Ah, one chapter left! Then there will be kisses, and hugs, and weddings (uh, Jen's wedding, not Merders, unfortunately), and domestic Merder, and stupid dorky jokes, and all that cuteness again!

Enjoy...a little bit?

She sat up instantly at the idea, pulling the leads of a 12-wire EKG and the IV of two bags so hard all were almost pulled off or out of her skin.

"You mean- Derek- you're saying he was-"

"No, no, no- he wasn't on the one that crashed. He's fine." Aaron replied extremely quickly, knowing what went through her head at the mention of Derek. He, and everyone else in the room, knew that they had split, but they also all knew the nature of their breakup. They still loved each other and they still cared about each other. A lot.

"He's okay? You're sure he's okay?" She asked, barely giving him a second to finish. She knew it was rude, but she didn't care; she just had to know. Had to.

"He's fine. He was waiting for the ferry to go on it, and he watched it when it crashed, but he wasn't anywhere near it. When the ambulances started arriving with all this stuff, I saw him and talked to him. He went and got one of the spare med bags and a jacket so patients would know he was a doctor, and he went and helped whoever he could." Aaron explained. "That patient you were talking about- he helped you with the boy with the broken leg."

She needed a neurosurgeon. And then...and then she had one. And he was okay. And the boy had cried, but he was fine.

His eyebrows creased at her expression. "Do you remember now?"

"I heard you were looking for a neurosurgeon?"

She looked up instantly. She would have loved to earnestly be able to say she did that because a neurosurgeon was what her patient needed, but that's not why she did it so quickly she felt a small crack in her neck. "Derek."

"Also heard the little man has asthma." He pulled an inhaler out of the medical bag on his lap, and handed it to her.

"What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"I have a thing for ferry boats." He said with a small smile. "I'm absolutely fine, I wasn't anywhere near the dock or the ferry at the time."

"You were just...here?" She asked. He was in his regular clothes, but had the same Seattle Grace jacket she was wearing on over his hoodie and had a large medical bag on his lap, open.

"I was waiting. For the ferry. The one that-" He turned round a little to look at it. "I...yeah."

"Jesus Christ." She sighed. If he'd gotten on a stop earlier or the ferry had crashed after it had docked and left, they'd be having a very different conversation. Or perhaps they wouldn't be having a conversation at all.

"I know. I'm very aware."

"Are you feeling okay though? My adrenaline would be wild."

He dropped the bag on the floor beside her. "Coping. But, yeah, I'm rather...freaked out."

She nodded. "But you're not hurt? You're sure?"

"I'm sure." He agreed as he slid his hands under both knees, and dropped them over the foot rest, and onto the floor. After a second, he dropped himself onto the floor beside her, taking a second afterwards to breathe with his eyes shut.

"But...now you're hurt?" She asked at his expression.

"No, it-" He repositioned one of his legs under him. "It's fine. I'm fine. Floor transfers are always horrible- you know that."

"Okay- okay fine. Just- please give some good news." She said, looking to her patient again. "Tim here is a big soccer fan."

"Soccer, eh? Good choice." He smiled at the little boy as he placed his fingers against his ankle, searching for signs of blood flow, before examining the location of the fracture. Neither gave him good news, and he could clearly see that his leg was discoloured. She was right; he could lose the foot. "No pulse at the posterior-tibial nor dorsal-pedis. I need to realign now."

She sighed. "Okay. Just...do it quickly, before we run out of time."

He nodded, and looked back to the boy, who looked rather confused by their words. "Okay, Tim. I'm afraid to say you've hurt your leg super bad. But I can fix it, okay?"

He swallowed, and nodded.

"But for me to make it better, I need to make it worse for just five whole seconds. Like...maybe you've got too many opponents coming at you on the field and you just have to retreat for a second. But then you can move up, and your team-mate can shoot you the ball, and then you get it in the net in the end. It's just...not as easy as if you had a clear path the whole way and could do it yourself. Does that make sense?"

He smiled. "But we're still gonna win?"

"Oh, yes." He agreed with a smile. "Meredith's gonna hold your hand and make sure you're doing okay, and I'm gonna pull on your leg to fix it, okay? It's gonna hurt lots and lots but Meredith's going to be holding you, and you can cry if you want. Yeah? Just be a super good, brave little boy for me, okay?"

He swallowed, and nodded. "Okay."

"Meredith?"

"I...um- Derek came and sat with me, helped me out and then went off with the ambulance to see him off."

