So first of all, this update took forever. I know, and I'm sorry! I've never tried to write during sweeps before, and well…Shonda threw Mer in the water, nearly drowned her, made her hypothermic, and then left us with her flatlining. And just…gah, Mer! Poor Mer. It's one thing to write about Mer/Der when on the show their only problems are snoring and silly little things, but when Meredith is dying? Well, it was much harder to pull my mind away from what was happening on the show, and get it to focus on what's happening in my fic. However, I bribed myself to write with many leftover Valentine's chocolates, and so I've finally gotten the chapter done. (However, I still have a desperate need for it to be Thursday, and for Mer to make it.)

Anyway, this chapter moves forward a few days to get to Meredith's first day back at work. That's about all you need to know for this, so just…thanks to everyone who's been taking the time to review. I really appreciate it so much. Enjoy!

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We keep ourselves moving
In opposite directions
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Meredith ran her hand over the familiar pale blue fabric of her scrubs, trying to ignore the way her fingers were trembling slightly. It felt strange to be back at work after so many weeks away, but, at the same time, it felt exhilarating. The back of her mind was already humming with the prospect of surgery, of scrubbing in, of finally getting back inside an OR. However, despite having gone straight from the locker room to Richard's office, Meredith had already found herself on the receiving end of more curious glances and hushed whispers than she had during the entire scandalized flurry of days following Addison's arrival in Seattle. It was unsettling, and that, coupled with the fact that she was starting her first day back in a meeting with both Bailey and the Chief, was serving to put a damper on her excitement. Clenching her fingers into a fist, she pulled them away from fiddling with her scrubs, and forced herself to look back up with what she hoped was a calm professional smile.

"And you're feeling alright?" Richard asked, his dark eyes serious.

"Um…yeah." Meredith gave a quick nod, her hands already back to fidgeting with her clothes. "I saw a doctor a few days ago. Everything's good. I can be back working."

"Good. And you understand the schedule?" he continued, once again referencing the papers that lay spread on the table between the three of them. Meredith's eyes narrowed instinctively as she stared down at the chart that listed the hours for all of Bailey's interns during the week. She chewed on the corner of her lip, trying not to mind the fact that hers had been completely cut in half.

"Grey?" prompted Bailey, her tone slightly cautionary as she picked up on the hint of displeasure in Meredith's expression. The younger woman forced a tightlipped smile across her face, and turned to her resident.

"What? I mean, yes, Dr. Bailey…Chief," she added as she looked towards Richard. "Forty hours. I understand."

"And not a minute more," said Bailey, looking at her sternly. Meredith gave a meek resigned nod of her head, resolutely determined to try and not care about just how far she was falling behind.

"Less if you need to," continued Richard, his voice suddenly growing low and almost fatherly. "Forty hours is your maximum, not your requirement. Take breaks if you need them. Go home if you need to." Meredith nodded again, feeling as if her entire self was tinged with reluctance as her mind kept up its insistent hum of longing for the OR. "Meredith…" He raised his voice, seeming to see straight through to her poorly veiled unwillingness. She wasn't sure why this suddenly felt so frustrating; she had known the stifling forty hour limit was coming for weeks now. It had seemed bearable then when she sat at home, but now back at work and actually within Richard's office, all Meredith could see was just how far behind she was about to fall. It wouldn't simply be weeks. It would be entire months. She would still be an intern when all of her friends were residents. She was getting left behind. Sighing, she turned away, leaning against her hand as she stared out the window.

"I know this is frustrating," said Bailey quietly, speaking with an uncommon gentleness. "You're just as surgery hungry as the rest of my fools. But you have your whole life to do this. You don't need to rush here. And if you push yourself too hard, and hurt your baby for a surgery, you will regret it."

Meredith nodded once more, feeling herself giving in a little to the truth in her words. "Daughter," she said softly.

"What?" Richard looked up--not quite following--as a puzzled frown spread across his brow.

"It's a…it's a girl," she stammered, smiling anxiously as she tucked her hair back behind her ears. "We just found out."

"Well congratulations Meredith," he said warmly as Bailey echoed his sentiments. "You'll make a great mother to her." Meredith colored slightly at that and looked away, hiding her uncertainty by staring at her shoes as she followed Richard to his feet, his gesture signaling the end to the meeting.

