Meredith looked over from the door at Derek, the thought running through her head. He looked up from the computer screen at her.

'What is it?' Meredith walked across the office, checking that Burke wasn't in the office.

'Meredith?'

'I have an hour before my next surgery and I seen that you didn't have any surgeries either…' Meredith pulled Derek's hand, Derek smiling and shaking his head.

'I could report you to the chief for this,' Meredith looked to Derek who walked beside her down to the end on call room.

'I think with what's about to happen, he would allow it,' Meredith leaned back against the door, her hand locking it behind her. Derek stood in front of her.

'Three weeks Derek…three weeks,' Meredith pulled Derek over, her hips pressed against his. She smiled, his hair tangled in her fingers. She smiled as they backed over to the bed, Meredith pushing Derek down onto it. Her head fell, her pager vibrating on her hip.

'I knew I should have turned it off,' she leaned off his hands and looked down.

'Three weeks…three weeks,' Derek covered his eyes as the two of them laughed.

'We are so finishing this before we leave here,' Meredith closed the exam room door behind her, pissed that she had been paged.

'You want to explain to me why two interns have paged an attending before their resident?'

'There was blood in the tube,' Meredith walked round to the top of the bed and looked into the small bag. The blood was slowly trickling in.

'Book an OR, now,' Meredith unhooked the gurney, the two interns panicking and running around. She grumbled as she scrubbed in.

'How's the patient?' Meredith looked up to the scrub room door.

'Has a bleeding frontal lobe. But because of the bag their ICP stayed the same,'

'Evacuation?'

'Yip,'

'Three hours,'

'Three weeks Derek, like seriously three weeks,' Meredith shut the outside world off and wrapped the clip around the bleeding artery.

'Ok, get him back up to the ward and check the bag every ten minutes. Any sever bleeding, page me,' Meredith sat in the gallery, her head in her hands.

'What's up?'

'Three weeks is what's up,' Derek smiled as he sat next to her, the two of them exchanging looks.

'Why are we sitting in a gallery?' Derek shrugged his shoulders.

'Same room, five minutes,' Meredith disappeared, Derek shaking his head and smiling. Meredith sat on the bottom bunk, Derek gently easing her down onto the bed. Her hands eased his scrub top over his head, her hands running down his back. she groaned gently, his lips kissing her exposed chest. Meredith felt like crying, Derek's pager the one breaking them up.

'Who is it?'

'Burke,' Meredith took the pager out Derek's hand.

'He can wait five minutes,'

'Not when it's a 911,'

'I'm asking for five minutes here,' Derek looked at the pager and threw it onto the discarded scrub top.

'Five minutes,' He lifted her hips up, her legs wrapped around his waist. She pulled him over her slipping down her own scrub bottoms and his. His lips worked around her body, every inch of the newly exposed skin being covered with his lips. She lifted her body towards him, Derek holding her back up to himself. His name made its way out her lips with every movement made between the two of them. He pushed down onto her hands, Meredith digging her nails into the palms of his hands. Meredith stood up tying her scrub bottoms.

'Three weeks, never again,'

'Yeah,' Meredith handed Derek his top, gently kissing him as he left her pulling it over his head. She looked down to her pager five minutes later while she checked the patients blood bag.

'911,' Meredith ran down to the trauma rooms, her hands holding the stethoscope and pager against her body. She started slow as she seen Derek outside the room, pacing back and forward.

'Derek?' He looked up.

'My mom's in there. They won't let me look at her. they said page you,' Meredith went in, the trauma team standing around the bed.

'Give me the bullet,'

'Edith shepherd, 69 year old female flown in from New York general after a suspected stroke. Has paralysis to the left side of her body and slurring of words. GCS of thirteen and BP is 90 over 60,' Meredith stood at the top of the bed, her hand gently touching edith's face.

'Edith, it's me ok. I'm send you for a couple of scans, let me have a look and see what's happening ok,' Edith blinked, Meredith smiling at her.

'Ok, I want a CT scan of her spine and head. Get her moved up to Neuro and get her onto a monitor,' Meredith signed the chart and handed it to the intern.

