Mark's Hotel Room
"Good Morning Meredith." He says as he walks in.
Light streams from the windows and he carries a plate with toast, eggs, and a hash brown for her.
"Morning?" She asks as she sits up against the headboard.
"You fell asleep in the car. I asked if it was okay to bring you here and you said it was okay." He says as he hands her the plate.
"Thank you. I'm not really a breakfast person." She says as he sits beside her and stabs the hash brown with his fork.
"You are today. Please." He says, as she lets him feed her.
"My God, what time is it?" She yawns.
"It's 5 in the morning. I'll drop you off at your house after breakfast so you can get to the hospital." She finishes the hash brown.
"I'm definitely not finishing this." She laughs and places a fork full of scrambled eggs in his mouth.
"This is delicious, Mark. If you weren't a surgeon, you could be a chef." She nods as she gets up and eats half of the eggs.
"I'm glad you like it." He nods as he finishes the eggs.
He stands up and hands her a piece of toast before heading into the kitchen of the suite.
"This is a hotel. Are they allowed to have a kitchen in it?" She laughs, hugging him from behind.
"Just the penthouse suite. The others have to order from the kitchen below." He chuckles as he washes the plate and places it with the others.
"I made your bed." She smiles as he turns.
"You didn't have to do that." He shakes his head and she pulls away unbearably slowly.
"I was trying to find my things." She mumbles in his chest.
"They are by the door. Are you ready to go?" He asks.
"Yeah. Let's head out." She nods, using the hair tie on her wrist to pull back her hair into a neat ponytail.
He holds her hand and leads her out of the suite after grabbing her things.
They drive in peaceful silence to her house and both get out of the car. As he walks her up to her door.
"Sorry for falling asleep last night." She sighs.
"Technically, it was early morning. And it is fine. Working at the hospital can wear you out." He nods.
"Yeah. She laughs nervously and he smiles.
He leans down and breathes deeply. Their hot breaths warm the other's cheeks making them both grin. Her eyes lock with his deep grey ones and he takes comfort in her deep emerald irises.
"I would kiss you... but your friends are watching and I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. I'll see you later." He whispers.
"They like to watch my live life. It's their free drama." She smiles against his lips, not touching them.
"It must be dramatic or they might just be thinking about how beautiful you are." He murmurs.
She blushes and looks at her feet to escape the feeling of ínstense heat that burns through her face. He smiles at her reaction and his eyes flick to the large window where he sees 4 sets of eyes.
"They're still watching." He laughs.
"Yeah, they do that." She sighs.
"They're ruining my plans. The kiss was supposed to be my way of apologizing. I can't even do that." He shakes his head exasperatedly, making her laugh.
"Maybe we could do this again and then you can say sorry." She suggests, holding his hands loosely.
"Great idea. I'll call you soon." He smiles before stepping back and waving to the window. The curtains shut and the eyes disappear.
"Okay." She nods, grabbing his collar and leaning up.
His cheeks turn red as she kisses his cheek and pulls away slowly. Blushing, he walks away and gets in his car as he smiles wide. She watches as he drives away and laughs before turning around and walking into the house.
Meredith's House
"So you just mash faces with every attending?" Cristina snorts as she walks in. Her mouth opens to speak but Alex covers it.
"At least she didn't get knocked up by one." He retorts.
Everyone's eyes move between the two of them with anticipation but Cristina leaves the house.
"Too soon Alex! Way too soon." George yells, kicking his shin.
"So... why are you all here at the same time?" She asks.
"We bought pizza. Let's go eat." Izzie says sympathetically.
"I had breakfast at Mark's hotel room." Meredith shakes her head and starts walking up the stairs when George pulls her back.
"There's something you should know." Alex sighs.
"Can it wait because I have to take a shower?" She asks.
"No. It can't wait." George says loudly as he feels the need to assert his somewhat sense of dominance.
"Okay. What's wrong?" She asks while they lead her to the couch.
"This came in the mail." Izzie mumbles.
"They also left a voicemail." Alex nods.
Meredith takes the envelope and opens it before reading aloud.
Ms. Grey,
We are pleased to tell you that your mother: Ellis Grey is lucid. She has been to Seattle Grace Hospital. We wish the best for you and your family.
Sincerely, the caretakers at Rose Ridge Senior Clinic
She doesn't notice it but her hand moves to her mouth, rubbing her bottom lip gently. Taking a sharp breath, she stands up and picks up her purse before walking to the door.
"Meredith are you okay?" George asks.
She turns around and opens her mouth as she opens the door. The words disappear from her mind and she shrugs.
"I... I don't know." She mutters before heading out the door.
Derek's House
"Formula?" He asks before she tosses it to him.
"Toys?" He calls as he places the formula milk into the baby bag.
She places toys into the bag and smiles as he stands.
