Chapter 10: Open Arms
Every corner you turn
Trouble come your way
But when you get home
I'll try to be there
And I'll embrace you
"Dr. Yang, can I speak to you for a moment?" Derek asked as he watched Cristina walked out of a patient's room. He usually preferred to steer clear of Cristina Yang. Other than Miranda Bailey, she scared him more than most of the people in this hospital, but he had to admit something: she knew everything. He knew it, everyone knew it, and most importantly, she knew it.
"Unless you have a surgery for me, no you can't," she said without even looking up, her eyes glued to her chart.
Derek rolled his eyes, "Unless you have minute, I won't have a surgery for you."
"Okay, what do you want?" Cristina asked as she closed the chart and looked at him, her annoyed attitude easily visible.
Derek quickly looked around them before speaking to Cristina in a low voice, "What do you know about Meredith Grey?"
"Either than the fact that she froze in front of the entire ER and then befriended evil spawn?" she said.
"What do you know about the actual Meredith Grey, not the doctor?" Derek asked persistently.
Cristina seriously thought about just ignoring this man and telling him to go play with himself, but then two things ran through her mind. One, he was her boss. Two, he could get her in on surgeries. "Okay, what do you want to know?"
"Anything you can tell me," Derek answered.
Cristina stepped into a conference room and Derek followed her. "Just to make it clear, this conversation never happened. And I want 2 surgeries and a hundred bucks."
"What? I'm not paying you a hundred bucks," Derek said in disbelief.
Cristina shrugged her shoulders, "Fine, your choice."
She turned to walk out of the room, but Derek threw his arm out to block the doorway, "Fine," he answered, placing a smirk on Cristina's mouth. He grabbed his wallet out of his pant pocket and pulled out five twenties, handing them to Cristina.
"Thank you," she answered. "Okay now, Meredith Grey is the daughter of Ellis Grey. Ellis Grey died a few months ago. Grey had her own practice in New York City with a friend, but sold her share a few months before coming here. She doesn't have a binding contract, but the Chief so wants her here. She has a picture in a wallet that she stares at for at least twenty minutes everyday and an overprotective little sister who calls constantly. She's afraid of people for some reason and like flinches when people touch her. It's like everyone else is toxic." She stopped for a moment after speaking quickly and looked at Derek's shocked expression, "Oh and her scrubs are size zero and she eats cold pizza for breakfast every morning."
"How do you know things like that?" Derek asked, completely dazed.
"No more questions unless you happen to have another five twenties in your wallet," Cristina answered. Derek just shook his head, still showing his shocked expression. "Okay, now what cases are you giving me?"
"I'll have an intern bring down their charts after I change into my scrubs," Derek answered before walking out of the conference room.
Cristina chuckled to herself at his bemused expression. Apparently he didn't realize just how much Cristina Yang did know.
Meredith grabbed her second cup of coffee, trying to ignore the fact that it was only noon. She leaned against the counter and sipped it slowly, hoping that the warm liquid would evoke some feeling in her body. Since she'd been in Seattle, she'd yet to sleep through the night, but last night was the worst. She tired blame the tossing and turning on the crappy heater, but she knew it had nothing to do with the temperature. Deep down she knew what had been troubling her, but she refused to admit to it.
She looked up from her cup of coffee and saw Derek on the opposite side of the hallway. He was looking down at a chart and talking to another doctor. Despite her better judgment, she let her eyes linger there for a moment. She had never really looked at him before. His charm and great looks were clearly evident, but they led her to another question: What was he doing with her? It was very clear that he was watching out for her. She'd yet to get another case with a patient under the age of eighteen. He hadn't spoken to her since she'd yelled at him, but still. He seemed to be going out of his way to make sure she was okay.
It didn't make any sense to her. She had nothing to offer to him. She was a tired, busy surgeon about to hit her mid-thirties who had more emotional and psychological problems than she felt a physiologist could handle. She guaranteed that there were at least a hundred more appealing women who would gladly through themselves at him, so what was he doing wasting his time with her?
He quickly looked up at her and she awkwardly tried to pretend like she hadn't been staring at him. He started walking towards her and she took that as her cue to walk away. She hurried down the hallway, trying not to spill her coffee.
Once she finally thought she was safe, she slowed down, but felt a tap on her shoulder. She froze and slowly turned around, not at all surprised to see Derek standing there. "Meredith, I was hoping I could speak to you."
