AFTERMATH
AN: Ok, so more MerDer is needed, I know. This chapter starts at 4.30 the next day, the beginning of yet another 48 hour shift, and Christina and Izzie are on light duties. As you may see later.
CHAPTER TWELVE
- Seattle Grace Hospital, the next day, 4.30am, Hour 1 of 48, 2016 -
"Simmons! Matthews! Pierson! Hastings!"
Meredith Grey stormed into the interns' locker room in the same fashion Bailey had done ten years ago, and still did to their locker room now.
The four said interns, all of whom were dressed in their light blue scrubs, assembled in front of her, Simmons still wiping the sleep from her eyes. They were third year interns and still didn't like the whole 48 hour shift concept.
"Ok people," Meredith said, barking in her most Nazi-ish voice. "It's 4.30 in the morning, and pre-rounds are to be done by 5.30. That gives you one hour. When you walk into their rooms, do so nicely," Meredith stopped to emphasise her last word. "You say please, you say thank you, you apologise for waking them up this early. You give them a quick exam and then leave them to go back to sleep so I can wake them up again in an hour during rounds."
Meredith smiled as she handed over the charts of all her patients to her four interns, each of whom scrammed before facing the wrath of Nazi Grey, as she was now known, at that time of the morning.
Nazi Burke, Christina's nickname, was busy yelling at her own set of interns.
"Hobson! Tyrone! Wright! Denton! Get your butts out here before I assign the four of you to the pit for the rest of your shift."
Meredith was amazed to see four people on their late twenties run so fast at 4.30 in the morning to avoid Christina's anger.
"Thank you," she muttered when they finally assembled themselves in front of her. 'Now for today's assignments; Hobson you're with me, Tyrone you have sutures, Wright you're on discharge and Denton, Sloan wants you. Now scram before I get really angry."
Cameron Denton, the thickest of Christina's interns, stopped in front of the moving woman. Wrong thing to do.
"Denton, what the hell are you doing? I thought I…"
"Doctor Burke, which Sloan do I go to?" the nervous intern asked.
Christina looked at Cameron Denton like he was the stupidest person in the hospital. "Uh, the one on the fifth floor, in Maternity, Denton, as she's the only Sloan actually working today. She has requested you for her service for the next month. Have fun!"
Meredith almost laughed at the look on his face. Definitely another Alex, she thought. Captain of the Vagina Squad for the next month.
"Hey Chris," Meredith called after Denton had hurried off towards the stairwell.
"Hobson, go make yourself useful and catch up on the labs that are on my desk," Christina said quickly before having a conversation with Meredith. "Yeah, Mere?"
Meredith sighed. Her suck ups were already trying to suck up to patients by now. "Doesn't he remind you a bit of Alex, during our first year of internship, when Addison wanted him. Didn't he call himself Captain of the Vagina Squad or something?"
Christina laughed. "Yeah, and I need this guy to harden up. Staring at starched vaginas all day, everyday for a month will do him good."
"What are you two just standing there for?"
Grey and Burke turned around to see the original Nazi standing behind them.
"Morning, Doctor Bailey," Meredith said.
"Don't you two have some suck-ups somewhere needing your attention?" she asked in her normal whining voice. "Just remember, I will always think of you two as my interns, never forget that."
Before Miranda Bailey had the chance to say anything else, her protégé Nazi's had gone off to find their suck ups.
"Good to see they still fear me," she muttered under her breath as she opened the door to the interns' locker room and entered.
"Myers! Roberts! Stockholm! Jonah!" she called from the clipboard she was holding.
Four very scared looking interns quickly stood up to face her.
"Morning, Doctor Bailey," one of them said, trying to suck up already.
"Nice try," she said, looking at their lab coat for their name. "Myers, is it?"
The young girl nodded.
"Good, Myers. Just remember I already hate you, so don't try sucking up." Bailey looked up to talk to the other three. "Ok, you lot, Doctor Stevens has been restricted to light duties and therefore can now only work twelve hour shifts, so for the next twelve hours, you will be reporting to me. And I am a lot stricter than Doctor Stevens."
Miranda could see that these four were already starting to hate her.
