Chasing Cars

Chapter 30

Derek peeked into the bedroom and saw that Meredith was still asleep. Just as he's pulling out his phone to call Mark for a favor, Maddie comes running up to him.

"Daddy! Hi! Me and Nanas are boreded! Pway wit us!" Maddie says.

"Mads, I can't right now. I need to go to the grocery store and get us some more food. Do you want to come with me? I'm going to have Uncle Mark come over and stay with your mommy but you can come with me if you want." Derek says.

Maddie nods excitedly. "Yeah! We wanna come! Ooh can we get more hot coco daddy?? Mommy woves hot coco too!"

Derek nods, knowing that hot chocolate is one of the few things Meredith can handle right now. "We can. Let me go call Uncle Mark. Go play for a while."

Derek quietly rubs Meredith's head as she sleeps. He gently rubs it to soothe her even in her sleep.

He clicks on Mark's contact info and calls him.

"Hey Shep. What's up? Meredith doing okay?" Mark asks.

"Hey Mark. Yeah, she's doing okay right now. She's just sleeping right now." He says softly. "I need to go stock up on groceries, would you mind coming over here and keep an eye on Mer? Just in case she wakes up while I'm gone and needs help." Derek says quietly.

"Don't need babysitter." Meredith mumbles waking up. "Can stay by myself, will be fine." She mumbles, with her eyes half closed.

"Hey sweetie. I don't want to leave you by yourself. I'm scared something will happen if I do. Or you get sick and no one is around to help you." Derek says softly, gently stroking her head.

"I'll be fine." Meredith whispers, weakly. "I'm coming." She weakly starts getting out of bed.

"Woah, woah, woah. Let me help you." Derek gently helps Meredith sit on the side of the bed. "Sit here. I'm going to grab a warm jacket for you and some shoes." He grabs the items and helps her into them. He helps her stand up and supports her weight against him. He frowns as he is supporting her entire weight. He knows if he didn't help her, she would collapse. He doesn't want her to go to the store as she doesn't have the energy but he doesn't want to fight her.

"Maddie." Meredith says softly.

"I know. I'm going to help you to the couch and then I'll grab her and get her ready and then we'll go to the store."

Meredith nods and then collapses into the couch. She closes her eyes while she waits. Her body is just completely exhausted.

"Mads, come on. We're going to the store now." Derek says.

"Yayyy!" Maddie cheers. "Hot coco! Hot coco! Nanas we gettin hot coco! Is mama coming?"

"She is, but she's not feeling too well okay sweetie? So we're going to make this a fast trip."

"Otay Daddy!" Maddie races out of the room and finds her mom. "Mommy! Store time!!! Gots to get hot coco!"

Meredith slowly opens her eyes and sees her daughter in front of her. "Hi baby girl." She whispers. "You ready to go?"

"I'm weady mama! Nanas is weady also!"

Derek helps Meredith off of the couch and slowly helps her walk to the door and into the car.

"Can walk without help in the store." Meredith whispers, not wanting all the attention on her. She doesn't want everyone to see how weak she is, even though she doesn't know them.

Derek honestly wants her to get one of those wheelchairs that the store provides but doesn't want to start an argument.

They arrive at the grocery store ten minutes later.

"Daddy, can we gets fwoot roll-ups? Ooh I want fwoot loops too! Maybe we can make bwownies!" Maddie says excitedly as her dad unbuckles her from her seat.

Derek chuckles. "We'll see, silly girl."

Meredith slowly unbuckles herself and gets out of her seat, swaying a bit as she stands. She looks to see if Derek saw, but he was still attending to Maddie and getting her out of her seat.

"Okay, Mads, hold my hand in the parking lot okay?" Derek tells her.

"Otay! Nanas coming also! Nanas has a shopping list also!" Maddie says. "Mommy! We goes shopping now! Don't fowget we need hot coco!"

Meredith giggles. "I know, baby. We'll get your hot coco." Meredith slowly walks next to her family as they go into the store. Maddie grabs ahold of her mom's hand.

They are shopping for a few minutes and Meredith already needs to stop and catch her breath.

"You otay Mommy?" Maddie asks.

"I'm okay sweetie." She whispers, her face starting to get paler than normal.

"Mer, maybe you should sit." Derek says.

"I'm fine." She whispers.

They continue shopping, going down each aisle.

All of a sudden Maddie excitedly shouts. "Hot coco! I founds it!"

"Do you want the regular kind or the kind with marshmallows? I know which one your mom wants." Derek says.

"Mawshmellows! Mawshmellows! Mawshmellows!" Maddie yells.

"You've trained her well." Derek chuckles.

"It's the best kind." Meredith says softly.

They walk a few more aisles and Meredith's body decides enough is enough. She gets super dizzy all of a sudden and quickly grabs ahold of the cart.

"Mama? You otay?" Maddie questions, looking worried. "Your face turned colors." Maddie says, referring to her mom's face going super pale.

"Mer, you need to sit down right now." Derek says, frantically. Meredith's face is as white as a sheet of paper.

"Ma'am are you okay? Do you need some water or something?" A worker asks.

"She should sit down. She looks like she's going to pass out." A worried customer says.

Meanwhile, Meredith cannot respond to any of the people asking her questions. Her whole world is spinning right now. Her vision keeps going in and out and she knows she's going to pass out any second.

"Mommy? You otay?" Maddie repeats when her mom doesn't answer her.

Meredith's grip on the shopping cart loosens and she all of a sudden passes out.

"MAMA!" Maddie screams, terrified. "Daddy! Wake mommy up! Mama! Wake up mama!"

"Meredith, wake up sweetie." Derek says, kneeling next to Meredith on the ground.

"Do I need to call an ambulance? I should call an ambulance." The worker says to themself.

"MAMA! Wake up!" Maddie screams, sobbing as her mom has been unconscious for a few minutes now. "Mommy! Wake up!"

We hope you enjoyed! Thanks to my co-writer _Ktje_