DISCLAIMER: All recognizable characters, dialogue and scenes from the show belong to Shondaland Media, ABC and/or Disney Corporation.
~ Seattle, March 27, 2015, 10:00AM PST~
"Mommy! Daddy promised he'd call by 9:00 AM before we had to leave the house… It's now 10:00 AM but he still hasn't called. He's never late, not when he promised! Can we call him again?" Zola pleads with her mom.
"Zozo, Germany is really far away, maybe Daddy was just really tired and fell asleep…we wouldn't want to wake him if he's tired would we, I'm sure we'll hear from him soon." Meredith tries to reassure her daughter despite having a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"But moooom, if he calls then me and Bails can't say hi because we'll be in daycare…I miss daddy. I want daddy!" Zola pouts.
"How about this, as soon as your dad calls, I will make sure to bring my phone down to daycare, but we need to get you and your brother checked in, otherwise we're going to be late," Meredith resorts to bargaining with her four-year old , "And who can never be late?"
"Surgeons" Zola and Bailey reply, familiar with the saying.
"What happens if surgeons are late?" Meredith asks, as she kisses both kids on the head.
"People die?" Zola says softly as she starts to walk into the classroom. Suddenly, she turns around and runs back to her mom, "Mommy, Daddy's a surgeon and he's late does that mean…" Meredith curses herself for not realizing her brilliant child may combine their common morning saying with the fact her dad is never late for their daily calls. She avoids the question by nudging Zola into the classroom.
Despite what she said to Zola, Meredith picks up her phone and dials Derek's number again.
"Hi. You've reached Dr. Shepherd. Please leave a message, and I will return your call."
"Derek, you missed your call with the kids this morning and that's not like you. I checked your flight status and it said it landed on time around noon. I'm not mad, just… please call me back as soon as you can, no matter what time. I love you."
~ Washington, DC, March 27, 2015, 4:00PM EST~
"National Institutes of Health, Brain Mapping Initiative, Janet speaking how may I direct your call."
"Hello Janet, it's Dr. Meredith Grey. I know it's pretty late in Germany but has anyone heard from Derek? He missed a call with the kids and you know he never does that… I left a voicemail for him already but he hasn't returned my calls yet. I don't want to keep ringing him if he's been pulled into a meeting so I figure I should ask you since you have his itinerary?"
Janet's initial smile at hearing her boss's wife slowly disappears as she senses the worry coming from the other line. "Hello Meredith! It's lovely to hear your voice. Yes, I know Derek so loves talking to the kids, I could see why you're concerned. Let me check the schedule." She pulls up the calendar and notices that Derek had also missed a call with his replacement. Not wishing to worry Meredith further she says, "You know, maybe it's just the time difference, or maybe his cell is not getting any reception. Let me reach out to BfArM and see what they say. I'll look into it and follow up with you as soon as I hear ok?"
"Thanks Janet, we really appreciate it. I'll hold off on repeatedly calling his phone until I hear from you."
As soon as Meredith disconnects, Janet calls her counterpart in Germany, "Hello Anja, it's Janet. I am really sorry for calling so late; I know that it's 10:00PM your time now. Derek Shepherd's plane landed at noon your time. We were expecting him for a few meetings but haven't been able to get in touch with him. I know his meetings with the delegation is for tomorrow morning but is there any chance he's been pulled into them already?... No? Oh…that's odd…He still hasn't checked into the hotel? That IS very odd. Ok thank you, if by any chance any of your people sees him, can you please give my line a call, no matter the time? Thanks Anja."
Janet immediately texts Derek's work line "URGENT, PLEASE CALL." No matter the time, Derek always called within five minutes of receiving an urgent request.
After ten minutes had elapsed, Janet reaches over and dials the White House, hoping they could shed some light as to where Derek Shepherd was.
Consulate General of the United States of America, Frankfurt, March 28, 2015 12:00AM CET~
"This is an unmitigated disaster! How are you people unable to locate one man, with all the digital surveillance tools that you have at your disposal? When the Office of the President calls requesting we locate the head of his Brain Mapping Initiative, it should not take you lot this long to find him! I want Derek Shepherd located within the hour or else!" The door slammed shut behind the senior consul.
"Ok…we know Shepherd rented a car and left the airport around 12:30PM, which means he should've gotten to Bonn no later than 2:30PM. There's no activity on his credit cards, or on social media or any of his other accounts. Has anyone tried pinging or triangulating the location of either of his phones?" John, a tech analyst asks the group, "here, let me do it now."
