz of pagers going off pulled her from her thoughts. Callie, Mark and Amelia looked at their pagers before getting their feet.

"Trauma," Mark explained to Owen, but she thought she saw something in his eyes.

It was only a few seconds later that Owen's pager went off. He looked at it, standing quickly, almost too quickly, "We'll have to pick this up later. Richard, a word."

She watched as Richard joined Owen in the hall while Callie, Mark and Amelia shot down the hallway. Super weird. She looked around the table at Lexie, Teddy and Arizona, frowning softly.

"Anyone else have a weird feeling?" Lexie asked.

She saw Owen and Richard look through the window into the room, almost like they were looking at her, "Yeah, Little Grey," She agreed, "I have a really weird feeling."

She pulled out her phone to text Meredith, Meeting is out early. Lunch?

Derek found a sick kind of satisfaction as he watched Meredith's head snap to the side, as she stumbled back from the force of the hit. She let out a pained gasp, and he grabbed her arm again, dragging her to a nearby on-call room. Deserted hallway or not, anyone could walk by.

"I lose my first patient after over a month of not being able to hold a scalpel, and all you can say is sorry?" He barked out as he tossed her into the room, locking the door behind them.

In a daze, Meredith stared up at him, clutching her cheek, "Derek, what the f…"

"Shut up," he took a step from the door, and she took a step back, "I bet you just loved seeing me fall, didn't you?"

"No, I…"

"Shut. Up." He hissed out, "God, your voice is so fucking annoying."

"Derek…"

He lunged at her then, pushing her back against the wall as he wrapped his hands around her throat, "Would you just fucking listen for once!" She clawed at his hands as he squeezed her throat, and the terror in her eyes made this all the sweeter, "I can't believe that I ever wanted you." She kicked her feet out, landing some hits on his legs in an attempt to get him to release her, but he ignored the pain. He bashed her head against the concrete wall behind her, over and over, the more she struggled, still keeping a tight grip on her throat. God, he just wanted her to shut up. He couldn't look at her. Just when she was about to lose consciousness, he released his grip. She coughed and sputtered, gulping mouthfuls of air.

He waited, waited for some kind of defiant look, for her to open her mouth again.

Instead, disoriented, she tried to shove past him. He grabbed her arm and jerked her back to him. And then he hit her, his fist against the other side of her face.

"Come on, isn't this fun?" He asked.

She didn't answer; she stumbled back, but she couldn't go far. He dragged her to him again, digging his knee into her stomach. She clenched her teeth tightly, but he could see the tears in her eyes. That wouldn't work; he wanted her to scream.

All of his failures he could blame on Meredith. Getting blacklisted by the FDA, Meredith's fault. If she hadn't tampered with the trial, things would be different. The severity of his hand injury, Meredith's fault; she'd asked to swap him seats on the plane, and if she hadn't, he would be the one going around like nothing had happened. Getting suspended was definitely on Meredith too. Had she not been such a cheating whore, he wouldn't have lost his temper.

For each infraction he thought of, he kept hitting her. Over and over just because he could. At some point, he switched his attention to her body. Her face was a beautiful mess, but he could have even more fun. Because she deserved it. He saw her legs start to buckle, but still, even with her face starting to bruise, her eyes still had that defiant glint. And he wanted it gone. He hit her again.

He was sure he heard something crack as she finally fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. Breathing hard, he stared down at her.

"How could I have ever thought I loved you?" He asked her, as he kicked her in the stomach. She didn't make a sound, "You were the worst mistake I've ever made." He chuckled softly to himself, "This was such a great talk, Meredith. Maybe I'll go find Addison next. See if we can have an even better one."

Meredith grabbed his pant leg as he started to walk away. She struggled to her knees, and he looked at her, indifferent, "God, you're so pathetic." He stepped on her back, pushing her back down.

She stared up at him, though he knew she could hardly see him, spitting out blood every other word, "If you even think about touching Addison, Derek, I'll fucking kill you."

"Oh? You will?" He asked patronizingly as he kicked her in the face to make her release her grip, "There's nothing you can do to stop me, Meredith." He kicked her in the back and once more in the ribs, just to watch her cry out, staring down at her, and smiled cruelly, "I'll make sure Addison knows how hard you tried to stop me." And then he brought his foot down hard.