"All four of you, today, will be in the pit, with six hour rotations onto the code team. Myers, since you tried to suck up first, you get code team first; then Stockholm, then Roberts, then Jonah. While one is on the code team, the other three will be running the pit, and reporting to me. Any interesting cases, you page me immediately, understood?"
Calista Myers, Alexia Roberts, Joshua Stockholm and Michael Jonah all nodded, somewhat timidly.
"Right, let's go!"
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 8.15 am, Hour 4 of 48, 2016 -
Jasmine Simmons, Shaun Matthews, Austin Pierson and Nick Hastings, all Meredith's interns, stood in front of their locker room, waiting for their resident to show up after rounds for their days' assignments.
"How long have you been waiting here?"
The quartet turned to see Nazi Grey looking at them from the end of the hallway, watching their lost reactions.
"Remember, I can see everything," she said, walking closer. "Ok, today, Hastings, you're with me, Matthews go see Sloan in Plastics, Pierson at the front desk and Simmons you get Burke, the male one. I don't want to hear any bad reports about you four, so get busy. Now scram!"
Meredith smiled to herself as her intern followed her up to the fourth floor, where she had to check on a patient due to be prepped for Neuro and cardio surgery later that morning.
"Franks! Parker! Fullerton! Hawthorne! Get over here now!"
George walked into the interns' locker room to see his four suck-ups sitting and talking. 'Stupid interns,' he thought as they all stood up to see him.
"Mitchell Franks," George said, looking at his accident-prone intern who was about to bomb out. "You, Parker and Fullerton get to tail me today. Hawthorne, Shepherd needs an intern, so you're it."
Abigail Hawthorne looked amazed. She had always been interested in neurology and now was her chance to study with one of the best, no matter how much the rest of the surgical staff hated him at the moment.
Harrison Parker and Peta Fullerton looked semi-excited to be their residents' shadow for the day, until they were unloaded onto some case.
"Psst, Bambi," came a whisper from the door, just as George was about to direct his interns to their first stop.
"Evil Spawn, how many times do you have to call me that?"
"Hey, just because you have interns and I don't," Evil Spawn gloated, rubbing his lack of shadows in his friend's face.
"Yeah, yeah, we know," George threw over his shoulder as he walked off.
Alex shook his head and walked off towards the area of the hospital where Mark's office was – his boss was occupied, so Alex had somewhere to relax in peace.
'So glad I don't have interns,' he thought to himself, watching George yell at the four suck-ups he had just told to scram.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 10.30 am, Hour 6 of 48, 2016 -
Christina fell back into her hospital bed, so glad she could get off her feet for an hour. With restricted duties, she was grateful Addison made her take a long break every six hours.
Just as she found a comfortable spot on her bed, the door opened, revealing Pansy Hobson, Winona Tyrone, Ryder Wright and Cameron Denton, her interns.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, clearly remembering assigning them duties two hours before.
"Doctor Burke, we were wondering when we could have a break," Winona Tyrone asked. She was the one who reminded Christina of Izzie back in their intern days.
"Tyrone," Christina said, annoyed at the stupidity of these interns. "You have a break when you can. Find yourself a quiet part of the hospital to rest, but run when you're paged."
The four interns ran off before Christina had another chance to growl at them.
Groaning, she rolled over to sleep for the next hour or until she was paged, whichever cam first.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 12.10 pm, Hour 8 of 48, 2016 -
OR1 was in chaos as neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd walked in. Interns and nurses were rushing around, trying to move equipment around the surgeons operating in the patient.
"You paged, Doctor Burke?" he asked the cardiothoracic specialist at the table. With Preston and Christina married, it was hard to distinguish which one had paged him, especially if they shared the same specialty.
The two surgeons looked up to see him.
"Oh, Doctor Shepherd," it was Preston operating. "Can you relieve Doctor Grey so she can answer her other page, please."
It wasn't a request; it was an order.
Derek looked into Meredith's eyes. She was operating on an open brain.
"Doctor Grey," he greeted, preparing to take over. "I can take it from here."
Meredith didn't look too happy, he could see it through her mask.
"Doctor Shepherd," she spoke bitterly, leaving the OR to answer her intern's page.
After slamming the door to scrub out, Meredith heard Derek talk to Preston.
