Untouchable face

5.

Meredith had scrubbed in on some really long surgeries since she had started her internship, some surgeries much longer than Derek Shepherd's had been. But as she made her way toward the waiting room where his family was, she felt like she was walking out of the longest surgery she had ever experienced. Dr. Hunt had fixed the internal injuries, Dr. Torres had done what she could with Derek's broken femur, but it was the spinal surgery that had felt like it had taken forever. Dr. Crichek was an incredible surgeon, one of the best, but there had been a couple minutes when she just hadn't been sure if Derek would walk again. Scary moments when monitors had beeped. His back had been a mess, a complete mess. Which wasn't surprising after falling off a roof but it had been a hard surgery and exhausting and she had spent a lot of it terrified. She hadn't ever been that terrified in the middle of a surgery before but for some reason, Derek had gotten to her.

Maybe it was the way he had grabbed her hand in the ER, maybe it was his family that so cleary loved him, or maybe it was the weird chill that had moved through her when his blue eyes had met hers. She wasn't sure what it was, but Derek had gotten to her, and it had led to a long surgery that left her emotionally drained. But she still had a job to do.

No one had to tell her the family would still be patiently waiting in the OR, they just seemed like the kind of people that would do that, that would stay for hours to wait for this news. And she could probably send an intern to do this but that didn't seem fair at all. She could rest after. Dr. Crichek was getting Derek settled in the neuro ICU and had asked her to talk to the family, so she just had to do it. And then it was her job to stay the rest of the night to monitor Derek. Apparently, she had gotten this case and was staying on it until further notice. She sighed and moved into the waiting room, slipping her scrub cap off. She had terrified she was never going to see Derek again at one point and now she had no idea what she was going to do now that it seemed she'd be seeing a lot of him. But she could figure that out after some rest and tequila. Right now she needed to face the family that was looking even bigger than it had before.

"Mrs. Shepherd?" she said softly.

"Dr. Grey," Derek's mom gasped. "Dr. Grey."

"Derek's stable and is being moved into the neuro ICU," she stated plainly.

"Oh...good, good."

"We...it took a lot of work and Dr. Crichek had to go in from Derek's side to clean out the bony fragments, as well as to stabilize his spine again. Derek's going to have a titanium plate in his back from now on."

"Okay, okay," the older woman breathed. "Can he...is he..."

"We won't know for sure until he wakes up, but early tests indicate he isn't paralyzed."

"Oh thank god."

"But he will have to wear a back brace for the next eight weeks, as well as go through a lot of physical therapy. Dr. Torres says he may walk with a limp, due to the fracture of his femur."

"We can deal with a limp, sweetheart."

"Oh," Meredith breathed at the word.

"Thank you," Mrs. Shepherd breathed, and suddenly the older woman was standing up and pulling her into a surprisingly tight hug. "Thank you."

"Oh...I...I didn't...it was Dr. Crichek and..." Meredith breathed, rubbing Derek's mom's back awkwardly.

"You were there."

"I...you're welcome."

"And I'll be sure to hug that Dr. Crichek when I meet him."

"He's just getting Derek settled right now. He'll want to speak to you soon," Meredith nodded. "And I'll be here all night monitoring Derek."