Everyone waits with bated breath as the triangulation began to narrow, until it stopped moving and settled on a fixed location on the map.
"Bendorfer Brücke? What's he doing there, it's not even close to Bonn or Frankfurt…unless he took a scenic route?" Ann, the newest attaché suggested.
"Wait, did you say Bendorfer Brücke?" John asked, with a growing sense of dread, "There was something on the news, there was a big accident on the bridge. A lot of injuries and fatalities, the news said the local hospitals were overrun with patients… On the news earlier, I thought I saw an image of a Porsche halfway under a truck and half hanging over the edge…"
"Porsche as in…what Dr. Shepherd was driving?" Ann whispered.
After a moment of silence, Ann sees her supervisor point to her and say, "You... You Go. NOW."
~ Unidentified German Morgue, March 28, 2015, 1:30AM CET~
"Hello, I was told to come down here? I'm Ann Smith from the US Consulate. We were advised by the police up on the bridge that they had taken the person retrieved from a vehicle of interest here?"
"He must be pretty important to have one of you come out in the middle of the night… Unfortunately, there's quite a number- -" The coroner says, gesturing behind him.
"Him…" Ann points to a body covered with a sheet. All she could see was dark hair peeking above the sheet, and an arm wearing a lab coat, a lab coat that was now more red from blood than white. "Does he look like this?" Ann shows a photo to the doctor.
"Could be? These were the belongings found inside the vehicle or on the body when he has retrieved. The car is still on the scene so his other possessions may still be there…but that photo matches the driver's license inside the wallet."
"What do you mean "could be"? How can you NOT be sure?"
"Miss, the truck that hit the car lost control due to an oil slick in the rain, rammed through two barriers then took off half the car. With the GT3 being so low to the ground, it got pinned underneath the truck and dragged for a bit before finally stopping. The amount of trauma the body sustained, I do not think his own mother would recognize him. I say could be because the height, hair and eye colour matches. You add that to him having his wallet and phone? I would say it's him but the only way to really tell is a DNA test…we could do that but as you can see" gesturing behind him again, "there are quite a number of fatalities, with more expected. A DNA test would have to wait, not to mention we would need a sample from his family" the coroner states.
After pausing to think, Anne says, "No. His family is in the United States, asking for a DNA sample, causing more delays seems unnecessarily cruel. Especially as you pointed out, who else could it be? This is bad enough; I don't want to subject them to further pain. I will sign off on the paperwork so we can get him repatriated back to the USA."
~ Seattle, March 28, 2015, 5:00 PM~
Meredith scrambles to pick up her phone, not bothering to check the caller ID, "Hello? Derek?"
"Meredith it's Janet, I am so sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Derek's been in an accident. You're going to get an official call from the President, but I thought you deserved to know as soon as I did."
Meredith feels numb, she's grateful that Maggie had agreed to take the children until she heard from Derek. "Are they sure? How could they be sure? It hasn't even been a day! Maybe it's not him!"
"Meredith, someone from the Embassy went to identify the body. They identified him from his wallet, phone, they retrieved his passport from the car, apparently he's even wearing the blue shirt he wore in the passport photo."
"Why would they need to identify him with—Oh my god, I think I'm going to be sick," Meredith says as she rushes to the bathroom.
"I am so sorry Meredith-" was all Meredith could take before she disconnected the call. She feels the blood rushing to her head as she thinks:
He's gone, he's really gone.
I don't know what to do! What do I tell the kids?
My mother was right, it is awful being a grown-up. The carousel never stops turning… and I can't get off.
~ Unidentified German Hospital, April 23, 2015~
"It's been almost four weeks of complications and this medically induced coma. The paralytics should be off now. Let's lower his sedation level and check on his neurological function." the doctor instructs his nurse.
As the patient's eyelids begin to flutter, the doctor asks, "Sir? If you can understand me, can you please open your eyes?" The patient's brow furrows but his eyes do not open.
"Dr. Schaefer, the inscription on his watch, it was in English, maybe he doesn't speak German?" The nurse points out.
Dr. Schaefer repeats the request in English and after a few seconds, the patient opens his eyes. After responding successfully to more physical checks, the doctor asks, "Sir, can you tell us your name?"
"Uh, um..." the doctors can see the confusion and growing concern on the patient's face as he tries to search his memory. "Sir, is your name Derek?"
