Crossed the Line

Six hours later, Meredith felt like she was going to kick the bucket. She had never been so worn out before in her life. She had been at the hospital well over 24 hours, and walking out of the front door to go home was a joke. It wasn't gonna happen anytime soon. After calling Derek to let him know, she made her way back to Mrs. Reed's room to check her vitals. It seemed like right after she finished one thing, she needed to do another. Just as she though her night couldn't get any worse, a code was called over the intercom for her patient. The patient that Dr. Cooper put her in charge of all night. Great.

20 minutes later Meredith starred a flat-line in the face. Her night had just gone to shit. Not that it hadn't already been bad. She walked to the desk and called Dr. Cooper. This would be fun.

"Hello?" He said groggily. She could tell she woke him up. Even better.

"Dr. Cooper, its Meredith." She replied, putting her hand to her head, to calm her headache.

"Is my patient okay?" He said boldly.

"No sir." She said with a wince.

All she heard was a click and silence. He had hung up on her. "ASSHOLE!" She said to herself, kind of wishing she could just say it to his face.

She made herself busy, finishing up notes on some charts, just trying to finish out her shift. She heard a commotion down the hallway and looked up to see an angry Dr. Cooper making his way straight for her.

"Meredith…my office please." He said in a very stern voice as he passed right by her and headed towards the elevator. All of the nurses stopped dead in their tracks as Meredith stood up and headed for the stairwell. She shuffled up the stairs and out onto the hallway of the upper floor and walked up to his office door. Instead of knocking she just walked in just to piss him off.

"Meredith, I understand that Mrs. Reed passed away on your watch."

"Yes, she coded and we worked on her for almost 20 minutes. I'm sorry." She replied.

"This is just not acceptable, I can't believe they let people like you work as a doctor."

"With all due respect sir, I can't make someone live, if they can't do it. I'm a doctor. I try to save people, but its not guaranteed."

"Meredith, she didn't have that much damage. If you had been checking on her more, then maybe she would have lived." He snapped back.

"Dr. Cooper, I'm sorry…but I will not let someone talk to me like this. I tried my best to make her survive, but sometimes it just doesn't work. Goodnight."

She turned on her heel and headed towards the door. He sprinted towards her, slamming his hand on the door to shut it, just as she had tried to open it. She started to turn around to yell at him but was cut off from a hand around her neck. He shoved her against the wall and got in her face.

"I, Meredith Grey, am an attending. I WILL NOT be spoken to like that. You are suspended for the OR for two weeks. Now get out." He spat. He finally released Meredith's neck and she turned around and sprinted out of the door and into the stairwell. She fell to the floor holding her neck and crying. He had crossed the line. He had choked her. She dreaded tomorrow, knowing a bruise would appear, but she couldn't tell anyone. He was an attending, he could get her fired. He could make her loose everything she had worked for.

After composing herself enough to go back into the hallway, she ducked out of sight and made her way into the locker room to change and get her things. She quickly dressed and grabbed her purse and walked as fast as she could back towards the elevator. She hated how is such a small amount of time she could go from being sickeningly happy to feeling like her world was going to end.

Thankfully she made it to her car without any confrontation with anyone. She drove home, ready to see her daughter and fiancée.

She dropped her keys on the table in the foyer, kicked off her shoes, and made her way around the house looking for Derek. Delia was already asleep so she assumed he must be in the bedroom. Ashley, the nanny, had gone out of town for a couple of days, so it was just the three of them. Meredith continued down the hallway and walked into her room only to see a fully made bed.

"Weird." She said to herself. She turned around and made her way back down the stairs. After milling around for a few minutes she noticed little candle flames on the ground outside in the back yard. She walked through the back yard and out to the hot tub only to find Derek, a bottle of wine, and candlelight.

"I was waiting for you baby." He said with a smile. "I called the hospital to check on you and they told me you had just left."

"Thank you Derek. I needed this, you have no idea. I had a bad night at work."

Derek stood up and got out of the hot tub and walked over to her taking her into his arms. He lightly kissed her on her fore head. He slowly pulled her shirt over her head, revealing her black bra. He kissed down her chest and stomach and stopped at the top of her pants, removing them also.

"You look beautiful Mer." He said as he unclasped her bra and threw it to the ground. She let out a small moan as she felt his hot breath against her skin. As soon as her thong hit the ground he had picked her up and carried her into the hot tub with him. She straddled him and kissed him deeply, not breaking eye contact.

He broke the kiss and made his way to her ear lobe and softly nibbled sending chills up Meredith's spine. As soon as he attacked her neck with his lips she yelped. He stopped and looked her confused.

"Baby, did I hurt you?" He said pulling her close.

"No Derek, I just had a cramp that's all. I slept funny last night when I took a nap at the hospital. You know those beds…" She laughed nervously grabbing her neck, trying to cover her lie and the small bruise that had started to show.

"Oh, okay Mer." He said, knowing something was up, but he just shook it off. He reached behind him and poured Meredith a glass of wine. Not soon after Delia's cries were heard over the baby monitor and Derek jumped out and headed for the back door.

"Derek…"

"No Mer, you relax, I've got it okay?" He replied, continuing through the back door. Meredith engulfed her body in the hot water and leaned her head back. Her drowsy eyes closed and listened to Derek comfort Delia over the monitor. He was so good with her. He was going to be a perfect father.

About ten minutes later Derek returned outside. Meredith sat up and put her glass down.

"Derek, this is wonderful and all, but I really think I'm just going to go up to bed. I'm exhausted." She said.

"Sure Mer. Let me get this stuff and well go together, okay?" He said while blowing out the candles.

She got out and grabbed her things and headed towards the door with Derek trailing behind her. She dropped her clothes in the laundry room and grabbed a freshly washed bathrobe out of the dryer.

"Derek, will you go turn on the shower for me? I'll be up there in a minute."

"Sure" he said as he made his way up the stairs.

Meredith put a load of laundry in the washer and started them up. She grabbed the basket of folded clothes and carried them upstairs with her. After putting some of them away she went into her bathroom. Derek was on the laptop in bed waiting on her. She got in and quickly washed and then made her way to bed after drying off a bit. Derek sat his laptop down and turned off the lights and wrapped his arms around Meredith.

"Mmm…I love it when you hold me Derek."

"I love it when I hold you too," he said with a smile.

Meredith forgot all about what happened as they both drifted into a deep sleep. For some reason when she was with Derek, everything else disappeared.

Yes, she may have forgotten, but bruises won't disappear overnight.