Stitches of Survival

When I Grow Up

Chapter Fifty: When I Grow Up

*~*~*~*

"Hey, why didn't you answer my text?" Callie asked Alex when he joined her, Maggie, Mark, and I outside of one of the radiology rooms. For nearly twenty minutes the four of us had been watching Meredith moving around inside the room. 

"'Cause I was working," Alex shrugged.

"So?" Maggie raised a brow at him.

"So what?" He asked, not knowing what we were trying to get at.

"How is Meredith?" Maggie elaborated.

"What do you know?" I pried, wanting to know how my friend was doing. Wanting to know what was going on between her and Derek, if she had managed to get ahold of him.

"I know she's being an ass, pushing a risky surgery on my patient." Alex muttered under his breath, clearly not happy with the blonde.

"She's on a streak," Callie reminded him.

"Go for it," Mark nodded in agreement.

"Who was the woman on Derek's phone?" I questioned.

"I don't know," Alex shrugged.

"She said nothing?" Maggie frowned.

"Yesterday, she couldn't stop talking about it," Callie recalled.

"All I know is Derek came home last night." Alex shrugged.

"No," Maggie shook her head as I felt my own eyes widen. 

"Crap," Callie groaned as she leaned against the wall. 

"Crap? Why crap?" Alex looked between us in confusion. 

"A woman answers his phone, he immediately gets on a plane and shows up in the middle of the night." Callie recounted the situation.

"He's here to apologize," Maggie sighed.

"Because he has something to apologize for," Callie added.

"And to get his ass kicked." I crossed my arms over my chest as I looked back through the window at my blonde friend. Mark rested his hands on my shoulders as we all stood there together, worried about Meredith.

"Crap," Alex said.

*~*~*~*

"Hey, are you doing anything right now?" Alex asked when he found me in the ER later that night. 

"No, wh--" I started to question him.

"Come on," he didn't bother letting me finish before he led the way down the hall. I set my tablet aside, hurrying to follow after him until I found myself following him right out of the hospital. It was there that I spotted Meredith leaning against on the pillars that supported the walkway. "Meredith! Mer, stop!"

"He should have lived." Meredith told us once we stopped to stand in front of her. I stayed quiet, glancing between my two friends, noticing that they were both still wearing their scrub caps. 

"He couldn't," Alex shook his head. "You saw how messed up his liver was."

"I should have saved him. I could have saved him if you weren't bringing me down...with your doubting and second-guessing and distracting me. He should have lived. He should have lived! He should have lived." Meredith insisted, refusing to listen to him. Alex only rolled his eyes before he pulled the blonde into a tight hug, surprising her. "What? Stop. Get off! Stop it! Come on. No. I'm mad at you."