"She really doesn't like me, does she?"
Meredith scrubbed her hands in intense fury at this statement. He was damn right!
"Doctor Grey!"
She turned to see Jasmine Simmons, one of her interns, approaching the scrub room.
"What is it, Simmons?" she asked heavily.
"I have Mr Frankom's labs and CT back," she said excitedly. "You should see this."
Meredith looked at the lab result sheet, then to the CT and gasped.
"This man shouldn't even be alive," she whispered, staring at the mass on the CT.
"Get him an MRI now!" she barked in her best Nazi Grey voice at the intern. "And page me when you get the results!"
"Yes, Doctor Grey," she said, waiting for further instructions.
Grey turned around, surprised the intern was still there.
"Well, are you waiting for me to take you by the hand and skip down the hall with you, Simmons? Scram!"
Meredith watched in satisfaction as the woman ran down the corridor. This was going to be a long shift.
"Hey, Mere!"
Another familiar voice pulled Nazi Grey from her reverie. Christina came running towards her, four interns trailing.
"Any of these yours?"
Nodding at Pierson and Hastings, telling them to move, mere turned back to her best friend.
"Weren't you watching Preston's surgery?"
Burke sighed. "Yeah, soon as that stupid intern of yours pulled you out, he flat lined, there was nothing they could do." She sighed, and then leant up against a close wall.
"It'll be OK, Chris," Mere said, her interns chattering behind her. Turning, she screamed at them.
"You two! I want all post op notes for every patient on this floor completed by 2 pm, so you'd better get busy!"
They ran off, wondering where the sudden aggressiveness had come from in their resident.
Christina was about to say something, but both her and Meredith's pagers beeped, stopping them.
"Damn, 911, Trauma," they said together, running off with the other two interns following them.
Izzie, Alex and George looked up from Carolyn's crib as all three of their pagers went off.
"911, Trauma," Iz whispered, careful not to disturb the tiny, sleeping babies.
Kissing his daughter goodbye, George turned to face the other two residents. "Let's go, trauma calls."
- Seattle Grace Hospital, ER, 11.35 am, Hour 8 of 48, 2016 -
Two elevators beeped to allow five surgical residents access to the trauma centre of Seattle Grace.
"What happened?" Meredith and Christina yelled as they rushed towards the ambulance bay. Luckily, there were already eight interns floating around the pit by the time they arrived.
Jill, one of the SGH EMTs, pulled a gurney from the back of her rig.
"Molly Granville, 33 year old woman, severe injuries to head and chest following a four car pile up," she said.
Meredith took control of the situation.
"Ok, Tyrone and Hobson, take Mrs Granville for a CT and MRI and page Doctor Shepherd."
The two interns ran off, and Meredith prepared for the next patient.
"Jackson Granville, 18 month old boy, suspected broken arm and leg, possible whiplash," another EMT announced.
Izzie, the resident paediatric surgeon, took this one along with two of her own interns. "Myers and Stockholm, let's go!"
Another rig, followed by two more, arrived, ready for the other unoccupied residents.
"Michelle Paulson, 17 year old girl, head and neck injuries, broken pelvis and dislocated knee," the man announced.
"Ok, Matthews, Roberts, follow me!" Meredith yelled, ready to take her Neuro case.
"Kieran McKeon, 67 year old man, complaining of restricted breathing and chest pain."
"Mine!" Christina yelled, pulling two more of the assembled interns, Wright and Denton, for her patient.
Only George and Alex were left in the ambulance bay, with only one patient left.
"Emily Grey, 12 year old female, severe burns to chest and head, suspected internal bleeding, broken arm and shrapnel in the chest area!" called the only remaining EMT.
George and Alex looked to each other, knowing they would have to share this case.
"Ok, Bambi, you save her life, I'll restore her appearance," Alex said to his friend, who cringed at the use of his hated nickname.
'Well, Evil Spawn, why don't you get some interns to meet me and," he paused to look at the girl's ID. "Emily Grey, inside."
Alex turned to go, but spun around when he realised the name his friend spoke.
"Wait a minute, did you just say Grey?"
Alex and George both looked back to the EMT, then the unconscious girl on the gurney.
