Leaving, losing, loving | Merluca

Part 2

"

Why did you come, Andrew?"

Meredith saw him fumbling with his hands. A nervous tick she had gotten to know over the time she had been with him, although he usually wasn't the kind of type that let his nervousness shine through too much. Most of the time he was so put together and confident in what he was doing, in what he wanted. But a lot has changed.

Just as she thought he wanted to answer, the door behind them swung open. Both of them flinching at the sound of it. It was Hayes, standing in the doorway, seemingly surprised at the scene in front of him. He didn't look mad though.

"Dinner is ready." He informed her after a moment, giving her a small smile, before he went inside again.

"I- Give me a few minutes. I'll be there." Meredith informed him, before turning back to Andrew. They heard the door closing again behind them.

"Hayes?" The way Andrew asked, made her wonder if he had already given up on them. He sounded like he was prepared to hear from her that she had moved on.

"No. Just friends." She answered still confused by him.

Meredith saw him nod slightly beside her. He seemed... relieved? When did he get so hard to read for her. She remembered when they were still together. They had gotten so good in knowing what the other wanted. But then he started to shut her out until at some point he got a closed book for her.

"You should go inside." Andrew offered her a way out. But she couldn't let him leave again, not yet.

"I still have some time." She said softly, pushing these thoughts aside and trying to bring him to tell her why he came in the first place.

"Meredith... This- it is important to me. Can we talk another time. With... more time?" He was gently asking her if she was willing to listen to him. He let her know that he didn't want to just have that conversation to have it, but that it was important to him, that it meant something to him. That he wanted to talk to her if she let him.

"Yes, sure." Meredith assured him that she would take the time to listen to him.

"Do you - want to... come inside?" She asked somewhat awkwardly, already knowing that he probably would deny, but silently hoping to not have to let him leave just yet.

"I-" The question took Andrew by surprise. He obviously did not feel completely comfortable with the thought.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"No, it's okay. I just- I thought you might want to talk first."

"I do. I just -" She stopped, adding 'missed you' to herself, letting the sentence hang in the air unfinished for a moment.

"I think I don't feel ready to face all my coworkers, yet." Andrew was staring out into the night, not picking up on her words, for what she was thankful. She didn't want to reflect on how his absence had made her feel, right now. But she could also see that even now three month later, what happened was still hard for him, despite him being better.

"Okay." She assured him, sitting next to him for a few more moments.

There were a lot of unspoken words between them, but somehow, she still found herself just enjoying this one moment with him a little longer. After some time, she started to shiver slightly when she felt a blow of cold air hitting them.

"You should really go inside now." Andrew turned to her again when she saw a small smile forming on his lips.

They both stood up from the steps in front of her door facing each other. She was about to walk to the door, when she saw that Andrew wanted to say something.