Endless Summer Nights

22.

A single drop of sweat trails down her cheek, tickling the skin with its slow progression. She doesn't reach up and wipe it away. She can't. She is too busy trying to make the room stop spinning. Spinning and blurring into a prism of bright colors and shapes. Shapes with fuzzy outlines. A room full of Shepherds. Shepherds with fuzzy outlines.

She feels the bile rising up her esophagus once again. She just can't seem to catch a break. She turns to her side and pushes Derek out of the way before dry heaving over the rail of the bed. Salty tears run down her cheeks. Tears from the pain. Tears from the fear.

Derek's hand rubs up and down her back, his heart aching at seeing her in so much pain. How he wishes that they could go back to the ship. How they could create their own little cocoon and hide from the world as he tries to sooth her pain. Just like he did with the cramps. But this isn't cramps. This is so much more. This is everything.

He leans down and presses his dry lips against the moist skin of her temple. This is the first time those lips have touched her skin in so long. Too long. The desert surfaces of his lips become moist with the salty taste of her sweat and tears.

Meredith. Meredith. Meredith.

He repeats over and over in his head. Like a mantra. Like a prayer. Like any moment he is afraid that she will disappear. That he will open his eyes and she will be gone. Just like on the ship. He can't lose her again. He can't lose them. But most of all, he can't lose her.

The tears sting his eyes, threatening to fall at any minute. But they can't. They can't fall. He has to be strong. He needs to be strong. For them. He needs to be strong for them. His young family. His new family. His family. "Mom," he manages in a broken voice. Broken because he is slowly falling apart. His voice begs. His voice pleads.

His voice pains his mother. His mother who hates to see her baby boy in pain. And she has never seen him in this much pain. Never. Not even after his motorcycle accident. Not even after he caught Addison cheating. The closest he has ever come to this type of pain was when he returned from the cruise. Pain. She needs to sooth her baby's pain.

Derek feels the dainty hand of his mother on his shoulder and it takes everything he has to not break down. It takes everything he has to not turn around and let his mother hold him as he sobs like a little baby. He sobs like a little baby for his little baby. For his little baby and the love of his life. Thirty minutes ago he wouldn't have know the difference. Thirty minutes ago he didn't know that his son existed. Thirty minutes ago he didn't know where Meredith was. Thirty minutes ago there was a gaping hole in his heart.

Meredith finally falls back on the bed. Her head hurts. Her entire body hurts. Her heart hurts. She can feel Derek lace his fingers through her, giving her a certain strength that she didn't possess previously. Her world is spinning and he has become the one point of focus. She feels light. She feels light and floaty and dizzy. Her eyelids flutter as she struggles to remain conscious. She hears a monitor beeping in the background. Something is wrong. Something is definitely wrong. She knows that something is wrong as the blackness surrounds her and she sinks into unconsciousness as the scales begin to tip.