29Meredith could feel her skin crawling, her ears ringing with the low tones of DeLucas voice and their conversation from earlier, the warmth of his body seemingly still in front of her, the feeling intoxicating. She didn't want to feel what she was feeling, and she sure as hell didn't need to stir up another romantic issue. She had finally gotten the sex dreams out of her system, no longer waking up with a cold sweat and the ghost feeling of his hands on her body, his lips pressed to her own. She no longer felt like an awkward teenager when she and DeLuca met eyes from across a patient bed or the Emergency Room, her hands no longer shaky when she reaches across him over an open patient to retrieve an organ or an instrument from a scrub nurse. She no longer felt the feeling of his lips on hers and his hands holding her face on Alex and Jo's wedding day, finally being able to meet his gaze with a confident one of her own.
She stepped onto the elevator, easing her breaths, the transplant surgery on CeCe making her chest feel tight. She reached out to press the close door button, when they slid a couple centimeters in before sliding back out.
"Hey—"
DeLuca held the door open with his hand, Merediths eyes wide with shock and surprisement. "No—!" Meredith begins, shaking her head as she watches him step into the elevator, her heart beginning to slam against her rib cage in the annoying way it has been whenever he got too close. "What, I-I'm going to the OR," DeLuca begins, before she shakes her head. "No! You're following me," she shoots back, her eyes staring straight ahead, her hands and arms locked at her sides. "I'm going to your OR, I'm on the case—"
She hears him sigh, his body brushing past hers. "Okay, uh, I will stand over here. And I will be silent, and I will not look at you," DeLuca says, as she pressed the close door button again, her pulse beginning to race as she feels his gaze fall onto the back of her head. He rests back against the wall of the elevator easily, her arms coming to cross across her chest as she ignores the heat burning through her clothes from his stare.
Agonizingly slow moments pass, the elevator seemingly knowing the tension between the two inside of the elevator. She was just about to stop the elevator and take the stairs, when the lights flicked off, and their elevator car slammed to halt, the ground uneasy beneath her feet. She turns around to see DeLuca clutching the hand railing, his eyes wide as he looks around, before his gaze lands on hers. "What's happening?" She asks quietly, waiting for the emergency lights to kick on, her adrenaline pumping faster when they don't. "I'm sure we're fine. It's probably due to the storm," DeLuca says calmly, and her pulse slows when the emergency lights flicker on, the buzz of the elevator no longer there. "See. We're fine," he says quietly, but she turns on her heel, shaking her head.
Her thumb jabs into every single button on the elevator panel, before she sighs, giving up. "I uh, think we're stuck," DeLuca says from behind her, and she can hear the grin in his voice. She turns to see him walking toward her, stopping in front of her with a surpressed smile of amusement. "I can't be, I have to be in surgery. I have to procure a heart for CeCe. Maggie is waiting for us—!" Meredith begins, pacing the room with an agitated sigh, DeLuca following with a sigh of his own. "I can't be in here!" She says louder this time, pounding on the elevator doors. "You gotta get us out of here," she says, attempting to press the buttons again before resting her forehead on the elevator with a sigh.
"Alright, uh—" DeLuca thinks out loud, as she shakes her head. "I have a transplant!" She complains again, and turns when she hears him shuffling behind her. She watches him clutch the support railing in his right hand, the other holding the mounted picture frame. He hoists himself onto the railing, leaning against the light fixture above them. Her eyes widen as she watches him, shaking her head. "What are you doing?" She asks with an agape jaw, his hand pulling at the caged light with a grunt. "Well, under this light fixture, there should be a trap door, somewhere," He says, his eyes set on the light above them.
"What? No!" Meredith says with a shake of her head, watching as peers down at her. Her hands instinctively outstretch before her when he grunts, slipping slightly off the railing. His hands clutched the picture frame and the light, his small grin at her act of kindness making her give him a look. He hops off the railing, and she stares at him. "You're not doing some action hero crap where you climb up an elevator shaft," She berates him, but all he can do is grin down at her. "I meant use your phone," she says, turning around to sigh again.
"Well, I don't get any signal in here," DeLuca says and she groans. "Well, neither do I!" She hears DeLuca sigh. "Then why did you ask me to get us out of here?" He asks her, and she turns around, facing him again. "Because I. . ." She trails off, her breaths becoming more labored as she stares at him, his slight head tilt and smile making her feel infuriated. He gave her a look as if he knew what she was feeling towards him, and she shook her head pushing away from him. ". . .cant be in here!" She finishes, banging on the elevator doors again.
"Help!"
She continues to pound on the door, feeling Delucas gaze on her. "Doing that isn't helping anything," he says, and she pushes away from the doors, leaning against the back wall with her arms crossed. She watches him pace back and forth, the silence deafening between them. She stares at the ground between her feet, but she can feel his lingering gazes on her. "Stop that," she says, looking up, watching as his lips curled up into a smile. "Stop what?" He asks with mock innocence, continuing to pace in the small space. "Looking at me," she says and he lets out a breathy laugh, shaking his head. "It's a small room. There's not much to look at," He says, but she gives him a look and he stops his pacing. "You know what I mean." He just nods, walking towards her. "Okay. I'll stand over here where I can't look at you," He says, stepping right beside her, his hands dug into the pockets on his scrub pants.
She can feel the heat radiating off his body, his arm brushing hers as he relaxes back against the wall of the elevator. She sighs again, looking down. "I just hate not knowing what's going on out there," she says quietly, drawing his gaze back onto her. "I can tell you what's going on out there," he says, and she looks at him, his eyes landing on hers before she looks away. "Maggie's probably already started on CeCes heart transplant, 'cause Bailey or Webber or literally anyone else already did the organ recovery. And that same person is gonna do the kidney transplant. You're a brilliant surgeon Meredith, but this procedure only requires a surgeon." He says and she nods once, feeling a calm rush through her body.
