Meredith glanced at the time on the OR clock as the patient she had been operating on was wheeled out of the room towards recovery. Bailey had left her to finish closing ten minutes earlier when she had been paged for an emergency, and even though all Meredith had done by herself was to finish stitching up the incision on the very stable patient's abdomen, the fact that Bailey had trusted her enough to leave her alone in the OR without sending someone else in to observe filled Meredith with confidence. Just three months into her second year of residency and she was trustworthy enough to be left alone with a patient in the OR.
She thanked the scrub nurses as they started to clean up and sterilize the OR for the next patient, and then headed quickly for the scrub room. She hadn't been scheduled to be in surgery, but when Bailey had asked her if she was free as she rushed by with the accident victim on her way to the OR, Meredith hadn't been able to say no. It had been several weeks since she had upset her former resident by being distracted in her OR after losing a patient in the ER, and in that time she was pretty sure she had made up all the ground she had lost. Finally being able to put her mother to rest had taken a remarkable amount of weight off of her shoulders. Add the fact that that Chief was no longer disapproving of every aspect of her life, and Meredith was freer than she could remember being a very long time.
She just hoped the trend of good things happening instead of bad would continue.
The scrub room was empty as she pushed through the door and quickly set to work scrubbing out. When she was finished she barely paused to dry her hands before rushing out of the room and down the hall. Not wanting to wait for the elevator, she took the stairs to the floor that held Derek's office. The hallway was deserted as she exited the stairwell, so she broke into a light jog. Derek had told her he'd be in his office all afternoon, barring any emergencies.
She was slightly winded when she reached his door, but didn't pause for a breath as she tried the handle. It was unlocked.
Derek looked up from his paperwork as she pushed open the door. He offered her a warm smile. "How was your surgery?"
She waved her hand and didn't offer an answer. "Did she call?"
He pursed his lips for a moment, clearly noticing how anxious she was and debating how far he could push her. "Did who call?" He eventually asked, playing dumb.
Meredith expelled an annoyed breath as she pressed the door shut behind her and strode up to his desk, hands on her hips. "The freaking realtor!"
"Oh, her..." Derek drawled. "Yes, she called."
"Derek!" She hissed when he didn't offer her any more information.
"Yes?" He asked, feigning innocence as he pretended to be focussed on his paperwork.
"What did she say?" She demanded.
"Well, she said lots of things."
"Derek Christopher Shepherd!" She ranted, stepping around his desk and wedging herself between him and his paperwork. "Tell me what happened."
His hands found her hips as she stood in front of him while he sat. He pursed his lips again, thoughtful, but the expression quickly morphed into a full-fledged smile. "They accepted our offer."
"They did? We got it?"
"We got it," he confirmed.
She felt a rush of relief and excitement wash over her. After nearly three months of house hunting they finally had success. They'd found a two bedroom condo in a building by the harbour with a terrace that overlooked the ferryboats. It was perfect for them. Lots of light. Jacuzzi tub. Loft bedroom. Great view. Close to the hospital.
"We got it," she echoed with a happy laugh. "We have a place to live."
He pulled her to him and she eagerly joined him on the chair, straddling his lap. She was smiling when she pressed her lips to his. He didn't waste any time in kissing her back and slipping his hands under her top to rest at the small of her back.
"I'm sorry I was stuck in surgery," she whispered between kisses.
"Mmm, you're here now," he mumbled. "We should celebrate."
"Excellent idea."
He chuckled as he began kissing his way across her jaw and along her neck. "How long until you need to be back on the floor?"
"I need to check on my post op is less than an hour. You?"
"I'll round before we go home, but I'm pretty much done for the day."
"Good."
"Good?" He pulled his lips from her neck and met her eyes.
"Mmm-hmm. We can celebrate now and later."
"I like how you think."
She smiled at him and cupped his face with her hands. "We have somewhere to live," she whispered. "This is really happening?"
"It's really happening," he confirmed.
"I feel so...grown up. We're married and we have a future, and now we have a place to live."
He pecked her lips. "It's a good feeling."
She leaned her forehead against his and breathed. "It really is."
Only forty minutes after her shift was scheduled to end, Meredith had rounded on all of her patients and had changed to leave. She was on her way to the main lobby to meet her husband when she bumped into Bailey.
"Grey, how's our patient?" Bailey called as Meredith stepped off the lobby elevator.
Meredith nodded as she stopped to talk to Bailey. She could see Derek sitting by the front doors. As if he could sense her, he looked up, meeting her eyes. "Stable. I checked on him twice in recovery and I have an intern monitoring him."
"Good. You did good work today. You've made progress in learning to distance yourself."
"I have," she agreed. "Things have been better."
Bailey nodded knowingly. "I can see that," she said, motioning towards the front doors where Derek was now standing patiently, waiting for his wife.
