Cristina is laying in bed with Meredith, stroking her cheek as she sleeps. Cristina listens to each breath Meredith takes.
Meredith slowly wakes up and just feels so weak. "Cris - Cristina?"
"Yeah Mer?" Cristina says softly back to her person.
"Don't feel well. S'tired." She mumbles.
"Why don't you get some more sleep?" Cristina suggests.
Meredith shakes her head. "Don't want to sleep anymore. Missing out." She whispers weakly. A tear falls from her eye. "Wanna be healthy again."
"Aww Mer, you will be. You just have to fight this! You are a strong person! If anyone can beat this, it's you!" Cristina's heart breaks for her person. She wants her to be healthy also.
"Where's Derek?" Meredith mumbles.
"He just went to grab some coffee. He'll be right back."
Meredith nods and then winces.
"You okay Mer? Are you in pain?" Cristina asks with a concerned look on her face.
"M'okay." Meredith whispers, turning her head into Cristina's chest.
"Mer, are you sure you feel okay? It's okay if you don't. You can tell me. I'm your person."
"M'fine." Meredith refuses to say she doesn't feel well. If she ignores it maybe she'll feel better. Besides, anything is better than how she's feeling right now. Her head is killing her along with her stomach. And she just feels so nauseous.
Cristina doesn't believe her but decides to let it go. She knows Meredith will admit to it when it gets worse.
Cristina gently rubs Meredith's back as she lays there with her. All of a sudden she hears wheezing sounds coming from Meredith.
"Mer?" Cristina asks worriedly.
Meredith doesn't say anything, just continues to wheeze and is unable to catch her breath. Her eyes are wide open.
Cristina quickly rolls Meredith onto her back and grabs her stethoscope from her jacket that's on the chair. She puts the stethoscope on and puts it onto Meredith's chest. She doesn't like what she hears when she listens to Meredith's heart and lungs. She grabs an oxygen mask and puts it over Meredith's face and is surprised when Meredith doesn't fight it.
After a few minutes Meredith's breathing returns back to normal.
"Mer, I'm ordering an ekg." Cristina tells her.
"Nooo, don't want that!" Meredith protests weakly.
"Mer, this isn't up for debate." Cristina tells her sternly. She walks over to the computer and logs into Meredith's chart. She puts in an order to be done asap. She knows Dr Bailey will see that and be on top of it.
"Cris, no." She whines and pulls the oxygen mask away from her face.
"Put that back on your face Mer." Cristina walks over to her and readjusts her oxygen mask.
Derek walks in just then and sees that Cristina is standing over Meredith's bed doing something medical.
"Is she okay? What's going on??" Derek says, panicking.
"She's okay. She started to wheeze and was unable to catch her breath so I put an oxygen mask on her. I-" Cristina stops when she's interrupted by Derek.
"Is there anything wrong? Did you listen to her lungs?" Derek quickly asks.
"If you would let me finish, I'd tell you." Cristina says, glaring at Derek.
"Okay, sorry, continue."
"I listened to her heart and lungs and while they don't sound great, they're okay for now. The oxygen mask should help her. I'm suggesting that she stay on continuous oxygen. We'll switch that out for the nasal oxygen cannula soon.And I'm ordering an ekg to check on her heart." She explains.
"Noooo." Meredith whispers weakly.
"Mer, you need this sweetie." Derek says. He puts his fingers on her wrist and checks her pulse manually. She tries to move her wrist away but she's so weak he's able to keep her still.
Cristina's pager goes off. "Crap. 911 to the pit. Mer, I'll see you later okay? Don't do anything stupid."
"I won't." Meredith whispers.
Cristina rushes off.
Derek gets into bed with Meredith and holds her in his arms. "Oh Mer, I wish you felt better. How's your head?"
"It hurts." She mumbles.
"I'm sorry sweetie. Let me see if you can have any more pain meds." He goes and looks at her chart. He sighs. "You're not due for any more pain meds yet. You had them an hour ago and are already maxed out until your next dose."
"It's fine. I'll be fine." Meredith whispers, burrowing her head into his chest.
They lay in her bed in silence as he rubs her back. He whispers comforting words to her.
"Der, I wanna go for a walk." She whispers.
