53. Stressed & Sick

Disclaimer: I wish.

Thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate them!

Oh, and George and Izzie are and will remain healthy and alive in this. Not sure if that matters, but I just wanted to let everyone know. Enjoy the chapter! :)

Seattle Grace always got a little crazy this time of year. The end of October kicked off the holiday season, with the bizarre traumas that rolled in until New Years. And this year was no exception. Chainsaws, drunk teenage pranks, the normal holiday idiocies. Meredith wasn't sure if it was the full moon, or mere coincidence, but it seemed like the pit had been overrun for a week straight. Today's chaos wasn't the result of anything out of the ordinary, but as Meredith tied her hair back into a ponytail and walked briskly into the ER, she knew today wasn't going to be an easy one.

There was an accident involving fourth graders going on a class trip to the aquarium downtown. Meredith hated this part of the job. Seeing people in pain was bad enough, but when they were little kids, it was always worse. "What do we have?" she asked, grabbing a yellow trauma gown from the rack.

Alex turned on his heel to face his friend; a look a relief washed over his face when he saw her. "Thank God someone answered their damn pager," he sighed, helping her tie the back of the gown. "Lots of cuts and bruises. Some might have broken bones...doesn't look like anything too serious, but I don't know," Alex replied.

"Okay," Meredith nodded. She and Alex ran outside to meet the ambulance; both bracing themselves when the ambulance approached the bay. As soon as it pulled up, the two of them ran over and opened the back, waiting to get the information from the EMTs.

"Ashley O'Neill, age ten, no signs of head trauma, just some cuts and bruising. She's a little shaken up" the EMT rattled off as they removed the girl from the ambulance.

"Sweetie, can you hear me?" Meredith asked.

The sound of another ambulance approaching interrupted her and she looked to Alex. "You got her?" he asked.

Meredith nodded. "Yeah," she replied, beginning to wheel the girl into the hospital doors. "Sweetie, can you tell me your name?" she asked again.

"Ashley...but my brother..." she said weakly.

They rolled the gurney into one of the trauma rooms and Meredith looked to the girl sympathetically. "You have a brother?"

"He was next to me...on the bus," the little blonde girl replied.

Meredith's felt her heart sink a little at the news, not knowing of her brother's whereabouts. "Okay, I'll keep an eye out for him. What's his name sweetheart?"

"Justin," Ashley said, beginning to cry. "I don't know where he is."

A nurse entered the room and Meredith looked over at her, anxious to find the little girl's sibling. "Can you page me if a little boy named Justin O'Neill is admitted? She has to be checked out."

"Sure," the nurse nodded, turning around and re-entering the chaotic ER.

"Okay, Ashley, my intern is going to check your injuries. I'll be back, okay?" Meredith explained as one of her interns came into the room. "She's alert and responsive, just a little shaken up. Try to keep her happy and page me if there are any problems," she said to him.

After the little girl was on her way downstairs, Meredith grabbed fresh gloves from the box and ran back outside to meet the next ambulance. "What have we got?" she called out.

"Justin O'Neill, age ten. He appears to have head trauma and went unconscious en route," the EMT informed her.

Meredith looked at the young boy on the gurney and shook her head. "Damn it," she whispered, instantly seeing the resemblance between the two children she was now caring for. "Page Shepherd," Meredith called out to one of the nurses at the nurses' station once the boy had been wheeled inside.

As Meredith was taking down the boy's stats, one of the nurses ran into the room. "Dr. Shepherd, the other Dr. Shepherd isn't answering his page. Do you want me to page Dr. Levinson?"

"Okay," she responded. "I have to take him down to CT, so could you tell him to meet me there if he can?"

"I will," the nurse said with a nod before leaving the room to tend to another patient.

