Back To Seattle

Chapter 6

Six long hours later, her plane landed at Sea-Tac. She had spent her time attempting to continue with her fellowship research to distract her, which had been fairly difficult with the constant pain in her head, but she managed to keep her word to Derek to not sleep and to keep herself hydrated.

She pulled her phone out as she waited for her luggage, sending a text through to Derek to let him know she had landed, and he quickly responded to tell her the car was waiting outside, under his name, with a detailed description of which car it should be, which made her laugh slightly. It was three in the morning and unlikely that anyone else would be having a town car pick them up at this time, but she appreciated his thoroughness.

Outside, she quickly found the car, the driver taking her luggage as she climbed in. Her phone buzzed again in her hand with another message from Derek asking how she was getting on. She frowned slightly. He'd literally just messaged a moment ago, and he was already checking up on her. It felt strange. She quickly responded to let him know she was in the car, keeping it short as she dug into her bag for the Advil, needing another dose to combat the dull ache in her head.

She leant her head against the cold window of the car as it drove through Seattle. Not much longer, and then Derek could check out her injury and she could get back to her hotel room to go to sleep. She was still in the awful heels and would be more than grateful to slip on her converse when she got to the hospital. She could probably do with getting changed as well; the dress was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable the longer she wore it.

The car pulled up outside the front of the hospital and she got out, thanking the driver as he grabbed her suitcase for her. She took the handle and made her way inside, not really paying much attention to her surroundings, just wanting to get inside and to her office so she could page Derek. A slight surge of panic ran through her as she realised, she still had her rings on her finger, and she slid them off and into the inside pocket of her bag as she moved toward the elevator.

"Meredith!" she heard her name being called and turned around, probably a little too quickly as she winced at the increased pain in her head.

"You look..." Derek trailed off as his eyes moved over body.

"Like crap, I know," she sighed, leaning back against the wall beside the elevator.

"No," he shook his head, smiling at her, "I was going to say that besides the head injury you look amazing."

"Oh," she breathed, closing her eyes, "That's... thanks, I guess."

"You guess?" he laughed softly, raising an eyebrow, "We need to get your head checked out, come on."

"Where?" she frowned slightly, opening her eyes again to look at him, "I need to go to my office."

"Well, I was going to say the ER," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh, I... I need to change my shoes and get out of this dress first. I'm uncomfortable and tired, and I feel gross," she sighed softly as the elevator arrived.

"Okay, let's go then," he said, taking her suitcase from her and stepping on to the elevator ahead of her.

"Right, okay," she breathed, still frowning slightly as she moved on to the elevator with him, leaning against the wall. She had hit a wall of exhaustion and she just wanted her bed. Or rather, the hotel bed. Or even the couch in her office, maybe.

"I'm not going to ask questions," he said once the doors had closed, his voice soft, "but... are you okay? More than physically?"

"I will be," she shrugged a little, her gaze dropping to the floor as she wrapped her arm around her stomach. Maybe she should've tried to eat something earlier.