"Thanks," she mumbled in a low voice, self-consciously smoothing her scrubs down over her stomach.

"Doctors, now if you'll excuse me, I have another meeting to make it to," said Richard, and, within a minute, he was heading out the door in an efficient administrative flurry, leaving Meredith and Bailey to make their own way out.

"Umm…Dr. Bailey," began Meredith tentatively as the two women walked across the bridge. She glanced down at her boss, who prompted her to continue with a brisk nod of her head. "Where do you want me working today?"

"Dr. Shepherd requested you," Bailey answered flatly, arms crossed over her chest.

"Oh…" Meredith smiled, unable to hide her eagerness at getting to see him all day. He'd left for an early surgery before she had quite woken up, and so her only time with him so far had been a quick, sleep-filled kiss. However, Bailey raised her eyebrows skeptically at Meredith's delighted expression, and the younger woman's smile quickly faltered. "I'm gonna…I'm gonna go find Dr. Shepherd right now then," she added quickly, unable to determine whether her resident was annoyed or amused. But when Bailey simply smirked and nodded her head, she decided it was the latter, and breathed a sigh of relief as she hurried off to find Derek.

It didn't take her that long to find him, but the few minutes she spent looking felt endless. Every step she took seemed to turn some new head in her direction, and she swore she could hear a faint trail of whispering voices following after her. Adjusting her lab coat self-consciously, Meredith slid up to where Derek leaned against the nurses' station, his pen scratching a dark inky path across the surface of a chart. "Hey…" she breathed, minding the staring nurses a little less as Derek turned towards her voice, grinning at her.

"Hey," he echoed as he reached out, tracing his thumb over the smooth surface of her hand. "How's my favorite intern? How'd the meeting go?"

Meredith shrugged, running the hand that wasn't looped loosely around Derek's wrist back through her hair. "Good," she said shortly, her voice thin and unconvincing. Derek's eyes darkened instantly, searching her face as he stepped closer to her. Frowning, she turned away from his careful scrutiny, only to catch a glimpse of yet another group of nurses speaking in hushed voices as their eyes flitted continually towards her and her now obvious belly. She sighed and turned back to Derek, shaking her head.

"What?" he asked, his voice quiet.

Meredith shrugged again, pulling her hand away from his to cross her arms tightly above her stomach. "Nothing."

"Meredith," he pressed, his eyes still focused intently on hers, trying to decipher the reason behind her frown. "What's wrong? Are you tired? Was it the meeting?" She gave a sharp shake of her head; unsure of how to explain the intense knot within her that kept reminding her how far ahead her friends were going to move through the program before the baby was even born. There was a core of loneliness, regret, and frustration there that she didn't understand, and so Meredith turned towards the simpler problem, using it explain away her expression.

"I just don't like being stared at," she said tersely.

Derek just frowned, his eyebrows drawing together in a marked display of confusion. "Oh, now you don't want me to stare at you?" he asked, his voice teasing.

"Not you," muttered Meredith as she rolled her eyes. "Everybody else. Everybody is staring at me." Her gaze darted back towards the gaggle of women that still lingered on the opposite side of the nurses' station, watching her in between brief bursts of whispered conversation.

"What?" Derek looked genuinely surprised, his frown disappearing into a grin at the almost melodramatic note to her words. "Nobody's staring at you," he said dismissively, failing to pick up on the women across from them.

"Yeah they are," replied Meredith, her voice tired, and already starting to fill with annoyance. "It's even worse than it was in the morning because I'm with you now."

"Huh?"

Derek seemed unable to follow her train of thought as quickly as she wanted, and that only served to intensify the prickling feeling within her, leading her to roll her eyes once again. Speaking dryly, she added, "They're probably hoping we're going to do something shocking."

"Shocking?" echoed Derek, leaning towards her, his voice still light and amused. "And what exactly did you have in mind, Dr. Grey?" But Meredith's features only darkened further, her lips drawing quickly into a thin line as her eyes flashed. Derek relented, and offered her an apologetic smile. "Mer," he tried quietly. "Who's staring at you?"

