67. You're My Person
Disclaimer: I don't own it. I just wish I did.
Thanks so much for the reviews! I really do appreciate each and every one of them. I hope you guys keep reviewing and letting me know what you think. Also, this is the last update until January. I'll be in Florida over New Year's and won't be able to post anything until January 8th...ish. I just wanted to let you know. :)
Meredith stared up at the ceiling, her breaths coming out in short little bursts of air. Her heart thudded inside her chest and her legs felt like Jell-O. This whole baby-making thing had its perks, and they were orgasmic and frequent. She was pretty sure her friends were probably looking for her, but right now, she was too blissed out to care. "Damn," she panted. "Good luck getting any productivity out of me today..."
"Good thing you're working with me then," Derek chuckled. He traced patterns on her stomach with his fingers, his left left leg draped over both of hers while their blood pressure returned to normal.
"I don't know if I'll be able to walk," she giggled. "I think my legs might be stuck like this for a while."
"Nothing wrong with that," Derek smirked as he kissed her cheek. "Easier access for me."
Meredith looked at him and scrunched her nose playfully. "Porny."
"Just the truth," he chuckled. Derek glanced over at the clock on his desk; his brain was telling him that they should get up and get back to work, but...another part of his body wanted to pull Meredith on top of him and go for round three.
As though she was reading his mind, Meredith gently patted his arm and sighed. "We should go. If we stay in here too much longer, everyone is gonna get suspicious."
"Yeah," Derek agreed regretfully. As much as he loved being a surgeon, sex with Meredith was always more appealing.
Meredith sat up and reached for her discarded clothes on the floor. "At least we have Cristina to cover for us," she laughed.
"The other day she--" Derek said before stopping himself. "I don't even want to repeat it."
"What?" Meredith giggled, fastening her bra.
Derek sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "She asked me if my penis fell off yet from overuse. That was mortifying..."
"She's just teasing you," Meredith said. "Besides, I'd never sex you so much that your penis fell off. I love it too much."
"Thanks...I think," Derek chuckled. "I'm just glad she hasn't told anyone. Last thing we need is Mark finding out. Or Izzie. Then everyone would know..."
"She's loyal; she wouldn't spill," Meredith assured him. "Do you mind that I told her?"
Derek shook his head. "No, not at all. She's your person. It's good that you told her."
"You're sure?" Meredith asked as they folded the bed back into the couch together, then dropped the cushions back in place.
"Yeah," he nodded.
Meredith smiled at her husband as he pulled his coat on, back to looking like the charming brain surgeon he was. "You're my person too, you know."
"Hmm?"
"She's not my only person. You're my person too. I just wanted you to know that," Meredith said softly, smoothing her fingers through his hair that was still wild from their multiple rounds of sex.
Derek wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her close to him. "You're mine, too," he said before pressing his lips to hers for their final kiss before venturing back out into the hospital world.
Meredith smiled at him. "I know."
--
"Having sex, were we?" Cristina asked knowingly when Meredith approached the nurses' station a few minutes later. Leave it to Cristina to come out and bluntly ask.
"Yes, I was, actually," Meredith admitted, grabbing a pen from her pocket and scribbling something in a chart. "Why? Did someone say something?"
Cristina shook her head and took a sip of her coffee. "One of your interns--uh, the pregnant red haired one--she asked me if I knew where you were, but I covered for you."
"Megan. Well, what did she need?" Meredith asked.
"Dunno. Something about a catheter. I haven't heard any emergency pages for decapitated penises yet, so I guess she figured it out," she shrugged.
Meredith rolled her eyes and laughed. "About that, thanks for asking Derek if his fell off. Very kind," she said jokingly.
"What good is keeping a secret if you can't have a little fun with it?" Cristina pointed out.
"Be nice to him. Or at least, don't ask him about his penis. It creeps me out," Meredith cringed a little.
"His penis creeps you out?"
Meredith looked to her friend, exasperated. "No. You talking about it is creepy. And wrong," she corrected. "Believe me, his penis makes me very, very happy..."
"Okay, now it's creepy," Cristina groaned. "Please don't elaborate."
"Someone's jealous," Meredith said in a sing-song voice.
"Of the gratuitous sexing? Yes. Of the morning sickness, swollen ankles, and baby coming out of my hoo-hoo as a result of all the sex? No," Cristina shook her head.
Meredith smiled at her friend. "You're telling me that when I get pregnant, all you're going to do is mock me?"
"I'll get the wheelchair when your water breaks in the OR. How's that?" Cristina compromised teasingly.
