Author's Note: In this chapter, Derek and Rose part ways and Mark makes a phone call.
Chapter Three
The head trauma patient had been DOA. They tried to revive him, but were unable.
"Meredith," he said, finding her by a nurse's station. Olivia glared at him. With a confused look on his face, he turned back to Meredith. "Do you have a minute?" They went into an empty linen closet for some form of privacy. "I have some things that I need to do. I noticed you were off tomorrow. I was wondering if we could talk later tonight. Maybe at the trailer? I really want to talk to you."
Meredith looked at him skeptically, as if trying to figure out what he was going to say. "Yeah, I'm going to Joe's with Cristina and Izzie. Call me and I'll meet you," she said.
Derek couldn't believe how easy this was going. Now, if things could just stay that easy. "Great," he said, leaning forward and kissing her cheek without thinking about it, "I'll call you soon." And then he left. It had felt right, kissing her cheek. He didn't care if she got angry over it. Not that he thought she would be. She had to see what he was trying to do, right? No, probably not.
He found Rose waiting for him outside the Attending's locker room.
"Are we going back to my place," she asked.
"Let me change," he said, "and then we can figure it out." She nodded and he went into the locker room. He was going to talk to Rose and then talk to Meredith. He sent a text to Mark, reminding him to call Emma, and then changed into street clothes. He should call his mother, but he decided to wait until the morning. He was probably going to spend a large part of his evening being yelled at and could wait for his mother to add her part. He grabbed his bag and went to meet Rose, hoping that it wouldn't take long to have this conversation.
He was an ass. And a jerk. He didn't deserve either one of the women in his life so he was cutting one lose and begging the other one not to kick him to the curb forever.
Rose has a small smile on her face when he made it back into the hallway. "Let's go for a walk," she suggested.
Derek was barely able to contain his sigh of relief. Maybe she was going to break up with him. Wouldn't that be a kick in the face? And funny to boot. He nodded, allowing her to link her arm in his.
"I have a confession to make," Rose said as the started down the sidewalk outside of the hospital. "And my confession is this: I'm in love with you." Rose took care not to look at Derek as they walked. "But I know that you don't love me. I know this," she said, taking a deep breath, "because I see how you look at Dr. Grey. I'm actually kind of pissed that you strung me along like you did. You don't see a future for us, Derek, and that's too bad because I obviously really like you." She stopped walking, causing Derek to stop beside her. "So, I'm letting you go before my heart breaks. And I know that it's mean, but I don't really want to talk to you anymore. I think a clean break is, well, I think it would be best. I also know that I have no right to ask you this, but could you wait a few days before you get back with Dr. Grey?"
Derek cleared his throat, arranging his words carefully in his mind. "If Meredith will take me back," he said, "I'll, uh, be with her as soon as she let me. Not that I think she should, because I've been as ass. I can do the clean break but I'm not sure about your last request." He stood directly in front of her, taking one of her hands in his. "I'm sorry, Rose, it wasn't fair to you. It probably never was. I'm sorry this has been awkward. I'll, uh, see you around."
"But, no talking," she reminded him, tears brimming in her eyes. He nodded, conceding to her. "No talking," she whispered. She pulled gently back on her hand, silently asking Derek to release it. When he did, she turned and went to the parking lot, most likely heading home.
As much as Derek missed Meredith, loved Meredith, he confessed to himself he hated to see Rose walk out of his life. She would have been a great friend but there was no way that it work to have the both of them in his life. Sighing, he adjusted the bag on his shoulder and crossed the street to Joe's where he planned on either talking to Meredith or seducing her. Either way sounded like a lot of fun.
GAGAGAGA
Mark was on his way back to his hotel room when his phone beeped, letting him know that he had a text message.
Call Emma. She needs to talk. Later.
Derek wanted him to call Emma? Granted she was the only Shepard girl still talking to him. He made the drive back to the hotel in silence, not evening turning the radio on. He made it to his room without incident. It had been a hard day and all of surgeries had been canceled so he had nothing to distract him from what the nurses doing. And then Callie . . . Callie had called him useless because he didn't want to have sex with her. He dropped his jacket on the floor and flopped onto his bed.
The rings later, a tired sounding Emma answered the phone. "Riggs."
"Hey."
"Oh, Mark, hey," she said. "I heard you had a rough day."
He told her about his surgeries being canceled and Dr. Bailey's speech to the complaining nurses. She was very sympathetic, which Mark appreciated. "You should come visit."
"Not a chance," she told him. "I have surgeries scheduled all week. That's not to mention the emergency ones I'll have to scrub in on. Abby has a dance recital I have to figure out a way to attend and Mom is breathing down my neck about Derek." She sucked in a breath. "Sorry."
"Eh, don't worry about it. Derek forgave me, right? You forgave me. So the others will follow," Mark said. Mark would never admit it, not even to Derek, that having his "family" turn their back on him had been the worse thing he ever had to live through. Emma had held out on him for two weeks until she talked to Addison and then she had waited for three days to talk to Mark about it. At that time, though, all of the sisters and Mom were talking to him, so it wasn't a big deal that the youngest wasn't. He was glad to have her in his corner, though, when Nancy went back east with the tales that Derek told. Not that Derek lied, but it had hurt just the same that they had turned their backs on him.
"Yeah, but you've been there for nearly everything, Mark. If Derek hadn't been such an idiot, he'd be blissfully happy. He still happier now then he was in New York with Addison. I wanted to talk to you, though, about Mom."
"What about her? Is she okay," Mark asked.
Emma laughed. Mark was still so concerned with them even though they all claimed they wanted nothing to do with him. Sometimes life could be so cruel. "She's fine. She's decided that the five of us are going to Seattle. We're leaving in a couple of days and I just wanted to give you a heads up. I'd stay out of their way if I were you."
Mark sighed. "Thanks."
"Hey, you can take me to dinner if you want."
Mark laughed. "Who's taking care of Abby?"
"Ben," she said. "Carl is coming up from Pittsburgh with his and Tessa's kids and staying in Kathleen and Ben's place. So they'll have Kathleen's kids and Tessa's kids and my daughter."
"Terrance staying in Connecticut with his bunch?"
"Yeah," Emma said, "I guess. You know how the Tooth Fairy is." Terrance Murphy was a dentist in Hartford, Connecticut. Emma had been pretty young when Terrance and Nancy started dating and she had taken to calling him to Tooth Fairy, which had stuck all these years later. "Listen, Mark, people are only going to treat you as they perceive you. If you act a certain way . . ."
"Like a whore," Mark supplied.
". . .then you'll be treated a certain way," she finished. "Quit calling yourself that, it isn't helping."
"I know."
"So, what are you going to do about it?"
"You mean now," Mark asked, sitting up, pressing the phone closer to his ear.
Emma rolled her eyes. "In general, what are you going to do about it in general?"
"Er . . ."
A/N: Next up, Derek and Meredith talk . . . I think.