Jell-O therapy
Disclaimer: I wish, but no. It’s not mine.
Just something short. I felt like writing something besides a school paper, which I’ve been doing way too much of lately. MerDer always helps. Hope you like it. :)
It’s late when he finally makes it to Meredith’s room, a routine he’s gotten into over the past week. He gets his charts done early, makes sure everyone is still alive, then walks to his wife’s room, where he’s spent every night since her surgery.
She keeps telling him to go home, that they both shouldn’t have to sleep in the hospital bed when there’s a perfectly good bed waiting at home, complete with privacy and comfy sheets. But he can’t leave. That’s part of being a good husband. Besides, what good is their bed at home if he’s sleeping in it by himself?
So he brings the Jell-O and the hospital gossip, and she lets him. As he treks down the hall, Derek silently hopes there’s not a gathering of people in there like there was this morning. Meredith’s hospital room had become the resident clubhouse where people went to hang out or get in a quick therapy session. Of course, he knew Meredith was the glue holding them all together right now, but he really wanted his wife to himself tonight, even though there’s no sex allowed for the next few weeks while she recovers, something she’s annoyed with. Sex would make things a whole lot better.
He knocks twice before entering, surprised to find her in there alone, watching some sitcom and not laughing along with the laugh track. “Hey,” Derek smiles, closing the blinds. “How are you doing?”
Meredith mutes the television and turns her head. “Horrible,” she admits. “Horrible, bad, crappy day.” She drops her head back onto the pillows and shimmies over a little to make room for him. Even though she tells him to go home, she really does want him there.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, setting the Jell-O cup and spoon down on her tray before crawling in beside her.
“Cristina is ready to quit, Izzie up and left after she got fired tonight, and didn’t even bother to tell Alex,” Meredith spills. The words poured out of her mouth like she couldn’t help herself. And really, she couldn’t. Being a vault for everyone’s problems was exhausting. “And George is still dead.”
“Meredith,” Derek whispers, lacing his fingers through hers. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”
“It’s not. It’s not okay. A few months ago, there were five of us. Now there’s three. Two, if Cristina decides she’s had enough. And God only knows what the hell Alex is gonna do. Which leaves me, if I don’t get fired. Being pent up in a hospital bed doesn’t exactly help the situation. People are dropping like flies around here, Derek. And it’s not okay.”
Derek just nods and kisses her temple. It’s not okay. And there’s not much he can say to make it better. “You’re not getting fired,” he assures her. “And if Richard is stupid enough to do that, then I’m gone too. But you’re not getting fired.”
“You’d quit if I got fired?” she asks in disbelief. “One of us needs an income…”
Derek laughs. “Meredith, you are not getting fired. I don’t even want you to worry about that, okay?” he says with a small smile.
“Can you use your magic neurosurgeon powers to get Izzie back then?” she asks, reaching for the Jell-O cup on the tray.
“I’ll talk to Richard about it if you want me to, see what I can do. Maybe we can work something out,” Derek promises, perhaps overestimating the amount of pull he had. But still, for Meredith, he would try.
Meredith rests her head on his shoulder and sighs. “I miss when things were normal,” she confesses, drawing a spoonful of the strawberry Jell-O into her mouth.
“When were things ever normal?” Derek can’t help but ask with a chuckle.
“I don’t know,” Meredith shrugs. “I guess they never were.”
Derek presses a kiss to her temple. “You have me.”
“I know,” she whispers, running her hand over his cheek. “And thank you for the Jell-O. Strawberry is my favorite kind.”
“That’s why I ran to the store and got you an eight pack. The cafeteria only had lime and I know you hate that,” he laughs. “The rest are in the mini-fridge in my office so no one would eat them.”
Meredith turns to her husband and smiles at him. “See, now if I wasn’t off sex, you’d be getting sex tonight,” she tells him, offering him a bite of the wiggly red stuff on her spoon.
“Mer, you know if you were cleared for sex, we’d be having sex. But these doors don’t even lock,” Derek points out as he accepts the Jell-O.
“You suck,” Meredith says, chewing another bite.
Derek laughs. “I drove ten miles in a rainstorm for that Jell-O you’re eating.”
“Fine. You don’t suck. But with all that neurosurgeon magic you have, you should be figuring out a way for us to have sex,” she counters. “Because I could really use it.”
“Would it help with the dark and twisties?” Derek asks before leaning over and kissing her.
Meredith smiles against his lips. “Yes, it would.”
Things weren’t okay. But Derek always managed to make even the crappiest day into a better one. And right now, that’s all she really needed. Jell-O was nice too.