Broken things can get fixed

It happened that day

It had been a whole month. A whole month since he had last sawn her. He was currently in a cab on his way to Grey-Sloan-Memorial since he had been asked to come to perform a triple-organ-transplant. He didn't know what he was supposed to feel though. Should he be excited to see her again? Should he be angry? Mad? What would happen when they would bump into each other? Would they smile at each other and start a conversation to try to fix what's been broken? Would they ignore each other, trying to let go?

No, he couldn't let her go. He was still mad at her for hurting him so bad, for telling him to leave after he had sacrificed a lot to help her, but he still loved her. Still lost in his thoughts he hadn't even registered that the car had stopped, not until the driver had turned around to him and extended his hand, demanding 16 dollars.

Nick gave him twenty before opening the door of the car and getting out. Here he was. Standing in front of the hospital. Her hospital. Meredith was chief here now. She was at the top, she was the boss. But not by choice. She had been pushed into this without even wanting it. Although he got furious and angry every time he would think back of that day he still felt bad for her. He knew that her life had been hell and that this day had taken a lot from her so that there had been many nights where he had thought about calling her, to make sure she was okay. But he hadn't. He had used the time to clear his head.

Very slowly, he started walking towards the entrance. It hadn't been Meredith who had called him, it had been a voice he hadn't recognized so that he wasn't exactly sure where to go. Should he just go to her office? Yes, it seemed as if he had no other choice since he didn't even know who he was assisting. Unknowingly his legs had already started moving towards the staircase that he was now walking up, his mind filled with thousands of questions that desired to be answered.

Just two minutes later he stood in front of the door he had walked out of through, a whole month ago he had walked through this door the last time. Carefully he knocked. One, two times, but he heard nothing coming from the inside. It was completely silent. So, he slowly opened the door, peeking inside but it was completely empty. Empty, not as in there just weren't any people here but as in empty like there was actually nothing in there. No shelfs with binders, no computer, nothing. Frowning he stood in the room, not sure what to do or how to take this as he suddenly heard a voice from behind him.

"Are you looking for the chief?" the voice asked, making him turn around. It was a nurse he didn't know, smiling at him kindly. "Yes, where is she? Isn't that her office?" Nick asked confused, resting his hands on his hips. "No, not anymore. She's in room 456." The nurse explained before turning around again and disappearing. Room 456? Wasn't that a patient room? What was going on here?

So, he made his way through the hallways, trying to find room 456 and hoping that he would get some answers there. Was Meredith still chief? Was Bailey back? Where the hell were all those people that usually filled this hospital? After another two-minute walked he reached room 456. The blinds weren't closed so that he could look through the window into the room. And there she was. Meredith was half sitting half laying on a hospital bed, propped up on a pillow while talking to two interns. Wait- since when did they have new interns?

But what got his interest was the fact that Meredith had a cast around her leg that was laying on multiple pillows as well. And not just on her leg, her right arm was also in a cast while her left hand was in a rail to support it. As he took a look at her face his heart skipped a beat. She had faint outlines of huge bruises on her beautiful features. Her left eye was surrounded by a dark purple spot that had already started to heal but could still be seen.

As after a while he finally managed to move his eyes away from her small form on the big bed he took a closer look at the room. It was filled with binders standing on the windowsill and on the additional shelf that had been moved here from the old office. There were documents, piled up on a table next to her bed while her laptop was standing on top of them. It seemed as if literally the whole office had been moved into the small patient room by force. As if someone had been determined to fit everything in there that made it now seem crowded and chaotic which it wasn't what you only noticed when you would look closely and take in every single detail.

But what had happened? What had happened to Meredith? Where did those painful looking bruises come from? Has she been in an accident? Why had no one called him? Why hadn't she called him?

He was ripped out of his thoughts by the door suddenly opening and the interns walking out of the patient room. Hesitantly he walked closer to the entrance, stopping as he reached the door. Very slowly he peeked his head through the door to look at Meredith. She had now placed her laptop on her lap as she was trying to type something into it. But it seemed as if her left hand wasn't working really well and she also couldn't really use her right hand since it was in a cast.

It took her a few seconds until she noticed him. And as their eyes met a knot formed in his stomach. "Hey." He said, clearing his throat since the word had come out a little raspy. "Nick." Meredith said in shock, not moving a single inch nor blinking at all. "What happened to you?" he asked concerned since although he tried to be mad at her, he couldn't because he loved her after all and she was hospitalized, bruised and hurt.

"That's a really long story." She replied quietly, closing her laptop with her right arm before shoving it off of her onto the mattress. "I came because of the triple-organ-transplant." He said after a few seconds of silence, not sure what else to say. "Right, thank you for coming. Bailey isn't back yet, Richard is traveling with Catherine and as you see I'm stuck in a hospital bed. So, I had no one to assist Maggie and you were the only one I could think of who would be the right one for this job." She said, smiling slightly at him.

"Yeah sure, I mean- I have never done a triple before so- thank you for calling me." He said, smiling back at her. "Thank you for coming." She gave back, grabbing a red squishy ball that was laying next to her with her left hand. As his gaze was fixed onto her hand he saw her fingers weakly squeezing the ball. It seemed as if she had no strength in her hand and could barely move it. "How long- have you been hospitalized?" he asked hesitantly, not sure whether he had the right to ask this question or not.

"Uhm- about a month. Actually o-on the day- on the day Bailey gave me the keys to her office." Meredith mumbled, looking down. Obviously she had tried to avoid having to talk about what had happened between the two of them that day.

"There had been an accident that day. After you left. After I- told you to leave." She added and even from a few feet away he could see the tears welling up in her eyes, breaking his heart. 

So, here is a new story I already had on my mind for a few weeks now but finally decided to start writing it after seeing the Season 19 premier. I don't know yet how long it'll go. Hope you like the first part, let me know what you think =)