Off the Carousel

FWOOOSH!

A/N: Hmm, well that was a twist, huh? Ready for another go? 

This next part starts with a dream...

Enjoy!

Meredith found herself standing on a bridge, in some woods she didn't recognize, and a small trickling stream under her feet. Downstream a hundred yards away, a man stood in the water, pant legs pulled up to his knees as he cast a long line out.

She watched as he tugged at the rod, the fly at the end dancing and skipping before it was quietly reeled in. "Hello?" she called out, but the man ignored her, focused on his craft. Crossing her arms, she shuffled off the bridge and picked her way through the bits of rock and dirt and fallen logs toward him. "Hello?" she asked again.

"Shh," the man said as the rod whipped back and the line curved before snapping forward, again dancing over the water.

Stopping only a few feet from the edge, she watched him... and something about him was painfully familiar. The slight curve of his shoulders, the hint of dark curls under his hat, his pointed chin.

Was this the afterlife? Did something happen to her? Was this... "Derek?" she rasped.

"Who?" he asked, turning so she could see him. But it wasn't Derek. He looked at her with mild curiousity, the way Derek glanced at a brain scan a surgery hungry intern handed him.

He was almost Derek. He could be, except there was no motorcycle scar, and he was smaller and very tanned, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. His eyebrows were fuller and his cheekbones were wider, the chin more pronounced. And there was a sadness in his eyes that she never saw in her husband. "Um, nevermind..." she said, swallowing.

He blinked slowly and reeled in the line before giving her his full attention. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She looked around, where was she? She couldn't remember what happened, how she got here... "I- I guess I'm a little lost." she said.

"Hm," he rumbled. "Me too."

"You're lost?" she asked. "But you're fishing..."

"Oh," he chuckled, "I know where I am... I'm just-" he sighed. "I don't know... everything is happening so fast. It's like I'm spinning on a carousel and it's going faster and faster and I can't get off."

"I know..." Meredith sighed and crouched down to look at herself in the water. She cringed at her exhausted countenance. "I feel the same way, except I feel like I've been thrown off."

"Yeah?" The man sat down beside her, his features soft and compassionate.

"My husband died," she choked. "He died... and I feel like..." she shook her head, unable to describe the grief that ripped her in half every day. "We were happy. He- was my world, and then a truck comes and-"

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"It's just... I feel like I'm cursed."

"Hm," the man rubbed his lightly stubbled chin. Meredith couldn't help but gaze at him, he looked familiar, had she seen him before? "I feel the same way sometimes... especially today. My father died when I was a kid. My mother was very sick... she passed away a few years ago... I was sent here to help my Aunt. I was just starting to..." he shrugged, "Understand her... and she passed. And now... I'm supposed to be a man. Get married, take care of my wife, who told me she was pregnant. Pregnant... we're bringing a life into this world, and I barely have a job. I barely have it together. I can't- "he stuttered, "she amazes me... I've been in love with her... forever, but-"