Hey guys,
first I have to thank the guest user Patys for all the kind reviews. If you read that, it would be easier if you'd create yourself an account so I can answer to you.
This chapter isn't amazing but what do you want.
Kisses and enjoy the reading
Chapter 10
When he opened his eyes, Derek immediately noticed the woman lying next to him. Meredith was sleeping deeply. After the short chat, they had the previous evening they had ended up again having another round of torrid breakup sex. He knew that it wasn't healthy for their relationship if there was still one. Meredith gave the impression that she was not ready to have something serious in that moment. He was sure that somewhere very deeply, she had some feeling for him but it would take time for her to admit it. Maybe he should start to date other women, to make her realize how much he really holds him.
Derek decided to stand up. If somebody finds him in Meredith's room, they would start to ask questions. He quickly dressed up before leaving the room. In the hallway, he had nearly reached the stairs when the noise of an opening door make him turn around. Mark was standing in the opening of Helena's room. When he saw him, Mark was about to say something but Derek shows him to shut up. Downstairs, as Derek was making some coffee, he felt Mark's look on him.
"Go on, say what you have to say!" the neurosurgeon said annoyed.
"So, you and Meredith were up all night doing the horizontal salsa?" the other man chuckled.
"Mambo," Derek replied. "It was horizontal mambo. And Meredith and I are just friends."
"Sex friend," Mark added smirking.
"You're the most juvenile human being I've ever met," the black haired one sighed taking a sip of his hot coffee.
"You know that the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem."
"How many nurses you slept with this week?"
"That's not a problem, man. That's an adventure," the plastic surgeon replied.
Derek shook his head.
"How is Helena?" he asked more seriously.
"She's still sleeping yet," the other one answered. "Do you think she'll be fine?"
"I don't know," the Shepherd brother sighed. "I can't imagine how she is feeling right now."
"Is there a possibility to find that bastard?" Mark asked clenching his hands into fists.
"If Helena decides to press charges the cops may be willing to help us," Derek explained. "But most of the time, the cases of domestic violence are buried."
When Helena woke up later that morning, the house was completely empty. Everybody must've been gone to work. She felt so tired and those free days will be beneficial.
She let her mind wander to the event of the previous evening. Ryan had been hitting on the bathroom door for a while, scaring her to death. But now the nightmare was over, or so she hoped. Ryan runs away and she would never get back to him. She knew that whatever will happen from now on, she could count on her brother, on Meredith, and on Mark to back her. For the first time since long, she felt like she belongs somewhere.
Since she was forced to stay home for a few days, why not benefit from it? She left her bed and headed to the bathroom to run herself a bath. Lying there, in the hot water with a good book was something that not had to happen for long. In that moment she knew she could relax, Ryan was not gonna find her here.
After her long bath, she decided to attend to the work of unpacking her stuff. She has stored her clothes in the drawers when she found a small envelope under a pile of jeans. Intrigued she sat down on her bed, wondering what was inside of it. From the paper shell, she pulls out a pile of old pictures and letters she had collected back in high school. First, she saw a picture of her with her brother in the kitchen of their house, baking a cake for their mothers birthday. She remembered that it ends with them fighting, throwing eggs and flour at each other. Then there was a photo of her sitting on Mark's first motorbike, wearing his helmet and his oversized leather jacket. Since today she never lost the wish to one day have her own. The next picture was one with all her sisters. She never felt very close to Kathleen, Nancy and Liz, her older sisters. The age gap between them was quite significant and she never had the impression that she was on the same wavelength with them. She was much closer to her sister Amelia, mostly because of the fact that they had only 2 years difference. They were in the same schools at the same time and they were each other's best friend. When she left, Helena missed Amelia the most. Thinking back, her four sisters shared a similarity she hadn't; they had all, at some point in their youth, slept with Mark. She remembered hearing Nancy say something like sleeping with him was a rite of passage. To Helena, he had always been Derek's best friend, her confident and at some point, her secret crush. But she never allowed herself to show any sort of feelings because she knew Derek would've never permit it.
In the late evening, Helena was sitting in the waiting area, waiting for Mark to come down. They had decided to pick up some food and watch a movie together to clear the mind of the girl. Helena had spent the entire day at Meredith's, alone, unpacking some stuff and hanging around, not really knowing what else to do. She had realized that she barely had a life outside of the hospital. It's true, the few free time she had was spent with doctors, she didn't have any friends outside of the hospital. Actually, she's never been the girl with lots of friends. The people back at school used to call her Solo. Quite sad. Helena raised her eyes to look at her. The waiting room was filled with people in anticipation from news of their related or friends. They all looked tensed, stressed that something bad could happen. People who don't even know each other, started to chat, comforting themselves mutually. Helena's attention focused on a man who was sitting a few seats away from her, sadly looking in his empty coffee cup. He doesn't look tensed or full of hope like the others. No, his face was emotionless, he looked straight in front of him, not paying attention to what happens around him.
