He was a neurosurgeon, one of the the best. She was just starting off. He had been married with children before his wife left him before one day he received divorce papers in the mail. They had been alone ever since.
Derek had driven around the entire neighborhood and there had been so sign of Madeleine.
he had been driving around darkness for almost three hours and he was starting to lose hope. he could already feel the tears brimming in his eyes.
he also knew that if he wasn't able to find her tonight he wouldn't be able to call in a missing person's report until it was twenty four hours.
he had been driving around for so long and his gas was running low. there was a gas station a few blocks down so he decided to drive there and fill up his tank.
he arrived at the gas station. he filled up his gas tank before going into the store to pay for it.
he payed the cashier and placed his wallet back into pocket.
right as he was about he leave something caught his eye.
"Madeleine?" he asked when he recognized her face.
"Dad? since when do you go to this gas station?" she asked.
"since it was closer to where I was after I spent three hours driving around looking for you," he said.
"Come on, we're going home," he walked over to her and lead her outside of the store.
"Who's with Michael and Violet and please don't tell me it's Meredith," she rolled her eyes.
"Mark didn't answer the phone so the only person that answered was Meredith so she's at the place," he helped her into the car and closed the door before getting into the drivers seat.
"Is she going to stay the night?" she whined.
"Do you want to listen to me cry and complain about you running away?" he answered.
"why would you cry about me running away? I'm fine," she shrugged.
"How was I supposed to know that. I was about to turn around and go home, if it wasn't for my empty gas tank I wouldn't have found you,"
"that's not much to cry about,"
"Let's just get you home and you need to get some rest and I'm going to lock your door from outside so you don't run away again,"
"I'm not going to run away,"
"that's what I thought before you ran away,"
"I'm tired. can we just go home?"
"Yes," he answered.
they rest of the drive home was silent. when they arrived she opened the car door and went inside before he even got out of the car.
he was already exhausted when they got there and all he wanted to do was take a shower get in bed and lay with Meredith in his arms and go to sleep.
he noticed the front door was locked, he pulled out his key and unlocked the front door.
when he walked through the front door he saw that Meredith was no longer in the living room and the house was dark.
"go to your room and get ready for bed and then go to bed," he told her as she was running upstairs.
Meredith's things were still in the foyer so he knew she was still here. he kicked off his shoes and took off his coat and tossed it on couch, he was too tired to care about where it landed.
he opened his bedroom door and walked inside. he saw Meredith laying in his bed, asleep. he sighed in relief when he saw her already asleep because he didn't have the energy to argue with her staying the night.
he had planned on taking a shower but he had gotten too tired to take a shower.
it was almost two in the morning and he had work in the morning. he took off his clothes until he was left in just his boxers.
he got under the covers and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to his chest.
he breathed in her scent as he placed his forehead against her back.
"I should go. I already put the kids to bed and made sure they were asleep before I came in here, I was really tired. I'll go," she said tiredly as she started to push the covers off her body.
"No, don't even try. you're staying the night whether you like it or not," he kissed her shoulder and rolled her over so she was facing him.
"I've had a long night and the only thing that can help is holding you so just stay, please,"
"Alright," she signed.
"Did you find her?" she asked pulling away lightly, kissing his cheek a few times as an act of affection so he felt more comfortable to open up to her.
"she was in a gas station and I wouldn't have found her if I didn't run out of gas. when did you put the kids to sleep?"
"Violet said they went down around nine on the weekends so I got them to go to sleep at nine thirty,"
"Mmm, we'll talk more in the morning. I'm too tired to talk,"
"Okay, goodnight," she kissed his cheek before adjusting to get more comfortable.
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