Reaching Forward

22

Quickly getting out of bed, Cristina began chanting, "Oh, shit!" over and over again.

Meredith, meanwhile, was breathing intensely even though they always told patients to take deep breaths. But, she and Derek had skipped out on Lamaze. For one thing, they barely had enough time as it was to get everything together before the baby came and secondly Meredith said she wasn't going to pay to go to a class where they taught her how to do something that was instinctual.

After a minute of continuous freaking out by Cristina and Meredith having a contraction, Meredith breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's OK. It's over."

Stopping in mid-pace, Cristina looked at her best friend in disbelief, "You're fucking water just broke in my bed! It's not OK! We have to get you to a hospital! Ok, shit, where are your keys?"

Pulling herself out of bed, Meredith replied, "I don't know I just sort of threw them somewhere yesterday."

Looking at her again like she was insane, Cristina asked, "What are you doing getting out of bed!?"

"Calm down, I'm in labor not crippled." She held her stomach as she padded across the room.

Ignoring her, Cristina had gone into the living room and began throwing things every which way to try and find Meredith's keys to take her to the hospital. She had thrown the cushions off of the couch and was looking under it when Meredith came and picked up her keys off of the kitchen counter.

"I found them." Meredith said eerily calm as she held them up for Cristina to see.

Rushing over and grabbing them out of Meredith's hand, Cristina motioned to the door, "Alright, let's go!"

"Aren't you going to change first? Meredith questioned and indicated at Cristina's pajamas.

"Look, I know you could probably perform surgery in this apartment but I really don't want to deliver your baby here."

If she hadn't been in labor, Meredith might have been slightly more amused at this comment but she kind of didn't want to give birth here either, especially without Derek. Derek.

"We have to call Derek. Oh my God, I don't even have a bag packed or anything! The baby wasn't supposed to come for another month." For the first time since all of this began, Meredith was freaking out.

"Who cares about a freaking bag!? We have to go now!" Cristina said as she dragged Meredith out of her apartment and out to Meredith's jeep.

During the car ride, Meredith had dialed Derek's cell phone several times but only got the voice mail. She vaguely remembered something about him having a surgery this morning. This of course caused Meredith to freak out even more because she didn't want him to miss this and she didn't think she could give birth without him. But, Cristina assured her that she would destroy anyone who got in her way in trying to find Derek and telling him.

Arriving at the hospital in under ten minutes by Cristina's 'amazing' driving abilities, Cristina helped Meredith out of the car and into the ER where the first person they saw was Bailey.

"Dr. Bailey!" Cristina shouted out.

Swaggering over to them and looking at them sternly, she asked, "What the hell are you two doing here. You're supposed be on two weeks vacation."

Meredith began, "I'm in -" But she was cut off by another contraction which caused her to double over in pain.

Instantly realizing what was going on, Bailey called out to one of the nurses, "I need a wheel chair, now!"

Tyler quickly rolled a chair over and Meredith fell into and he rolled her to the elevator to take her to the maternity ward. Before the doors closed, Meredith told Cristina, "Please, find Derek."