Bailey nodded. She had been nearby, and at least seen the pair briefly together with the boy so it was like she was right in her recall. "And then do you remember what happened?"

"No. I...I don't think I saw Derek again and- no idea where I got a concussion from."

Bailey sighed at that. Because she couldn't, really, be more wrong.

"So...what did happen?"

Bailey exchanged a glance with Richard. "You were treating a patient who...he had a head injury, and he was confused. I don't think he understood you were a doctor."

She swallowed.

"He became aggressive. And...then he pushed you."

"On the floor?" She assumed, wondering why Bailey hadn't phrased it in a way to make that obvious.

No one said anything for a moment until Webber finally spoke up and corrected, "Into the water, Meredith."

"The water?"

"The concussion came from the hit, but you were hypothermic from the water."

"But...I mean- what-" She paused, trying to figure out the mess of words in her brain. "I was in the water? And I lost consciousness? How...how did I get out if I was unconscious in the water?"

"You were pulled out. This is the first time you've woken up, and it was about an hour ago. You gave us quite the scare, you know."

"So...someone else got me out. And then...then I was taken here and you've just been warming me since? And...doing scans for the head injury?" She asked. She swore they were still being...weird about the subject.

"That's right. You went into a trauma room for about ten minutes for assessment, but then we moved you here. You're just on the standard warm fluid drip, and I'm sure you can tell you're wrapped in about five blankets."

"The lifeguards and the search-and-rescue team were so busy-" She muttered to herself. She must have been so, so freaking lucky, and a combination of her head injury and that surprise meant she kept on going, in so much shock, "When I got there, I mean- you guys saw it, there was so many people. I could hardly keep track of one patient and he wasn't moving so...God. If...I mean, how fast do you disappear under water unconscious? How the hell did they find me in time?"

"Search-and-rescue...they kind of- well, they wouldn't have found you in time."

"Wouldn't have?" She asked with a creased brow. "What do you mean, they 'wouldn't have'? Why did they then?"

"Who would follow you into a pool of sub-freezing water without a second thought?" Cristina asked when no one else spoke.

Crap.

Crap.

"Derek- he- How did- I mean, Derek can't-" She swallowed.

"He just...he held you and he kept you from sinking under and that was enough. Search and rescue found both of you, and pulled you both out together." Bailey explained. Although he hadn't gone to a pool or the sea in a long, long time, she knew part of hydrotherapy safety included at least a basic lesson on how to keep afloat, so he at least had some experience. "He told me that's what he did, but we don't know what else happened."

"Can you not ask him? Is he still being treated?" She asked.

"We didn't admit him, it's so busy that he just went to an on-call room."

"But...you put him on warm fluids- blankets- have him on monitoring for his temp and pulse?"

"He wasn't in the water as long as you, and he doesn't have a concussion so there was no reason to admit him for care. I just made sure he had another blanket when he settled in the room and a towel to dry himself off." Aaron explained.

"But...he's paraplegic."

Bailey looked to the others to read their equally as blank, confused faces before looking to Meredith. Clearly, this concussion was really messing with her cognition. They had, however, already ran a CT to confirm there was no bleed and no damage, so she wasn't overly concerned. "We know, Meredith."

"No- I mean-"

"Okay, okay. It's okay. Just rest for now. We can explain more later." Bailey said with a sympathetic sigh. Meredith wasn't in any danger from her symptoms, but they weren't good ones; she'd been speaking quite oddly from the moment she opened her eyes.

"No- you don't...you don't understand."

"What don't we understand?" Webber asked.

"Derek. You...he has a spinal cord injury-"

Aaron looked to her heart rate monitor at the sound of an acceleration. They could so clearly see how her stress was impacting her. "Meredith, you have to just breathe and relax."

"No- I can't- that's not-"

"What are you trying to say, Mer?" Cristina finally asked. If she was honest, the trio weren't asking good question, just getting her more and more confused, and more and more stressed. "Derek is a paraplegic, he has a spinal cord injury - we know all of this and you know we know this so you're trying to make a different point, right? What is it you're trying to say?"

"Derek is paraplegic, and paraplegics can't regulate body temperature- he can't- shiver in half his body or- or- vasodilation or- I mean- if...if he's not on warm fluids or with warming blankets for passive rewarming or- if he's not being treated, then...then-" She swallowed. "God, you don't understand...if his body can't warm himself up...then- then he's still hypothermic now."

"Hi."

Meredith swallowed as she looked up. "Mark."

