That's How We Met ('tis the damn season) [Merder]

Is this love?

Meredith woke up alone in the morning. Derek had gone back to New York the night before. He had caught a late flight, promising her to come back as soon as he could. She wasn't sure when that would be, but she was missing him already. The amount of love she felt for him was crazy. It felt unreal sometimes, too good to be true, like one day she'd wake up and realize it was all just a dream.

"I got there safely, don't worry." She calmed down when she read the text he had sent her late night when she was already asleep, so she was only seeing it now. She had been worried, planes still scared her on some levels since the last year's accident.

She quickly got dressed and went to the hospital. She had a busy schedule: A surgery in the morning and then a few consults. The surgery went great, she managed to avoid any complications and successfully saved a life. She ate breakfast in the cafeteria with Lexie and Amelia and headed to the patient's room with Jo Wilson, who was her intern for the day.

"Hello, I'm dr. Grey. This is my intern, dr. Wilson." She slightly smiled at the patient as they walked into the room. The patient was a 35-year-old woman with an abdominal pain as her chart said.

"Hi, I'm Shanon but you probably already know that," she warmly smiled at her before she suddenly winced.

"How bad is the pain?" Meredith asked, moving closer to her to examine her abdomen.

"It's pretty intense." She admitted.

"Can't you just give her something and send us home? I don't have time for this." A male voice said. Meredith turned around, seeing a man entering a room.

"That's not exactly how this works. She seems to be in a lot of pain and she might need surgery." Meredith explained as calmly as she could, though irritation was written on her face.

"Okay, but make it quick."

"I'm sorry Steve, but I can't exactly help it," Shanon told him. "I'm sorry dr. Grey. This is my husband, Steve. He doesn't mean to be rude, he's just very busy with the work right now."

"It's okay" Meredith smiled at Shanon, feeling bad for her. "I'll need a few tests to confirm it, but I believe we might need to remove your gallbladder. Dr. Wilson will take care of you. I'll be back once we have the results."

"Thank you, Doctor Grey," Shanon told her as she nodded her head and quietly left the room.

Meredith headed to her office to get some paperwork done till she got Shanon's test results. She sat down in her chair and leaned backward, closing her eyes for a moment. Her phone buzzed, ruining her peaceful moment. She opened her eyes, grabbing her phone from the table where she had placed it earlier.

"Talked to mom, it went better than I expected." A small smile appeared on her face as she read Derek's text.

"I'm glad" she texted back.

"I miss you."

"Miss you too."

"Will you be back soon?"

"I may take a late flight tomorrow night, or the day after."

"That's good."

"How's your day going?"

"It's good. Pretty busy. I'm waiting for labs to confirm it but I'm probably going to do cholecystectomy soon."

"Good luck in surgery."

"Thank you. Love you!"

"Love you too!"

She read Derek's last message and shut the phone off, only for it to buzz again. It was Wilson, letting her know that they did every test required and the labs confirmed gallstones. She went to talk to the patient, then told Wilson to prep her and take her up to the OR.

Once the surgery was over they took the patient in recovery. Meredith was by her side when she woke up. Her husband was nowhere to be found. Meredith couldn't help but wonder why she was with him. He didn't care about her enough to stick around while she was in surgery. He didn't even seem worried that her wife was going to have major surgery and he was rude to her.

"Hi" Shanon groggily told her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Hi, Shanon." Meredith smiled at her. "Your surgery went great. We're going to leave you here for a few days but there is nothing to worry about. You'll be back on your feet soon."

"Thank you, Dr. Grey." Shanon looked around the room. Meredith realized she was looking for her husband, hoping he'd be there. "He's probably working."

"We'll let him know you're okay," Meredith reassured her.

"You're probably thinking I'm stupid for putting up with his behavior."

"I wasn't..." Meredith started but was cut off.

"It's okay. I get it. He's not always been like this. We've not always been like this." Meredith could see tears forming in her eyes. "We met at our mutual friend's wedding. It was love at the first sight. He quickly became my favorite person, my best friend. We moved in together after a month of being together, we had already said I love you by then. Everyone around us thought we were crazy, delusional. But we... I felt that it was right. Sometimes it felt irrational, too good to be true but it still felt right and we didn't listen to them. We got married three months later. It was a dream come true. He was dreamy and incredible and I couldn't ask for anything better. It started fading away soon. The dream fell apart. We weren't as happy, as in love. It felt repetitive, almost forced, but I loved him. I still do. That's why I stay with him." She finished telling her story. Meredith could see tears rolling down her cheeks. She could feel her own eyes filling with water. Shanon's story felt too familiar, at least the first part of it. She and Derek fell in love quickly, and even though everyone seemed to be supportive of it, it still wasn't something she expected to ever happen to her, definitely not at this pace. Were they blindsided by physical attraction? Did they misunderstand passion as love? Were they moving too fast? Is that what was going to happen to them? Was it all going to fade away with time? Was it all just a lie? She felt like she couldn't breathe, so she quickly excused herself, telling Shanon to get some rest. She couldn't remember how she got to her office, all was just a blur. She locked the door, leaning against it. She could feel panic rising in her. That couldn't be it, it couldn't have been just a lie. There was no way that that could be the case. She loved him and she knew he loved her. She did not doubt that. Her thoughts were racing in her mind. She couldn't make sense of anything. Would Derek turn into Shanon's husband? Would he not love her anymore? Would she not love him anymore? She has been so sure of their relationship all this time and she couldn't make sense of it.

"Breathe, Meredith" she quietly whispered to herself. She couldn't let the panic take over. She was calm in the center of the chaos, Bailey once told her that. She couldn't let something like this, something hypothetical destroy her. She took a deep breath. She loved Derek. Derek loved her. They wouldn't end that way. She wouldn't turn into Shanon.

She made her way to the couch to lay down. Her thoughts were much clearer now. She does love Derek. So what if they barely know each other? She'll get to know him. She'll make sure to talk to him about it as soon as he comes back. They'll make it work. They have to. Sleep crept in as the doubts crept away, calmness taking over her features.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! ❤️

If anything medical is not accurate, it's because I've no medical knowledge and this is purely based on what I know from grey's and google ✨

Leave your thoughts here! ❤️