Bailey walks into Meredith's room pushing a medical cart containing Meredith's first dosage of IL2 chemo.
Meredith is sound asleep in her bed, not snoring as she doesn't snore when she's feeling sick. These days she rarely snores anymore. In any other situation Derek would be so happy that her snoring has stopped but he would rather her be healthy and snore.
Bailey goes over to Meredith's side and gently rubs her shoulder to wake her up. "Mer, wake up sweetie."
Meredith doesn't make any sign of hearing Bailey and continues sleeping.
"Meredith, I need you to wake up for me."
"Sleepy. Wanna sleep." Meredith moans.
"I know. I need to start you on your first round of IL2 and then you can go back to sleep. Where's Derek?" Bailey questions.
Meredith shrugs. "Dunno."
Bailey sees the exhaustion in her eyes. "Do you want me to stay with you for a little while so you're not alone?"
Meredith nods. She lets out a big yawn.
"Okay let me start this so you can go back to sleep sweetie. And then I'm going to check your vitals too." Bailey says. She connects Meredith to the new chemo and it starts slowly dripping into Meredith's body. Bailey then takes Meredith's vitals.
"Are you feeling okay Meredith?"
"My head hurts." She whispers. Her head is constantly hurting her these days because of the leukemia spreading to her central nervous system. She is constantly on pain meds to try and lessen the pain.
"Let me look at your chart to see if you can have any more pain meds yet." Bailey looks at her chart and frowns. "I'm sorry Grey, it looks like you were given more pain meds just an hour ago and you're maxed out on them. I'm so sorry sweetie. How bad is the pain? On a scale of 1-10?" Bailey sighs, feeling so bad for her sick intern.
"12." Meredith whispers with her eyes closed.
Bailey is saddened at how much pain her intern is in. Unfortunately with this round of chemo it's just going to get worse and she won't feel well also on top of the pain. "Oh Mer."
Meredith curls her body up into a ball and has tears running down her face. "Hurts." Meredith whispers, not wanting to speak too much with her head hurting too bad.
"I know sweetie. I wish I could give you more meds. I'm surprised these haven't helped you at all. Has it helped at all since they gave you them?"
Meredith shakes her head and immediately regrets doing so. She winces in pain and holds her head in her head. "Make it stop. Please."
Bailey wishes she could give Meredith more pain meds but her body can't handle anymore at the moment. "I'm sorry Mer."
"Cold." Meredith whispers.
"Let me get you another blanket." Bailey gets another blanket and puts it on top of Meredith's other four blankets. Bailey gently rubs Meredith's cheek to comfort her.
Thirty minutes pass and Meredith is having a rough time with the chemo. She keeps throwing up and is so nauseated.
"Bailey, I don't feel well." Meredith cries.
"I know sweetie, I know. Try to sleep." Bailey says comfortingly. "Close your eyes Mer."
Meredith closes her eyes and tries to fall asleep.
Bailey wipes away a tear that has fallen down her face. She hates that her intern is so sick.She really hopes that Meredith can beat this. Everyone would be so sad if she were to die. The hospital wouldn't be the same.
Bailey gets up to go to the bathroom after hearing Meredith's breathing even out and knows that she has fallen asleep.
Bailey is washing her hands in the bathroom when all of a sudden Meredith awakens from her sleep and bolts straight up in bed. She throws up all over herself and instantly starts sobbing.
Bailey hears Meredith start sobbing and quickly rushes out of the bathroom. She gasps at the sight of Meredith covered in throw up.
"Oh Meredith. Let's get you cleaned up honey." Bailey grabs some clean pajamas for Meredith and goes over to her crying intern.
"Feel so nauseous." Meredith sobs.
"Do you think you're going to be sick again?"
Meredith nods and Bailey quickly grabs a bin for her. Meredith throws up into it again. After she's done Bailey takes away the bin.