Meredith couldn't help but smile at the normalcy of the situation.
"Goodnight, Grey."
"Goodnight, Dr. Bailey," Meredith echoed as she continued towards her husband.
"You ready to go?" Derek asked, greeting her with a soft smile.
She threaded her fingers through his. "Yes. Will we be able to sign the papers tonight?"
He squeezed her hand. "The realtor is expecting us."
She bumped his shoulder as they exited the hospital together and headed for his car. "I haven't been able to stop smiling all afternoon. My patients probably think I'm crazy."
"It's okay to be happy."
She giggled. "Happy is okay. This is beyond happy and it involves a lot of creepy smiling."
He laughed. "Creepy smiling, huh?"
"Shut up."
They reached the car, but Derek stopped her before she could get in by snaking his hands around her waist. "I'm over-the-top happy too, Mer."
"It's a nice feeling," she admitted, "Even if my patients think I'm crazy."
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I'm glad you're happy, Mer."
She cocked her head as she leaned back in his arms and met his eyes. "I'm glad you're happy, too."
"Me too," he whispered. "It's nice to be happy."
Meredith felt a thrill run through her body at the knowledge that she made him as happy as he made her. He'd been there for her through everything that had happened over the past several months. She was a different person than who she had been a year before, but so was he. She had changed and grown and evolved, and so had he. As many walls as he had broken through, she had broken through as well.
This was an exciting step for both of them.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you thinking about?"
She shrugged. "Just that we've come a long way."
"That we have."
Meredith leaned close, rested her forehead against Derek's chin and pressed her nose into the crook of his neck. "I just feel...lighter."
"Lighter?"
"Mmm-hmm," she murmured. "So many horrible things happened. Over and over and over. And things are finally calming down. I don't feel like I'm struggling to keep up anymore."
His hands found the curve of her spine and he rubbed small, comforting circles. "Yeah, I get that." He sighed in content. "But not everything that happened recently was bad," he reminded.
She pressed a kiss against the side of her neck before lifting her head. "You're right," she agreed.
He chuckled. "I don't think I've ever heard you say that..."
She laughed.
He kissed her. "Come on, let's go and officially buy our new home."
She kissed him back. "I can't wait until we can move in."
"Me neither." He pecked her lips one more time and then released her as they both headed to get into the car.
Meredith was still in such a good mood the next morning that she was only moderately annoyed when her pager woke her at four in the morning. With a groan, she buried her face in her pillow and willed the beeping to be coming from Derek's pager, even though a part of her just knew it was hers.
"It's yours," Derek mumbled behind her. He pressed his face into the back of her neck as his arm tightened around her waist and his knees pressed into the backs of her legs. Even in her barely awake state, she couldn't help but notice how perfectly they fit together.
"It's yours," she countered.
He sighed, his breath hot against the back of her neck. "Yours," he repeated.
"Yours."
The pager sounded again.
Derek groaned and reached across Meredith for the beeping pager on the nightstand. "It's yours," he said with a chuckle, pressing the pager into the pillow by her face.
"Why?" She moaned.
"Because the hospital owns you," he reminded.
With a huff, she reached for her call phone and then dialled the number scrolling across her pager. "It's Dr. Grey-Shepherd," she spoke quietly, "I was paged to this number." She then listened to the nurse on the other end relay information from Dr. Bailey.
Meredith sighed. "Okay. Tell Dr. Bailey I'm on my way." She hung up the phone and then rolled out of bed and Derek's warm arms. "Bailey wants me to come in early. Our patient from yesterday is unstable."
Derek rolled onto his back and covered his face with an arm.
She glared at him in the darkness. "I hate you for getting to sleep right now."
He chuckled. "And if it had been my pager, you'd be gloating."
"Damn right." She donned her robe and headed across the hall for a quick shower, hoping it would wake her up. In the past weeks since Derek had returned from his consult in Atlanta she had been sleeping much better. There hadn't been a single nightmare. But she still didn't want to lose any more sleep than she was already deprived of just because she was a surgical resident.
After a very quick shower, she returned to the bedroom she and Derek would only occupy for a short time now, expecting to find Derek fast asleep. Instead, he was absent. With a shrug, she donned a pair of jeans and a top, pulled her damp hair back into a low ponytail, and then headed downstairs. Derek met her in the front hall and pressed a travel mug into her hands.
"Thought you could use a pick me up."
She smiled softly at him. "You're being awful charming this morning; making me coffee when you could be sleeping."
He leaned into her and pressed his lips against her cheek. "I thought it was the least I could do, seeing as I'm responsible for keeping you up last night." He paused and shrugged. "Well, half responsible."
She giggled and kissed him. "Thank you for the coffee."
"You are very welcome. Drive safe."
"Always." She kissed him again. "I'll see you in a few hours."
