Looking at you side ways

37

It was after three, and Dr. Bailey came up to them.

"Good job with the stab wounds. Another residents interns are here to take over the pit. I need you guys to go to post op and monitor the gunshot victim from this morning. He is out of surgery. Stop off and get his most recent labs on the way."

They made their way to the lab and post op. Derek asked, "How does she do it? She is constantly checking on us in-between her own surgeries and the Chief Resident job."

Meredith laughed and said, "She see's all, knows all, hears all. You really stood up to her Derek. And she backed down."

He said, "Well, we have to eat. And I checked my watch. We were off the floor for exactly twelve minutes when nothing was going on."

"Still. Impressive. I wouldn't have stood up to her like that."

"Don't be afraid to stand your ground when you think you are right Meredith. And I believe it's better to get it out than let it fester inside you."

They walked into post-op and found their patient and started monitoring him.

They worked in comfortable silence for the first half hour, only talking softly about the patient's condition and charting.

Meredith looked at Derek and noticed an unusual haunted looked in his eye that she had never seen before.

"Derek?"

"Um...?"

"Derek? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking about my dad."

"Oh. I am sorry." Meredith knew his dad had died, but not any of the details.

"Don't be. They are not
bad memories. Really only one bad memory and tons of good ones."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked softly.

Derek took a deep breath and said, "Two guys shot my dad for his watch. My mom saved up for it. Two guys came into his store and they shot him because he wouldn't give it up. That's how my dad died. He left five little kids and my mom behind."

Meredith walked over to him and reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Derek. I am so sorry. That must have been awful."

Derek glanced down at the tiny girl who has holding his hand to comfort him and smiled. "I want you to know me. My past. It makes us who we are."

He wanted to lighten the moment when he saw her sorrow filled eyes feeling his pain.[i] He somehow knew she had enough of her own pain. [/i] He said, "I'll tell you some other stuff. My mother's maiden name, Maloney. She's a navy nurse.
I like coffee ice cream, single-malt scotch, occasionally a good cigar. I like to fly fish. And I cheat when I do the crossword puzzle on Sunday. And I never dance in public. Um, favorite novel, The Sun Also Rises. Favorite band, The Clash. My favorite color is blue. I don't like light blue, indigo. The scar right here on my forehead, that's why I don't ride motorcycles anymore."

Meredith reached up and lightly ran her fingers over his scar.[i] He just shared his dad's death with her and she wanted to tell him about her mother's own living hell. He just shared a private personal moment; she could do the same. She knew she needed to start trusting people. [/i] She took a deep breath and looked into his warm caring eyes and said, "My mother.....Um..My mother has early onset Al........"

They were interrupted by the machines suddenly shrilling. Derek said, "Fuck; he is crashing!"
He hit the button by the bed and the code team was activated. Meredith lowered the bed to level and threw the pillows on the floor.