I'm tired

Part 2

"I'm really tired."

"I know, and that's okay." He said, hoping that he could convince her to take a break. "I- I think I want to sleep." She whispered, looking at all the papers and binders around herself. "That's good Mer, do you want to come with me so you can get some sleep?" he asked carefully, observing her closely. After a few seconds of silence she nodded, giving him the pen she was still holding. "Thank you." He said, taking the pen and placing it on top of her notebook. Thank God, he thought as she allowed him to help her up. He noticed that she could barely stand on her own legs and that he was holding most of her weight. She was swaying slightly so that he bent down and placed one of his arms under her knees, picking her up. Richard seemed to be completely puzzled, he obviously hadn't expected Nick to be able to convince her to take a break that fast. After Nick gave him a short look he started moving, showing Nick the way over to the patient rooms. After they had finally found an empty one Nick gently placed Meredith on the bed, covering her with the blanket. "Nick? I have to go back to work." She suddenly said, trying to get up. "No Mer, you don't have to work, you have to sleep." He said, gently pushing her back down.

"Did- did I cure Alzheimer's yet?" she asked, looking at him anxiously, her eyes filled with fear but also- hope. Nick knew that she was so sleep deprived that she probably wouldn't remember anything about this conversation when she would wake up and it seemed as if she would only go to sleep when she would think that her work was done. "You're very very close, so it's okay if you take a short break." He reassured her. He hated that he had to lie to her but he needed her to sleep. If he would tell her that he didn't know or that she hadn't cured this horrible disease yet, she probably would try to get up again.

"Good." She mumbled, smiling slightly before closing her eyes. "Sleep well Mer." Nick said, gently stroking her cheek until her breath evened out just after a few seconds and she fell asleep. He let out a breath of relief, realising that Richard stood right next to him. "I didn't expect it to be that bad." Nick whispered, scared he would wake her again. "You know that you just lied to her." Richard said instead, looking at him accusingly. "What was I supposed to do? At least she's sleeping now." Nick said, looking at the love of his life, laying in this big hospital bed, scared and completely exhausted, dehydrated, and malnourished.

"Thank you Marsh, really." Dr. Webber gave back, smiling sadly as he turned his head to take another look at Meredith. "Nothing to thank for yet. She probably won't be feeling a lot better when she wakes up. I think we should sedate her. I need her to sleep for at least twelve hours and I don't want her to have bad dreams." Nick said, following Richard with his gaze. She looked so pale what only led to the circles around her eyes being even darker. Smiling sadly, he remembered how Meredith used to get nightmares and would wake up in the middle of the night, cuddling up to him while thinking that he was sleeping. Meredith usually wasn't that type of person who would search for physical contact. But every time she had a bad dream she just snuggled herself into his arms, searching for his protection.

And he would protect her. "I'll try to find someone who works here." Nick said, getting up. "No, you should stay, I'll find someone." Richard said, making Nick sit back down. He was thankful that he didn't have to leave her alone. He could still see her face as she had told him that she was tired just a few minutes ago. She had seemed so vulnerable and just overall exhausted and in pain. Emotional pain. What had happened? She had been happy to start working here, to start doing research on curing Alzheimer's. What had happened that she had started to priories her work over her own health?

Now that he was alone it wasn't surprising that his mind was trying to come up with any kind of explanation. Had Zola's anxiety gotten so bad that Meredith had started to burry herself into her work in order to cure Alzheimer's and help her daughter? Or had she started to get really scared as well, had had anxiety attacks because she knew that at some point, maybe next week, maybe in a year, she could start to show symptoms as well and then it would be too late?

Taking a deep breath, he tried to move is thoughts away from all of this and concentrate on what was happening right now. Suddenly the door opened again and Jackson walked in. "Hey uhm- who are you?" he asked, making Nick turn around. "Oh uhm- I'm Nick." He gave back, looking up at the slightly taller man, shaking his hand. "Ah, I've already heard a lot about you." Jackson said, smiling a little what made Nick unintentionally raise his brow. Had Meredith talked to Jackson about him?

Meredith had told him a little about Jackson Avery on the other hand. Not much, but he knew that they were friends and had worked together for a pretty long time. He wondered why Jackson hadn't been able to convince Meredith to take a break, he must have known about this right?

"Webber told me that you got her to take some time to rest. I've been trying to talk to her for the past week and she never even showed any kind of reaction." Jackson explained. The past week? Meredith had been in this condition for over a whole week already? "Did anything happen that- triggered her to start working non-stop and to disregard her health?" Nick asked as Jackson sat down at the opposite side of the bed. "No- I don't think so."

"Has she said anything about Zola?" Nick asked, still wanting to figure out what had gone wrong here. "As far as I know Zola is doing really well. She's going to therapy twice a week, she started cello lessons and even has her own tutor. Meredith did everything in her power in order to make sure she would be doing better. She even made sure that Zola would be able to take part at a class at the clinic which is reserved for pre-meds." Jackson explained, observing his friend in the bed.

It was good to know that Zola was at least doing better. So, after all it had helped her to move to Boston. But it was pretty obvious that Meredith wasn't doing that well here in Boston. "I think we should admit her." Jackson then said, looking at Nick for a few seconds. "And we should probably order a psychological examination and a 72-hour hold in psych ward."

So thanks to you Kels, I have an idea now in which direction this story might could go and I guess it'll be a little more than ten chapters =)