Chasing Cars

Chapter 10

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Noooooo. Too early." Meredith groans to herself, letting out a few coughs. She keeps her eyes closed and ignores her alarm.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Fine." Meredith mutters to herself, and presses stop on her phone. Meredith weakly tries to sit up but just doesn't have any energy to do so. She lets her body fall back against her pillows.

"Mama! Mama!" Maddie bursts into the room with Nanas in her arms. She's wearing a Anna and Elsa nightgown.

"What is it, baby girl?" Meredith says softly, not opening her eyes.

"I'm hungwy!" Maddie says loudly. She climbs up onto the bed and snuggles close to her mom.

"Okay. I'll get you some breakfast." Meredith says. She shivers as she is freezing despite wearing her long sleeve Dartmouth tshirt.

"Can I have fwoot loops pwease?" Maddie asks.

"Of course." Meredith's body feels so achy and she is freezing and she can barely keep her eyes open. She doesn't know how she'll get through work but knows that she has to. She'll do anything it takes to get through the day. She doesn't want anyone to think she is weak.

"Come on Mads, let's get you some Froot Loops." Meredith forces herself to get out of bed. All she wants to do is lay in her bed and sleep but knows she has to get up.

"Yayyyyyyy!" Maddie runs ahead of her mom to the kitchen.

Meredith slowly walks behind her, her blankets tightly wrapped around her body.

Richard is in the kitchen and sees her walk in. He doesn't like how unwell she looks. He sees how pale and tired she is.

"Morning Meredith. Are you feeling okay?" Richard asks, concerned.

"I'm fine." Meredith whispers.

"Mama's getting me fwoot loops papa!" Maddie yells excitedly. "It's yummy for my tummy!"

"You're a very lucky girl!" Richard says.

"Daddy likes bowring cereal!" Maddie giggles.

Richard sees Meredith slowly pouring a bowl of Froot Loops for Maddie.

"Here you go Maddie. Richard, can you watch her please? I need to get ready for work." Meredith says softly.

"Mer, are you sure you're okay to work today? You don't look so well." Richard asks.

"I'm fine Richard." Meredith knows she's really not fine. She can tell that she has a fever because now she's feeling super warm. "I'm going to go get ready."

Richard sighs, not wanting to argue with her. "Okay, please be careful and don't overwork yourself. I don't want you to make yourself any sicker by overdoing it."

"I'll be fine. I'm careful." She says. All Meredith wants to do right now is sit down. It's taking all of her strength just to stand there. "Maddie, listen to Papa okay? I'm going to get ready for work and then I'll have to go but you're going to have a good day with Adele today."

"Otay Mama!" Maddie quickly gets out of her chair and runs up to Meredith, almost knocking her down in the process. She wraps her arms around Meredith's legs. "Give you hugs mama!"

Meredith bends down and hugs her daughter. "I love you so much Maddie."

———

Meredith is back upstairs getting ready for work and each task takes so much energy to do. Meredith looks longingly at her bed, wishing she could lay down and sleep.

"I don't know how I'm going to get through today." She whispers to herself.

Meredith slowly walks downstairs and says goodbye to Maddie and Richard.

Meredith gets into her car and leans her head against the steering wheel before she starts the car. "I don't feel good." She moans to herself.

After a few minutes she forces herself to drive to work. She parks the car and grabs her things. She wishes she had brought a blanket but will just throw on her lab jacket when she gets to her office. Not that it will help much as she is absolutely freezing but it's still something.

Meredith slowly and weakly makes her way to her office, having to stop for a break a few times. Each break is spent leaning against the wall trying to catch her breath. She always makes sure to pick a spot where no one can see her to question how she is.

Once she gets into her office she slowly changes into her scrubs. She puts her lab jacket over her scrubs.

"I'm going to lay down for just a minute and then I'll go see patients." She tells herself. She lays down on her couch and covers herself with a blanket. She closes her eyes and instantly is fast asleep.

————-

"Have you seen Dr Grey?" An intern asks Dr Bailey.

"Do I look like I babysit for a living? Dr Grey is old enough to watch herself!" Dr Bailey says with a scowl. "Jeez, these interns..." Dr Bailey mutters to herself. After a moment she stops and thinks. "Wait, where is Meredith?" She worries, paging the sick doctor. She also pages Derek, asking if has any idea where Meredith is.

After twenty minutes of  not receiving a response or Meredith coming up to find her, Dr Bailey decides to page Derek and have him meet her in a conference room.

"Shepherd, have you heard from Grey?" She hasn't responded to my pages and hasn't shown up to teach the intern class. And I also heard that she never rounded on any of her patients. I'm starting to get worried, Shepherd, this isn't like her. And don't you dare repeat that to anyone. I'll deny it if anyone asks." Bailey says.

"Richard says she went into work this morning. I spoke to him after I was talking to Maddie this morning. He said she didn't look well. That alone worried me but now no one knows where she is?" Derek worries. "Plus I saw her car in the parking lot. She has to be here!"

Dr Bailey frowns. "Okay, we need to find her. Something must be wrong."

"I'll go see if she's in her office." Derek rushes out and quickly runs to Meredith's office. "Meredith, Mer, are you in here?" He asks after knocking on the door.

No response.

He decides to open the door and walks in to find Meredith sound asleep on the couch. He sighs and shakes his head at how sick she is.

He walks over to her and kneels down next to her. He gently shakes her shoulder. "Mer, can you wake up for me?"

Meredith's eyes slowly open and she blinks up at him. "Wha? Mmm tired." She whispers.

"I think we should get you home Mer. You're in no shape to be here." Derek said.

He quickly sent a text to Dr Bailey, saying that he found Meredith asleep in her office. Dr Bailey responded back, saying to bring her up to Dr Webber's office.

" 'm fine. I can work." She mumbled. She quickly got up and got dizzy when she stood up and quickly grabbed onto Derek for support.

"Okay, let's sit back down." Derek slowly lowered her back onto the couch. "Does that feel better?"

Meredith weakly nodded. "I need to see patients." She mumbled.

"No. You're done for the day. And honestly I'm not sure if you should be working anymore. We're going to go meet Dr Bailey and Dr Webber. I'm just grabbing a wheelchair for you quickly. Don't move, I'll be right back."

Derek quickly ran out of the room and was back a moment later with a wheelchair.

"Don't need that." Meredith whispered.

"Mer, you almost passed out on me."

"Fine." Meredith whispered and she allowed Derek to help her into the wheelchair to go see Dr Bailey and Dr Webber.

We hope you enjoyed! Thanks to my co-writer _Ktje_