The Fight for Chief

Chapter 16

Where are you now that I need you?

A few weeks had past since the shooting and it was now Meredith's first day back to work.

"Mark! Wait up!" She called as she ran down the hall. "Big Grey" Mark cheered as they hugged briefly. "First day back?" He asked. "Yeah" Meredith said breathlessly as she pulled her stethoscope over her. "Have you spoken to Derek lately?" She asked curiously when Lexie joined them.

"Um, not this week, why?" Mark asked. She frowned. "I'm sure he's fine, I just haven't heard from him in a few weeks. We said we'd text and visit but he stopped replying after about a week" Meredith shrugged but her heart was pounding. "I went to visit him last week, he seemed alright for a guy that was shot in the heart. He just said he was tired. I thought you'd been going to visit" Mark also frowned at his friends lack of contact.

Meredith shrugged. "I don't know where he lives" she said quietly. Mark quickly looked to her. "O-oh." He paused. "Well I could show you and we could go see him tonight?" Mark asked. Meredith nodded. "Y-yeah. I'd like that" she said quietly.

Mark frowned again.

"Hey, don't worry, okay? You both went through a lot. He might just need a little space. I'll let him know we're coming but don't worry, it's not you, okay?" Mark said before squeezing her arm and leaving.

"What was that?" Lexie asked as they walked along. "I haven't heard from Derek in 3 weeks" Meredith sighed as she grabbed their chart for the day. "Im sure he's just restin-" Lexie started but was interrupted.

"He told me he loved me" Meredith said quickly. "Wha-" Lexie said. "And I told him I loved him back and now we're not speaking and-" Meredith began to ramble.

"Calm down" Lexie laughed a little. "I'm sure he's just been resting. His body went through a lot" Lexie tried to reason. "But he's spoken to Mark, but he hasn't even read my messages. Do you think he hates me? What if he blames me?" Meredith began to panic.

"Meredith. Meredith! Mer!" Lexie shook her shoulders. "Derek loves you, okay? He told me. He told me he loves you. And he told you he loves you. That man loves you, okay? He freaking loves you so stop worrying."

Meredith didn't know what to say so she just looked down at her feet. "Go with Mark tonight and go see him. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you" Lexie smiled. "Yeah when he looks at me and remembers I was the reason he was shot" Meredith mumbled. "Stop it! He loves you! End of."

"Who loves her?" Mark came back over. "Derek" "no one" Mark beamed. "He told you he-" he asked excitedly but Meredith rolled her eyes. "Did everyone just know before me?" She exclaimed. Both Lexie and Mark nodded.

She groaned. "I really need to go do this surgery. Lex, come on, you're with me today" Meredith said before turning to leave. "Don't worry, you two are like Romeo and Juliet!" Mark called. "What? Destined to fall apart?!" Meredith shouted as they walked away. Mark only laughed at her, pulling out his phone to text Derek, sighing at the many ignored texts.

Meredith and Lexie went and prepped their patient before they began scrubbing in. Lexie couldn't help but notice her sisters panicked scrubbing. "Meredith." She said carefully as she watched her scrub her hands aggressively. "Right, you need to go see Derek. I can't have you in the OR like this, so I'll get Wilson to scrub in, and you go talk to Derek, okay?" Lexie said before grabbing her hands to stop her?