A/N- so this appeared from nowhere, and I definitely don't like it very much, and it was never in my plan to have this happen, it was going to be a cause for an argument, which this definitely isn't! I want to say enjoy, but I don't know that it's possible in this chapter. I will make one promise though, it gets better!

Disclaimer- of course it isn't mine, no MerDer other than them sitting next to each other? If Grey's were mine that would never happen! And also, I'm not medically trained in the slightest except for burns so Google is the main source of my medical knowledge. So if it's not perfect, I apologize!

October seemed to fly by for Meredith, she was still very much on cloud 9 after Derek's proposal, often finding herself playing with the ring, which still felt strange on her finger, or staring intently at it, thinking about all that it represented both now and in the future. Being at the hospital where everyone knew your business, she often found herself being stopped in the corridors so that both doctors and nurses and other staff members could catch a glimpse of the infamous ring. Meredith hated to admit it, but she actually enjoyed being the centre of attention for a little while. It was nice to talk to people about something other than the crap in her past, or her previously poor decision making skills. Instead to be known as Derek's fiancée rather than the slutty intern after a year of being whispered about every time they so much as made eye contact. Naturally there were still whispers, and it was quite clear that many of the nurses thought that she wasn't anywhere near good enough for Derek, scoffing and tutting when he kissed her, or whispering that she was probably pregnant, that there was no way he could truly love her otherwise. Old Meredith would've hated it, but new, happily engaged Meredith found it hilarious that people could be so jealous of her relationship that they felt the need to be mean or rude, even if it was behind her back. If Derek was nearby when the worst of the rumour-spreaders were around, she made sure that she had a sarcastic comment or two about the pettiness. Derek was far more obvious about showing his love for her when the nurses were watching, often literally sweeping her off her feet for a kiss. And Meredith was enjoying every second.

Derek revelled in her newfound happiness, taking every opportunity for public displays of affection much to their colleagues' disgust. Whenever she had a surgery, he made an effort to watch if he was free, coming to find her at the end for a kiss, claiming it to be purely a contact high. She'd taken to occasionally 'accidentally' walking down the corridors when he was coming out of surgery, knowing that if he had a good outcome he'd want to celebrate, and if it were a bad one, he'd want her to comfort him. If either spotted the other between procedures, they always made the effort to slide in a quick kiss or hug and a 'how's your day going', it wasn't that that hadn't been the case before, so much as now they simply wanted to be with each other as much as possible. They wanted forever and always to mean exactly that. Together always. And forever.

Meredith's friends had been supportive in the only way they knew how, by making jokes, and laughing about the kind of wedding Derek would want. All except Izzie that is, who was already collecting wedding magazines and brochures of local venues for Meredith to thumb through, making sure to circle dresses and shoes and items that she thought Meredith should have as part of her big day. Alex took to shouting 'get a room' whenever he saw the pair looking deep into the others eyes, or simply working alongside each other. Mark had tried to embarrass the couple by asking Derek if he'd like a repeat prescription of ED drugs, receiving a rather loud and far too public telling off by Meredith, who offered to show Mark just how well Derek's penis worked. Derek wasn't sure whether to be proud of his scrappy little fiancée or mortified by the mere suggestion of allowing Mark to watch them in bed together. He instead took Meredith up to his office to cool down, Mark walking away with his tail between his legs, reminding himself not to mess with Meredith anytime soon.

They were happy, and although that was hard sometimes when you work in a place that sees death on a daily basis, the hospital was happy too. Meredith and Derek finally getting engaged was just one more reminder that there was hope, that everyone could get their happily ever after, they just had to be willing to fight as hard as Meredith and Derek did.

Meredith was really enjoying her time at work, spreading herself across the specialties to ensure that she definitely wanted to go into general, or paeds or neuro. The department changed almost on a daily basis, but she knew she had time. She'd signed up for Halloween in the pit, knowing the injuries were often as gruesome as the costumes. Until then, she was getting in as many hours as she could so that when she put in a request for time off at Christmas, the chief would let her go.

Having switched shifts with Cristina earlier in the month so that she could avoid a birthday dinner with her mother, Cristina asked Meredith to cover hers, and even though it was her first day off in over a week, Meredith obliged, knowing that banking hours was only ever going to be a good thing. She'd been assigned to the pit, finding herself doing sutures and minor debridement, mind-numbing, but ultimately good practice. She'd just finished bandaging her patients arm when an ambulance pulled into the trauma bay. Meredith quickly got into her trauma gown following the gurney into the trauma bay as the paramedic reeled off the information.