It was early afternoon before Meredith saw her husband again. He and Mark were chattering quietly together at the nurses' station. She couldn't help but smile and shake her head at the sight. Despite Derek's initial intentions regarding the plastic surgeon, Mark had wormed his way back into the friendship category. The two had been out for drinks more times than she could count now, and she often found them joking together at work.
"Hey," she greeted as she dropped her small pile of charts onto the counter next to Derek.
"Hey," he echoed, bumping her shoulder in greeting. "How's your morning been?"
She groaned. "Exhausting."
He made a face. "Well, at least you're only working a twenty-four and not a thirty-six..."
She glared at him. "Not helping."
"Yeah, Shep's not very helpful," Mark chimed in.
Derek scoffed. "I'm very helpful."
And just like that, they were bantering. Meredith furrowed her brow, trying to surmise exactly how that had started. They were worse than she and Cristina. It was actually quite fascinating to see them interact now that Derek seemed to have let go of the grudge he had been holding. Derek had told her once that Mark had been like his brother, but she hadn't quite understood how literal that was until recently. They acted like brothers. They had a history; had grown up together.
After Derek had informed her of Mark's actions in ending his marriage to Addison, Meredith had discounted Mark as a good friend to Derek, and she had spent the better part of a year believing Mark had simply been a bad friendship choice on Derek's part. She hadn't seen the plastic surgeon as much more than an arrogant womanizer who took advantage of other people when he could. More recently, though, Meredith's views had shifted. Knowing how much Derek struggled with letting people know the real him, and subsequently observing just how much Mark Sloan knew about her husband, told her Mark had been a very good friend. Family. Derek wouldn't have wasted his time if Mark had been what Meredith had originally thought. When Derek had told her Mark had sat with him on the day of her accident, she had been grateful for the plastic surgeon. And she had witnessed more and more over the past months to form a different picture in her head. Mark was a lot of things, not all good, but he was a good friend who had made a horrible mistake and had paid dearly for it. He had been a surrogate member of the Shepherd family, but he wasn't anymore.
"Anyway..." Derek drawled, pulling Meredith from her thoughts as he removed himself from his and Mark's friendly argument. He turned to Meredith. "Do you think you'll have time to grab some dinner tonight?"
Meredith made a face. "Probably not. I'm supposed to report to the pit in..." She trailed off as she glanced at her watch, "Ten minutes. I'm not likely to have any free time."
Mark chuckled. "Looks like you're stuck coming with me, Shep," he said, taunting Derek.
Meredith felt her brow furrow. "Stuck going where?"
Derek sighed. "The Chief invited us out tonight."
"The Chief?"
He nodded.
"To where?"
"To a gentleman's evening," Mark answered, making a face at the term.
Meredith raised an eyebrow. "You're letting the Chief take you to a strip club?"
"Told you," Mark said to Derek before Derek could say anything.
Derek shook his head before addressing Meredith and Mark. "It won't be a strip club. It's the Chief. It can't be..." He trailed off.
"Okay, I have like eight minutes now, so start from the beginning and be quick," Meredith demanded.
Derek chuckled. "The Chief invited us to what he's calling a gentleman's evening, but he's refusing to explain what that means."
"We asked Dr. Bailey, and she agrees it sounds dirty," Mark added. "But we don't think he's the fetish type, so we're not really sure what to expect..."
Meredith bit back a smirk at the concerned expression on both Derek and Mark's face. "Yeah, have fun with that..."
Derek rolled his eyes in good nature. "If you weren't working tonight, you could have been my excuse to get out of it."
Meredith opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the sound of her pager. She groaned as she pulled it off her waistband and read the script on the small screen. "Incoming trauma. And I'm supposed to have six minutes." She shot Derek an apologetic glance. "If I don't see you again, have fun with you...evening."
He pecked her on the cheek. "I'll page you before I leave to see if you're free."
She quickly said goodbye and then hurried towards the ER. Once she arrived, she checked in with the ER nurse on duty and then donned a trauma gown and headed into the ambulance bay to wait. Cristina joined her very quickly.
"How's your day going?" Meredith asked gently, knowing Erika Hahn had officially started today as the new Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Cristina scoffed. "She picked Izzie to be on her service today. Izzy."
"Oh," Meredith responded, uncertain of what to say. She knew there was little she could offer her friend to make her feel better. "I'm sure you'll get your chance to wow her."
"I already got that chance," Cristina said flatly. "And I was freaking awesome. But she's accusing me of using Burke to get ahead."
"She'll change her mind," Meredith insisted, hoping her words would come true.
"That's my plan. I just have to ride this trauma train right back to cardio."
Meredith bumped her shoulder as the sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance. "Well, my fingers are crossed for an acute MI or a ruptured aorta or a crush injury to the chest or whatever."