"Sounds great, thanks," Meredith said with a dry smirk. It was probably a good thing that Cristina wasn't her only person.
--
"I have a new case. She was just admitted and put into a room. Want in?" Derek asked in a hurry as he walked toward the patient's room.
Meredith nodded eagerly and hopped up from her chair at the nurses' station where she'd been writing up post-op notes from her surgery earlier this morning with Derek. "Yeah." She closed the chart and caught up to her husband as he turned the corner. "What happened?"
"Dunno yet," Derek sighed. "Apparently, she's a six year old that hasn't stopped crying since she got in the door. Should be fun," he said, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah," Meredith agreed equally sarcastically.
"Anna Drake, age six. She had a seizure while she was at summer camp and arrived by helicopter. Parents live in Arizona, and they're having trouble getting a flight into Seattle. She's pretty upset, so we couldn't get her relaxed enough for a CT. We brought her up here until she calms down," Olivia briefed them as they stood outside the patient's door.
"Thank you," Derek nodded, as she handed him the chart. "We'll see what we can do."
Derek held the door open for Meredith and walked in after her. The blonde six year old looked even smaller in the hospital bed, surrounded by her IV pole and various machines sitting idly at her bedside just in case she seized again. Meredith's heart went out to the girl, scared and alone in a place where no one should have to be. "Hi, Anna," she said softly. "I'm Meredith. And that's Derek," she pointed. "We're gonna help you, okay?"
"I wanna go home," the little girl whimpered. "I don't want surgery."
Meredith brushed the girl's wavy blonde hair away from her tear stained cheeks and smiled sympathetically. "Well, we won't know if you need surgery until we take some pictures. Can we do that?"
"Uh uh," Anna shook her head. "Not until mommy and daddy get here."
Derek watched as Meredith went in full mommying mode. It didn't matter that they didn't have kids yet; she always knew what to do. And that filled Derek with awe every time. "They'll be here. They're going to be here as soon as they can."
"I live far away from here. What if they don't come?" Anna asked as a few more tears spilled from her eyes.
Derek sat down on the other side of the bed and handed Anna a tissue from the box at her bedside. "They're your mommy and daddy. Of course they'll come," Derek assured her. "So you were at summer camp? What was that like?" he asked, trying to distract her.
Anna shrugged her shoulders and played with the sleeves of the hospital gown that dwarfed her tiny body. "It was fun," she offered. "Today I was playing soccer and then I fell over. I don't remember anything until I got here."
"Do you feel dizzy?" Derek asked, subtly taking notes and diagnosing at the same time.
"A little," Anna confessed. "And my head's been hurting all week."
Meredith knew that waiting even another minute could be dangerous. There were any number of things that could be wrong with the girl. Aneurysm, clot, lesion, tumor. The longer Anna went without treatment could be fatal. Meredith straightened up a little and smiled, trying her best to look excited. "How about we take you downstairs for some pictures, then if everything is okay, I'll go to the giftshop and buy some coloring books and we can color while we wait for mommy and daddy?"
The way she said that was enough to make Derek's heart beat faster, and hope even harder that the baby-making would pay off soon. Seeing Meredith react so well with kids she didn't even know only made him believe even more that she would make an incredible mother.
"Does it hurt?" Anna asked, her trusting blue eyes looking to Meredith for reassurance.
Meredith shook her head dramatically. "No. It doesn't hurt at all. It's just like lying on the beach and relaxing," she explained with a smile. "So what do you say? Do we have a deal?"
Anna nodded her head slowly. "'Kay."
"Okay." Meredith patted Anna's hand gently and smiled. She turned to Derek, noticing the unmistakable grin on his face, one that he used whenever he couldn't kiss her right then and there. "So Derek will take you downstairs while I go get the coloring books, okay?"
"Is he nice?" Anna asked, despite the fact that Derek was in the room, obviously within earshot of the conversation.
Meredith couldn't help but laugh. "He's nice, I promise. I like him a lot." She winked playfully at her husband and squeezed Anna's shoulder gently, letting her know she wasn't alone.
"You like me a lot, huh?" Derek asked as he wheeled Anna's gurney from the room towards the elevator.
"Eh, you're okay," Meredith shrugged, nudging his hip with hers. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek before addressing Anna. "I'll see you in a few minutes, okay hun?"
Anna nodded, much more relaxed than she'd been only minutes before. All of Meredith's reassurance seemed to have worked. So while Derek took Anna down to get a CT, Meredith made her way to the gift shop on the first floor. The Seattle Grace gift shop was notorious for being overpriced, charging way too much for the good Swiss chocolate and shiny balloons. But in a pinch, it was nice to have it available.
