Some Kind of Recovery

Chapter One

:: A more in-depth look into Meredith's recovery after the drowning incident as well as what happened during the time she was being resuscitated ::

:: Chapter Inspiration ::

:: Timeless | Kate Havnevik ::

Timeless

Love is a cure

A promise

Still so pure

Rise like the tide

No need to hide it

Fearless

Just like before

The cold water was a shock to him as he made contact with the icy surface.

Blinking, he took a moment to adjust to the temperature and for his eyes to clear up but it was no help in seeing anything. The water was so dark, from a mixture of the depth and the fuel that was spilling from the ferry boat above the surface.

Where is she?

Using his arms to push him around, he twirled in circles under the water, trying to find sight of something, anything, but there was nothing. Before he could do anything else, his oxygen began to run out and he was forced to kick towards the surface and take a big gulp of air before diving back under.

By his seventh dive, his heart was beginning to break even further at the fact that he just wasn't finding anything.

He didn't know how much longer he could keep doing this. The water was icy and his limbs were beginning to become numb. How long had Meredith been under the water for? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Twenty? He had no idea but he had only been in for no more than ten minutes and he was beginning to struggle. And she was a lot smaller than him, so it would have taken more out of her and Oh God.

The more time that went by, the more he was beginning to question if she was even in the water. She wasn't there.

"Are you sure she's in the water?"

A nod.

Just as he was about to give up and get out of the water, his foot brushed against something in the water.

At this point, he had moved out a good twenty -five feet from the dock, how did she get out here?

Without a second thought, he thrust his hand under the water, searching for anything to grab ahold of. The seconds passed and he was begging to think he had imagined he had felt something when his hand finally wrapped around something soft yet oh so cold. Without even looking down what he had grabbed, he began to kick towards the surface, head becoming lighter with a lack of oxygen.

Once he finally broke the surface, he used his remaining strength to drag whatever he had grabbed to the surface, noticing it was her arm before gathering the rest of Meredith's body against him.

He had hoped that she would have taken a breath when they had broken the surface together but her head quickly rolled onto his shoulder, smashing all the hope.

Pushing her head back a little, he took note of how blue she was, an obvious sign that a) she wasn't breathing at all, and b) she was hypothermic.

Realising he needed to get his breathing under control before he could do anything to help her, he began to cough up the small amount of water he had inhaled.

With a tight grip around Meredith's waist, he began to kick his feet, propelling himself towards the dock.

After what felt like hours, he pushed Meredith's body up onto the dock before pulling himself out of the water. Now that he wasn't fighting to keep them both afloat, he really got a good look at the state Meredith was in.

Her skin was almost the same colour as the light blue scrubs she was wearing.

She wasn't breathing.

That meant her heart wasn't beating on its own.

Not wanting to truly find out himself, he placed a shaking hand against the side of her neck and waited.

Nothing. No movement.

He had to stop himself from letting out a sob, he quickly gathered her limp body in his arms and ran up the steps of the dock.

As he approached the top, he looked around, trying to find the girl that had directed him in the direction of Meredith to make sure she was okay.

As he did a sweep of the dock with his eyes, he made eye contact with a search and rescue member who was holding the little blonde girl. The man froze for a minute, taking in the sight of the two doctors, one blue and the other carrying her frozen body, both soaked to the bone.

Once he recovered from his initial shock, the man placed the little girl back onto the floor before turning and calling in the direction of the rest of the chaos for a gurney.

Within seconds of calling, or at least what felt like seconds – he didn't really have the right mindset to understand time at that moments, she was being pulled out of his arms onto the gurney.

The minute she was pulled out of his arms, he was pulled out of his state of shock and moved forward, climbing onto the gurney and placing his hands on her chest and began compressions, trying to get her heart beating on its own.

As they moved through the throng of people being treated around the triage centre, one of the paramedics began asking him questions. "Do you know what happened?"

Shaking his head, he replied, "No."

"What about how long she was down for?"

Holding back another sob, he shook his head again, "No."

The paramedic eyed him cautiously, "Do you know this woman?"

"Her name is Meredith Grey."

At some point, they had made it into the back of an ambulance, him directing the driver to take them to Seattle Grace before he began to strip her soaking clothes off her as they weren't helping with the hypothermia.

Quickly grabbing a blanket that was folded neatly, he threw it over her body before he began compressions again. He could see the other paramedic wanting to help him but he wouldn't give him room to help, and so the paramedic sat back down, constantly glancing back and forth between the road ahead to him in the back.

"ETA five minutes."

He had heard the paramedic call back to him briefly and before he knew it, the doors were being swung open and Miranda Bailey and the paramedic began talking around him.

"Jane Doe, hypothermic, drowning," The paramedic began to call out to her but he quickly snapped at him, "It's not Jane Doe, it's Meredith Grey!" Turning to Miranda, he said, in a much softer tone, "It's Meredith."

Miranda climbed into the ambulance as the began to pull the gurney out, "Derek, how long has she been down?"

"I don't know," he told her, focusing back on his compressions. "She's alive, she's alive, she's alive." He chanted to himself over and over.

"Clear a trauma bay!"

The activity was buzzing around him as everyone was trying to get everything ready to try and bring Meredith back to life. He could see them inserting a tube into her mouth and connecting it to an Ambu bag, pumping air into her lungs so he didn't have to anymore.

Faintly, he could hear Miranda calling out orders to anyone she could. "Page, the chief, Dr Burke, Dr Montgomery, Dr Sloan and my interns. Page them 911 Meredith, trauma bay one."

He let the other doctors and nurses run around him but he didn't move until the chief came up behind him, trying to push him off of Meredith's cold body so he could take over the compressions and before he knew it, he was sitting on the floor outside the trauma bay, hopelessly watching the door, waiting for someone to come out and tell him that Meredith, his Meredith, wasn't dead anymore and that she was breathing all by herself, not needing anyone to breath for her.

Okay, the ferry boat arc is my favourite story line in the history of the show, I don't know why but I totally feel like there needs to be more stories on it. I know I already have another story going but I want to right two so here I am. I'm going to make this story about the period where Meredith recovers from all this because let's be real, you don't die like that and come out of it all fine. So if you want to see more of this story, make sure you let me know with a review!