Hello!

Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter. The response wasn't what it has been so if you didn't, hopefully this one makes up for it!

Also, I just wrote a one-shot titled This Is Forever that immediately continues from the most recent episode, One Step Too Far (8x17). It's got MerDer moments and Meredith/Cristina friendship. If you haven't already, go check it out :)

Anyway, on with the show!

Enjoy!

Chapter 6

"Dr. Shepherd!"

Meredith glimpsed his lab coat disappearing into an elevator as she rounded the corner, almost tripping over her own feet as she abruptly changed her direction.

"Dr. Shepherd, wait!" She skidded to a stop and threw her arm out to stop the elevator doors from closing in her face.

"Katie competes in beauty pageants!" she announced, catching her breath.

"I know that, but we have to save her life anyway," Derek replied, dryly. A few nurses in the back of the lift exchanged surprised expressions. Who knew McDreary had a sense of humor?

"She's got no headaches, no neck pain, CT's clean. There's no medical proof of an aneurysm," she explained as the doors were beginning to close. Meredith had to shoot her arm out to make them retract again.

"Right," Derek prompted with slight annoyance lacing his tone.

"But what if she has an aneurysm anyway?"

"There are no indicators," he brushed her off immediately as the automatic doors attempted to shut. She stopped them again, earning her a few dirty looks from the impatient passengers.

"But she twisted her ankle when she was rehearsing for the pageant," she pleaded for him to listen.

"Look, I appreciate you trying to help but-"

"She fell," Meredith interrupted. There was no way this man was going to yell at her and blow her off all in one day.

"When she twisted her ankle, she fell. It was minor. She got right back up and her parents didn't even think to take her in to get it looked at until she was finished, but she did-" She was cut off momentarily but the elevator doors attempting to close again.

"She did fall," Meredith insisted, giving the door another shove.

"You know what the chances are that a minor fall could burst an aneurysm? One in a million. Literally," he punctuated the word for emphasis just as the elevator doors started closing again.

All Meredith could do was give him one last imploring look as he disappeared behind a wall of silver. Turned dejectedly on her heal, she briefly wondered if she could take up Cristina on that drink after all.

Before she could take a full step, a loud 'DING' caused Meredith to turn her attention back to the elevator. The doors opened again revealing a group a visibly annoyed passengers and a determined looking Derek Shepherd.

"Let's go," he demanded, striding off the elevator with a look she had never seen him wear before.

"Where?"

"To find out if Katie's one in a million."

After sending the orders to get Katie Bryce to imaging, Derek and Meredith stood silently next to each other in the dimly lit room attached to the MRI. While they watched through the large glass window, the interns and technicians busily worked on Katie.

After a few minutes, the computer beeped to indicate the images they had been waiting for were about to appear.

Derek did a double take. "I'll be damned."

"There it is," the MRI tech pointed out on the screen in front of him.

"It's minute, but it's there," Derek said in awe. "It's a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She's bleeding into her brain."

Meredith couldn't quite believe it herself. She was right. She'd actually been right.

'See there, mom' she thought bitterly. 'I can do something right.'

"Let's get her back to her room," Derek directed through the microphone to the doctors on other side of the glass.

"And let's go book the OR," he suggested to Meredith with a grin.

Exiting the suite, she had to hurry to match his excited gait.

"She could have gone through her entire life without it ever being a problem. One tap in the right spot-"

"And it exploded," she finished for him.

"Exactly," he smirked proudly, turning to face her as they arrived at the nurses' station. "And we get to fix it."

"We do?" Meredith clarified with a playful gleam.

"Yes, we do," he agreed with a matching expression. "I lured you here with the promise of a surgery, didn't I? I make good on my promises."

"Good to know," she smiled, almost forgetting that the man flirting with her now was the same man who yelled at her hours before.

The nurse behind the counter eyed the couple curiously, noting the looks and smiles passing between the attending and his resident.

"Let's book the OR for first thing tomorrow morning," Derek informed the nurse after snapping out of the bubble he and Meredith had unexpectedly created.

"I'd like someone to monitor her through the night, so you should find your intern," he told Meredith while he filled in some spaces on Katie's chart. "And then," he began, handing the chart to the nurse and looking back to Meredith, "you should get some sleep. I'll see you in the OR."

With one last parting smile, he turned and exited back down the hall.

As tempting as sleep sounded, Meredith was far too keyed up to even attempt it.

Not wanting to go home to face her mother just yet, she found herself walking across the street to Joe's after changing out of her scrubs.

Just as she was hoping, a familiar figure was perched alone on the same barstool as they had been the night before.

"Cristina," she called over the constant stream of noise coming from the other bar patrons.

"Meredith?" Cristina turned on her stool in surprise. "You escaped the clutches of Shepherd after all?"

"Yup," she chuckled while climbing onto the stool beside her. "I was right. She's got a small bleed that I get to help repair bright and early tomorrow," she informed her friend happily.

"I'll drink to that," Cristina replied, downing the rest of her shot. "Can I get another? And she needs some tequila," she indicated to Meredith.

"I'm actually really excited. I haven't gotten to do a lot of neuro," Meredith confessed.

"No one has. No one's wanted to willing subject themselves to Dr. McDreary."

