Chapter 21: Come Rain or Shine

Meredith slipped into the storage room and searched the shelves with her eyes. A knowing smirk on her face, she counted… one… two… three… Yes, infallibly, the door opened ever so quietly and she felt a pair of arms envelop her from behind, the scent of his aftershave making her blood course faster in her veins.

"No patients…" he murmured against the nape of her neck as his fingers were already making their way under her dress.

"And Izzie?" she giggled, writhing against him.

"She's… she's…" he stammered distractedly when his hands found her panties.

"She's…?"

"Don't know…" he huffed, his tongue making circles on her neck.

"Don't know?" she slapped his hands off before he could take off her panties.

"It's not like she's here," he chuckled insistently pushing under her dress.

"Derek, not now," she laughed turning to face him.

"What's that?" he asked noticing a small packet in her hands.

"That's…" she bit her lip looking up at him. "Birth control pills."

"Birth…" he trailed off. "For…?"

"Yeah, for me, or well, for us," she shrugged. "You'll have to actually prescribe them for me. That is… if you want? I figured it could be more comfortable…"

"Yeah," he said hoarsely.

"Yeah? Because we're doing it… like everywhere…" she frowned her forehead.

"All the time," he nodded smiling.

"And… well, I'm clean," she said uncomfortably.

"Me too."

"Are you?" she cleared her throat.

"Seriously?" Derek snorted and squinted at her. "Of course I am! How could you doubt?"

"With that stamina of yours and no girlfriend I imagine a whole intergalactic parade going through your bedroom."

"You did not just say…!" he gasped at her. When she showed no remorse he backed her against the wall, pressing both of her wrists with his hands. He loomed over her and her pulse skyrocketed when his face hovered over hers, denying the kiss. He whispered into her neck, his breath hot on her skin, his voice throaty, "My stamina is all your doing… I've never wanted a woman as much as you in my whole life… It's like I can't get enough of you. I want to touch you, kiss you, be inside you all the time…"

A moan escaped her throat. That's what she wanted too. Him inside her. All the freaking time.

"I guess this is one of the situations when the pill will come in handy," he chuckled, still holding her prisoner.

"We'll have to do with the condoms for the time being…" she breathed out, trying to squirm free from his tight grip. Not that she didn't enjoy it, it turned her on. But she wanted to touch him…

They were startled by the energetic knocking on the door.

"Meredith, Derek," Izzie's categorical voice carried from the lobby. "You need to stop doing… it in there or I will never dare go there again! And you certainly have to stop doing it now! I've just got a call, it's an emergency. The boys were raising the barn at Sam's ranch and… it collapsed!"

"Oh my god!" Meredith was out of Derek's arms and the storage room in a flash. "Is someone injured?"

"I think so," Izzie scrunched her face in worry. "It definitely sounds serious… I… I think Sam is trapped under the debris-"

"Iz, get an ambulance from Vegas!" Meredith barked an order and dived back into the storage room for emergency kits. "I think we'd all better go…"

"I told Sam not to push it," Meredith muttered under her breath when their car rolled into Sam's driveway and across the lawn. "I told him just weeks ago when he came in with that strained muscle!"

"Maybe it's not that bad…" Derek said soothingly.

"Oh, it's definitely worse than that bad…" she sighed heavily quickly surveying the scene before them as she parked her car at the side. A dozen of people were swarming around the wooden ruins of what was supposed to be Sam's brand new barn. Dust lingered in the air making way to men's airways and making them cough.

"Dr. Grey!" one of them shouted desperately, dried blood on his cheek. "Over 'ere!"

Once she reached him she immediately went to investigate his face but he shook his head quickly. "I'm fine, Doc! It's just a scratch. It's… it's Sam. He's under it! We managed to run when we noticed it start to go down but he… he tried to… and… it just caved on him! He's right here…"

Meredith fought hard to make her gasp as inaudible as possible.

She lunged towards the man squashed by the debris. Currently only his head, one arm and foot were uncovered. His friends bustled like bees to get anything out of the way but it would take time before they could pull him free.