"Everyone," she snapped, knowing that she was being dramatic, but not really caring. She had been looking forward to returning to work, but it had barely been two hours, and she already found herself full of a heavy frustrated feeling. Derek's expression started to turn skeptical, and Meredith whirled about to point out the nurses, only to find that they had finally dispersed. Heaving an aggravated sigh, she shook her head, and glanced back up at him. "Whatever," she muttered quietly. "It's nothing."

Derek's eyes were quiet as he nodded, wordlessly leading her away from the long counter and down the hall towards their patient. He could feel the frustration radiating out from her, see it in the way she scuffed her shoes against the floor as she walked, hear it in the sudden shallowness to her breathing. Staring at her bent head, Derek opened his mouth only to close it again, frowning uncertainly as he ran a hand through his hair. Meredith had always seemed to understand the hospital's tendency to come alive over gossip before, and he was having a hard time assigning her current mood solely to the actions of a few nosey nurses. Filled with an overpowering desire to protect her, he wanted desperately to drop her off in the nearest on-call room, so that she could sleep and rest, and he could be reassured that she was okay. However, he knew without asking just what sort of reaction that would provoke in Meredith, and so he kept walking, smiling down at her as he did his best to cheer her up. "If they're staring at you, it's only because you're glowing."

Meredith's head snapped up at that, her green eyes flashing as sharp as her voice. "What?"

"You…" said Derek, tilting his head to the side as he continued to smile down at her, his attention lingering on her curling lips and the indignant way in which she snapped her eyes open--dark lashes stark and straight against pale skin. "Glow…"

"I do not," argued Meredith, her voice growing as incensed as her eyes.

"You do." Derek stretched his hand out to run down the lengths of the loose waves framing her face, seeming not to mind that they were in the middle of a crowded hospital. "It's lovely, and they're jealous," he continued as Meredith's face contorted into a definite scowl. Moving from her hair, he traced the outline of her lips, letting his finger come to rest in the very middle as he shook his head, a brief hint of an amused grin brightening his face. "And even when you try and frown, you're still glowing," he concluded, causing Meredith's eyes to flash even darker before she found the low sounds of his voice pulling on her, forcing her mouth up into a begrudging smile.

"Whatever," she muttered, smirking slightly as she reached up and pulled his hand from her lips. "I don't glow." Still, she tightened her grip on his fingers-squeezing them closely--before letting go, and gesturing towards the door he had stopped in front of. "The patient?" she asked with a jerk of her head.

"The patient," Derek agreed, pushing the door open for her, and following behind into the room. He gestured almost grandly towards a middle-aged man propped up in one of the familiar hospital beds, his right hand draped casually over the remote and his attention directed towards the television mounted near the top of the wall. "This is Mr. Harper." The man looked up at his words, muting the television and turning towards the doctors.

"Morning," he answered warmly, lifting both his hand and the remote in greeting. "And please, call me Roger."

"Hello Roger," responded Meredith, smiling at him before focusing on the chart Derek had passed her.

"And this is Dr. Grey," continued Derek, making his way over towards the older man. "She's going to be working with you today." The two men chatted amicably for a few minutes as Meredith perused the file, before her voice intruded into the conversation.

"Uh…Dr. Shepherd," she began quietly, tracing her tongue absently over her lips as she stared down at the chart, shaking her head. "You want me to…prep him? Because, he already had surgery…" She trailed off, flipping through the pages in search of the exact date.

"On the ninth," supplied Derek as he nodded, sending dark strands of hair falling forward to shadow his eyes.

"Okay…" Meredith scratched her head, glancing back up at Derek. "Yeah…so, you want me to?" Her expression was mingled curiosity and confusion as she racked her brain for an explanation--trying to figure out just what sort of care this man needed when his surgery had been well over a week ago.

"I want you to monitor him," said Derek simply.

"To monitor him…" Meredith glanced over at the one remaining monitor the patient was still hooked up to, arching an eyebrow high in a quiet display of skepticism. "He's been stable for days now. Are you sure…I mean…" She chewed on her lip, frowning up at Derek. "Am I missing something here, Dr. Shepherd?" she asked, once again ruffling through the chart, fearing that she was overlooking something crucial.

