Back To Seattle

Chapter 2

His eyes opened slowly, a slight pounding in his head and a dryness in his mouth as he took in the sight beside him in the room he didn't recognise. This definitely wasn't his room. The woman he'd met the night before had rolled over onto her stomach, and the sheets had fallen down to her waist, the sunlight coming through the gap in curtains casting a strip of light across her back. He could hear the sound of an alarm, or a ringing, coming from across the room, most likely from her phone still in her bag that had been thrown haphazardly across the room when they had stumbled in the night before.

His eyes moved over her bare back, his fingers lightly tracing the outline of her body, stopping over a purpling bruise that reached from just beside her stomach and around her back, over where her kidneys would be. As his fingers traced over the middle of the bruise, he felt her body tense and he heard her breath hitch slightly, meaning she was definitely awake. He withdrew his hand just as she quickly moved out of the bed, grabbing a robe, and pulling it on, shielding herself from view, as though there was more to hide.

He tried to think back to the night before. The sex was good... it was amazing, but they hadn't been rough. They couldn't have caused a bruise like that to happen. And that bruise looked like it was fading. He didn't know why but his heart started racing. It was entirely plausible she'd fallen over, and the bruise had been caused by accident, but something made him angry, like there was someone out there who needed to pay for hurting her. This woman he barely knew. The beautiful, sort of shy until you got tequila in her, woman.

She moved over to her bag, her hand running through her hair, and he continued to study her as she fidgeted with the phone, turning the noise off as she muttered to herself. She didn't look up at him yet, but he saw as she rolled her eyes and flung the phone back down on the table, almost as though she was pissed off with it.

"Everything okay?" His voice came out surprisingly rough and he cleared his throat a moment as she turned around to look at him, almost as though she had forgotten he was there. Their eyes met a moment before she looked away again.

"I have to get ready and... I'm going to take a shower, and when I get back, you won't be here," she looked up again, her cheeks slightly blushed as he climbed out the bed and pulled his boxers on, "So, I'll see you, uhm..."

"Derek," he offered up with a slight chuckle, "My name is Derek."

"Right, Derek, like I said," she nodded a little before grabbing a small bag and moving over to the bathroom, quick to lose the door behind her, leaving him stood alone, half naked in her hotel room.

He heard the water of the shower running and ran his hand over his hair. He never did this, the one-night stand thing. He was pretty sure his divorce had changed him. He sighed before moving around the room, pulling his clothes on, and grabbing his phone, keys, and wallet. He didn't want to leave. He felt this amazing pull towards her, as skittish as she was, and he wanted to stay. But she was totally skittish, so he should probably go, and he was going to be late for surgery anyway. He ran his hand through his hair once more, looking around the room and noticing a pad and pen on the dressing table. He grabbed the pen, quickly writing out his number and his name on the pad, smiling to himself before leaving the room. Hopefully, he'd see her again.

****

Thankfully, she'd made it to the hospital that morning on time for her first day, making a beeline to Richard Webber's office. She hadn't been back to the place since she was five years old, and now at thirty, she could still somehow find her way around the place, like muscle memory. As she approached his office, she noticed the door to his office had been left open and she stepped inside slightly, knocking on the door as she did so.

"Meredith Grey!" He grinned at her as he looked up from where he sat at the desk.

"Hey, Dr Webber," she said with a fake grin plastered across her face, closing the door behind her.