Cristina cracked a smile and bumped Meredith's shoulder back. "Thanks. You're a good friend."
"Okay, what have we got?" Callie asked as she joined Meredith and Cristina in the ambulance bay, Alex on her heels, as the first ambulance appeared down the drive way.
"Two ambulances, multiple traumas," Meredith answered.
"Any chance you need some help, Dr. Torres?" Alex asked.
Callie shrugged. "As long as you want to smash bone...into dust...while people cry," she said dryly as she moved to meet the ambulance.
"Sweet," Alex responded, joining her as the ambulance doors opened.
Meredith couldn't help but laugh at the exchange. She had interacted very little with Callie since she and George had announced their divorce, probably because Meredith had been George's friend first. They were handling things professionally, but there was obviously still some tension between Callie and George.
"What have we got?" Callie asked as the doors opened and the first paramedic stepped out.
Unfortunately for Cristina, the ambulance did not hold a cardiac patient requiring immediate care, but two young brides who had sustained relatively minor injuries holding onto a wedding dress while competing for a wedding dream package. Callie and Alex took the two patients into the ER, leaving Meredith and Cristina to greet the second ambulance, which was just rolling to a stop.
"Please let this be something good," Cristina prayed as the ambulance came to a stop, "Something cardio good." She and Meredith pulled the doors open.
"Thirty-three year old male discovered unconscious but stable after surviving a twelve thousand foot free fall," the paramedic presented as he stepped out of the ambulance.
Meredith blinked, sure she had heard wrong, "A what?"
The paramedic met her gaze, and the expression on his face told her she hadn't heard wrong. "His parachute didn't open."
"What, he fell twelve thousand feet without a parachute?" Cristina demanded.
The paramedic nodded as he began wheeling the groaning patient into the ER.
Meredith exchanged a look with Cristina as they followed. Once in the trauma room, Cristina immediately began to assess the patient's heart and respiratory rates, clearly expecting a problem. Meredith began attaching leads and monitors, amazed that the patient seemed stable. She turned to one of the nurses.
"Okay, let's page general, neuro and cardio. Who knows what we'll be up against, so it's best to have everyone here."
The nurse nodded and left the room.
Meredith finished hooking up the blood pressure cuff. "Okay, BP is cycling. How're his vitals?"
Cristina shot her a confused look, her stethoscope still in her ears as she pressed the microphone to the patient's chest. "Heart and respiratory rates are only slightly elevated. No obvious signs of trauma."
The monitor beeped and Meredith turned to see the blood pressure result. The almost normal blood pressure result. Like the heart and respiratory rates, it was only slightly elevated. All could be accounted for by the stress of being a patient in the emergency room.
"It's going to be okay," she told the patient, who stared at her through terrified eyes as his ragged breathing fogged the oxygen mask with every exhale. "You're in good hands, so just relax and let us take care of you, okay?"
The patient closed his eyes and his breathing slowed.
Meredith exchanged another look with Cristina. How is this guy alive?
Cristina shrugged. I have no idea.
With a shrug, Meredith pulled a pair of scissors out of the trauma cart drawer and began cutting the patient's shirt off, sure they'd need access when he crashed. Because there was no way someone fell twelve thousand feet and didn't crash. The fact that he was alive and conscious now was a miracle in itself. His insides were probably decimated.
She and Cristina pulled his clothing off, expecting to reveal deep bruising that represented internal bleeding, but found very little bruising at all.
The patient struggled against the process, his hands reaching to cover himself and to pull off the oxygen mask.
Meredith grasped his hand in hers. "Sir, you need to let us do our job. I know this is uncomfortable, but we have to assess your condition."
He muttered something under the oxygen mask. Meredith pulled the mask off of his face to let him speak.
"It's Rick," the patient mumbled. "Rick Jacobs."
"Rick," Meredith echoed. "I'm Dr. Grey-Shepherd. This is Dr. Yang. We're going to help you, okay?"
He tried to nod, but was prevented by the backboard stabilizing his neck and spine. "Can't move."
"You're on a backboard," she explained. "We have to keep your spine still until we can confirm there's no damage."
"Okay."
She tried to replace the oxygen mask, but he pushed her hand away.
"Please. No. I can't breathe with that thing on."
Meredith glanced at the monitor before acquiescing and removing the mask for good. His oxygen saturation was at one hundred percent. "Okay, but in exchange I need you to stay calm for me, okay?"
"Okay."
The nurse came back in. "Dr. Shepherd is on his way. Dr. Webber is in surgery, but Dr. Bailey will get here as soon as she can. Dr. Hahn is with a patient. She said to page her with any cardio-thoracic concerns."
"Thank you," Meredith called before turning back to assessing the patient. Rick, true to his word, remained still as he allowed them to check him for injuries. Once they were finished, Meredith draped him with a trauma blanket and reached for the chart.
