I'll Look After You

Chapter 14

Cause we have spoken everything
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Meredith scurried out of the locker room, she spent the whole night in Layton's hospital room, waiting for him to wake up but he didn't. Christina woke her up at 5 AM that morning to tell her that she needed to do pre-rounds. It was not until 7 AM that she had the chance to go inside his room, just in time for rounds. She leaned on the farthest side of the wall adjacent to the door, hoping no one would question her being there.

"Good morning," Derek suddenly walked inside and mumbled to the interns that were gathered inside the room. He didn't notice that she was there and she was thankful.

"Layton Carter Matthews, 37-years old, was brought in last night with a gunshot wound in his shoulder blades. He complained of not being able to move and feel his hands early this morning to a nurse," the intern who was presenting said.

Derek walked closer to Layton and he instructed him to move his pinky. After a few seconds, no movement was done. Derek ran the tip of his pen and asked him if he felt it. Layton shook his head. "How do we proceed?" Derek asked no one in particular.

"CT scan, look for any nerve damage and fix surgically," the same intern answered.

Derek nodded, satisfied by her answer and handed her the chart. "Welcome to the case." He looked at Layton with a reassuring smile. "This is Dr. Perls, Mr. Matthews, she's going to assist you down to CT."

"Thank you, Dr. Shepherd," Dr. Perls gave her a shy smile, it was obvious that Derek's McDreamy-ness worked once again.

"Dr. Shepherd?" Layton suddenly spoke. "Derek Shepherd?"

"That would be me, yes," Derek nodded.

"I don't have to be nice to him, do I?" Layton tilted his head to the side in order to see past Derek and he looked straight at Meredith. "Meredith?"

Derek turned around and it was evident in his face that he was surprised to see her there. "Dr. Shepherd, what are you doing here?"

"It's Dr. Grey," Layton answered for her. "And I asked her to be here."

"You two know each other?" Derek raised his eyebrow at Meredith and looked at Layton.

"Tell me something I don't know, Meredith," Layton lazily smiled at her as if no one was with them in the room. Meredith couldn't help but smile at him, he really had the worse timings in the world to do their daily habit.

"You're going to be okay, Layton," she said with a reassuring smile. "You're going to be okay." She repeated. "Tell me something I don't know, Layton."

His lazy smile turned to a cocky one and he looked directly at Derek. "If I weren't trapped in these things," his gaze passed by the sling that was holding his left hand up and then looked back at Derek. "I'd punch him in the face. And," his blue eyes turned to her. "You look cute in your scrubs, but I bet you already know that."

"I already know both, Layton, what I don't know is the reason why you got shot. And I think your doctor would want to know that too," she said.

"It's nothing to fuss about," Layton shrugged, looking away and facing the window.

"Layton..." Meredith got out of her place and worked closer to his bed. She placed her hand gently over his and squeezed it but he didn't look back at her.

"Dr. Grey? A minute?" Derek cleared his throat and looked at the two of them with evident anger and jealousy. Meredith gave Layton's hand a small squeeze before following Derek out of the room.

"You know him?" Derek asked as soon as they were out of earshot of other people.

"He's a friend," she replied calmly.

He knew there was something more. By the way they lightly bantered... There must be something more. "Is he the reason you're leaving me?"

"Don't you da-," she was about to shout at him but she caught herself and she just took a deep breathe and calmly looked at him. "We're done talking about everything, Derek."

"Last night..."

"Last night was the end of us, Derek," she cut him off.

"So that's it? Our marriage is over? Just like that?" he asked.

"What do you want more, Derek? Fireworks?" she scoffed. "You want me to tell the whole world that our marriage is over?"

"What I want is for our marriage to be not over, Mer," he told her quietly.

"It's over, Derek."

"I love you," he whispered, his eyes going to hers. "I'll never stop."

"Just like you never stopped loving Addison?" she cracked a bittersweet smile. It hurt him that she could still find a way to slap him in the face without doing it literally. He watched as she walked back into Layton's room, leaving him in the middle of the hall, not knowing what else to do.

"He's a good surgeon, Layton," she smiled at him. "You've got nothing to worry about."

"I believe you, Mer. But what if he intentionally kills me on the table and make it look like an accident?"

"He won't jeopardize his career just for a simple thing like that, trust me," she reassured him. "He won't jeopardize his career for anything."

"You can't say that, Mer," Layton looked away from her and out the window. "Everyone's got someone that would make them jeopardize their career for..."

"Well, I'm not that someone for him," she smiled tightly. As much as she wanted to even try to make her be that someone...

"Well..." he looked back at her with a small smile.

She smiled, more brightly now. "Don't even tell me I'm that someone for you, Layton. Don't you dare." She rolled her eyes lightly.

"What?" he smiled guiltily. He was just about to do so.

"You were going to say it, weren't you?"

"Guilty," he nodded. "So if I get out of here? Will you stay with me? Be my personal doctor?"

"If you tell me why you got shot, maybe I'll stay with you," she bargained.

"Maybe?" his eyes twinkled with a little mischief, his mischievous smile matching it. "What if I tell you and then you'll most definitely stay with me? What about that?"

"Fine," she gave out a small sigh. She really did want to know what happened to him. And besides, they were already living right across each other on the 23rd floor of the hotel.

"Remember that case that I was here for the first time I met you? Well, the family of the victim's not too happy that my client walked free. And they've been sending me death threats for a while now. They warned me never to step inside Seattle ever again," Layton frowned a little. "But you know no one could keep me away from here."

"And the men who did this to you?"

"Jail," Layton replied.

"Are you sure?" Meredith asked. She was afraid that they'd come back and finish the job. She didn't want anything to happen to Layton.

"Promise," he nodded, giving her a small reassuring smile.

"Good," she nodded, satisfied with his answer and his promise. She stood up from the chair she was occupying and without a second thought, leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on Layton's lips. "I'm glad you're okay, Layton. I really am."