Driving Sideways

25.

Derek walked into the house and sighed as he looked around for Ellis and Richie. "Alright, Richard... where are you?"

"I'm not in the kitchen..." Richie called as Derek shook his head and walked towards the kitchen. He stepped into the room and Richie looked up at his father. "I didn't tell HIM to punch Jason across the nose, I told him that I'd do it for him when I get back to Boston..." He said with a shrug as he pulled a popsicle from the freezer.

"I don't want anyone to be punched across the nose...ever..." Derek grumbled.

"Are you always going to be in a bad mood?" Ellis asked, raising her eyebrows at him as she looked through a phone book.

"As long as you're putting me through this, yes." Derek replied.

"I'm not putting you through anything." Ellis said as she looked up at him. "There's nothing that you have to worry about..." She replied.

Derek glanced to Richie, who nodded and quietly took his Popsicle into another room. When the door closed, Derek turned back to Ellis. "You're not putting me through anything, huh?" Derek said as he leaned over the table. "You're not putting me through anything?" He growled.

"You're crowding me." She looked up at him over her glasses as he stood above her.

"What do you mean... that you're not putting me through anything?" Derek growled.

"I mean..." Ellis said as she stood up straight, pushing her glasses back onto her nose. "I mean that your only instructions when I kick the bucket... are to dig a hole, put me in a pine box, throw the box in the hole, and slap a stone with my name on it above me... that's what I mean... It's not a big deal... you have nothing to worry about." She said as she looked back down at the phone book.

"Do you really think it's that easy, Ellis?" Derek exclaimed.

"No... I expect that my grandchildren will miss me..." She shrugged.

"And that doesn't bother you?" Derek asked angrily.

"It does bother me." She replied, clearing her throat as she looked up at him. "It does bother me, Derek. There's nothing that I can do about it."

"That's not true!" Derek exclaimed as he reached for the phone book, only to have it slide from his reach. "That's not true, Ellis... you know that it's not true!"

"Stop shouting at me, Derek." Ellis replied coldly as she turned to walk from the kitchen, holding the phone book.

"Don't you dare walk away from me, Ellis..." Derek growled. "This conversation is not over!"

"This conversation never began, Derek." Ellis replied as she turned and walked out of the kitchen without a second glance.

Derek clenched his fists angrily as he slammed the chair out from beneath the table. He took his phone out from his pocket and set it on the table in front of him.

He put the number of Mark's pager in his phone and stared at it for a while. He set the phone on the table and just looked at the numbers for as long as he could stand it. He closed his eyes and reached for the phone, closing it onto the table, he leaned forward and put his head in his hands, and sighed.

✨✨✨

Meredith was silent in surgery, other than the occasional request for an instrument or suction, she had barely said a word. Mark had finished his assessment of the burns and had offered help in preparing the patient so that the possibility of surgery would be possible when he were more stable and he watched Meredith work.

"You're quiet." Mark said softly.

"I'm working." Meredith replied.

"You're never quiet when you're working... half the time, we have to tell you to shut up... what's on your mind?" Mark asked as he took the scrub nurses spot to help Meredith.