"So, Rick," she said lightly, keeping the patient as calm as possible, "You said your last name was Jacobs?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where you are?"
"A hospital. I'm not sure what one. The paramedics brought me here."
"Do you know what city we're in?"
"Seattle."
"Good. And we're in Seattle Grace Hospital."
"Be grateful they brought you here," Cristina spoke up, "We're the best."
Meredith cracked a smile, and was grateful to see the patient do the same thing. "Are you from Seattle?"
"Born and raised."
"Do you remember what happened?" She asked as Cristina stepped out of the room.
"I fell. My chute didn't open. I tried the spare...but it didn't open either..." He trailed off for a moment. "Man, I cannot believe that happened to me..."
"You'll have quite the story to tell all your friends." She reached for her closest hand and pressed against a finger nail. The colour under the nail turned white, and then immediately back to pink once she released the pressure. She then moved her hands along his fingers and then his hand. "Can you feel this?"
"Yes."
"Any numbness or tingling?"
"No."
"Can you move your fingers?"
He showed her that he could.
"Good. And grip my hand."
He did.
"Good. That's good." She repeated the process on his other hand and both feet.
Cristina returned with lead jackets and they worked together to manoeuvre the portable x-ray over the patient.
"Okay, Rick, we're going to take an x-ray of your spine so we can look at getting you off that backboard, okay?"
"Okay."
"Great. Just lie perfectly still. Take a breath in...and hold it."
Rick did exactly as instructed, and the films were taken without issue.
"The images should be up soon," Cristina said as she pushed the x-ray into the corner and pulled off her lead jacket.
Meredith was pulling of her own lead jacket when the trauma room door opened.
"What have we got?" Derek asked as he stepped into the room.
"Rick Jacobs, thirty-three, fell twelve thousand feet when his parachute didn't open," Meredith presented as she passed Derek the chart.
Derek's eyes snapped from the patient to her at her words. She nodded, confirming he hadn't been hearing things.
"GCS of fifteen. Normal breath sounds. Heart rate and BP only slightly elevated. He's been conscious since he arrived. Capillary refill is good on all four limbs. No numbness or tingling on his hands or feet. He's been able to move his arms and legs without problems. We just did an x-ray. Scans should be up momentarily."
Derek nodded and turned to the patient. "Rick, nice the meet you. I'm Dr. Shepherd."
"Shepherd?" Rick questioned, his eyes glancing from Derek to Meredith. "You were Shepherd too?"
Meredith bit back a smirk. The man had survived a twelve thousand foot free fall, but was conscious and aware enough to notice a name. "Grey-Shepherd," she confirmed.
"Married?"
Derek smiled. "Yes, we are."
"Scans are up," Cristina called, interrupting any further conversation.
Derek joined Cristina at the computer screen and they studied the digital x-rays together for several moments. He then turned back to the patient. "You're not feeling any numbness or tingling anywhere?"
"No."
"Any pain?"
"Just...sore."
"Nothing severe?"
"No."
Derek turned to Meredith. "You said the capillary refill was normal?"
"Yup."
Derek nodded. "Okay, let's get him off the backboard."
They worked together to get the patient off of the backboard and onto the trauma gurney mattress.
"Thank you," Rick said as Meredith carefully stuffed a pillow under his head.
"How are you feeling?"
"Okay...I think. Grateful to be alive. Embarrassed to be here."
"Just focus on the gratefulness and ignore the embarrassment, okay? After what you went through, there's no room for embarrassment."
"Okay."
"Okay," Meredith echoed, before exchanging a glance with Derek. His expression told him he was just as confused by the patient's stable status as she and Cristina. She could remember a patient, from early in her internship that she and Derek had worked on. He had fallen from an upper level apartment window. His organs had been crushed. His arteries had been ripped open. Both lungs had collapsed and filled with blood. And he'd had more fractures than they had been able to count. He'd come in unstable and unconscious.
He hadn't made it out of the ER.
"It looks like you're a very lucky man, Mr. Jacobs," Derek offered as he began probing the minor cuts along the patient's face and neck, checking for any possible deeper injury. His experienced fingers probed along Rick's skull, checking for vulnerable areas. Then he stepped back and motioned to Meredith. "These can be taken care of." Even minor wounds could mask pressure injuries to the head. In a trauma situation, they weren't touched until cleared, as even slight pressure could cause problems.
Meredith nodded and turned for some antiseptic.
Derek checked the patient's pupils before moving away to check for other injuries, having cleared Rick's neural status.
Meredith quickly cleaned the cuts, but left them uncovered due to their very minor appearance. She then joined Derek in checking the patient's legs as Cristina moved back to listen to the patient's lungs, still hoping for a cardiac concern.
"I'm here, sorry it took me so long," Bailey called as she stepped into the room, "What's his name?"
