Chapter Three

Meredith sits at the kitchen table nibbling on toast. Her eyes are staring at the roses placed on the kitchen counter. After last night's surprise patient, she is thankful for the roses. It's like a rainbow in the middle of a storm.

Derek walks in and sits down next to Meredith at the kitchen table. He takes Meredith's toast from her plate and takes a bit in it before replacing it. "How'd you sleep?"

Meredith watches Derek take her toast with his bad hand that he crushed in the plant crash. She shrugs her shoulders. "I was thinking about Emily last night." She pauses. "Do you know if she's going to be okay?"

Derek shakes his head. "She's going to have a nasty scar on her face though." He immediately thinks of how Mark could be the one to make the scare disappear. He's washed with an overwhelming feeling of grief which passes quickly when Meredith thanks him for the flowers. He turns his head and notices the bouquet of flowers for the first time. "Meredith… I didn't get those for you." He looks at Meredith and sees anxiety in her face. He watches her quickly get up from her chair, grab the flowers, and throw them in the trash. She leans against the counter, facing him. He can tell that she wants to know what to do next. He stands up and steps in front of her. He crosses his arms across his chest and says, "I'll ask around to see if anybody knows where they came from."

Meredith shakes her head slightly and looks down. "Okay," she sighs, never looking up.

Derek slips his hands on Meredith's waist and leans closer. "Don't worry," he reassures her. "We will find out what's going on." He kisses her quickly on the lips and pulls her into a hug.

The tenseness in Meredith's body dissipates as she allows herself to melt in Derek's arms. She wraps her arms around him and sinks in his grip. She slips her head in the crook of Derek's neck. "I'm not worried." It's true; she's not worried, at least not about the source of the roses and whoever is writing her name on women's faces. She's exhausted and run down. These past couple of months since the plane crash have been hard, not just on her, but on everybody. With the death of Lexie and Mark and Arizona's amputation, and, of course, Derek's hand, things at Seattle Grace Mercy West have been hard. Of course it doesn't help that a stranger came in to the hospital within inches of her life and had her name written on her. But at this moment, all of that is washed away temporality as she tightens her grip on her husband. Suddenly, everything that she fought so hard to control unleashes and tears begin to roll down her checks, landing on Derek.

Feeling tears on his skin, Derek pulls back from Meredith. Seeing tears on her cheeks he gently whips them away with his thumb.

Meredith smiles and pulls Derek in for a long, hard kiss. She grabs Derek's waist and pushes him closer to her, suddenly wanting more. She loves the way he makes her feel both physically and emotionally. She cannot imagine a life without him and she would rather not.

Derek rubs his hands through Meredith's hair. He deepens the kiss and tastes the inside of Meredith's mouth. Passion and heat rise in him as he begins to slip Meredith's shirt off.

Meredith's heart beats faster with anticipation as she eagerly rips Derek's shirt off. He lifts her up and carries her to the couch, never breaking the kiss…

xoxo

The darkroom is illuminated by a red light to prevent his pictures from being exposed to light. This is the room that he does his best work in, and now is no different.

He scans the wall of photographs that he took. His eyes carefully examination Meredith's smiling face as she does varies activities around town. Mostly, though, Meredith is entering or exiting Seattle Grace. She's usually alone; however, there are a few photographs of Meredith with a man, her husband. There are even a few photographs of Meredith and Derek at their home in the woods as well as photographs with Zola.

He does not mind that Meredith is a mother. It only reassures him that he chose the right woman. However when he found out that Meredith is married, he became enraged. He knows that because Meredith is in love with him, she's only staying with Derek because she feels obligated. Clearly Derek Shepard is abusing Meredith in some way or another, and he needs to get Meredith away fro m him.

Once dry, he takes a picture from the wall and exits his darkroom located in the basement. He ascends the stairs to the first floor where he enters the kitchen. He walks to a drawer located in the back of the kitchen, grabs a red marker and sits at the kitchen table. He scrutinizes over the picture. Meredith is sitting on a bench outside of Seattle Grace, presumably waiting for Derek. When he arrives, she looks up at him and he at her. Their eyes catch and they smile. It is at this moment that he captures the picture. It's a picture of their profiles with the moon high in the night sky behind them.

He slowly takes the cap off of the marker and scribbles a red circle around Meredith's face. He then brings the marker over a few centimeters and furiously scribbles an 'X' over his face. He stands and walks up the stairs to a second level. He enters the back guest room and opens the closet. The closet is not full of clothes or pictures. Plastered on the wall are hundreds of pictures. The pictures are mostly of Meredith at home, at work, and out in the town. A few of the pictures, however, have Derek by Meredith's side. Looking at all the beautiful pictures of Meredith, he realizes that looking at Meredith from a distance is not enough. He needs to hold her. He needs to tell her how much he loves her. To do that, he needs to show Meredith how far he's willing to go for her. After all he just gave Meredith the best gift of all: a surgery, even if it was at Emily's expense.