He was on a surgical high after his successful tumour removal on the Chief, and he was headed to do a quick post-op check on him before he meet up with Meredith to head out for dinner. However, His high spirit is crushed once he overhears some nurses discussing the news that Burke has been named interim Chief while Richard recovers. He's upset and honestly confused by this because he had thought the position was a given. After all it was Derek who the Chief had gone to about his vision concerns it was Derek who the Chief had trusted to operate on him! What? Did Richard think he could trust him enough to operate on the tumour in his brain but not enough to let him run the hospital for a few weeks as he recovered from said surgery? Derek was now annoyed and instead of worrying about the Chief's post op check he was now headed to his room to confront him about why Burke had been named chief instead of him.
He burst through the door into the chief's recovery room "You gave chief to Burke!?"
Richard was sitting up in his hospital bed he said "It was a business decision, nothing personal."
"Oh, well, what a relief. It's not personal. It is personal to me. You can trust me to cut open your skull but not run your hospital? What the hell Richard?" Derek asked angrily.
"The working of my surgical unit don't have anything to do with your private life! Burke will act as chief of surgery until I'm back on my feet." Richard said while sitting up further.
"My private life? What is that supposed to mean?" Derek was confused he really had no idea what the chief could be talking about he thought that he had been acting quite professionally, he certainly wasn't spending anytime moping about the state of his life, in fact he thought that he had mostly been in quite high spirits around the hospital.
Richard gave Derek a pointed look and then asked, "How long have you have been sleeping with an intern?"
Derek felt like he had been sucker punched "-uh how do you- what makes you think?-"
Richard interrupted him sharply "Did you really think parading it around the hallways meant nobody was going to see you!? Really? Derek you have to be smarter than that?" Richard seemed genuinely troubled by his actions.
"And I thought Grey would be smarter than to sleep with a married man." he a said shaking his head in disappointment.
Richard seems to be able to tell just by Derek's look "She doesn't know? Jesus Derek! you really are dense! This can NOT go on!"
Derek tries to interrupt "I-"
Richard cuts him off by saying "Not only is it completely inappropriate and unprofessional its entirely unfair to Meredith!"
"Look ok I get that I need to tell her – but it's complicated..." Derek said sheepishly attempting to explain.
Richard glared disapprovingly and shook his head "I didn't ask questions when you showed up here out of the blue and asked for a job, but this is interfering with the workings of my surgical unit!" His voice had grown louder once again.
In response to Richards anger Derek decided to try another tactic "We have been completely professional at work I haven't granted her any favours. We are handling everything above board, her resident knows!"
Although, Derek realized, they hadn't actually planned to tell Bailey. They had been a little carless he didn't think the chief need to know that though. But in any case he should probably encourage Meredith to do a little less flirting on hospital property perhaps they weren't as discrete as they thought if the chief had noticed.
"and I will tell her about Addison." That was a whole other can of worms.
"You'd better she deserves to hear it from you because if you delay too long, she may hear it elsewhere."
"You-" Derek's panic almost chocked him.
"I'm not going to say anything – but that doesn't mean it's not something she might hear from others I know Addison said she wasn't going to come out but that doesn't mean she plans to stay away forever."
"Wait - did you say? - you've spoken to Addison?" There was that sucker punch feeling again only this time it was worse, so so much worse.
"Yes I called her and I realize now that she must not have had any idea you were here. Which I guess makes our conversation clearer now."
Richard must be able to sense that Derek is becoming angry because he says "I'm sorry I didn't realize you were keeping it from her if I had known I wouldn't have called but she did say say she wasn't coming so you better take this opportunity to speak to Meredith and come out with the truth!"
"Wait so you spoke with Addison and told her I was here working?" Derek asked
"Yes." Richard said matter of factly
"What did she say?"
"Just that she was sorry, but she didn't think she had time in her schedule to make the trip out here."
"And you're sure she knew I was in Seattle?"
"Yes that's the first thing I brought up, that I didn't know why she hadn't come with you but I hoped that this case would at least bring her out for a brief visit."
"So Addison knows I'm in Seattle?"
"Yes."
"But she's not coming?"
"No." Richard seemed exasperated at this point.
"Oh …"
The conversation had quickly derailed and Richard again reminded him "Derek! You need to fix this intern situation right away!"
"Right…"
He walked out of Richards room in a daze
Maybe Addie had just told Richard she wasn't coming so that Derek would be shocked when she did show up. But that didn't make a lot of sense because Addie wouldn't lie to Richard even if she assumed he would tell Derek and it's not like she couldn't still shock him by showing up even if Richard had told him.
He suddenly remembered that he had promised to meet Meredith in the lobby to take her out on a date, but his head was feeling incredibly fuzzy and he just wanted to go home and lie in his bed.
The truth was he was actually quite embarrassed at having been caught out by his mentor and boss. He wanted to be angry with Richard for calling Addison, but he really had no right to be. He had given Richard almost no details on why he had left New York, just that he needed a job as far away from the east coast as possible.
He felt like a real dope for thinking he could go about carrying on a relationship with one of his inferiors without the rest of the hospital finding out.
Hospitals were notorious for gossip. Derek never wanted to be that guy the guy who uses his power to sleep with whoever he wants. He didn't think that's what was happening between him and Meredith, but he could understand why some people might view it that way. He actually thought that he had some legitimate feelings for her. He was also feeling desperate and unsure about having to tell Meredith about his wife. When he picked her up in the bar he honestly hadn't thought past that night, but then he'd encountered her again at work. He had enjoyed the distraction and even though he claimed differently he really had enjoyed the thrill of the chase.
He knew that eventually at some point he owed Meredith an explanation but the eventually seemed like some far of distant situation and he hadn't tried very hard to think about what that explanation might actually be. But it was starting to look more and more like that explanation needed to happen sooner rather than later.
He was approaching Meredith and she was smiling at him brightly something dark and heavy curdled in his stomach that felt suspiciously like guilt.
"Derek Hi, I was thinking we could do Italian again a patient recommended this great little bistro that's nearby the pier and I was thinking that afterwards we could take a walk by the ferry boats." She suggested cheerily
Derek suddenly felt overcome with tiredness and his shoulders slumped heavily "Actually I think I'm going to have to take a raincheck tonight I need to get home and get some sleep." He explained to her.
"Oh." She said seeming deflated.
He knew he owed her an explanation, but his head was such a complete mess that he wasn't even sure he would be able to actually form the words let alone what those words might actually be.
"Yeah..."
"Ok well we can reschedule." Meredith said hopefully
"Great" he replied flatly.
"When do you-" she asked clearly hoping to get an exact timeframe
"Oh I don't –um I'll let you know" Derek said distractedly.
"Oh okay.." she seemed confused.
But Derek did not have the energy to even really care about that right now. All he had on his mind was the fact that Addison knew he was in Seattle, but she wasn't coming after him. He needed to deal with why that seemed to be bothering him so much? did he even want to see her? Why wasn't she coming? Derek had a lot to contemplate as he left the hospital to go his trailer alone in the woods.
Going to apologize upfront for any egregious grammatical errors also I never write fiction and it's hard to keep track of what tense to write in so apologies for that as well and just the general crap that is the writing overall. If you find the plot a little bit intriguing hopefully than you can stick it out i've had this chapter on my laptop forever I just kept refusing to finish editing it. If anyone has any interest in seeing where this story goes I have the majority of it plotted out so let me know if you want me to post more.