"32 year old female, Catherine Everitt deep lacerations to the upper arm and thigh on the left side, refused to let us examine her or the baby, and won't give us any information on what happened." Nicole pulled Meredith to one side, "I don't think the baby has been breathing for a while, she was found in the park, the warden gave us a call when he saw the cuts." Meredith eyed the blue blankets in the woman's arms, a tiny, pale face peeking out from between them.

"Grey, do you have this?" Dr. Webber asked her, gesturing to the woman. A group of ambulances was being brought in from the opposite side of the area after a crash, and it would be all hands on deck when they rolled in, so the lacerations were minor enough that Meredith could handle them alone.

"Yes sir," She answered, getting straight to work as the woman's vitals were being read by the machines she was being hooked up to by the nurses in the bay. "Somebody page paeds for a consult for the baby please?" She looked at the patient in the eye. "Okay Ms Everitt, I'm Dr. Grey, can I take a look at your arm and your thigh?"

"My baby," She said in a haunted voice. "My… my baby."

"We've got a paediatrician coming down to take a look at your baby, would you mind laying him down so I can take a look at you?" She gestured to the bassinet that one of the nurses had brought in. Catherine looked at it, and reluctantly handed Meredith the bundle. Meredith tried not to react when she saw the blue face of the child, who had clearly been dead for some time. The paediatric doctor on call came in, and Meredith shot him a look that spoke volumes.

"Ms Everitt, they just want to take your son to another room to examine him, is that okay, and you can see him as soon as you're done here?" Meredith said slowly, ensuring the patient was taking in her words, she appeared to be in shock, and Meredith was concerned about how she obtained the injuries. The buzz of activity began to die down as the nurses were called elsewhere, leaving Meredith to take a look at the lacerations. "These are pretty nasty cuts Ms Everitt, how did you get them?"

"I fell," was all she replied. Meredith frowned, knowing that it was probably a lie, but the mystery surrounding the patient causing Meredith to be cautious of her home life and her mental state. She examined the worse of the two wounds, that on her arm, cutting away the material of the woman's shirt to get a better look.

"It looks fairly clean, but I think you're definitely going to need some stitches. Could you get me a suture kit?" she asked her intern who quickly got up to gather the requested item, "And could you get a status update on Ms Everitt's son please?" The intern scurried off and Meredith began to inspect the second wound. "This isn't so deep, but I'd like to put in a few sutures to keep it closed. Do you know what you cut it on? Maybe a knife or a nail in the wall. We don't want you to get an infection."

"I fell, I don't know anymore." The woman said, looking Meredith in the eye and sending shivers down her spine.

"Okay, well we'll get you a shot of tetanus to be on the safe side and something for the pain if you'd like."

"Thank you." The woman replied as Meredith reeled off her request to a passing nurse.

"How old is your little boy?" Meredith asked trying to distract her patient from the pain as she began to wash it gently, smiling at the nurse who placed the syringes on her trolley. "Okay small pinch, you should start to feel a little more numb soon."

"He's four months, Jake, he's my world, he has colic, but it's fine, I love him anyway." Meredith smiled as she continued to clean the wound. "His dad left, couldn't take the crying, so it's just me, but I love him, and that's all that matters right?"

"Sure," Meredith agreed. "As long as he knows you loved him." Her intern walked back into the room with the suture kit, looking at Meredith and shaking her head slightly, confirming Meredith's suspicions about the baby.

"Asphyxiation." The intern mouthed. "They're gonna send down psych." Meredith nodded as she began to place the sutures the way she'd been taught, taking as much care as possible so that the scars would be minimal. As she was finishing she heard a knock on the door and saw the on call psychiatrist waiting behind it, a policeman right behind him.

"Dr. Withers, would you mind asking them to wait just a few minutes, while I finish up here."

"Of course dr. Grey," her intern left the room, and Meredith could see her and the pair talking, and nodding, so she sat down opposite her patient, taking her hands.

"Catherine," she began. "I need to talk to you about Jake."

"He's going to be fine, you said they'd look after him, he has to be fine, he's my baby, my baby…"

"Catherine, I'm so sorry…"

"NO!" she screamed. "No! he was crying and it made him stop crying, he's fine, he has to be, no I don't believe you, you're just trying to take him away from me you think I'm a bad mother, you think I can't do this. You didn't say the words, he's fine. Tell me he's fine Dr., Grey."

"Catherine, Jake died. He's dead." She paused for a second trying to form a sentence that would make things any easier to comprehend. "The doctors think that he died a while before you brought him in, probably last night. He suffocated. He couldn't get any air into his lungs and eventually that killed him."

