AFTERMATH
AN: I know I haven't updated in a while, but school and work suck, and it's coming up to final exam time so school sorta comes first.
But the good news is I caught up on all my alerts from my inbox, the whole hundred or so of them. And if anyone finds a story that you think I should read, please PM me the link. I'll review, hopefully, and might even reply with a thank you PM. Send me the first chapter link and we'll go from there. Hey, send me a link and we might become friends if we aren't already!
OK, enough rambling, on with the show!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
- Seattle Grace Hospital, Maternity Floor, 2016 -
Meredith, Izzie, George and Alex all stormed into Christina's room.
"What the hell?"
Christina sat up in bed. Ever since her first pregnancy, back in their intern days, she had always hated being in hospital beds. And now Addison had confined her to one to recover from Phoenix's birth.
"His mother died," Meredith said.
"What?" Christina was still puzzled.
"Derek!" Meredith said. "His mother died! That's why he stormed out!" Meredith was angry, but still started to cry.
"So," Christina said, propping herself up on pillows. "And I'm supposed to be surprised because?"
They all stared at her in disbelief.
"Christina!" George exclaimed. Even though he was officially 'over' Meredith, he still supported her, as well as previously living with her.
"What?" she asked. "McDreamy left! So what if his mother died, that was ten years ago! He could have called! He could have told us what happened! But he didn't, did he? No, he just stayed away for ten years, just about dropping off the face of the earth. And now he wants us to be sorry for him? I say forget it. If he wanted sympathy, he should have called ten years ago!"
"You are so right."
Everyone turned around to look at Addison, who had just made her presence noticed at the door.
"He doesn't deserve our sympathy," she said, moving to pull Meredith from George's embrace. "Mere, what he deserves is a good slap in the face."
"I second that!" Christina interrupted.
Meredith smiled, wiping the tears off her face. "Thanks," she said. "That is something I can do."
- Seattle Grace Hospital, Surgical Floor, 2016 -
Derek Shepherd walked past a nurse's station close to the ICU to grab the elevator when he came.
Just as he was about to press the 'down' button, the doors opened and Derek stared into the faces of four familiar residents.
They all reached out and grabbed him, ambushing the neurosurgeon before he had the chance to react.
"What the hell?" he asked, recognising Izzie, George, Alex and Meredith.
"You have been summoned," Izzie said, pressing the button to take them to the fifth floor.
"Why are we going to maternity?"
"Like Izzie said, you've been summoned," Alex said, standing up for the integrity of their reputations.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing the busy corridor of the Maternity floor of Seattle Grace.
"OK, stop," Meredith said, once the five had reached a door down the corridor.
"Derek," she turned to face him. When we enter this room, and for the entire time you are in this room, do not speak. Do not say a word. Do not move or ask questions. Just stand there, in front of the bed, and listen to everything Christina says. When, and only when, Christina is finished, will you be allowed to explain yourself.
"Now, be good and don't upset one of the new Nazi's, because at the moment she has no interns to chew out and you're her new punching bag."
Derek looked slightly frightened as the door was opened and he was admitted into Christina's room.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, Maternity Floor, Christina's Room, 2016 -
The door opened and Christina looked up from the chart she was reading to see a very frightened Derek Shepherd standing in front of the open doorframe, her fellow residents standing behind him.
"Well," Alex said, gently shoving him into the room before they all stepped in behind him and closed the door.
"Nice to see you, Dr Shepherd," Christina said in a mocking tone of voice.
Meredith stepped into a spot next to Christina's bed. "Yeah, meet the new Nazi's," she said.
"There are two of you now?" he asked, seriously considering his sanity.
"Oh, no," Christina said. "There are three."
Derek looked like he was about to speak again, but was stopped by George and Alex.
"Remember," George said, shoving him lightly.
"No talking," Alex mumbled.
Derek just hmmphed at the residents, but submitted to the residents' 'rules'.
Christina drew in a deep breath before beginning her rant.
