Title: The Best Laid Plans
Authors: Sara and Lizzie
Rating: T for violence, language, maybe sex
Disclaimer: Obviously the show does not belong to two college girls.
Summary: An OR gets taken hostage by a love struck woman whose fiancé is dying. Meredith gets caught in the cross fire and no one is safe. But, it's all in the name of love, right?
Author's Note: Yea, it's a cliché, but we're obsessed and back to writing game, so feed our egos and review. Updates have been lax since we both began college, but we couldn't stay away for long. Please review. It's our heroin.
Okay, we're having a little trouble ending this in a smooth, professional manner, so to buy some time, we decided to implement a dramatic pain in the OR scene. The medical stuff is completely ridiculous, and probably impossible, but hey, work with it.
Thoughts are italics.
Enjoy. Review. As always, we love you guys.
One day passed. Two days skipped by. The three, then four. By the fifth day, Meredith was starting to get anxious. Panic was beginning to set in. He said a week tops. Be patient. She found herself sitting on a stretcher next to Alex.
"Stop fidgeting." Alex instructed. "It's gonna happen."
Meredith was about to answer him when her pager went off. "911. OR three?" She said, sliding of the stretcher. "It's Bailey paging. She's not on the board."
"Answer it." Alex said. "And Meredith? With Shepherd? It's going to work out."
"Thanks Alex."
She felt a sense of trepidation as she wound through halls of Seattle Grace. Usually they comforted her, but today they were confining, like a labyrinth she couldn't navigate. She passed Derek's room, and peered in. It was empty.
Her legs flowed with adrenaline and felt like they weren't attached to her body anymore. They started pumping and didn't stop until she burst into the OR. Bailey and Burke were frantically rushing around the table and Addison was standing next to Derek, shouting at him, as he lay there.
"What the hell is going on?" Meredith shouted, causing Derek's eyes to flicker in her direction and Addison's to narrow. "What are you doing to him?"
"He's clotting in the abdomen and having spasms. We need to remove the clot."
"And you what? Forgot to put him under?"
Bailey shook her head. "Grey, get it together. We need him awake, because he has to keep his abdomen perfectly relaxed during the spasms, or he could bleed out."
Meredith looked at the thin slice in Derek's stomach. Burke cast a glance in Addison's direction then spoke to Meredith. "Grey, I need you to try to keep him calm. Addison…" Addison stepped back, humiliated, ashamed, and praying that what she knew was going to happen didn't happen.
Meredith grabbed Derek's hand and intertwined their fingers. "Derek," she said. "I'm here." He squeezed her hand so hard it hurt, but she didn't let go, or even wince.
"He's having spasms." Bailey said. "Derek, keep your abs and stomach completely relaxed."
Meredith used her free hand to touch Derek's cheek, moving his head towards her. "Derek, look at me." She said. "I know it hurts. I know it kills. Just wait it out."
"Mer…" he gasped.
She shook her head. "Shh…" She squeezed his hand encouragingly. "You're doing great. Don't say anything. I'm not going anywhere." He was gritting his teeth, sweating and breathing shallow and erratically.
Meredith gripped his hand, touched his cheek, and smoothed his hair. "It's okay, Derek." She continued to gently stroke his hair. "Just, breathe for me, all right? Steady."
Burke watched, impressed, as Derek's breathing steadied and his pulse regulated. "Derek." Burke said. "We're going to remove the clot now. It's going to hurt, but you're doing fine."
As the doctors got to work, Derek, Meredith could see was trying to stay calm, but she knew him and she knew he was in a lot of pain. "Meredith, say it." He gasped. "I need you to say it." Meredith knew what he meant, but she also knew his wife mere feet away. She looked up and Burke was staring at her. He nodded and Meredith looked Derek in the eye.
"I love you." She whispered. His tense body began to relax. Meredith returned to playing absentmindedly with his hair, but she never broke their eyes contact, and she never let go of his hand.
"I love you." He tried to tell her. It was half a whisper and half just moving lips, but it was there, in front of Addison, and it was so sincere it broke her heart a little.