"You're wrong!" she screeched standing up, "I love him, I didn't hurt him, I didn't"

"Mrs. Everitt." Meredith held her arms out to the young woman in an effort to get her to sit back down, "Mrs. Everitt." Meredith began to get scared, knowing that she needed back up, but calling for help would only agitate the patient further. She looked towards the door in the hope that her intern and the psychiatrist were done talking. To her horror, there wasn't a single soul outside the door. She turned to face the patient again, only to feel something collide with her cheek. She quickly put her hand to her cheek, feeling the blood seeping out onto her fingers. She turned once more, knowing that she had to get out of the room, she had to get help. Before she got there, she felt something heavy hit her on the back of the head, falling forwards, she hit her face hard on the trolley, the pain almost unbearable, as she crumpled on the ground and the world went black.

The psychiatrist and the police officer saw the young woman flee from the room, and ran after her, hot on her heels, as they called for security to be alerted. Meredith's intern slowly opened the door to the trauma bay, and cried out at what she saw. Her superior lying crumpled on the floor, the pool of blood around her head slowly growing. Meredith began to groan, the smell of blood infiltrating her nostrils, the pain in her head unbearable.

"Dr. Grey?" her intern called hoping for some response. Meredith moved to turn her head but the intern stopped her. "No, don't try to move, I'm going to get help."

"Derek," Meredith croaked. "I need Derek."

"I need some help in here!" She heard her intern yell. "Page Dr. Sloan and Dr. Shepherd. Dr. Grey is hurt, badly I think." A flurry of activity came into the room, easing her onto a board, and up from the floor, her face covered in blood, her cheek swelling, and the bump on her head large and horribly painful.

"Derek." She said again as Mark Sloan entered the room, a friendly face in amongst the madness, Bailey right behind him.

"What in the hell happened Grey?" She exclaimed, "And where is Dr. Shepherd?"

"She cut me when I…" she shut her eyes as Mark touched her sore cheek and swallowed thickly. "I tried to calm her down, and when I tried to call for help, she hit me with something, something big, I fell…" Bailey and Sloan looked around the small room, trying to decipher what the patient had hit Meredith with. An IV pole lay on the ground, Meredith's blood spotted on it. "Where's Derek, I need him?" Mark prodded her cheek once more, making Meredith wince.

"I'm gonna need to put a few stitches in there," He informed her as Bailey took out her pen light to perform a basic neuro work up, finding Meredith's pupillary response to be normal. "But I'm worried about your cheekbone, did you hit it on the way down, on the trolley or the bed?"

"I don't know," Meredith replied, "No… no needles until Derek gets here."

"Okay, Dr. Bailey would you mind ordering an x-ray and a CT just to be on the safe side, and make sure Derek gets here soon."

"No problem," She answered. "Grey, we got this, don't worry about a thing. Derek is on his way."

Derek was deep into his surgery when he heard the door of the OR open and a flustered Dr. Bailey enter the room.

"Dr. Bailey," he said calmly but sternly, removing his tools for a moment "I prefer a little quiet when I have my hands in a man's brain."

"I'm very sorry Dr. Shepherd, but they need you for a consult down in the pit."

"Isn't there anyone else available, I'm in the middle of a surgery?"

"Taylor's on his way here, but the patient… the patient is Dr. Grey."

Derek let out a terrified noise somewhere between a gasp and a cry.

"Is she okay? What happened?"

"An incident with a patient. Dr. Sloan is checking her external injuries, but she hit her head, and she's asking for you, they thought you'd want to be there." Taylor entered from the scrub room, walking over to where Derek is and carefully taking the tools.

"Go, be with Meredith, I'll finish up here." He said quickly observing where Derek had got to with his surgery.

"Thank you." Was all Derek could muster as he headed towards the scrub room, scrubbing out as quickly as possible. He followed Dr. Bailey down to where Meredith was rushing to her side and grabbing her hand.

"Meredith sweetie are you okay?"

"She's fine," Mark confirmed. This lac on her face is pretty nasty, but I'll bury my stitches, it shouldn't leave a scar, and I just want to get a check on this cheekbone, she hit pretty hard, I've ordered an x-ray to confirm whether it's broken, and a head CT. I think it's concussion but just to be on the safe side."

"Oh my god," Derek exclaimed as Meredith turned to look at him blearily, the pain beginning to take effect. "A patient did this?"