Meredith let out a deep breath as she wheeled the gurney out of the room. Derek wasn't answering his page? She knew he had an early surgery this morning, and may have been taking a quick nap in the on-call room, but Derek always answered his pages. Right now though, her husband's whereabouts would have to be pushed to the backburner, at least until she had a minute to herself. While making her way to the elevator, she noticed Mark on his way to the pit. "What happened, Grey?"

"Bus accident. Lots of little kids, lots of broken bones, lots of chaos," Meredith said quickly as the elevator doors opened up.

As she waited for it to take them upstairs, she sighed heavily and brushed some hair off her face. The little boy on the gurney was still unresponsive when she re-measured his GCS. The elevator seemed to make a slow crawl up to the fourth floor, and Meredith really wished it hadn't been a bus accident. Hurt little kids always ruined her day. When the doors finally opened, she quickly rolled the gurney down to CT, praying that she had gotten there first. From what she had briefly surveyed down in the pit, there weren't many immediate traumas; it was mostly just black eyes and lacerations. Nothing that required the use of X-ray.

The technician admitted the child, and as she waited, Meredith knew she had to go back and tell the little boy's sister that he was okay. Well, maybe not okay. But at the very least, receiving care. "Can you page me when he's finished? I have to go back down to the ER. His sister...she was asking about him," Meredith asked in a rush. The man gave her a nod, and without another thought, she hurried back downstairs.

She walked back into the Ashley's trauma room, thankful that they hadn't yet moved her to a bed out in the ER itself. "Ashley, your brother is upstairs getting a test done. He's going to be okay," Meredith assured her. Maybe not such a good idea. But scaring her wasn't going to do any good. "I'm sure mom and dad will be here soon, okay?"

The little girl nodded solemnly, obviously frightened by all of the chaos going on around her. And it didn't go unnoticed by Meredith. "Hey," she whispered. "I know this is scary, I know. But everything is going to be just fine, okay?" she comforted, tucking some blonde strands of hair behind the girl's ear.

As Meredith went to turn around, the little girl pulled her back by her scrubs. "Don't go," she whimpered. Bedside manner was part of the job, she told herself. What kind of doctor would she be if she left?

"Okay," Meredith conceded, sitting next to her on the exam table. "I won't." Ashley scooted closer to Meredith and she wrapped her arm around the child without a second thought. Her mommy instincts surprised her sometimes. "Dr. Reynolds, there's a little boy up in CT. Justin O'Neill. I need you to go upstairs and check on him. If there's any bleeds, I need you to page Dr. Shepherd. If he doesn't answer, page Dr. Levinson," she told her intern.

He nodded enthusiastically. "Right away."

"Thank you," Meredith said softly. If Alex caught her in here simply sitting down with a little girl, she knew it would piss him off. But she just couldn't bring herself to leave. Meredith knew what it was like to feel like you had no one. Scared, alone, confused. That was her life for years. The silence that filled the room wasn't doing any good, so Meredith decided to make conversation. Helping ease the child's fear was just as much a part of her job as practicing medicine. "That's a pretty necklace," Meredith complimented.

"I got it for my birthday," Ashley said quietly. She rested her head on Meredith's shoulder and Meredith smiled.

"What else did you get for your birthday?" Meredith asked.

The little girl thought for a moment before speaking. "I got a soccer ball...and an iPod...and I got a puppy, too."

"You got a puppy?" she said excitedly, hoping her enthusiasm would rub off onto Ashley.

"Uh huh. Her name is Daisy," Ashley said, a small smile tugging on her mouth. "She's really funny."

"I have a puppy too. He drives me nuts sometimes, but I love him," Meredith giggled. She quickly glanced out the window of the room. No signs of Alex coming to kill her. Things were good.

Ashley laughed a little too. Soft, hesitant, like maybe she shouldn't be laughing due to the trauma going on all around her. "What's his name?"

"Charlie," Meredith said. "My husband wanted to name him Toby, but I said no."

"Toby is a silly name," Ashley agreed.