"I think we may need to talk to Meredith later."
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 6 pm, Hour 14 of 48, 2016 -
"Time of death, 5.59 pm." Kieran McKeon, 67, Dr Christina Burke.
"Ok, get her to the ICU." Michelle Paulson, 17, Dr Meredith Grey.
"We need to go tell his parents he's ok, but get him to NICU first." Jackson Granville, 18 months, Dr Isobel Stevens.
"Take her to post op. Good job everyone." Molly Granville, 33, Dr Derek Shepherd.
"Parker, go get Dr Grey to meet us in post of. Fullerton, take her there." Emily Grey, 12, Dr George O'Malley and Dr Alex Karev.
The residents all exited their OR's at the same time. Luckily, out of five critical patients, only one had died. Unfortunately, that patient had to be Christina's, which meant she would be in a bad mood.
George and Alex slammed the door to their locker room after barging in, and weren't surprised to see Meredith, Izzie and Christina sitting on the floor against the wall.
"Mere…" Alex really needed to talk to Meredith about Emily.
"You know what? Karma sucks." Izzie was on a roll.
"Mere…" George tried to get her attention.
"I mean, who is stupid enough to actually crash into the oncoming traffic, unless they had a death wish?"
"MEREDITH!"
Izzie stopped her ranting to see her husband and his best friend. Meredith turned around and looked at the pair. Christina just groaned.
"Did you have to yell?" Christina said after groaning. "I have 3 kids under the age of ten, and now I'm in the middle of another 48 hour shift. My husband has had to take Bailey and Adam out of day care and bring them up here, and I haven't seen Phoenix all day! What can you possibly have to yell about now?"
The boys groaned. They deserved that, they knew.
"Meredith," George said, pulling her from the ground. "There's something we have to show you."
The pair pulled Meredith by her arms and almost dragged her in the direction of the ICU where the 'mystery' was.
"What are you two doing?" she shrieked, Izzie and Christina following them.
As the girls realise they are heading towards the ICU, they stopped their yelling, still slightly fearing Bailey, even after ten years.
"Alex, what the hell are you doing?" Izzie whispered.
The boys stopped in front of a bed, upon which rested a young girl, who looked surprisingly familiar. George grabbed the girl's chart and shoved it in Meredith's face.
"What does… oh."
Meredith stared at the name on the chart. Emily Grey. Emily Grey. "Emily Grey!"
The girl stirred on her bed.
"Oh. My. God. Meredith?"
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 9.45 pm, Hour 19 of 48, 2016 -
The largest on call room in the whole hospital was filled, and still had room to fit more people in by the time Preston arrived with Bailey and Adam, both very tired, since it was way past their bedtime.
"Ok, does anyone know why there is a 12 year old girl claiming to be my sister in the ICU?" Meredith asked, trying to keep her voice down for the sake of Bailey, Adam, Atlanta, Arizona and Carly, the only kids who weren't still in the NICU.
"I think that she is, Mere," Addison said. "She does look a lot like you."
"Yeah, and remember when your father came in with his other family ten years ago?" George asked. "I had to tell him to leave you alone."
"She does have your eyes."
Everyone turned to look at Derek.
"What?"
Meredith couldn't believe he was on their side.
A sudden crying from the back beds disturbed the peace. Carly had woken up.
"Mummy!" she was crying, over and over again.
Addie walked over to pick her baby up, who immediately fell asleep on her hip.
"Well, everyone, I better get this one and the other two home, so I'll see you tomorrow," she said, gently pulling Ari and Atta up off the bed.
"Bye Addie," Meredith murmured, before turning her attention to her pager, whose alarm was going off.
Preston stood up, ready to pick his daughter up to take home. "Well, I'll do the same as Addie and take these two home. Miranda, you can go home. Mark, Derek, you're both on call tonight. See you tomorrow."
Meredith, Alex, George and Derek all raced out of the room towards the ICU, where Emily was crashing.
It was now going to be a long night.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 4.30 am, Hour 24 of 48, 2016 -
Preston, Addison and Miranda all walked into the lobby of the hospital, surprised it was actually quiet for once.
"Something's not right," Miranda said, knowing her gut instinct. "Where are my suck-ups and their suck-ups?"
