Seven Thousand Hours

Chapter 24|Wait for me

It was now Halloween and Derek and Meredith were just clinging to the last few moments of peace and quiet before their pagers would be flooded with calls from Halloween night. The last few weeks had been chaos for them. They were in the thick of the trial now, but they were also beginning to bring patients who'd had the treatment back in to record of any changes or improvements. So far nothing was proving to be successful and Meredith could only watch as she saw Derek grow more stressed, tired and frustrated.

The final blow was this afternoon when she'd received a phonecall from the parents of the young Darren Covington, their first trial patient, and how he'd passed away from pneumonia- a common subsequence in Alzheimer's. Meredith had instantly gone to find Derek in his office to tell him, but she was only met with the guy she'd first met in the bar: cold, emotionless and miserable. He'd just brushed it off, but Meredith knew him better than that now.

It was a Friday night and she'd worked extra hard throughout the day to clear 2 hours for them just to give him a break. He didn't have his day off last week because he had to be at a conference in DC, so he'd been running on empty cylinders for a while. Meredith just wanted him to relax, not let this trial get to him.

She'd decided to surprise him, and also surprise herself, when she brought Izzie into the trailer to help supervise as Meredith cooked them some steaks. If you hadn't gathered already, cooking wasn't her forte. However, they say that cooking comes from the heart, and she wanted to cheer Derek up in a way she knew he'd done with her before.

"Let's go back to the trailer, Der" she sat on the chair opposite his desk. He was quite literally pulling his hair out at this point, stress was written across all the frown lines in his forehead. "I don't have time, Mer" he mumbled before scribbling something down. "Derek this isn't healthy. Not all is lost with this trial, but it will be if you give yourself a stress breakdown. Come back to the trailer. I have a surprise for you" she smiled hopefully. He just shook his head. She knew he was unreachable at this point, he'd crawled back into the shell of the man he was a few months ago.

"Derek Shepherd get your sorrowful ass out of that chair and get in that trailer" she snapped suddenly. He looked up, taken back by the sudden angry tone she rarely took with him. She reached over and grabbed his pen, snapping it and tossing it in the bin before the ink leaked anywhere. "That was my favourite pen!" He exclaimed. "Do I look like I give a shit? Now move!" She snapped before she dragged him out his chair.

"You know, I kind of like this bossy side of you" he smirked at her as she pushed him to the door. He slipped on his coat, accepting that he wasn't going to win this fight. And an hour wasn't going to do much harm. She was right, he needed to take a minute to breathe, and shower, because he smelt like crap.

They walked down to the trailer and Dereks eyes lit up when he saw a small table had been laid, and there was plates of food in the oven. "Meri" he turned to her shocked. She walked over to him and wrapped her arm around him. "You need to relax, and eat, and shower because you smell." She laughed a little before stepping over and pulling the plates of food out the oven.

"I thought you said you don't cook?" He asked. "I had Izzie help me" she smiled at him. He walked over and slipped his hands around her waist. Friends don't do this. He leaned into her space and she was convinced he was about to kiss her but he suddenly changed his direction and kissed her cheek. "Thank you" he mumbled against her ear, making her heart beat rapidly. Friends don't do this. Damn it, Meredith! Why is it so hot in here suddenly. This man is going to kill me with his hotness!