The Man Next Door

Chapter 16

Meredith began to panic. She stood over him frozen in place as the beeping on the heart monitor increased rapidly. Her worst nightmare had come true. He didn't know who she was. The sound of a flat line broke her out of her trance as she searched the wall above the bed for the code blue button. If there was one thing she had learned from working on the show, it was what to do when someone was coding. Quickly she reached over him to push it, nurses almost instantly rushing into the room with a defibrillator.

"What happened?" one of them shouted to Meredith as they got the paddles ready.

"Umm, he..urr…woke, he woke up and then he, he, he coded," Meredith struggled to say amongst her ragged breaths and panicking heart. He could possibly die today, right now, right in front of her and he didn't even know who she was. Sobs and loud cries escaped her as she fought to get closer to him, to see him. He shouldn't die alone. Even if he didn't realize who she was, she couldn't let him die with just nurses around him.

"Charge to 200," Dr Altman calmly spoke. "Clear" she said as she shocked his heart, his chest arching up off the bed from the force. "Ok, lets push another round of epi…charge to 250…clear" she said as she again shocked him. No change.

"No, no!" Meredith shouted as she was forced out of the room by some nurses. Tears streamed down her eyes like rain in a storm as her chest tightened, making it harder for her to breathe. This was the love of her life. They had both wasted so much time fighting against what they had, what they felt for each other, and now it could all be gone forever. At least if he had forgotten her she would be able to get to know him again, now, if they couldn't revive him she wouldn't get a chance. She had lost her chance. Crying even more she walked to the window of his room looking at the doctor as they shocked him again. "Nooo, no no…Derek!" she shouted as she pounded her fist into the window.

Derek's family was walking down the corridor; Tallulah ran ahead and latched onto Meredith's waist, hugging her close as tears began to flow down her eyes when she realized what was happening. Derek's mother gasped in shock and placed her hand on Meredith's shoulder as she too began to sob uncontrollably, looking at her son through the window as the doctors continued to try and revive him. Kathleen came to Meredith's other side also sobbing for her brother. But Meredith didn't notice any of it. She was in her own world; helpless to doing anything to help save the man she loved. The man she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

Rose was trying to get into the room hysterically screaming to get to Derek, scratching and punching the nurses that tried to stop her. This was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to wake up, not remember Meredith, she would turn him against her and she'd take Derek and Tallulah far away, away from their family and friends so she could live out the rest of her life with her obsession, her love. Nothing was supposed to come in the way of that. So, in her hysteric state Rose pulled out a small pocket knife from back pocket that she kept for emergencies, stabbing the large male nurse in front of the door in the abdomen. She had to get to Derek.

It was the nurse's loud whale that snapped Meredith out of her cloud of sorrow and panic. She gasped when she saw blood pouring out from the nurses stomach as he fell to the ground. Rose had already made it to Derek's room, the other nurses letting her go when she held the knife up in front of them. She was crazy. Meredith could understand that someone would go crazy in this situation, hell, she was in hysterics too. But never, would she threaten someone with a weapon and actually use it. At that moment, she knew her suspicions were correct. There was something seriously wrong with Rose Shepherd and she had to keep Derek away from her, whether he knew who she was or not. Looking around she noticed another doctor was dragging the nurse that had been stabbed away to be treated while she saw the security men running down the corridor. Quickly she ran to another one of the nurses and asked for a sedative, just as she saw through the window Rose attacking the security men that had tried to get her out of the room. Everything was happening so fast. One second she was alone with Derek, the next he was coding while Rose was trying to take out anyone who got in her way of Derek. She was nuts, and Meredith needed to stop her. Running into the room needle in hand she charged towards Rose who had just turned back to Derek and stabbed the sedative into her neck. She swayed for a few seconds before she dropped to the floor. Meredith let her fall, wanting to get away from the woman. She couldn't understand why Derek would marry such a manic.