Secret smile

24

Mark and Lexie were cuddling on the recliner, and no matter what Meredith did, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the way the plastic surgeon asshole had his arms wrapped around her sister. It was weird. Very, very weird, and she couldn't even concentrate on the movie they were watching as Derek sat next to her, popcorn in between them. Her sister was not supposed to be cuddling with the hospital man whore. It didn't really matter that her and Derek were pretty sure that Mark hadn't slept with anyone else recently. He was going through some weird stage or something and that didn't make him suddenly a non-manwhore. He was still a manwhore. They seemed happy, they seemed really happy to be cuddling and it was strange and weird and wrong. It was really wrong. Mark kept leaning down to whisper to Lexie, who would giggle and then slap his arm and Meredith just wasn't sure what to think. She probably should just ignore it and concentrate on the movie they were watching. Derek's eyes were glued to the screen, he hadn't reached for a piece of popcorn in over fifteen minutes, and she should probably do the same. She should stop staring at her sister and watch the movie.

Besides, Derek would probably want to talk about it. That was what they did. They watched the movie and then they would grab a drink and talk about the movie and she couldn't talk to him about a movie she didn't bother watching. Which would be bad because the best thing about the movie night was the talking with Derek part so she had to actually watch. She reached for the popcorn and leaned towards Derek, lightly touching his arm. "Okay...your brother is cuddling with my sister. That's weird, right?"

"Oh..." he murmured. "Yeah."

"It's just...he's the hospital manwhore."

"Yeah," he nodded.

"So...weird," she nodded firmly. He didn't want to talk, which definitely wasn't new. Derek hated when she interrupted the movie and talked. So talking was probably a bad idea, at least until after the movie. Instead, she'd watch the movie, keep her eyes off of Lex and Mark, and just eat some popcorn. This was the point of movie night, not completely freaking out about her sister kissing Mark.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah."

"Sorry...shutting up," she nodded firmly.

"Okay."

"Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" she murmured. He was acting weird. He wasn't even rolling his eyes and telling her to shut up so that he could watch the movie.

"Yeah...of course...fine," he nodded quickly, taking a deep breath.

"Okay," she nodded slowly.

"I'm...fine..." he gasped slightly.

"Derek?" she turned to look at him as his chest rose violently and then fell. "Derek?"

"I'm okay," he breathed, his hands pulling on his shirt.

"No...no you're not."

"I'm..." he gasped again, his body trembling.

"Shep?" Mark suddenly frowned, getting off the armchair quickly. "Lex, go grab a cool wash cloth."

"What?" Lexie frowned. "What's going on?"

"Go! Now!" Mark barked, walking quickly over to Derek as Meredith's friend began to tremble violently, gasping for breath as he started to scratch hard at his throat.

"I...I..." Derek whimpered in between short and sharp breaths that probably weren't going past his throat.

"Derek," Meredith whispered, reaching to rub his back. He moved away from her, his shaking hands trying to rip open his throat as his entire body heaved with each desperate breath. "Derek, it's okay. It's....Derek..."