Cristina's POV

I walked into the resident's loundge and saw my best friend sitting on the bench, staring blankly at the wall with tears in her eyes. She didn't look over at me when I walked in or even say anything as I made my way over to her and sat down next to her.

"Meredith..." She shuddered slightly and then broke down, leaning on my shoulder and shaking with sobs. I tried to ask her what was wrong but I knew she wouldn't answer me, so I just sat and let her cry into my shoulder for a few minutes.

Her crying never died down as I helped her stand up and walk out of the building towards her car, holding her up when I felt her start collapse. She gasped for air over and over and cried relentlessly, her green eyes becoming bloodshot and puffy.

I got her into the car and put her seatbelt on, running around to the driver's side and turning it on. Meredith had quieted down slightly since we had left the Hospital but her body still shook and convulsed with sobs.

I stayed silent the entire drive, not wanting to pressure her into saying anything unless she was comfortable. I remembered the nights when I had felt the same way that she did, just needing to cry for a while and not have to worry about living life for a moment.

I helped her through the door and into her bedroom, grabbing the first shirt and pair of shorts I could find off the dresser. I approached her and made a move to help her change, but as soon as she saw the shirt I was holding she pushed it away and began crying harder.

Suddenly, I realized what had made her this upset. Derek. What did he do this time, god dangit?! I placed the light grey shirt with DARTMOUTH written across it in dark green letters on the bed and sat down next to her, wrapping my arms around her and rubbing her back.

"Shhhh, shhhh, it's okay. It's okay, you're okay. Just breathe, breathe." I soothed. She quieted slowly until she was silent with only the occasional shake or shudder.

I sighed and squeezed her tightly one last time, telling her that I had to go back to the hospital to get my stuff and that I would be right back. Meredith nodded ever so slightly and I rushed out of the room and back to the car, not wanting to leave her alone for too long.

By the time I got to the hospital, the anger that was building up inside of me made me want to burst. I was going to kill him.

I stormed up to the hospital, seeing him through the glass doors and running up to him. I grabbed him by the arm and yanked it so that he was looking at me. His eyebrows raised and his blue eyes went wide in surprise.

"What... the hell... did you do to her?!" I said through gritted teeth. He furrowed his eyebrows and pulled his arm out of my grip.

"What are you talking about?" He asked. I set my jaw and looked up at him, rage burning in my eyes.

"Your wife. What the hell did you do?!" I almost shouted. His face transformed and showed an expression of anger and a hint of betrayal.

"She destroyed my trial." He shrugged. I let all of the anger built up inside of me go in that moment.

"YOU DESTROYED HER!!" I screamed, feeling tears in my eyes at the memory of my best friend in such a horrible state. He rocked back in surprise and gasped quietly. I took a shaky breath and tried to compose myself.

"You... you broke her. She's so far gone, she can't talk, she can't move. All she can do is cry. Whatever you did, whatever you said to her, it made her feel so guilty that she can't bring herself to walk to her car on her own. So, you better tell me right now what you said that made her this way and then you better fix it, I swear to god!" I cried.

Derek stood, stunned for a moment, and looked at me, tears streaming across my face and the fiery rage in my eyes slowly dying down. When he didn't say anything for a while, I decided that he needed more convincing before he could forgive her.

"She is the woman that you love. She loves you more than she loves herself. Meredith... yeah, she's an idiot. Yeah, she shouldn't have done what she did. And yeah, it was stupid and it could ruin her career. But that doesn't change the fact that she is the woman that you love. And you... you hurt her really bad tonight. You did something that sent her over the edge and I think you're the only one who can get her back." I sighed. His face softened slightly and I reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Please, don't let her stupidity stop you from loving her. Just... please... give her another chance. Pick her, because she needs you more than anything right now. She needs you to forgive her because if all of this goes wrong and she loses her job and she can't adopt her baby and she can't pay for her house or talk to her friends anymore, she's really gonna need you to be there for her. You're everything to her, and if she looses you because of something she did... she'll never forgive herself until you forgive her. Just- just give her another chance. I don't know if I can be the person who lays next to her on the bathroom floor for three days straight. So please, just... fix her." I begged.

There were tears in Derek's eyes and he had an expression on his face that showed that he felt indescribably bad about whatever he had done. And I saw it when I looked into his eyes, he knew that he loved her too much to let a stupid mistake get in the way of them.

He sighed and swallowed the lump in his throat, closing his eyes for a moment and allowing a couple of tears to roll down his face.

"O-okay. I can talk to her. I didn't mean what I said... it was the heat of the moment, I was just so angry at her that I couldn't stop to look at the bigger picture. I know now. She did it... because she saw what happened to her mother. She saw how it affected everyone around her and she didn't want that to happen to Richard. She knew that the hospital would be chaos if he wasn't at his best to run it. She... she did it... for me." He shook his head, pulling his hands out of mine and walking quickly out of the door.

I sighed and watched him retreat to his car, standing and staring at the space where he had been for a while after he had pulled out and started the drive to Meredith's house.

The rage inside me had died completely and been replaced with hope. Hope that he would make things right and Meredith would be okay. Hope that they could be happy together and get through whatever happened with the trial as a team instead of enemies. Hope that they could one day be the happy married couple with the adorable baby and the beautiful house on the side of a mountain and, most importantly, each other.

This will probably just be a two-shot about Meredith and Derek getting over what happened with the Alzheimer's trial. This is what I wish had happened because what actually happened just made me really sad and really mad that they couldn't work it out together.

Kisses!

-E