From now on |1/2|

20

"Damn it! Leave me alone!" Meredith screamed and weakly threw away the transfer board. She wanted ti get into her wheelchair

"Mer-" Derek sighed and picked it up from the ground

"I don't want it, Derek! I could do this without!" Meredith kept raising her voice

"I know. It's to make sure you transfer safely. You had spine surgery a week ago.." He wanted to ease her

"And all I've been doing is laying here and not doing stuff I used to be able to do! I can't do anything! I can't even lift my own kid!" She snapped and tried to figure out how she'd get in her wheelchair, something that had been so easy for the past years as she worked on it every single day but now her body felt different. Her already limited movements were now even more reduced

"Mer-" Derek caught her as she tried to launch herself into her wheelchair. He lowered her and helped her get comfortable. "Are you trying to break the rods again? Or break your neck?" Derek almost snapped, luckily he could stop himself

But both of them were absolutely exhausted. Meredith's latest spine injury was really taking it's toll on their family. Even if their family helped out, they brought home made food, did some laundry and helped to take care of Emma.

"Sorry." Derek sighed and kneeled down in front of his wife, after she fixed herself and was now properly sitting in her wheelchair, with a new adapted backrest

"I know you're right. But it's so frustrating! I could do this! I could keep our daughter in my lap, I used to be able to help her climb up. And now I can't do a thing for her!" Meredith was very close to crying

"I have no idea how frustrating this must be for you, Mer. But I'm here to help. What if you're reckless and take a fall and you injure yourself? That would be way worse. We want you to recover, not get worse. You can still move your arms. You just need to recover and then adapt." Derek rubbed her neck softly

"Not much to recover. Not like I'm gonna walk.." Meredith muttered

"Not walking. But back to being independent again." Derek kissed her head. "I'm sorry, Mer."

"I should have never done that stupid surgery while sitting down. I'm stupid." Meredith said, very upset with herself

"You're not stupid. You wanted to help that patient." Derek sighed. He should have changed from OR so Meredith's chair didn't have to be moved

'Accidents could happen.' That's what Meredith claimed. But they weren't aware that this once again was caused by Murphy, who was still not fired after the board complained about their teaching program

Meredith had asked Derek to leave it. She hoped Murphy would just leave it from here and work on her attitude towards disabled people.

But that wasn't really the case.

In the past week Murphy was assigned to Meredith's case and although it seemed like she was learning, she secretly messed with Meredith's medication, she often gave her less than required. She injected less morphine than Meredith needed, leaving her in pain during the day and night, causing her to often sleep even worse which was already limited because of the horrible bed. Luckily Amelia and Mark often administered Meredith's meds or even Addison and Derek did

"Derek, I need more pain meds." Meredith muttered as she felt her back pain starting to act up

"I'll get you some." Derek nodded and kissed her head, this time he got them himself. He didn't wanna bother someone else when he could do it himself

"When will mom drop off Em?" Meredith asked, stretching her shoulders, still exploring her new mobility

"Probably any minute. But you're in your chair so we can head out right away, as long as you're sure?" Derek asked her

"Yeah. It will do me well to move a little. But I still can't leave the hospital anyway." She rolled her eyes

"Soon." Derek kissed her head again

"Mommy! Daddy!" They both turned their heads, Emma running inside

"Monkey!" Meredith smiled wide. She let Derek lift their daughter to be able to give her a tight hug as Emma couldn't sit on Meredith's lap yet until her scans would show everything was perfectly fine

"Mama, I missed you!" Emma said. Derek spend most nights home to take care of Emma while Meredkth stayed at the hospital. But there was always someone working. Either it were Mark and Addison or Alex, she was never alone.

"I missed you too, monkey! You've gotten taller! You grew!" Meredith smiled

"Hi Meredith." Carolyn hugged her daughter in law. The previous night Derek had told her his concerns about her mental well being because of her set back. The elder woman was very happy to see Meredith light up when she saw her daughter, and as always the little girl was Meredith and Derek's fuel to keep going in life, to focus on what's ahead of them

"Let's go!" Emma announced and jumped up and down.

"Either you hold onto mommy's chair or you give me a hand, monkey." Derek warned her

"Mom, are you joining us?" Meredith asked

"Maybe later. I'm gonna check on Christopher. He's working at the clinic today." Carolyn smiled softly

"Yeah, dad stepped by earlier. He wanted to know how things were going." Meredith forced a smile, sadness overtaking

"Well we'll come see you in a while." Carolyn promised, wanting them to have some time for themselves, as a family, with Emma close by, hopefully making some future plans

Truth is I finished this chapter an hour after the previous one but I planned to publish it at 10:30am (In my timezone, of course.) Because that's exactly when my exam is starting. So if some people are awake and reading: please leave a vote and tell me how this story is going. I usually reach 20 chapters over a longer time and it's when I lose ideas for a story, just letting you know I have a very very good storyline in head (Thanks to Maja and Lindsey again) and it's not even close to ending! <3