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.
Okay. So you're all mad at Derek. So are we. But now that we've gotten into this story, we realize that our Derek cant be all…dreamy. The Derek in this story is haunted by all the times he's let Meredith down, and he's not McDreamy right now. So just stick with us, cause we do promise a happy ending.
REVIEW.
"Seriously?" Meredith shouted at Derek. She whirled around to face him in the misty rain. After Bridget's announcement, she had stalked outside. "Derek, what the hell is going on? You knew I had her on scut. And you knew why. So you, what? Give her a surgery?"
She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "Meredith…" he said.
She shook her head. "No. Don't Meredith me! You can't undermine my authority over her. You can't…" she trailed off. "Derek if you… do you have feelings for her?" she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.
Derek closed the gap between them in seconds and cupped her cheeks with his hands. "Of course not, Meredith. You, you're the love of my life. You're the only girl I could ever… I love you." He told her, watching her face soften. "She just…. Well she comes onto me, and it's very flattering." Meredith's eyes flashed and she wrenched away from Derek.
"Flattering?" she practically spit at him. "For God's sakes Derek, you can be such an ass!" she shouted. "I don't care if she's flattering or whatever! You are an ass."
Derek winced in regret. "Mer, I'm sorry. That came out completely wrong." He stepped towards her and she backed away.
"She's an intern. She's a young, pretty, intern. She's like I was, Derek. Jesus, is this how it's going to be?"
"No!" he shouted. "You're making a big deal out of nothing, Mer." She stepped towards him, her eyes blazing dangerously.
"Nothing?" she yelled at him. "This is not nothing! Oh God, I'm getting out of here." Derek smirked, knowing that she had no where to go, since he had driven. Meredith moved towards his car, fishing in her purse and producing his keys, which he had given to her to hold. Derek groaned as she got into his car and locked the doors.
"Meredith!" he called, gesturing for her to roll down the window. "Mer, come on. I'm sorry."
She gestured to her ear, indicating that she couldn't really hear him, and turned the key in the ignition. With one final look at him, she peeled out of the parking lot. Derek ran a frustrated hand through his hair and stared at the direction she had gone in.
Inside Joe's Izzie and Alex had abandoned the table laden with wedding plans and moved to the bar. "I don't get them." Joe mused. "One minute they're clearly going at it against the wall of my bathroom. And then they're fighting like there's no tomorrow."
Alex shook his head and looked at Joe. "Twenty says she comes back in here steaming." Joe wiped the glass he was holding with a rag and shook his head.
"Double or nothing he's gonna be all…weepy."
Izzie rolled her eyes. "Sixty says she takes the car and leaves him here." They shook on it, and after a few moments of waiting, the bell sounded on the door. They looked up to see Derek standing there.
He shrugged dejectedly. "Izzie, I'm going to need a ride." He said. Izzie just smirked at Alex and Joe.
Meredith drove blindly. She thought about going to Cristina's but she and Burke had gone out that night and were probably in the throes that very moment, and she really didn't want to see that. Going home was not an option, because Derek would be there, and she had no interest in seeing him.
Meredith looked around, got her bearings and realized she was heading for Mark and Addison's neighborhood. When they decided to have the baby, they had bought a huge, sprawling house not that far from hers. Left with no other choice, she drove until she pulled into their driveway.
With a resigned sigh, she rang their doorbell, marveling at how ornate the house was, how precise the landscaping was; even though both Mark and Addison appeared to live at the hospital. Mark swung the door open with Ashlyn in his arms. Addison padded down the hall behind him, carrying a baby blanket. "Meredith?" she asked.
Meredith looked at them, frowned and looked down at their stoop. "Do you think Derek likes Bridget Neilson?" she asked.
"Dude, we'll give you a ride. She'll make you sleep on the couch, but we can give you a ride." Alex said, trying to get Derek to come home.
Derek sighed and shrugged. "It's all right, Karev. I better stay out of her hair entirely tonight." Izzie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. Derek noticed the gesture and winced.
"For a brain surgeon, you're really not the sharpest nail in the shed are you?" Izzie snapped.
