Alone, all alone

Chapter 5

Meredith painfully tried to move her thumb to each of her fingers on her bad hand, her impatience growing as it took a while for her thumb to move on her demand.

"Come one" She whispered to herself, her hand shaking painfully as she tried to get her thumb to her last two fingers. When the act never occurred, she groaned loudly and thrusted her head back into her pillow, closing her eyes over.

"Damnit" she ran her other hand through her hair, wincing as the scar on her head was still fresh. It had been just over a day since she had woke and already she was sick of being stuck in the hospital with everyone watching over her. She was supposed to stay for another 4 weeks but she knew that once she was healed properly she could leave early, nobody could stop her. She opened her eyes when she heard people entering the room, rolling her eyes when she knew Derek was taking the other interns on their rounds, and due to his surgery being the most extensive on her, she was technically his patient.

"O'Malley, present" She watched George step forward, everyone staring at her but she ket her cold gaze fixated on George who was awfully uncomfortable under her watch.

"Patient Meredith Grey, 4 day post-head operation after being in a coma for 11 days and transferring from Mercy West. Her hand has yet to gain the 70% mobility we are waiting on despite the training she has been doing so it it gets to a week and the mobility is still weak we are going to take her back in for another operation to try and restore some more of the nerves" He stepped back, Cristina being next to present, though Meredith had yet to make eye contact with her supposed best friend.

"4 day post-splenectomy, wound is healing nicely and there have been no further complications due to this" She stepped back, Meredith having gone to staring at the floor, not willing to make eye contact with anyone else.

"How is the pain today?" Derek asked, Meredith trying to stop her eyes rolling as she leaned back further.

"7" She muttered, Derek marking it down on her chart.

"O'Malley, Karev, sort out Meredith's pain medication. I will be back in an hour to take you for another CT" Meredith never answered him but watched as they all left, her eyes landing on Alex and George who were standing in the corner, afraid to approach her.

"I'll be right now" ALex whispered, leaving the room, George trying to stop him, Meredith raising her eyebrows at him. He smiled slightly at her, approaching her good arm slowly.

"What hurts today?" He asked slowly, Meredith staring at her hand.

"My head and arm" She told him bluntly, George wanting to check her head for any swelling but everything seemed to be healing fine.

"It's going to take longer for your head to heal due to the extent of the bleed" He stated, Meredith rolling her eyes.

"I am a doctor as well George" She said, closing her eyes as he fixed her IV up to more pain medication.

"You called me O'Malley yesterday" He whispered, Meredith opening one of her eyes to stare at him.

"What?"

"You called me O'Malley yesterday, not George"

"Would you prefer me to call you O'Malley. I know you wouldn't want to breach the line of patient care" She said with a straight face, George looking at her with sad eyes.

"You're my friend Meredith, you aren't just a patient" She looked away from him, his hands dropping to his side.

"We had no way of knowing what had happened to you Meredith?"

"You had a way of stopping me. I was scared to go home because you looked at me like I was a burden and Izzie called me a whore and, you could have stopped it but you never. And I woke up alone. So, nobody has the right to feel mistreated except for me. Now, if you are done I'd like you to leave" George nodded his head, fixing the IV before slowly leaving the room, not noticing Alex heading back towards it. Meredith felt another presence at her bed and looked up, shaking her head when she saw Alex.

"Leave me alone, George already did the IV" She expected him to walk out but instead he came closer to her, holding out a letter. She frowned, taking it with her good hand, looking at the name on the front.

"This is addressed to you, why are you giving it to me?"

"I promised you I would open my results with you when I got them, and I never break a promise" She felt her eyes light up slightly, feeling the unbroken seal with her thumb.

"You really never opened it?"

"I called your cell every day, even at the hope I could open them and read it down the phone to you. So, until I got hold of you, I kept it at the back of my locker. I was going to give it to you yesterday but, I was kinda scared you would hit me with something, but, I am not going to let you be like this with me, because, I looked for you, and I know that waking up alone was not fair, I know Meredith. So, can you push back your bitchnyness for like, 5 minutes and open my letter" She smiled, nodding her head. She went to open it, Alex snatching it back again.

"I want you to try and open it with your other hand" She cringed, watching as he placed it in her limp hand.

"Just, close your hand over enough to hold it and rip it with your other hand" She nodded, slowly, neither of them noticing Cristina and Derek in the doorway, and neither of them noticing Izzie in the background. Meredith focused on closing her hand over on the letter, her face strained as her fingers slowly began to close over, Alex grinning as they finally gripped the letter.

"That's really great Mere, try and hold the grip while you rip it" She nodded, a smile on her face as she started ripping the envelope open, laughing happily when it opened fully, her hand still gripping it.

"I did it" She whispered, looking up happily at Alex.

"Try and keep hold of it while you pull the letter out" He pushed her, Meredith managing to do just that, letting go once she had the letter out. Alex sat down on the edge of the bed, crossing his legs stupidly.

"Present with me the news" He said making Meredith laugh, clearing her throat as she started reading.

"Dear Alexander Michael Karev-" She had to pause as she laughed, Alex rolling his eyes.

"Keep reading Grey" She nodded, stifling her laugh as she continued.

"Okay sorry, Dear Alexander Michael Karev, I am pleased to say that you have completed your board exam and will be able to continue your internship at Seattle Grace Hospital. Congratulations and us at the board wish you all the luck in your internship and with your intern exam in just under 2 years time- Alex, you passed!" Alex grinned widely at her little cheer, Meredith's face lighting up like he hadn't seen in a while.

"They wished me luck in my intern exam, is that some joke?" He laughed, Meredith smacking his arm.

"This is amazing, you're going to make an amazing surgeon Alex" She commented sincerely, Alex frowning.

"So are you" She rolled her eyes, a sad smile on her face suddenly.

"It took me about 3 minutes to open a letter Alex, I am not going to have the hands I had 2 weeks ago"

"If you think like that, no you won't. You believed in me when I never, so now it is my turn to believe in you when you don't, even if you don't want me to"

"I'm sorry I scared you yesterday" She mumbled, Alex laughing.

"I'm sorry for not finding you sooner" He replied, Meredith smiling. Derek and Cristina backed off slightly, knowing it was rude of them to listen in so it had to stop.

"He understood, he understood what if felt like for her to wake up alone, are we missing something?" Cristina complained, running her hand down her face.

"It was her birthday" Izzie stated solemnly, Derek turning to look at her in shock.

"What?"

"November 10th, it's her birthday. She woke up on her birthday and we weren't there" The information dawned on Derek and Cristina, memories rushing into his mind.

"I told her I would take her away, I was going to book us a 3 day trip to San Francisco, and then everything happened with Addison and I, I forgot" He whispered, Cristina remembering Meredith telling her, Izzie, George and Alex not long after Derek had broken up with her.

"How could we not remember?"

"Because we are terrible people, we are really bad people" Izzie whispered, them all not moving as they stared at he room, wondering how they could have gone so wrong.

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