Perfect strangers

Chapter 31

Their happy little bubble they had been living in was quickly burst as they headed home and immediately got thrown back into work. So for now the wedding plans had been placed in the back of their minds.

"Dr Grey!" An intern shouted as she ran up to an exhausted Meredith. "Another patient is being brought in from the building collapse, a large piece of concrete fell on her, crushed her abdomen."

"Right." Meredith sighed. "Go and prep the OR, as soon as she comes in we are taking her straight to surgery and scrub in, I'm going to need all the hands I can get!" Meredith shouted before turning to run in the hopes of finding something quick to eat.

As she rounded a corner her body collided with another as their hand reached out and stopped from falling to the ground.

"Derek, what are you doing here?" Meredith asked as she brushed the hair that had fell out of her ponytail behind her ears.

"I need to talk to you, have you got a minute?" He asked.

"No because I have another patient that's about to arrive and needs to go straight into surgery. My whole body aches and I haven't eaten anything in hours, so no I don't have any time..." Meredith pushed him and walked towards the nearest vending machine.

"Meredith, I've got to fly out to New York." He watched when she twirled to face him.

"When?" She asked, hating the fact that there was a possibility of not seeing Derek when she got to go home.

"Tonight." Derek admitted as he watched her face drop before turning back to the vending machine, watching as the chocolate fell down. "I'm sorry, it's last minute but I need to go for this case I'm working on..."

"It's fine." Meredith cut him off. "It's all part of your job. When will be home?" She asked as she took a bite of her chocolate and sighed happily at the taste.

"A week, I hate this as much as you do." He smiled softly at her and cupped her face in his hand, his thumb rubbing lovingly over her cheek.

"I mean since we've been back we have hardly had any time together, can we just go back to the cottage?" Meredith asked as her pager suddenly started blaring loudly. "I've got to go, phone me later, I need to know you got to New York safely."

"I will, now go. Go and save a life." He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. "I love you."

"I love you too." Meredith replied before turning and running down to the ER, leaving Derek standing there alone.

Looking at his watch, he knew he had to head home and start packing if he wanted to make his flight on time.

"Derek!" He heard a familiar voice from behind him as he turned and came face to face with Lexie as she walked towards him pushing Noah in his stroller.

"Lexie, how are we?" He smiled as she came to stand next to him. "Hey little man, you're getting so big." He cooed to Noah as the baby gurgled in respond and smiled at him.

"How's Meredith? I mean we've hardly seen her since you know..." Lexie smiled sadly as she rocked the stroller back and forth.

"Yeah, I think it's hard for her to be around Noah but she will come round eventually." Derek gave her a half smile before an idea come to mind. "Actually, I've got to go away for work for the week, so I'm sure Meredith would love some company."

"Oh yeah sure. I'd love to." She looked down at her watch. "I better go, got to drop Mark his lunch off. Bye Derek."

"Bye Lex." Derek waved at her as she moved down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

From the conversation he had just had with Lexie he was certain that Meredith hadn't told her about the engagement. He wasn't sure if was just down to the fact that she was busy or simply didn't want to tell anyone. His phone beeped indicating that he really had to get going, so he walked down and headed out of the hospital.

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The day was finally for Meredith as she dragged her exhausted body down to her car. It had been one of them days where they was more loses then saves. So she was both physically and mentally drained and wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up in their bed and sleep.

The drive home seemed to take forever as Meredith focused on keeping herself awake and getting home safely. Thankfully, she pulled into her drive without a scratch on her as she parked her car and climbed out.

The lights were off and the house was consumed in darkness as Meredith slipped her key in the lock and pushed the door open.

"Derek?" Meredith shouted out as she flicked the lights on and dropped her bag by the door. She mentally kicked herself when she remembered that Derek wasn't here and wouldn't be here for the rest of the week.

Moving into the living room she collapsed down on the couch as she pulled out her phone and pressed Derek's number before holding the phone up her ear. It went straight to answer phone meaning Derek must still be on the plane.

Deciding to head up, she pushed herself up and turned off the lights and locked the door before heading upstairs and into their room. She took a quick shower before grabbing one of Derek's tops and slipped it over her head and moved into his side of his bed, finding great comfort of his scent still lingering on his pillow as she cuddled into it.

It didn't take long before sleep consumed her body and Meredith fell into a deep sleep. Only minutes later, Meredith's phone started ringing which startled her and made her reach out lazily for her phone.

"Hello?" She said down the phone, the exhaustion evident in her voice.

"I'm sorry, was you sleeping?" At hearing Derek's voice she rubbed her eyes and sat up against the head board.

"Hmm, barely. I just got home and it was a really hard night..." she said, looking round the room and suddenly hating how quiet it was. "I hate this, it's too quiet."

"You should have just stayed at the hospital, you know I don't like it when you drive home when you are that exhausted." Derek sighed down the phone.

"I know but I didn't want to sleep in an on call room, I wanted my own bed and I kind of forgot that you wasn't here." Meredith let her body slide down so she was now lying down again with her phone resting on the pillow as she placed it on speaker phone.

"I'll be home soon, don't worry. I hate this as much as you do. Look, I just wanted to let you know that I got here safe, so go and get some sleep and I will phone you tomorrow alright?" Derek waited for a reply but was shortly met with the sound of Meredith snoring, laughing to himself he shook his head. "Night Mer."

Derek hung up the phone and placed it in his pocket as he headed out of the airport to catch a cab to his hotel. As much as he loved his job, he wanted this week to be over so he could get back home to Meredith.

"Derek?" Derek frowned as he looked round trying to find the person that was calling out his name. "Derek, is that you?"

"Addison?" Derek eyes finally landed on the red head that was walking towards him. "Oh my..."

This was not how he thought his week would play out...