She walked over to the rack of coloring books next to the trashy magazines and romance novels, her eyes scanning over the Spiderman and Cars for something girly. Hannah Montana, Disney princess, or something about the circus. Meredith shrugged and grabbed all three. Maybe Derek would like that one, if he decided to join the party and color with them. After grabbing the sixty-four pack of crayons, she paid for everything and went back upstairs to CT.
Derek was in the viewing room, his legs crossed at his ankles while waiting for the images to show up on the screen. "Is she okay?" Meredith asked, setting the plastic bag with her purchases down on the table.
"I dunno. She probably just got overheated; it's not that uncommon," Derek explained. "What'd you get?"
Meredith smiled. "Three coloring books and way too many crayons for one box. I got a circus one for you, in case you wanted to hang out and color with us."
"Circus? Nice," he chuckled. "How about you?"
"Oh, I either get the Hannah Montana or princess one. Lucky me," she said sarcastically.
"You're amazing with her, by the way," Derek complimented, kissing her temple. "Makes me glad I'm having kids with you."
Meredith rested her head on his shoulder and breathed him in. "Me too."
When the CT results appeared on the monitors, they both looked them over, scanning for anything that would require surgery. As soon as they spotted the abnormal spidering of blood vessels spreading through her temporal lobe, they sighed in unison. "Damn it," Derek whispered under his breath.
"AVM in her temporal lobe," Meredith pointed with her finger. "That's what caused the seizure and the headaches."
"Yeah," he said, zooming in on the image to get a closer look at what was going on inside Anna's brain.
"It's operable, right?"
Derek nodded. "It's operable. It's risky, but I think it's the safest option. With something like this, she's okay until she's not. There's just no way of knowing," he said regretfully. "Alright, let's get her out of there, see if we can contact the parents, then we'll get into the OR."
"Okay," Meredith agreed. She motioned for the tech to remove Anna from the CT machine then grabbed the bag of coloring books and crayons off the table. "She's gonna be upset."
"I know," Derek said. "We'll make it as easy as we can; no scary words or anything. It'll be fine."
"Hope so," Meredith whispered.
They walked into the hall, smiles plastered on both of their faces to keep Anna calm, not letting on like anything big or scary was happening. "Hey Anna," Meredith greeted, patting the top of the six year old's hand.
"Can we color now?" Anna asked when she noticed the bag Meredith was holding onto.
"Actually Anna, we noticed in your pictures that..." Derek started, trying to find an analogy to explain what was going on in simple, non-scary kid talk. "You know how sometimes when you color, you go outside the lines and things can get messy?"
Anna nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, in your pictures, there's some colors that went outside the lines, so Meredith and I have to fix it with some special...erasers," Derek said with an encouraging smile.
"Is it scary?" Anna asked nervously, playing with the hemmed ends of the hospital blanket draped over her.
Meredith sat on the edge of the gurney and tucked some blonde hair behind Anna's ear. "Nope. You can sleep through the whole thing. When you wake up, we can color."
"I'm scared," Anna said, tears filling her wide blue eyes to the brim. "I want my mom and dad," she whimpered.
"I know," Meredith said softly. "Mom and dad will be here soon, okay?"
"But I need them," Anna insisted as her crying escalated and her cheeks turned red.
If she continued to get worked up, they knew her AVM could burst and she'd be dead in a matter of minutes. Derek looked to Meredith, searching her eyes for a plan of action to calm the girl down. As if on cue, Meredith pulled Anna into her lap and started rubbing her back. That's what Derek did for her when she was upset and it was all she could think of to comfort her. Anna wrapped her arms around Meredith's neck, resting her head on her shoulder. Tears seeped through Meredith's coat and she could feel the girl's breath on her neck.
"It's okay," Meredith soothed. "I know you need your mom and dad here. But for now, I can be your person, Anna. I'm here. Derek, too. We'll make sure that everything is okay. Can we do that?"
Anna nodded into Meredith's shoulder and sniffled. "Okay."
"Okay," Meredith whispered, brushing the hair out of the girl's face. "When you wake up, we can color. And mom and dad will be here before you know it."
"'Kay," Anna agreed. She looked up at Meredith and let a small smile come over her face.
Meredith smiled back at her. "Okay."
--
"What's next, Dr. Shepherd?" Derek asked as the two stood over the operating table, the part of her skull removed just above her left ear to expose the AVM in Anna's brain.
