AN: Please be kind. I haven't written anything in a year, and I haven't posted anything in years.
I do have ideas for this story, but i have no clue how often I will write and update it. Also English isn't my first language, so I am sorry for mistakes and gramma there might be!
Chapter 1
"So, are you ready to go?" Cormac Hayes asked her from the door of her hospital room just as another coughing fit rocked through her. She tried silence it and not to show how painful it was, but apparently, she must have failed as she felt his hand rub her back gently a few seconds later, until it was over.
"Thank you," she mumbled. "You know you really didn't have to do that I would have been fine in a moment." Her voice was still shaken from the fit.
"Yeah, I know you would've been fine in a minute, but I was here anyway." He answered, as he removed his hand from her back again.
She turned around and attempted to give him a small smile, but she felt it came out more as a grimace than a real one.
"You know, you don't have to take me back to the hotel either, I mean, I could just grab a cab and have it drop me off. You really should not have to spend your free time like this, I mean you could go home see your children instead, relax a bit! You shouldn't have to spend weeks taking care of me." Meredith tried to reason with him once more, like she had done the last couple of days.
"First of all, Grey, that would be against protocol! Second you are just getting out of the hospital where you almost died of Corona, so yes, I do have to do this. Well at least someone must do this and since I am staying and isolating at the hotel anyway it seems smarter that I do it. I mean your sisters, one of whom has a baby, and the other who is heart surgeon and has Corona-shifts. So, I ask again are you ready to go?" Hayes replied.
Meredith signed but also nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah, ok let's go, just know that you really don't have to do it or you could just take me there and leave me, I would be fine, I mean, I could totally stay and isolate alone it's not like I haven't done that before." She tried once more to persuade him, that he at the very least did not have to babysit her for the next week or more.
"Yeah, I'm sure you would be "fine", but you are still pretty weak after your string in a coma, so I am going to do this. Look at it this way; it's close to the hospital, so I can still come in if there's something that needs my immediate attention, which is why I also agreed to stay at the hotel and not go home and take care of the boys. Plus the fact that they seem to have a pretty good time, my sister in law agreed to come up here for a while and isolate with them, so I could continue to work and sometimes come in on shifts and be on call. Also, if the children have Corona, I would be able to take on some of those patients. So this is what we're going to do, you will get in that chair and I'm going to take us back to the hotel, where you will take a nap and we'll have dinner and see how it goes. So, jump on the carriage Doctor Grey, and we can get out of here." He answered her.
"What chair?" Meredith asked, not fully sure what he meant.
"That one!" Hayes noted in the direction of the wheelchair by the door, while Meredith sent him an angry glare.
"There's no way in hell, I will be wheeled out of this hospital! I am fully capable of walking. I will not be treated like some sickly elderly lady, that is where I put my foot down. I am on the board; my name is on this hospital. I can't have interns, residents, nurses, fellows and attendings, see me being wheeled out, like I'm incapable of walking." She hissed at him as she crossed her arms across her chest.
Hayes sighed:
"Grey, it's protocol! Can't you just for once do what is asked of you? No one would think you incapable walking, everyone in this hospital knows how strong you are! However, we also all know that only a week ago you almost died, so just sit down in the chair and we can get out of here." He pointed to the chair, as his voice rose a little bit, but Meredith glared right back at him.
"It's not happening, I'm not being wheeled out" Meredith said again.
"Very well!" he said, - "I will go tell the nurses, that you have decided to stay another night in this fine establishment, and we will see if you're ready to sign out tomorrow instead!"
"What? You cannot just leave me here! You know I have some friends in very high places. I could just walk out on my own, I mean, I could sign myself out against medical advice! What would you do then? Do you really want to be the one to tell Bailey, that because you had to be so stubborn, I left on my own instead!" She glared at him.
"No, I'm not looking forward to that conversation at all, but if it came to that then so be it I'm sure the Chief would understand, after all she would agree, that even you Doctor Grey, Chief of General Surgery, had to follow protocol!" He snapped back.
"What is going on in here? Why are you still here Grey? When I am pretty sure you should already be signed out, and I would not have to see your face for at least the next two weeks? So why are you still in here, taking the room from someone who actually needs this?"
They both turned towards the door and saw the woman, they had just been talking, about standing there, arms crossed over her chest, and not looking very happy. She looked downright pissed off. Meredith swallowed hard, before answering.
"I'm ready to leave, but Doctor Hayes here refused to take me to the hotel!"
Hayes snorted.
"That is not it! What is going on is that I have been pretty open to taking her there, but she refused to get in the wheelchair, which is protocol, but Grey here seems to think she is above protocol, and shouldn't have to get in the wheelchair!"
Bailey look from one to the other:
"Are you really doing this to me? You really think I care at all about your petty little spat, about your desire or lack of desire to get in the wheelchair? Get into the chair, Grey. Now! and then I do not want to see your face for the next two weeks! You too Dr Hayes, get out of here! I do not care what you do. Even if you have pick her up the sit her in the chair. Just get out of my hospital now! So, the room can go to patients who need it! I will be back in 10 minutes and I better not find you two in here anymore! Understood?" She hissed and sprung around and stalked out of there again.
