Title: Loud And Clear
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.
Summary: Sequel to One Hell Of a Racket. Babies, weddings, and rain. Seattle at it's finest. Babysitting for the ex wife, meeting the family, planning the wedding and fending off the intern. All in a day's work.
Author's Note: The final story in our trilogy. We're staring two days from where 'Racket' left off. Also, we made up all the names and details of Derek's family, save for Nancy, who we adore, by the way.
Ok. So the last chapter was silly. But it's not all going to be light. There are still some serious issues between Meredith and Derek, mainly his tendency to let her down and that leading to her mistrust of him. Those will come to light. Um, yea. Keep hating Bridget. And enjoy the baby drama?
REVIEW.
Now I'm ready to be extraordinary.
Bridget spotted his dark hair immediately. He was scribbling notes in his chart at a nurse's station sipping from a cup of coffee. She strode over to him and leaned against the counter, her hair failing into place, her bangs hanging in her face perfectly. "Dr. Shepherd?" she asked, biting her lip and smiling as he looked her way. She looked up at him through her thick, mascara covered eyelashes, and Derek smiled in spite of himself. She was something else.
"What can I do for you, Dr. Neilson?" he asked. She smirked and grinned; satisfied that she had his attention. She stood to her full height, knowing that her scrub top was snug enough to show off her perfect C cups.
"During rounds this morning, I discovered that one of Dr. Burke's post op patients was complaining of headaches. I was wondering if I could get a consult." She asked, licking her lips both absentmindedly and suggestively. Derek sighed and suppressed a smile. The ambition of interns.
"Lead the way." He said, following her down the hall. Meredith, who was just getting off the elevator, narrowed her eyes at Derek and Bridget, strolling casually down the hall. She laughed at something he said and moved closer to him. Meredith rolled her eyes and shook it off for now. Her pager beeped at her side and she ran off to the pit to get the incoming trauma.
"Dr. Grey!" Tyler shouted. "We've got a third trimester car crash victim. Her head hit the windshield hard enough to break it. Obviously neurological." Meredith nodded. The patient was conscience, which was a good sign.
"Okay." She said. "Page Addison. And page Derek." She said to Tyler, who nodded. Meredith bit her lip. Bridget was supposed to be with her today, but she had disappeared with Derek. "I'll take her to get a CT. Have them meet me there. And go ahead and book an OR." Tyler gave her a look, but scurried off to do it anyway.
"How's it look?" Addison asked her fifteen minutes later, popping her head into the room where Meredith was looking at the woman's CT.
"She's got a pretty sizeable clot." Meredith said. "But it's right in the forebrain, so it shouldn't be too hard…" she trailed off. "Where the hell is Derek?" Addison flipped open the chart and shook her head.
"Doesn't matter where Derek is. With the baby this close to term, she needs to be stable right now. Can you handle this?" Meredith looked at the clot and bit her lip hesitantly. "Meredith." Addison said, her voice reminiscent of the days when she was McWife and Meredith was Dr. Grey. "Can you handle this?" she asked slowly. Meredith nodded. Addison smiled. "Then let's go."
Their surgery behind them, they walked together to an outside table and joined Izzie and Cristina. "Meredith, I'm impressed." Addison said. "That was… that was pretty flawless."
Meredith smiled wryly. "Except for the terrifying moment I almost punctured into her midbrain."
"Except for that." Addison said. Izzie smiled across the table at her friend.
"Mer, you were a rock star." She said. "We were in the gallery. Very impressive. I can't believe you did that alone."
"Neither can I." she said, stabbing a noodle bitterly with her fork. "You know where he was? Strolling through the corridors with Bridget Neilson! And they didn't answer their pages." She dropped her fork and looked up, her jaw hanging open. "Oh my God! What could they be doing that they wouldn't answer her pages?" She shook her head. "I trust him. He wouldn't." She smiled weakly at them and showed them the glittering diamond on her finger. "He wouldn't, right?"
Addison nudged Izzie. "Is she okay?" she asked, taking a sip from her water bottle.
Cristina rolled her eyes. "Of course he wouldn't. And neither would Burke. It's just these freaking interns." She spit out. "Since when did it become appropriate for an intern to throw herself all over an attending surgeon? That Kiara Lennox? She's all 'oh my God, Preston Burke!' while she bats her eyelashes and talks about how inspiring it is to see a black surgeon."
