Chapter 73:
"Mommy?" Meredith was hunched over sitting on the side of her empty bed in her dimly lit room. Her face was flushed and her eyes were full of tears. At the sound of her daughter's voice, she pulled her head up as she brushed her hair out of her face.
Her little daughter was barely visible in the almost closed door against the dark background of the hallway in the night. Her normally curly golden locks were messy against her sleepy head.
"Baby, go back to bed," Meredith whispered, not even hearing her own voice.
"Mommy? Why are you crying?"
"Mommy is just upset. Go back to bed. It's really late," Meredith said.
"Where's Daddy? And why were you guys yelling?"
Meredith sniffled a little as her daughter ran over to her. Meredith picked her up and placed her on her lap, holding her close. "Daddy isn't here anymore."
"When is he going to come back?"
"I don't know if he will, baby."
When Meredith woke up, she didn't know why that memory had snuck into her mind. That was the only time she can remember thinking that she would have to live without Derek after they were married. She couldn't remember what their fight had been about, but she could remember every second between the time he walked out the door and when he woke her up five hours later telling her how sorry he was.
She straightened herself out in the chair and looked over at the beeping monitors that had woken her up. Her eyes then looked down at her husband. He still hadn't woken up.