"You heard what the Chief said!" Hayes told Meredith a small smug smile forming on his lips.
"Get in the chair, so we can get out of here!"
But Meredith shook her head once more.
"I'm not getting in the chair and you can't make me! So can you just drop it and we can get out of here, and not be here when she returns as I feel neither of us having it desire to get another lecture."
"Very well." Hayes signed. "In that case, I'll just carry you out! So, what is it gonna be Grey? The chair or me carrying you out of the hospital?"
"What?" she hissed in surprise he had to be joking. He was simply pulling her leg, there was no way he would carry her out. It was just another attempt of his to make her get in the chair. She could not imagine, he would carry her out dressed in full PPE as he was right now, due to them still being in the COVID-19 ward.
"You heard me! Either get in the chair or I will carry you out of here so what is your pick?" Hayes asked again as she rolled her eyes.
"Very well, I guess that answered it, so let's go!"
"What are you doing?" she whelped as he stepped closer and bended down and then the next second had swept her up in his arms.
"Put me down right now! You cannot do this! You cannot carry me all the way down, this is insane, Hayes, be reasonable, think this through for a moment you are wearing full PPE, why would you even do this? Imagine if someone saw us! We will be the subject of every gossip nurse on the whole hospital in a matter of hours. Do you really want that? Do you really want everyone to giggle when they see you again, thinking of how you carried me out of here! Be reasonable, this is not the answer!" Meredith tried to argue with him.
"Actually, I kind of like it. It's much easier than pushing a wheelchair." He answered as he kept carrying her down the hallway. She glanced around and tried to glare right at the nurses and doctors whom they passed by, hoping that would make them keep silent but since she could already amusement and hear the hidden chuckles, she was sure it would quickly be all over the hospital. Meredith signed deeply, it might be just as well that she would not be in here for another couple of weeks, maybe it would have been died down by then. At least she hoped so. She heard some laugh and it wasn't like she could blame them, she would likely have laughed as well, if she witnessed one of the department chief's carrying another department chief bride style down a hallway while dressed in full PPE.
When they arrived at the elevator he stopped. Hayes was clearly not sure how to manage to push the button, she was just about to tell him to put her down again, so she could do so, when the elevator doors opened and a couple of nurses stepped out. They looked at the two of them and begun to giggle, but Meredith hissed at the unfortunate nurses.
"Don't you have jobs to do? Get going! You have lives to save, do not just stare stand there giggling like schoolgirls! This isn't high school it's a frigging hospital!" She hissed as they quickly hurried off.
Hayes snorted at her.
"I'm pretty sure you're scared those two for a long time, Grey."
"Well so be it, they could just have acted like mature people and not like silly high school girls." She growled.
"Oh, like you're, so mature, the great Dr. Grey unable to sit in a wheelchair and instead having to be carried out" He chuckled.
"Well I didn't pick being carried out, you just decided to do that, but what are you going to do now oh clever one, how are you going to push the button to the ground floor? You know you could let me down so I could push it."
He glared at her through the glass of the helmet, clearly not having thought that through but before he could say anything, someone else stepped on glancing up at the two of them, clearly amused.
"Ground floor?" the new passenger asked. Meredith thought he might be someone from radiology, but she was not fully sure.
"Yes, please." Hayes answered and no other words were spoken until they reached the ground floor, and the doors opened the guy nodded at them and quickly stepped out. Meredith could hear him chuckle as he went along but Hayes just walked out of the door calmly and continued towards the doors in lobby.
"What in the world are you two doing?" They stopped and turned around to face Doctor Bailey once more. She again did not look very happy.
"Doctor Grey, here refused to get in the wheelchair, so as you said I needed to get her out of here, that is what I'm doing!" Hayes answered calmly
"And you thought carrying her was the best way? Are you completely out of your mind? This is against protocol; this is against I am not sure what. You are in a full PPE suit, that is hospital property!" She growled at the two of them.
"I know." Hayes said," I'll be right back when I have placed Grey here next to the car and return the suit.
"That is not the answer, you can't just walk around like that! And Grey, you really were that stubborn you thought this was the solution?"
"Hey, I didn't agree to be carried. It was his idea!" Meredith butted in.
"Get out of here. And you better return the suit right away. Stupid surgeons who don't follow protocol and think they are above everything." Bailey hissed as she walked away. Meredith could not help the small giggle that escaped her, and one glance at Hayes, confirmed he was amused as well.
"So ready to finally get out of here, Grey!" Hayes asked.
"Yes, very much so, plus I am pretty sure neither of us want to run into Bailey a third time." She answered and he pretended to shudder.
"No, really not, she can be pretty scary." He answered, as Meredith bit her lip to stifle the desire she felt to laugh at his comment.
"More than you have even seen by now. Trust me, you don't want to ever see her full angry yelling at you." She offered and he nodded.
"I'll take your word for that, and hope I never witness it directed at myself." He stated, and she nodded and let her head rest against his shoulder, after all they would get quicker out of here and not have another run in with Bailey if she just allowed him to carry her the last few feet out of the hospital doors.