Asystole ✷ Mark Sloan

𝟬𝟬𝟳 missing a man (swing and duck)

𝙑𝙄𝙄.
MISSING A MAN / 𝘚𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘋𝘜𝘊𝘒

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SEATTLE

DEREK TOOK HIS lunch breaks at 11:30 am.

He'd told me that at the little get-together we'd had on my first night. By 11:30 am, Derek Shepherd (unless duty called) was destined to sit in the canteen, eat his lunch and spend the rest of his half-hour flipping through medical journals and waiting for the scream of his pager. Naturally, Derek, being Derek, had extended an invitation to me. If I had nothing better to do (which I sure as hell didn't), I could come to drag my ass down into the canteen and sit with him.

We'd spent the day before talking about my life back in Indonesia. He'd snuck me into the staff area and bought me coffee and talked about the last four years that everyone had missed. It was a repeat of the conversations I'd had with Archer, but with the addition of the plane ticket. I'd told him that I was leaving. He'd been sad, but he'd understood. He'd told me that the only good thing about Archer coming to Seattle had been my reappearance, that he'd missed me a whole lot more than he'd initially realised-- I'd smiled at that.

He said that he'd sneak me onto the attending's table and I'd told him that as long as he kept me as far as possible from Mark, I'd take him up on his offer. Chuckling, he'd agreed; all while the man sat a few bar stools down from us seemed to scoff silently as he overheard my last request.

"Hi, I'm looking for Dr Shepherd." The receptionist looked up at me from the other side of the desk; she had sharp eyes and a permanent frown fixated onto her features. I glanced at the clock behind her. It was 11:40 am and Derek wasn't in the canteen yet. "I was supposed to meet him at 11:30- is he busy? Did he get rushed into surgery or something?"

She told me to wait for a few seconds and I fell quiet, watching her earnestly as she typed away on her computer, probably looking through Derek's timetable. I pursed my lips, glancing around at the surrounding reception.

The surgical wing was vast, a large collection of corridors and floors and rooms and employees- I was sure to get lost at some point. I wasn't particularly good at navigation, hence why I'd resorted to writing Archer's room number on the back of my hand with a sharpie pen. Derek had to be somewhere, I just had no idea where.

"Dr Shepherd is currently on his break." The receptionists' answer caused me to frown. My eyebrows bunched together as she read off the information she had on the screen. "Would you like to leave him a message with his secretary?"

I shook my head swiftly, still utterly bewildered. Where the fuck is he? "No, I'll try messaging him, thanks."

I gave her a parting smile and turned away, as soon as her eyes were off me, the expression withered and another grimace took its place.

I'd had lunch with Derek every day since the day after my arrival. We'd sat on a table and had quiet, fleeting conversations, occasionally being joined by his girlfriend, Sam or even a subdued Addison (although she would never sit, only pass, smile at the two of us and barely even speak a word). I'd grown to be quite fond of Meredith, she was the furthest thing from Addison I'd imagined Derek to get over Addie with. She was something different to what I, and I'm sure Derek also, was used to. The only similarity I could see to my sister was Meredith's dry humour.

Another thing I'd grown to know was that Derek is a creature of habit and rituals, although I'd known that since one of the first times I'd ever met him. He liked order to his schedules, he liked to have himself organised and in one piece. Missing 10 minutes of his lunch break when it wasn't due to his work was simply no dice.