But Derek just shook his head, grinning at her. "Not at all. Just sit and relax, and put your feet up in that very comfortable chair, and monitor him." He gestured towards the rather large reclining chair that rested beside the bed, within easy reach of the monitor. "Roger's very friendly," he added helpfully as Meredith's jaw clenched, something clicking into place within her mind.

"Der…" she began angrily, before catching herself. She swallowed hard, offering Roger a tightlipped smile, before swinging her eyes straight back towards Derek. "Dr. Shepherd, may I speak to you outside for a moment?" she asked, her voice full of politeness, yet tinged with something much colder. Derek simply nodded his head, and followed her out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

"What?" he asked, leaning against the wall as he looked down at her. Meredith shook her head in disbelief, pacing back and forth in front of him as she yanked her fingers through her hair.

"You," she declared as she suddenly stopped her pacing, and pivoted around to face him. "You want me to monitor one patient? One patient who, I might add, had surgery over a week ago, and has been stable for several days now… You want me to monitor that one patient all day long? Seriously, Derek?"

"Well, not all day long," said Derek quickly, grinning at her. "Just until three o'clock. Then you and the baby get to go home and rest." Meredith let out a frustrated groan, still shaking her head.

"This is not cute," she snapped, her voice dry and unamused. "I'm not an invalid."

Derek's grin faded into a frown, and he shook his head as well. "Nobody said you were," he answered gently. He reached out a hand to sooth her, but she shied away, still reeling from the prospect of spending an entire day doing nothing when she could be in surgery.

"But the monitor is monitoring him!" spluttered Meredith disbelievingly when Derek failed to say anything more. He shifted uncomfortably, but nodded in agreement.

"Right. And I want you to watch the monitor."

Meredith stepped forward, and shoved the patient's chart towards Derek, reaching out to point at it with a slender finger. "He's getting discharged tomorrow," she said. "Why would he possibly need constant monitoring at this point?" Her voice was full of an indignant frustration she would never usually dare direct at one of her attendings, but all she could see when she glanced down at the perfectly clean labs and detailed reports of stable vitals she was holding was a waste of time. It was pointless, utterly pointless, and she was at a loss as to why Derek was trying to waste her time so completely.

Derek's expression darkened to match Meredith's, and he took the chart from her, flipping it shut in one easy seamless motion. "Brain surgery takes a lot out of the patient," he said evenly. "And Mr. Harper was having headaches yesterday, so I'd like him monitored carefully before we send him home. Do you have a problem with taking care of your patient, Dr. Grey?" While he knew she was annoyed, Derek couldn't quite bring himself to care; the reassurance of knowing that Meredith would spend the day out of harms way yet still technically working served to dull the effect of her frustrated voice. And so he spoke her name pointedly, filling his own voice with a stern professionalism that made her head spin, and emphasized the fact that she really didn't have a choice.

"No…Dr. Shepherd," she said tersely, the green of her eyes vibrantly angry despite the fact that she kept the rest of her face subdued as she answered him. "I'll get right on that." She reached out and yanked the chart from his hands, refusing to meet his gaze as she spun sharply on her heel, and made her way back into the room. The door slammed shut, and she collapsed against it, still burning within from shock and indignation.

"Umm…Dr. Grey?" came Roger's voice, warm and questioning as he leaned forward in bed to look at her. "Is everything alright?" Meredith's eyes flew back open, and she shook her head.

"No. I mean…yes. It's fine," she muttered, forcing a smile across her face. "Don't mind me," she continued as she crossed over to the chair beside the monitor, and flopped down in it. "You're fine. I'm just here because…" She bit her tongue seconds before volunteering that her boyfriend was an ass, and simply concluded with a bitter, "Whatever."

Several hours passed uneventfully; Meredith alternating between staring at the unchanging monitor, and the flickering colors on the television screen. She spoke very little, choosing instead to focus on turning her frustrations inward, seething in silence. Finally, the door to the room swung open again, and a familiar yet unexpected head poked into the room.