"We need to close off the arteries and veins that are feeding into the AVM," Meredith replied, suctioning the areas around the exposed vessels to get a better view of them.
Derek nodded and motioned for her to switch places with him. "Alright. Let's see it."
"Okay," Meredith said softly beneath her mask. It wasn't uncommon for Derek to let her take over the surgeries nowadays, but it was still exciting every time she got the chance. He trusted her with the responsibility and she knew that if she needed any help, he was always right there next to her. "I need several occluding clamps," she requested. "And constant suction."
"That's it," Derek nodded, looking on as she applied the clamps to the various spidering veins and arteries that were pumping blood into the AVM. She was just as precise and accurate as any world class surgeon would have been in her technique. Meredith looked to him with hopeful eyes. "Am I removing the AVM too?"
"If you want to, sure," Derek couldn't help but chuckle. "Now that everything is sealed off, I'll just suction around the AVM while you cut it out. Careful not to cut below the clamps," he instructed, watching closely as she repeated what he'd just said. Again, she was flawless. She cut away at the malformation and Derek suctioned around the area to clear away any small bleeds. Derek looked over their work and nodded. "Excellent work, Dr. Shepherd," he complimented.
Meredith smiled. "Thank you."
"Surgical field looks clear. No residual bleeding. Everything looks good," Derek decided, pulling off his surgical glasses. "Thank you, everybody. Dr. Warren, can you close?" he asked the neuro fellow, who nodded in agreement.
When he and Meredith stepped into the scrub room, they pulled off their scrub masks and tossed them into the trash. "That was...easy," she said, knitting her brows together. "Was it supposed to be that easy?"
"You're just gifted," Derek corrected, stepping on the water pedal and washing his hands. "And I say that with nothing but sincerity, you know."
"Mmhmm..." Meredith smirked. "Someone is just trying to get into my pants."
Derek laughed. "I mean it. It takes one hell of a surgeon to get in there and do that. You didn't even hesitate. You just did it. That's what makes a great surgeon, Mer."
"Thank you, Derek," she said softly, bumping her hip with his. "So how long do you think it'll be until she wakes up?"
"Few hours. It'll be better if she just sleeps off the anesthesia before we give her pain meds.," Derek said, grabbing a paper towel.
Meredith pulled her own paper towel from the dispenser and dried off her hands. "Do we have anything else scheduled for the day?"
"Nope, not unless something new comes in. Why?"
"I wanted to sleep for a few hours before she wakes up. I think I'll stay here with Anna tonight in case her parents aren't able to fly in until morning," Meredith shrugged. "I don't want her to be alone." When Derek's face broke out in a smile, she eyed him curiously. "What?"
"Our kids are going to be lucky, that's all," he said, kissing her temple. "Do you want me to stay, too?"
Meredith shook her head as they walked out of the scrub room. "Nah, that's okay. One of us should go home and see Charlie. He hasn't seen us much lately," she frowned.
"Are you sure? You can go and I can stay. No big deal," he shrugged.
"It's fine. I don't mind," Meredith insisted. "Are you gonna stay and color with us once she wakes up?"
Derek grinned amusedly at her. "Do you want me to?"
"Well, I bought you your own coloring book," she reminded him.
"Hmm...you did," he smiled. "Yeah, I'll stay."
"Okay," Meredith giggled, fixing her hair that had been trapped inside her scrub cap for a few hours. "So, um...since we're not going to be able to have sex tonight, should we have sex now before I get a nap in?" she asked, bouncing on the balls of her heels. "I think I'm fertile...or whatever."
Meredith winced at her own wording and Derek tried to suppress laughing, but couldn't help himself. "Yeah, we can do that while we wait," he chuckled.
"Calling myself fertile is a huge turnoff," Meredith groaned as they walked toward the elevator to go upstairs to Derek's office, which lately had only been used for the purpose of daily sex.
"It's good that you're keeping track," Derek pointed out. "Even if it creeps you out..."
"It makes sex sound so clinical. Like my egg is just chilling out, waiting for you to come along and fertilize it. See? Aren't you creeped out now?" Meredith giggled, stepping onto the elevator.
Derek pushed the button for the fifth floor. "A little, yeah," he admitted. "But it's always going to sound weird when you put it like that."
"From now on, let's just call it sex," Meredith said.
"We can't call it making love?" he asked with a smile, taking her hand when the elevators opened.
"Sometimes. If we're feeling romantic," Meredith teased. "But other times, I just need my husband to sex me."