Addison hailed over a nurse at the front desk, Sierra, who immediately ran over.
"Yes, Doctor Sloan?" she asked. Addison could immediately tell this young woman was new.
"Sierra, I need to know where Grey, O'Malley, Karev, Stevens, Burke, Shepherd and my husband are."
Sierra looked down at her shoes, then turned back to look at the front desk
"Well?" Preston asked.
"Um, Chief, most of them are in surgery. Doctor Burke is asleep in Maternity with her daughter, and Doctor O'Malley fell asleep in the NICU next to his daughters' crib."
Miranda sighed.
"I thought Izzie was supposed to be on light work," Addison muttered. "She could have at least fallen asleep with Christina."
"Thanks, Sierra," Preston muttered, walking off towards the elevator to go to his office. "You two might want to come with me."
Bailey and Sloan both walked off behind Burke, but were interrupted when their pagers went off.
"911, OR3" Bailey said.
"Stupid residents," Sloan muttered.
"Let's go," Preston said, quickening his step to get there quickly.
In OR1, Meredith had to leave Emily's side as Alex and Derek tried to restart her heart.
"Damn and she was going so well," Derek muttered. He had to repair an aneurism before it burst inside Emily's brain and killed her, while George repaired some overlooked damage to her heart.
"What the hell is happening here?"
Everyone looked up for a moment to see Burke, Bailey and Sloan walk into the OR.
"Chief, we discovered Emily had an aneurism in her brain late last night when she dropped into a coma suddenly, and now it's about to burst. Shepherd almost had it, but then she crashed."
"Ok, Ok, don't say anything else. Just make sure when you get out that your interns aren't sitting around with nothing to do," Burke said.
Bailey, however, wasn't finished. "Why are there so many of you in here?"
"Um, she still had some more plastic surgery that had to be done, and a small problem in her abdomen. And she's Meredith's sister."
Miranda threw her hands up in the air, frustrated. "Fine! But don't blame me when your interns kill someone because they aren't being supervised!"
With that, Miranda and Addison exited the OR to find O'Malley and the female Burke.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 5.30 am, Hour 25 of 48, 2016 -
"Ok, I want rounds done in an hour so I can get some sleep!"
Meredith tore into their old locker room with her fellow residents, ready to terrorise their interns for the remainder of their 48 hour shift.
They were greeted with silence. The interns' locker room was empty.
"Hey, where are your suck-ups?" Bailey asked, coming in behind them.
"I don't know," Christina said slowly. "Is there any interesting cases on the floor we don't know about?"
Izzie sighed. "Well…"
She was interrupted by her pager.
"911, 2306."
"That's Emily's room," Meredith whispered, running off.
"Crap," Izzie said. "She's my patient now. George, are you coming?"
Nazi Burke and Bailey stood alone in the room.
"Well, lets go and find the suck-ups so we can torture them," Bailey said, knowing her protégé would have some fun with that.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 6.30 am, Hour 26 of 48, 2016 -
"What the hell are you doing?"
Seven surgical interns all jumped at the loud sound of that male voice.
"Doctor McDreamy… I mean Doctor Shepherd, hi," one muttered.
"Do you realise Doctors Bailey and Burke are looking for you lot?" he screamed.
Then he realised the place they were at. It was Meredith's hang out in her intern days.
"Well?" he screamed again.
In the fashion of all scared interns, the seven all jumped up from where they were sitting or laying, and ran off in the direction of the stairwell.
Derek sighed. He had found most of the interns and rediscovered a thing of his past. Sitting down on the now-vacated gurney, he sighed again. Then he had an idea.
Derek grabbed his mobile phone from the pocket of his lab coat and flipped it open to write a text message.
Mere, meet me at ur old hang out in the basement at 8. We need to talk. Derek
Pushing the 'send' button, he sighed for a third time.
"I really need to fix things up," he said out loud.
"Fix what up?"
Derek opened his eyes to see where the voice was coming from.
Standing there, in the doorway, was Meredith. A slightly pissed off Meredith, but still, it was Meredith.
"Fix up what, Derek?" she asked again.
(and now for the famous saying)
"Meredith…" Derek said.
