Untouchable face

39.

Today was a day Meredith really wanted to be in bed. Some days felt a little bit easier but today wasn't exactly one of them. Probably because yesterday she had seen Derek and she had spent most of the day in a bubble and now she had no idea when she would see him again. Working an overnight shift was usually good because it meant she was one of the few residents around, which meant she got onto big cases. But Derek would be home by now, well past his morning therapy session, and that meant she had to bury herself in work again. Which was fine. She could do that and forget her spinny brain.

She hated the spinny brain. She hated how good it had felt to see Derek and to talk to him and how much she had wanted to scream when Maggie arrived. Maggie was his girlfriend, she was supposed to come pick him up and Meredith had no reason to be mad about that. Even if she had been having an amazing talk with Derek. It had been like they hadn't been apart for a week. Like she had just walked into his room after a few hours and they just picked up where they had left off. It had felt amazing, and now she was missing him all over again. She just wanted to see him again.

It was stupid. This whole thing was stupid and nothing sounded better than hiding underneath the blankets and pretending none of this was happening. Under the blankets it was almost easy to pretend that she didn't have a strange connection to her very taken former patient.

But she did have a connection. And her connection made her wonder how he was doing and if standing had hurt as much today or if maybe he had taken any steps. That was unlikely, especially with how stiff his leg was and how sore his back would be for a bit. Nevertheless, she knew his physical therapist, and Aaron would tell her. She really had every right to know. She had been his doctor and it wasn't all that unusual that she asked how a patient was doing, she did it all the time. Usually it was just when she thought of it but still, going to see Aaron and asking him how her patient was recovering was totally normal.

So she had showed up thirty minutes early for her shift and now she was making her to Aaron's office, a Dr. Pepper in her hand. Aaron always responded to Dr. Peppers this late in the day, right before he left. It would be good. "Hey," she grinned as she knocked on his open office door.

"Hey Mer," Aaron smiled.

"Busy?"

"Not too bad."

"I brought you a present," she held up the Dr. Pepper.

"Oh you want something," he laughed.

"Or I'm just bringing you a present," she giggled.

"Well it's appreciated either way."

"You're welcome. Just promise to think of me when you go home at seven and I'm only two hours into my shift."

"I will," he nodded.

"Good," she handed him the Dr. Pepper.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"So long shift or just overnight?" Aaron asked.

"Thirty-six hours," she sighed.

"Ouch."

"Life of a second year resident," she shrugged. "My intern claims he hasn't been home in fifty hours."

"Sucks to be him."

"Exactly," Meredith giggled. "How was your day? Any interesting new cases?"

"Not really. A kid recovering from a bad leg break."

"How old?"

"Eight."

"Poor kid," she murmured. "What about your old cases? The ongoing ones."