Under the Night Sky

Chapter 49

Derek bent over the sink and felt the soothing coolness of water on his forehead and temples. It was almost twelve hours since he rolled his ninth trial patient out of the OR. Ninth patient... The previous eight had passed away. Derek expected that number nine would soon join their ranks. He would soon become his ninth... victim.

He tried to get a grip on himself but sometimes his skull felt very close to exploding. He couldn't help the hope slipping away from him. Would he ever be able to do this right or would he continue to kill people for sport until his trial was shut down?

And the secret he had decided to keep from Meredith weeks ago was starting to weigh too heavily on his shoulders. He needed something, anything, to happen to keep him going.

"Dr. Shepherd!" Derek's resident on the case stormed into the bathroom. "You need to see this!"

________________________________________

"This is what I love about living here," Meredith contentedly stretched in her chair. "Sixty-eight degrees in late November..."

"There's that," Cristina, who was sitting opposite her at a little table outside the inn, nodded expressionlessly. "As well as the crazy wind that can turn your skin into that of a wrinkled prune."

Meredith snorted as she scooped her tangled blonde locks that were billowing in the wind. "Since when do you care about such trivialities?"

"Since... I don't care!" Cristina sighed with irritation.

"That sounded convincing. What's wrong?" Meredith asked nudging her leg under the table.

"Okay, let's take you and McDreamy," Cristina began.

"What about me and McDreamy?" Meredith couldn't help chuckling.

"How could you stand his sorry ass around you?"

"I'm sorry- What?"

"You practically lived together for two months, didn't you?"

"Yeah, we did," nodded Meredith, not really sure where her friend was going with this. Certainly, she or Derek were not a point of concern here, Cristina was way too agitated.

"How did you manage to tolerate him for so long? I can't... I can't even look at Owen anymore!" she groaned, bringing her forehead against the table.

"Oh, I get it," Meredith grinned at her knowingly. "Your respective routines start to get in the way, right?"

"It's the little things!" Cristina gritted her teeth. "Like when he puts the alarm on his side of the bed so I can't turn it off on instant... or when he always folds my ratty sweater into the dresser and I have to look for it every evening!"

"Didn't you go through the same with Burke?" Meredith delicately asked.

"We never shacked up together. But seriously, how did you manage to live with Shepherd for two months and not kill him in the process?"

Meredith burst in soft giggles. "I went through all of this which you're talking about with Mitch. I was always a lone person so let's just say it took a long time for me to get used to his presence in the apartment..."

"Mer-" Cristina eyed her worriedly. It had not been her intention for the subject of their conversation to escalate to Mitch.

"It's okay, Cris, it's nothing that I can't handle talking about," shrugged Meredith. "Coming back to Derek, I... I think I always had it in mind that he'd leave. I wasn't looking for permanent, so I just rolled with it. We had fun, we had amazing sex. I could overlook his obsessive neatness and his eating habits."