Back To Seattle

Chapter 17

She was far too aware of him stood in the gallery, watching her every movement. Making sure he knew exactly where she was. Making sure she couldn't slip out from under him. Knowing he had her right where he wanted her.

It was taking everything she had to continue with the surgery, to focus as much as she could on making sure she clipped the aneurysm and didn't put the patient at any more risk than they'd signed up for.

She took a deep breath. It really didn't help that everything going on was stirring up more nausea in her stomach, but she had to force it down. She really didn't have a choice. The last thing she needed was to vomit while he was watching, that would blow the whole thing up.

She was almost done. Almost finished and then she probably had about five minutes to empty the contents of her stomach into the scrub room sink before he found her. She may have been operating a little quicker than she should've been, or even than she wanted to, to give her more time away from him. She just wasn't sure how long she could hold the nausea back for.

She instructed the resident to close, taking a step back from the table after handing her instruments back. She watched for a moment before turning and heading into the scrub room, ripping her mask off when she knew she was out of sight.

"Meredith?"

She hadn't even realised Derek had been stood there. His soft voice, the concern there, she needed to address that. But right now, she couldn't hold back any longer.

"Just, I need to," she rushed out, her hand flying to her mouth a moment.

She only managed to lean over the waste bin before she started vomiting, her gloved hand grasping the side of it as her stomach emptied. She was aware of Derek's hand on her back, rubbing gently, and he was speaking softly but she couldn't register his words of comfort.

She coughed, making sure she was definitely done before she straightened again. She pulled off her gloves and overalls, stuffing them in the bin and shrugging off Derek's touch before moving over to the sink to scrub out.

"I'm sorry, Derek," she murmured softly, knowing they didn't have long until Jordan showed up.

"You have nothing to apologise for, Meredith," he told her, leaning against the sink beside her with a frown on his face. "I think I know what's going on."

The words he said winded her. He knows? How could he know? Did Mark say something?

She looked up at him in a slight panic, her mouth slightly open but no words coming out. His hand reached out to her, but she took a step back, shaking her head.

"You can't, we can't," she murmured.

"Why not?" His frown deepened.

"Because he'll be here any second, and you're Dr Shepherd, my boss, and for some reason he already doesn't like you, so just," she held her hand out to stop him coming any further, her eyes pleasing with him. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"I can get him to leave, Meredith," he said, his voice serious. "I can protect you."

"I'm not getting you more involved than you already are, okay? He doesn't know I'm pregnant and it needs to stay that way," she inhaled sharply as the door swung open behind her.

"There you are, Meredith, you should be done by now, I've been waiting for you," Jordan's voice sounded, sharp, and she span around to face him.

"I was just finishing up, I'll be right out," she said, scrubbing at her hands again. "I was just speaking with Dr Shepherd about a surgery we have tomorrow."