"You think she's ready for this?" Addison asks as he picks up Iris and puts her in a baby carrier.
"Oh yeah. She's ready." He smiles as she gently tugs on his nose.
As he picks up the carrier, his phone starts to ring. Picking up, he holds the phone to his ear.
"Derek, thank you so much for picking up. I need your help at the hospital." Richard says urgently.
"I'm on paternity leave."
"It's an emergency. A VIP patient that is very important to me."
"You can't ask me to come in. I have a daughter to take care of."
"Derek, you know I wouldn't ask until I exhausted all other options. You're the best. I need you here. I'm asking for a favor." Richard says into the phone.
"Alright. Fine. What's the patient's condition?"
"Critical. It's amazing that he is still standing."
"Tumor on the spine?"
"From T-3 to T-7."
"Is he working?" Derek's voice peaks, intrigued.
"Walking, talking, and all the works."
"I'll be in 30 minutes." Derek smiles.
"Work?" Addison asks as he sets down the carrier.
"Yeah. Is it okay if I go in?" He pleads like a kid tempted by candy.
"Rare patient?" She scoffs.
"Tumor. T3 to T7. I could practically retire on this tumor."
"Okay fine. Take your time." She nods as he kisses her cheek and pulls on a sweater before leaving.
Hospital: 1 hour later
"This is crazy Richard." He says throwing his hands up in frustration. His eyes flick back to the image of the tumor and he sighs, lowering his arms. "If I go in... this man will most likely come out paralyzed. That is- if he comes out at all."
"He's asking you to do it. It's Isaac, everyone knows him and we all love him. You can't refuse this surgery." Richard shakes his head and looks at his pager. The words on the ringing device make his head spin and he reaches out for something to hold.
Derek grabs his arm and gently sits him on the chair before glancing at his pager. His heart that was beating so fast with rage, slows to stop in sorrow. Grey CT Results. He had read it clearly but he checked again as Richard sat, unmoving and staring off into a direction.
"What?" Derek asks slowly, feeling weak.
No response leaves Richard's mouth and Derek's breath hitches.
"What... happened?" He asks in a whisper.
Richards face tenses and he starts to talk but Derek shakes his head and stands up in shock. His feet carry him to the nurse's station and he pants out her last name with urgency. As soon as the nurse points, he runs into a room and stares at the still body in the bed. He takes a deep breath sees her figure in a chair. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he calms himself.
She knows who it is immediately and straightens her back as shocks run through her bones. Instead, her eyes sprout out more tears. The thought of Derek seeing her sobbing was scary. She sniffles and ignores him as she looks at her mother in the bed. Five hours ago, she had been talking sanely to everyone, and now she was in a coma for no reason. The worst part was that he had said the same thing to her as she always did. She had told her that all of her accomplishments amounted to nothing, that she was simply just ordinary.
"Meredith..." He starts slowly, rubbing her shoulder. He knew her mother wasn't the best but was still her mother. He couldn't say anything to her now. There was nothing to say to her. He didn't know the pain she was feeling and she was crying. It brought tears to his eyes to see her in despair. "...are you okay?"
She nods frantically and pushes her hair back. He watches her hands, shaking as they go. He steps in front of her and kneels on one knee to take her face in his hands. She sniffles and shakes her head in denial.
"I don't know why I'm crying. She just told me I was a disappointment, thirty minutes ago. She has never done anything for me and now..." She breaks off in tears and Derek partially lunges on her, wrapping his large, strong arms around her and making her sit on his lap. She buries her head in his neck to stop the tears but she can't. He feels his stomach flipping and lets his fingers enmesh in her hair. Her fragile body doesn't stop shaking as Richard comes into the room and shakes his head at the vitals at 10. A few seconds later they are at 5 and Derek grips her tightly.
The monotonous noise of the flatline hits her ears making her gasp. He closes his eyes and listens to her cries of denial, telling Richard to do something, anything to fix her mother. Holding her on him, she can't move. Her body feels numb and she can't breathe deeply. Her arms wrap around his neck and she holds the hair at his nape. He lets out soft shushes against her temple and she shakes her head, unable to contain the pain.
"I can't-" She cries, shaking her head against his neck. Her tears smear over the area and he holds his composure as still as possible, determined to hold her for however long she needs.
"It's going to be okay." He whispers into her ear as she breathes heavily across his neck. She nuzzles into his ear and tightens his grip around her. "It's not." She whispers shakily.
"Meredith." Mark walks into the room and her head raises, feeling heavy. She unwraps her arms from Derek's neck and his back straightens to have her pull away so fast. Mark's hands outstretch and Derek lets go of Meredith's waist. He turns and his eyes droop as she walks into his arms.
She was so upset in his arms that she was unmoving. Now, seeing Mark, she had the strength to get off of Derek. The way she let him hold her made Derek's eyes tear. It was as though she was ripping his heart out. He finally understood what it felt like to watch the love of his life with someone else. She loved him so much and he understood her pain. He watched as they stood still, saying no words but just breathing.
