Easy Silence

19.

"You disappeared."

"I did not disappear," she rolled her eyes. "I went to work."

"I fell asleep and you were in this bed, when I woke up you weren't," Derek frowned slightly. "I think that qualifies as disappearing."

"It was working," she groaned, moving to sit at the end of his bed. "I had to work and you were sleeping, not my fault. Work is...it's important. And I tried to wake you up. I did."

"Liar."

"What?"

"I grew up with four sisters, Mer," he laughed softly. "I'm not that heavy of sleeper. If you had tried, I would have woken up."

"I snuck out of bed without you knowing."

"I don't know how that happened but had you actually tried to wake me up, I would have woken up. You didn't try."

"I..." she frowned. "Shut up, blue eyes. That's not even why I'm here."

"You didn't come here to apologize for disappearing?"

"No," she sighed, reaching across the bed to hit him softly. "Mark said something about you finally getting out of my hair today."

"Do you want me out of your hair?"

"Can you be serious for five seconds? Please?"

"Yes," he nodded slowly, trying to grab her hand that she quickly pulled away. "Rumor has it that I'll be out of here today, just waiting for the doctor to come and confirm it. Going to miss me?"

"No," Meredith protested quickly, as she let her hand fall onto his leg. "Of course not."

"You'll miss me," Derek nodded firmly.

"You're too full of yourself, blue eyes," Meredith giggled, running her hand along his legs as he smiled gently, fighting the urge to grab for her. He was leaving and he still hadn't even figured out a way to convince her that they had to see each other again. They had slept together and he still wasn't sure how to turn this into something more than it already was.

"I was promised blood and instead I get this," a girl that had followed Meredith in groaned.

"You didn't have to follow," Meredith rolled her eyes. "Cristina, this is Derek. Derek this is Cristina. She's my friend, kind of."

"And her roommate."

"Semi roommate," Meredith sighed. "She and her latest boy toy just called things off so she's crashing in my spare room."

"Oh okay," Derek nodded as Dr. McDonald walked in.

"Well it seems to be a regular party in here," the older doctor smiled before eyeing in the interns. "Including three surgical intern?"

"We're...Derek's a friend," Meredith murmured, squeezing his leg slightly. "And we...word is he's going home so we just...good news, we're here for the good news and then we'll go. We'll go be surgeons instead of...we'll go. As soon as you're done in here, we'll go."

"There is good news today, right?" Derek asked, ignoring the way his heart thudded at the prospect.

"There is," the doctor nodded. "You can go home today, Derek."

"Thank god..."

"I didn't finish. You can go home today but there is a slight catch. Nothing catastrophic but still a catch. Derek, it's from my understanding that you are currently living alone?"

"Yeah," Derek frowned slightly.

"Derek, you'll be on crutches for quite a bit longer, or at least a cane. Usually it doesn't cause too much of a problem but with the combined back injury many of the things you would usually do at home are limited. If you push too hard, which I know enough to know you will probably try, you're going to end up back in this bed. I can't let you go home alone, Derek."