Locked Away

Chapter 39

TW: sexual assault victim

It's a month later and Meredith is doing sutures on a patient in the ER. Her patient had tripped and fell onto a glass frame and had gotten a really big open wound on her leg.

Meredith is putting the final stitches into her patient and is concentrating on making sure that they are perfect. "Just a few more and you'll be all good to go."

"Thank you." The patient says.

Meredith finishes the last stitch and puts a bandage over the wound to cover it. "Okay. You are all set. Let me get your discharge papers and then you'll be free to go." Meredith leaves the patient and goes to grab the discharge paperwork. She fills out the areas that she needs to sign and brings the form to her patient.

"Sign here please." The patient signs. "You're all set. Be careful with that leg and if it starts showing any signs of infection, come back okay?"

"I will. Thank you Dr Grey." The patient leaves.

"Grey! Trauma coming in 2 minutes! Let's go!" Bailey yells to her.

"Coming!" Meredith rushes out to the ambulance bay and waits with Dr Bailey and a few other doctors, including the interns who had previously said things about her. Meredith ignores the glances they throw at her. She hears them laughing softly but tries to ignore them.

The ambulance pulls up a minute later and the EMT's push open the door. "Maddie Smith, age 25, sexual assault victim."

Meredith pales at that sentence which Dr Bailey notices.

"Mer, go. We've got this." Dr Bailey says gently, knowing Meredith is feeling very scared and triggered.

Meredith nods and rushes off. She is breathing heavily and starting to cry. "I can't do this." She whispers.

Cristina sees her running down the hallway and quickly catches up with her. "Mer, what's wrong?"

"I'm fine."

"Mer, you're not fine. You're crying and you're breathing heavily. Something upset you. What's going on?" Cristina says.

"Nothing. Let's just go back to work." Meredith says, looking away and wiping her tears away.

Cristina decides not to push her, figuring that Meredith will tell her when she's ready.

The two walk back to the pit and Meredith sits at the desk waiting for a new patient to come in.

The door to the trauma room where the sexual assault victim is opens up and Dr Bailey and the two interns walk out of the room. The two interns have to bring the blood work to the lab. They are walking and laughing to themselves.

"That girl totally asked for it." The intern muttered to their friend.

"She totally did." The other intern said laughing. "Did you see what she was wearing? No wonder."

Meredith heard the comments the two interns were making and started playing with her hands. She starts playing with her fingers out of nervousness. "Not Finn. It's not Finn." She whispers to herself. "I'm okay." She tries to tell herself.

"Hey!" Dr Bailey yelled at the two interns. "Unacceptable! In this hospital, cases like this are very serious and sensitive. You are off that case and I will report you to the board. Get out of my sight!"

Bailey sees that Meredith looks very anxious and realizes that she heard what the other interns had said. "Grey, it's okay. You're okay. You're safe. Those interns will be reported and thrown out of the program. It's not acceptable to say things like that."

"I'm okay." Meredith whispers, slowly moving her head to look Dr Bailey in the eyes.

"I'm going to go find an intern to replace those two idiots." Dr Bailey says.

Meredith takes a deep breath. "I'm an intern. I can help you." She says softly.

Bailey looks at her. "Meredith. I don't know if you can handle this. You froze outside when she came in. I know this is extremely triggering for you. It's okay. I can find another intern."

"I can help. I'm okay." Meredith says firmly. "I'll help you."

"Okay. If you're sure. But if you feel triggered at all, then I want you to leave the room. Do you understand?" Dr Bailey says.

"I understand."

"Okay. Let's go then."

The two head back into the room and Meredith introduces herself to Maddie. Maddie looks extremely scared and like she wants to bolt.

"Dr Bailey?" Meredith says softly.

"Yes, Grey?"

"Can I just sit here with her? She needs a friendly face. And I know what she's going through so I can help her through it." Meredith says.

Bailey nods. "That's fine Grey."

"If you need help though, I can help but I just think she needs a hand to hold."

"I agree Grey. That's very kind of you. You just sit there and be with her."

Meredith sits and holds Maddie's hand. "I'm here. Everything will be just fine. You don't need to be scared. We've got you."

A few hours later Meredith's shift is finally over. Cristina's shift has just ended also and both are getting changed. "Hey Mer?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you would want to come to Joe's with me? It's okay if not. I totally understand. I know it has bad memories for you." Cristina says.

Meredith takes a deep breath. "I'll come. I need to face my fears. I can't stay away from there forever. Besides, I miss Joe. He owes me tequila shots."

Cristina has a huge smile on her face. "I'm so proud of you Mer. You've come so far. And what you did today? With that sexual assault victim? You never would have done that months ago. You would've been as far away from that case as you could get. But you were able to help that girl while overcoming your fears. I'm extremely proud of how far you've come."

"Thanks Cris. I'm really trying. I just want everything to go back to normal. And in order to do that I need to face my fears. I can do this. I want to do this. I'm not scared like I used to be. I'm okay now." Meredith says softly.

Cristina brushes a stray tear away. "Come on. Let's go. I'll buy you all the tequila you want. And hey, did you hear Derek and Addie broke up?"

"Yeah, I heard." Meredith says softly.

"I see the way you look at him." Cristina says smiling.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Meredith blushes and looks away.

"Uh huh. You can't hide that. I know you like him more than a friend." Cristina smirks. "Maybe he'll be at Joe's tonight. Maybe he can buy you a drink."

"Cristina! Not true!" Meredith blushes.

The two walk into Joe's.

"Hey, look who's sitting at the bar..." Cristina says with a smirk.

Meredith starts heading to the opposite side of the bar but Crisitna grabs her arm and pulls her towards Derek.

"Crisitna!" Meredith hisses.

"Derek, Meredith wants to sit next to you!" Crisitna says and forces Meredith to sit down in the seat next to Derek.

"Hey Mer." Derek says, smiling at Meredith.

"Hi." Meredith smiles.

"I'm so proud of you. I heard what you did today."

"Thanks."

Cristina orders tequila for Meredith and herself. She looks at Meredith and sees her staring into Derek's eyes. She chuckles. "And you think I don't see how you look at him." She mutters to herself.

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed! Just one more chapter left! I can't believe this story is almost done! After I finish this story, I'll be starting a new one so make sure you're following me so that you'll get the notification when that happens! Thanks for reading!