Reaching Forward

5

He just stared in awe at Meredith; she had been so candid with him. Of course, she had been candid with him once before when she called him on the fact that he and her mother had an affair. But, when it was about her personally, he usually had to be the last one to hear it through gossip. Looking at the expression on her face, he saw the dire confusion and pain that she seemed to be going through. "How long do you need?"

Upon hearing this, she was taken aback. She wasn't sure if he was actually going to let her so she tried to come up with an answer, "Um, I don't...two days."

Nodding, the chief replied, "I assume you want to leave immediately."

"If you don't mind, sir..."

Getting up, he walked over to Meredith and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry. I'll talk to Bailey."

Clearing her throat, she stood to leave, "Thank you."

Leaving the Chief's office, she started to head towards the locker room to gather her things when Derek spotted her. She picked up her pace and proceeded down the stairs to the elevators. Pressing the down button, she hoped to whatever deity there was that the elevator door would open before Derek could catch up to her. Unfortunately, either she was denied this request or a deity did not existed.

"Meredith!" Derek called out.

The elevator door finally opened and Meredith quickly went in and pressed for the door to close, but Derek stopped the door right before it closed and entered the elevator. They were the only two on the elevator.

Derek just stared at Meredith while she studied the floor numbers on the panel in front of her. He was the first one to speak, "We have to talk about this."

She turned toward him and stared into his eyes, "I can't deal with you right now. I just have to get away from you and this hospital. I've got to figure this out."

His eyes widened and his mouth was agape, "This isn't your decision alone to make." He said with a tinge of anger in his voice.

Furrowing her brow, she looked at him with an expression of confusion mixed with shocked, "You didn't honestly believe that I'd do something without consulting you, did you?"

Folding his arms over his chest, he shook his head and looked down to the ground before bringing his gaze back to hers, "You've avoided all my calls and me for that matter. I didn't know what to believe!"

The two just stared at each other in silence not believing what the other had said. Luckily, the elevator had come to its stop. When it opened its doors, Meredith looked out and saw a nurse whisper something into another nurse's ear while glancing back and forth between her and Derek. Finally, Meredith had enough and approached the two nurses, "God, you know this is hard enough as it is without having to deal with all of the stares everyone is giving me. I know my life has been constant source of gossip but can't you at least for one just stop!?"

The two nurses just looked guilty and quickly got on the elevator without saying a word. Meredith had taken off for the locker room with Derek following swiftly behind her. Once she entered, she sat down on the bench and leaned over placing her head on her knees. Sitting down beside her, he gently placed a hand on her back, "It's going to be all right." He said in almost a whisper.

Suddenly, she stood up and began taking things out of her locker, "You don't know it's going to be all right. I don't know it's going to be all right that's why I'm taking time off to figure this out. And to do that, I have to get out of this hospital."

"Wait, you're taking time off? For how long and where are you going to go?"

She continued packing her things, "Two days and I don't know."

"Come with me to the trailer." He instructed more than asked.

She stopped for a moment and looked down at him, "What?"

Standing up, he grabbed her hand in his, "Come with me to the trailer and we can spend these two days figuring this out."

She looked at him intensely, "You're serious."

"I am."

"I don't know, Derek-" She was cut off.

"Meredith, we have to talk about this and out there it will just be the two of us and no one else." He said as convincingly as he could. His eyes pleaded with her to say yes.

Of course, her response wasn't an immediate yes as he hoped, "Do you really think the Chief will let both of us have time off?"

He breathed a small sigh of relief; at least, she hadn't completely disregarded the idea, "Considering the circumstances, I'm sure he will and besides there are other neurosurgeons besides me, not as good as me, but others all the same." He smiled at his comment, hoping it'd cheer her up at least a little bit.

And, she couldn't help but smile when he was being all McDreamy like, "Ok."

"Ok?" He asked making sure his ears weren't deceiving him.

"Yes." She reassured him.

Composing himself, he began, "Ok, right. You go on to the trailer while I talk to the chief. It shouldn't be more than an hour."

Nodding, she agreed and began to finish packing her things. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him leave and then proceeded to change out of her scrubs. Once finished, she grabbed her things and made her way out of the hospital and to her jeep. Cranking it up, she began to drive towards Derek's trailer and she knew once these two days were over both of their lives would be changed forever.