Chapter Fourteen
Ghosted

A/N I have decided to get through this story which I thought would be easy but I'm finding it very hard (shout now if you want me to keep going) that I will work on it every Tuesday.

Somewhere on the side of the road between New Orleans and Seattle, Oklahoma - July 2023

Meredith had been sitting cross legged on the tarmac outside of the EMCO gas station for three days. The only food she had to eat were some tins of a processed meat substitute and a jar of olives five years passed its expiry date. There was also a pack of chewing tobacco that she'd molded into a freakishly accurate Ken-doll version of Derek. She missed him. Every time she stared down at the Ken-Derek's face she felt like crying. But she didn't, because that wouldn't help her situation. Instead she sat on the tarmac and waited for him to come back. The fork in the jar of olives was starting to get slimy because the juice kept splashing up each time she dropped it back into the jar. She slipped another green pitless offering into her mouth and chewed on the saltiness. The fork slipped back into the jar. Retreated more like. She looked up the sky and began to yell, a despair falling over her. "Why did you leave me here?! What did I do?!" She screwed her eyes tightly and screamed. Trying to let every bad feeling, every curse upon Derek's head, out into the atmosphere.

She was trying hard not to be angry with him, if this really was an accident. But it was proving to be harder than she thought.

Derek kept on driving for a long time before turning around in his seat and realising he hadn't heard anything from Meredith in hours. He pulled the RV over to the side of the road and unbuckled. He swivelled out of the front seat and walked through the aisle until he reached the door to their bedroom. He held up his fist and knocked lightly. When there was no answer, he knocked again. Still nothing. Silence. He pushed open the door and expected to find his wife sprawled out over the covers, having fallen asleep. But the bed was empty. The room was empty too. Derek turned back to the rest of the RV and then his face fell, turning to panic. His fingers grazing his temple.

"Speedy Pump!" He cried out, that'd been the last place he stopped. Yeah, the Speedy Pump, with the red truck, and the... the... fruit stand! "Speedy Pump, with a little red truck and a fruit stand." He said, sliding back into the driver's seat and pulling a large map of Oklahoma out of the glove compartment. "Let's see, Speedy Pump, Speedy Pump, Speedy Pump." His fingers rested over the tiny red gas symbols dotted over the map. Then he switched on the engine and turned the RV a hundred and eighty degrees.

The tyres screeched as he turned, pelting hard against the freeway. She was alone. Meredith should never be alone. Derek spent most of the drive back to the Speedy Pump thinking about how angry she was going to be. He saw it just as sun began to set. The red truck, the fruit stand. He parked and ran out of the doors, circling the gas station three or four times, before he ran out of breath. Everything was here, but not her. He screamed at the stop of his lungs, "MEREDITH!" But she was fifty miles away, she couldn't hear him.

He searched all the Speedy Pumps in the immediate fifty mile area. Then he slumped back into the driver's seat and sighed sadly and exhaustedly. He stared out of the window for a full minute without thinking anything. This was his life now, he didn't go to work, he didn't have date night, he didn't have this place to go and that place. He just had Meredith. And their house, and their RV, and their future. He had all his hopes pinned on the two of them. Without her, he was back where he started, back driving his jeep into a big rock to end it all. He had to find her.

He kept driving around for hours. Widening the search to other types of gas station, stopping at each and running around like a madman. There was no one to stare at him and question, no one to yell "weirdo!" at the top of their lungs. He drove all through the night, retracing each mile stretch of road, backtracking and taking each place at a time.

Eventually he found her. Sitting out the front of an EMCO with her legs crossed over. A doll made of chewing tobacco by her feet. A half-eaten jar of olives in her lap. Her eyes just staring ahead at the horizon. When the RV finally pulled up, she didn't move. She was simultaneously so angry he'd left her and so relieved he was back that the two emotions cancelled each other out. She couldn't move.

Derek ran out of the RV and over to her. He knelt down in front of her and put his palm on her cheek. "I will never leave you again." He said sternly. It was slow and calm and believable.

Meredith blinked once, then nodded slowly. Her rigid expression broke and all the muscles in her face relaxed. She looked down at the jar of olives and then up at him. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah course we can," he said, taking her hand and pulling her onto her feet. She left everything behind because she didn't need it anymore. They walked back to the RV. Her head on his shoulder. "Let's go home." The doors shut, and Meredith sat in the passenger seat. Derek started driving but he was unfocussed, every five seconds he would look over at her.

"Three days I was there Derek, three days. When you say you're not gonna leave me again, you're not gonna leave me again." She said, folding her arms. The spell wearing off once they'd been driving for a few hours.

"I won't, I promise." Derek replied, his eyes ahead. Though there was nothing in particular he was keeping an eye for, there wasn't exactly traffic to watch out for.

"I just think if you were a little more patient, it wouldn't have happened." Meredith continued. Her arms flailing out as she spoke.

"I couldn't hear you, I thought you were still inside the RV." He snapped back, speeding up.

They kept on arguing for a while, as the road stretched out in front of them. It would take them another day to reach Seattle. Every little disagreement they'd had for the past year culminated in them yelling for a few hours, and complete silence for a few more. But by the time they reached the 'You are now entering the state of Washington' sign, the tension had softened.

"I'm sorry," Derek said eventually. "I'm sorry I left you, it was an honest mistake. I'm sorry I stole your tomatoes, I'm sorry that sometimes I wash the colours and the whites together."

Meredith turned to him and laughed. "I'm being ridiculous, aren't I?"

They were turning into the street when she said it, "no, that's ridiculous." Derek said, pointing to the fact that everyone was standing outside in the road watching a shouting match that'd broken out between Callie and Arizona. Meredith nodded in agreement with her husband. On pulling into their driveway, Cristina looked up and waved over. Meredith rose her hand and waved slowly back, she had no idea what they were about to walk into.