Never Leave Your Heart Alone

Chapter 22

Meredith opened her eyes. Derek had his arms around her. He had been watching her sleep. Even after all that had happened last night, she had slept. She had slept better than she had in a long time. Something about Derek comforted her. She just stared into his blue eyes.

"Hey..." Meredith said quietly, with a yawn.

"Good morning." He said softly. He didn't let go of her. He never wanted to let go of her.

"Hmm, what time is it?" She asked sleepily.

"Um." He looked at his watch. "Six."

"Six? Six!" She squealed. "I'm late. I have to go!" She said as she jumped out of the bed. He just looked at her.

"Maybe you should take the day off..." Derek said as she began to open the door.

"Can't." She said simply, as she walked out. The door shut and quickly re-opened. She stuck her head in. "Thanks, Derek!" She said with a smile. He smiled as the door shut. She ran down the hallway and into the locker room. The other interns just looked at her. The minute she turned around, Dr. Bailey opened the door.

"Grey, you're here. I thought you'd take a day off..." Bailey said with a surprised tone.

"I am fine." Meredith said with a quick smile.

"Sure you are..." Bailey said unconvinced. "SCUT." Meredith went to talk. "Huh uh. A man died last night. I don't know the details, and I don't want to. But you arrived with him." Bailey explained.

"I didn't know him." Meredith spat, looking at Miranda's face.

"Don't care. SCUT." Meredith left the locker room with a huff.

Meredith spent the day running lab work and doing charts. She hated SCUT. She didn't understand why Dr. Bailey had her doing it. Miranda had no idea what went on last night. She was leaning up against the nurses station pretending to be working. She saw Dr. Burke look over at her. He made his way over to her slowly. She looked back down at a chart, pretending to read it.

"Ah, Dr. Grey..." Burke said slowly. She looked up at him.

"Do you need something Dr. Burke?" She asked.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about Harvey Peterson." Burke said quietly, so as not to attract attention.

"Harvey? Oh, yeah, Harvey." She said quickly, while looking down.

"He was my patient. Cristina told me what happened. I just wanted to assure you that is wasn't your fault. Harvey knew the risks. He was an old horn-dog. Harvey was diagnosed with congestive heart failure some time ago. It appears that he suffered sudden cardiac arrest during his activities last night. It was not your fault. Thank you, I'm glad to hear he died with a smile on his face." Burke chuckled kindly, and walked away. Meredith's face turned turned bright red. She was so embarrassed, she wanted to hide under the nurses desk.

Meredith went down to the basement for lunch. She didn't want to be with the other interns. She didn't know who knew about what had happened last night. She didn't want to be teased. She felt bad enough as it was. She wanted to pretend it never happened. She unwrapped her sub from the cafeteria and sat back against the wall. She heard footsteps, she didn't look up. Part of her wanted to run and hide, but she decided to stay. She looked up to see Derek walking towards her.

"Hiding out?" Derek asked with a smile. He sat down on the gurney, leaning up against the wall with her.

"Trying to." She stated, looking down at her sandwich.

"So how are you doing?" He asked, as he grabbed her sandwich, and took a bite.

"Hey, I'm hungry!" She snapped.