New One-Shot
Get excited, I haven't written this ship in ages. Enjoy flist... I love you.
Title: Elephant in the Room
Author:
grand_delusions
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, not mine, Shonda's and ABCs... but the subtle snark? It's all mine.
Spoiler: Didn't We Almost Have It All?
Keywords: Meredith/Derek, fic-with-a-twist
Word Count: 1,368
A/N: This has been floating through my head for weeks, and I kept thinking "no, no, Aub you can't do that... then I thought, why the hell can't I?" So I did. Count the external references (both from other episodes and things beyond the show) as you read and enjoy the twist towards the end. Dedicated to the Mer/Der peeps on my flist (I love you all) and especially to my person,
distant_dreamer because I love her to pieces.
Elephant in the Room
Cristina had long since cried herself to sleep when Meredith finally pulled into the driveway of her house. The hours comforting her friend did little to distract her from her own broken fairytale.
Exhausted emotionally and physically Meredith bunched up her bridesmaid dress in her hands, the brown satin crumpling in her fists as she clamored up the front steps to the door. Each tired stomp echoed the words ringing through her mind:
“Over.”
“Over.”
“Over.”
Biting back the disappointed tears, she sighed heavily as she pushed open the door, her breath hitching in her throat when she spotted him in the living room.
Derek sat slumped on sofa, his tux rumpled and hair askew, passing his car keys between his hands.
She froze. She had finally reached the point of mental breakdown since she was undoubtedly hallucinating. Derek wouldn’t be in her living room. It was…
Well, she said it herself, hadn’t she?
Then his head turned and his bloodshot eyes met hers.
Exhaustion slammed against her and if the desire to collapse in her bed hadn’t been pressing down on her before, she felt it weighing against ever inch of her.
Didn’t he understand? Happily-ever-afters didn’t happen to girls like her. And with each inhale of air she felt herself growing flushed as anger brewed within her.
How dare he show up unannounced, waiting for her to come home as if they were going to constantly perform this dance.
It was over. The happy Meredith wasn’t allowed to exist. She wasn’t going to allow it.
“Meredith,” he began. But she whirled towards the kitchen banging open the door and was unsurprised to find Izzie in her brown dress and an apron icing a batch of cupcakes.
“What the hell is he doing here?” she demanded, jabbing her finger into the pink icing and scooping a large clump into her mouth like a petulant child.
Izzie shrugged, slightly taken aback by her housemate’s anger. “He came here right after you left with Cristina and has been waiting for you for hours.”
“Well he can’t be here,” Meredith insisted.
“That’s your McProblem,” Izzie answered, staring at the cupcake she’d finished icing before taking a large bite of the treat.
“I hate you,” Meredith grumbled, stomping back into the hall.
She found him right where she left him, staring at the space she had occupied minutes prior before running away. Always running away.
“You need to leave,” she said.
“Why?” his voice was broken and hallow, but there was an air of determination coloring his words, as if he was determined to wear her down until she would allow them to be together.
“Because there’s no such thing as happy endings, Derek,” she snapped, “you of all people should know that.”
His eyes narrowed and he dropped the keys onto the coffee table with a ‘clink.’ “So because Cristina didn’t get her happy ending, you’re going to deny yourself yours? That's bullshit, Meredith,” he said as he pushed himself to his feet.
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you implied it.”
“I just don’t see the point anymore,” she shrugged, anger melting away as a depressed acceptance took its place.
“In what?” his voice sounded more gentle, but Meredith thought she maybe was hallucinating and imaging the entire conversation.
“Us?” he pressed.
“We’re never going to be happy,” she answered dully.
Derek snorted. “You’re serious?”
“I’m just admitting what we both know is the truth.”
“What has gotten into you?” he balked, taking two steps towards her as Meredith backed up towards the stairs. “Meredith you are the love of my life. Why won’t you see that?”
Meredith blinked as tears clouded her vision and threaten to fall. “She’s never going to let us.”
“What do you mean?” he moved to wipe a tear from her cheek that had slipped from her eye.
“Shhhe,” Meredith bit down on her lower lip as her breathing grew shaky. “I don’t want to fall any more in love with you because she’s never going to let us be happy together.” Several more tears rolled down her face and Derek’s hands moved to cup her cheeks.
“Who are you talking about?”
“Shhhh… Shonda,” Meredith squeaked out.
Derek’s hands dropped as if her face burned. “I thought we were never going to talk about her,” he said softly.
“But Derek she’s why,” Meredith’s eyes darted towards the ceiling as her sobs grew more frantic and broken. “She’s why we can never be happy and as long as she’s around I can’t be with you because she won’t let us be happy.”
Meredith abandoned all attempts at trying to stop the constant flood of tears and risked looking at Derek’s downcast face. He stared at their feet for what seemed like forever before his head rose, nodding as his eyes locked with hers.
“Okay,” he said finally.
“What do you mean, ‘okay?’”
“We’ll leave,” Derek decided. “We’ll go somewhere, anywhere, somewhere she can’t find us.”
Meredith laughed incredulously. “Where on earth could we go, Derek? L.A.? She’s got connections there. Suburbia? A deserted island? They’ll find us wherever we would try to go.”
He watched her in silence and she wished he would say something. Hope was a horrid thing to break and she had beaten it down enough times in the past year, each time promising she wouldn’t have to do it again. But his optimism was infectious and the more she wished she wouldn’t allow herself to believe him, the more she wished he would take her away from Seattle so they could finally be happy.
“I know where she can’t find us,” he spoke at last and Meredith gasped in surprise.
“Where?” she almost begged for the answer, the need to grab hold of something-someone in this drowning sea of misery growing too much to refuse.
“Back East,” he said finally, hesitantly hooking his fingers with hers, allowing himself the faintest of smiles when she didn’t pull away. “I’ve got some contacts still-a friend, well, kind of a friend, Greg. They might need a new Neurologist soon, and there are more chances for you to transfer to any number of other residencies there than if you stay her.
Her eyes had drifted into the distance and he watched her until they returned to him. “It’s up to you, Meredith,” he said softly. “But you’re right, if we stay here-”
“She’ll never let us be happy,” she finished, nodding.
“Right.”
“So,” she let out a nervous breath, “when would we do this?”
“How about now?”
“Now?” Meredith’s eyes grew wide. “But what about Cristina and Izzie and George and Alex?”
“If we wait to run she might find out and stop us,” Derek explained. His fingers pulled away from hers and raked through her hair instead. “This is your decision Meredith,” he murmured. “But you know where I stand. I want to be with you, and I want to be happy with you.”
Meredith’s head slowly bobbed up and down as her gazed scanned the room. This was her home. This was where her friends where, and where her life was. But the her eyes fell upon object after object in the living room she couldn’t think of why she should stay there.
It was over. Her time in Seattle was over.
Her gaze fixed upon the front door, mere feet away from where they stood in the hallway, and when she looked back into the living room she saw his keys resting on the coffee table.
She sniffed as she pulled away from him and walked into the living room. Behind her, Derek shifted anxiously on his feet, but when she reached down to scoop up his keys in her hand, he noticed her shoulders didn’t hold the same defeated slump he’d observed when she first walked in. She turned to him and through her tears she smiled.
His grin matched hers and as she walked towards him, she fell against him, her lips pressing against his as he felt cool metal being pressed into his hands.
“Take me for a ride, Derek,” she smiled against his lips, and he kissed her again before leading her out the door.
-o-
-el fin-
-o-
A/N: How many external references did you get? You should've counted at least five.