"You're okay." She said. "You're going to be okay."
When it was over, Bailey and the scrub nurses wheeled Derek back to his room, and Addison trailed behind them. Meredith slumped against the wall of the scrub room, and removed the surgical covers from over her clothes. Burke came in and began to do the same.
"You did well in there, Grey. You may have saved his life."
Meredith smiled. "He saved mine."
Burke nodded. "I'm impressed. And proud of you."
"Thank you Dr. Burke." There was a long pause, and he nodded at her, ready to leave. "Preston?" she asked. "I'd like to think that I can come to you, ask you things."
He nodded. "And you can. Any friend of Cristina's is a friend of mine."
Meredith nodded. "So, he told me he loved me. And then he told me to wait for him to sort it out with Addison, but, Addison is a real person and she has feelings and it's so complicated with Derek…"
Burke sighed. "Meredith, the last few days have proved to us all that the only thing we can expect is the unexpected. When Dr. Shepherd stayed with Addison, he expected to feel like he was doing the right thing."
He moved forward and gripped Meredith's shoulder. "Rachel held up that OR at gunpoint with the best intentions. Derek stayed with Addison with the best intentions. Sometimes, our intentions and our hearts don't match up." He released her shoulder, but held her gaze.
"Robert Burns said the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. We can't control what comes at us, Dr. Grey. We can only control how we deal with it."
Meredith smiled. "You are so not Cristina."
Burke returned her grin. "Well, no I'm not. And I'm not your person. But I hope that helps."
She nodded. "It does. Thank you Dr. Burke."
Hours later, she was hovering around the second floor nurses station, waiting for someone, anyone, to give her something to do. She saw Bailey out of the corner of her eye. "Grey." Barked her resident.
"How is he?" she asked before Bailey could get out another word.
"Sleeping. He was still in a lot of pain, so we gave him a mild sedative." Meredith nodded.
"You did the job in there Grey. Made me proud."
"Thank you Dr. Bailey."
Her resident's tone softened and a touch of sympathy flashed across her face. "Shepherd's been looking for you. Montgomery Shepherd. Has a case."
Meredith smiled weakly, and nodded. Be careful what you wish for.
"Dr. Shepherd." Meredith said, finally tracking her down. Addison tapped her feet and checked her Cartier tank watch.
"I asked Bailey for you half an hour ago Grey."
"I'm sorry. I couldn't find you."
"Right. Right now, I really don't want to have to be near you, but I need an intern, and everyone else seems to be otherwise occupied, so you'll be scrubbing in on my C-Section."
Meredith smiled weakly. "Oh. Thank you."
Addison Montgomery Shepherd had never really been great with timing. She was blunt. She was…aggressive to say the least. Still, this case of timing was not one of her finer moments. She and Meredith were literally covered in placenta when Addison looked at her.
"So he's going to ask me for a divorce isn't he?"
Meredith just stared at her. "Um, I don't know."
"Yes you do. Lying is for the weak and for cowards Grey, and I didn't think you were either one."
Meredith shrugged. "I don't know what he sees in you really. You're just a girl, Meredith. You're a good doctor, and you're cute, and I used to think you were sweet, but really, you're not beautiful. You're not well traveled or especially cultured. You wouldn't know John Galliano or Diane Von Furstenburg from a patient."
Meredith just looked down. Addison was getting frustrated. "But I guess if he leaves me for you, it will be some sort of redemption for your mother."
Meredith's head snapped up. "Seriously?" she shrieked. "Are you serious? Like Derek cares about John Galliano or Diane von whatever her name is. I really don't know if he's going to ask you for a divorce. All I know is that you have no right to talk about my mother."
Addison arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow. "There's the reaction I was hoping for."
Meredith stared at her. "Seriously?"
Addison's face twisted into some kind of smirk. "I don't want him to leave me for someone who doesn't care."
Before Meredith could ask her any more questions or pick her jaw up off the OR floor, Addison lifted a screaming baby out of the mother, and handed him to a scrub nurse.
