Mind over Matter

Chapter Six: Secrets

When Derek and Meredith entered the room, Richard was still unconscious. Meredith frowned a little before she looked at his vitals and felt relieved to know that he was in a stable condition. She took a step back and Derek started to examine him too. Derek had saved Richard, and Meredith felt extremely lucky and grateful. He had taken care of her.... like he used to. The guy before Derek, who seemed like nobody compared to her new lover.

She glanced over at Derek, who was now checking Richard's pupils. It had been a couple of hours since the surgery and he still wasn't awake. Meredith tried her best not to worry, she knew that surgery as extensive as this one often took a big toll on a patient. He was stable and that was good enough for now. She sat down on one of the chairs near the hospital bed.

Derek was done with the exam and looked over at her, she was clearly deep in her thoughts. She was something else, an absolute force of nature. He studied her messy look and felt in awe of her presence. She was strong, and never failed to amaze him with her skills. Nobody had made him feel like this... not after her. She was one of the reasons why he moved to Seattle in the first place. However, she didn't matter to him anymore, Meredith was the only one he had eyes for.

He walked over to her and took a seat on the chair next to hers. Derek looked at her and gently grabbed her hand with his, lacing their fingers together. His touch woke her up from her pondering as she locked eyes with him. The warmth of his hand felt nice to her cold one. He rubbed his thumb gently up and down the back of her hand. She smiled at him and he leaned in to give her a soft, quick kiss.

"He'll be alright Mer. I have seen patients after a craniotomy that woke up after days of being asleep. Sometimes, it just takes a little longer than expected" he told her as if he could read her mind.

"I hope so... but you don't know that Derek. You're not god" she said, giving him a much more sad smile.

He sighed and knew she was right, they were just going to have to wait and see. The waiting was always the worst part for a doctor and the patient's loved ones, not knowing if or when they would wake up. Unfortunately for Meredith, in this case, she was both a loved one and the doctor. As she started to drift off into her thoughts again, Derek's voice caught her attention.

"Do you want to grab uh... lunch with me?" he stammered and seemed kind of nervous.

"Yeah... lunch sounds good" she replied with a chuckle.

As they walked out of the room, Meredith took one last glance at Richard in the bed, she hoped he'd wake up soon and she could stop worrying.

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A few days had passed and there still wasn't any progress in Richard's condition. He wasn't getting worse, but he didn't appear to be getting better either. He was still unconscious and with every passing moment, Meredith worried more and more.

Although Richard wasn't getting better, things between Derek and Meredith were bliss. They spent time with one another as much as they could with their busy schedules. They ate lunch, grabbed a coffee, and occasionally had a hot make-out session. However, they decided to keep their dating private and stick to spending time in on-call rooms, or their offices. In public, it seemed like nothing had changed between them. They acted professionally towards one another. That didn't mean that nobody had caught on to their newfound happiness though.

Miranda Bailey - general surgery attending at Seattle Grace -, was standing at the nurses' station, updating her patient's chart.

Meredith and Derek were walking down the hallway, hoping to spend some time together before either of them had to go into another surgery.