Derek shakes his head. "Mer, you need to rest. And Cristina ordered an ekg for you. Dr Bailey will be in soon to do that."
"I don't want that. I'm fine." She weakly argues.
"You're not fine Meredith." He sighs.
"Please!" She begs.
"Shh, just relax Mer. Get some rest." He strokes the top of her head.
Just then Bailey walks into the room pushing the cart that the ekg machine is on.
"Is she sleeping?" She asks softly, unable to tell since Meredith's face is buried into Derek's chest.
He shakes his head. "She's awake. She's fighting me on the ekg."
Dr Bailey goes over to Meredith. "Mer, sweetie, it's Dr Bailey. I need to perform an ekg on you."
"No." She whispers.
"Mer, if you let her do the ekg, we'll go for a short walk after." Derek offers.
Meredith is quiet for a minute. "Okay." She whispers.
"Thank you Mer." Dr Bailey says. "Okay, so you know the drill. I need to put these wires on you so I need to move your gown out of the way. And Derek, I need you to move out of the bed for me."
Dr Bailey moves Meredith's gown below her chest and attaches the wires to her chest and ribs. She sees Meredith shivering. "I know you're cold Mer. I'm going as quick as I can." She soothes.
"C-cold" Meredith mutters, her teeth chattering.
She attaches the rest of the wires to her ankles and arms and starts the ekg. The ekg quickly does what it needs to do and is soon over.
Dr Bailey sees goosebumps all over Meredith's skin and hurries to take the wires off of her. "Almost done Mer. I'll get you an extra blanket after I finish here sweetie."
"T-thanks." Meredith whispers.
Dr Bailey covers Meredith with an extra blanket after she pulls her gown back up.
Derek rubs his hands on Meredith's arms in an attempt to warm her up.
"How are her results?" Derek asked Bailey.
"They're okay. Not great, but okay. We'll just keep an eye on her." Dr Bailey says. She says goodbye and leaves the room.
"Are you still up for going for a walk?" Derek asks a tired Meredith.
Meredith nods.
"Okay, let me grab a wheelchair." He leaves and quickly comes back with the wheelchair. He helps her into the chair and starts pushing her. He pushes her to the hospital's garden.
"Look where we are Mer. One of your favorite places." Derek says.
Meredith had closed her eyes while in the wheelchair, unable to keep them open. She opens them when she hears Derek's voice. "I love it." She whispers weakly.
Derek helps her out of the chair and helps her sit on the grass next to him. She lays her head on his lap and curls up into a ball. She fights to keep her eyes open but she's just too tired. Her eyes flutter closed and she's sound asleep.
"I knew you would like coming here." He continues talking but receives no response and realizes Meredith is asleep. He sighs, knowing that her body is just so weak and tired. They weren't even in there for five minutes before she fell asleep.
Derek lets her sleep on his lap for 40 minutes until he decides to bring her back to her room. He picks her up and goes to put her back in her wheelchair.
"Der?" She mumbles half asleep.
"Hi Mer, we're going to go back to your room now."
"Want to walk." She mumbles.
"You need to stay in the wheelchair Mer." He says.
She doesn't fight him on staying in the wheelchair and leans heavily on the armrests.
Derek pushes her down the hallway. Meredith has fallen back asleep in the chair.
"Why is he here?" Derek mutters to himself.
"Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find Meredith Grey?" A man asks.
"She's in room 316. Oh! She's actually right there with Dr Shepherd." The nurse says. "Dr Shepherd!" The nurse calls him over.
Derek swears under his breath. He looks down at Meredith and sees she's still sound asleep. He tries to act like he didn't hear the nurse but she calls again and he has no choice but to walk over there with Meredith.
"Hi, Dr Shepherd. This man is looking for Meredith." The nurse says. "I'm sorry, what did you say your name is?" She asks the man.
"Thatcher Grey."
All of a sudden Meredith wakes up. She's still half asleep and doesn't realize what's going on. She looks up and her eyes widen at the man in front of her. "Thatcher." She weakly says.
All of a sudden Meredith watches him raise his hand and before she even knew it she felt his palm on her cheek, immediately feeling her skin bruise.
And that wasn't the first time that happened.