A/N- I think Meredith and Derek would have reached the point where they could really start opening up to each other about things, and I think that Bailey and Meredith have quite a good relationship early on and I wanted to nurture that a little rather than forget about it. We see Derek and Miranda's friendship quite a lot but not Bailey and Meredith and I think they should have a good relationship so I'm giving them one. Enjoy!

It was 2am before Meredith found Derek in the on call room. Bailey had asked her to scrub in on an emergent general case on a young woman, and Meredith had stood in the OR for seven hours whilst Bailey had tried to save the woman's life. She was stable when Meredith left, but neither could be sure if she'd make it through the night. Bailey had sent Meredith to get a few hours rest, knowing that she was on until eight the next evening and would need to get some sleep if she was going to make it through the day. She crawled in beside Derek, his arms instinctively wrapping around her as he uttered a barely audible 'I love you' as she lay her head down on the pillow. She kissed him quickly before snuggling against him, safe in his arms. She'd seen Rose today, but she didn't feel angry or hurt or betrayed like she thought she would, she actually felt sorry for her. Derek and Meredith were the golden couple at Seattle Grace, and Rose had probably honestly believed that she had a shot, only for Derek to tell her he only ever wanted Meredith. Now everyone was learning about the kiss thanks to the gossip train that was speeding around the hospital, and she had to live with people whispering and laughing at her for believing that she might have a shot. Meredith had shot her a small smile as she walked past, pitying her for how much she had lost because of something so insignificant. She knew in that moment that she'd forgiven Derek completely, it somehow eased the hurt to know that she hadn't really lost anything, if anything it made her love Derek more, and it made him realise how much he wanted her even with her issues. She slept peacefully for a good three and a half hours before her pager went off, not much, but long enough to feel refreshed, and happy that she still got to wake up in Derek's arms.

Meredith didn't get the chance for any more sleep, as her patient's SATs began to drop when she got there, and Bailey made the decision to take her back into surgery to fix some bleeding, and perform a splenectomy that she'd been trying to avoid for her patient's sake. The surgery was longer than they expected, and in an ideal world the patient would've been far more stable than she was going in but the surgery was once again successful, and they wheeled her into recovery just as her parents arrived. Bailey took the lead on explaining the case to them, directing all questions to Meredith. Bailey assigned her to staying close by the patient for the rest of the day, monitoring her SATs and labs and making regular reports to dr. Bailey. It was disappointing to watch though, and by lunchtime, Meredith knew that if the SATs didn't pick up soon, the patient wouldn't make it through the rest of the day. She went and sat with the woman's parents for a while in the afternoon, learning about the kind of person she was, a newly qualified 1st grade teacher who loved her job, who was on her way home from school and planning on visiting her parents when she was hit by the other driver. Meredith was saddened by how much she'd achieved by 26, such a strong character, such a zest for life, with so much still to accomplish. She thought about her self at that age. Still at Dartmouth with a mother who was starting to forget things that she should remember easily. If Meredith had died at 26, no one would've much cared, but this girl had a whole school that would miss her presence on the playground, and by the sound of it, a large extended family that worshipped the ground she walked on. It made Meredith incredibly grateful for Seattle Grace, the place where she met her friends, her colleagues, her mentor, her pseudo father, her sister, and the love of her life. She had people if she died tomorrow who'd miss her, she finally had an army. The woman's SATs had picked up slightly by the time Bailey came around at 6pm, intending to spend the final two hours of her and Meredith's shifts sifting through the paperwork and hoping that they could leave the family with good news for the night. But two surgeries in a short space of time can take their toll on any body, and when the monitors started to flash at 7.30, they both knew that she'd given up the fight. Despite their best efforts, Meredith had to call it at 8.03. the pair left the room to tell the parents that their daughter hadn't survived, and spent some time with them consoling them and explaining what their next steps would be. After a few pained 'thank you's and hugs in appreciation for trying both Miranda and Meredith were exhausted, and not merely because they'd spent nearing 20 hours on their feet in the last day with just three hours sleep. Meredith got halfway to the nurses station before she broke down completely, all the pain and the sadness at the injustice of the case combined with the memories of herself and her mother all coming to the surface at once. Bailey took her in her arms and rubbed her back gently, leading her into an empty conference room for some privacy.

"It's just so unfair," Meredith sobbed as her cries died down slightly. "She was so young and she had so much to... and I... and it's just not fair."