Derek laughed. "Nothing wrong with that."
--
Meredith sat in the reclining chair next to Anna's bedside and watched as her chest moved up and down with each breath she took. She was three hours post surgery, still sleeping soundly, which was good. Little kids and post-operative pain were never a good mix, so any rest Anna could get was only going to help her. In the time while she and Derek waited, they managed to get in two rounds of sex in his office, and a nap together afterward.
Derek opened the sliding glass door of Anna's room and peeked in at his wife. "Not awake yet?"
"Nope," Meredith shook her head. "She's moving around a little more though. Probably going to wake up soon."
"Good," Derek smiled, pulling over a chair and sitting down next to Meredith. "I just got off the phone with her parents. They're flight lands at seven tomorrow morning."
Meredith ran her finger over Anna's small hand. "When I was nine, I tripped and fractured my ankle during gym class," she told Derek, keeping her voice low as to not disturb the little girl. "A nurse had to sit in the ER with me. My mom was upstairs in surgery and didn't even come down and see me because she was busy. She was so busy taking care of other people that her own child wasn't a priority."
"I'm sorry," Derek whispered, kissing her temple.
Meredith shrugged. "I just didn't want Anna to have to be alone. If her parents couldn't be here for her, then I wanted to be. I know I shouldn't get so involved, but I--"
"You've been there," Derek said softly, running his thumb over the back of her hand. "You've been in her position and you know what it's like. She needed a person today."
"Yeah. She did," Meredith said. Glancing out the door quickly, she made sure no one was wandering nearby before leaning in to kiss her husband. Maybe not the most professional thing to do while on duty, but she didn't care.
Just as she was about to run her fingers through his hair, they heard a small sigh from the six year old lying in bed. "Are you kissing?" Anna asked in a tired voice, smiling at the two of them.
Derek blushed embarrassedly and turned his head while Meredith just giggled. "We were," Meredith confessed. "Remember how I said I liked him a lot? Well, I kiss him sometimes too," she winked, standing up to take Anna's stats. "How are you feeling, sweetie? Does your head hurt?"
"No," Anna replied simply. "I'm just hungry."
Derek smiled at the girl. "Appetite. That's good. Do you like Jell-O? I could go get us some."
"Okay," Anna nodded.
"Are you getting me some, too?" Meredith asked.
"Sure," he chuckled. "Okay, I'll be right back." Derek patted Anna's shoulder then left the room to make a Jell-O run. Hardly on the resumé of a neurosurgeon, but as would-be father one day, it fit the mold perfectly.
"Are my mommy and daddy here?" Anna asked hopefully.
Meredith regretfully shook her head. "They'll be here first thing in the morning, I promise. I can stay here with you tonight, if you wanted me to..."
"Yeah," Anna said softly. "Can we still color?" the six year old asked, remembering their deal made hours ago.
"I've got the supplies right here." Meredith held up the plastic bag and smiled. Keeping kids alert and active after they woke up from surgery was always best, so she was glad Anna was up to the challenge. "Do you want the Hannah Montana, princess, or circus one?"
"Hmm..." Anna pondered for a moment. "Princess," she decided.
Meredith raised the bed up to a sitting position and pulled the bedside table over so it rested atop Anna's lap. "Should we give the Hannah Montana one to Derek? I think he would like that" she said amusedly.
"Uh huh," Anna said with a giggle as she reached for a pink crayon.
When Derek walked back into the room holding three cups of strawberry Jell-O along with three spoons, he smiled at the two. "Here we go," he said, setting them down on the table. When he noticed the only available coloring book sitting there, he smirked. "Is this one for me?"
Meredith looked to her husband and bit her lip. "We thought you would like that one the most."
"Mmhmm," Derek agreed sarcastically as he sat back down and flipped through it. "Oh, this is good," he said, the humor obvious in his voice. "I'm really earning my paycheck today." At this, Meredith shot an amused look at her him. Marathon sex, Jell-O, and coloring with his wife and their six year old patient, whose life they saved hours earlier. Never a dull day, really.
Anna took a spoonful of Jell-O into her mouth and glanced up at them. "Thank you," she said softly.
Derek grabbed a purple crayon from the huge box of crayons in the middle of the table. "For what, hun?"
"Doing what my mom and dad would do if they were here," the tiny six year old shrugged as she began to color in the princess coloring book.
Meredith looked to Anna, mature beyond her years, and smiled. "There's no where else we'd rather be than right here."
As always, reviews make my day. And happy holidays! See you in 2010! :)