Mark feels her tighten her grip and squeezes her into his chest. They are so close that there is no clear line between their bodies. He knows how it feels to be so broken, to watch your mother die in front of you. Hating that she had to go through the same, he gently rubs her back leering his fingers press into her muscles and tendons to calm her down.
Derek gets up and walks out of the room before walking to the nurse's chart for his patient. He can't help but watch them as he writes slowly in the chart. Never had he seen Mark act like this, especially around his girlfriends.
Mark leans in her ear and kisses her gently making Derek's hands clench tight. He steps backward slowly and there is barely any difference from where they stand. She shuffles closer to him as he steps back.
"My god he's so gentle." A nurse says softly.
"I thought he was just looks." Another replies.
"I think he was. Not after meeting her."
"She's also very influential."
"She's crying and still makes the guys look at her."
"I'm jealous of them, aren't you?
"Yeah." Derek thinks. "Yeah, I'm jealous of him, of them."
He watches miserably as his ex-best friend moves his hands to her cheeks. His skin presses hers making him nauseous. Tilting her chin upwards, he gazes into her eyes. Derek lets out a soft gasp seeing the look on her face. The same way that she used to watch him. He grasps her chin and bends down to touch their noses.
"We can do anything you want to." He whispers. The minty scent of his breath makes her feel much better than she was before but still, her stomach hurts.
"I want to go." She mumbles incoherently to everyone but him.
With a simple nod, their lips touch, and Derek's pen drops from his hand. Knowing that Mark and she were a thing, suddenly became infuriatingly painful.
He pulls her to his chest and they slowly walk out of the room. Everyone watches as he opens the door to an on-call room and they enter. Seething, Derek heads into the lab and pulls out the brain scans. Hanging them up on the lightboxes, he sits back and stares at them with a notepad in his hand.
Anything to stop thinking about him. Anything to stop thinking about her. Anything to stop thinking about them. Stop thinking about the way she left so easily from your arms to him. Don't think about how he held her, how he kissed her ear, spoke against her lips.
As much as he tried to stop thinking about her, his mind only wandered more. He sat miserably in his chair till his feet became numb. As he paced and gazed at the spine scans, the pain went away and he walked down the hall, into an on-call room in the hopes of getting some sort of sleep. At this point, he was so sick of daydreaming about her that he would rather have nightmares. Claiming a top bunk, he took off his scrub top and pulled the covers over himself. He was so tired from the day to remember to look around the room falling asleep and in the far corner of the room, two bodies slept soundly against each other.
3 AM
He awoke surprised by a pager as he reached for his torso. Realizing it wasn't ringing, he sat up straight and looked around the room finally. The two bodies were so incredibly close that they seemed like just one until the smaller one sat up. He immediately pushed himself into his bunk and scrunched back towards a wall seeing the larger figure sit up. Derek pulled the blankets to just below his eyes and watched as she silenced her pager.
They were silent in the bed and he pulled out his phone.
"I can have them page another resident if you want to stay here." His voice rang out in the room and Derek shook his head slowly as she nodded. In the gentle slivers of moonlight that filtered into the room, he saw her in his eyes and his heart began beating faster. She was wearing his shirt, plaid and partially buttoned. Mark wasn't wearing a shirt but he had jeans a belt.
She nodded as they laid back down and he made a call to Bailey, telling her that no one was to page Meredith. She held his torso tightly and pushed her face into his chest, determined to disappear in the warmth of his arms. His fingers were all tangled in her hair as he let her lay on him. He never once asked for her thoughts and he also never offered his own.
"What were the last words your sister said to you?" She asks, her voice soft and quiet but raspy. He closes his eyes and recalls the awful memories of the day his whole immediate family died. "I'm so sorry. That wasn't-"
"Love you." He replies, cutting her off. "She said, 'love you' and shut the door. A few hours later, she wasn't alive anymore." He nods and pulls her closer to him, moving his hands gently deeper into her hair.
Derek cowered in the bed, unable to breathe. Mark had lied to him about his own family. He had told Derek that his mother had died in childbirth and that his father was never in the picture. To add, he had never mentioned having a sister. She nuzzled further into his chest and nodded.
"My mother said what she always did..." Meredith said in a raspy tone. "I don't know why I expected her to change at all. She's always- was always telling me that I was a failure who was just ordinary like everybody else. After 13 years, I hoped she had changed." She sighs heavily and Derek's mouth opens to speak. He quickly shuts it and holds a pillow tightly to his chest, hoping he can melt away into the sheets, so he can cease to exist than feel this pain from her.
"Let me take this away, Meredith. Let me try to help you." He asks softly over her cheek. His hot breath sends shocks down her neck and she nods dejectedly. "How? It's not like you can take back her last words." She mumbles.