"Let's get you in some clean clothes sweetie." Bailey takes Meredith's dirty pajamas off of her as Meredith is too weak to do it herself. She helps Meredith into some clean pajamas. "There you go. Clean pajamas for you! These seem like they'll keep you nice and warm also."
"Thanks." Meredith whispers. "Want Derek."
"Okay. Let me page him." Bailey sees how sick Meredith looks. Meredith can barely keep her eyes open. After paging Derek she takes Meredith's temperature and sees that she has a slight fever which is normal with chemo. Bailey decides to take the rest of her vitals also.
Meredith watches Bailey take her vitals with her eyes half open.
"Close your eyes sweetie. Derek will be here soon."
"Wanna wait for Derek." Meredith weakly whispers.
"Okay." Bailey says.
Meredith's eyes keep closing but she keeps forcing them open so she can see Derek before she goes back to sleep. Bailey sees this and wishes she would just give in and allow her body to sleep.
"Derek." Meredith whispers half asleep with her eyes barely open. "Want Derek."
Just then Derek rushes into Meredith's room. "Hey Mer. I'm here." He sees how exhausted Meredith looks. "Close your eyes and sleep Mer. I'll be right here."
Meredith gives him a tiny smile and weakly pats the bed.
Derek climbs into bed with her and holds her to him while being careful of all of the wires and tubes attached to her. "Sleep baby. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." He gently rubs her cheek and watches as she finally allows herself to sleep.
"Poor thing wouldn't let herself sleep until you got here." Bailey says sadly. "The chemo is really taking a toll out of her."
Derek looks at Meredith and watches her chest slowly rise up and down. "I know. She has to beat this. She has to."
Bailey looks at Meredith sound asleep in her bed. "She will. I've already told her I'm not allowing her to die and she knows she's not allowed to disobey me."
Derek chuckles. "Right. You've taught her that since her first day as an intern. She would never dare to disobey you."
Meredith whimpers in her sleep and Derek kisses her forehead. "You're okay Mer."
Meredith whimpers again and this time wakes up. "Der…" She cries out weakly.
"What's wrong baby?"
"Need to pee." She slowly gets out. She's super weak, more so than usual.
"Let me help you." Derek gets up and helps her out of bed. She moans in pain as he helps her up. She holds onto him tightly, not willing to let him go. She's scared that if she does she'll collapse to the ground.
Derek sees how weak she is and holds her up. He wants to cry at the fact that she can't even hold her own body up.
After taking one step, Meredith cries out and grips his shirt even tighter in her hands. "D-dizzy."
Derek quickly picks Meredith up and brings her to the bathroom. He brings her over to the toilet and lowers her pants and underwear for her as she's too weak to do so herself. He helps her sit down on the toilet.
He decides to stay with her because he doesn't even think she can take two steps to the sink by herself. She's incredibly weak and dizzy on top of that.
"Der." Meredith whispers after she finishes doing her business.
"You doing okay Mer?" Derek asks, concerned.
"Don't feel good."
"What's wrong?
"Nauseous." Meredith weakly says. "Need…"
"Mer?" Derek frowned.
"Der-" She swung and he steadied her.
"Meredith, talk to me. Are you okay?"
"Don't-" She couldn't make out full sentences, she felt as if she was in a fog so Derek lifted her pants and helped her on her feet, noticing she didn't lean on her right leg "Mer, can you stand up for me?" He asked concerned but her eyes were drooping, she just couldn't answer.
He scooped her up and brought her back to the room, placing her down on the bed and tucking her in.
Meredith tightly clings onto Derek's shirt. She looks straight into Derek's eyes and he can see the panic in her eyes.
"Der?" She weakly says to him. "Can't-"
"I know Mer, I know." He says sadly and kisses her on the top of her head. "Close your eyes and sleep."
Meredith closes her eyes and instantly falls asleep.
"Why does everything always have to happen to her??!!" Derek asks himself angrily.
Hope you enjoyed