Under the Night Sky

Chapter 1: Strangers In The Night

Derek couldn't help a litany of curse words falling from his lips. He just got out of his car straight into a puddle of mud, completely ruining his brand new 400-dollar leather shoes. This whole trip was becoming more and more of a nuisance. He had to take time off his job, have a several hours long air journey and then cruise the deserted highway to reach the goddamn town in the middle of nowhere.

He never expected the weather conditions to get so bad. When they were visiting relatives with his father when he was still a child, one of the most memorable things was the overpowering heat. Derek didn't think he had any recollections of it ever raining here. It was an arid region, a desert punctuated with little oases of life.

It felt a bit strange to go back here after all those years. The Shepherds had stopped visiting the town of Rachel after his father's death. None of the family lived here anymore. They either passed away or moved somewhere else looking for better perspectives, just like his dad, Michael Shepherd, did when he was young. He had moved from the state of Nevada to the Big Apple but he never fully transformed into a New Yorker. His children couldn't imagine a life elsewhere though.

There were no more Shepherds in Rachel, which was precisely the reason Derek had to go there. William Shepherd, some distant relative Derek vaguely remembered as Uncle Bill, passed away three months ago making him his only heir. Derek nearly burst out laughing when he heard the news. Not that a death in the family was a hilarious occurrence. The fact was that Derek had four sisters, both older and younger than him, but somehow Uncle Bill didn't leave them so much as a rusty kettle. He could clearly imagine the old hardened man making his will. William Shepherd was a man of tradition, a conservative who probably was of the opinion that girls were frivolous flirty creatures unworthy of attention. Mind you, he had never got married.

But really, the whole inheriting thing was more of a problem than an actual advantage to Derek. He was busy doing his job of the head of neurosurgery at New York Presbyterian, better still, he was one of the most serious candidates for the position of the chief in the next few years. He didn't have time to take care of some lonely southerner's possessions. Besides, the vagina squad just acquired a new doctor, new sexy redheaded doctor with whom he wanted to try his chances . Knowing his luck, Mark Sloan was already working his way into her pants.

All in all, Derek wasn't keen at all at the prospect of revisiting Rachel but his personal presence at the place was supposedly necessary. He had a house with all its equipment to sell and... he had a half of a practice to sell. Was it mentioned already? William Shepherd had been a doctor and co-owner of the only practice in town. That was the main purpose of this trip. Derek was to meet with the other party, someone called M.E. Grey, whom he imagined as a choleric stubborn old guy, someone like his Uncle Bill. Derek's lawyer wasn't able to come to terms with his representative so now he was trudging there personally to have this over with.

Derek's mother was surprisingly encouraging about the trip on the other hand. He partly agreed on coming here just to stop her from ranting that he was overworked and needed vacation. Carolyn Shepherd didn't understand that best surgeons in the country didn't go on vacation.

Let's go back to the actual story. Derek groaned feeling his shoes slowly but steadily soak up and the torrential rain lash on his body and his expensive Versace suit. Soon after the storm broke loose, his GPS system had gone completely haywire leading him God knows where along some dirt road. He pulled up on the side to consult a paper map but the only thing he achieved was getting stuck in the mud. The low Lexus he rented in Vegas was powerless in this regard. On top of that, he was shivering as the temperature on the desert dropped dramatically. Oh, and guess what, the freaking mobile, which presumably assured mobility, had no signal.

He was getting pretty desperate when he noticed the headlights of a vehicle going his way. Seeing it as his last chance he jumped out into the rain and waved his arms frantically. What a relief, the jeep stopped and Derek gratefully yanked open the door to peek inside, hoping he had more luck than to encounter a murderer.