Locked Away

Chapter 25

Meredith whimpers when she sees Derek in the doorway and clutches onto Carolyn.

Derek sees the fear on Meredith's face and tries to comfort her.

"It's okay Meredith. It's just me, Derek. I would never hurt you. I promise." Derek says softly.

Meredith has some tears starting to run down her face. "Carolyn I'm scared." She whispers.

"I know Mer. It's just Derek though. You don't have to be scared of him. Remember what we were talking about earlier?" Carolyn asks softly.

Meredith nods.

"Mer, do you want some of this ice cream? It's strawberry, your favorite." Derek says smiling.

Meredith hesitates and then nods.

Derek walks over to her bed very slowly so as to not scare her. He hands her the container of strawberry ice cream and rustles through the bag looking for a spoon. He finds one and hands it to her.

"Thanks." Meredith whispers.

Meredith is still not able to eat very much solid food yet because of not eating much when she was held captive. Because of that she still has her NG tube. Meredith is not used to eating many things yet. She's trying but she's just not there yet. They want her to be able to eat normally without a feeding tube before they discharge her from the hospital.

Meredith takes the lid off of the ice cream. She has a tiny smile on her face when she sees the pink ice cream. She scoops up a tiny amount on her spoon and brings it to her mouth.

"Yummy." She whispers and takes another bite.

Carolyn and Derek smile at each other when they see her enjoying the ice cream.

Meredith takes a few more quick bites and then she stops. "Brain freeze. Ow."

"Eat it slowly Mer and that'll help with that." Carolyn says. Whenever Meredith attempts to eat solid food she tends to eat it rather quickly because she's scared someone will take it away from her like Finn did.

Meredith takes some more bites of the ice cream.

Derek walks over to Carolyn and sits down next to her. Meredith's eyes follow his every movement.

"Mom, how is she doing? Like honestly. Do you think she has improved any?" Derek asks softly.

Carolyn sighs. "Physically, yes, her injuries are healing. Mentally no. She is still so scared all of the time and always thinks someone will hurt her. She's still having constant nightmares. It takes a long time for the doctors to examine her each time because she thinks they will hurt her. She's trying to protect herself. She refused to talk to Dr Wyatt earlier. To be honest, I have no idea how she's going to do when she's released from the hospital. I think that's going to be extremely hard for her. I think it may set her back also. And when she sees Joe's for the first time again... I don't think that'll go well."

"Why did this have to happen to her??!!" Derek asks, starting to get worked up.

"Derek, please calm down. You're going to scare her." Carolyn warns.

Carolyn notices Meredith looking their way with fear in her eyes.

"She doesn't deserve any of this mom! None of it!" He slams his hand on the table.

All of a sudden Meredith starts sobbing.

Carolyn glares at Derek and goes over to Meredith to comfort her.

Meredith tries to squirm away from Carolyn. "No! Don't touch me! No! Stop! I'm scared!"

"Baby, it's me. Carolyn." Carolyn can see that Meredith is freaking out and no one can calm her down when she is this way.

"No!!! Stop it! Leave me alone! I need to leave!" Meredith says, attempting to get out of bed. Meredith's sobs continue to grow louder and louder.

Meredith starts to hit the sides of her bed in fear. "I can't handle it anymore! Please don't hurt me! I don't want to be touched again! Please!"

Derek gets up and comes closer to her bed.

Meredith sees Derek walking closer and starts screaming in fear, thinking he's Finn. Any man to her is Finn. "Please!!! Don't hurt me! Don't touch me! Please! Leave me alone!" She wails.

Cristina was just down the hallway and heard Meredith yelling and sobbing. Cristina races down to Meredith's room and sees her hitting the railings of her bed.

She sees Derek walking closer to Meredith's bed and shakes her head at him to stop.

Derek sees Cristina telling him to stop but he has a plan.

All of a sudden Derek starts singing a Clash song to her. He had to sing loudly for his voice to be heard over her sobs.

Meredith heard Derek singing and her cries quieted down. She looked at Derek singing and gave a tiny smile.

Cristina was looking at the scene with a confused expression on her face.

"He used to sing this song to her all the time when they were younger. She would get upset about something and start yelling and sobbing and no one would ever be able to get her to calm down. But somehow Derek would sing this song to her and she would quiet down immediately. I don't know how he does it. He has some special bond with her." Carolyn said softly to Meredith. She now has Meredith in her arms and stroking her hair now that she's calmer.

Derek finished singing the song and smiled at Meredith who gave a little smile back. "Want more of your ice cream?" He asked her and picked it up off of the ground where it had fallen during Meredith's freak out.

Meredith nodded and held her hand out to Derek for the ice cream.

She ate a little bit more before deciding she was full. "I'm tired." She said to Carolyn. "But I'm scared I'll have a nightmare."

"I know baby. But I'll be right here. And I'll wake you up if I see you having one. I promise. Do you want Derek to leave?"

Meredith shook her head. "He can stay." She said softly.

I hope you liked! Let me know if you have an ideas