Merder: Different Circumstances

Chapter Thirty Seven

Two months had passed since Meredith's miscarriage and she eventually opened up to Cristina and Lexie about it, after the two of them noticed she was taking longer than usual to recover from her so called stomach bug. She had asked them to keep it between the two of them and that they did, but after her breakdown in the storage closet that day, Meredith had to shoot down many suggestions from nurses.

As their wedding approached, Meredith and Derek were making sure they clocked as many hours at work as physically possible. Between Meredith's drowning, going to New York and the miscarriage, they needed to make up some hours before they could even start to save for vacation time. Ashley understood the importance of getting the time off for their honeymoon, and didn't mind spending the occasional night with her mom, or at a friends - she had even stayed in an on call room a couple of times.

There were times that Meredith and Derek went almost 24 hours without a proper conversation with each other, just a passing kiss in the corridors as they went from one patient to another, their surgery schedules never seeming to align up. Meredith had began to feel sorry for Ashley, as she knew what life was life growing up with the hospital controlling your family times and so she made sure to take the Friday night off, so that the two of them could spend the night in eating a takeaway.

"We need a date night." Derek said, walking into the attending lounge and sitting down as Meredith was gathering her bags to leave for the day.

"It's been what, six weeks?"

"Tonight, OR3. You, me and a brain tumour." He suggested, walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I would, but Ashley and I are having a girls night in."

"No offence Mer, I think she'd much rather spend her Friday night with Matthew and some friends at a diner or in one of their basements. And I really don't appreciate being replaced by my daughter." Derek joked.

Meredith turned around and slapped across the shoulder, getting ready to walk out of the door, before he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back as she giggled. She squirmed to get out of his grasp, but it was of no use and she finally relaxed as he sat her down on his lap.

"I might have already told her to go."

"Derek! We haven't spent any time with Ashley because of work and I know she understands, but it sucks."

"Well I haven't spent anytime with my fiancée." Derek pouted.

"You're lucky I love you."

"I know I am."

Rolling her eyes at him, Meredith stood up and pulled a fresh pair of scrubs out of her locker, making a fuss of it for their date night, Derek grinning widely the whole time. As she was getting changed in the bathroom, she heard Mark enter the lounge. Although the two of them were still on somewhat rocky grounds, Derek had began to forgive him as he had done Addison, rekindling their friendship.

After hearing their conversation, Meredith changed her scrub pants back into her jeans and refolded the scrubs into a neat pile, before walking out of the bathroom. She was met with a confused expression off Derek, and turned to him after placing her scrubs back into her locker, folding her arms across her chest.

"I'll let you and Mark enjoy your date night." She said with a giggle. "I'd rather not have him at the table as I mentally undress you across the table."

"Mer, please?"

"I'm going for my girls night in with Ashley, if she's willing to spend the night with me after you convinced her otherwise."

"Next week?" Derek asked, not anticipating Mark would want to scrub in for the skin graft to be done on the patients arm.

"Next week, or maybe, if we're lucky, we could go to a restaurant, like normal people." Meredith teased, placing a kiss on his lips before leaving the hospital.

In the car, she phoned Ashley and was grateful to hear that she was happy to ditch her plans with her friends for the girls night in. Once arriving home, Meredith cleaned their house, that somehow despite the lack of habitants recently, had managed to get out of hand with a pile of plates in the sink and clothes needing to be washed scattered around the house.

When Ashley got home, a pizza was ordered for the two of them, and she then helped Meredith to finish cleaning the house.

"I was thinking, I know you're probably going to have a hen-do, or whatever you want to call it, the night before you get married to Dad. But, after hearing what happens at one from a friend, I think I'll save myself the torture, but I wanted to do something with you before, so could we maybe go on a weekend away, or whatever your work schedule allows. Actually, no sorry I know you're saving up vacation time for your honeymoon so don't worry, it doesn't matter." Ashley asked, her pace quickening significantly towards the end.

"Ashley, slow down. I think that would be nice, the two of us, at a spa of sorts maybe? No men, or their constant need to ask stupid questions."

"Yeah, I'd love that."

"Me too." Meredith agreed. "So, I've not heard much about Matthew recently, how is he?"

The question led to a long conversation about how he had asked Ashley to prom and all of the other ways her friends had been asked to prom. As the conversation continued, Meredith caught up to the date and quickly realised that the prom in discussion was only two weeks away, and she immediately felt guilt ridden.

"Ashley, prom is two weeks away, you don't even have a dress, oh my god."

"I erm, actually went out and got one with my mom, about a month ago. I should have done it with you as well, I'm sorry."

"No, having an experience like that with her is important, I never got that, my mom never wanted to give me that. What's it like then?"

"It's strapless and a sky blue colour and comes to above my ankles. There's a semi-sweetheart neckline, then above my ribs there's sequins and from the waist down it's loose."

"You're going to look beautiful in it."

For just a moment, Meredith got deja vu and remembered the last time she had seen Ashley in a dress for an important event, a lump quickly and subconsciously forming in the back of her throat. She swallowed hard and blinked away the tears that were forming in her eyes, but the action didn't go unmissed by Ashley, who leaned across the couch and embraced her in a hug.

"Meredith, thank you for everything."

"You've done more for me than I could ever do for you." Meredith thanked, and the subject was dropped as the two of them turned back to the TV.