Helena stood up, picked two coffee cups at the device and sat down next to the stranger the holding him out the steaming cup.
"Drink, you'll be better," she said.
The stranger looked surprised. Nevertheless, he accepted gladly the hot beverage.
"Thank you," he said.
His voice was as emotionless as his face was. He had mid-long dirty blonde hair, a short beard, and piercing green eyes.
"Are you waiting for somebody? Or are you a patient?" he said pointing to her covered nose. "Aren't you too young for plastic surgery?"
Helena chuckled.
"No, I fell in the stairs and I broke my nose," she said. "And by the way, I'm 26."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you," he said with a weak smile. "So you're working for someone
"A friend of mine," Helena answered. "He's working here. And you, why are you here if I can ask?"
"For my wife," he answered.
"Understand," the Shepherd girl replied. "Is she in the OR right now?"
The man shook his head.
"No. She is in the coma for months now," he explained.
"I'm sorry," the girl apologized. "I didn't want to..."
"Yeah I know," the stranger said harshly. "You're sorry, that's what everybody said!"
Helena frowned her brows.
"I just wanted to be nice sir," she said standing up, ready to leave.
But the stranger softly catches her wrist.
"Look, I'm sorry that I've reacted that brutally," he sighed. "It's just that…. Since months now, I hear people around me telling me how sorry they are and that they hope Kate is gonna wake up soon but deep inside of me I know it's not gonna happen."
Helena let herself fall back on the seat.
"It's true that the chances are very low," she said.
The stranger gave her a strange glance.
"I'm working at this hospital," she explained. "And from my experience people that are in a coma for that long have only minimal chances to wake up."
"That's what the surgeon who follows her told me," the guy said. "He tried everything."
"What is his name?" Helena enquired. "Maybe I know him."
"Uhm...Dr. Shepherd if I remember well, a neurosurgeon."
A small smile appeared on her lips.
"Actually, I know him pretty well," she said. "It's my brother."
"Which one are you? The one from Los Angeles, Boston…. Or the one that disappears?" he asked joking.
"He told you about all of us?" Helena asked surprised.
The man nodded.
"I'm Helena, the one who disappeared," she said, stretching out her hand. "Nice to meet you!"
"James, James Ford," the stranger said shaking her hand smiling.
"Froggy," you're ready to leave?" a voice asked above their heads.
Mark was standing on the stairs.
"Froggy?" James asked turning back to Helena.
The girl chuckled.
"Long story," she replied. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Ford."
"It was a pleasure to meet you too, Ms. Shepherd," he added with a bright smile.
Helena stood up and caught up her friend in front of the lift.
"Who was that?" Mark asked suspiciously.
"His wife is a patient of the hospital," Helena explained. "He's nice."
Mark mutter something intelligible as they get in the lift.
"Have you heard about Derek wanting to go out with other women?" he asked.
"What? But why would he do that?"
"So he didn't tell you?"
Helena shook her head.
"Well, Derek and Meredith had an argument in front of everyone this afternoon," Mark explained. "Derek seemed pretty fed up that she ward him constantly and he said something about dating other women to make her react."
"I don't think it's the good solution to rush her," Helena sighed. "She needs time and is stupid if he doesn't get that."
"So you're choosing her side?" Mark asked smirking.
"If it has to be so, yes. She's my friend and I totally get her point, " she answered pretty determinedly. "So, let me guess, Chinese food and a…"
"Horror movie," the man completed smiling.
That had become their routine years back when she still was in high school. After his late football training, Mark often came by at the Shepherd's and had spent evenings with the youngest Shepherd eating Chinese food and watching the scariest and goriest movies that had ever been brought on screen. Helena was a real scaredy-cat, she let herself fright by every little sound and that's what Mark always had found funny with her.
Both were now at Meredith's, slumped on the couch in front of the TV, eating their fried noodles and spring rolls. During the movie, Helena couldn't help but comment the actions of the main actress.
"Can you explain to me why the feminine character in the horror movies always have to be that stupid, naive, half-naked and screaming like hysterical?" she asked her friends.
"That's what's called a slasher Froggy. For what the half-naked part goes, most of the people who watch this movie are men who had unsatisfied needs," Mark chuckled taking a sip of his beer. "But that's not my problem."
He said that with a bright smile.
"Mark Sloan, I'm less interest in your sexual life than by why that stupid girl tries to run away from her killer in hiding in a closet," Helena sighed.
"C'mon Froggy, that's what makes a horror movie that bustling," he laughed again.
They spend the rest of the night enjoying the ridiculous screams of stupid teenagers and the whole Ryan story completely cleared out of Helena's mind. Finally, exhausted after having laughed that much, both fell asleep on the couch.
