Where You Belong

54

Derek had a feeling.

He had spent the night and morning feeling...off. But he had shrugged it off as lingering effects of the neurotoxin he had been exposed to the previous day, and nothing more.

But now it was more.

No one else exposed to the toxic patient were feeling lasting effects. And Derek's sense of off-ness had grown into something more, something stronger. He had wondered if it was anxiety for his girlfriend's mother's heart surgery, but then Ellis's radio-ablation had been postponed due to the ferry crash.

And his feeling wasn't passing.

It had welled inside him when he had caught sight of Meredith's face, smiling out at him from her hospital badge... Her hospital badge that was firmly attached to her coat, which was not on her, but covering a patient being transported to an ambulance without her.

And then Derek had turned, and his heart had jumped into his throat. The tiny blond girl his girlfriend had been escorting to safety stood across the emergency site, alone and lost. Meredith wasn't anywhere near her, and he knew that she would never have left the small girl alone in the chaos.

And he definitely knew his girlfriend would never have left that patient unattended.

And now Derek was gripping tightly to the hand of the tiny blond girl, hoping she would lead him to Meredith. She had yet to speak a word, but he trusted she understood him. The way her eyes had darkened and her head had shaken in response to his question about Meredith's safety had made his heart clench. Something was very, very wrong.

She stopped suddenly, staring around with wide, searching eyes.

Derek took a breath and crouched beside her. "What? It's okay," he soothed, trying to calm the girl, while his mind was screaming for her to find Meredith. "Just think. Where is she? Which way did she go?"

She turned her head left and right as she searched for...something.

"Take all the time you need. You're doing great." He forced his voice to sound calm, knowing that if he scared the girl she may never lead him to Meredith.

After a long moment her glancing stopped and she nodded to herself.

"Good," Derek spoke, quickly following behind as she led him away from the chaos. By the time he caught up, she was standing along the edge of the pier, staring out at the water. And as much as he wanted to pull her away from the ledge, he knew something was wrong. He could practically feel what she was going to do next.

"Okay, use your words," he pleaded. "Where exactly is Meredith?"

She didn't speak, but instead brought one arm out in front of her, pointing out at the water.

Derek swallowed hard, not a doubt in his mind that Meredith was in the water. She was in the water, and she didn't swim.

Meredith was in the water.

Meredith didn't know how to swim.

Meredith was in the water.

Oh, God...

Leaving the little girl's side, he stepped to the very edge, staring down at the water below. "Meredith," he whispered. "Meredith!" It was stupid to yell if she was under the surface, and had his brain still been functioning rationally, he would have realized that. "Meredith!" He tried again.

He searched left and right, catching sight of a set of stairs leading down to a water level dock. "Stay here," he said to the little girl. "It'll...it'll be okay," he tried to comfort, wishing he could believe it.