A Healing Heart

Chapter 28

"Mer do you want some coffee?" Derek shouted through their apartment, well her apartment to which he had unofficially moved into. 

"I'm a doctor Derek of course I want coffee." she shouted back.

A week had passed since her episode and she hadn't experienced anymore symptoms so today was her first day back at work and as normal, they were late. Meredith was rushing around the apartment looking for the left shoe of Ellyse blue converse; toothbrush in her mouth as she fastened her watch around her wrist. Something always has to go missing just exactly when they needed it. Meanwhile, Derek was packing Ellyse's lunch and preparing their on the go coffee for the morning. 

The words that Ellis left him with were still circulating in his brain, of course he hadn't brought them up to Meredith yet but he couldn't help but worry more at the possibility of the 'what if' Ellis offered him. Going back to Seattle just for a test was crazy, right? So, instead he spent every spare moment he had observing her closely, not even aware he was doing it but Meredith could feel him everywhere even when she thought she was without him. He was hovering and she didn't like that.

"Mommy I found the pink one!" Ellyse called out from her bedroom.

"We don't need the pink one Ells, just the blue one, you know, the ones mommy has." Meredith said rushing back into the girls bedroom. 

"Umm.." Ellyse said as she racked her small brain as to where the missing shoe was.

Meredith was dived into the wardrobe when out the corner of her eye she spotted the villain of the morning, the shoe mocking her sat underneath Ellyse's bed. Picking it up she quickly got them on and fastened and all three of them made their way out of the apartment.

8:51am. They had got Ellyse to school just on time and now they had 9 minutes to get themselves to the hospital, driving through the wild New York streets. Men of business walking out into the road without looking for traffic whilst taking through headsets and women rushing to get their coffee and bagels from the cafe's on each street corner.

"Anything good today?" Derek asked her.

"I have a cholecystectomy with Hudson at 11, but first rounds." she smiled with a giggle.

"Rounds." Derek mimicked, rolling his eyes.

She laughed, "is it weird for you that I'm your boss?"

"Your not my boss, you're my teacher." he smirked at his response to her cockiness.

"Same thing."

"And no, why would it be weird?"

"I... no reason." she giggled.

"You mean the whole dating your student thing." he winked, teasing her.

"Shut up." she hit his arm

"Hey watch your hands, I could report you for taking advantage of my vulnerability." he joked.

"Your such an ass." she pouted, trying to hold her laugh in.

"You love me." he patted her knee.

"No."

"Yes."

"I don't."

"You so do."

She didn't reply, sitting there looking forward hiding her smirk with a pout, he laughed as they drove into the car park at the hospital. They both looked at the digital clock in the car, 8:58. They smiled and high fives before grabbing there stuff and heading inside, Derek pulling Meredith closer to him just to hear the sound of her laughter as she swatted him away.

***

Meredith was scrubbing in for her surgery with Dr Hudson, she stood at the sink disinfecting the surface area of her small hands and forearms, the sound of the door opening caught her attention and turning to see who it was she watched as Hudson walked and stood next to her at the sink.

"You feeling okay, Grey?" she asked scrubbing her fingernails. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, Dr Hudson." she smiled watching the other surgeons hands. 

"No more episodes? I shouldn't expect you to play dead during my surgery?" 

Meredith was taken back by her abruptness. 

"Er.. no." she replied, now feeling awkward which her fellow surgeon soon picked up on. 

"Sorry. Bad morning. Let's go." she said as she walked into the OR.

The surgery went smoothly and shortly after Meredith was sat monitoring the patient in their room whilst filling out the post-op report. Hudson's words were playing on her mind however and now she felt like she should be walking on glass, like everyone was expecting her to fall to the ground and shake any minute, but she was fine. She felt fine. For the past hour whilst doing the post-op she had been clock watching and now it was catching up with her so she decided to go and find Derek, finding him in the cafeteria soon after.

They had a quiet lunch together talking about their day when he asked how her surgery went.

"Yeah... yeah it was fine. Patient's in recovery." she said slowly.

"That's good, so what is it that's got you all spaced out?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Right now, you're sat in front of me but you're not here."

"I am. We've just had a conversation." she rolled her eyes, shifting on her seat.

"If by conversation you mean my words and your "mhms" then yes, we did."

Looking at him as he grabbed her hands, she felt encouraged to tell him how she was feeling.

"Dr Hudson asked me if he should expect me to start playing dead during his surgery earlier, I guess he just threw me off guard. I feel like everyone is looking and me and waiting for something to happen but I feel okay Derek, but I can't work normally when nobody is treating me normally." she looked at her hands in his.

"That's strange for him to say. Maybe you should talk to the chief or something, I'm only an intern, I can't really help you with him Mer." he stroked the back of her thumb.

"No. No, I don't need to talk to the chief, it's not that serious, I just didn't expect him to say it so carelessly."

"I know. But you're feeling good, right?" he asked.

"I am." she reassured him, sighing as his pager went off.

"So much for a slow day." he said kissing her cheek and hurrying off, leaving her sat there alone.

The day soon ended and Meredith was making her own way home as Derek was on call, she had picked Ellyse up and together the two of them were singing in the car as they laughed at one another.

"It's good that you're a doctorer mommy because you can't sing." the girl laughed.

"Does that mean you're going to be a doctor too then?" Meredith joked.

"I'm a good singer mommy! But, I want to be a doctor for doggies."

"A vet?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah! A vet! And cuddle with puppies all day, can I be a vet mommy?"

"You can be whatever you want baby girl." she smiled. 

***

Heyyy, a new chapter!