"My husband can be very silly sometimes," Meredith teased. Speaking of Derek, where the hell was he? The first thing she planned to do when Ashley's parents showed up was to go find him. If the Chief knew he wasn't answering pages, he was in for a serious lecture. And Meredith really wanted to save him from that if she could. "He works here too. I just can't find him."

Ashley looked up at Meredith quizzically. "You can't?"

"Nope," Meredith laughed. "He's probably down here somewhere. This is such a big hospital, sometimes it's hard to keep track of him..." she joked.

Ashley laughed. The little girl seemed beyond her years, taking to Meredith about Derek. Why does crap always happen to the ones that least deserve it? Luckily, Ashley's parents showed up around the same time Meredith's intern was paging her about Justin. Meredith sighed heavily when he told her there was a minor bleed in the little boy's brain. It could be easily fixed, but brain surgery on children always carried with it extra risk.

Once she was sure that Ashley was in the care of her parents, she went on a search for Derek. Dr. Levinson was available, but Meredith really wanted Derek to be the one to do it. Dr. Levinson was a very capable, confident surgeon, but she always wanted her husband to be the one to take kids' cases. It didn't matter that they weren't their own children; Meredith knew that with Derek, they were given the best care they could receive.

"Mer!" Alex called, handing his chart over to a nurse as he walked up to her. "Where the hell is Shepherd? I've been paging him for an hour."

"I don't know," Meredith shrugged. Now she really had to find him. Worrying about Derek frazzled her nerves, even more so than a day spent in the ER. "I paged him, too. I'm on my way to find him."

Alex sighed. "Can you do me a favor and page Iz? Or O'Malley or Yang. I need help down here," he said, grabbing another chart off the stack and heading over to another occupied bed.

It seems the universe just didn't want her to leave the ER today. Meredith couldn't leave Alex hanging though, so she dutifully paged her three friends, waiting until one of them answered. She nearly jumped for joy when George responded, saying he'd be down in a minute to help. George was dependable to follow through on his promises, so Meredith didn't bother to wait for him to come. Instead she ran towards the staircase. It would probably get her there faster.

Meredith sprinted up the stairs two at a time until she reached the fourth floor. No signs of Derek in the hall, patient's rooms, or at the nurses' station. She sighed; Derek picked a really bad day to go AWOL on her. When she reached the on-call rooms, she decided to check them out, just in case he was in there. The one on the end had been dubbed "theirs." The one they slept in when their on-call shifts happened to fall on the same night. She pushed the door open and saw a sleeping figure under one of the blankets, curled up in the fetal position.

Derek.

She rolled her eyes. Had he really been that lazy not to answer his pages? Meredith walked over to him and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Derek," she whispered. Part of her wanted to scream at him to wake his ass up, but she stopped herself. He was still Derek, and she couldn't bring herself to do that. She loved him too much. "Derek," she said again, gently rubbing his shoulder.

He groaned in response, curling himself up even more under the thin blanket. Meredith frowned and placed her hand on his forehead. Definitely feverish. And from what she could see in the dimly lit room, he even looked a little pale. "It's okay," Meredith comforted, running her fingers through his hair. "I'm here."

"Mer," he murmured into the pillow. Meredith noticed he had his pager clutched tightly in his left hand, and she gently removed it, pushing it out of his fist like a Jenga block. She set it down on the nightstand and crawled into bed next to him. Derek melted into her touch as soon as she wrapped her arms around him. "Sick..." he breathed.

"I know," Meredith soothed. "It's okay." She gently threw her leg over his body, effectively hugging him like a teddy bear. He would do the same for her. "What hurts?" she asked softly.

"My stomach...my head. I feel like crap," he sighed.

Meredith immediately felt guilty. Of course, slipping away from her doctor duties wasn't so easy, especially not today, but she still wished she would have been in to check on him sooner. She knew he needed the comfort of her body next to his. "Okay. Just rest."

