Untouchable face

23.

Derek was anxious to be released. At least he was on some level. He wouldn't be doing that much more when he got home, and he'd be coming back every day for rehab but at least he wouldn't be in the cold hospital room. That seemed like it would be a lot better and less boring than life here. Things would be different at home. Every day would be a little different and he'd at least have his armchair and his TV and his own comfortable bed. He had been thinking a lot about going home lately, and he was excited. He was ready to move on to the next step in his recovery. But there were parts he was going to miss about being in the hospital.

Actually really he only was going to miss Meredith. He had no idea exactly how it had happened but he had become friends or something like it with his doctor and he enjoyed their daily talks. It was never about anything special and yet he always looked forward to it.

Sometimes, when Aaron was pushing him especially hard, he just thought about the hour when Maggie would leave his room and Meredith would come in with a magazine and chocolate, and they could just talk. There was something really perfect about their talks, and he wasn't sure how he'd get through therapy in a week when he didn't have his doctor. She was just a perfect part of his day. She made him forget about how hard all of this was and how scary everything was. He couldn't figure out why. No one else who visited seemed to have that affect, and maybe it was because she was new in his life, he just knew he liked it a lot.

Which was why he was anxiously awaiting her arrival. He was starting to learn things about his doctor, one of the main things being that she was almost always late and was more than little scatterbrained. She was a great doctor, there was no doubt about that, but it would be weird if Meredith showed up every day at the exact same time. She usually kept him waiting. Somehow he was okay with that. Generally he hated people being anything but freakishly punctual but being late was so much part of Meredith that he almost couldn't blame her. It was kind of like her rambling. She was a bit of a mess except for her, it seemed to work and make sense. If she was anything else, she wouldn't be Meredith. She wasn't perky or happy all the time, but there was something about her that just made her...her. He couldn't put his finger on it, but whenever she appeared in the doorway of his room, he couldn't help but grin.

He still hadn't learned all that much about her. She wasn't a fan of talking about herself and he didn't want to push too hard because he didn't want her to start avoiding him. Clearly her life had been less than perfect, it seemed like it had been down right hard, but it made him want to know her more.

"You're awake."

"There you are," he smiled as his doctor came into the room.

"I figured you'd be sleeping like the last three times," she shrugged as she came in, putting her bag down on the ground.

"Okay, they've been working me too hard," he laughed.

"Huh huh," she rolled her eyes, reaching into her bag. "Chocolate covered graham crackers."

"Now that sounds good."

"They're amazing," she giggled.

"Good."

"I hope they're okay...my friend Alex went to go get them and well...he's Alex," she shrugged, falling into the chair next to his bed and his eyes were immediately drawn to her. Usually, his doctor came into his room in her scrubs, but today, she was wearing black jeans and a vest over a white top.

"You're not in scrubs."

"What?"

"You're in...normal clothes."

"Oh," she nodded, looking down at her clothes. "I am."

"You look...nice."

"I...thanks," she breathed softly.