Had I known How to Save a Life

Lifetime

Chapter 54
*Meredith POV*

Marriage. Science defines this as, a combination or mixture of two or more elements. You could say, that when two people get married they are like two elements combining. The bond between the two people is what holds them together, even if they wanted to separate, chemistry simply won't let them. The bond that holds these two people together is love.

Today. Several years ago today, Derek and I signed our names on post its. And we became one. Married.

Derek rolls over and wraps arms around me. The sun breaks through our window as we wake up.

"Today is your day Meredith, we can do whatever you want." Derek tells me...but I don't agree. "No, today is our day." I say to him with a smile.

He pulls me in for a long passionate kiss. The kind you only break because you need to come up for air. My favorite.

We're only working a half day today to we're going in at lunch. The kids are asleep, so Derek and I have some fun. When we finish we reminisce on what life was like before we got married.

"Had someone told me 15 years ago, I'd have all this, I'd think they're crazy. My job, my kids, this house, ...and you as my husband. I never would've imagined this." I tell him.

"You know the world around us could be falling apart, but if I have you and the kids; I know everything is going to be okay. Cause you're all I'll ever need." He responds.

"I don't know how we're still alive, honestly." I laugh.

We continue to talk. Derek begins to act weird. "Make sure you get off work before 7." He says.

"You're planning something! I thought we weren't going to do anything this year?" I say.

"Well we weren't. But...Zola might have slipped it to me that a nice thing to do on anniversaries is having a surprise party. But knowing us, surprise parties never work out. So, tonight we are having an not-so-surprising-surprise-party." He tells me. "I might also have a 10 minute ceremony planned in the church chapel for us to renew our vows." He adds.

"What am I going to wear?" I ask quickly.

"Amelia and Maggie already took care of that." He says as he smiles and gives me a small wink.

I kiss him and the kiss is interrupted by the baby monitor. "Sounds like Ellis," Derek says.

We both get up to get her and find that Zola is on the couch watching TV. She pretends to be asleep. We go to Ellis's room. And I pick her up and rock her back and forth. Nothing is better than joy I get from holding her and Bailey and Zola.

We get into work and immediately get paged to the Pitt. "Biker and pedestrian hit by a car..." The paramedic begins. It's almost like de ja vu.

Derek and I have the biker, "We need to get a head CT immediately, I think he's got a subdural." Derek says.

"This abdomen is really rigid, he's going to bleed out. But as of right now he's stable so let's get him down there." I say.

The CT shows a minor, very minor bleed. The kind that could resolve itself. "I need to operate first," Derek says.

"That's way to minor, he's got way more damage to his organs." I say.

"It'll be quick, in and out." Derek says, he smiles with that McDreamy look and I agree.

The CT of the abdomen shows that there's damage to the kidneys and spleen. We have just enough time for Derek to fix the head.

I stand by the table waiting to step in. This surgery is taking way to long. We've been in here for hours. "We're running out of time! He's getting unstable." I tell Derek. He looks at the scans and let's me in.

Hopefully he's not too far gone.

The abdomen is a mess, thankfully through this mess, there's only minor injuries. Can't say the same about his bones though, Callie is going to have take a look at his legs.

Right before I'm about to close, I re-check to see if I missed any bleeders. And what do you know, the spleen. The main source of this mess in the abdomen. This spleen is just too far gone. I go ahead with a splenectomy just as the monitor begins to go crazy.

"Page cardio immediately!" I yell. "Dammit Derek, this wouldn't have happened had I gotten in first." I mutter to myself.

"Pierce is in surgery." A nurse simply says. "Dammit!" I yell.

I go on my own and do the simple cardio procedure and relieve the pressure.

When I get out of the OR its late. It's 8 PM. Derek and I missed our own ceremony. Well at least I did. I run into Derek in the hallway. 

I give him the "Don't talk to me I'm pissed look." We drive home in silence, I'm so mad and I don't know why. Had he let me operate first I could've been in and out of there a lot sooner.

We get home and all I want to do is go to bed but when I open the door, I remember the party Derek had planned.

I quickly walk outside slamming the door.

I'm sitting outside on the deck. I can hear the door open, "Alex, I got this." I hear Derek say. I just want 5 minutes alone. Is that too much to ask for?

"Remember when we wrote the post it?" Derek asks me as he sits down next me. "We did that in the residents lounge. Now we're gonna do this on our deck." He says.

"What are we doing now? Cause we clearly can never do anything right...can't even make it to our own damn ceremony." I say.

"We're just going to talk." He says. I can't be mad at him when he acts all McDreamy it's like my weakness.

"I've told you a lot of things. I've told you the whole 'till death do us part'. I've told you I'd never run. I've told you you're like coming up for fresh air. Like I was drowning and you saved me. I've told told you I didn't want 48 uninterrupted hours I wanted a lifetime. There's so much more I need to tell you. No matter what happens, no matter what obstacle we face, no matter what the next disaster is, I'm going to be in love with you every second of it. I'm not going to love you just for this lifetime, because one lifetime isn't long enough. Meredith Grey, I'm going to love you infinitely." Derek says and I know exactly what I'm going to tell him.

"You're turn." He adds. It's starting to rain.

"I'm going to start by thanking you because you've loved me even when I made it impossible. Even when we've gone through hell. You've loved and I can't be anymore grateful. You've given me 3 children. You've given me more than I could ever ask for. And I don't know if I could ever tell you how grateful I am. The kind of love I have for you is rare. It's the kind of love that people would usually die for. But it's the kind of love that I live for. It's the kind that lasts longer than a lifetime, it's the kind that's never going to end." I tell him.

The rain picks up, and we both stand up and right there, Derek kisses me in the rain. We here clapping in the background and turn around and see everyone was listening at the door. Derek and I both laugh and we join the party.

Author note:

Dear God it's been so long since my last update. This week has been so freaking crazy. It took me 9 hours to make a 1 and a half minute video on cell respiration for my AP biology class. I'm so sorry it's been so long. I hope y'all like this update, it's taken me like 2 weeks to write it. And btw, I honestly have no idea what day the Post It anniversary is...but guess what; My story, my rules! So now it's an unspecified date in what I'm guess happened in May? Idek. I LOVE YOU ALL NEVER FORGET THAT!

-Erin :)