"I have a surgery but..." Derek said weakly, running his hand over his face.

"I'll page someone else to do it for you," Meredith said. She threaded her fingers through his hair. After stressful days at work, that always relaxed him. Somehow she knew he'd appreciate it now. "You're in no shape to operate over open brains."

Derek nodded in submission. "Okay," he sighed. "Thank you."

"Are you going to be okay here for a few minutes?" she asked, keeping her voice low. "There was a trauma, so I need to let the nurses' station know that you're sick and can't work."

"Yeah. I...I'll be fine," he responded. Not so convincing, but Meredith knew she couldn't stay.

Before she left the on-call room, Meredith pulled the blanket from the top bunk bed and draped it over her husband, trying to keep him warm. She pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Okay. I'll be back. Love you," she whispered.

"Love you," he echoed.

Meredith quietly slipped out of the room and shut the door behind her. The bright lights from the hallways weren't going to help his headache. When Bailey saw her heading for the nurses' station after leaving the on-call room, she rolled her eyes. "Is Derek in there?" she asked.

"Oh. Yeah...he's uh," Meredith began before Bailey interrupted.

"I don't want know about the sexcapades that went on. Just tell him to get his ass down to the pit. We've still got traumas rolling in," she said quickly, depositing a stack of charts in the bin.

"We weren't having--he's sick," Meredith said. "I think he might have the stomach flu or something. I just found him in there sleeping."

Bailey's face softened. She could tell Meredith was concerned, so she decided to help her former resident out. "Okay, uh...I'll go check on him and call in a prescription. You need to go cancel his surgeries. The ER is still a mess, so I need you to page the neuro fellows and have them take over down there. And be sure to cancel all of his electives...schedule them for later in the week," Bailey rattled off quickly as she began to walk over to the on-call room.

"I'm on it," Meredith nodded, turning on her heel and heading toward the nurses' station. It didn't take long for her to do everything Bailey had instructed her to do, but when Meredith got a 911 page from Alex, she wasn't so sure she could sneak out of here with Derek so soon. There was no way she could leave her friend stranded. Alex was loyal. And she knew that she had to be, too.

She knew that she could trust Bailey to look over Derek, at least for the time being until she could get one of her friends to take her place down in the pit. Meredith returned to the ER as fast as she could. The chaos hadn't subsided since she'd last been there. If anything, things seemed even more out of control. "Alex!" Meredith called.

"Remind me never to answer a pit page ever again," he groaned, handing her a patient chart. "That kid you took up to CT...he needs surgery. Did you find Derek?"

"He's sick," Meredith answered. Of all days for Derek to succumb to illness, this was a pretty bad one. "He's in no condition to operate. I paged Levinson when I was upstairs. Where's George?"

"Surgery. The bus driver came in with half his damn leg falling off. And of course O'Malley gets to scrub in..." he vented. "Anyway, the kid. Justin. He was admitted under your intern's care, so you're probably gonna have to scrub in on his surgery."

Meredith sighed. Normally, a chance to scrub in on brain surgery would excite her. But today, it felt like a chore. Maybe it made her a crappy doctor, but she really would prefer taking care of her husband than her patients. "You could scrub in for me. I could sign him over to you...if you wanted to."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because. Derek is sick, and I was hoping I could get out of here early and go home with him. Justin's surgery is going to take hours...hours that could be spent in the OR instead of down here," she said, trying her best to sound convincing. "Cristina and Iz have to be around here somewhere. They could take over for me so I could leave."

"During your shift?" Alex asked.

Meredith shrugged. "I was on-call last night, so I can't work past four anyway. Hospital policy. Do you want the surgery or not?"

"Want it. Obviously," Alex said. The fainting trace of a smile came over his face. Probably the first one he'd cracked in hours. "Thanks, Mer," he said graciously, running off toward the elevator to meet Dr. Levinson in surgery."

