Unbroken
Chapter 15
Mark spotted Derek on the overpass; even from where he stood, he could tell that Derek was hurting. Something had obviously happened, and he was not too sure, whether he should approach, or just stay away. Finally, he chooses to approach. He was sent here after all to find him, Mark moved to walk towards him with a bit of an edge in his step he did not know whether this was a good idea, whether Derek just wanted to be left alone.
He thought about Meredith back in the hospital bed, and as much as he did not want to admit it, he knew that he needed her to be ok, but Derek needed her to live. So he continued towards him, only stopping when he reached his side and looked out over the over pass too.
They stood there in silence for a while both being alone with their thoughts both extremely worried about the outcome and the ramifications Derek spoke first, taking Mark completely off guard.
"You need this life, you need my... your little girl" Derek tells him.
"I'll walk away if that's what you want." Mark counters
Both boys stop and look at each other, neither having expected these words to ever fly, and if they were going to, they thought it would have happened sooner.
"I know what you have lost because of me in the past," Derek says as he keeps his focus on the world outside the hospital.
"Addison?" Mark asked, "She told you?"
Derek nodded. "I have the feeling she is kicking herself now, but yeah she told me." He replied.
Mark stayed quiet for a long time
"I don't want to take Meredith away from you Derek, she needs you. Loves you." Mark said, "But I need my baby girl. I want to be her father. We need to sort this out."
Derek turned to stop looking out over Seattle and for the first time in a long time, stopped and actually saw his best friend. Some one whom he had loved for a long time, before the girls, before the medicine, before everything else.
"I won't take her away from you," he said softly as he felt his anger begin to peters out
"Thank you"
"Good, I kind of promised Meredith forever and I didn't really want to walk away from her again. So if I'm staying that means that I'm there with the baby, just like before, can you handle that Mark?"
Then mark looks at him, finally understanding how differently Derek has been seeing things. Clearing his throat, as he looked his "brother" over he stated.
"I never expected you to walk away from them I was just feeling like I was being left out in the cold while you two build the perfect family with my daughter."
Derek nods in understanding. "Our daughter." he murmurs.
Mark and Derek both go quiet as they turn to look back out over Seattle.
"I wonder what mom would say if she knew the predicament that we had gotten ourselves into." Derek asks.
Mark chuckles at the comment; he too can only imagine it.
"Come on man, let's go see Mer, we can figure out everything else later." Mark states, slapping his best friend on the back, feeling that everything was now feeling considerably lighter