"Derek? Are you ready to go home?" Meredith asked while yawning
"I am" He said before putting his arm around Meredith's thin waist "I'm gonna drive home"
Meredith nodded and let her head rest on his chest as they were waiting for the elevator
They walked outside the hospital, making the short walk to their black SUV. They started their internship a few months ago, everything went so well. They rent a house with Mark and Addi who also did their internship.
"Mom asked if we would come over tomorrow, we all have the day off" Derek said while grabbing her hand and squeezing it
"Sounds great! It's been a while since we saw mom and dad and I missed her food" Meredith said with a chuckle
"We have so many stories to tell them" Derek laughed
"Derek?"
"What's wrong Mer?"
"I.. I think.. Maybe I wanna do general"
"But.. You're scared because that's Ellis' specialty?"
"Hmm" She nodded
"Mer.. She passed away 3 years ago.. You're not a Grey. You're a Shepherd. No one knows you're related to her"
"Hmm" She nodded again
"I love you, Mer! And you're gonna be a great general surgeon!"
"You're still up for neuro?"
"Yeah, I don't think that will ever change. Amy wants to do neuro too"
She gave him a smile before squeezing his hand
"Don't be so insecure, Bailey was amazed by your knowledge"
...
"Mom? Dad? We're home! Derek yelled when the four of them walked into their parents house
"We're in the living room guys" Christopher yelled back before Carolyn made her way out of the kitchen into the hallway to greet them.
"Your sisters are already here, I'm gonna bring you something to drink soon" She said before welcoming the four of them.
Mark and Addison went in first, holding hands. They sat on the couch with Amy. Amelia and Addi got pretty close over the years so they started talking immediately while Mark started talking with his father and other sisters. Derek and Merdith followed short after. They said hello and sat on the other side of the large couch holding hands before Carolyn walked in with some snacks and drinks
"Mom, do I need to help you?" Meredith asked
"No, dear! I've got everything under control"
They all enjoyed their afternoon until Nancy told them she and her husband expected a baby in 6 months, Carolyn and Christopher went totally crazy, their daughter Kathleen already had 2 kids but that didn't stop them from being happy about it
She gave her mother a baby shirt #3 grandchild
...
"Little Shepherd, big Shepherd, Sloan and Montgomery, you're coming with me" Bailey demanded before they got into the back of the ambulance. There was a ferryboat crash, they needed to help on the field
Derek noticed Meredith was a little nervous, they had no idea of what was waiting for them out there. The moment they got out of the ambulance the doctors were shocked by seeing all the smoke, all the injured people laying everywhere. All the medical people, firefighters and everything else overwhelmed them.
"Come on people, there are lives that need to be saved" Bailey shouted
"It's a beautiful day to save lives" Derek said before running off like every other doctor.
During the busy event no one paid attention to any of the other doctors, this was about saving lives and trying to do as much damage control as possible.
Soon Meredith was stopped by a little girl who seemed to be lost but her attention got caught by a man groaning in pain. She didn't want to leave the little girl so she took her with her and let her sit down a few meters away from the patient. Meredith did a small check up to make sure she had no injuries, when everything seemed fine she walked over to the man who was complaining about a massive headache. She wanted to keep him warm so she put the jacket on top of the man. She started to examine him when he wanted to get up she asked him to stay still. They were on the edge of the dock and the man tried to push her off him when she felt backwards into the water. The moment she hit the water she felt like she coudn't breath. She didn't want to die, she started to swim but she was sure she had to fight. She needed to survive this so she started to swim but the pain in her body got too much. She tried to yell but she couldn't keep herself above the water because she was freezing. She wanted to swim, she really did but the pain made her whimper, she never felt this amount of pain in her life.
Meanwhile Derek was searching for Meredith. He hadn't seen her in a while and he wanted to make sure she was okay, he ran off the whole scene when he noticed a little girl. She was trying to get someone's attention. Derek didn't want to stop before he found Meredith but the girl looked desperate.
"There's a girl.. She.. She fell in the water" The young girl told him quiet.
"Show me where" Derek suggested before running after the little girl. His eyes fell on the injured man who was seizing. He ran over, turned him on his side and asked for help. When they placed the man on the gurney he looked at the water, that was when he saw Meredith, struggling to stay floating but he noticed she was drowning. He ran to the side and climbed down the stairs, he swam after her and the time he reached her he noticed she stopped breathing. He swam her to the side of the dock to get her out of the freezing cold water.
"Mer, please.. I.. I need you" He whispered as he ran to one of the ambulances. He placed her on the gurney and started doing CPR.
"We're five minutes out of Seattle Grace" The ambulance driver told him after what felt like hours of doing CPR while the love of his was dying in front of him. He did everything he could to save his Meredith, she needed to survive this. He couldn't live without her, they went through so much together, it couldn't stop here.
When they reached the ambulance bay the paramedics opened the doors and yelled "Jane D-"
"It's Meredith, Meredith Shepherd!" Derek interrupted
Bailey, who was already back at the hospital and Richard pushed her gurney inside to an examination room.
"Shepherd, you need to get out of here." Richard demanded. "And change your scrubs!"
Derek did what Richard told him, he ran to his locked to change into dry scrubs and went back to the ER. He sat outside of the room, waiting for news when Addison and Mark joined him.
"I think one of us needs to call mom and dad" Mark said
"I'll go call them "Addison said, giving them a sad smile before running out to call her parents in law.
"Derek, she's gonna get through this, you know she's a fighter."
"I hope so Mark.."
"Mom and dad will be here soon!"
...
"Derek? Mark?" CHristopher yelled as he and Carolyn ran into the OR
"Mom.. She.. She drowned.."
"He reached her on time mom. She shouldn't have been out of oxygen for more than a minute"
"Oh.. Meredith" Christopher murmured
"Addison walked to the family with coffees. No one ate or drank since they went to the scene and now they really needed to take care of themselves while the best doctors in the hospital were taking care of Meredith. Teddy Altman was constantly checking on Meredith's heart as Bailey and Richard were doing their best to keep her temperature up.
After what felt like Ages, Bailey and Webber walked out of the room to talk to Derek and his family
"She's fine. She's breathing on her own, she coded once but we got her back. We still need to wait for her to wake up but no signs of brain damage. Derek you saved her on time. A few minutes longer and she wouldn't have made it."
"Can.. Can I go in please?" Derek asked
Richard nodded and Derek stormed in. After a few minutes the rest of the family went in to check on Meredith. She was part of their family, she was their son's wife but they took her into their family as their own daughter.
"We're gonna bring her to a room" Bailey ran in after an hour "Everything seems fine"
...
Derek was holding Meredith's hand when he felt her finger moving
"Mer?" He whispered before getting up
"Hmm" Meredith groaned "Auch"
"Shh, Mer. I'm gonna page Bailey" Derek said but Mark got up and paged her so Derek could focus on Meredith
Nelson walked in and did a neurological check on her, Teddy couldn't see any heart defects and told them they could stop worrying, Meredith Shepherd would be fine.
...
After a few days, Meredith got released. They gave her time off from work so she could recover at home. Derek tried to stay home as much as possible but that wasn't so easy as an intern but Richard made it possible. Richard did everything he could to make sure Meredith was okay. Derek was wondering why.
Derek and Meredith visited their parents a lot when she needed to stay home. They would bake a pie and they sat there all afternoon, chatting about everything. Meanwhile Derek found a piece of land he wanted to buy to start building a house for him and Meredith, they felt like they were ready for the next step in their lives. Their own house, away from Mark and Addi. Just them.