'Get Bailey. Tell her it's personal,' Meredith went back out, Derek almost jumping on her.

'I'm sending her for a CT,'

'What's wrong with her?'

'It looks like a stroke. She's slurring her words and she has paralysis of the left side of her body. Where's your dad?'

'He's getting coffee. He couldn't watch her like that,'

'I've got her back Derek. Are the girls here?'

'Lindsey, Carol, Karen and Stacy are coming down on the next flight. My dad asked them to fly her down here,'

'He knows the best care she could get is down here,'

'She shouldn't be needing any care,'

'I might be able to fix this Derek, just think about that for a while,'

'She's had a stroke Meredith; the damage could be permanent,'

'Yeah Derek, could be. Not definitely. Once I get her scans back I can tell you more but until then just hang back and let me handle this,'

'she's my mom,'

'Exactly. It's un-ethical for you to treat her so let me handle this,' Meredith squeezed his hand and started to help push the gurney up to the CT scan. Derek grabbed hold of the gurney, Meredith prizing his hands off it.

'I've got this Derek,' Meredith ignored the sight of Derek out the corner of her eye, the helplessness in his face making her want to go to him but she knew that he wasn't her main priority. Edith was lifted onto the CT machine, Meredith taking control instead of letting an intern do it.

'You ok?' Edith blinked.

'Derek's waiting up out the room and the girls are on the next flight out,' Meredith listened, trying to decipher what Edith was saying.

'Yeah, I'm gonna try and fix this,' she took hold of her hand, gently rubbing the back of it. Edith tried to smile, the emotion looking more like a grimace. Meredith nodded and pushed the table in, Edith's hand dropping out her own. Meredith sat on the seat and waited for the scans, her legs up on the table. All she could think was that if she had let Derek leave when Burke paged, he would have been there sooner. The small bleed into Edith's brain was operable but it was a surgery Meredith had four times. She knew instantly Derek would say no to her doing it, Derek having performed it twelve times.

'You got her scans,' Derek stood up from the side of the bed, Edith blinking at Meredith. Bob didn't move from the seat, his eyes fixed on Edith.

'You have a bleed, into the left side of your brain. We call it a left justified haematoma. I can remove it,'

'I'm doing it,' Derek went to leave, Meredith grabbing his arm.

'No, I am fully qualified to do this and I have performed it four times and assisted at least six. I will do the surgery. You will stay with your family,'

'Meredith,'

'No argument about this. I am operating. I have the OR booked for tonight, ten O clock,'

'Why so late?' Bob looked at Meredith.

'I can go and get set up, give myself a chance to get ready for the surgery, properly. Plus I have the best anaesthesiologist in on the surgery along with the best general surgeon we have. Ten at night also means there won't be a lot of interns. I have her back bob,'

'Can I scrub in?' Meredith looked up at Derek, her hand still holding onto his arm.

'It's better if you don't. for my sake as much as your moms,' Derek nodded and sat back down.

'They'll be a resident in, to take blood for testing, just to check your white blood count and stuff ok? I'll make sure they're gentle,' Edith tried to smile again. Derek closed his eyes as she tried to say thank you. But the words never made it out past her mouth without being distorted. Meredith nodded and lifted the chart off the end of the bed.

'I'll be in later, just before the surgery,' Meredith looked at Derek.

'I'll sort the kids,'

'Yeah,' Meredith stood at the nurses station, her fingers nervously tapping on the counter.

'Adele?'

'Meredith,'

'Adele, Can you take the kids tonight?'

'Yeah, is everything ok?'

'Derek's moms been brought in. she's had a stroke and I need to operate but I can't have the kids here and Derek's staying here,'

'Phone me and let me know that she's ok. I can have the kids as long as you want,'

'Thanks Adele,' Meredith looked down the corridor, Mark coming down towards her.

'I just got your page. What's up?'

'Edith's had a stoke. Derek's cracking up. I'm operating tonight at ten and I can't handle him as well. I need you to keep an eye on him, make sure he's ok,'

'Yeah. How bad is it?'

'she could be paralysed permanently if I screw up,'