There's a piece of me you can't have, and I know it's driving you mad.
The past few weeks had been quite the adjustment for Meredith and Zola. With Maggie's help, and Zola's input, they'd done up the spare room across the hall as Zola's bedroom, even thought she didn't spend a lot of time sleeping in there. If Zola didn't fall asleep in Meredith's bed, she had made her way there by the early hours of the morning. Meredith would be lying though if she said it bothered her and it made their mornings a lot easier. On nights when Meredith had to work, Maggie would take Zola home from day care and would see her that morning when Maggie brought her in to the hospital. They'd spend their days off on days out, the park, the zoo, wherever Zola wanted to go.
Meredith and Derek hadn't really spoken again since that day. The handful of times they did have to work together, they would only speak in the interests of their patient. The moment he would try and speak to her about more than that, she would either change the subject or remove herself from the situation. Thankfully, she hadn't had a reason to work with Addison and was putting off any interaction with the woman for as long as possible.
That morning, Meredith brought Zola into the hospital to take her up to day-care. Zola was very popular with the nurses and doctors and would say hi to most people they walked past. Meredith made sure she was settled in day-care as she did most days, letting her know she'd come and get her at lunch so they could eat together.
She made her way from the day-care unit to the surgical wing, ready for rounds with her patients. She grabbed a tablet from the nurses' station and pulled up the first patient's chart. She met with the residents and interns who were waiting nearby, heading into the room with them. She was just observing the work of residents today on rounds and would only intervene where needed.
She didn't have any surgeries scheduled so would probably just spend her morning doing admin work, making sure the general surgery schedule was updated for the next few weeks. She'd received further documentation in the mail yesterday regarding Zola's adoption and made a mental note to make sure she sent it off by the end of the day.
In case she was needed on the floor, Meredith generally did her admin work stood at one of the work-stations, which is what she was busying herself with when she felt a presence beside her, she looked to the rugged-looking, dark blonde man, "Can I help you? Are you new here?"
He looked to her with a smirk, "Visiting. Confounded by all the rain and it's only my first day here."
She laughed a little and raised her eyebrows, "You get used it."
As their conversation continued, neither were aware of Derek making his way down the hallway., speaking with a colleague. The stranger beside her looked at her, almost like he was trying to flirt with her, "Makes me wanna stay in bed all day."
She couldn't deny she missed the attention and decided to join in with his banter, "We just met and you're already talking about bed, not very subtle," she pointed out, pretending to be more interested in the work on her tablet.
He laughed and kept his eyes on her, trying to think of how she seemed familiar to him, "Subtle's never been my strong suit," he winked as she looked up at him, "So, do you ever go out with co-workers?"
She shook her head, laughing again, "I make it a rule not to."
He grinned at her response, "Then I am so glad I don't work here." From the other end of the hallway walked Addison, stopping in her step when she realised who Meredith was speaking to.
She bit her lower lip slightly, she had to admit he was easy going on the eyes, and a distraction wouldn't hurt… but she was a fan of playing hard to get, "Are you hitting on me?" She raised an eyebrow at him, "In a hospital?"
He moved a little closer to her, unaware of whose attention he'd drawn, unaware of what their intentions were, "Would that be wrong?"
Blissfully unaware as well, Meredith held her hand out to him to shake his in introduction, "Meredith."
He went to shake her hand and introduce himself but was stopped in doing so when Derek came out of nowhere, punching him straight in the face and knocking him to the floor. Meredith took a step back, in shock and looked to Derek who was attempting to shake off the slight sting in his hand, "What the hell was that?!"
Derek didn't look at her but kept his eyes on the guy he'd just knocked down with a single punch, now bleeding from the point of impact on his cheek, "That was Mark."
Addison came over at that point, "What the hell, Derek?" She pulled Derek away and took him into a nearby office. Meredith was still stood there speechless, not seeing the look Derek was giving her as he walked away. She recovered after a moment when Mark stood back up, his hand touching his face lightly where he'd punched, frowning at the blood that transferred to his fingertips.
He looked to Meredith, "Any chance you could take me to get the cleaned up?"
She set the tablet down on the desk beside her and nodded, "Yeah, yeah come with me," she walked beside him as she led him to the nearest exam room, "So you're Mark, huh?" She raised her eyebrows at him as he sat on the exam room bed and she got out the things she'd need to clean up his cut.
He laughed as he watched her, "And you're Meredith Grey, I've heard about you, you know," this stopped Meredith in her tracks a moment.
"What have you heard about me?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows. She was still pretty sure no-one beyond her, Maggie, Alex and Derek knew she was 'the other woman.'
"You mean besides the Catherine Fox award and countless publication?" He laughed, eyeing her closely as she released the breath she was holding, and continued on cleaning the wound on his face. He studied her a moment before breaking out into laughter as realisation hit him.
She looked with him, her eyebrow raised as she got out the suture kit, "What?"
"I have heard about you, just no names mentioned," he watched as a blush crept up on her cheeks and she numbed the area around his wound, "I've heard about you all the way back in New York, the other woman. Welcome to the dirty mistresses club."
She rolled her eyes at him and muttered, "No point in trying to hide it now, is there?" She picked up the needle with the needle driver in one hand, and the tissue forceps with the other, ready to start closing his wound.
"Woah, no, stop, get me a mirror," she laughed at him and then realised he was serious, "I don't care how good you are with your abdominal wall transplants, and mini livers, I'm not risking a scar out of this."
She rolled her eyes at him and passed him the tools, picking up a mirror off the side in the room and holding it up for him, "I forget how vain plastic surgeons are," she said with a laugh.