"Yeah, they caught her and took her up to psych, Meredith had to tell her that her baby hadn't been breathing for at least 24 hours, and she clearly didn't take the news well." Derek looked at his friend desperately, willing him to say that it wasn't really happening, to wake him up from the nightmare he was living. The pair were interrupted by a nurse entering the room to confirm Meredith's place in CT was ready. Dr. Bailey inserted a syringe of pain meds into Meredith's arm causing her to grip Derek's hand tightly, whimpering as it was pulled out once more, and lying back in the bed her eyes closed, whimpering in both fear and pain. Derek had never seen her look so helpless, even when she'd drowned, she had remained stoic and strong. The Meredith whose hand he gripped tightly was far from the one he knew, and it terrified him. He had watched as they fought to save her when she was dead on the table for hours, but somehow this was worse, seeing her face and the pain she was in at the hands of a patient, that was utterly heart breaking.

"Meredith, it's all gonna be fine, I'm gonna be right here the whole time. You're gonna be absolutely fine." He said not knowing what else to say. He held her hand as they wheeled her to CT and loaded her into the scanner, her tiny frame looking smaller than ever alone on the machine. He watched her slowly go into the machine, praying that the results were better than the thoughts spinning around his head in that moment. A thousand awful diagnoses, each more horrible than the last chasing around his brain, torturing him as he fought his tears.

By the time Meredith had been to both CT and x-ray, and put into a room, her friends and colleagues had gotten wind of the incident, waiting by the nurse's station as she was wheeled in to wait for her results. The CT had appeared clear, though she was displaying the signs of a concussion. Even Derek had to agree that the safest place for her was the hospital, even if he knew that that was the last place she'd want to be. For the first time in weeks, he had no idea what to say to her, no idea how to make it better, he simply held her hand as she drifted in and out of sleep, the concussion and the pain medication joining forces. He kissed her hand every time her eyes flickered open, reassuring her that he was there, smiling as much as he could opening his mouth to talk, but other than offering her water, he couldn't come up with much else. He was grateful when Mark finally came in with the x-rays.

"So?" Derek prompted, silently praying that there wasn't anything too bad to worry about.

"Er, well we have a few things to discuss…" He looked nervous, which put Derek on edge, Meredith sensed the tension between the two before speaking up.

"Come out with it Sloan." Meredith scolded him, the longest sentence she'd managed all day. "How badly did she mess up my face?"

"She fractured your cheekbone, but it's stable, so you won't need surgery so that's good. It's gonna be sore as hell, and Derek is going to have to wait on you hand and foot for a while, and you can't blow your nose until it's healed properly, but given the circumstances, you're pretty lucky. Policy states that you have to talk to psych and the lawyers as well at one point but if you want me to hold them off for a while that's okay. And the chief says anything you need is yours, you'll obviously need some time off, but he's up for negotiation. Obviously you'll be here until at least tomorrow, so you don't have to think about anything now. The police are going to need a statement though, that can't wait too long I'm afraid. If you're okay with it, I'll send them in and then check on you later?"

"Send them all in," Meredith said. "If I can get this all over with quickly, more's the better, I just want to go home."

Derek held her hand as she spoke to each person in turn recounting as much information as she could, discussing her feelings and thoughts on the mental state of the patient that beat her with an IV pole after bringing in a dead baby. By the time she was done talking, she was exhausted, her eyelids heavy as she tried to reassure her fiancé that she was fine by squeezing his palm and smiling as much as her sore cheek would allow.

"Derek?" she croaked as she fought to stay awake just a few more minutes after the last person had gone.

"What is it?" He asked her, snapping out of his reverie and standing up beside her poised to get anything she may need.

"Don't leave." She begged, not wanting to be alone. Even though the hospital was filled with her friends and people that would look out for her, she just wanted Derek. He took away her pain, and she needed that tonight. Derek swallowed thickly, forcing back his tears at her tiny voice, and simple request.

"Never," he smiled gently, "So long as you have that ring on your finger, I'm going nowhere."

"Okay," she nodded as her eyelids finally fluttered closed. "I love you."

As her snores began to fill the room, Derek sighed. "I love you too Meredith, I love you too." He sat back down in his chair, pushing it forward so he could be as close to her as possible. He let the tears come then. Tears at the pain he couldn't force away, at the fear that she must have been feeling, embarrassment at the fact that everyone by now knew what had gone on. He couldn't bear to think of her in pain or suffering in any way, she was his fiancée, he was supposed to protect her, and in his eyes he had failed to do that. He cried in relief that she had been awake and responsive, even though she had been obviously terrified that her injuries were life threatening. She whimpered in her sleep, and he knew she was having a nightmare, probably about the day's events. It was then that he climbed up beside her in the bed, careful of the wires and held her tightly in his arms, promising her over and over again that he was there, and that he would be always. And forever.

A/N- yeah, I tried to redeem myself at the end, badly! Things will be better in the next chapter, though it is unwritten, so it may be far from happily ever after. As ever, leave me your thoughts and ideas about any and everything. I love getting your reviews they make me very happy!