Meredith smiled a little to herself. She was a good briber, which was definitely helpful on a day like this one. As she walked toward the nurses' station, with the vain hope that one of her friends would be kind enough to replace her down here, Cristina walked through the doors of the pit, tying her gown around her waist. "Wow. It's a mess down here," she stated plainly. "Anything good?"

"Lots of cuts and bruises. George and Alex each got assigned to a surgery, and I need to take Derek home. So I need you to cover for me down here," Meredith said, trying her best to make sure it sounded like she meant business, although she was pretty sure it sounded more like disguised begging.

Cristina looked at her with her signature blank stare. Babysitting a bunch of whiny little kids with scrapes was hardly how she'd prefer to spend her day. "Seriously?"

"Cristina, please," Meredith said, handing over the chart Alex had given her. "I'm your best friend; don't make me beg."

"You're already begging," Cristina laughed. She accepted the chart and flipped it open. "Oh, yay. A sprained ankle," she said, the sarcasm dripping from her tone of voice. "You're lucky I'm your person."

Meredith breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah," she dismissed. "Go, I've got it." As Meredith headed for the staircase she'd been running up and down all day, Cristina stopped her. "What's wrong with McDreamy?"

"I don't know. Stomach flu, I think," Meredith responded.

"Have fun with that," Cristina smirked. She turned on her heel and headed for the waiting room without another word. Meredith just laughed. Her friend always had a way of making situations more humorous than they probably should be.

As Meredith trudged down the hall toward the on-call room, she wondered how many calories she'd burned in the past few hours. Over a thousand? Running all over the hopsital was certainly great cardio. She saw Dr. Bailey wave her over, so Meredith walked toward her before going to see Derek. "How is he?" Meredith asked.

"Seems to be a touch of the stomach flu. I called down to the clinic. They have a prescription for an anti-nausea med. waiting for you. You can pick it up on your way out. There's really nothing else we can give him. He just needs fluids and rest...typical flu protocol," Bailey said.

Meredith smiled. "Okay. Thanks, I really appreciate it," she said graciously. "I'll uh...sit in there with him and update charts until my shift ends--if that's okay..."

"Go home, Grey--Shepherd," she corrected herself. "You know how whiny men are when they're sick. No better than little boys. It's best to get him home so he can rest. Last thing we need around here is a flu outbreak. I've got you covered," Bailey nodded.

"Thank you," Meredith breathed. She hardly thought those two words could express her gratitude, but Bailey didn't seem to mind helping her out. The Nazi side of her always seemed to soften around her former interns. She backtracked toward their normal on-call room and quietly pushed the door open. Derek was sitting up in the bed, running his hands over his face.

"Hey," she whispered, sitting down next to him. "Ready to go home?"

Derek nodded, his eyes heavy with the need for sleep. "Yeah--what about your shift?"

"Dr. Bailey knows we're leaving," Meredith said, pressing her lips to his temple. "Let's go grab our stuff, then we can go, okay?"

"Okay," he replied weakly. He ran his hand over his stomach and groaned. Seeing Derek in pain was probably harder on her than the actual ache was for him. Meredith grabbed his coat and pager, then gently pulled him up off the bed. Her goal was to get from point A to point B. The on-call room to their own bed. Taking care of her husband was in the vows. And there was nothing she'd rather do.

--

After wrangling Derek, their belongings, and his medicine, nearly an hour had passed, and Derek looked even more queasy when they finally walked through the front door of the house. Charlie immediately scurried over to the two of them, overjoyed that they were home early. Their puppy adored them; they often felt guilty about leaving him for such long hours, but knew that came with the job.

Meredith smiled when Charlie brought her his hamburger toy from his dog bed in the living room. Both of her guys needed her attention, it seemed. "Come on, Charlie. Let's go upstairs," Meredith called to him. The puppy ran upstairs ahead of him, the toy clutched in his mouth. By the time she and Derek reached their bedroom, Charlie was already making himself comfortable, squeaking on the fuzzy toy. "Do you want to take a shower? You'd probably feel better," Meredith suggested, running her hands up and down his arms.

