Keep The Faith

4.

Seattle Grace Hospital
12:53 AM

Derek couldn't reasonably pace any longer, so he sat. He tapped his foot and stared at the ground aimlessly. Bailey tapped him on the shoulder. "You should go home, Derek." She said. He blinked at her. She never called him Derek. "Sleep. There's nothing you can do for her now."

Derek considered this. Maybe she was right. Maybe there wasn't anything.... He stood up, and walked away from her without saying anything.

He made his way to his office and sat down at his desk, turning on his computer. Research. Similar cases. Kidnappings, abductions. He wanted to know anything that might help him understand why Meredith had disappeared.

There was a knock on the door. George and Cristina poked their heads inside. "Come in." he told them.

They came in and stood awkwardly in front of his desk. "Thank you." Cristina said. "For um, caring. And for not, you know, pretending you didn't because of um, Addison."

Derek nodded. "I care." He whispered.

George nodded. "We know. Dr. Shepherd do you need anything?"

Derek motioned for them to come behind the screen. They did and looked at the site he was on; an article from a Harvard criminal psychologist. "This was risky." He said. "And not random. No one saw her outside the heavily guarded, well lit hospital and just decided to take her."

They looked at him and at each other, scared. Derek sighed. "Dr. O'Malley, I could use a coffee. And I'd very much like to speak to one of those detectives."

George nodded and scampered off, glad to have a chore. Cristina pulled a chair up next to Derek's computer. "You should get some rest, Dr. Yang."

"So should you." She said. "But we both know that lying there with nothing to think about but where she is can't be an option. As long as I have something to do, I might not be so scared." She smiled, looking almost vulnerable for a moment, and then it vanished.

"What have you found out so far, Dr. Shepherd?"

💉🩺

Seattle Grace Hospital
3:45 AM

Addison woke up in the on-call room with a start, trying to remember why she was wearing this dress and why she felt like this. Then it came back. Prom. Meredith. Abduction. Derek. Meredith. Love. She felt sick.

It's not that she wasn't worried about Meredith. She was, she swore she was. It was just that her marriage, for all of her trying, was falling apart at the seams. She sighed and got up off of the bed.

She found Derek in his office with Cristina and George, alternately looking at something on the Internet and filling out patient charts that should have been completed yesterday. She stood in the doorway until Cristina noticed her.

"George, we should go check on Izzie."

George looked up and saw Addison standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. "Yeah." He agreed. "We should." They muttered their goodbyes to Derek and quickly left the room.

"You should try to sleep." Addison said.

Derek shrugged. "I've still got four or five more nights to be awake before the hallucinations start."

"Very funny."

"Wasn't a joke."

"I'm worried about her, Derek. I really am. Because we're friends. And friends worry. But I need to know if there is anything going on between you and Meredith." She said, swallowing hard. "And if there is, Derek, this would be a really good time to tell me."