"I'm still your boss Dr. Stevens." Derek mumbled, sounding pathetic to his own ears.
Izzie scoffed. "We live in the same house." She said. "And you are an idiot." She reached out and grabbed Alex's arm. "Let's go, Alex." She said. He shrugged and lowered himself into the car, starting the engine. Izzie rolled her eyes at Derek one last time and got in too. Derek sighed and shook his head. He thought about calling Mark, but decided against it. He began the slow hike back to the hospital.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized how easily he was falling into the intern's trap. He and Meredith were pawns in her game, and Derek was now realizing how much losing could cost him. When he reached the hospital, he was surprised to find her outside, cigarette in hand. She smiled at him coyly; he returned it with a frown.
"You did that on purpose. You said that to make her angry." Derek said.
Bridget smirked and took a long drag off of her cigarette. "Maybe I did." She said, smiling.
Derek rolled his eyes. "Enough!" he snapped at her. "You're here to learn to be a doctor, not to try and break up my engagement." With that he strode inside the hospital.
Bridget stomped on her cigarette and smirked. "Whatever you say, Dr. Shepherd." She said to herself, walking through the doors of Seattle Grace.
Derek wound his way through the halls of the hospital, a feeling of unease growing in the pit of his stomach. The fear that sometimes kept him up at night clawed at his insides. What if he would never be good enough for Meredith? What if he just kept letting her down? Derek decided to camp out in Mark's office, because he had a bigger couch. He settled onto the leather, suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to see Meredith.
Addison opened her mouth and shut it again; unsure of what was transpiring before her own eyes.
Meredith began pacing back and forth on their stoop. "Because he let her scrub in on his craniotomy. Even though he knew I put her on scut. And he said she likes him and its flattering. And he used to let me in on his surgeries… back when…" she looked guiltily at Addison. "Well, you know."
Addison bit her lip, unsure of how to answer this. She remembered the night Mark and Meredith had stumbled upon her kissing Derek, and she too felt guilty. She put her hand on Meredith's shoulder to stop her pacing. Meredith looked up at her with panicked eyes. "Come in." Addison said.
Meredith stepped over the threshold into the foyer, marveling at the house. "God it's clean in here." She muttered. Addison chuckled and took Ashlyn from Mark.
"Meredith, come in. Sit down." She said, leading them to the living room. "I'm going to make some tea." She said. Mark sat down on their leather couch and Meredith sprawled on the love seat.
"He'd tell you, wouldn't he?" she asked, ringing her hands. "If he had feelings for her…"
"Meredith." Mark said in a voice that somehow calmed her down. "He doesn't have feelings for Bridget. She might be a novelty, but trust me, Mer. Everything that Derek has ever done has been leading him to you, okay?"
Meredith shrugged. "I just…don't trust her."
"Or him." Addison said softly from where she was leaning against the doorframe. "Partly my fault. Partly his. Hell, it's all of our faults really. But I know this Meredith. He loves you." Meredith nodded and Addison moved back towards the kitchen as the tea kettle whispered. "Meredith?" she called. "You can stay here. Until you work it out with him."
The next morning, Izzie strode into the hospital, marching with a purpose. Her eyes blazed with fire, and her face was flushed. "Babe, I'm sure she's fine." Alex said from a few paces behind her, practically running to keep up.
"She probably is fine." Izzie admitted, "But I want Derek to worry about her." She cornered him in front of the board, before she stopped at the cart for coffee; before she popped into the locker room to change.
"Dr. Shepherd." She barked.
"Izzie…" he said slowly. "We live together. Derek." He said as if she were a child who couldn't remember such things. He frowned. "How mad was she?"
Izzie raised her eyebrows. "I wouldn't know." She said.
Derek felt his chest tighten in panic. "You wouldn't know?"
"She didn't come home last night." Izzie said darkly, before spinning on her heel and walking away. Derek remembered the last time he'd let her down. He kissed Addison and she had to get her stomach pumped. His mind ran away, showing her lying in a gutter, the car in ruins. Fear gripped his heart, and he took off, his coffee abandoned, to find Meredith.