Four – 'Surgery'

The atmosphere was tense in the operating theatre. Despite a few complications, which had the staff on edge, things were gradually returning to normality. During the course of the surgery Meredith had noticed Derek's mood changing thankfully back to his normal self and she'd even noticed the makings of a smile forming on his face at one point. She looked over at him once again and smiled herself. I love that look of concentration he has. Derek moved his eyes away from the microscope, as if he was reading Meredith's thoughts and looked into her eyes. They frequently shared moments like this in theatre; it was one of the few places in the hospital where they could really look at each other without their actions getting questioned by anyone and everyone. "Dr. Grey, come and see this." Derek said, beckoning to Meredith from across the table. Meredith moved slowly up to the microscope, something that Derek had her do often when they were in theatre together. It reminded her of that very first surgery they did on the first day of her internship. Why couldn't we go back to that? She thought as she peered into the small lens. The clips were perfectly in place. She looked up at Derek once again and smiled; grateful for the opportunity he had given her. "Alright everybody, I'm almost done. Time to close her up."

Meredith was in the scrub room cleaning up after the surgery had finished. It was a success eventually and she was experiencing the same elation that she always did when surgeries went the way they were supposed to. And I was only observing she thought, looking over at the door to see Derek emerging from the theatre. He was obviously a different man to the one who entered the theatre five hours ago, his whistling being a give-away. "Good surgery," she commented, now drying her wet hands.

"Yeah, turned out okay in the end. Thought we were going to run into some problems with that bleeder though."

"Tell me about it." Meredith looked into the theatre that was being cleaned up; this was not a time she wanted to make eye contact with Derek. "So Doc's vet rang, he's good to go home today."

"Mer, that's fantastic, I'll go pick him up when I'm done here."

"Oh…" Meredith's face fell. This wasn't what she was expecting.

"You okay Meredith?" Derek's face was now full of concern.

"Yeah, it's just, well… I thought I could pick him up?"

"I thought you only saw him yesterday?" Derek grinned at her. "You miss him already?"

"Honestly, yes." Okay, I'm so not lying. I do miss Doc. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm secretly looking forward to seeing Finn one last time…

"Well, sure. You know I could never deny you anything Meredith." Derek looked at her, his face serious with a hint of a grin. Yeah, apart from your love that is, she thought, suddenly becoming a little bitter. There he goes, being all dreamy again…

"Thanks Derek. I'll drop him off later." Meredith's almost through the scrub room door when she feels a hand on her arm, making her stop and look back. They were face to face now, eyes meeting in the middle, emotions racing.

"Thanks for your help in theatre today Mer. You were great," Derek said with a warm smile. There was the recognition that Meredith is always striving for. Signed, sealed, delivered. Meredith managed to return a smile before walking away down the corridor, her heart melting in the process.