He paused for a moment before he began the sutures, "You know, it's funny. Derek walks in on me in bed with is wife, you know – actually in the throes. He just turns around and walks away. But he sees me so much as talking to you, and I'm on the ground bleeding," he shook his head with a laugh, "Interesting, don't you think?"
Meredith watched him as she held the mirror while he began the sutures on his cheek, "Yeah, well he chose Addison, didn't he?" She pointed out with a small smile.
"Well then I'll let you in on a little secret, Derek is a man of obligation," he winced a little as he spoke, still suturing his cheek, "and he has of habit of not communicating the reasons behind his actions."
Meredith scoffed, putting the mirror down as Mark finished off his suture with the snip of the thread, "I don't play games, Sloan, I stopped playing games a long time ago."
Meredith lathered her hands with anti-bacterial gel, looking back to Mark once before leaving the room, "Get yourself in for a CT, I'm sure you can figure that out."
Derek was seething. He held an ice pack to his knuckles as he sat in Richard's office with him and Addison. "Would somebody like to explain to me why my head of neurosurgery is punching out people on my surgical floor?" His eyes shifted to Derek who had pulled the ice pack away from his hand to inspect it, "Put the damn ice on your two million dollar a year hand, Shepherd."
Addison began to spoke as Derek returned the ice pack to his hand, "That was Mark, Richard. He's Derek's best friend back from New York. I, uh, I slept with him."
Richard looked bewildered a moment before turning back to Derek, "Did you put your weight behind?"
Derek scoffed slightly before responding, "Yes, sir."
"Well, good. Now both of you, get out of here and get back to work," Richard dismissed them. Derek immediately stood out of the chair he was sat in, leaving the office ahead of Addison who just followed Derek to his office, "What is he doing here, Addison?"
"I don't know, Derek," Addison wasn't a fan of having her dirty laundry out dry for the whole hospital to see, but maybe she shouldn't have kept ignoring Mark's calls.
Derek rolled his eyes at her, "Get him gone. And I don't want to see you, go away."
Addison left the office without an argument and went to locate Mark Sloan, starting with the last place she'd seen him. As she approached, she saw Meredith leaving one of the exam rooms and just about caught what she said to whoever sat inside the room, "Go get yourself a CT, I'm sure you can figure that out."
She studied the woman a moment from afar, unable to read any emotion on her face. What did Derek see in her? Once Meredith had left the immediate area, Addison approached the room she had just left, seeing Mark inside, and she took a deep breath before walking in there herself, "What are you doing here, Mark?"
He looked up to her as he applied the final closure strip to the now healing wound on his cheek "I'm here for you, Addison."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes at him, crossing her arms as she spoke, "Try again, Mark."
"Addison, I came back to make amends, with both of you," she eyed him curiously and he watched her, before coming to some kind of realisation, "Wait a minute, he only thinks it was the one time, doesn't he? He doesn't know that you stayed with me for weeks after he'd gone! And you must know he's only staying with you because he thinks it's the right thing to do."
"It doesn't matter, Mark," she said, looking down at the floor, "Just go back to New York and leave well enough alone."
"You can't tell me you didn't see the way he looked at her," Mark scoffed, "Your marriage is over, Addison, all you have to do I admit. Let him go."
She couldn't hear anymore, and she didn't want to hear anymore. She turned around and left him alone in the room once more.
That day seemed to drag on forever, and it was getting pretty late by the time she'd gone to pick up a sleepy Zola from day care. She held the girl on her hip as her rested against her shoulder, falling asleep as they waited for the elevator down to the parking garage. The doors opened to the elevator and she hesitated a moment before getting on when she saw him stood inside, leaning against the back wall. She stepped on and faced forward, no intention of communicating with him. Mark's words still spoke clear in her head from earlier that morning, as much as she tried to forget about them.
The elevator jolted slightly on its way down, causing the bag that was over her opposite shoulder to where Zola slept to slip down her arm, and the bag fell to the floor. He immediately stepped forward to help her, grabbing the strap of the bag to pick it up off the floor, "I can carry this for you," he said softly, stood close to her.
She was too tired to argue with him about it and she needed to get Zola home, so she simply nodded and said, "Okay."
He stayed stood beside her as the elevator came to a halt at the lower level for the parking garage, and they walked silently to her car, he spoke quietly as they approached the vehicle, "Where's your keys?"
"Coat pocket," she didn't even know what she was doing at this point, but it was so much easier than arguing with him. Her breath hitched in her throat as his hand went into her coat pocket to pull her keys out, and she avoided making any eye contact with him.
He unlocked her car and opened the door to the backseat where Zola's car seat was fitted. Ensuring she stayed asleep, Meredith strapped her in securely before closing the door again and in that time, he'd put her bag in the foot-well of the passenger side of the car. Their fingers brushed with a small spark of electricity as he passed her keys back to her, and she looked down a little in an attempt to continue avoiding contact with him.
"I miss you, Meredith," her head snapped up at him as he spoke, looking directly into his eyes.
"Derek, I…" she gently bit her lower lip as she looked down again and spoke quietly, "I'm tired, Derek. I'm exhausted. Avoiding you is exhausting, hating you is exhausting."
At her words, he pulled her into a gentle hug, and she didn't protest. His lips pressed softly against her hair and he murmured softly, "I'm so sorry."
She relaxed in his arms a moment, possibly out of exhaustion, before the reality of their situation pinged in her mind, and she pulled back from his embrace, "I have to go."
He simply nodded and stepped back, watching her climb into the car and fasten her own seat belt. He stood in the same spot as she drove away, and he couldn't help but wish he was going home with her.
Pieces falling from me, you can have them for free.
Little Pieces - Gomez
A/N: I just wanted to say thank you for all the reviews, it really helps me keep going with this story! Additionally, I have noticed that reviews aren't showing properly for some reason, but I do see them through email alerts.