New Beginnings

Chapter 25

Meredith was currently walking through the hospital, pushing Morgan, with Derek's lunch in one hand. She had quickly popped to his favourite cafe to pick him up a sandwich after dropping Carolyn off at home.

As she walked through the hospital, she noticed everyone staring at her, sympathy in their eyes as the whispered quietly behind her. Walking up to the nurses station she smiled at nurse Olivia, someone she recognised.

"Hey, could you page Dr Shepherd for me? I have his lunch for him." She smiled at her.

"Oh...well, he is in surgery at the minute and..." Olivia was cut off by Richard shouting Meredith's name.

"Meredith!" Richard panicked not wanting Meredith to find out by the nurses, he had to be the one to tell her. "There you are, come on. Come with me." Richard turned and walked away.

"Ok." Meredith frowned at Richards odd behaviour. "Bye." She smiled and waved at Olivia before closing following behind Richard.

She followed him to his office, where he closed the door behind them and guided her to a chair.

"Take a seat Meredith." He said.

"Not until you tell me what's going on. There's something you aren't telling me. Please don't lie to me Richard. Where's Derek?" Meredith asked, pleading with him.

"He's in surgery." Richard replied.

"Oh, ok. How long has he got left? Cause I'll just go and wait in his office and feed Morgan until he has finished operating." She said as she gathered her things and started pushing the pram towards the door.

"No Meredith you don't understand. Derek isn't operating, he is the one being operated on." Richard announced watching as Meredith froze when reaching for the door handle, slowly turning to face again. Fear displayed all over her face.

"What did you just say?" Meredith asked, her voice wobbling as the tears began to pool in her eyes.

"He was attacked. Stabbed in the car park. He told us not to tell you until you was here. I'm so sorry Meredith." Richard said reaching out to comfort but watched as she stepped back.

"I need to go." Meredith said as she pulled the door open, pushing the pram ahead and storming out.

Meredith walked through the hospital, tears streaming down her face as she ignored all the stared and whispers as she headed towards Derek's stuff. She needed to be surrounded by his stuff.

Pushing the door open, she listened as Morgan began to whimper before her soft cries turned into a loud cry, desperate for Meredith's attention.

"Ok, Morgan hang on. Mommy is here." She undid the buckle and pulled Morgan into her arms. She moved to the sofa and dropped down, her body all of a sudden exhausted. Adjusting her top, she allowed Morgan to latch on but she was still whimpering. Meredith knew that Morgan was picking up on how tense she was and something was going on.

"Shh, Morgan. Please you need to eat." Meredith begged her as she tried everything to settle her. Seeing one of Derek's shirts, she grabbed and placed it over Morgan, acting like a blanket.

Almost immediately Morgan settled and finally latched on to Meredith, whilst her saw hand grasped Derek's shirt. Clearly, she was already a daddy's girl.

"That's our girl." Meredith said as she ran her finger over her tear stained cheeks, her own tears staining her cheeks.

Meredith couldn't believe how drastically life had changed in such a short amount of time. This morning her and Derek had woke up in one another's arms, had a quickie before she kissed him quick on his way out to work. Never did she think that she would be here, waiting to see if he was still alive. He had to be alive.

Once Morgan had finished eating, Meredith sat her up to burp her. When she was finished, Meredith lay her back down in her arms, watching as Morgan's eyes stayed wide and looked around the room. Her grip never loosened on Derek's shirt.

"You're a very lucky girl so you know that." Meredith said to Morgan, watching as Morgan turned her head towards her. "Yes you. You have the best daddy in the world. God, I can't wait to see how he reacts when you start dating, definitely going to be the over protective daddy. But I wouldn't have it any other way." Meredith said watching as Morgan yawned, her eyes fluttering shut.

"Shh." Meredith lay her on her chest, covering her with Derek's shirt as she rubbed her hand up and down Morgan's back, lulling her to sleep.

Meredith wasn't sure how long she had been sat there, time wasn't a thing to her right now. That until there was a gentle knock on the door causing Meredith to open her eyes and watch as Bailey walked in. She sat up as quickly as she could, careful not to disturb Morgan.

"Meredith." Bailey said as she stepped into Derek's office, pulling off her scrub cap.

"Bailey, just tell me. Please." Meredith begged her not to tiptoe around the answer.

"You should come with me." Bailey replied, her face emotionless.

Meredith has no idea what was happening, she couldn't read Bailey's face at all. She still had no idea whether Derek was alive or not.

She couldn't live without him. She couldn't.