"I know," Miranda rubbed her arms, "I know, its always the ones who have so much to offer, and so much left to achieve that go first. The ones that don't deserve it get all the bad stuff. I know it hurts sweetie, I know it's hard when you see yourself in a patient. She seemed as though she would've been a lot like you. But sweetie, the world would've been a much worse place if you hadn't been here. I'd've had to deal with Shepherd and those idiots you call friends all by myself. Never doubt how brilliant you are Grey. Never underestimate just how important your being here is to so many people."

"How did you?" Meredith said looking confusedly at her mentor.

"I'm Bailey, I know everything." she joked before putting an arm around Meredith's waist, "now go home to that cocky neurosurgeon boyfriend of yours. I'm going home to see my baby. I've had to miss two bedtimes, so I'm going home and I'm staying home." she walked to the residents lounge with Meredith, who quickly changed and grabbed her stuff ready to go snuggle up with her cocky neurosurgeon boyfriend for some much needed sleep in his arms.

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Derek heard Meredith come in at around eleven, almost three hours after her shift ended, he heard her sniffling as she changed out of her clothes and used the bathroom in the dark so the light wouldn't wake him. He heard her try and calm herself before she slid in next to him, her tiny weight barely making an impression on the bed. He knew it'd been a bad day, that she needed someone right then to make it all better.

"I'm sorry she didn't make it." he said gently as she sobbed into her pillow putting his protective arm over her "I'm so sorry."

"I miss her." Meredith said after a few minutes. "I really miss her." Derek wondered for a second at who she meant before he realised. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, knowing how painful it was to be without a parent.

"I miss my dad." he assured her, "not as much now, but sometimes I just wish I could talk to him, I wish I could tell him about you. He'd like you a lot, not least because you're gorgeous and clever and a really talented surgeon. I think he'd love you like I do, just the way you are." Meredith's sobs calmed slightly and she turned to face Derek, a few tears escaping his eyes. She knew he was fatherless, but he didn't talk about it much, so she knew very few of the details, other than he'd been fourteen when it happened.

"I was talking to my mom earlier after you left to go into surgery, and we were talking about the day it happened, he was shot, in the store we had. It was just me and Amy in the store closet, and they shot him. And mom was saying how she found this envelope in one of the drawers in the kitchen, and it'd been there totally untouched until yesterday, like she hadn't even realised it was there. It was a card, their anniversary was a few weeks later, Dad was going to take her away, he didn't have tickets, he just wrote on a piece of paper, 'iou one cruise'. And she'd never found it, she said she just cried for ages, at this one silly little thing. She hadn't thought about him like that in such a long while, and then suddenly there he is, standing in our kitchen again laughing at Lizzie or teasing Kathleen about her boyfriend. Only one he ever met. It was like she'd gone back 24 years and then she remembered and that's when it hurt again. You forgot for a while Meredith, that's why it hurts, that's why the bit of your patient that reminded you of her hurt so much. I wish I could make it better, stop you feeling the pain, but I cant. I'm here though, I'm always here." he kissed her forehead, pulling her in tighter.

"She used to call me Roo, like in the book, said I was so bouncy that I reminded her of this character in this book she used to read. Like in the womb, I'd jump around and wake her up, and when I was tiny I'd jump everywhere, she told me once how she was sure I'd fall one day, break something, but I never did, I just seemed to know how far I could go. Good surgical skill she said, I think I was just lucky. She didn't call me it for years then right before I left for Europe before I started medical school, we had this argument, and she called me Roo again, like she'd never stopped, and I just listened to these parents talking about their daughter. Joelle, but they called her Joey, and her dad called her Roo. And I just wanted my Mom to call me Roo again. Just once more, so the last time I remember it wouldn't be her calling me a disappointment, wouldn't be how high her hopes had been for me only for me to turn out ordinary. I just needed to be Roo one more time before she left, just once more." Meredith let the tears come, they needed to. Derek kissed her, and she reciprocated as she undid the string on his sweatpants, letting him do the same, letting him kiss her and touch her and make love to her. She fell asleep naked in his arms, safe in his arms, glad that after the kiss, after the hurt the making love was still the only thing she needed when she cried. Sex was always good with them, but making love would always be special to her. He was the love of her life, and making love was just one of things that made her certain of just how much she loved him.