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. Thanks to the person who was honest and said it sucked. Maybe it does. We'll try to make it better.

1:45 am

He stands, looking out the window, transfixed by moon and stars. He only turns when he feels a presence next to him.

"You shouldn't be out of bed."

"I'm fine."

There's a pause in which the silence threatens to fill the hall and end their conversation before it starts, but he is determined not to let that happen.

"She might not walk again Derek." There's pain in that voice, and he hears it, feels it.

"Her life wasn't in danger."

"Did you hear me?" he demanded, "I said she might not walk."

"She'll live." His own voice sounds flat and emotionless.

"Jesus, Derek, she needed you and let her down!"

Dr. Shepherd turns and faces this man. "Meredith could have died." Is all he says.

Mark Sloan turned and faced him. "Why bother pretending?" he asked, before he walked away.

3:58 am

George emerged from the on call room, expecting to feel groggy, but he was wide awake. He locked eyes with Bailey, who had paged him. She nodded. He started walking. Then he stopped.

George walked to the last place he had seen Dr. Shepherd, and was surprised to see he was still standing there, staring out the window. George stood beside him and whispered.

"She's awake."

It was as though he was coming back to life. His lifeless eyes sparked with something intense, and he started walking.

"What's your name?" George asked Meredith. He was sitting by her bed, talking to her, as Derek checked the machines surrounding her and nurse prepared an IV.

"Meredith Grey." She repsonded groggily.

"And mine?"

"George."

"And his?"

"McDreamy."

George smiled. "She'll be fine."

"My head hurts." Meredith murmured.

George smiled again. "You got shot, Mere." He said softly. "But you're gonna be fine."

She nodded, and a smile graced her lips before her eyes closed again.

George re-entered the on call, surprised to find Izzie, Alex and Christina all sitting up and talking. They all looked expectantly at George.

"She's awake. Her vitals are fine. She knows herself, me, and McDreamy." He said with a smirk. "She'll be fine."

The room filled with a collective sigh of relief. "What the hell happened in the OR?" Izzie asked.

George shook his head. "You can't imagine."

A sharp knock at the door pierced the exclusiveness of their circle. Derek's head appeared in the door frame.

"Hi." He said. "I have to ask something of you."

Christina nodded, and he entered the room. "I don't want Meredith to know I was her surgeon."

Four blank stares blinked back at him. He sighed. "If I could explain it, I'd try. Just please don't say anything."

Four heads nodded, all working through their own reasons for the secrecy.

One Month Later

"Meredith is coming in today."

"For God's sakes, Izzie, I'm not stupid. These are things I remember."

"You know she thinks Mc- Derek doesn't care."

"Right. He's completely apathetic."

"I just wish we could tell her about her surgery."

"Tell me what?" Meredith asked, popping around the corner from where she had been shamelessly eavesdropping. She wore her scrubs, and there was nothing other than a faint scar to indicate that it was just a little over a month ago she had been shot in the head.

"Tell me what?" she asked again, more demanding this time.

Christina and Izzie both looked, enraptured at the ceiling.

"What about my surgery?" Meredith persisted.

Her demands were met with blank stares.

"Don't make me pull the file." She threatened.

Christina rolled her eyes, and put a hand on Meredith's wrist. She beckoned her into the nearest on-call room, which was mercifully empty.

Izzie traipsed in behind them and shut the door.

"I'm going to go on record saying that this inofrmation will probably create more chaos than it's worth."Christina said.

Izzie sat down. "Meredith, when you got shot, Derek went ballistic. Obscenities were screamed, objects were thrown. Addison needed the bullet removed from her brain stem."

"Which Derek did. And Chief performed surgery on me."

"Not so much." Christina chimed in. Meredith's brow furrowed.

"It was more like Derek performed surgery on you." Izzie said. "Instead of Addison."

Meredith's eyebrows shot up. "Oh." She said. "oh."

It didn't seem fair, even to Meredith. She was back at work, with a whole new world of hope, and Addison could barely stand up.

She supposed that if she was really bitter, she could consider this her just rewards, but her insides were twisting with anticipation and nerves, and the complex workings of the universe were a little beyond her control. She took a few deep breaths and left the darkened on call room.

Meredith decided she must have been an awful person in a past life, because the first person she nearly crashed into on her way out was Derek.

"Hi." She said breathily.

"Welcome back." Came his stiff reply. He put his head down, and kept walking. She sighed. Whoever claimed to have a knight in shining armor was full of shit.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. None of it was. There wasn't supposed to be a Meredith, or a Seattle Grace, or a dark pit of love and lust that he couldn't escape.

Or maybe it was the either way around, and there wasn't supposed to be an Addison, or a Mark or the life he barely remembered.

In that firey moment, after he just touched her in the hallway, Derek Shepherd could see the inevitable.