"Yeah," Derek nodded. The bags under his eyes overwhelmed his normally bright features. Meredith stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his forehead, as if to kiss it all better. "I would kiss you back, but I don't want you getting sick," he laughed weakly, pulling his shirt over his head.

"That's okay. You can make it up to me when you're better," Meredith smiled. They walked over to the bathroom. As Derek undressed and tossed his clothes into the laundry basket, Meredith grabbed him a towel off the rack. She set it on the handle of the sliding glass door. "Do you want me to make you something to eat? Or get you some ginger ale?" she asked.

Derek shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Okay," Meredith said, gently squeezing his hand. "Take your time." She exited the bathroom, closing the door on her way out. As expected, Charlie followed her down the steps and into the kitchen. "You want a treat, little guy?" she asked, kneeling down and scratching the top of his head. "I wish we could be home this early every day." Meredith got a dog treat from the box in the cabinet and handed it to him. "Daddy will probably stay home with you tomorrow."

Charlie eagerly accepted the bone and sat down on the kitchen floor, happily chewing on it while Meredith walked over the refrigerator for something to eat. She hadn't eaten anything today, thanks to all of the chaos down on the ER, and then having to bring Derek home. Sometimes life got in the way of eating, which sucked, especially when she could really use the energy. She eventually settled on a cinnamon raisin bagel, thinking she and Derek could split it. While it was toasting, Meredith pulled the cream cheese out of the fridge. Bagels weren't worth eating unless they were covered with it, at least in Meredith's opinion. She spread some over her half and left Derek's side dry. The last thing she wanted to do was upset his stomach even more. She poured two glasses of ginger ale and set them on a tray along with the bagel.

"Come on, Charlie. Let's go back up to bed," Meredith called. Charlie ran ahead as usual, as if to clear the way for her. The shower turned off as soon as she sat down on the bed. She flipped on the TV. It was rare that they watched television at all let alone this time of day. Meredith sighed as she flipped through the channels. Soap operas, talk shows, game shows, cartoons. As her hope for finding something watchable was dwindling, Meredith got an idea. She hopped up off the bed and ran downstairs.

Meredith pulled The Departed DVD off the shelf. It was one of his favorites. She liked it because of the man candy. Win win. When she entered their bedroom, Derek was pulling on a pair of sweats. He looked a little better after his shower. It seemed some of the sicky hospital-ness had been washed away. But he still didn't look like he usually did. Meredith walked over and kissed his cheek. "I got us a bagel. And some ginger ale," she said.

Derek smiled gratefully and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you." When he saw the DVD in her hands, his smile grew. "Are you really going to watch that with me?" he asked, pulling a tee shirt over his head.

"I am," Meredith replied. She put the movie into the DVD player, then she too pulled a change of clothes from her own dresser.

Derek smirked at her. "Am I getting a free show?" he asked.

"Would that make you feel better?" Meredith giggled.

"It would, actually." He set the tray on the nightstand and pulled back the covers on the bed.

Meredith simply shrugged and wiggled out of her jeans. She really had no problem walking around naked in front of him. Naked was comfortable for them. "Okay, then." She unbuttoned her blouse and let the material fall to the floor before she removed her bra.

"I love you. You know that?" Derek asked, his tone much more light than it had been since she'd found him in the on-call room. Meredith really hoped the meds were kicking in and he would be feeling better by tomorrow.

"Because I strip for you?" she teased. Meredith pulled her Dartmouth tee from the drawer and slipped it over her head, followed by a pair of her pajama pants. Derek retrieved the tray from the nightstand and set it on the bed over his lap.

"Well, there's that," he said, slowly sipping on the ginger ale. "But mostly because you're you."