"It's Rick, Rick Jacobs," the patient answered before anyone else could.
Bailey took the chart from Meredith. "He's talking?"
Cristina scoffed. "You'd think after twelve thousand feet, he'd at least have a punctured lung," she muttered.
Bailey glared at her former intern, but before she could say anything, a hysterical voice in the hallway, calling Rick's name, broke the moment.
"Rick? Rick! Where are you?" The door swung open and a harried woman rushed into the room. "Oh my God, there you are. How are you?" She asked, and then addressed the doctors before Rick could answer. "How is he? Is he okay? Is he dying?" She pushed her way against gurney.
"I'm not dying, Sal," Rick answered.
"Okay, Mam, you need to calm down," Bailey said, reaching a hand towards the shaking woman's forearm.
"Is this your wife?" Meredith asked.
"She's my skydiving instructor," Rick responded.
"Mam," Bailey tried again, only to be cut off.
"I watched the whole thing. I was just in the clouds. Floating. Watching." Her body trembled as she turned back to Rick. "I watched you fall to your death. Your chute didn't open!"
"Okay, we're trying to do our jobs, and you're getting in the way of that by hovering over the patient," Bailey said.
The woman ignored her.
"What's your name?" Meredith asked.
"Sally."
"Okay, Sally, I know you're really scared right now, but being scared isn't going to help Rick. He's in really good hands."
"I just...I thought I was watching him fall to his death."
"I know. And that must have been horrible. But he's stable, so why don't you sit down," she said, while nudging Sally towards the chair in the corner of the room, "And breathe. And let us make sure he's going to be okay. Okay?"
Sally sat and nodded. "Okay. Just...don't let him die."
"I'm not dying, Sal," Rick repeated.
"Good. Because I'd never forgive myself if you died."
Meredith smiled at the obvious connection between the patient and his very worried skydiving instructor as she helped Derek and Bailey finish the exam.
"Okay, let's get him down for a CT," Derek spoke after several minutes. "He's stable. This will be our best time."
The patient's list of possible injuries bumped him to the top of the list, so there was no delay in getting him into a CT machine for a full body scan.
Derek, Meredith and Bailey tucked themselves into the small viewing room, along with the Chief, who had heard about the patient through hospital gossip when he got out of surgery. Cristina had excused herself when they had begun to move the patient, presumably to make another attempt to get herself back onto a cardiac patient.
"If his intestines look like I think they will, that'll take first priority," Webber spoke up as they waited for the images.
Meredith couldn't help but crack a smile at his eagerness. This was what surgeons lived for. The unknown. The challenge. The ability to find a problem, fix it and save a life.
"There could be delayed paralysis," Derek spoke up, exchanging a look with his wife. Meredith rolled her eyes, knowing he didn't expect any spinal issues, but was taunting the Chief with the possibility. Over the past weeks since Richard had joined the two of them in the scrub room to say goodbye to Ellis, he had changed remarkably. He no longer appeared to have anything but approval for Meredith and Derek's relationship, and he and Derek had made up seamlessly.
"This is not a contest, gentleman," Bailey cut in, "But since a perfed bowel could kill the guy, whether or not his spine's in working order, my money's on the Chief going first."
Meredith bit back a laugh at both Derek's expression and the Chief's even more eager expression as he patted Bailey on the shoulder.
"I'm back," Cristina announced as she hurried into the observation room. "What did I miss? Any cardiothoracic concerns? I'd be happy to page Dr. Hahn."
"We're still waiting on images," Meredith explained.
"He's gotta have something good," Cristina whispered so only Meredith could hear.
"Where were you?" Meredith whispered back.
Cristina scoffed. "Stupid Izzie wouldn't trade."
"You tried to trade patient's with Izzy?"
"She's not hardcore enough for cardio. This isn't fair."
"Scans are coming up," Webber interrupted, pointing to the computer screens. All eyes snapped to the images, expecting blood, fluid, inflammation. Damage.
Instead...
"There, right there," Richard said with excitement, pointing to a small spot on inflammation on the screen.
Meredith felt her brown furrow. "It's the appendix."
Silence.
"Wait, we're saying this guy fell twelve thousand feet and all he needs is an appendectomy?" Bailey exclaimed.
No one offered a response because no one had any idea how this had happened.
"I cannot believe how lucky this guy is," Meredith told Derek as they stood together in the hallway. The patient had been moved to a pre-op room in preparation for a simple appendectomy. Sally, his skydiving instructor, had calmed down at the results of the scan, and was currently sitting at his bedside.
Meredith and Derek had opted to give them some privacy.
"I mean he should be dead. He shouldn't have survived the fall. And even then he should have broken every bone in his body."
Derek nodded. "I know."
"How does this happen?"
Derek shrugged. "I don't know."
