Meredith looked over at Derek whose jaw was clenched before looking back to the ambulance pulling up in the bay. Two paramedics stepped out of the front seat and opened the doors. Two security guards pushed the gurney out of the truck and the prisoner patient let out a sinister grin. His hands were cuffed down as well as his legs. His smile was bone chillingly sinister.

"How are you all doing today?" the man asked. They simultaneously ignored him and continued into a trauma room.

"William Dunn," Meredith told Derek, looking at the paper in front of her. Having read the rundown on Mr. Dunn, Derek knew exactly what the murderer had done, killing five innocent women. "Mr. Dunn, can you hear me?"

"I can…you have a beautiful voice," he responded. Derek narrowed his eyes, this man was definitely going to get Meredith's sympathy. Mr. Dunn moaned in pain. "Was I stabbed in the leg? It really feels like someone stabbed me in the leg."

"No," Derek said in a monotone. "I've already checked your lower extremities. They're fine."

"Should we add T-spine and L-spine films?" asked Meredith.

"Yes," Derek added. "More films can't hurt."

"It really feels like some one stabbed me in the leg…"

"The less you talk, the more we can work," said Derek exasperatedly.

"Derek," Meredith warned. He ignored her and continued to examine Mr. Dunn.

"It's ok…he'll warm up to me in no time."

"No he won't," said Derek in the third person.

"Dr. Shepherd, that's your name right? You know, we're pretty much the same. When people meet us they're alive but after, well that's a different story."

Meredith secured an oxygen mask on Mr. Dunn and took the x-rays. After informing the guards that they needed to step out momentarily, Meredith pulled her best friend into the hall. "Derek," she breathed. "Can you do this?"

"I'm fine," he snapped.

"Derek, I know you're not. It's ok to have trouble with this."

"It's been thirty years Mer," groaned Derek. "I can handle this," he gave his final words before bursting back into the room.

William whimpered.

"We've already pushed ten of morphine…he shouldn't be in this much pain."

"We don't know that he is," Derek said in a monotone. "He could tell you anything."

"I'm not lying," Mr. Dunn moaned. "This really hurts…could we add just a tinny bit more?"

"We're not here to feed your drug addiction," answered Derek.

"Oh yeah. 'Cause the drug train has been real solid during my last eleven years in solitude," he retorted.

They stood silently until a radiologist opened the door. "Dr. Grey," he said, handing Meredith the films. She put them up on the board and examined them.

"Dr. Shepherd," she said. "It looks like whatever he was stabbed with is still in there….right in his spine."

Derek nodded in agreement. "Does that mean I'm paralyzed?" William laughed a little through his pain. "If I'm paralyzed my lawyer might be able to get my execution pushed back…I've exhausted all of my appeals but this could be my golden ticket."

"No. There is no way I'm going to let you out of here paralyzed unless there is absolutely nothing I can do," Derek told him sternly.

Mr. Dunn's face fell.

***

"I ordered a CT so we can get a better view," said Derek.

"I got an MRI too," Meredith told him.

"We can look at both."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"You know Derek…good people do bad things, people screw up. He's still a person we don't know what crime he committed."

"Maybe he killed a cop. You'd be on the side of a cop killer."

"First of all, I am not on his side. But we don't know what he did. You can't judge."

"Yes but a jury can and obviously they came to the conclusion that whatever he did was worthy of the death penalty," he gritted through his teeth, upset with Meredith for being so naive.

"Derek," she pressed. "Are you really okay to be on this case?"

"I am the head of neurosurgery at this hospital," he raised his voice. "I will be on this case. I am mentally fit to be on this case. Just back the hell off!" Derek shouted before exiting the viewing room.

Meredith sighed and leaned back against the table. This was going to be a long few days.

***

Later that day Meredith found Derek leaning against a nurses' station filling out a chart. "Should I give Mr. Dunn more morphine? It shouldn't interfere with his neuro exam."

"No," snarled Derek. "He's had enough."

"Derek, he has a foreign body lodged in his spine…it's inhumane."

"Killing people is inhumane. Denying morphine is just a judgment call," he said jarringly, slamming the chart closed and walking away.

"Derek. Seriously, this whole being an ass hole thing doesn't work well for you," she admonished him.

"I watch people die all the time. I go to families and tell them their world has been ripped apart all the time," hissed Derek. "And I fight like a dog to make sure I don't have to deliver that message. I loose that fight all the time. And some guy like Dunn comes along and simply throws it away…life. Then he's got the nerve to tell me we're two sides of the same coin?"

"You're not," Meredith assured him.

"He doesn't need Morphine," he muttered, turning away.

"Derek," she sighed.

"Leave it," told her Derek before walking away.

***

He'd killed five women. That's all Meredith could think about as she sat on the couch in her living room. Not only had he slit their throats but he didn't seem to feel remorse and she had a feeling that if the chance presented itself, he'd do it again which made her feel uneasy.

As if waiting for something to happen, she watched the trees through the window for a few minutes as they thrashed in the wind. Her musing was then brought to the cabinet of trinkets sitting in an old cupboard. The light reflected off them sending flecks of color.

Her attention was drawn to the door as she heard a key in the lock.

"I didn't want to be alone tonight," Derek told her, waving the key she'd given him.

"Ok," she nodded as he shrugged off his coat, gingerly hung it on the rack and walked to sit beside Meredith on the couch. She switched positions so she was against Derek's chest.

"Pretty bad day," he breathed.

"All around I guess."

"Sorry I was an asshole."

"No…I get it."

He nodded. They sat silently for a few minutes before Meredith stood up and walked towards the stereo. Turning it on 'Here Comes the Sun' by the Beatles began to play and she began to move her hips to the music.

"Get up," she instructed Derek. He answered with a chuckle. "You can't not dance to this with me! Get your ass over here I'm not doing this by myself."

Laughing, Derek stood and walked beside Meredith and they began to dance around, laughing and giggling until Derek pulled Meredith into his arms, hugging her tightly.

"This will all be over soon," she promised him.

***

Meredith and Derek lay on Derek's bed, staring at the ceiling. It'd been three weeks since Christopher Shepherd died and Derek still wasn't handling it very well. Meredith slid off the bed and walked over to Derek's CD player that she'd given him for his eighth birthday earlier that year. After pushing play the song, 'Here Comes the Sun' by the Beatles begun to fill the room.

"Here comes the sun," Meredith sang badly, jumping around. "Do do do do. Here comes the sun and I say, it's all right."

Derek cracked a smile and slid off his bed. "Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter," he sang to her, moving around spastically.

"Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here," crooned Meredith, looking Derek straight in the eye.

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right," they sung simultaneously though a fit of giggles. They collapsed on the floor laughing.

"I laughed," Derek said, astonished. "It feels really good."

Meredith smiled at him. "Good."

***

A/N: Couldn't help my self with the last little part!