It was deja-vu for Derek as he sat in the waiting room of the hospital waiting for news about Meredith. It reminded him of being 18 years old after she was in the car accident, and it didn't make him feel good. He knew that she was in the best place and he trusted his co-workers with her life but he still couldn't control the fears that ran through his mind; fears that Ellyse would be left without her mother, her soul parent for the first five years of her life; fears that he would lose her all over again.
It felt like every time things were getting better, they got worse, like the two of them were being punished, more so Meredith, however, him too as he was always the one feeling the panic and grief that came with it. They had been working on Meredith for just under an hour, he knew this because the whole time he'd sat waiting, he had clock watched, which probably made time freeze longer but what more was he supposed to do? He felt helpless.
He heard her name somewhere in the distance.
"Yeah, Meredith Grey. I was called." a male voice told the nurse at the desk.
"Okay, follow me." she replied.
Derek jumped up as recognition dawned on who it was.
"Alex!" he stopped him.
"Derek hey, what happened? They called me to say she was brought in."
"She had a seizure, I don't know." he breathed. "I found her passed out on the bathroom floor."
Alex's eyes flickered around the waiting room, "how long have you been here for?"
"An hour or so, I came in with her."
"Yeah, I'm still her emergency contact so that's why they called me." he said knowingly before turning to the nurse and explaining that Derek should go with them too, she reluctantly agreed.
The nurse took them both to the room where Meredith had been transferred, the chief was there as well as two other doctors who Derek immediately recognised as another intern and a neurologist. The chief explained that all her vitals and blood tests came back as normal, they didn't know what they were looking for.
"You need to do an EEG." Derek demanded.
"Dr Shepherd, those types of tests are expensive and we're not sure we believe there's a reason for her to have one." the neurologist replied.
"She had a seizure! And in case you haven't noticed, she still hasn't regained consciousness!" he lost his calm.
He looked around the room, everyone was looking at him like he was crazy. It was like he was the only one actually living in this situation.
"Do the damn test!" he shouted, not caring that his eyes were now a pool.
"We can do a CT." the chief offered.
"Are you kidding me? She needs an EEG." he pleaded.
"No. I'm sorry Dr Shepherd." and that was final, the two doctors walked out the room leaving himself and Alex.
Meredith was taken to CT and after a fight the chief had allowed Derek and Alex to be present in the room where they awaited her results. Standing there, Alex kept noticing her foot twitch but he ignored it until she did it again, and again, and again.
"She's waking up." he said nodding towards her movement.
A few moments after, she began waking up and sure enough she woke up in a panic, she had no idea where she was. Derek and the others tried to calm her down through the microphone but it wasn't helping so he went to go in.
"You can't go in there, the radiation is too high." the neurologist said.
"Then gown me." he snapped back frustrated at how they had both treated him and Meredith.
"Hey Mer, it's me, you're okay." He smiled as he grabbed her ankle supportively.
"Derek?"
"Yeah, I'm here. Do you know where you are?" he asked.
"Yes, but I don't know how I got here or why I am. I'm scared Derek." she admitted.
"You don't need to be scared Mer, we're going to find out what's wrong. You had a seizure this morning, I found you passed out in the bathroom." he told her, whilst encouraging himself to believe they would find out what caused it.
Just as Derek predicted, the CT scan showed them nothing other than a perfectly healthy brain, or what looked like a perfectly brain but something was clearly not perfect for her to have a seizure. Once Meredith understood what had happened, she told Derek that she remembers feeling very hot and sensitive whilst she stood in the bathroom, telling him that she felt disorientated as she tried to calm herself down before she passed out.
She was released from the hospital after she was given an IV of fluids to hydrate her, they also gave her some vitamins to take every day before she left.
"Where's Ellyse?" she asked as the pulled out of the parking lot.
"She's in school, remember? I left to drop her off this morning whilst you were reading." he turned to her.
"Oh... yeah, yeah." she said nodding hesitantly.
"It's 1:20 now, I don't have to get her until 3. Let's just focus on getting you home and into bed for now. Let me take care of you." he placed his hand on her knee, watching as she nodded her head and closed her eyes.
"Don't go to sleep yet Mer, just wait a little longer okay, we'll get you something to eat first."
Not long after, he pulled up outside her apartment. He had tried to make small talk during the ride home to keep her awake but it was a struggle as all she wanted to do was sleep, she was resounding to him with the nodding or shaking of her head. Derek helped her up into the apartment, settling her on the sofa before running back down to the car to get her stuff. He made her some chicken soup and sat next to her as she ate, her head falling onto his shoulder once she'd finished.
"Why don't I ask your mom to pick up Ellyse?" he asked her, although it wasn't really a question. He didn't want to leave her alone after the morning they'd had. He felt her nodding slowly against his shoulder.
Texting Ellis quickly, he explained what had happened and Ellis responded almost instantly agreeing to pick her granddaughter up, she offered to have her spend the night at her place that she was staying at which Derek considered but he felt that Ellyse had stayed out a lot lately, and he really just wanted her home so he politely declined. Meredith had fell asleep against him so he covered her with a fleecy blanket and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer. He kissed the top of her head as she shifted comfortably into his body. Derek sat there quietly, reflecting on the day, he was angry at the hospital, and at the chief for not doing a better job at taking care of Meredith. It made him worried that they still didn't know what caused her to have a seizure and all he could do was cross his fingers that it wouldn't happen again, and although he had his worries, he felt lucky and grateful that she was home and safely wrapped in his arms. He didn't want to imagine the alternative.
The door bell woke him up, he must have fell asleep because as he looked at the clock, it was now 3:43pm which meant that knock would be Ellis and his daughter. He smiled at the thought of seeing her as she got up off the sofa carefully, trying to not wake up Meredith.
Outside the door, Ellis was holding Ellyse telling her that she needed to be quiet and be good for her mom and dad.
"I'm always good gg." Ellyse chuckled.
"I know you are but your mom had to go to the hospital today so you need to help daddy take extra good care of her."
The door opened and Ellyse jumped into Derek's arms whispering how much she'd missed him and that it had been a long time since she saw him this morning which made him chuckle, the first of the day. He sat her on the sofa next to Meredith quietly and went back to Ellis who was making coffee in the kitchen.
"They refused to do anything really, a blood test and CT scan was all they did." he told her.
"Really? They should have done a EEG, she had a seizure for god sake!" Ellis whispered angrily.
"I know, I told them the same thing but the chief told me they had no reason to believe it was that serious." he shook his head.
"What an ass. If it were up to me, I'd take her back home to Seattle and have the doctors in Seattle Grace do a complete work up on her, the chief there, he adores her, not to mention that I work there." she suggested.
"We can't just move across the country though Ellis, our jobs are here, Ellyse has only just started kindergarten, our lives are here."
"I know, but it seems that no one here is willing to do anything, what if she has another seizure?"
"If she has another one, I'm sure they'll do one then."
"What if it kills her before she gets there? It's a horrible thought but it happens Derek, we've both seen it." she told him right before her pager went off. "I have to go, I have a phone consult. Keep me updated." she said, quickly saying goodbye to Ellyse and placing a kiss on Meredith's forehead, leaving Derek alone in the kitchen with his thoughts.