Meredith made a face and shoveled more pasta into her mouth. "I know." She said through her mouthfuls. "I saw Bridget and Derek at the nurse's station this morning, and she was just flirting with him shamelessly. And he was smiling at her like, oh the hot young thing is interested in me." She said disgustedly. Izzie snorted into her soup. "What?" Meredith asked.
Izzie and Addison exchanged a glance. "The kettle called for you guys." Izzie said. "And the kettle says to stop calling him black."
Cristina rolled her eyes. "Oh please. I did not throw myself at Burke. He came onto to me."
Meredith made a face and flung her hand in the air again. "This ring? It means we're getting married. Like, thou shalt not commit adultery?" Addison shot her a pointed look. Meredith gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, okay, I'm leaving now." She said, standing from the table. Addison's pager went off and she looked at Meredith.
"Mrs. Winters is in labor." She said.
"Can she handle it so soon after surgery?" Meredith asked. Addison shook her head. "I'm going to have to find out."
Meredith and Mark sat in the gallery watching Addison perform a C-section on Mrs. Winters. Mark looked over at Meredith, and she plucked the coffee cup from his hands and started sipping from it. "Heard you hit one out of the park today, Grey." He said.
Meredith shrugged listlessly. Mark eyed her and took his coffee back. "Really? You flew solo, and pulled it off without a hitch and you're not even excited."
She pouted. "I tried to page Derek. And my intern. But neither of them answered. Last seen strolling down a hallway together." Mark smiled to himself.
"Mer, come on. I saw them half an hour ago in the CT room. She needed a consult for Burke. You know that you've destroyed my best friend, right? He worships the ground you walk on." Meredith smiled to herself and together they settled back in their seats and Meredith made a move for his coffee. He rolled his eyes and handed it to her.
"Can't you drink your fiancée's coffee?"
Meredith scrunched up her nose. "He uses too much cream." Mark laughed and they both looked back down into the gallery. Meredith pulled out her pager to check for anything from Derek, but there was nothing. To her side, she felt Mark tense.
"Addison!" he shouted. Meredith looked down into the OR to see Addison crumbling to the floor, clutching her own abdomen. She abandoned the coffee and followed Mark out of the gallery, both of them running. Meredith tied a scrub mask on Mark's face and held her own to her mouth as they entered the OR and knelt next to Addison. Mark stroked her hair and called her name while Meredith checked for a pulse.
"She's not conscious." Mark said.
"Pulse is weak." Meredith responded. She looked up at the operating table, noticing the glance of panic on Izzie's face.
"Mer, will you page someone from neo natal?" Izzie asked. One of the scrub nurses checked the monitor and shook her head.
"Dr. Stevens, there isn't time. Both mom and fetal heart rate are dropping. She's losing blood."
Meredith locked eyes with Izzie and nodded her head. "No fear, Iz. You can do this." She prompted. Izzie nodded and drew a deep breath, picking up the ten blade and working on exposing the uterus. Meredith looked down as Addison's body tensed. "Mark, I think she's contracting." Meredith said. Mark scooped Addison up in his arms and carried her into the hallway, Meredith right behind him. Frantic, she pulled out her pager and sent one more page to Derek.
She shook her head to clear him from it, setting her intentions on getting a gurney for Addison. When Mark had laid her down, they headed for the elevator, and Meredith hit the button for the floor of the neo natal wing. Mark's normally tanned face was chalky white. Meredith laid a hand on Addison's stomach, sighed in relief, then grabbed Mark's hand and squeezed it. "Baby's still kicking." She said.
Mark sagged against the wall of the elevator in obvious relief, and gripped Meredith's hand in the still present fear that something was wrong with Addison. "Hey," Meredith said. "This is Addison we're talking about. Satan, refused to be paralyzed because no one would notice her heels Addison. She'll pull through this, whatever it is." Mark nodded gratefully at her, glad to hear someone say the things he couldn't dare to hope to think.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing Derek whose fist clenched as he saw Meredith's hand in Mark's. He looked at his friend's face, ready to hit him, but noticed his expression first. He glanced into the elevator and saw the gurney behind them. "It's Addison." Meredith hissed angrily. "Either get on or go." Derek blinked, confused at her harsh demeanor and stepped into the elevator and clutched Mark's shoulder as they rode to neo natal.