"There you are," said Cristina, kicking the door shut with an absent swing of her leg. "A nurse said you were in here, but…" She shrugged, seeming surprised to discover that Meredith really was doing nothing more than sitting in a chair, staring blankly up at a television. "I was looking for you everywhere." Cristina plopped down into the remaining empty chair, scooting over towards her friend without a second glance at the patient.

"I do have a pager, you know," said Meredith flatly, turning to glower at her.

Cristina just rolled her eyes. "You're very bitter today. Nice… It suits you."

Meredith scoffed, shaking her head as she added, "Yeah…well, you would be too, if Burke were doing this to you." Cristina frowned, and pulled a hand through the tangle of her hair.

"Doing what?"

"This!" hissed Meredith, gesturing broadly at the room around her. "It's my first day back, and Derek has me in here just babysitting this guy." She trailed off, and glanced over at Roger, muttering a quick, "Sorry." However the man simply shrugged and smiled good-naturedly, amused by the sudden enraged outburst pouring forth from the small and previously silent woman. "Seriously Cristina," she continued, lowering her voice to a quiet hush as she turned back to her friend. "It's like he thinks I'm going to spontaneously go into labor again just from standing. Of course, he doesn't worry about all the sex, but this…this he worries about. I haven't even ran a freaking lab! Not a single lab."

"I've ran labs all morning," groaned Cristina, leaning back in her chair and stretching her arms high over her head. "My feet no longer have arches." She turned and looked hopefully at Meredith, asking, "Want to switch? I'll sit up here and watch TV with perfectly-healthy-guy." Leaning forward, she addressed Roger. "I'm much less bitter than Meredith," she stated, prompting her friend to turn and glower at her.

"Oh, so what you want is to sit here, and spend hours reading the EKG. An EKG that hasn't once strayed from a normal rhythm in days," spluttered Meredith, shaking her head. Cristina just laughed, an amused smirk twisting her lips upwards.

"That's all you're doing? Seriously? You do realize that if Shepherd asked even one of the nurses to do this, they'd laugh in his face and walk away," she said, grinning at Meredith as the woman returned her smile with a dark frown.

"I know that," she hissed. "But then he goes and calls me Dr. Grey, and what? I'm just supposed to storm off and ignore my attending?" She shook her head, scowling down at the chart in her lap. "I mean seriously," she continued, her voice low and angry as she gave into what had been frustrating her all day. "Do you realize how far behind… I get forty hours a week, Cristina. Forty. That's half the practice you guys get, only I'm not even practicing medicine. I'm sitting here, with my feet up, watching TV. I can do this at home. I did do this at home…for two weeks. With better food!" She turned back towards Cristina, who was barely managing to conceal her delighted grin at her friend's ranting. "Derek just goes and requests me, and assigns me this crap. Like he thinks he has the right to just…like he can just…like he's this…" She trailed off, shaking her head sharply as she brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I don't know who he thinks he is," she concluded brusquely.

Cristina tilted her chair back, balancing it effortlessly on the rear legs. "He thinks he's your boss," she said, her voice flat, and full of the knowledge that she was stating the obvious. "And he is. So, suck it up McMommy," she added, leering at her friend in amusement.

"Seriously?" spluttered Meredith, sitting up straight, and turning in her seat to face her friend. "Seriously? I've got nurses talking about me whenever I stick my head out the door, Derek suddenly thinks I'm an invalid, and now you're calling me McMommy? Are you trying to give me an aneurysm here?"

Cristina just shrugged. "Were you this bitter and angry all of your break?" For a brief moment, Meredith's eyes flashed, and her anger seemed to intensify, pushing her close to shouting. But it faded quickly, leaving her to shake her head as she slumped back down, her fierce glare becoming nothing more than a heavy frown.

"No," she said flatly. "But Derek wasn't this much of an ass all break, so…" She shrugged, wrinkling her nose as she propped her chin up with a slender fist.

"Look Mer," sighed Cristina, her voice softening slightly. "The last time you were actually working here, Shepherd watched you collapse and almost lose the baby. Cut him some slack. He's worried about you and McFetus." Meredith hesitated for a moment, seeming to contemplate agreeing. However, the memory of her wasted morning was still stinging, and hard to forget. She swallowed her conflicting emotions, and simply rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she muttered crossly. "I can't believe you're taking his side."