"You know, I don't even know where to start." He sighed, slumping into the seat beside the bed without an invitation. He didn't care whether she wanted him there or not though, so he didn't bother waiting nor asking. "I just-"

"He's an idiot."

"He is." He agreed as he grasped onto Derek's hand. His hypothermia wasn't serious, but it was prolonged, and that meant that he had some of the more complex symptoms, which Bailey decided were easier to treat with large dose of diazepam to keep him calm, although it had completely knocked him out too. It was good really; it meant he couldn't fight them, insisting he was okay when he so clearly wasn't.

"Total idiot."

"He's a freaking paraplegic." He added. "I- just- I can't comprehend why he thought that was a good idea."

She sighed. "Don't ask me what was going through his head."

"You. You were going though his head." Mark replied to that without a second thought. He was just being truthful.

Meredith swallowed.

"He's not stopped loving you, you know that?"

"And I've not stopped loving him."

Mark sighed. "I thought you two were adorable together, you know that? Well- you were gross lovebirds with your commitment and your love and your kissing but- you were good. You were good for him."

"But he wasn't good for me." She replied. "Or at least that's what he would say."

"You believe that?"

"I did stay up some nights worrying about him. I did message him a hundred times a day to check he was doing okay. But...he was good for me. He was...he was so freaking good for me. I haven't..."

"You haven't what?" Mark pressed.

"It's stupid."

"That kinda just makes me want to know more."

"One time, do you remember we talked about how you and Derek met?"

"Mmm."

"And I think I probably gave you the impression that I too was a part of this sucky-past gang that we seem to have going on."

He nodded.

"Derek is just-" She sighed, and held her cheek against his hand. She just wanted him close. "He's the opposite of everything wrong with my past. But he doesn't understand that. He doesn't understand how much I love him. So many elements of my life were so horrible. And I got free of...people, things, enviornments- you know, I got out of all of that before I met Derek so it's not like he literally, physically pulled me out of that life. But he kind of did, at the same time. Because I was stuck there. My mind was stuck there. Everytime I...I met someone new, and they were nice to me, it felt like a lie. I don't- didn't trust people. Because my whole life, all I've learnt is that people suck. Relationships, friendships, families- they're all crap. All the time. It never works, it always hurts, it always..."

"Go on." Mark encouraged when she stopped.

"He isn't crap. He is- was my partner, and my friend, and my family, and he isn't crap. He cares about me, every second of every day. Even when we're broken up and he can't even look at me, I say I'm going to therapy and he encourages me to open up to help myself, I go into an on-call room to cry about a patient and he holds me. He isn't crap. He doesn't abandon me. He...he never hurt me before he broke up with me. I trust people now. I made friends. I like my friends. I talk. I go out to bars. I feel happy to leave the house and go to work everyday, even though I feel like all I ever do is scut. But I like it. I like it because I'm happy, and I'm so freaking happy that scut isn't going to change that. And...and I have no family, but I find myself discovering a new family...right here, with him." She swallowed. "He just...he has completely changed my life in a billion, trillion ways. And I'm pretty sure he just stopped my life from disappearing into thin air too because I think I would have probably drowned so...you know, there's that too."

Mark smiled at her small joke.

"He's stupid. I'm not going to lie. He's stubborn, and he doesn't know how to ask for help, and I swear he has some amnesia going on or something because every freaking day I tell him that he's great, and that I love him, and that he's handsome, and it's gone in like two freaking seconds! The man needs some help! One of these days I'm going to do brain surgery on him and etch the words 'you are freaking worthy' on his brain in the hope that it can actually-"

Derek couldn't help but snort at that. She was right though. She couldn't be any more right. He did desperately need her to be able to say those things, and for it not to fall through him like a sieve.

"Derek-" She breathed. His eyes were hardly open, and his head was supported fully by his pillow, but he was awake. The question though, of course, was how long had he been awake?

He smiled, just a little. But it was a hurt smile. A sorry smile. A conflicted smile.

"I think I might have done something stupid. Again."

She smirked. "Following me into the water? Or breaking up with me?"

"Probably both." He admitted, hand gripping hers now. "Are you okay?"

She laughed so hard tears dropped. The man was unbelievable. "Derek. Shepherd! Seriously? You're the one who had just woken up in a hospital bed, attached to machines and poked with tubes and wires, and you're worried about meright now?"

"I...love you, Meredith." He said with a geniuness that hurt.

She faltered at that.

He loved her.

But she supposed the question now was...what did that actually mean for her, for him.

For them.