I'll Look After You

Chapter 12

Here today, gone tomorrow
-

Whatever her friends were doing in hiding her was planned perfectly and was being executed flawlessly. He hasn't caught a glimpse of even her hair for the two days that she has gone back to work. He heard that she went to D.C. to visit an old friend, but that was all he heard. He's been having her paged but her friends were the ones who always takes the page.

He walked inside his office and found Alex Karev placing something on his desk. Alex turned to him, looking a bit shocked but shook it off after a few seconds. He expected Alex to walk out of the room but he just stood there with a smirk in his face. Derek walked over to his desk and grabbed the papers.

"What the hell is this?" Derek asked as looked at what Alex just placed on his desk. His eyes went wide as he read Meredith's name on the transferal forms. "Where the hell did this come from?"

"Special delivery, Dr. Shepherd," Alex smirked. Derek glared at him, not knowing what came over him, pushed Alex into the wall and held him in place with his hands. Alex didn't make any move to push Derek off.

"You need to tell me where she is," Derek held Alex in place but his voice was begging. "You need to tell me so I could talk to her."

Alex's eyes didn't show any emotion, a little amusement maybe. "I'll never tell you where she is, Shepherd. Just sign the damn transferal forms so she could get out of this deep shit and move on to the life that she truly deserves."

"Where the hell is she!?" Derek shouted, banging Alex on the wall, harder this time. "Just tell me. Please."

"If you don't get your hands off me this very moment, I won't hesitate to punch you, Dr. Shepherd. Even if you're my boss, I swear to god, I won't hesitate," Alex looked at him without any hint of regret on what he just said.

"Just tell me where she is," Derek emphasized his words.

"You really want to know where she is?" Alex scoffed. He reached into his pockets and slapped something into Derek's chest. "Where she is is the place that's nowhere near you!"

Alex watched as Derek looked at the contents of the small plastic he just shoved into his chest. "Where the hell did you get these?" Derek looked at the rings, releasing Alex from his grip. Alex watched as Derek's hands trembled a little and his eyes turned to him with anger and disbelief. Alex was caught of guard, not expecting the punch that hit him perfectly on the cheek. Alex smirked as he tasted the blood in his mouth.

"It's about time, dude," Alex punched him back, his years of fighting in the alleys when he was a kid coming to his advantage. Derek stumbled back a little but charged towards Alex once again. Derek threw another punch but Alex easily blocked it and threw in his own punch, this time causing Derek to ram into the wall and fall down. He walked over to him and pulled his hand back for another punch. He was determined to make Derek feel pain for every tear that Meredith shed.

"Dr. Karev!" Burke's voice came from behind and Alex felt himself being pulled away from Derek.

"Damnit, let me go! I'm not finished!" Alex shouted, trying to escape Burke's hold on him. His eyes were focused on Derek who was already panting, seemingly tired from their small brawl.

"If you love your job, Dr. Karev, you'd stop what you're doing," Burke told him. That knocked some sense into Alex. He relaxed and Burke let him go. "What happened in here?"

"Dude," Alex massaged his jaw. "He started it."

Meredith walked inside Derek's office and looked at the occupants of the room. Her eyes went towards Derek who was sitting on the floor, leaning on the wall, his eyes were fixated on her. And she knew he was about to say something so she immediately reverted her gaze into Alex. She approached him and she turned his face towards her.

"What the hell happened?" she asked him.

"Your ex went all psycho on me," Alex spoke. He tried to look at Derek but Meredith held his face in place. "Dude! That hurts!"

"Sorry," she muttered. She looked at the cut once again. "I think you need stitches."

"It's nothing," Alex rolled his eyes, this time successfully removing his face from Meredith's grip and turned to Derek. "He's the one who needs medical attention. Blood's dripping all over."

Meredith didn't turn to look at Derek, keeping her attention on Alex. "You also need medical attention."

"Dr. Shepherd, I'll do your stitches," Christina stepped forward. Meredith gave her a thankful glance.

"Alex, c'mon," Meredith grabbed Alex's hand and dragged him out of the room. "I'll stitch you up." She led him to one of the exam rooms and made him sit down on the table. She started to work on his small cut. "What happened there?"

"Well, the dude cornered me, shoved me into the wall and all that," Alex told her, trying to keep still. "He kept on demanding that I tell him where you are."

"So you punched him?" she raised her eyebrow at him.

"I told the dude to back-off," Alex shrugged. "He was itchin' for a fight. And he punched me first."

"Alex!" Meredith called out. "He's our boss! Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get in?"

"I don't care," Alex muttered.

"Well we care, Alex. We care about you," Meredith told him gently. She knew that Alex punched Derek because of her. She knew that he was just trying to protect her. But she didn't want him to go through any trouble by doing that.

"Look, this little group we have is new to me. I've never had the kind of friendship we have... I've never had friends, honestly. I had people I hang out with... But what us five have, it's new to me. And I know we're all supposed to have responsibilities," Alex never took his eyes off her. "When that jerk hurts you... O'Malley does the stuttering, Stevens does the smiling brightly thing, Yang does the threatening... And I think it's my responsibility to do the punching, Grey. Cos' you can't do it for yourself..."

Christina suddenly entered the small room and looked at Meredith. "Meredith! Heads up, McBastard's on his way here." She looked at Meredith and Alex and gave out a sigh of disbelief. "You're still not done stitching him up? I had to stitch McBastard's face in two places!"

"We were talking, Yang," Alex told Christina.

"Well stop talking!" she told them. "He's on his way!" Christina peeked outside, and cursed. "Crap, he's here." The door swung open the same time that Christina's pager went off. "Damnit." She looked at her pager and then at Derek and then at Meredith and Alex. "I need to go."

"Meredith, we need to talk."

Meredith didn't turn around to look at him, but she could see Alex's eyes stare coldly at where Derek was standing. She ignored Derek for a few seconds as she finished Alex's stitches. "Alex?"

"You actually want to talk to him?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"Alex, please," Meredith told him. He shook his head in disgust and got off of the table.

"I'll be lurking around, just shout if you need anything," Alex told her as he walked passed her. She didn't turn around until she heard the door shut. She took a deep breathe, knowing she's about to go into another rollercoaster conversation chock full of emotions, before turning around and staring into Derek Shepherd's eyes.
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