"More amusing this way," said Cristina with a shrug.

Meredith shook her head, turning away from her friend, and getting up to once again study the pulsing neon lines on the EKG. As she moved, she caught Roger looking at her, his thin mouth twitching up into a curious expression of amusement. "What?" she snapped abruptly before catching herself. Her cheeks colored, and she bit her lip nervously, offering him a small apologetic smile. "Sorry…how are you? Feeling good?" She tapped one small slender finger against the screen of the monitor, adding, "Everything looks good."

"Feeling good," agreed Roger as Meredith looked away, pulling a pen from her scrub pocket to scribble a quick note in his chart. The man cleared his throat, still studying her curiously. "So…excuse me, but you're Dr. Shepherd's…?"

"Girlfriend," supplied Meredith shortly, glancing back up. Clicking her pen, she shoved it back into her pocket, adding, "For now."

"And he's your boss?" continued the patient as Meredith flopped back into her chair. She fought back the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that she could hardly begrudge him his inquisitiveness when she had spent the better part of an hour ranting to Cristina in front of him.

She answered with a small nod of her head. "Yes."

"Well," continued the man, chuckling to himself. "At a guess, I'd say you have a very complicated personal life."

"You could say that," muttered Meredith as Cristina scoffed, grinning widely.

"You don't know the half of it," she said, prompting Meredith to turn and frown at her again.

"Wait…first you're siding with Derek, and now you're ganging up with patients too?" she asked, shaking her head. "You're supposed to call Derek a McBastard, and tell me just how beautifully sane and normal my life is." She pointed her finger at her chest, adding, "You're on my side, remember?"

"Yeah, well…" began Cristina, only to be interrupted by the sound of her pager going off. She yanked it from where it was hooked to the waistband of her scrubs, reluctantly pushing herself to her feet. "Bailey," she muttered before glancing back down at her friend.

"Have fun with that," said Meredith glumly, hoisting her feet up onto the vacated chair. "I'll just be sitting here, trying to remember what an OR looks like." Cristina nodded, offering her a small sympathetic smile before heading out the door to answer her page. As the door clicked shut, Meredith sighed and glanced back over at her patient, fiddling with the strained fabric of her scrub top.

"How many months are you?" asked Roger, prompting Meredith's eyebrows to twitch together in momentary confusion.

"Huh?" She glanced down at her stomach, quickly comprehending what he was asking. "Um…five. Five months." Looking back up, she offered him a shallow smile, lifting both hands to tuck her hair back behind her ears.

"Well congratulations," said the older man, and Meredith nodded.

"Thanks," she said, slipping into awkward conversation with the man that grew less strained as the subject shifted from her and her unborn child to his three children. Roger was a friendly cheerful sort of man, and so the hours passed quicker than she'd expected them to. They were wrapped up in a game of cards when the door to the room swung open yet again.

"You're still here?" came a low familiar voice, and Meredith sighed, lifting her head to find Derek standing in the doorway. "You were supposed to be off half an hour ago." His voice was earnest and clearly concerned despite the relief he felt at seeing her at ease and off her feet. Glancing down at her watch, Meredith realized he was right about the time. However, she said nothing in reply, and simply set down her cards. Derek was smiling softly at her as if he failed to realize that there was anything left from the morning to be upset about. He moved forward to help her to stand back up, but Meredith glared at him, shoving the sharp edge of Mr. Harper's chart between them.

"I was just leaving," she said quietly as she stood up, handing him the file, and reaching back to grab her lab coat. "He's fine. His heart rate remained normal all day, and he had no other complaints." Her voice was terse and almost icy, and she sidestepped Derek as she spoke. "Have a nice evening, Roger," she added with sudden contrasting warmth, turning to smile at the man who was watching the couple curiously, his eyes full of amusement.

"You too dear," he answered gently.

"Good evening Dr. Shepherd," she added, her voice short and close to openly hostile. Derek's face morphed into an expression of utter confusion as he watched her shake her head, her eyes unusually dark as she walked past him without waiting for a reply, letting the door slam loudly behind her. Derek turned back around to face his patient, disbelief still lingering in his eyes, only to find Roger shaking his head as well, chuckling softly.

