Let It Go

39.

Meredith strolled through the hospital lobby, absentmindedly thinking about a case she'd consulted on earlier. The child was newly diagnosed with spina bifida and in need of surgery. After reviewing his history and running a new batch of tests, she'd found that she had a few surgical options she could pursue. The best of those option was still up for debate though. She made a mental note to ask Derek for his professional opinion later. At the thought of Derek, a smile crossed her face.

It had been a week since he'd recommended starting over. Nothing big had happened over the course of the week. They hadn't kissed anymore and there had been no dates or hints at dates. Derek had, however, called her every night except one. At first, the phone calls came under pretense of discussing a case at work though no discussions about work had actually taken place. After a couple of days, Derek had started calling just because and she loved it. He would say something cheesy about not having a chance to talk to her during their busy days and wanting to see how her day had went. She would giggle and tell him about her day before asking him about his day and listening intently as he told her all about it, actually interested in what he'd had for lunch and which nurses had turned Mark down. Derek's phone calls had become her favorite part of her day without her realizing it until he'd been involved in a marathon surgery until the early hours of the morning and hadn't called. As if on cue, her personal cell phone beeped. She fished it out of her coat pocket and opened it. One new text message.

'I'm bored,' Derek's message read. Meredith grinned and typed back a message as she slipped into the hospital's gift shop for a snack. 'No surgeries?' she sent him. She browsed the small food selection, waiting for a reply from Derek. None of the junk food looked appealing to her which was odd. Her cell beeped again. Smiling, she opened her phone again to read her message.

'None. I have paperwork but I'm avoiding it', Derek had typed. 'I have a sugical case... And a tough decison to make', Meredith sent in reply. She moved away from the candy selection and started browsing the collection of snack-sized bags of chips and cookies. Nothing on those racks seemed to catch her eye either which sucked. She was having a junk food craving yet had no idea what she wanted.

'Is this a decision I can help with?' Derek replied. 'Yes, Doritos or a Hershey bar?' Meredith asked. She moved away from the snack selection all together and began browsing the shop's merchandise. She picked up a stuffed bear and played with the ribbon tied around it's neck before placing it back on the shelf. She pushed one of the toy cars on display back and fourth then moved to browse the display of flower arrangements in a refridgerated box. They were all generic, typical hospital designs, wishing someone to get well or else congratulating a new mom on their new bundle of joy. She made a face at a big vase of red roses with a tacky 'Thinking of you' sign protruding from the middle of the arrangement. She never got what women found so special about roses. They were overrated in her opinion, something everyone thought to give someone they loved or who was ill in the hospital. She liked flowers just fine but thought people could certainly be more original then a standard dozen roses. She moved on to a display of cheap looking jewelry, her phone beeping again.

'Neither. Have a sweet tooth? Where are you?' Derek answered. 'Gift shop', Meredith texted back. She'd barely closed her phone and placed it back in her pocket before it beeped again with Derek's reply. 'Meet me in the lobby in 5.' She responded with an 'OK' and scanned a collection of books for sale before going out into the lobby to wait for Derek, curious as to what he was up to.

"Meredith!" Meredith looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Richard, hi," she greeted. "Waiting for someone?" Richard asked, noticing Meredith's eyes dart behind him towards the elevators. "What? Oh, um... Yeah, I am," she answered, a smile dancing across her face. Richard nodded in understanding. He had a feeling he knew who Meredith was waiting for. He had heard the rumors, saw the smiles and looks traded between two of his best neurosurgeons, their 'eye thing' as the nurses called it. He thought highly of both of them and hoped for Meredith's sake that Derek could truly move past what had happened to Addison. Even though he tried to stay out of the personal lives of his surgeons, he put his stamp of approval on a Meredith and Derek pairing.