He heard the satisfying crunch as he heard her nose break. He stared down at her, waiting for her to say something, but she'd been knocked out from the pain.

Thank God.

He unlocked the door and continued on his way, letting it swing shut behind him.

Cristina had a bad feeling. She'd finished her surgery and had notified the family of the success, explained which recovery room the patient would be in, and reassured the family that she would be paged when the patient woke up. It was all very routine.

She had her residents watching over any changes the patient may have and she took the time to go over any questions. They were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Still, something felt off. Her surgery was a success, so that couldn't be it. There was a board meeting going on, so the hallways were devoid of the Department Heads, so maybe that was it? No, no that wasn't it, she decided. So what was it?

She saw McDreary walking away from one of the rarely used on-call rooms, his expression unreadable. She felt a chill slide down her spine and shuddered. So weird. What the hell was he even doing back there?

The hallway was quickie central, where all the interns liked to have a sex. And she doubted that he was back there with an intern. After all, they weren't set to arrive for another few weeks. In fact, even if he knew about quickie central, he wasn't getting any. He would be a lot less of a McAss if he was.

Still, there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind to go see. Honestly, it was ridiculous. He was probably just coming from the other side of the hallway. It wasn't just quickie central. But still, just to be sure. She'd always thought of the nagging feeling as being her father, trying to be there to guide her. It wasn't rational, but it was her way of keeping him with her.

She looked down the hallway, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Just as she went to turn away, one of the on-call room doors creaked just slightly. As she got closer, her feeling of unease grew stronger. She pushed open the door carefully, and she felt her blood run cold as she glimpsed inside.

Bailey was in the middle of chewing out a resident about charts when her pager buzzed.

She stopped mid-tirade, glancing down at the device, ready to chew whoever was paging her out.

911 Meredith Grey, 2nd floor

It was like she was thrust back in time, back to when Meredith had nearly died in the bay. Before, it had taken her a few seconds to snap out of it, to compartmentalize the situation, to focus on saving her life. Now, it was instantaneous.

She didn't even spare the poor resident a backwards glance, forgetting whatever she was yelling at him about as she bolted from the room in an instant.

Lord, could this girl stop being in the middle of everything?

Alex had just scrubbed out of his surgery when his pager went off.

"Can you go update the family?" He asked his resident absentmindedly as he pulled the device from his belt.

"Sure." He glanced at the device, "Anything…" the resident began but whatever else she was going to say was lost as he bolted from the room.

911 Meredith Grey, 2nd floor

Mark read the page quickly, already standing, along with Callie and Amelia.

"Trauma," he explained, trying not to look at Addison, to keep his eyes on Owen.

Owen's pager went off then, and he saw the color start to drain from his face as he stood, "We'll have to pick this up later. Richard, a word."

He exchanged a look with Callie and Amelia and then they were racing down the hallways.

Meredith, please be alright.

"What's going on?" Richard asked as he met Owen in the hallway.

It didn't make sense for General and Cardio not to be paged in a trauma, so something else had to be wrong.

"It's Meredith," Owen began.

"What?" He breathed out.

"Cristina just paged 911 on the second floor. I'm going down there now."

He glanced in at Addison and from the corner of his eye saw Owen do the same, "What do you need me to do?"

"Don't let Addison or Lexie panic. We've got this under control. I'll page when I know more."

And then he was gone, racing down the hallway to follow the others.

He sighed softly before re-entering the room.

"Well, how about I treat you ladies to some lunch? No one has any surgeries scheduled, do they?"

He saw Addison glance at her phone, "I was trying to see if Meredith wanted to get an early lunch, but she hasn't replied."

"Ah," he said, "Maybe she had an emergency surgery?"

"She usually texts when she does," Addison replied absentmindedly, and then she looked up at him, "What did Owen want?"

