Strangers in the night

32

Sophie Shepherd wondered exactly why she was sitting in this gallery. She was in one of the top hospitals in the country. Amazing surgeries were happening all around her, some of the most amazing surgeons were cutting, and she was sitting here watching her big brother. Who was pretty amazing and the surgery was amazing too but still, it was her big brother. She had seen it before. She had definitely heard about it before.

She could be watching anything but her brother operating, considering he would just be all cocky afterwards and pretend like he had somehow saved the world or something. But Dr. Webber had been very firm about her not operating today, and she had found herself sitting in the gallery, filled with other doctors, watching her pain in the ass brother.

Which she decided had nothing to do with her brother. She didn't want to see the great Dr. Derek Shepherd cut. She wanted to see the other person who was cutting. She was here to watch Derek work with the woman he was so clearly in love with. He was definitely in denial about it but there was no question about it. Derek loved the tiny doctor standing close to him.

She was a little surprised by how well they seemed to work together, how well everything seemed to flow. From what she could tell, Derek barely said a word to Meredith Grey, but somehow, they were perfectly in sync with what they needed. Though, she hadn't missed the tiny looks passed between them, hadn't missed Derek's slight chuckle at some point as he moved closer to her.

Sophie wondered if anyone else noticed, or if they were all too caught up watching the surgery. Because even in the middle of them working together she could see it. The two of them fit. Even with just talking to Meredith for a few meer moments and she had figured it out. Meredith Grey was perfect for her big brother, more perfect than she had ever imagined Derek finding.

He was kind of an idiot. He always went for the girls he thought were perfect for him, girls who were classy and on the dangerous side of perfect. And then after spending time trying to be on the dangerous side of perfect, those relationships ended and he started all over again. But not Meredith Grey. Meredith wasn't on the dangerous side of perfect, she wasn't even close to it.

Her hair had been falling out of her pony tail when Sophie had met her earlier. She hadn't had make up on and her scrubs looked like she might have just crawled out of bed with them on. And she had been terrified about meeting them, completely terrified. She rambled and she was ever so slightly twitchy. And she called Derek on hs own ego. All the while, Derek seemed taken by it all.

She hadn't missed the way Derek had touched Meredith, needed to touch her. His hands had never left her back, or her arms, even her waist. And the way he had looked at her...she had never seen anyone look at another person like that. Mom swore it was how Dad had looked at her, but she didn't actually remember much about their father. Only that if Mom were right, Derek was deeper than he thought.

Her mom and dad had had some kind of love story, one that all of the older children had always wanted to repeat, the kind Derek had been looking for forever. And now he was looking at his supposed best friend like that and apparently oblivious to it. Apparently he didn't notice the way they leaned into each other, or how she had wanted to leave and seemed so reluctant to at the same time.

When Mark had first mentioned Derek's new best friend, she had thought this was just Derek moving on too fast again, being unable to be alone. She hadn't expected to come out here to find him honestly believing this woman he was so clearly in love with, and who was so clearly in love with him, was just his best friend. But they were both oblivious to it, both oblivious to the chemistry they exuded, even in the OR.

She had to talk to him. She knews from Mark that no one here was pushing it, that everyone was trusting that in time they would one day figure it out. When they were both ready or something like that. Sophie knew they would. There was no way two people so clearly in love would never catch on to that fact but still she needed to talk to him. He wasn't stupid. He had to know something more was happening.