"No!" she screamed. "You say Meredith and I yell, remember. But not this time."
Meredith turned around and went to leave, but Derek grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him.
"Derek!" she shrieked again.
"Oh, shut up," he murmured in his McDreamy voice.
Then he kissed her.
And she kissed him back.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 8 am, Hour 28 of 48, 2016 -
Meredith and Derek were sleeping in each other's arms at 8 am when one of her interns came to sit down for a break.
"Oh, Doctor Shepherd! Doctor Grey! I'm sorry!" she exclaimed.
Meredith snapped out of her pleasant slumber, the only one she had had that shift, to see the face of Jasmine Simmons staring at her. And the figure she was lying next to.
"Oh. My. God," she whispered. "What have I done?"
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 12 pm, Hour 32 of 48, 2016 -
Meredith ran into room 2218 and was surprised at what she saw.
Nothing.
The lights were off, the room was seemingly empty. Yet someone had paged her. '911, 2218'.
Doctor Grey turned the lights on.
"Hello Meredith," came a voice from the bed. A very familiar voice. The McDreamy voice.
"What do you want, Derek?" she asked, feeling she already knew what he was going to say.
"Meredith. Don't yell at me. I want to talk to you. I need to talk to you…"
'Don't say it. Don't say it,' she begged in her mind.
"… About what happened this morning."
'Damn,' her mind told her.
"What about this morning, Derek? You kissed me. I kissed you back. We fell asleep on the gurney. The best two neurosurgeons in the hospital fell asleep in each other's arms, on a gurney, in the basement, and were found by an intern. And I'm supposed to hate you right now. Do you know how hard it is to hate someone you love?"
Meredith regretted the words as soon as she spoke them.
"You love me?" Derek looked surprised. "After all I've done to you, you still love me?"
"Mere!"
Alex, George and Mark came running through the door, saving Meredith from answering Derek's question.
"Are you ok?" Alex asked, spying Shepherd on the bed, looking slightly aggravated, and wanted to deck him one.
"Alex, don't. Yell as much as you like, but don't hit him," Meredith begged.
Alex, George and Mark seized their chance to scream at the man who broke Meredith all those years ago.
Meredith Grey walked out of the room into the corridor just as Mark, George and Alex started to yell at Derek.
'And he deserves everything he gets,' Meredith thought as she walked out of hearing range.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 4.30 pm, Hour 36 of 48, 2016 -
Meredith walked out of the OR, glad of another successful surgery being completed. Now, all she had to deal with was Derek and whatever physical or emotional wounds George, Alex and Mark gave to him.
Walking into one of the hidden on-call rooms for some well-deserved rest, Meredith was surprised to see Derek Shepherd just sitting on a bed, head in his hands, talking quietly to himself.
"Derek? Are you ok?" she asked from the door.
"Mere," he said softly, looking up from his hands. "No. Not ok. I really need to talk. Preferably talk to you without someone yelling or being hit. Do you think you can do that for me?"
Doctor Grey nodded slightly, and then entered the room, closing and locking the door behind her.
Derek took a deep breath.
"Mere, what I felt this morning hasn't changed since the first night that I met you. That night in the bar changed me forever. When Addison showed up, I thought she had ruined my life forever. But, you forced me to choose you. Pick you. Love you. And I did, until just after prom, when my mother died."
Mere could see Derek was starting to cry.
"Her death shattered my life, made me do things I never thought I could. When I left, leaving you behind, I cried more than I ever had in my life. Then, when I came back, and found that you had lost a son, our son, because of me, it made me feel even worse. And now you won't take me back into your life."
Meredith gasped. She had never seen Derek like this before, so overridden with guilt.
"Mere, I love you so much, and I can't imagine my life without you. This morning, when we kissed, I felt as if my heart was whole again. I haven't felt like that since before Addison showed up, when we were together. I have been alone for ten years, and I know you have been too. And these last ten years have been miserable, because I haven't been with you."
Meredith was crying now, as was Derek. But still, it didn't stop the hospital's two top neurosurgeons from kissing. And kiss they did.
Derek kissed Meredith, and Meredith kissed Derek in return. And with each kiss, the pair increased the intensity.