She narrowed his eyes at him. "You're an attending. Aren't you supposed to have all the answers?"
He chuckled. "Sometimes miracles happen. You're right, he shouldn't have lived, but he did. It happens. It's rare, but it happens."
"Yeah..." She turned to stare through the glass walls at the patient.
Derek reached out to run his fingers along her forearm.
She turned her eyes back to him. "Miracles do happen," she whispered, her thoughts on her own near death experience nearly five months earlier. She was living, breathing proof that miracles existed.
He squeezed her forearm before releasing her, his way of telling her he was thinking of the same thing. "He's very lucky."
She nodded, knowing she had been just as lucky. She too shouldn't have survived. But she had. She'd gotten her miracle. She'd gotten her second chance. And she knew just how lucky she was, but that didn't mean the reminder wasn't enough to worm its way into her thoughts.
"You okay to stay on this?" Derek asked quietly.
She nodded. "I'm fine."
He raised an eyebrow.
She bit back a laugh and shook her head at how well he knew her. "Really," she insisted. "It's...humbling, I guess, the reminder. But I really am okay. I want to stay on the case. I want to make sure this guy really is okay, so he can get his second chance."
Derek's pager went off. He sighed and pulled the small device from his waistband. "I have to go check on my patient."
"I'll page you if he develops any problems," Meredith offered, even though any neural issues had been ruled out. It was unspoken that Derek had remained on the case as long as he had for her.
"Okay. I'll make sure I find you before I leave."
"Okay, but if I'm in surgery, have fun at your...gentleman's evening..."
Derek made a noise in the back of his throat and rolled his eyes. "I'd almost managed to forget about that..."
She giggled.
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Hopefully something will come up to prevent me from going..."
"Yeah, good luck with that. You know the Chief will just reschedule. You should just get it over with."
He made a face.
"It's the Chief. Whatever he has planned cannot be that bad."
After watching her patient's harrowing experience through the camera in his skydiving helmet and then assisting on his simple appendectomy, Meredith sat by his beside, catching up on her charts as she waited for her patient to wake up.
Witnessing his very personal experience during his twelve thousand foot free fall left a bitter taste in her mouth. As he had been staring down death without anything to do to save himself, all he had wanted was to tell Sally that he loved her.
Meredith could remember feeling the same overwhelming need to tell Derek how she felt. Her memories of the day she almost died were murky at best. She remembered the sleepless night and Derek's attempts to be there for her that morning. She remembered sharing a bath with him before the sun was up over the horizon. She remembered arriving at the hospital, but remembered very little of her day before she was sent to the docks to deal with the mass casualty incident. She had vague memories of a small blond girl – who Derek had assured had found her mother – and a short conversation with Derek, though the entire experience felt unreal now when she tried to look back. She couldn't remember a single word she had exchanged with Derek, only that there had been words. The only thing she remembered in any vivid detail was the water. She remembered falling. She remembered the impact, the twisting panic in the frigid water. She remembered the overwhelming fear. She remembered the coldness and the darkness and the fight to stay above the surface. She remembered losing the fight.
The next thing she remembered with any clarity was waking up in the trauma room, Derek and Cristina at her side. The only memories she had of the middle were fuzzy and fragmented. She remembered short spurts of empty hallways and conversations with dead people, but she couldn't place them into any order in time or space. She could, however, remember wanting Derek. And she could definitely remember the clarity she had felt upon waking in that trauma room afterwards. She could remember just how clear everything had seemed. Her issues and her fears were stupid. She needed to tell the people she loved how much she loved them. People were what mattered. Everything else just paled in comparison.
She had tried to throw herself into that feeling, but it had backfired when Susan had died and Burke had left Cristina at the altar. Unable to find a medium between the old and the new, Meredith had been thrown into chaos, and she had run. But time and space had quickly returned her to some level of clarity. She had managed to find her medium.
Now she wanted her patient to do the same. He was obviously in love with Sally. And, knowing how quickly that level of clarity faded and left you in utter confusion, Meredith wanted to help while she could.
Rick stirred in the bed.
Meredith stood and placed her charts onto the chair she had been sitting in for the past hour. She glanced at the monitors as she pulled up Rick's hospital gown to inspect his incision. They had opted for a large incision and had performed moderate exploratory surgery during the appendectomy; just to be sure the scans weren't missing anything.
Rick stirred again and opened his eyes.
"Hey," Meredith said quietly, "Welcome back."
"Is it over?" He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light.
"Yes. The surgery went very well. Your appendix is out, and everything else looked perfectly fine," she explained as she redressed the wound. "You're very lucky."
He stared down at the incision. "I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm a little disappointed. I mean, I survived a twelve thousand foot freefall and this is going to be my only scar?"
Meredith recovered the wound and pulled off her gloves. "It goes away," she whispered.
