Untouchable face

69.

A small, a very small part of Derek, didn't want to pick his girlfriend up today. It wasn't like he didn't want to see her, he did. He loved Meredith more than anything and if he had any reason to believe tonight would be a good night, he'd be thrilled to be picking her up. But he wasn't. Even after their talk a couple nights earlier, nothing had really gotten better. She seemed so distracted, so incredibly out of it and he didn't know what to do. She didn't want to talk about it, she didn't want to talk about work, and he wasn't sure how to make her talk. So their nights were just...quiet a lot.

So much of who she was was still a mystery to him. He sometimes forgot about that because they clicked in so many ways but there was still a lot he didn't know about her. She wasn't one to talk and she had a hard life but he was desperate to understand.

He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, he already knew that. But it was hard when she wouldn't talk to him. Right now, he just wanted to pick her up today and have her be the girl he was before Cristina had spouted her bullshit. He had no idea why it had hit her that hard. It made no sense at all. She was an incredible surgeon and up until all of this, she told him that everyone at work was singing her praises. She might be gentle and loving but he had seen her at work to know that when she was in surgeon mode, there was nothing soft about her.

His girlfriend was the most perfect combination of soft and hard. Surgery was beyond important to her, but so was their relationship. When she was with his nieces and nephews, he couldn't believe how gentle she was with them. But then when she was angry, her eyes flashed and she could yell. It was incredible. He knew she had probably stopped concentrating on work as much as she had before but he also knew she worked hard and long hours and he knew she was shining on taking on harder cases. So none of this made sense. At least not from the girl he knew so it had to be something deeper.

Which was why he wasn't exactly excited to pick her up. The plan was to go out for dinner and then maybe go out for a ride on the ferry boats. But he wasn't even sure she would want to do that today. He was actually terrified she would just want to go home and study. He'd fight her on that. It was horrible to think of because she was clearly working through things but he couldn't let her just cancel a date so she could go home and study. He wanted this to work for them, he knew if she'd talk it would but if they kept going on like this, he wasn't so sure.

"Excuse me, sir?" a nurse called to him as he walked by the desk. He didn't come as often as he used to since his therapy had lessened to just a couple times a week, and really, he didn't spend a ton of time on the surgery floor. But Meredith hadn't been in the lobby waiting for him, and now he was wandering.

"Yes?" Derek sighed.

"Can I help you?"

"I...I was looking for Dr. Grey."

"Oh," the nurse nodded. "I believe Dr. Grey was called into another surgery."

"Of course she was," he shook his head.

"Are you a patient? Did you need me to page her?"

"No, boyfriend, here to pick her up."

"Oh. Of course."

"Do you know how long it will be?"

"I can double check for you," the nurse nodded. "If you'd like, you can wait in the lobby."

"I...I guess," he nodded.

"Derek?"

"Lexie," Derek smiled at girlfriend's little sister. "Hi."

"Hey!" Lexie grinned as she moved to hug him. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"It's been a while," he nodded, hugging Lexie tightly.