The Man Next Door

Chapter 19

Two months later...

It had been about a month since Derek was released from the hospital. Rose had been committed back into the psychiatric ward after the unfortunate incident with Meredith and was due to come home in three days. Her doctors assured him that her mental state had improved greatly and that she had been suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder. The doctors explained to him that it is the most common type of personality disorder and it occurs when people are insecure in themselves and their relationships. They are subject to mood swings, impulsiveness and erotic behaviors. For Rose, Derek could tick off each and every one of those symptoms when he thought back about her behavior towards him after the accident. Even though he still didn't remember much about her from before, he could tell that this disorder had been growing inside her for a while. Knowing that there was a scientific explanation behind her actions made Derek feel sorry for his wife. From what he learned about his relationship with Meredith before the accident, it was probably him that caused it to occur in the first place.

That is why he decided he would give his wife one last chance. Though he still planned on divorcing her for Meredith, something he hadn't yet told Meredith herself about, he wanted to make things right with his current wife and end their relationship on good terms, especially for his daughters sake. Tallulah had had a rough past two months and had spent a lot of time with Derek's mother at home. Despite all the love she was receiving from her extended family, she still longed for the company of her mother and father and as a result, her grades in school had been dwindling when Derek finally returned home from the hospital. Ever since then however, everything had began to look better for T with her dad back, and of course Meredith who had been visiting them on a daily basis ever since Derek returned. However, she still missed her mother, and would ask Derek every day if she could see him. So, as much as he wanted to move forward with his life with Meredith, he was going to make the effort to rebuild his relationship with his wife too.

*****

Throughout the past month after Derek had returned home from the hospital Meredith had been in pure bliss. I was just she, Derek and Tallulah day in and day out. She visited them every day, checking on Derek's bruises and broken ribs which were still causing him a bit of pain and helping Tallulah with her school work. She could see that Derek's amnesia had taken a lot out of the little girl and so Meredith wanted to make her life as easy as possible, especially since her mother wasn't around.

She loved the routine they had began to develop together. Every morning she would wake up, let herself into their home with the key Derek gave her for emergency's and make them breakfast. This would then be followed by helping Tallulah find an outfit for school, which proved to be a difficult task as she never wanted to 'outfit repeat.' Meredith would always chuckle every time Tallulah pointed out that she had already worn that combination of clothes before. It was cute to see a five year old worry about these things. Like mother, like daughter.

After, both Meredith and Derek would drive her to school. In the beginning they were able to both walk her to her kindergarten class however, as the days went by, people began to recognize them from the show. It wasn't so much the parents of the students, it was more the paparazzi that somehow started to pick up on their routine. There had been a lot of publicity about the two of them due to Derek's accident, the incidents with Rose and Meredith's post-poned engagement. Rumors were circling about the apparent love affair the two co-stars were having with each other and even though it was true to an extent, they couldn't let the word out officially. Not until Derek had everything settled with Rose first. News like this would surely make Rose go back to her previous unstable mental state.

While Tallulah was at school, Meredith and Derek would spend their days together at Derek's home. They would spend their day's watching the old movies they had each acted in. When Meredith saw fetus Derek in 'Can't buy Me Love' she couldn't stop laughing. He was so cute and she couldn't get over his transformation from the dorky guy in this movie to being McDreamy that all girls wanted in Pompeo's Anatomy. Derek however was so humiliated and he would blush uncontrollably, something that Meredith found to be adorable. With the amnesia wiping his memories of the filming of these movies he was watching them for the first time and was embarrassed with what he saw, which was why he insisted on watching Meredith's old movies too, much to her dismay. She never really liked the characters she played in her past movies like 'Old School'. She was always the cute, innocent girlfriend that never had much of a role. This was part of the reason why she took on the role of Ellen Pompeo in Pompeo's Anatomy in the first place. She wanted to be seen as a strong, independent woman.