Suddenly, just as they were about to begin undressing each other for some 'naughty naughty', as Christina would put it, Meredith's pager went off.
"Shit," she whispered. "I have to go. It's Emily."
As Meredith ran out of the room, Derek had to call after her.
"Who is this Emily person anyway?"
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 5.30 pm, Hour 37 of 48, Emily's room, 2016 -
The 12 year old girl was lying semi-conscious when Meredith ran into her room, closely followed by Derek. She was surprised to see the remainder of her 'family' already in there.
"What is Emily's story anyway?" Derek asked, seeing Meredith's intense staring at the young girl.
Doctor Grey took a deep breath, her eyes not leaving Emily's face.
"Twelve and a half years ago, while I was still in med school, I was dating this guy, Robert. I thought he was the one, but you all know how dark, twisty and relationship unworthy I am, and things happened."
She looked up, shared a quick, apologetic look with Derek, then returned to her story, also retuning her gaze to Emily.
"Well, to cut a long story short, one night we got drunk after celebrating someone's birthday, and a few months later I found out I was pregnant. Well, shortly before I was accepted into Seattle Grace for my internship, I went into premature labour. I delivered a healthy yet underdeveloped baby girl. I knew I couldn't raise a baby on my own, so I contacted my father and his wife and convinced them to raise Emily as my half-sister."
Meredith was crying now, her face completely covered in tears.
"She never knew I'm her mother, and I never thought I'd have to see her until the end of my fellowship, when she's 18…"
The sobs emanating from her body stopped Meredith from talking any more.
"Mere, Mere, Mere," Derek grabbed her into his arms.
"Hello Emily," she whispered. "Emily Constance Grey, welcome to the world."
"Meredith?"
She snapped out of her reverie, remembering that day at Seattle Presbyterian when she was born.
"I never stopped loving her, you know, Emily. Ever since I gave her to Thatcher and his family, even during our toughest times here, I never stopped loving her. And I never will. I just hope I will be able to tell her someday."
"I hope so too, Mere," Derek whispered, taking her in his arms and not letting her go.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 9 pm, Hour 40 of 48, 2016 -
Meredith lay on the bench in the interns' locker room, a place she hadn't returned to since the end of her internship, and just stared at the ceiling
Just thinking.
Thinking about how much she loved McDreamy. How close they have come to doing the 'naughty naughty' in the last 39 hours. How much she wanted to commit the 'naughty naughty' with McDreamy.
"But I'm supposed to hate him!" she screamed.
"Hate who?"
Meredith shot up from the bench to stare at the figure standing in the door.
"Hate who, Meredith?" he asked again.
McDreamy asked again.
Damn.
She turned around to face him, spinning around on the wooden bench in order to scream directly at him.
"I'm supposed to be hating you! But instead of hating you, I'm thinking about how much I love you, how close we have come to having sex this shift, and how much I want you."
McDreamy stepped forward, taking her in his arms.
"What are you doing?" she continued shrieking at him.
"Oh shut up," he muttered, before swinging her around, almost upside down, and kissed her. He kissed her hard, deeply and passionately.
And she kissed him back.
"… and so the She-Sloane wants me to… Oh My God!"
Derek and Meredith looked up at the interns' faces and smiled like teenagers.
Teenagers that had just been caught doing something naughty.
"Crap."
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 10 pm, Hour 41 of 48, 2016 -
"Hey Meredith, I heard you got caught doing McDreamy by interns," Christina announced loudly across the bridge.
People stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at said resident.
"Doctor Grey, is this true?" the Chief asked.
Meredith Grey stared the she-Burke straight in the eye.
If looks could kill, she would be dead. Many times over.
"Chief," she started. "I was not…"
"We did not have sex in the locker room!" Derek shouted from the other side of the bridge. He then began to walk towards the silent congregation on the other side.
"Yeah, Christina, get your facts right," Meredith sneered at her person.
"In future, Doctor Burke," Derek said, "I'd like you to not shout my personal life over the bridge, or I might do something like that to you one day."
Christina sneered in return. "Just because I have a newborn daughter and you want one doesn't mean you need to make one in the locker room!"
Everyone stared open-mouthed at the resident, not believing she could say something like that.
"Hey, we need a little help around here!"