"Uh…. Speak? To me?" she asked awkwardly.
"Yes," Derek said, a little surprised by her nervous antics.
Meredith looked down as her pager went off. She looked up at him and gave him and apologetic smile, "I have to go."
"Saved by the bell," he joked with a smile.
"I'll see you around," she said before turning around and hurrying down to the ICU. She was definitely glad to be out of that situation, but she didn't even want to think about why she'd been so nervous.
Derek had tried to find Meredith all day after their small encounter at around ten, but she was busy the entire day. She'd gone in and out of four different surgeries by the time eleven rolled around. He wasn't completely sure she actually stepped outside of the OR.
Looking at the clock on his office desk, he decided he'd give up for the night. After all, he needed to get his rest as well. He left his office and headed downstairs. As he reached the hospital's automatically opening doors, he was surprised to see Meredith Grey walking in with her bag held tightly to her shoulder.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and thought as he walked over to her, "Why aren't you at home? Can't get enough of surgery?" he tried to keep the conversation light, hoping that her nervousness from earlier would slip away and be forgotten.
She looked at him for a moment, too tired to even chuckle at his comment, "I wish I could go home."
Derek shifted his weight from his left leg to his right, "What do you mean you wish you could go home?"
She really didn't want to talk to him about this, but she had learned he was very persistent and she didn't have enough energy to fight him off. Instead she just sighed heavily before meeting his eyes again, "I came home to find a fire truck at my house because of some electrical thing in my walls or whatever that made the fire alarm go off. Now it's apparently unsafe for me to be in there until they assess everything for some problem that doesn't even make sense to me right now because I'm so tired that I can hardly see straight. Considering the fact that I'm banned from my house and I don't know anyone in Seattle, my options are either a hotel or here and I don't feel like paying for some crappy hotel when there is a few on-call room within my reach." She took a deep breath after her rambling session and looked away from Derek, slightly embarrassed for emptying her problems on him even though he had asked.
"So you're going to live in the hospital until your house is fixed?" Derek asked, receiving a meager nod as an answer. "You're going to sleep on a thin mattress with just a sheet in the middle of a busy hospital that no one will leave you alone in?"
She glared at him, "What? Are you trying to make this worse for me?"
He chuckled at her response before looking outside and then back to her, "You do know someone in Seattle," he finally said.
She didn't say anything at first, but then she caught on. "No," she said shaking her head, "I'm not staying with you. Thanks for the offer, but really, I'll be fine here," she continued before turning to walk farther into the hospital.
"Meredith," Derek called as he turned to the elevators where she had been headed. She stopped and looked back at him. "It'll just be for a night or two. You need to sleep on an actual bed. Surgeons have enough back problems from leaning over a table for hours." He watched as a battle went on in her tired, full mind. He stepped closer to her, again trying to light the mood, "What? Do you think I'm going to try something on you?" The battle came to an immediate stop as she looked up to him shocked by his comment. "Trust me, we're colleagues. I'm just offering you a place to stay."
The battle resumed as she weighed the consequences of both situations. Derek began to act impatient and she caught on quickly. She sighed and began walking towards the hospital exit. Derek smiled and caught up with her, "See, I knew you'd see it my way."
"You hungry?" Derek finally asked, breaking the silence that had started since they walked out of the hospital.
Meredith looked up at him as her high heeled boots splashed against a puddle in the dark asphalt, "What? Are you going to cook for me?" she asked sarcastically.
"No," he said quickly, "It's almost midnight. I'm not cooking for anybody, but I'm sure there is somewhere in Seattle that we can get some food."
"I just moved here, I don't really know where anything is," Meredith said with a small shake of her head.
Derek smiled, "Well, I've lived here for over a year and I know a little restaurant that stays open pretty late."
She looked at him strangely, but she didn't question him. She just nodded, wondering to herself where he was going to take her. Derek led her to his BMW in silence, only welcoming her after she thanked him for opening her door. Once again, he found himself in this weird position. He was with this woman that he didn't know, but had a need to take care of. He'd never felt so aware of another person's life before, so concerned for them. Frankly, it made no sense to him.
This was just kind of a filler chapter and a little comedic relief with Cristina. I'm really sorry that it took me so long to get it up! I should have chapter 11 up this weekend or at least by Monday. Thanks for reading and please review! Have a good weekend!
