From the Heart

- C H A P T E R 8 -

Derek had been nineteen years old when he got a phone call from his best friend, telling him that he had gotten a sister and that his mother had died along the way. He knew that Mark hadn't had a great relationship with his parents, for he always resided with him and his family. Mark was like a brother to him.

It was early in the morning but Derek hadn't bothered and had rushed to the hospital as fast as he could. He hadn't known that Alba had been pregnant and listening to his brother during the phone call, Mark hadn't either.

He had walked up to the NICU where he had found Mark standing over an incubator. He put on a pair of disposable pink scrubs and joined him. Derek had never seen such a small baby in his life before.

"Twenty-Seven weeks," Mark had told him.

It was a very early preemie and he knew that even though the survival rate was high, the chance of disability or impairment was even higher.

"The doctors don't know all the complications yet," he told him as if Mark had read his mind. "All they know is that she has Tetralogy of Fallot."

Derek had seen it as soon as Mark had told him. Her fingers were an unusual color, almost blue or purple, meaning there was too little oxygen in her blood.

"Does she have a name?" he had asked his brother.

"Abigail."

'Abigail,' he had repeated in his head. A beautiful name for a beautiful baby girl. The moments of luck didn't last long as his mind wandered off to the other incident his brother had told him about. Alba's death.

"There was a fire. The apartment had blown up. I don't know where he is, probably ran away. The burns were too bad and she was already almost gone when she got here. They couldn't save her." Mark sounded almost emotionless talking about the Sloan's. They had never been there for him. They were selfish people, but Alba had at least cared about him. They couldn't say that about his father.

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks."

"So, what now?" That was a question the both of them weren't able to answer. They really had no idea what was going to happen, what was going to come and what they were supposed to do.

It was his family that had taken her in, that had cared for her and loved her like a real member. She was as much his sister as any of the rest of them.
She had grown up to be a combination of Mark and his sister Amelia. Probably because the two had spent so much time together. Abigail could be very cold and distant towards people but had a big heart. She cared about others, she was always nice even if she was distant. She never hurt people, not intentionally at least.

Derek grew very close with her. They were probably the two closest siblings in the family. He was everything to her as much as she was everything to him. He could talk to her about anything and everything. She was his rock during every part of his life.

She had encouraged him to ask Addison out. Was part of his proposal to the same woman. Was the ring bearer at the wedding. She was there for him when his wife had cheated on him. Made sure that both Mark and Addison apologized for their doings. Encouraged him to go after Meredith, when everyone knew the marriage was irreparable but weren't ready to give in. She was there for him when the two broke up again.

Abigail was everything he needed.

He had been in shock when she showed up on her first day of the new year. He hadn't expected her to take the internship here. But more than that, he hadn't expected her to not have told him. They told each other everything. Still, it was a nice surprise to have her back.

Somehow he still hoped he could change her mind and get her to specialize in Neuro, but the chances of that weren't very high. That was what he was thinking about while he was almost ready to close his patient lying on the OR table up. It was at that moment that his pager went off and immediately after his phone.

"Someone answer it please."

One of the scrub nurses answered and put it on speaker. It was Richard on the other end of the line. "Derek get the hell to OR 1, now!"

"Damn Richard, calm down. What's going on?"

"It's Abigail-" That was all he needed to hear.

"Dr. Grey, please close up," he told Meredith before he rushed out of the OR and entered the one across the hallway.

He had no idea what Richard had called him for, but the man seemed stressed and the second he told him that it was about Abi, Derek knew he had to go there as fast as possible. He looked through the window of the scrub room and saw her lying unconscious on the floor.

He ran into the OR. "What happened?" he asked as he kneeled down over her body.

"One moment she was standing there and the next she was lying on the floor," the Chief told him.

Derek checked her body and saw her blue fingers. It was wrong. Seriously wrong. "Who's her resident?"

A man stepped forward, it was Dr. Josephson. "I am, Dr. Shepherd."

"When was the last time she had a break to eat something?"

The man stuttered and clearly had a difficult time finding the courage to say the words. "She didn't have a break doctor."

Derek became furious and instead of being his normal behaved and serene self, he went mad. "Excuse me?! She's been working for almost ten hours without a break?"

He took her hands into his, they were stone cold. It was worse than he had ever seen before. With his fingers he checked for a pulse, he found one but it was slow and barely there. "Someone get her a stretcher and-" He looked up and saw another intern.

"You." He pointed at the intern. "Go find her medication, it's in her locker." Then he returned his attention back to the rest of the room. "Page Dr. Hann."

With soft motions he started massaging her heart. "Abi, please," Derek whispered, "stay with me, okay?"