Ever The Same

34

It was the day before Christmas Eve and Derek was at work. Normal people were at home today, with their families. Wrapping presents, finishing decorating and drinking egg nog. But he was at work. The only good thing was that Meredith was working too. When they had first started dating, he had promised not to favor her. But today he was guilty of that. He had requested her on his service so that hecould be with his pregnant wife during the holidays, and he could be sure that she wouldn't be paged away.

"I still don't see bleeding." Meredith frowned, sitting back in the chair as they stared at the patient's CT on the monitor.

"It's not showing up on the scan...but all of the signs are there." Derek frowned.

"Hmm..."

"Maybe it's not a bleed."

"I don't know." Meredith sighed.

"What do you think, Dr. Grey?" Derek asked, sitting on the desk next to the monitor.

"I think...it sucks."

"We'll just have to wait for the next set to come up." Derek sighed.

"Do we really want to transport him again?"

"You want to leave him in the machine?"

"Well..."

"We could do another set of scans while we're here...just to check."

"We should." Meredith nodded, leaning over to the microphone. "Mr. Henley...I know you can't move much but we're going to take some more time to do some more scans...you're okay...just wave your fingers if you need us....okay..."

"If nothing shows up...How do we proceed?" Derek asked.

"At this point...we operate...try to find it ourselves."

"Good."

"But we risk killing him..."

"And if we don't operate...he could die."

"Which sucks as well."

"All part of being a doctor." Derek sighed, moving to sit in one of the chairs.

"Hmm..."

"Lucky he's got you to look at while he waits."

"He can't see me." Meredith giggled. "Or hear me anymore for that matter...I turned off the microphone."

"He was taking a pretty good look at you before." Derek laughed.

"I'll give him another good look before surgery."

"I'm sure it'll make him feel much better."

"I know it did earlier." She laughed, taking a sip of her water.

"It always makes me feel better."

"Shut up."

"Don't tell your boss to shut up."

"Am I in trouble now?" She laughed.

"Huge amounts of trouble." He laughed, leaning over and kissing her.

"Hmm..."

"Almost Christmas..." He whispered against her lips.

"Almost."

"My mom wants us over for dinner at four."

"She didn't want to have dinner anywhere else." Meredith laughed.

"I don't think she would have let us do dinner at our house because of the baby." Derek smiled.

"Protective like you..."