Sometimes, he almost forgot that Addison wasn't his resident anymore; she'd come so far, was so perceptive. And, yet, he still wanted to protect her. And he wanted to lie, wanted to just take her and the other three women to lunch. He knew if either she or Lexie knew, they would want to go help. Hell, the entire hospital was practically Meredith Grey's family, but the two people who absolutely couldn't do anything were Addison and Lexie. But they needed to know. Meredith would want them with her.

He sighed softly. Addison picked up on his tone immediately, "Richard?"

"You two need to stay calm."

Lexie looked at him quizzically, "Stay calm?"

"It's Meredith."

Addison's eyes darkened, "What are you talking about?"

"The trauma," he started to explain.

"You mean the one the others just went to?" Lexie asked.

He nodded, and Addison was already on her feet, "What floor?"

"Addie," he began.

"What. Floor."

"Don't use your Satan voice on me," He answered.

"Let us go see what's going on," Teddy spoke up, and Arizona nodded, "You and Lexie stay with Richard, and we'll keep you updated."

Addison looked between the two women. He knew she would rather be down there herself, but her presence would only cause a problem. Lexie nodded immediately, but Addison wasn't sure. He knew that feeling all too well. Finally, she nodded.

Arizona squeezed her shoulder gently, "We'll be right back."

Alex found Cristina in the on-call room, checking for a pulse. She had Meredith on her back, and he felt his blood run cold.

"What the hell happened in here?" He asked, looking around the room quickly. Blood was in a concentrated spot on the wall and also pooling around Meredith. Cristina was shaking, he realized, and he gently leaned forward to steady her hand.

"I just found her in here," Cristina said, "Pulse is thready, but I have one."

He watched as two nurses came into the room with a gurney, followed quickly by Bailey.

"What in God's name is going on?" The shorter woman asked, "Yang, what happened?"

Cristina shook her head, and he and the two nurses carefully loaded the still-unconscious woman onto the gurney. As they moved out of the room towards an exam room, he heard Cristina start to explain.

"I just saw Derek come from this way and got a bad feeling."

Could Shepherd have actually done this? No, he'd learned his lesson. If he wanted to keep his job, he was to stay the hell away from Meredith. And he had been.

"You're a whore," Derek had said, his voice spitting with venom, "There's nothing else I need to know."

Three weeks ago, if this had happened, he would accuse Shepherd in an instant. Now, now he wasn't sure.

"Oh my God," Amelia breathed out as she, Callie and Mark entered the exam room. Miranda had an ultrasound machine, saying something about free fluid in the abdomen. "What the hell happened?"

"We'll figure that out later," Miranda said, "She's still unconscious, people, so let's work quickly."

Callie moved first, tying her hair up and pulling on gloves, "Her right wrist is definitely broken. Nose too," She gently palpated her ribs, and even unconscious, Meredith flinched, "fractured ribs 2 and 3 on the right side, 3 and 4 on the left. I can set her nose now."

"She uh," she took a breath, trying to calm herself, "possible concussion." Her eyes were swollen shut, her face having taken most of the beating. She swallowed, and then pulled on a pair of gloves, "Karev, can you hold her head steady? I don't want her to jerk too much."

He nodded, and she gently lifted her eyelid, shining her penlight, "Pupil reaction is good." She did the same with the other eye, "And this one too. Nothing is blown."

Mark still hadn't moved from the doorway.

"Dr. Sloan," he snapped up at Miranda's voice, "She has a head lac, so if you'd please see to that."

"Right." He answered and stepped forward, "Sorry, I just…"

"I know," Miranda's voice was quiet.

The steady beat of the machines was the only sound for a full five minutes.

Teddy stared into the room, watching her colleagues work quickly. It was hard to believe the woman on the table was Meredith. She looked so small.

"She hasn't regained consciousness yet," Cristina's voice broke her out of her thoughts, and she turned to face her girlfriend. The front of Cristina's shirt was smeared with blood, and her eyes went wide, "It's not mine. It's Meredith's." Cristina's voice was low, almost robotic.

"Come sit," she requested gently, taking her hands and leading her to one of the nearby chairs, "Tell me what happened."

Meredith didn't know what was going on. Her thoughts were all jumbled. She felt like she'd been hit by a train. Her head was killing her and her hand was killing her, and she was pretty sure if she tried to move, her body would be killing her too. The light filtering through her eyelids was beyond bright.

