Aftermath

Part 4

In the span of the next three days, a lot happened. Every one of us doctors had given statements to the police, which had been unbearably hard for everyone. I had gone to visit Alex, who was healing well and was being transferred back to Seattle Grace today. Lexie had been committed to the psyche ward, and had been sleeping for about 24 hours, going strong. 

Seattle Grace was temporarily closing the ER and was accepting no new patients. A lot of staff had taken leaves of absence. The ones that remained were able to treat what patients they still had. 

I barley moved from Derek's room all day. He had been moved from an ICU to a regular patient room. Christina and Teddy had been working with Derek to get him walking again. My stupid husband had refused pain medicine and it made me cringe every time he took a step with his face squeezed in pain and his chest gasping for air. 

I wasn't going to lie, I felt bad for him. Terrible. I wished he didn't have to go through this. Christina wouldn't stop badgering me about talking to him, but this was the reason why. I always justified myself the same. He needed to focus on healing himself right now, not me. 

I was sitting in my usual chair, when Jackson stepped warily into the room. This had been the first I'd seen of him since he assisted Christina in operating on my husband. I stood up and walked over to embrace him. 

"Thank you for what you did in the OR. It took guts, and I'm pretty impressed," I smiled, pulling away from the hug.

Before Jackson could respond, Derek called him over to his bed.

"I wasn't really present in the OR, but I wanted to say thank you too. You saved my life."

"Oh," Jackson smiled "It was all Christina."

"Don't say that, you and Christina are the reason Derek's here right now. You were really brave," I said. 

"Are you kidding? That was nothing compared to what you did! You were crazy in there, with the gunman and all. Now that took guts."

I sucked in a breath, the smiled falling from my face. Damn it.

"What?" Derek narrowed his eyes and looked at me "What is he talking about?" 

I dropped my eyes, not saying anything. I willed Jackson not to say anything either, but apparently he didn't get the hint. Damn it again. 

"She was so brave! She walked right into that OR and offered herself up to save everyone else. I mean, the only reason she didn't get shot was because Yang told the gunman she was-"

"Jackson!" I nearly yelled. 

"What the hell is he talking about, Mer?"

Jackson's expression changed and he gasped. "Oh...you didn't know..."

"Yeah, he didn't know, and I wasn't planning on telling him, Jackson. You should go."

Jackson gave me a guilty expression before walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. 

"Meredith." Derek demanded from the bed.

I sat on the end of his bed, running my fingers through my hair as I struggled to find the words to talk to him. 

"Something....happened. Yeah, something happened in the OR while they were operating on you."

"Yes, I figured that part out already." He was annoyed and angry.

Triple damn it. 

"Christina made me sit on the floor of the scrub room with April while she operated. We sat there for a few hours when Owen Hunt walked in. He, uh, told me not to move and he walked into the OR."