The Man Next Door

Chapter 17

Derek was confused. That was as much as he could determine about his current situation at this point. Memories of his distant past kept coming back to him at different times. And what was worse was that they weren't coming back in sequential order. He had no idea when anything had happened and his brain was becoming so full of memories sometimes he wanted everything to disappear. The good memories were fine. He relished in the good memories of when he was dating his first girlfriend Addison or when he started his relationship with Rose who was apparently now his wife. But these good memories always overshadowed the painful ones. Random fights with Rose would come back to him, her shouts haunting him and echoing in his head. But worst of all was the reminder of Addison's death. More and more would come back to him and he would be overwhelmed with grief, some days more than others. He needed to get it out in the open but he didn't know whom to trust anymore. With all the conflicting memories coming back he wasn't sure who he could speak to. Rose was out of the question, she was still in the psych ward. He didn't want to talk to his mom, she already had to suffer through his grieving once and he couldn't put that on her again. Apparently Mark wasn't in his life anymore and he had no idea how to contact him so that only left Meredith. Over the past month she was a fantastic friend to him. She would visit once a day sometimes just for an hour, sometimes for the whole day, and they would just talk. He was getting to know her all over again, and he so far liked what saw. She was able to make the whole world stop. He could always push away his worries and fears and just concentrate on being with her.

He could see the pain in her eyes whenever he asked a question about something that he was supposed to already know about her, but she was always strong. Whenever he saw the pain begin to surface, it would just get pulled back down and pushed aside. He didn't want to cause her any more pain. He was developing a very strong attachment to Meredith Grey more so than his wife, yet, he married Rose so he must have loved her, right?

"Hey!" he said with a smile when she walked into his hospital room one morning.

"Hey, how are you feeling? How's the pain?" she replied, her green eyes sparkling in the natural light coming from the window.

"Good now that you're here, " he flirted. There was something about her that always made him want to flirt and play around. It was like a default button was in his brain, setting it to flirt alert whenever she walked into a room.

"Oh Derek!" she playfully replied as she slapped him lightly on the arm. "Seriously, how is your head? are the headaches gone yet? Are you not too overflown with memories? Does your back still hurt? Do you need some water or something?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were playing a game of 20 questions." He laughed and then quickly straightened his expression when she gave him a glare. He could tell that she was serious but he couldn't help but think about how cute she was with her golden hair hanging in light waves around her face and her green eyes sparkling. "Ok, Ok. My pain is probably about a 5 or a 6, so it's ok. My headache is mild today, no new memories and no, I would not like some water but thanks for the offer."

"Well, at least we know your short term memory is good," she laughed. "And I wasn't asking you cause I wanted to know. Well, I did, but that's not the point. I was asking because you have some visitors and I needed to know if you would be up for it. Are you?" she rambled.

He loved it when she rambled. It was always so adorable. Normally he would find that type of thing to be annoying, but Meredith was different.

"Well it depends, who exactly are these visitors? Should I prepare myself for anything in particular, maybe get some dollar bills, etc…" he said with a sly grin and lifting up his eyebrows suggestively.

"Seriously! What is wrong with you? Do you really think I would bring strippers to a hospital for you?!" she exclaimed while playfully hitting him with one of the pillows he had been resting on.