Hello!

I don't want to give any spoilers because I want you to be as shocked as Derek is, but this was a request by 'guest' on ao3, and is based in season 9.

Enjoy!

Derek Shepherd had just finished one long, hard surgery. His patient had coded twice, and he was so sure that he had lost her the second time, only for the heart monitor to jump back to life just before he called her time of death. He was tired, and, earnestly, in a little pain from standing for so long, hunched over a brain. But he was happy, because she had survived. He had treated miracle. Perhaps, even, he had been the one to cause the miracle.

He took a well deserved rest in the scrub room, eyes closed and hands resting against the rim of the sink, only for that tranquillity to be abruptly interrupted by the loud buzz of his phone.

He picked it up, ready to decline the call, only to read the name. Meredith. That was the one person who he wouldn't decline, so he pressed the green circle instead, and put his cell to his ear. "Hey Mer, you okay?"

"Derek-"

His heart instantly dropped at the tone of her voice. She sounded so...distraught. "Mer? What's happened? Are you okay? Where are you?"

"I- no. No- I'm not- I mean-" She sniffled. She was so engulfed in tears that she was struggling to get any words out. "I'm- uh- attending's lounge."

He felt a slight wave of relief at that; the attending's lounge was on the east side of the hospital, and he was too, but on the third floor opposed to the fourth. He picked up his pace, and opted for the stairs instead of the elevator. "Okay, listen, I'm going to be there in like thirty seconds. Can you tell me what's going on?"

"I- I can't. It-" She stopped again as she continued to sob. "I- really- I-"

His heart was beating on the high side because he was half-running up the stairs, but he was sure it would be if he wasn't running too. She sounded worse than when they started the call. Whatever had happened had clearly destroyed her. Luckily, he had just reached the corridor of the attending's lounge, and instantly pushed the door open to find his wife with her phone to her ear, and red, puffy eyes.

"Derek-" She sobbed.

"Mer-" He engulfed her in a hug the second he reached her. It was intruded by her large bump, but he ignored that. After a second, he pulled away so he could see her expression, but didn't remove his hands from her. "It's okay, Mer. I'm here. Tell me what's happened."

She shook her head as she bit her lip harder.

"Whatever it is- I will do whatever I can to make it better." He promised her, although he knew there was a flaw with his promise; being a doctor, one of the most likely things that could have upset her was losing a patient, and, as good as he was, he couldn't bring people back from the dead. "Just...tell me what happened, please."

More tears dribbled out of her eyes before she explained, "Someone ate my raspberries."

He took a second to process that.

Someone...ate...her...raspberries?

"What?" He breathed.

"Somebody stole my raspberries from the fridge." She elaborated further, no hint of a joke in her tone. "They're gone. The packet is in the bin and it...they're empty."

"You're crying everywhere because...someone ate your raspberries?" He asked slowly, and tentatively. He felt like he was supposed to be sympathetic, but he wasn't quite sure why he was supposed to be sympathetic.

"What am I going to eat with my pasta now?" She asked, her voice splitting in two. She still sounded so upset. "I need my raspberries."

He tried his best not to laugh at that. His wife was sobbing everywhere like someone had died, because her extremely peculiar craving of pasta and raspberries (at the same time) could not be fulfilled. Of course. Of freaking course. Her hormones were mad. But he didn't laugh, partially because he loved her, and partially because he knew he'd be sleeping on the sofa if he did. "I will go now, and I will get you raspberries, okay? Right now. And I will buy you like- five tubs so you can eat as many as you want, okay?"

She sniffled, but this time in a real effort to stop crying. "Okay. But please be quick."

He kissed her on the head. "I will be back in...five minutes. Maybe start your pasta now and-"

"No." She interrupted. "No pasta without my raspberries."

"Okay." He sighed. "Just...try not to cry too much, okay?"

She nodded as she sat down on the sofa with heavy sigh. "Okay."

He waited a second to see if she'd say anything else before hurrying out of the room.

"Shepherd!" Webber called.

He spun around at that. "Yeah?"

"Meredith is crying in there, is she okay?" He asked, glancing back to the room again.

"She's fine. She's just out of raspberries."

"She...she's crying because she's out of raspberries?" He echoed, the same confusion in his voice that Derek could only presume he had too when she confessed the issue she was having.

"I've learnt not to question it." He smirked. "You shouldn't either, if you want to live until the end of the day. Oh- and maybe tell the raspberry thief not to confess, because I don't want to spend the night in the police station after Meredith beats them to death, okay?"

He smirked back. "Of course."