"Ok, McDreamy, I don't care why you are back and, frankly, I really don't want to know. But what I do know is that the day you left you not only broke Meredith's heart, but Addison's broke too. And you never found out that they were pregnant, or me, Callie or Izzie for that matter. Then, you missed Callie's abortion, Izzie's miscarriage, and then Meredith's miscarriage. You missed the birth of Addison's twins, and my first child. You missed two weddings and probably would have been best man at both of them.
"And now, you come grovelling back to Seattle, only to disturb the peace that we had settled in to eight years ago. You come in and have a fight with Meredith, aggravate Izzie and Alex, then have a fight with Addison in the middle of a NICU! How could you do something like that? I really don't care any more that your mother died ten years ago. Maybe if you told us instead of leaving, you may have had more sympathy from us, especially me, the one with no heart. And now, Meredith has no heart either, because she can't trust men any more. It took her a very long time to learn to trust Alex, George and Mark, and that was all because of you. Your walking out ten years ago broke Meredith. "
Derek had tears in his eyes in reaction to Christina's speech. He was about to reply but Christina was not finished.
"Hey, I said no talking!" she barked. "Anyway, the moral of the story is… YOU COULD HAVE CALLED! YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD US WHAT HAD HAPPENED, OR ATLEAST MEREDITH! BUT, NO, YOU JUST LEFT, ALMOST DROPPING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH! AND NOW YOU WANT US TO BE SORRY FOR YOU? FORGET IT! THE SYMPATHY WENT OUT THE WINDOW THE MOMENT YOU WALKED BACK INTO THIS HOSPITAL A WEEK AGO! IF YOU WANTED SYMPATHY, TEN YEARS AGO YOU WOULD HAVE HAD IT IF YOU DIDN'T LEAVE!"
Everyone stood in shock at Christina's outburst. Never had they seen her so passionate about something the whole almost eleven years they had know each other. But, everyone knew, he deserved every single word the Nazi II dished out to him.
"I went to Boston, to help my dad, sisters and their families cope. While I was there, the Chief of Surgery at Boston Public offered me the open job for head of Neuro. I accepted, but was only supposed to stay for six months. Then, every year I signed another contract to stay with Boston Public, until last week."
Derek was surprised to see everyone listening to his story, and even though it was true, the look on Christina's face told him she still hadn't forgiven him. He took a deep breath and continued.
"Last week was when Preston called me. He said his head Neuro was retiring and Meredith wasn't ready to take over the position yet. She was still second best Neuro in the hospital, possibly in the state, but he wanted me back, to reunite the top surgical staff in the country, to bring Seattle Grace back to what it was. So, I accepted. And that's why I'm back."
Christina's arms were still crossed, though the evil, unforgiving look on her face had softened slightly. Meredith wasn't crying, but staring at the floor, her hands scrunched into fists, ready to smash him in ineffectual rage. Izzie was standing in front of Alex, who had his chin on her shoulder and arms around her waist, protectively supporting her bump. George stood by the door, preventing Derek from leaving.
Meredith moved from Christina's bedside to stand toe-to-toe with Derek.
"You… still… could… have… called…" she whispered, poking his shoulder the whole time, before bursting into another fit of tears and falling into his comforting arms.
"Shh, it'll be all right," he whispered back in her ear, holding her like he would never let her go again.
Every other person in the room just stood and stared at the two in front of them, their jaws almost touching the ground.
"I thought she hated him," Alex whispered in Izzie's ear.
"So did I," she replied.
Meredith just stood in Derek's arms crying, not caring about what her best friends thought.
Ok, so now everyone knows why Derek has returned to Seattle. And he has been chewed out by a very moody Christina. But, he deserved everything he got.
And the MerDer moment has been inserted, with much more to come!
Now, complying with all the requests, Mere and Derek will be getting back together, but I need a way to do that. I still have about ten chapters to write before Izzie and Alex's wedding, where they will be truly reunited, but before then, two weeks needs to be cramped into ten chapters, preferably focussed on MerDer. You may even get a personal thank you PM from me if I like your idea.