"I know I can't take back her words, but I can persuade you to listen to mine. Remember the first day we met?" He asked. She nods and sighs as he rolls over her.
Derek cringes and sees as he gently strokes her cheek.
"I told you that you were extraordinary. You still are and you always will be." He says confidently as he brushes her hair behind her ear.
One-handed push-ups. He can hold his one-handed push-ups for as long as he wants. Mark is stronger than me, taller than me, more available than me. He's everything I'm not.
Derek thought as his tears ran down his pillow. He leans down and stops just as Derek shuts his eyes and hopes for the worst. After a while of silence, Derek opens his eyes and sees them stilled.
Mark hovers over her, gently stroking her hair while she holds his torso. "I love you." He says quietly, kissing her widow's peak before laying beside her.
"Let's go and eat something yeah?" He asks gently as he pecks her forehead and strokes her cheek.
"Mhmm." She mumbles incoherently and shakes her head on his chest.
"We could eat anything you want. We could do anything you want. You name it." He smiles.
She looks up to his eyes and breathes deeply before staring at his lips. Derek's chest contracts as she moves higher beside him and moves her lips against his. Surprised, Mark lets his mouth hold her upper lip. Her tongue runs over his bottom lip and he opens his mouth willingly to give her everything she wants. Rolling over him, she smiles gently and nods before meeting his lips.
"Meredith are you sure?" He asks.
"Yeah. Please." She nods desperately.
"Then let me." He says calmly, holding her waist and rolling over her before unbuttoning his shirt. She takes it off and drops it on the floor before letting his lips lock with hers. As they kiss, his hand moves between her thighs.
Derek masochistically watches as his hands clench the pillow in front of him. It was always going to be Mark that she chose. Even if Derek wasn't married or didn't have a child, it would always be Mark.
The way she looked at him or the way she didn't hesitate made his hands hold her panties and gently pull them off carefully. She pulls away and he stops, remembering that it is her first time.
"You want me to stop?" He asks genuinely as he back's away.
"No." She whispers, rubbing her hands over his jawline.
"Slow right?" He asks softly.
She nods and he carefully kisses her neck.
Derek's eyes shut and his eyelids are burning with tears. The sound of her moans make him shiver and the sound of him kissing her doesn't help. His hands let go of the pillow and cover his ears but no matter how hard he presses, he can't unhear her saying his name.
"Meredith, I don't want to do this." Mark shakes his head and pulls away, feeling guilty.
"Please." She asks as he gently rolls on her side.
"There are things we should- you should do before we..."
"I can't. There's too much. The funeral, the wake, then her finances. And there's probably a thousand more things." She sighs, pulling up her panties and scrub bottoms.
Derek turns around, unable to stop listening to them. He had never seen Mark so caring towards someone else. He wanted to leave, get up and run away from them. But he also wanted to watch them, he wanted to learn to be better, wanted to be like Mark. Maybe then, Meredith would... love him back?
"I can help you do those things. You don't have to do anything alone now." He says, holding her tightly and pulling his shirt back over her and buttoning it up.
"It's five in the morning, let me take you home and make you breakfast." He says quietly, kissing her forehead. Her breath hits his chest and her fingers run down it gently.
She nods and pushes deeper into his grasp as he pulls the blanket around her cold body. "It'll be okay. Meredith. Soon, this will pass and you're going to be happy. Here." He pulls out a granola bar and hands it to her, knowing she doesn't want to move away from him.
8 AM
Derek lays numb, watching Mark adore Meredith as she sleeps. His hands are resting on her, one tangled in her hair and the other one carefully stroking her cheek. It's the way he used to hold Meredith, gently and with admiration. He watches as Mark stays awake throughout the night, never stopping his apparently comforting movements. She murmurs incoherently and he stops before kissing her forehead.
"Good Morning." He whispers as her eyes open.
She nods and he drifts his right hand to her chin before tilting it up, nudging her nose with his.
"Morning." She yawns.
"Smile for me. It's been too long since I've seen you smile." He begs calmly, trying to make her happier.
"Did you sleep?" She looks into his eyes and moves her fingers to his eyes, rubbing his eye bags.
"No, you look so beautiful when you sleep." He says making her blush and smile gently. "My dreams are you and me, together. Same as reality." He chuckles nervously and she sits up, wiping her eyes as sunlight trickles into the room. "There's no point."
Derek smiles seeing her bed hair and then frowns as Mark adjusts himself behind her, rubbing her arms from her shoulders to her palms. She connects their fingers as he gently kisses her ear.
"Let's get breakfast." He says as he stands up and she hands him his shirt. He grabs her scrub top and pulls it over her body before kissing her cheek. Weaving their fingers together and resting her head on his shoulder, they walk out of the room. Derek simply watches as he feels his heart twist in his chest.