"What?" asked Derek, at a loss as to why Meredith's bad mood was still lingering, and why his patient seemed so entertained.

The older man looked up, offering him a smile. "You're a great guy, doc," he said warmly, eyes still twinkling. "But for a neurosurgeon, you're not so smart…"

"What?" repeated Derek, his voice taking on a harder, almost offended edge.

"My wife and I have had three kids," continued Roger with a shrug. "And all I can say is you're in for a very long night when you get home."

"Sorry, I don't…" began Derek, uncertainty tugging his brow down as his mind went spinning, trying to sort out why Meredith still seemed so angry. He'd found a way to ensure that her day was utterly free from stress, that she'd been able to stay sitting even while coming back to work. She was healthy and the baby was healthy, and they were both going home to rest. Those were the facts that stood out in Derek's mind, and he found them comforting and reassuring, horribly at odds with Meredith's expression.

But Roger just laughed, and shook his head. "Trust me. The goal is to not make them mad while they're pregnant. It's never pretty." Derek swallowed hard, and glanced back at the door Meredith had slammed shut, frowning as worry slowly washed over him.

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So basically, things are different now that Meredith's gone back to work. One the one hand, Derek has this need to be very protective of her. He's aware that he wasn't there for her at all for the first part of her pregnancy, and he saw how disastrously that turned out, with her collapsing and coming close to losing the baby. He desperately wants to make sure that nothing like that happens again, that she takes care of herself, and that the baby and her stay healthy. And, that's a great thing to want. It was easy when she was just staying at home, but even then…he was protective, not letting her carry the laundry basket herself, making her food, helping her to her feet when she could technically do it on her own. It wasn't that much, and Mer pretty much just found it sweet and was glad to have him back with her. But now, she's back doing exactly what made her get sick in the first place, and internally Derek's a bit freaked. He doesn't want her to get tired at all. He still wants to protect her and be able to know, really know, that she's safe all day. So…he requests her, and then promptly gives her an incredibly boring unnecessary job. He does it for good reasons…so that she can sit down all day, so that she won't be stressed, so that nothing at all will happen to the woman he loves and their child. However, the job he gives her is meaningless, it's way beneath her talents, and is pretty much a total waste of her time. And while Derek gets that she'd rather be in surgery, he's overlooking her annoyance because of this need to keep her protected, even if that means using the fact that he's her boss to force her into babysitting a guy all day long.

And Meredith, well…this just plays straight into her issues. She's already having to deal with the fact that she feels different now. While she was pregnant before, nobody knew but her friends, and she had all the exact same jobs and responsibilities as the other interns. Now…she's come back, and is pretty much the center of the hospital gossip. In addition to all the looks she's getting from people, she's trying to be okay with the fact that her hours are cut in half. It's going to take her twice as long as her friends. She's going to fall behind, and she has no choice about it. And she wants to be okay about it because on a purely logical level she gets that things were pretty bad with her and the baby for awhile, and that it'd be dangerous for her to work more right now, but…at the same time, she feels like she's being left behind. Everything's changing all of a sudden, and when her friends are all residents, she's still going to be wrapping up her intern year because she's having to cut her schedule so much. And that's hard for her because she does love her job, it's what she wants to do. So, with all of this, she's very eager to get back to work, and get the most she can from the time she's allowed to work. However, Derek then goes and sticks her in a room with this job that is utterly pointless. And, all that does is give her another day to fall behind. She gets that he's doing it out of concern for her, but that doesn't change the fact that she's furious, and feels like she's being sheltered and babied.

So yeah, that's about where they are at the end of the chapter. Sorry for the long ramblings at the end. I was just working my thoughts out on the chapter! Hee…anyway, thanks for reading, and I'm so sorry this took so long! (P.S., if anyone read my story Weight of Water, I know I mentioned I wasn't sure if I'd continue that or not, and well…after seeing Thursday's episode, it's just going to stay a one-shot. Because clearly, what I had happen to Mer/Der didn't happen to them, and so yeah…I'm just leaving it like it is. Thought I'd point that out.) Thanks again!