"Sam! Do you hear me?" she asked sliding on the wooden splinters as she made her way to him.

Pained groans answered her and another man hurried to say, "He's conscious but barely… and there's… there's blood… Dr. Grey, can you help him? Please."

She knelt beside Sam's head assessing the injuries. She bit her lip, it didn't seem like she could do much for him at the moment. He was practically buried under the ruins. But his head.. there was truly a lot of blood…

"Sam!" she called his name watching his eyelids flutter. "His pupil's blown, he's limp," she muttered. "Sam, do you hear me?"

But his eyes were becoming more and more unseeing.

"Doc, he… He went sorta weird just before you came. His eyes sorta rolled up and he started twitching…"

"He had a seizure," sighed Derek dropping to his knees behind Meredith.

"Depressed skull fracture," she muttered delicately scrutinizing the area on his head that seemed to be the source of all the bleeding.

"He's got an intracranial bleed…" Derek stated expertly even though Meredith was fully aware of that without his opinion. "Damn it, there's no way we can get him to the hospital on time-"

"Boys… do you have a drill? I need a drill!" she ordered shrilly and dived for her medical kit to disinfect the drill bit.

"What for-"

"No questions! We don't have time! Do you want to save his life or not? Get me a drill, stat!"

"Meredith, you're not thinking about doing burr holes, do you?" Derek asked anxiously. "This isn't a neurosurgical drill, Meredith!"

"I'm fully aware of that!" she shouted at him deafeningly. "I'm fully aware it won't stop but I don't have a choice here. I know there's a risk I can pierce his brain but if I don't try, he's gonna die! Sometimes you've got to trust your instincts, Derek!"

"Let me do it, then, I'm a neurosurgeon-"

"Derek, with all due respect, you're in no state to do it! You were panicking a second ago! Have you ever held a normal drill in your hands? I thought so," she nodded at his expression and turned back to Sam. "Hold him still for me, can you do that?" she asked moving aside, her legs cramped against the debris as she made space for Derek to squeeze closer.

"Okay, I've got this," his voice was stronger than his expression. He was visibly apprehensive at the crude attempt at practicing medicine at the accident site. "You drill the first hole-"

"I know, Derek," she shut him up. "Don't mess with my concentration!"

She knowingly placed three fingers above Sam's ear and two fingers in front of that on the side when the first pupil blew. She then made vertical scalp incision down to the skull. Ignoring the puzzled questioning looks Derek was sending her, she put the drill down to the skull and set the bit in motion. She was all concentration and precision as the bit droned into the temporal bone which was only a couple of millimeters thick.

"Dura looks fine…" she muttered.

"You have to go in again," Derek said quickly, something resembling awe in his voice. "Frontal lobe-"

"Just behind the hairline, I know!" she quieted him once again.

This bone was thicker, five times as thick as the temporal bones, but Meredith felt the exact moment she needed to switch off the drill.

"And there it is…" she sighed and proceeded to expand the hole in order relieve the pressure. "Clotted blood," she muttered to herself. "No arterial… What would I give for a sucker right now…"

She grabbed a gauze and started to evacuate the mass, every little move of her beadily observed by Derek, suspicion burning in his eyes.

"What was that?" Derek asked with insistence in his voice, hot on her heels. A helicopter was to be here any minute to take Sam into hospital. He had several broken bones and probably internal bleeding but there was nothing to do for him here.

"What was what?" she shrugged distractedly.

"You know what, the rock star surgeon romp!" he breathed out.

"What?" she snorted, her voice high-pitched. "I think you're a bit shaken down. Maybe you should sit and take a few deep breaths-"

"You saved this man's life!"

"And that's something to complain about, right?" she rolled her eyes.

"The way you saved him, an average doctor would never pull it off," he insisted trying to catch her eye. "It required a lot of skill, precision, and thorough knowledge of what you were doing. What's your specialty?"

"My specialty is helping people," she bit back coldly. "You should do the same!"

