A Healing Heart

Chapter 32

⚠️tw: violence

Every single hair on her body stood tall, her skin mounted as she processed what was happening. She couldn't even process, it was like everything had stopped, freezing time as it passed, her current situation being the only thing moving forward. The voice shook fear throughout her entire existence and she couldn't move, not even as he stood there, the smirk winning awards on his face. This couldn't be happening.

Her body tensed and slowly, she shifted her chair back picking her body up, knowing she had to do everything she could. When he started coming closer, her heart beat quicker than she thought it could beat, trapped in the corner of the room as his breath tickled around her presence.

"Missed me?" he lifted her chin. 

Her eyes watered immediately as she looked at the man stood in front of her. The man who's hands had roamed her body so violently, the man who took something from her.

"You know, I wasn't looking forward to this meeting. Preparing to hear some know it all doctor talk their way out of killing my wife, hearing how they did all they could and that it was out of their hands, but, you just made my day a lot better."

"P-please." she managed to whimper.

He laughed at her, stroking her hair as she winced. "Cute." 

"You killed my wife dear, and now you must pay and I can't think of any other person better for you to make you pay than me. You know, I'm right. Don't you remember?"

"I hate you." she cried, "please don't do this again"

"It's going to happen dear, how is just up to you."

Meredith closed her eyes tightly as his hand stroked down from her hair to her cheek, his hands as cold and rough as she remembered them being.

"Now. This can be easy or hard, you pick." he whispered in her ear.

The adrenaline shot through her body almost instantly and with every last inch of fight she had, she pushed against his chest forcefully watching as he stumbled back, the space between them increasing. She picked her foot up and quickly tried to get around him to get to the door, the door he had locked on his way in. Meredith had blocked everything out, completely in flight or fight mode and she didn't hear the movement from him behind her as he reached to grab her ankle, she wailed in pain as his nails dug in to her foot and pulled her down. He had her right where he wanted her to be, his own foot burying her ankle as he stood on her listening to her painful cries, begging him to stop.

"Let me go." she cried, her arms attempting to release his leg before he began to hit her away. He became extremely violent very quickly and soon, his teeth were in her collarbone as she fought beneath him, the sobs breaking her body and her screams breaking her voice. Her head met the floor multiple times and as it hit once more, she felt the wetness beneath it and being too scared to reach and confirm what she knew, she stopped.

"Come on. You were much more fun last time." he teased as he pulled the tie on her scrub pants.

***

The sounds the chief heard coming from the room were not normal, he knew that, paired with the locked door, there was definitely something happening in that room that was not supposed to be and he knew it had something to do with Meredith. Running back to his office and searching for the universal key to unlock the door, he set off a code violet, the hospital immediately going into lockdown. He called the police who had dispatched officers and on his way back to the room he passed Alex Karev. 

"KAREV! I need you with me." he shouted as he grabbed his arm and ran

"What's going on? Why are we on lockdown?" Alex said running, sensing the urgency of his chief.

"I think I found Grey... and I think someone is hurting her." he said breathlessly 

"Oh my god." Alex ran ahead of him, needing to help his best friend and tend to her as soon as he could. When they got to the second floor, they were greeted by fear struck colleagues and screams as they were crowded around the conference room. Both of them ran towards the crowd, their stomachs dropping as they looked through the now open window, watching as Meredith was being held towards a wall by a man double her size. His strong hand wrapped tightly around her throat as she tried to kick him. Blood dripping from all over her body, Alex looked at his best friend, watching her black eye darken in front of him. He jumped at the window, attempting to break it as he screamed.

"Get away from her! I will kill you! I swear to god, I'll kill you with my bare hands!" he screamed as tears fell from his eyes. 

"Not before I kill her." the mans voice echoes through the window and he brought his knee up to Merediths stomach.

"Do anything stupid and she dies." he warned.

The man was thriving off the audience he had. The looks of fear on everyones faces encouraged him as he looked back at Meredith, who was struggling to fight for her life. She was beginning to zone away and she knew that this would be the last thing she ever saw. She tried to picture Ellyse and Derek, she wanted the last thing she saw the be something she loved and not this creature.

The chief knew he wasn't supposed to open the door after seeing the threat posed to his staff but he couldn't stand there and watch Meredith take the beating she was receiving, she looked like she wasn't going to last much longer as her legs slowly stopped kicking. When he approached the door and opened it, everyone ran, scared for themselves, except Alex who ran in and pulled him off of Meredith.

He began fighting with the man, he still had a fight in him. Meredith had slumped from the wall to the floor, her breath escaping her still. She couldn't see a thing, her eyes swollen tightly shut but she could hear everything that was happening, the grunts, the punches.

"You son of a bitch. I'll kill you!" Alex screamed, punching for his best friend who was crumpled. He felt hands pulling him off of the man who was now unconscious on the floor, his fist covered in blood from the mouth and face of the animal in front of him. The animal who had tortured his best friend.

"Karev stop." The chief fought his hitting hands as he pulled him away.

"I'm not done with him." he seethed.

With both of their attention on the man, they failed to realise that Meredith was seizing against the wall until the police barged through and brought their attention back the room. The multiple blows to her head sending her entire body into instability. They quickly set into action and rolled her on her side, Alex's heart breaking as he watched his best friend go through this trauma for the second time. 

"Now will you do a damn EEG!" Alex screamed at the chief

The police had gotten the man who had attacked her and it was safe for them to move Meredith onto a gurney and assess her, they knew from looking at her that she'd have some pretty strenuous injuries, she was no longer conscious but that was probably for the best due to the injuries she had sustained.

***

"We need to call Derek." Alex muttered as he sat by Merediths head stroking her hair.

"What was that?" the chief questioned.

'I should call Derek." he got up, leaving the room, returning a couple minutes later, "he wants to talk to you chief."

"Shepherd." he sighed

"What's happened? Is she okay, I need to know what happened to her? What injuries? Did.. did he..." the panic in Dereks voice was heartbreaking as the chief knew what he was insinuating

"No. No, luckily he didn't Shep. What we know so far is that she has a herniated diaphragm, a broken ankle, her hands pretty banged up with a grade 3 concussion, a broken jaw and eye socket and she is covered in lacerations from scratches, bite marks..."

He could hear the gasps and cries on the other end of the phone.

"She had another seizure too. We're gonna do an EEG and figure out why. We've got her Shep." he reassured.

"Im on my way in, I have Ellyse but I'm still coming in. I cant leave her, I promised her no one would hurt her again." his hands slammed the wheel as he drove.

"You couldn't have stopped this. It's not your fault. I'll see you when you get here."