"I told you," Meredith defended. "He's not McDreary anymore."

"We're back to that now? What happened to the bastard who yelled at you in front of your intern?"

"He still is, or was, I guess," Meredith stumbled, searching for the right words. Joe came over to place the shot she ordered in front of her and she paused to smile in a silent thank you.

"I don't know what he is," she admitted, tapping her finger along the rim of her shot glass. "But now sometimes he actually smiles and makes jokes and when he does I forget about all that other stuff and the man he used to be."

"Oh my God," Cristina groaned loudly.

"What?"

"You're falling for him."

"I am not!" she denied immediately.

"Oh, you so are." Cristina shook her head and took another gulp of her drink.

"No, I'm not!"

"So are," she insisted again. "Damn. You poor girl…"

Meredith angrily grabbed at the bar nuts and began violently breaking the shells. "You know, it's just that he's just so…And I'm just…I'm having a hard time…"

"Uhg. You're all mushy and warm and full of secret feelings."

Her fingers stilled as Meredith allowed herself a moment to think about Cristina's words. Just as she started to think that maybe Cristina wasn't too far off, she slammed her hand on the bar in frustration.

"I hate you!" she exclaimed.

"No you don't," Cristina countered, unaffected by her words.

"I just-"

Before she could come up with another argument, her pager interrupted. "Why the hell are they paging me?" she grumbled, reaching for the offending device.

"Oh crap," she gasped.

"What?"

"They're paging me 9-1-1 for Katie. I need to go," she said jumping off the stool. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Have fun with McDreamy," Cristina called after her in a sing-song voice.

"Shut-up!" Meredith shot back before sprinting as quickly as she could back across the street.

Meredith had never changed that quickly in her life. The moment she was back in her scrubs, her pager went off again, indicating that she was needed in OR two.

She got there just in time to scrub in with Derek while he brought her up to speed. Katie had unexpectedly seized again and it had been decided that the surgery couldn't wait until morning.

Luckily they got in quickly and Katie came through the surgery with flying colors.

She was being wheeled out and into recovery while Derek and Meredith stood over the giant basin, scrubbing out.

"That was amazing," Meredith beamed, not able to hold back her enthusiasm any longer.

Her excitement was infectious and Derek was struggling to keep the goofy smile on his face in check.

"It was such a high," she reveled, reaching for a towel to dry her hands. "I don't know why anybody does drugs."

"Yeah," he chuckled, looking up at her as he dried his hands as well. He hadn't originally meant to hold her gaze, but her eyes were hypnotizing and he found it impossible to look away.

"Yeah," she agreed breathlessly. He was looking at her again. That dangerous look that made her heart flutter and her knees go weak. Her mind went to mush and nothing existed except the man in front of her.

Forcing herself to look away before she did something she'd regret, she turned behind her to throw the used towel away.

"You did remarkably," he complimented softly.

"Really?" She'd never heard him give a genuine compliment to anyone before.

"Really," he nodded. "You have a great technique. It suits this specialty well."

Well, this was news to her.

"You're usually on cardio, right?"

"I am. At the moment, it's what I plan on declaring for a specialty."

"Would you consider neuro?"

"And why would I do that?" she asked with an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"I just told you. You show a knack for my specialty," he answered, leaning casually against the edge of the sink. "And I have a lot I could teach you," he finished with a grin.

This wasn't fair. Anything sounded tempting when he said it like that.

"I've been preparing for cardio for years," Meredith stammered, trying to come up with a decent excuse to turn him down.

"That's where that teaching part comes in," he teased.

"We wouldn't work well together."

Derek's smirk only grew more pronounced. He knew she was grasping at straws. "I disagree. We just saved a life together. That's generally considered a successful day's work around here."

"You yelled at me. For no reason. In front of everyone, including my intern."

His smile disappeared and his face immediately fell. "I did," he nodded sadly, breaking their eye contact. His tongue darted out nervously to wet his bottom lip, which also served to momentarily distract Meredith from the topic at hand.

"I'm sorry," he apologized suddenly.

"What?" Meredith jumped, breaking out of the daydreams his tongue had caused.

"I shouldn't have done that, so I'm sorry."

"Oh," she said in surprise. "Okay." She hadn't seen that coming.

"I had just run into Addison before you paged," he confessed sadly. "Or really, I had just been corned by Addison. She wanted to talk. About Mark and the baby and…" he trailed off with an overwhelmed sigh.

"You don't need to-"

"No, I do," he said firmly. "I was angry at Addison and I took it out on you. I really am sorry, Meredith."

The sadness in his eyes shattered her heart. He looked completely broken; the opposite of the man who, just 2 minutes before, had been trying to seduce her on to his service. The instinct to comfort him was nearly overpowering.

In a split second decision, she propelled herself into his chest and wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders, trapping him in a hug.

It only took him a moment to get over the shock before he returned her embrace by secured his arms around her waist and tucking his head to the crook of her neck.

Things right now were messy and complicated. Nothing about either of their lives in the near future was going to be easy.

But for the moment, neither of them cared.

If you're following my other fic, Holding You Together, you know that I mean it when I say reviews make me write faster ;)
Let me know what you think!