Title: Sound And Fury

Authors: Sara And Lizzie

Rating: T for language, mild sex

Disclaimer: we don't own grey's anatomy, or any anatomies but our own at that.

Author's Note: Ok. Our first Grey's Anatomy fic. Set after Derek picks Addison and Meredith sleeps with George. Review. No matter how you feel about it, review. Chapters will get longer.

"It's dragging me under." -Matchbox Twenty

9:26 pm

Door slams. Keys hit the table. Addison calls.

That's how it happened every night. He slammed the door, he tossed his keys onto the table, and Addison greeted him. Came into the living room. Started asking questions. About his day, his patients. When really, all she was doing was edging around everything she really wanted to know.

Meredith. 'Who went into surgery with you today Derek?' 'Anything funny happen today Derek?'

Everynight he lied. Only tonight he didn't have to. He didn't have to say that nothing was funny, because Addison hated the thought of Meredith making him laugh. He didn't have to pretend.

Because he was met with silence. He walked to the kitchen and absentmindedly opened the fridge, not really looking for anything. Unless Meredith Grey happened to be sitting in his refridgerator, it was a fruitless search.

It was funny how he had convinced himself he could get over her. Talked himself out of the cliché, really. He was a doctor, he was practical. He liked things that made sense. Addison. Marriage. Not Meredith, and falling in love so fast he couldn't make sense of anything.

The beeping of his pager silenced the monlouge running in his head. He picked it up and sighed. The hospital. More Meredith. More Addison. He imagined her running in, pushing hair off of her face, slightly breathless, and looking exhilarated. He smiled to himself, and headed back out the door.

Christina was just about to ask Izzie what she wanted from the bar when a familiar vibration at her side stopped her. She reached down and felt for her pager. She watched, and listened, as her friends all did the same. Christina felt a brush of annoyance.

"We are not," she commanded, "waiting for Meredith."

Izzie looked around. "You sure? She's forty mintues late."

"All the more reason not to wait." George said brusquely, heading out the door.

Christina, Izzie and Alex all watched him go. As they followed him out into the warm spring night, they shared a knowing glance. It was dread, foreboding, and that rush of excitement.

10:05 pm

Miranda Bailey was waiting when the four stretchers were wheeled into Seattle Grace. She sent all four of them to separate OR's. George came storming in first.

She regarded his bad mood and told him to snap out of it. Alex, Izzie and Christina followed, looking slightly disgruntled, but otherwise okay. Bailey eyed them all, judging them, sizing them up.

A nurse came flying from the direction of the OR. "Dr. Bailey, we need Dr. Shepherd. OR one has a bullet lodged in her upper spinal, and OR three has one in the brain."

Miranda shook her head to clear. "Yang, go help her." She said.

"Stevens. Go page Dr. Shepherd. Better yet, page both Shepherds. I'm gonna need all hands on deck." She glanced into the OR. "Where the hell is Grey?"

Izzie sighed. "I'll page her too."

Several chaotic moments later, Christina came out of an OR holding up two pagers, both of them beeping. Her eyes settled on Derek, who had just stepped off of an elevator. She held up the device in her left hand.

"OR one Addison." She said. Derek closed his eyes and nodded stoically. Christina ran her fingers over the pager in her right hand. It was still beeping. Derek took a few steps toward her and realized her hands were shaking.

He looked around. He shook his head. "Where's Meredith?" he asked. The note of panic in his voice was unmistakable.

Izzie looked at Alex. Alex looked at George. George looked at Bailey, who's eyes were locked on Derek and Christina. Christina slowly raised her right hand.

"OR three." She whispered.

Derek shook his head again. "No."

Christina silenced the pager, once again, the bearer of bad news. "Meredith." She said, barely audible. It was silent for a while, no one spoke. All of a sudden, the room burst into activity when Derek hurled the clipboard he was holding into a wall.

The sound broke the silence and snapped everyone out of the reverie. It was an uncontrolled room of volume and chaos and movement.

"People, shut the hell up and listen to me." Chief Webber boomed, getting everyone's attention.

"OR one. Addison Shepherd. Bullet lodged in the upper spinal column, at the base of the brain stems. Needs emergency nuerosurgery. OR two Mark Sloan. Bullet made a clean entry and exit through the left shoulder. Needs stitches. OR four, David Gold, bullet grazed his abdomen, needs stitches."

"And room three?" Bailey asked.

"Meredith Grey. Bullet lodged in the brain, somewhere near her frontal cortex. Also needs nuerosurgery."

Miranda looked around, sizing them up. "Karev, head to room four. You can stitch that guy up yourself. Stevens, room three, and a needle. Get sewing."

She looked at Derek, and then at the chief. "Room one." Said Webber. "Take Yang with you."

Christina started to move, but Derek stayed where he was. He shook his head. "No."

"Derek."

"No." he said firmly. He realized that this was ridiculous. It was an obvious choice. Two bullets in two brains. They both needed him. So you operate on your wife right? Especially if you're the best.

Unless it's just a little more complicated. Unless the thought of the girl in the other room fighting for her life with a bullet in her head makes you sick. Makes you want to turn back time and be there just to jump in front of her and take the bullet yourself.

The chief raised his eyebrows. "Derek, your wife is lying there. She needs surgery."

Derek's fists clenched, and Christina was sure he was going to throw something again. "Richard, listen to me. Meredith has a fucking bullet in her brain. We both know that has to come out now."

"Addison could be paralyzed."

"And Meredith could die!" Derek shouted. Movement stopped again. "Now, there are other neurosurgeons in this hospital. I'm sure one of them will be able to handle Addison. If you'll go find one, that'd be great, because I'm scrubbing up to operate on Meredith."

The Chief looked at him for a long time, then nodded slowly. "I'll get Dr. Venne." He agreed.

Dr. Bailey shook her head, and regarded her tow remaning interns. "O'Malley." She said. "Assist Dr. Shepherd. Yang, scrub up and wait for Dr. Venne."

It was when he stepped into the OR and saw her, he felt something he had absolutely never felt before. Intense grief. Intense anger. And a surge of love so poignant, he almost couldn't take it.

George watched carefully, and saw what he always knew was there. Dr. Sherpherd's face twisted from looking like he might cry, to looking like he might hurl something else at the wall, to looking like he might propose.

It was in that moment that he stopped being angry with Meredith. She had made a mistake with him, but in this moment, George knew she was sorry. She hadn't meant to hurt him, she was just consumed with someone else.

Someone else who was just as consumed with her.