"Come on, isn't this fun?" Ah, now she remembered. Derek had beaten the hell outta her. He'd never been so angry before, not enough to hit her. Still, as long as it wasn't Addison, it was okay.

"This was such a great talk, Meredith. Maybe I'll go find Addison next. See if we can have an even better one." Panic seized her, and she worked to force the fog from her mind. She remembered reaching out towards him, grasping his pant leg with her broken hand, ignoring the pain because there was no way she was going to allow him to hurt Addison. There was no way in Hell.

"Meredith, Meredith, it's alright," She heard Callie's voice, "You're alright."

Forget me, she wanted to yell, Find Addison. But she couldn't speak; her throat still hurt from Derek's attempt to choke her out.

"Breathe, Mere," She heard Alex say gently, "You need to breathe and calm down." No, she couldn't calm down. She needed to warn Addison. She was starting to get frustrated. Why wasn't anyone listening to her, damn it?

"I'll make sure Addison knows how hard you tried to stop me."

Derek had gone completely insane, and Addison was in danger, God damn it! Find Derek before he hurts her! She wanted to yell and scream. She needed...she needed Addison to be safe. Damn it, why the hell was she getting sleepy?

"Meredith Grey, I swear," Bailey's voice was hazy, and she recognized the symptoms of morphine, "listen when people are trying to help you."

No, no, I need… Addison...

She couldn't do anything except succumb to the call of sleep.

"Addison, where's the fire?" Derek questioned as Addison impatiently tapped her foot, hitting the elevator's down button.

She was standing with Lexie and Richard, and he inwardly scowled. There was no way he could get her alone right now. His adrenaline was still pumping. He may have taken his anger out on Meredith, but he was still angry at Addison too. Everything was spiraling out of his control, but if he went down, he would take her with him.

"It's Meredith," Lexie offered when Addison ignored him, "She was attacked."

"Is she alright?" he asked, trying to put enough worry into his voice.

"She will be," Richard answered, "We're on our way to see her now."

The door opened, and Addison stepped in immediately. She was ignoring him, and it was pissing him off. He stepped in after her, and she glared at him.

"Woah, Satan, what's with that look?" he attempted to joke.

"I'm not in the mood," She replied, and he felt his anger start to rise. Lexie and Richard stepped into the elevator after him, and Addison hit the button for the second floor, glaring at Richard, "My girlfriend is fighting for her life, and you didn't want to tell me."

He tried not to bristle at the term of endearment. Meredith had been his wife before Addison had sunk her adulterous claws into her.

Richard sighed, "I know."

"Wanted to take me to lunch," she muttered to herself.

The elevator began to slow, and Addison was moving before the doors fully opened.

Addison stared into the room, watching Callie setting Meredith's wrist. Meredith had been moved into the hospital room a few feet away, hooked up to IVs. She desperately wanted to go in, but she knew she couldn't. Other than Callie, Alex and Bailey were in the room still, with Owen. Owen saw her watching and made his way from the room.

"She woke up, but Bailey sedated her," He explained.

"Do we know what happened?" she questioned, still not taking her eyes off of Meredith.

He shook his head, "No. Cristina found her in an on-call room."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mark getting up from one of the chairs, making his way over to Lexie, saw Lexie fall into his open arms.

"An on-call room?" she replied, "What was she doing in there?" There was no way she was napping. She didn't have any surgeries scheduled. She thought Callie had asked her to watch Derek's surgery.

"I don't know," Owen answered, "I have tech support getting the camera feed. Maybe there was something in the hallway."

Luckily for the doctors in the hospital, there were no cameras in the on-call rooms, what with all the sex. Except in this case, she really wished there was.

She felt Derek watching from the nurse's station, looking in on Meredith from the distance. She was glad he was here. He was trying to accept that they were together; he was getting his life back together. He'd even had his first surgery today. He was being supportive.

"I could've done more," Owen looked over at Derek, a sickening feeling settling in his stomach as he spoke calmly, watching Meredith through the glass, "I should've done more, you know?"

