Derek woke up to the sound of sirens.
"Where am I?" he thought, "What happened?" Then, he suddenly remembered everything. He remembered Addison, the argument, and then the crash. He then quickly turned to his right to the passenger side.
"Meredith! Meredith! Can you hear me? Please hear me!" Derek said, as he looked his wife over. Meredith was not moving and had a large gash on her forehead, which was bleeding profusely. Her arm was covering her belly and her body was slightly turned and bent, as if she was trying to protect her belly as much as possible. This in turn, caused her to hit her head on the airbag harder than he did. At least the passenger side had an airbag.
Looking at his still wife gave Derek a deep, sickening, and gut-wrenching fear in his stomach. Despite the pain in his arm, he reached over to feel if Meredith had a pulse.
"Bump, bump, bump" Derek felt as his two finger rested on her wrist. "Oh thank God," Derek thought to himself. "She's still alive, although fearing she might fall into a coma considering her body was still non responsive.
Then he felt even worse, "the baby!" he said. Being afraid to move Meredith, he found it difficult to lean over to possibly hear a heartbeat.
Then a prayer was answered.
"Sir, can you here me?" he heard a male voice say. It was one of the paramedics called by a woman who had witnessed the accident.
"Yes, My name is Derek Shepard, I am a surgeon. My wife's name is Meredith and she needs help immediately, she is seven-and-half months pregnant and possibly heading into a coma. She has a pulse but it isn't strong and she is non responsive to me."
Minutes later, Derek heard the rescue effort. Within minutes, they had Meredith safely removed from the vehicle, followed by Derek. He saw her lying motionless on the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance. Derek was allowed to be in the same ambulance, he refused to ride in a separate one. He may be injured but he still knew he wanted to be with his wife and if anything happened on the way there, he could help.
Meanwhile at Seattle Grace……
"You can stop staring at me like that Alex," Izzie said irritated at the grin Alex was giving her as they sat in the cafeteria. Izzie wished that Meredith were there; it was a good night for her and Derek to take off though.
"Alex, your such a pig!" Christina said, who was sitting next to Burke. They were all sitting around the cafeteria socializing, it was late and the hospital was unbelievably slow tonight. Even Bailey was bored. All the rounds were done and it was so incredibly boring.
George was trying to hit on another female intern, "George, is that all you think about?" Bailey ranted at him, "Do you ever learn?" George could only give a nervous smile at Bailey, who just rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, beepers were going off.
"Ok people, you know what that means! Let's go! Hurry! Lives are depending on how fast y'all move your skinny little intern butts to that Emergency Room!" Bailey yelled at everyone, including Burke.
They were told quickly about the next patient being brought in.
"We have a twenty-nine year old female, seven-and- half months pregnant, slow pulse, injury to the head, and non-responsive. Car accident, drunk driver hit her and husband head on."
Everyone gasped when they saw the stretcher and Derek behind it, visibly shaken and covered in cuts, bruises, and blood.
"Please help her!" Derek shouted toward the room's occupants, "help her now!" Meredith was quickly wheeled into triage where she was quickly examined. Derek followed and despite the fact that he was one of the best doctors at Seattle Grace, he had trouble calming down and was getting in the way of the other staff members.
"Derek, I'm sorry but your going to have to leave. You aren't really being a help here. I know you don't want her to die but if we are going to save her, then you need to go wait outside. Plus, you look like hell and you really need to be examined. Stevens?" Bailey ordered.
"Yes Dr Bailey?" asked Izzie
"Please take Dr. Shepard to an examining room and have him checked out, we couldn't afford to lose two of our best doctors." Bailey replied as Izzie and Derek, although extremely angry, left the room.
In the examining room, Izzie found it hard to make sure Derek was ok; he would not sit down and was upset.
"I want to be in there! I'm her husband and boss! I should have every right to be in there!" Derek exclaimed
"I understand Dr. Shepard but you have to realize that you are too upset too help Meredith right now. We can help her, plus you need help too. You really need to get cleaned up. You're a mess, there is no way you could help Meredith anyway. Please, let me have a look at you. You may not think you are seriously hurt but your upset and may not feel it yet. The mind works in weird ways Dr. Shepard," Izzie said as Derek finally sat down with his head in his hands.
"Maybe your right Izzie, I know Meredith and I have our difficulties but I can afford to lose her and the baby. Life is always too cruel to me. My ex-wife cheated on me and now the woman who would never do me wrong may die. What did I ever do to deserve this? We were fighting right before we crashed. I grabbed her hand but just as soon as we made contact, she had a mother's impulse to cover her belly. I feel awful, especially at what caused the fight." Derek admitted.
"I know it is not really my place to pry but since Meredith is my best friend, what happened?" Izzie asked as she examined Derek's eyes and his reflexes.
"Well, we were having a good time until the ferryboat. Meredith went to the washroom when we got there, so I was on the main deck. Then, my ex-wife decides to make an appearance. Why fate tortures me, I'll never understand. Well anyway, she kisses me and Meredith walks out and sees it. That was the end of our good evening. I didn't know Addison was going to kiss me, I thought she knew I was married; she was even nasty to Meredith. Meredith had the right to be upset, I feel so bad." Derek said timidly.
"Dr. Shepard, Derek, I am saying this to you as a friend. You didn't really do anything wrong. Don't beat yourself up. Remember that Meredith and that baby need you to be strong. OK? At least you weren't hurt that bad. I recommend you stay here overnight, although I don't think you need convincing. Basically though, all you have are a few cuts and bruises. You'll be sore tomorrow though," Izzie said.
"Thanks Izzie," Derek said to Izzie as he walked out of the room to see if Meredith was in a room yet or if she was even going to be ok.
"Remember to be strong!" Izzie called out to him as he disappeared down the hall. Izzie trailed behind a few minutes later.
Two hours later, Derek found himself sitting next to Meredith's hospital bed as she was hooked up to different types of medical equipment. Meredith was in a coma and so far, the baby was alive. It was not unknown for a baby to survive while the mother was in a coma but it could affect the development somewhat, depending on the circumstances.
Derek had a hard time looking at her without thinking that it was his all his fault, despite what Izzie said.
He felt that all he did was cause trouble. He thought that maybe he should be the one to disappear. Maybe then all this drama would not happen. But then again, how could he leave Meredith to raise their child all by herself? That would be selfish and hurt her very much. She has had too much hurt in her life and he was not going to add to it. Even if it killed him, he was going to make sure she was happier from now on. Now all he could do was pray, pray hard for Meredith to live and their baby.
Derek got down on his knees at Meredith's bedside, "Dear Lord. It's me again. I know I haven't kept myself on good terms with you, but Lord, I really need you. Please help Meredith live and the baby. Please let Meredith come out of this coma and let the baby survive, I know it has happened before with other babies. We have had so many hard things in our lives, Lord and I need Meredith. Please, I can't promise a perfect marriage, but I love her Lord and our daughter to be. Please answer my prayers, please. Thank you Lord. Amen."
Derek got off his knees and gave a kiss to Meredith on her forehead and then he turned his head towards the sound of footsteps in the doorway.
"Addison, what the hell are you doing here? Haven't you ruined my life enough as it is?"