Little Shepherd

Chapter 17

Derek spends the night with Josie as usual. He contemplates trying to call Addison again but he decides against it. He tried, if she wanted to talk she would have called by now. It's time to move on with his life. Josie is the strongest little girl he's ever met, she'll get through this. Maybe Addison will reach out to her some day, but until then she doesn't exist to him anymore. She made her bed and she's obviously more than happy to sleep in it. He wakes up late once again leaving him no choice but to grab left over pizza for breakfast for the two of them. Josie sighs as she takes her piece from him.

"You're lucky we're getting bacon tomorrow or I would not be happy about this." She tells him with a little pout. She loves pizza, but she's definitely a breakfast person and thanks to her father's busy profession and his lack of ability to wake up on time they hardly have the time to cook.

"I know love I'm sorry. What do you think about that little diner down the street? The one with the little umbrellas on the tables and the pretty water fountain out front. We could go there for breakfast tomorrow? Would that make it up to you?" Her face immediately brightens.

"Yes! I love that pwace!" She replies excitedly. She bounces in place happily.

"Alright then, it's settled." He chuckles at her excitement. The two of them eat their cold pizza and make their way to the hospital. He drops her off at the childcare center, changes into his scrubs, and grabs a coffee like he does everyday before heading to check on his patients. His first and most urgent patient is Jorge Cruz, the man he remove the nails from. By now they should be able to tell whether or not the damage to his optic nerve was reversed when he removed the nails or not. By the time Derek reaches the nurses station to grab Jorge's chart Meredith already has it.

"Grilled cheese again?" He asks her regarding her breakfast.

"Cold pizza." She says with a smile, she seems oddly chipper this morning.

"Me too actually." He chuckles a little to himself. "Is he awake?" He asks her as she hands him the chart.

"Even better."

"Really? Well let's see what his nurse says." he replies as they head to his room. "Hi Sona, Jorge. How are you this morning?" he asks as the two of them walk into his recovery room.

"Tell them what color my dress is Jorge." Sona suggests happily.

"I'd know the answer to that even if I couldn't see." He says as he looks to his wife lovingly. He can see. Derek beams at them, so proud to hear it. He starts doing tests to check his motor and cognitive functions. He checks the mans limbs.

"Can you tell me what you had for breakfast on Monday?"

"Cheese omelet..and on Sunday and on Saturday and on Friday. Sona gets up every morning and makes me a cheese omelet." Jorge tells them.

"It's the only thing he likes." She says with smile, so happy to have her husband awake and able to see.

"It's the only thing you know how to cook." He teases.

"Okay well things look good, but I need Jorge to get an MRI this morning to check for residual bleeding. Okay?" He hands the patients chart back to Meredith and they exit the room, moving on to other patients. Soon it was time to look over the results of Jorge Cruz's MRI. Meredith joins him in the viewing room as the image pops up on the screen. Derek sighs as the screen loads.

"There." He points to the mans brain on the screen. "That's a tumor. It's midline. Near the hypothalamus.

"Damn" Meredith mumbles. Derek nods, disappointed that the news wasn't better.