Merder: Different Circumstances

Chapter Forty

Meredith woke up to an empty bed and groaned as she pulled the sheets around her body in an attempt to warm herself. Her and Derek had been trying for almost three months with no success and although the two of them insisted on keeping the sex unscheduled, they liked to get a round in before work in the morning. But of course twenty four hour shifts and nights spent on call meant that they would sometimes leave the other.

From downstairs, Ashley could be heard making something for breakfast and it was only when Meredith looked at the time on her clock did she realise she had slept in for much longer than intended. She quickly got herself dressed and downstairs, grateful to see that Ashley had made omelettes for the both of them, especially with Meredith's inability to cook.

"It's the last football game of the season at school tonight, so I'm staying at a friends house after." Ashley said, throwing some food into her bag for lunch.

"Which friend?"

"You wouldn't know them, just a friend from school." She was quick to respond, to which Meredith raised her eyebrows. "Fine, I'm staying at Matthew's. Just don't tell my Dad, please. I'll be home by 11am tomorrow and then I will have all of Sunday to do my homework. Please?"

"Fine, but only because I trust you."

"Thank you Meredith, you're the best!"

"Of course Ashley."

Soon, Meredith was left alone in the house, as Ashley left to join her friends. She didn't have long before she had to leave for work and so grabbed her bag and was soon out of the door. It was only when she arrived at working was walking through the corridors to the attending lounge did she realise the date and although she would try to deny it a small spark of hope burned inside of her.

"Good morning."

"Morning." Derek replied, reaching up out of his seat to place a kiss on her lips.

"So, I'm a day late."

"A day late for?"

Meredith just raised her eyebrows at his obliviousness and blamed it on the night shift he had just worked. Whilst waiting for him to realise, Derek's pager had buzzed a 911 down to the pit and he jumped out of his chair.

"Tell me later?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you later." She sighed as he disappeared behind the door.

Sitting down in the chair he had just left, Meredith grabbed the latest medical magazine from the table and began to flick through the pages of it, her shift not starting for another fifteen minutes. As she was reading, Arizona came into the room and grabbed a drink from the fridge before joining her at the table.

"I have to say, I don't know what they history is but Derek and Mark literally bounce off each other in the ER. You should have seen them just then, a patient came in and within ten minutes the two of them had an initial diagnosis and were off for scans."

"You don't know?"

"Don't know what?"

"Mark slept with Addison before he and Derek divorced."

Arizona just stared with an open mouth for a moment.

"Yeah, the two of them didn't speak for years and then when we went to New York for New Year, I made Derek stay behind to talk to him."

"Why don't I hear about any of this?"

Rather than answering, Meredith shrugged and before the conversation could continue the both of their pagers went off. Down in the pit a 10 year old girl had been brought in with a large gash on her upper leg that had become infected.

After explaining to her foster parents that she would need surgery, and receiving an unsupportive reply from the both of them, Meredith and Arizona found themselves in the OR. The surgery went smoothly and the girl was in recovery, with two impatient carers waiting for her to wake up.

"This is her fourth admission in the past six months, something doesn't seem right."

"That can't be right, let me look."

After reading the chart Arizona had just read, the two of them agreed that social services needed to be involved, and spent the next two hours taking shifts on watching their patient from a distance as they waited for them to arrive. Once they had, Meredith's day was busy with an appendectomy, a liver transplant and the afternoon rounds on her patients, followed by some consults in the pit.

When 6pm came around, she was more than ready to go home and despite his shift ending multiple hours earlier, was grateful to see that Derek was waiting in the attending lounge to drive her home. She got changed and soon enough the two of them were walking out of the hospital hand in hand.

"You said you were a day late earlier?" Derek asked as they pulled into their driveway.

"Yeah, it doesn't matter anymore."

"Meredith?"

"My period, okay. I was a day late for my period but it came today so obviously I'm not pregnant." She clarified, taking the keys out of his hand and leaving the car.

Derek chased her the distance of the car to the house and followed behind her quickly inside, hoping that she wouldn't block him out for the evening.

"Mer, it's been three months, these things take time and you know it."

"I know they do but I wanted it to work because if it wasn't for me I would still be 7 months pregnant and I don't understand why it has to be so hard for us." She argued, a couple of tears escaping her eyes.

"It's not your fault." Derek insisted, lifting her chin so that her eyes would meet his. "We've been over this and I know that you will keep blaming yourself, so I will keep reminding you that it was not your fault."

"It was stupid of me to suggest we start trying now, between our wedding and work it wasn't a good idea."

"Listen, if, and that's only an if, we still aren't pregnant by the New Year, we can go to a doctor. I have some tricks for our honeymoon, so you never know."

"Shut up." Meredith giggled slapping his chest gently.