Meredith crawled into bed next to him and instantly melted into the sheets. It felt like she hadn't sat down in ages. She could even feel her body settling in for a long nap. Rest was hard to come by these days. "I love you," she whispered, pressing a lingering kiss to his temple. He still felt warm, but his color was a little better. "How are you feeling?"

"Crappy," Derek answered honestly. "But this'll help. Thank you."

"I should be thanking you," Meredith said, taking a bite of her bagel. "If you weren't sick, I'd still be down in the pit with sore feet and an empty stomach..."

Derek took a small bite of his half, making sure to get the all clear from his stomach before eating more. "Pretty bad?"

"Yeah," Meredith breathed, licking a bit of cream cheese off her finger. "Little kids in a bus accident. It's so much harder with kids..."

Derek nodded in agreement. "Yeah, always is."

"This little girl--Ashley--she didn't even care about getting herself checked out. She just wanted to know where her brother was," Meredith said sadly. "Turns out, he had a brain bleed. You and I were supposed to be on the case. But I gave it to Alex."

"You gave up a brain surgery?" Derek asked. Though Meredith hadn't yet declared a specialty, he knew her niche was neuro. Every brain surgery she scrubbed in on thrilled her.

Meredith shrugged. "Well, I couldn't leave you in the on-call room. So I asked Bailey if I could sit in with you and update charts until my shift ended, but she said we could go. I think she knew we were both frazzled," Meredith joked, taking a sip of her drink.

Derek wrapped his arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. It wasn't a big gesture, but it still meant something to him. "Thank you," he said softly.

"You're my husband," Meredith replied. "You'll always come first." She rested her head on his shoulder and pulled the covers around them. Charlie was sprawled out on Meredith's legs. It was always so cozy in their bedroom. Meredith smiled at the thought, then grabbed the remote off her nightstand. "Movie?"

"Okay," Derek agreed. She pressed the 'play movie' feature on the DVD, and the opening credits came over the screen. Meredith wasn't particularly interested in the plot, as she and Derek tended to have different tastes in movies, but it was still a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

When they had finished off their bagels, Meredith set the tray down on the floor. A little over an hour into the movie, she could tell that the medicine combined with the food in his system was making Derek drowsy, despite his efforts to stay awake and watch. His eyelids were fluttering and Meredith leaned over, pressing her hand to his forehead. He felt warmer than before, which was a side effect of the anti-nausea medication he had taken. "Be right back," she whispered.

Meredith walked into their adjoining bathroom and grabbed a wash cloth off the shelf. After rinsing it under cold water, she turned off the knob, rung out the cloth, and returned to their bedroom. She smiled sympathetically at her husband. It didn't matter that he was sick; sleepy, pajama clad Derek was still adorable. She crawled back under the blanket next to him. "Come here," she said softly. Meredith lay back on the pillows and gently pulled him to her so that his head was resting on her chest. Derek didn't protest in the least. When she pressed the cool wash cloth against his forehead, he sighed and wrapped his arm around Meredith's torso. "Love you," he managed to get out before slipping into much needed sleep.

She knew the proximity of her body, the lull of her breathing would help him feel better. It was rare that Derek needed to be held and soothed, for he was most often the comforter, but Meredith enjoyed taking care of him. It felt good to be able to comfort him. He'd done it for her in the past, and would in the future.

"I love you too," she said. "Just go to sleep. I'm right here." Meredith ran her hands through his still slightly damp curls, massaging his scalp with the pads of her fingers, occasionally kissing the top of his head. As she held him, the love of her life, in her arms, Meredith felt consumed with this overwhelming love for the man in bed with her. The kind of love that she'd only ever felt with him, and only ever would. She pressed her lips against the top of his head once more and let herself succumb to the sleep that her body had been yearning for. While it was hard for her to see Derek sick, Meredith had to admit, bedtime at four in the afternoon was pretty damn nice.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Reviews make my day. :)