Outside of Fear

Chapter Seven

"So, you two served together for six years?" Derek leans back in the uncomfortable hospital chair in Meredith's room, talking to both of the Marines now inhabiting his hospital.

"She had been in the Navy for a year when I first joined. We were under the same CO and bonded from there." Teddy nods from her spot sitting on Meredith's bed. "I was also injured in the same attack that leads to her whole leg situation. We were at UCLA together for months recovering before making the joint decision to transfer to the Marines."

"Leg situation?" Derek raises an eyebrow at Meredith.

She shrugs. "You saw the scans, I have a metal rod instead of a fibula in my left leg. That was thanks to a collapse on a Naval battleship that took a missile."

"I almost drowned, shattered a couple ribs, and screwed up a whole mess of organs." Teddy lists her injures nonchalantly. "Anyway, it's the whole reason we transferred to the Marines. Neither of us wanted to be back living on a ship anytime soon after that."

"Well, I can understand why. I think you're crazy for going back after that."

"It's not something we can just give up, Derek. It doesn't matter how much we risk our own lives, because we both know how important our work is."

"Are you going back?" He turns to Teddy.

"No, I revived an honorable discharge when they ended my tour."

"We're stuck here together." Meredith cracks a smile.

"At least it's Seattle, I'll never again take rain for granted."

"It rains all the time here, it's kind of annoying." Derek glances at the window, out of which he can see that rain is lightly sprinkling the city.

"Try not having any rain for months at a time in a desert, then see how annoying it is." Meredith follows his gaze.

"Fair point." He nods. "You have any interesting stories?"

"I have enough stories to last a lifetime."

"What did you do for fun? I mean, it wasn't just work twenty-four-seven, was it?"

Both women burst out laughing at this, leaving Derek completely confused.

"Sorry, sorry. You'd think Marines are big, badass, no-nonsense people but we really played jokes on each other constantly at base." Meredith smiles.

"Remember when we threw an MRE Bomb in your tent at night?" Teddy snickers.

"Yes." Meredith's face is unamused, remembering that night very vividly. "I put you all on trash duty, night patrols, and made you run medical stock for a month."

"You found it so funny until it happened to you." Teddy rolls her eyes.

"You threw a bomb into Mer's tent?" Derek cuts in, horrified.

"Just an MRE bomb. We make them out of a plastic soda bottle, an MRE heater, and a little thing of Tabasco sauce. They're just like, rudimentary tear gas." She informs him, quickly clearing up his wrong idea. "Death didn't get hurt, but she sure was pissed. It was worth it though to see her run out of that tent in a panic." Teddy laughs again.

"Don't forget I outrank you still, Major." The blonde says firmly, meeting her friend's gaze with a smile.

"Did you just call her Death? The general called her that yesterday too and I thought I heard him wrong," Derek glances between them, feeling stupid.

"Nicknames are kind of a thing too, everyone has one or two. We're uh," she bites her lip, smiling, "we're known as Death and Die."

"I don't want to know the story behind that."