"I, maybe? Yes? I...I think so? It sounds...familiar."
"How about your last name?"
Derek tries desperately to remember his name, or any details of his life but when nothing comes, he begins to panic, his stats showing the rising level of agitation in his blood pressure and heart rate.
"Derek, it's ok. You were asleep for a while; you may still be experiencing effects from some of the sedatives you were on. Your memory will come back. Let's give you some time, ok?" Dr. Schaefer suggests gently.
"What do you mean by "a while"? How long have I been here?" Derek asks.
"Your condition was quite critical when you were brought into Emergency. You came in with severe head trauma after more tests, we realized you also had severe internal injuries and a tear in your abdomen. I fixed the tear but as I was finishing, you went into cardiac arrest. Your body and your brain needed time to heal and so we placed you in a medically induced coma for a month. You're quite a lucky man to survive all that. We were concerned you may have deficits but—"
"It's Dr. Schaefer, right? Sir, I cannot express how thankful I am for all that you and your team have done for me… but you asking me what my name is, is that just part of your checks?"
"Son, unfortunately, it is not. You came in with just your clothes and a watch, no phone or wallet which was odd. We thought you may have been mugged or robbed. Maybe you were in a fight and fell into the river because that was where you were retrieved from," the doctor replied, keeping his tone neutral.
"I've been here for over four WEEKS and no one has come looking for me?" Derek exclaimed.
"Now that you're awake, the police may have more information for you. They took your fingerprints in hopes of finding your family while you were in a coma, but the local database search did not return a match, I am really sorry."
Derek could feel his chest tightening with every revelation from the doctor. Rather than taking out his frustration on the people who had worked so hard to help him he says instead, "I am sure you are right Dr. Schaefer… I am sorry but all of this… it's just… it's overwhelming. Would you mind if I try and sleep? Hopefully I can remember something after my brain has had some time to process all of this?" he asks.
"Sure, but the nurses may come in to wake you and do checks- -"
"Every hour to make sure that I'm not having adverse effects from being weaned off paralytics…" Derek's eyes widen in shock midway through but continues, "you want to make sure I don't develop DVT or throw a PE or develop pneumonia."
After a brief moment when the entire room grew silent, Dr. Schaefer asks, "Derek are you a doctor?"
"I…I don't know, I don't know where all that came from." Derek shrugged.
"See! If you're starting to remember medical side effects, I am certain the rest will come in due time" the doctor said encouragingly, "we will leave you to rest for now."
Derek's eyes were closing even before the last nurse exited the room. "How could I not remember my own name? Who am I? Where am I from? Do I have a family?"
The questions repeat like a mantra in his head. Whether it's remnants of the sedatives or a memory, he sees a woman in a long, white hooded sweater walking towards a trailer in the dark. He feels worry that she's leaving him but instead, she turns back giggling, her green eyes sparkling as she holds out her hand, reaching for him. As Derek finally succumbs to sleep, his final thought was "I need to get back to you."
A/N:
Apr 29, 2021- Another heavy chapter and apologies if it seems rushed, I just wanted to get some of the backstory through before I could get to the MerDer reunion.
I had to find a way as to why Meredith would not look for Derek and came up with what happened above.
For all intents and purposes poor Darin had no ties or people who would think to look for him. He was supposed to leave the country and stated he was intending to "disconnect" to take a break. Darin's contract with Gerhardt Strauss was on short notice, which had a clause that if his services were not required, that he would just leave. Strauss may have believed that since the car rental was in Derek's name rather than Darin's had Derek needed an aide, that Darin is happily sunbathing somewhere in Italy.
With the mass casualties and trauma overwhelming the local hospitals, all it took was an overwhelmed morgue and a harried consular attaché to (mis)identify the mangled body as Derek Shepherd. Apologies for the gruesome image but I imagine the injuries to be at George O'Malley levels, if not WORSE. The body matched Derek's description (height, weight, eye color, hair color), found in a car rented by Derek, with his phone, his wallet, his passport and his belongings so they did not think a DNA test was necessary, prioritizing getting his body back to his family more.
I also just want to repeat that I have not been to Germany so my apologies if I messed up anything, I am always appreciative of constructive feedback and comments!
Places / people mentioned:
BfArM = Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte aka Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (headquartered in Bonn, Germany)
Bendorfer Brücke = Beautiful bridge that crosses the Rhine River. It looks very sturdy, so I had to have a truck and other vehicles crash through to justify Derek dangling off it.