"Derek?" Lexie's voice was a shocked whisper.

"I lost my patient, and all she said to me was that she was sorry," he began, shaking his head with a laugh, "Can you even believe that? My first patient after a month and she says sorry. I was so angry. So I hit her. And then I just couldn't stop." He said it all so casually, like he'd just described the weather.

Addison froze, looking back at Derek, her eyes wide.

"You…" she began in a quiet whisper, as what he'd just confessed started to register.

He smirked at her, his eyes shining with a malice that she'd never seen before, "You can't tell me you've never wanted her to just shut the hell up sometimes, Addie. After you've had a rough day or lost a patient. We all have. I just did what everyone's been wanting to do."

The room went silent, everyone staring at the man with the same horrified expression, the same thought in their heads: Derek Shepherd has completely lost it.

"What did you just say?" She questioned.

"She wouldn't have been beaten that bad had she not wanted to protect you. I was going to walk away. But then she threatened to kill me, all because I made a little comment about finding you. So, I had to teach her a lesson."

"Dr. Shepherd," Owen began, taking a step towards him.

But she beat him to it. She beat them all to it. In three quick strides, she'd crossed the room and slammed her fist into his face. The sound of his nose breaking reverberated throughout the room, as Derek went stumbling backwards, clutching his face.

"You fucking bastard!" She screamed, "What the fuck is wrong with you!" She was aware of Mark's arms around her waist, pulling her back, lifting her off the ground as she struggled to break free, "Let me go, Mark! Let me fucking go!"

Derek sneered at her through the pain, "Was that the best you could do? Meredith put up more of a fight than that, and she never said a word."

She was going to fucking kill Derek Shepherd. She was going to kill him and bury him where no one would bother to look. She tried to lunge at him again, but Mark kept his hold.

"No, no," Mark tightened his grip, "Addison, stop."

"My office, now." Owen said to Derek as two security guards came running up.

The two guards escorted Derek; she watched them go, watched Owen follow. Mark carefully set her down; the moment her feet touched the floor, she swayed, her adrenaline ebbing away slowly.

"Let's sit down," he muttered, carefully guiding her to the waiting area, still in full view of Meredith's hospital room.

He sat her down next to Cristina and Teddy; Lexie, Arizona and Callie joined them. Everything was quiet, as they all tried to take in what had just happened, what Derek had just admitted. She stared at the room where Meredith still slept, on morphine, blissfully unaware that their ex-husband had just confessed to what she considered attempted murder.

"Nothing is broken," Callie said softly as she wrapped her hand in gauze, "but it may still bruise."

"Nice shot, Satan," Cristina praised her.

She didn't have the energy to smile. Lexie gripped her free hand tightly, and she squeezed back just as tight.

"She'll be okay," Mark reassured them, "Meredith is a fighter."

She barely acknowledged him. She didn't have the energy to deal with anything, not right now. She looked up when Alex and Bailey came out of the room.

"Grey, Montgomery," Bailey said, motioning with her head, "Get in there. Be quiet and let her sleep. Page me when she wakes up."

"Thank you, Dr. Bailey," She heard Lexie say, but she'd already entered the room. She felt all her adrenaline slip from her body as she sat in the chair by Meredith's left side. She took in the painful bruises and broken bones.

Derek's voice reverberated in her head.

She wouldn't have been beaten that bad had she not wanted to protect you. So, I had to teach her a lesson.

She kept her hand tight in Meredith's. She knew it wasn't her fault. Derek had done it because Meredith was there, because he was angry at losing his patient. He would've done it to anyone who had been close when he snapped. She wasn't sure how long they sat there before Lexie spoke, her voice soft.

"She's going to be okay."

"Damn right," She answered, "And Derek is never going to work in this hospital ever again."

"He's packing up right now, actually," Owen's voice made her look up. He stood in the doorway, "Tech support got the camera feed. That and his confession were more than enough."

"Good," Lexie started.

She acknowledged him with a nod. She stared down at Meredith's sleeping body, sighing softly. He'll never hurt you again. And this time she was 100% sure of that thought.

A/N: Was that an update or was that an update? I'm thinking one more chapter. We'll see.