"The scar?"
"The feeling," she corrected. "That feeling, that you have right now, today, like you can do anything..." She trailed off for a moment as she met his gaze.
His eyes searched hers before they blinked in understanding, recognizing that she knew what he was feeling.
"That clarity," she continued. "It goes away. It's going away right now. And if you wait, you'll end up going right back to being the coward that can't tell the person you love how you feel."
He opened his mouth, but said nothing, confusion etched across his face.
Meredith leaned close. "I saw your video."
"You saw?" He whispered.
"I did."
Fear flashed across his eyes. "Well, you're not going to let Sally see, right? You're not going to let her know what I said..."
Meredith sighed. "Like I said; it goes away. It's going away right now. You have to tell her how you feel. Right now, while you still can. This feeling is a gift."
"She's just so incredible," he stammered, "In everything she does. She's just...way out of my league. You don't understand."
"That fear, that worry, I understand. But you've been given a second chance. It's a miracle. And that feeling you have right now is a gift. Don't waste it. Use it. It's a gift," she repeated.
"There is no way that she could possibly feel the same way about me."
"I don't know that I can believe that. She's been by your side at every chance today."
"She's my instructor. She watched it happen..."
"It's more than that," Meredith insisted.
"I... I'll tell her. Just not now. Not today."
"You have to tell her while you still can," Meredith repeated. "You've been given an opportunity that very few people get."
"But..." He trailed off.
"If she really doesn't feel the same way about you, then at least you'll know, and you'll move on. But if you never tell her how you feel, that won't be your only scar."
He exhaled slowly.
Meredith offered him a comforting smile and turned to give him some time with his thoughts. She passed Sally on her way into the room. The expression on the other woman's face told Meredith she had made the right decision in pushing Rick to talk to her. Sally felt exactly the same way as Rick.
She turned and shot Rick an encouraging look before she closed the door, giving them privacy.
Wanting to know the result, Meredith hovered by the door, pretending to be focussed on a chart as she glanced through the glass windows every few seconds. Sally had pulled the visitor chair up against the bed, and Rick was talking.
She was so engrossed that she jumped slightly when a hand landed on her lower back.
"Are you spying on a patient?" Derek's soft voice accused.
She giggled. "Maybe."
He joined her in laughing. "I heard the surgery went well."
She nodded. "I still can't believe how fine he is." She leaned into her husband and closed her eyes, enjoying the closeness. It was late in the day, and the hallway was all but deserted, so she didn't see the harm in their position. "Are you leaving now?"
"Unfortunately," he responded dryly, clearly not wanting to participate in whatever the Chief had planned for the evening.
"Do you want me to fake page you?"
He chuckled. "Normally, I'd say absolutely, but the Chief would know."
"True." She sighed. "I wish I wasn't working tonight. Right now I really want to go home with you and just...be."
"Just be?"
"Mmm-hmm. Today's been..." She trailed off, "Well, I don't know what today's been. Not hard, exactly, just...demanding."
"Brought back a lot of memories," he whispered knowingly.
"Yeah."
He pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "You're okay, Mer. We're both okay."
"I know," she said, and she really did know.
"Do you need a hug? I could use a hug."
She smiled and nodded. He gently pried the chart from her hands and placed it on the counter, before pulling her into his arms.
"I love you," he whispered.
"I love you, too," she whispered back, wrapping her arms tightly around him.
"Are you okay?"
She pulled back far enough to meet his eyes. "I really am," she reassured.
He smiled down at her before pecking her lips. "I'm glad."
"I'm glad I wasn't afraid to tell you how I felt," she found herself whispering.
"Me too."
"And I'm really glad I figured things out."
He kissed her again. "Me too."
She tucked herself against his chest, her nose pressed into the crook of his neck. "I love how good life is right now, and even though is scares me to say it out loud, life really is good right now. We'll have a new home soon. And work is good. I feel like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And you and I are good, like really good. We're married and...in this. Forever. And your family doesn't hate me."
"They love you," Derek said with a chuckle. "They can't wait to see you next month." Meredith and Derek were flying to New York in mid October for Derek's sister's wedding.
She lifted her head away from his to meet his eyes again. "It's just really nice to feel happy, and to feel like it's okay to be happy."
He cupped her face with one hand. "You make me so happy, Mer."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," he practically breathed, leaving absolutely no room for questioning.
"Good," she told him.
He chuckled, but his eyes caught on something over her shoulder before he could respond.
Noticing his attention shift, Meredith turned in his arms to stare through the window to her patient's room, right in time to see Sally bend down and kiss Rick.
"Did you do that?" Derek asked softly.
She turned back in his arms, laughing as she celebrated, "I think I did."
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so wattpad literally crashed which was quite annoying and so that's why i haven't been able to update til now 🤩