"What are you not telling me-"

"Derek, for the last time!" she rounded on him, her eyes unyielding. "Go, leave me alone! In case you haven't noticed, there are other people here who require help! Go and be a doctor! And leave me the hell alone!"

She grabbed the kit and marched off leaving him standing, his eyes fixed at the back of her head. She felt like a trapped animal. But she hadn't had a choice, she had had to save Sam regardless of the risk of revealing her identity. He would have died if she hadn't reduced his intracranial pressure. And Derek wasn't in a right state to drill burr holes outside of the sterile OR or at least at a patient's bedside, with no proper equipment. She didn't blame him. It was a freaking drill, one millisecond of lagging and she would pierce a nice hole in Sam's brain matter. However, apart from the fear of being discovered and the obvious fear for Sam's wellbeing, she felt the thrill. She tried to push it to the back of her mind but quite unsuccessfully. The surgery high… The rush. The overpowering sense of holding another human's life in her hands. It all came back to her when she lowered the drill bit to Sam's skull.

It more than surprised her. She assumed the love for surgery had died in her altogether. It wasn't her first surgical experience since her flight from New York, she had performed surgeries in the hospital in Vegas from time to time, but it never brought that excitement she had felt before. Somehow the emergency burr holes pierced in Sam's skull among the debris of his barn brought a sort of enlightenment.

But it didn't mean anything, she thought as she kicked an overturned bucket out of her way. It didn't change anything. And Derek didn't have a right to rake up her past. That was what they agreed upon at the beginning. He promised not to push her, not to harangue her with questions…

Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she caught a movement, low in the grass. She turned around and stilled, rooted to the spot. A rattlesnake was in her way, or actually she was in its way. Ever so slowly she stepped back but it seemed that the snake had been already disturbed and irritated too much today. It lunged and sank its fangs into her calf. Meredith hissed in pain as the reptile slid away quickly. Freaking perfect! One day she didn't wear her high boots a damn snake chose to bite her!

"You can't push her like that," Izzie sighed appearing at Derek's side when he continued to observe Meredith. "You know what's she's like. The harder you push, the more she fights."

"Why?" he sighed dejectedly. "Is it too much of a requirement? A bit of honesty? What is she hiding?"

"I… I don't know, Derek," Izzie shook her head. "I don't know. All I know is that she had been badly hurt. It was like she didn't trust anyone when she came here. It took weeks before she said something to me that wasn't a casual greeting or a professional request. So don't, don't push her."

Derek was only half-listening now, frowning at Meredith who suddenly jumped with a start, scowling at a point on the ground. She then bent herself examining her leg.

He started to walk towards her with growing anxiety as she straightened up and called Izzie.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked immediately as they got to her, noting worriedly that her face was going steadily paler.

"Iz, antivenom shot," Meredith ordered urgently, pushing open the medical kit. Snake bites weren't a rarity in this region, the remedy should be always at the ready.

"Anti what?" Derek gasped watching with wide eyes as Izzie swiftly prepared the injection.

"That's a snake's bite," Izzie pointed at two distinct marks on Meredith's calf.

"Rattlesnake's," added Meredith bringing a hand to her head.

Derek hurried to support her as he noticed her swaying slightly. "Meredith? Meredith!"

"There," Izzie sighed pressing a gauze to the vein where she injected the anti-venom. "She'll be alright."

"Really?" he asked, panic weaving into his voice, Meredith was getting limp in his arms.

"I'm dizzy…" she sighed, her eyes closing.

"That's because of her weight," explained Izzie. "But the bite couldn't have been that toxic. There's practically no swelling around the incisions."

"I need to take her out of here," he muttered lifting her up gently.

"Take her to the practice," nodded Izzie. "I'll be there when I finish with everyone. I'll be fine on my own here, there are just superficial cuts here left to tend to. And don't worry, she needs to sleep through it. She might be a bit feverish but she'll be alright. The antivenom's already working."

That was what Derek wanted to believe as he carried her over to the car, dismissing the concerned questions of the people around. The fight they just had seemed so utterly silly. All the irritation with her secretiveness evaporated in the face of the danger she found herself in.