The congregation spun around quickly, before looking down at the lobby below to find where the call was coming from.
"Oh, shit!"
The lobby was quickly filling up with people, some wounded, from what looked like a major bar fight gone wrong.
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 11.45 pm, Hour 43 of 48, 2016 -
There was a bar fight at Joe's. It was huge.
"Joe, what happened?" Meredith asked, the first time she had had a chance to talk to the bar tender since everyone came in almost two hours ago.
"Everyone was watching the big game, playing darts and drinking, when suddenly some guy hit another guy, and before I knew it, everyone was in the fight. The grabbed glasses, darts, pool cues, you name it, they were fighting with it. And working across the road from the best hospital in the city, I broke the fight up and sent them here."
Meredith was horrified. "Which bastard started the fight?"
Joe sighed and pointed towards the surgical floor. "George, Preston and Miranda took him up to surgery not too long ago, but it doesn't look good. I just wish you guys would come and visit more."
Meredith was interrupted by the beeping of her pager.
"Damn, its Emily again. Gotta go Joe," she said, running off towards her daughter's room.
"Who is this Emily person who's more important than me?" he called after her.
Meredith stopped, turned and looked at him.
"She's my daughter," Grey said, loud enough for him to hear, before turning and running away again.
"Damn," Joe muttered, watching Meredith's quickly retreating back. "She really is dark and twisty after all."
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 2 am, Hour 46 of 48, 2016 -
Their old hang out from ten years ago was filled with the current residents even at 2 am. George, Izzie, Alex, Christina, Meredith. Addison, Mark and Preston were there too.
"I can't believe this 48 hour shift has gone so long," Addison mumbled.
"I can't believe Derek kissed me, and I kissed him back," Meredith murmured.
"I can't believe I'm getting married in twelve days," Izzie said, putting one hand on her stomach and the other in Alex's.
"Neither can I," Alex said.
"I can't believe I have a daughter, and she's in the NICU fighting for her life," George whispered.
"I can't believe Meredith has a daughter," Christina said.
"She really is dark and twisty, isn't she," Preston agreed.
"I can't believe Derek actually came back," Mark muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
"I can."
The congregation looked over towards the doorway, and weren't that surprised to see Doctor McDreamy leaning on the door frame.
"I came because I can't live without you any longer," he said, looking directly at Meredith. "I want you to take me back, Mere. I need you to take me back. Please."
Derek was almost pleading now, and from her position on the darkened windowsill, Meredith could hear it in the voice she loved.
"Derek, you broke me twice. I don't want you to do it again," she whispered.
"I love you, Mere. I always have and always will. Even Addie knows that, as much as she tried to deny it ten years ago. Meredith, I want you to marry me."
There was silence in the room.
Everyone gasped at the sudden proposal.
"Derek, I can't," Meredith said, still stunned at the impromptu proposal.
She was stopped from continuing by the sudden beeping of random pagers.
"911, NICU," George and Addison said together.
"Must be Carolyn," Meredith whispered. "You'd better go."
- Seattle Grace Hospital, 4.30 am, Hour 48 of 48, 2016 -
"It's finally over!" Meredith yelled, stepping out of the confines of the hospital.
"I don't want to see any of you residents for the next 48 hours!" Chief of Surgery Preston Burke called after the five retreating backs of Meredith, Christina, Izzie, George and Alex. Addison and Mark followed close behind.
"Hey, mummy, look at me!"
Atlanta, Arizona, Adam, Bailey and Carly all ran after each other towards their parents' cars. Baby Phoenix was in her mother's arms, ready to be taken home for the first time.
"This is going to be a good day," Meredith sighed.
"It sure is," Christina replied, before calling her kids.
"Lets go home."
Ok, so this chapter was unbelievably long!
I'm so sorry I took so long to update, but I have been writing this chapter for the past month. And I realise the beginning may be better than the end, but lots of MerDer moments are included, so no complaints.
Anyways, read, love, review, and please help me bring up the review total over 100, to make me feel really loved.
And, by the way, the next chapter will be sorta sad and I expect death threats. But that's really not your fault. Or mine. It's my best friend Laura's. She put the crazy idea in my head then left for Germany.
Hi Laura!