He was a neurosurgeon, one of the the best. She was just starting off. He had been married with children before his wife left him before one day he received divorce papers in the mail. They had been alone ever since.
Derek left Madeleine alone with Meredith because he had to check on a patient for a bit. She wasn't really sure what she was supposed to do alone with a coma patient.
she had met Meredith but it didn't feel like she was in a room with Meredith. She wasn't Meredith, she was just a body connected to multiple machines.
she sat down in the chair next to Meredith's bed. She swung her legs back and forth. her father was taking longer than she had expected.
"So..." she started. she had hardly spoken to Meredith when she was well, she didn't know how to speak to someone who couldn't hear her.
"My Dad says he wants you to wake up soon," she spoke. "he says he doesn't know what he would do if you.. didn't wake up,"
-
Derek had finished up with his patient and they were now in a stable state. he had taken much longer than he had expected and he left Madeleine alone with Meredith for almost an hour.
he finished off his charts before handing it back to the nurse and made his way to retrieve Madeleine and take her home.
when he arrived at Meredith's room he heard talking, he stopped and stood outside the room and listened to Madeleine talk to Meredith.
he smiled to himself as he could hear her telling Meredith about her siblings and things that were going on at school and how she was excited to go on summer break.
but what he wasn't expecting was to hear a second voice talk back.
he heard Meredith's voice having a conversation with his daughter.
he blinked away the tears in his eyes before stepping into the room. Madeleine's back with facing him so she hadn't noticed he had entered the room.
Meredith's eyes left Madeleine and met his.
"Hey," she spoke, her voice was still weak and her voice was raspy from haven't been used in four weeks.
"Hey," he smiled in return.
"how come I wasn't paged when you woke up?" he walked over to her and stood next to Madeleine.
"I don't know. the only person that was in here when I woke up was Madeleine," she whispered.
"How's your voice, does it hurt to speak?" he sat down at the end of the bed, placing a comforting hand on her leg.
"A little,"
"Does anything else hurt? do you need pain meds?" he asked. "my legs hurt a little- a lot and my arms a little sore," she nodded.
"Would you prefer to sit up?" he asked. "Yes," she whispered.
he stood up and lifted the back of the hospital bed so she was sitting up but still leaning back a bit so it wouldn't cause her too much pain.
"I'll page a nurse for your pain," he gently kissed the side of the head before paging one of the nurses. the nurse came quickly and gave her some morphine through the IV.
her pain soon subsisted, he got her a glass of water and she could speak without the pain. Derek had listed her injuries to her.
she couldn't remember most of what happened. All she could remember from that night was Derek calling her in the middle of the night, and getting in her car. she remembered the car spiralling out of control and hitting her car but anything after that everything was a blur.
Meredith would still need to stay in the hospital for a while before they were sure if she was in the right physical state to go back home.
her legs were still not in the best shape so if she was going to go home soon she would be bedbound and would need someone to take care of her, Derek still had the help of his parents who were happy to be in Seattle helping him with his kids.
he wanted Meredith to come home as soon as possible and he would much rather have her home and take care of her than worrying about her waking up. it was a miracle.
but it would take time for Meredith to recover in order to go home and it would take even longer for her to be back on her feet and function the way she was able to before.
it was going to be a painful, stressful, and rough road to recovery.