Some Kind of Recovery
Chapter Four
:: Chapter Inspiration::
:: Alone | Heart ::
'Til now, I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone?
How do I get you alone?
The hands on the clock above the bar slowly moved around in circles. At last count, it had been three hours, forty -three minutes and twenty seconds since she had gotten the page to make her way down to the ER. That meant it had been three hours, seventeen minutes and twenty seconds since she stormed out of the hospital in the middle of her shift, in the middle of a tragedy.
She knew the facts. She was a doctor for crying out loud. The only reason they hadn't given up on trying to bring Meredith back was because she was one of their own and there would potentially be a lot of fall out for the hospital because they let the Ellis Grey's daughter die on their watch. If it had been anyone else coming through that door, they would have given up twenty minutes after they were brought in.
And because she was a doctor, she knew that there could have been many different reasons for Meredith not waking up, she could have all sorts of brain damage, considering nobody knew how long she had been under the water until Derek pulled her out and started CPR. By the time he had pulled her out, there very well could have been irreversible damage done and Meredith just wouldn't be Meredith anymore.
That thought made her shudder. She and only known Meredith for seven months and she was the most important person in her life. She had never felt a connection like the one they had with anyone else.
And then her dark mind started to drift to what her headstone would say and who would be there.
Thankfully, Burke pulled the stool next to her back slightly as he moved to sit down on it.
"Come say goodbye to your friend," He had told her and that had been the final nail in the head, they were about to give up on her. Burke's pager beeped from his waistband and he stood, offering his hand to her which she took shakily.
Pushing open the door to the trauma room, her breathing stopped for a second. Meredith lay on the trauma table, Dr Bailey leaning over her slightly as she pressed down on the younger woman's chest, forcing blood around the body. A large tube was taped to the side of her mouth, forcing air into her lungs, but the tube just made the already tiny woman look smaller, if possible. Her skin was grey, a sickly colour and Cristina was just glad she hadn't seen her earlier when she had just been pulled out of the water, she could only imagine the shade of blue she had been caused by the hypothermia she was no doubt suffering from.
Miranda stepped away from the table as Cristina entered, finally giving up on the woman that lay in front of her. They had been trying for too long, she was far too gone at that point, the damage undoubtedly irreversible at this point.
Her legs were about to give up on her so Cristina grabbed onto the first thing she could, Meredith's feet, which were covered in several layers of blanket."Try again," she muttered out. When nobody moved to follow through with her demand, she shouted it much louder, catching the attention of everyone in the room, "Try again!"
"One more round of A.C.L.S drugs?" Bailey asked cautiously, glancing at the chief who had a hand covering his eyes. Briefly, he looked up at her and she had to ignore the water forming in her bottom eyelid, "One more."
Quickly, she grabbed the needed syringe and pushed it through the IV they had managed to finally set up.
Everyone waited with baited breath as they watched the monitor which was still displaying a continuous flat line.
"Please, please, please," Cristina whispered to herself, squeezing the feet she held in her hands, willing any form of life to come back to the girl.
When nothing happened for thirty seconds, the chief looked down at his watch and tearfully pronounced, "Time of death, 16:49."
"Time of death, 16:51."
Throwing down the paddles, Derek hastily made his way out of the room. There was no way he was going to hang around while they took care of Meredith's mother's body.
Meredith, the name struck him like a lightning bolt and he had to wonder what had happened in the time he had been gone. Were they still working to bring her back? Had they given up yet? He needed to know.
Just as he was making his way down the hallway towards the trauma room, Mark appeared in front of him, taking him slightly by surprise.
Nothing the blank look on Mark's face he shook his head, "No, no, don't tell me her too."
"Her too? What happened?" Mark asked, completely forgetting his original mission.
Rubbing a hand over his face, Derek replied, "Her mother coded forty minutes ago, we couldn't get her back." And Meredith's gone too.
Mark must have noticed the look on his face because he was shaking his head in an instant. "Derek, it's not what you think," he told him, holding out one hand, letting it hover over Derek's arm for a second before pulling it back and letting it drop by his side. "She's awake, Derek."
That caused the neuro surgeon's head to shoot up and look at his ex -best friend. "Awake? She's awake as in she's alive?"
Mark nodded, smiling a little. "I have to see her. Is she okay? Is she breathing on her own? Does she have anything neurologically concerning?"
"She's breathing on her own, but..." Mark trailed off, not sure how to respond.
"What's wrong with her?"
"She's having trouble talking so they're going to run a few tests to make sure everything's okay. It could just be that she's exhausted from the hours she's been fighting for."
Before he could even finish the sentence, Derek had disappeared down the hallway down to the CT room.
Upon entering the room, Derek was greeted by Miranda sitting behind the computer, waiting for the images to appear on the screen. Through the glass he could see Meredith's body lying in the machine, laying very still but he could see her chest rising and falling slightly underneath the layers of blankets indicating that she was breathing and he relaxed a little.
At the sound of him entering the room, Miranda turned to look at him, noticing the distressed look on his face which quickly changed. She had half a mind to throw him out of the room for the pure fact that he was simply too close to Meredith but then decided against it remembering what he had been through that day and knew that she somewhat owed it to him after he had spent hours in an OR that had a bomb in it along with the girl he loved just to save her husband.
The images came up on the screen, the tension in the room disappearing as they came up clean, indicating there was no medical reason for her troubles speaking. Neither saying anything, they moved silently into the room, grabbing the gurney and shifting Meredith back onto it before raising the sides.
Miranda walked at the head of the bed while Derek walked along side, his hand slipping into Meredith's as they made their way down the halls to a private room. Meredith had bee asleep since they had decided to take her for tests, everything she had been through had been exhausting, as per expected, but some part of Derek had hoped that she would be awake so that he could check for himself that everything was okay, he, however, wasn't going to wake her.
Another reason he wanted her to stay asleep a little longer was because he didn't know how to tell her that her mother had died under his watch, that he couldn't bring her back. Derek knew he would have to be the one to break the news, it coming from anyone else would just seem wrong. He knew she had a long road to recovery ahead of her and didn't want to put under too much strain on her with the news.
Where did everything go wrong?
And this, my lovely people, is where we go a different route from where the show originally went. Oh, by the way, hey...? I haven't updated in two weeks... I had trouble writing this chapter but I eventually got it done and here it is for you! This story is also now available on wattpad under the same name (account and story), so check it out over there too if you feel like. I'd really appreciate any thoughts or input you have!
SEASON 14 IS BEING FILMED PEOPLE!
Sorry, thought I'd add that, I'm leaving now, see you next chapter...