Chapter Seven

I like to moove it moove it

Seattle, Washington - July 2022

The cow wandered lowly in the street, she was hungry. The last meal she'd had was a munch on some grass a few miles back, and the walk had been strenuous. She panted a while and took another step, her hooves exhausted and aching as she'd been travelling for months. It seemed like no means to an end, that she would be wondering forever. A tiring feat.

She remembered the day he let her out. He was in a hurry, she could tell that much. He manhandled her out through the fence gate and gave her a slap - told her to get moving away the city otherwise she'd suffer. He saw it as a kindness, he let all his animals out that day; the day he started coughing. A splatter of blood was left in drops on his hand as he held a cloth to his face. He lead her out into the fields and waved as she trotted off and didn't look back.

A farmer waving away a cow to save her. And she didn't even look back. She couldn't feel grateful for something she didn't understand. She had no idea of the bodies littering roads that had awaited her, now she knew. Or at least she'd seen. As she wandered aimlessly now, time seeming to take its own twists and turns, she had no idea just how long she'd been walking.

Meredith was on her way back from the grocery store when she spotted the cow wandering lowly in the street. She was driving at a usual steady pace when she saw the cow standing in the middle of the road. She swerved, pulling the car into a side street before slapping off her seatbelt and running out onto the empty tarmac. She hung back by the car for a few seconds as she held out her hands and gently approached the animal.

"Wow." Was all she could say, then she let the excitement wash over her. She clapped her hands together then ran out to meet the cow. She gave the cow's neck a stroke, and closed her eyes for a few seconds as she breathed in the cattle scent, in a weird way she missed it. Then in the second that it took for the nostalgia to kick in she realised the cow smell was actually quite unbearable and repealed.

Then she took a look back at her car and realised it would not be suitable for taking the cow back to the cul-de-sac, so she pulled her walkie out of her back pocket. "Come in Owen." She said, giving it at least ten seconds before trying again and then deciding obviously couldn't pull himself off of Cristina for long enough to answer her. So she called for Derek.

And ten minutes later he appeared with his pickup and gave her a blank look, she hadn't exactly explained what was going on. His jaw dropped when he saw the cow, the thought of having milk in his coffee again was too much that he had to grip Meredith before processing it. "I miss cheese." Was all he managed to mutter as they loaded the cow into the truck and drove back to the cul-de-sac.

Both Cristina and Owen were thrilled by the prospect of dairy products being back in their lives. Almost as much as they liked sucking each other's faces. Nearly, but not quite. Owen also confessed that he knew how to milk a cow (Meredith wasn't entirely sure why that was part of army training but she let it slide.)

Derek, on the other hand, whilst being initially excited about the cow - who was now tied by rope to a post outside Owen's van whilst they tried to find a proper pen for her - he was now having doubts about his own role in the group. In fact, they were sitting in bed one night - a normal night time routine for them which included reading their current books and eating whatever can of food happened to be for dinner. They had other activities of course, but we won't go into that right now.

Derek had been feeling particularly redundant all day so he said, "Mer, am I useful?" Meredith pulled a face, a 'what on Earth are you talking about face?' to which he had an already planned pun that was shoved to the back of his brain. "Ok, I mean, I don't feel like much of a provider for you, for us. You planted your own tomatoes and you found the cow, I mean you're doing pretty ok without me." He explained, leaving her to puzzle him out.

"Derek, you're my husband, you don't have to be useful. I love having you around, that's kind of the whole point. So no ever leaving me ok?" She said, unsure about where the place his arguments were coming from was an entirely healthy one. She also wondered about his past. When they'd met he hadn't been wearing a wedding ring, but had he been married before the virus, did he have any kids? Was he who he said he was? Did he have any siblings? She knew hardly anything about his life before and it hit her now that she hardly knew this man at all. She still found a way to love him though.

So she put down her book, sighed as per usual, and took his hand in hers. "I love you Derek Shepherd, whether you like it or not so button it about being useful and tell me this." Derek kind of liked the authoritative tone she was taking with him, and a part of him - a very manly part - was getting quite excited by the many prospects that voice proposed. "One thing about you that I don't know but would surprise me." She said, and waited patiently for the answer.

Derek thought on it, and decided to keep the secret of his ex-wife hidden for a little longer. She was gone and they were divorced and she hardly mattered to this moment, so he said. "Well, I grew up with four sisters. And now they didn't like the braid my hair, and yes they were all annoying. Except maybe Amy - Amelia, the youngest, she was always different than the others, curiouser perhaps, and she was fun. I don't know what happened to them, what happened to any of them, I suppose they all got the virus and died but I never checked, you know?" He said, a little weepy all of a sudden as his childhood came flooding back to him. He hadn't wanted to cry in front of Meredith but now it was happening it didn't seem all that bad. She took his hand and squeezed it, leaving little white pressure marks pocked all over him, but them she gave him a kiss, and ran a hand through his hair and they went to bed on a promise to spill all their secrets to one another in the morning. For they had all the time in the world.