On Call | Grey's Anatomy // Book 3 // COMPLETED

64 | Stupid Blanket

"So, DeLuca probably just got busy, right?" Maggie started listing off reasons why DeLuca hadn't called her that day; though, she had to talk quite loud over the sound of Meredith steam-cleaning the rug. "I mean, he's an intern. He's probably just been running around all day. He just forgot to tell me his surgery was canceled."

Alex, who was holding a box of cereal and sitting beside me in one of the chairs in Meredith's entryway, cocked a brow as he watched Meredith move the loud machine back and forth over the same spot on the rug. "You sure that thing works?"

Meredith shrugged, "It's brand-new!"

"Just because you never took it out of the box doesn't mean it works." Alex pulled out a handful of cereal from the cardboard box and shoved the food into his mouth. "How long has it been sitting in the closet?"

Amelia, who had so far just been observing, finally spoke up. "Are we facing this the right way?"

"The steam is facing the carpet. How many other ways are there?" Meredith grew impatient as she thrust the steam-cleaner into Amelia's hands.

"It's been like this lately, you know? It's been hard for us to get our schedules to match up." Maggie continued her rant about her love life, "It's funny. It was easier for us to get together before we went public than now. So funny."

As the sound of the steam-cleaner filled the room, Alex and I shared a look as Amelia and Meredith did the same. "What?" Maggie caught on in no time to the glances, "Why are you all exchanging looks and not exchanging words?

"He's been a little standoffish and hard to reach, and not entirely up-front about everything he's doing," Amelia said what we were all thinking.

Maggie, a little taken aback by the words, shrugged. "A little, I guess. What are you saying?"

"He's giving you the brush-off." I finally decided to throw my two-cents into whatever conversation we were having, "He's avoiding you."

"Uh, no." Maggie denied right away without even taking a second to think about it, "No, he's not giving me anything."

Alex scoffed as he lazily shoved more cereal into his mouth. "That's the problem."

"You think he's dumping me?!" Maggie started speaking even louder as Meredith snatched the steam-cleaner back from Amelia, "That's ridiculous!"

Amelia sheepishly shrugged. "Unless it isn't."

Without so much as another word, Maggie calmly walked into the next room to grab her shoes before heading for the front door. "Where you off to?" I questioned.

"To the hospital." Maggie replied, "No one brushes me off. I brush. I'm the brusher."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is a bad idea." Amelia started waving her hands around at Maggie, "Mer, you want to jump in here?"

As the front door opened and closed to signify the final decision that Maggie had made, Meredith shut off the steam-cleaner and huffed. "This stain is not coming out."

After Meredith had stormed out of the room to undoubtedly find some other random task to start, Amelia, Alex, and I stood silent in the front hall of Meredith's house. "'Come with me.'" I turned to Alex so I could mock him as I slowly stood from my chair, "'We'll just talk to her to see if she's okay...we'll be back at the hospital in no time.'"

"I was trying to be a good friend." Alex shrugged as he too stood up.

"After all we've been through..." I sighed, "...I could stab you in the hand with a fork and still be one of your best friends. We are solidified in stone, my friend...and nothing can change that even if we wanted it to."

Finally, the three of us took off to find Meredith once more, and it wasn't a surprise to see her pulling the blankets and towels out of an already perfectly clean closet. I wasn't sure what exactly had happened to Meredith, seeing as no one had decided to give me the details, but whatever it was must have really messed her up.

"Mer, that closet's cleaned already." Alex tried to tell her even though we all already knew it was a moot point with her.

"Well, we're gonna use the top shelf for beach towels, towels, and rags." Meredith began, "The middle shelf will be for sheets, and the bottom shelf will be for the children in case they need to reach it."

I nodded, accepting the fact that I just needed to go with the flow right now. "Okay. Sure."

But then, out of nowhere, Meredith paused with her hands on a large brown blanket and began to laugh quietly to herself. "Mer, what is it?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

"It's his stupid, stupid blanket." Meredith referred to the blanket that had once belonged to Derek, "We're done the cleaning."

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As the day passed by I remained at Meredith's house for two reasons; the first being that there would have been nothing for me to do at the hospital if I had gone back so late in the day unless I wanted to grab a night surgery, which I didn't want, and the second being that I was genuinely worried about Meredith. She was my best friend and I wanted to make sure I was there for her if she needed me.

"So, uh, Amelia went to go pick up the kids. Should be back soon." Alex said as he entered the living room where Meredith and I sat on the floor in front of the crackling fireplace, "Whoa. You made a fire. I mean, it's seventy degrees outside, but that's cool."

Drawing in a deep breath, Meredith paused for a moment before talking. "This was Derek's blanket. I always hated the stupid thing. It's not soft. It's not warm. It's not a great color. He had it in the trailer. He brought it here. Made it to the dream house with us. He made a bed in front of this fireplace for us once. And now he's gone. And I still have the damn thing...I freaked out this morning."

"We heard." I nodded as Meredith let out a small chuckle, "You okay? So...you brought Thorpe here after drinks and it was terrible."

Meredith shook her head slowly. "It wasn't terrible?" Alex cocked a brow.

"So, why did you freak out?" I inquired.

"That's the problem. It was kind of incredible." Meredith explained, "He was going to leave. And then we fell asleep. And then when we woke up...I...he was just there, and I just...everyone said I was ready. You guys said I would be okay, so I thought I should just do it and get it over with. But I-I wasn't ready for it to be..."

Meredith took another deep breath, but I could tell by her face that she couldn't, or didn't know how to, finish her sentence. So, we just fell silent and watched as the flames of the fire danced around. I wasn't sure if it was something about watching the hypnotizing fire that made me say it, but before I could really think about what I was doing, I just said it.

"We're getting married." I sighed as I cuddled up closer to Meredith and her brown blanket, "Owen and I..."

I hadn't been sure whether telling Alex and Meredith would have been the right thing, but when they both looked at me with smiles on their faces but didn't say anything, I knew I had made the right choice. I didn't need people getting over-excited for me or asking too many questions...I just needed people to know that my life was going somewhere that I deemed was the right direction.

A few minutes later Amelia returned home with Zola and Bailey and swiftly put them to bed before grabbing some snacks and joining the three of us in front of the fire. We caught up a little, but neither Alex nor Meredith mentioned what I had said, and for that I was grateful.

"This looks cozy." Maggie commented when she returned home as well, "What are we doing?"

"Enjoying the clean, clean house." Meredith answered as she glared down at the carpet in front of Alex where he was eating crackers, "Look at your crumbs."

"How's DeLuca?" Amelia looked up at Maggie.

Maggie sighed as she grabbed at the bag of kale chips, "He's a-a non-issue now...what am I eating? I'm gonna need something way less healthy than this."

"Pizza's coming," Alex told her as the doorbell rang, making it perfect timing as Alex jumped to his feet.

However, it wasn't pizza at the door, but instead, it was Thorpe. I could hear Alex trying to get him to go away, but he kept asking to see Meredith and finally, Meredith herself stood up and walked to the door. After greeting Thorpe, she handed her blanket to Alex and stepped outside with Thorpe so they could talk.

The two talked for a while as the rest of us stood by, so when the front door finally opened again our heads all snapped up and we instinctively stared at Meredith. "I'm fine." she sighed, "Completely and utterly fine."

Don't stop. Don't hesitate. You can't be scared of what's next. Do not let fear get in your way. That's why we don't operate alone. There are attendings and nurses and interns. Those O.R.s are full of people. So, in the cases where someone actually does get hurt...nobody has to go through it alone.