"Thanks, I think," she says, looking at him again, both of them lightly smiling as silence fills the room again. "Thank you," she murmurs quietly, her gaze falling to the floor when he looks at her, her gaze set on his shoes. She finds her eyes slowly trailing up the material of his light blue scrubs, before her eyes meet his own, her head turning in the opposite direction. She only then looks back at him when he starts to laugh, her confused expression on his joyous one. "It's like the tardis in Doctor Who—"
Meredith continues to look at him in confusion, her head slight shaking. "Is that some nerd thing? Because I'm not fluent." He just chuckles again, shifting beside her. "No, I mean, me neither, but I used to watch it when I was a kid in Italy." He tells her, smiling fondly at the memory. "Doctor Who had this uh, phone booth that was a time machine, and when you stepped inside, you were like, outside of time and space." She finds herself smiling, watching his mouth when he talked, and watching his eyes sparkle when he spoke. "And the world went on, but you were in this whole other little. . .bubble—a secret place where the normal rules don't apply." His voice was now a whisper, his gaze set on her as she stares at the elevator doors, shaking her head at him.
She smiles slightly when she looks at him, his gaze still transfixed on her. "The rules still apply. This isn't the turdis."
"Tardis."
"Whatever."
Silence again filled the elevator, before she shifted, looking around the room. "This blows. I wanted to be the one who did CeCes transplant," Meredith says, sinking to the floor. DeLuca sat beside her, sighing. "How about we don't talk about work." He says and she gives him a look. "We are at work." She says and he's the one to give her a look this time. "Let's pretend we're in the tardis. No work talk." She just stares at the floor between her knees, shaking her head. "I'm not talking about myself," she says quietly and he chuckles. "I knew that already. Hit me," He says and she looks at him. "What do you want to know about me?" He asks her and she thinks.
"Why was it such a surprise that your sister came to visit?" She asks him, and he looks at her. "My parents, they uh, didn't work out. Carina and I were split between the two of them, meaning that our parents could only have one of us, and so Carina stayed back with my father, and I moved out here with my mom." Meredith nods, glancing at him. "Why'd your mom leave?" He's silent for a second before he meets her gaze. "I—my dad is, uh, was a pretty famous surgeon back in Italy."
"Wow. I wouldn't know anything about having famous surgeon parents," Meredith jokes, both of them smiling, before his fades. "You wouldn't. Your mom got awards. My dad got, acquittals." He sighs, silence again filling the room. He looks at her, his gaze slightly lingering, making her pulse race again. "I've never really told anyone about him," he whispers quietly, and she nods. "Oh, well, you can if you want too."
"I don't think that I do."
"I mean, I just meant that you could if you wanted too, and it wouldn't leave this room," she says and he gives her a look. "Because I don't think we're ever leaving this room," she laughs and so does he, both of them actually, real laughing. All too soon it dies, and they're back to sitting in silence. "Mio padre ha una malattia mentale. (My father has a mental illness.) In una fase maniacale, ha operato su sette pazienti. (In a manic phase, he operated on seven patients.) Nessuna pausa, niente sonno, niente cibo. (No break, no sleep, no food.) Quattro persone sono morte. Per colpa sua. (Four people died. Because of him.) Ma tra i suoi soldi e i suoi amici se l'è cavata." (But between his money and his friends he got away with it.) Meredith listened to him, straining to understand what he was saying. She got most of it, her experience in Italian doing her well.
"But he's also the man who took me on the back of his motorbike and taught me how to kick a soccer ball, taught me the names of the stars." He says, and she can only listen. "So, it's complicated." He lets out a small breathy laugh, and inhales a deep breath. "There. I told somebody," he says in a mere whisper, and she finds herself smiling as she twists her hands on her knees. "Thanks," he whispers again, gently nudging her arm. Her head turns to face his again, his eyes trained on her mouth, falling down to her chin before they're on her eyes, both of their breaths coming quicker. A long moment of silence passes, and she can feel him move in slightly forward, making her swallow roughly. She leans forward too, his eyes slightly widening when her face gets close to his, making him intake a sharp breath. She instead pushes herself into a standing position, digging her hands into her pockets, enjoying the look of shock on his face.
"Do you really think there's a trap door up there?" She asks and he chuckles breathily, resting his face into his palm, regaining his composure. "I'm serious!" She says, watching as he stood up, standing beside her as he peers up. "I couldn't see anything, and I nearly fell to my death doing so," he jokes, and she laughs nudging him. "Here let me try," she says but he grabs her arm, shaking his head. "No. You're not getting up there to act like an action hero," he says and she sighs, giving him a look. "Then how're we getting out of here?" She asks and he shakes his head. "Fine. C'mere—" He says and she warily looks at him, making him sigh. "Do you trust me?" He asks her and she hesitantly nods, and walks back toward him.
She stands in front of him, her eyes widening when he ducks down. "DeLuca what're you—" she begins before he picks her up from under her waist, moving her head before it was slammed into the light fixture. "There. Now, try and look to see if there's anything there," he says and she nods. "Do you feel anything?" He asks her and she lets out a soft grunt, her hand clutching his shoulder while the other fished around for the trap door. "There should be like a-a handle or something," He says and she sighs. "It might be a keyhole. Like, it feels like I need a key—" she says and he sighs, lowering her. "Damn it—" He mutters, slowly bringing her down to the ground. Once her feet touched the ground, he still held her around the waist, her arms sliding from around his neck to his chest.
"Remind me again why this is such a bad idea for us?" He asks her, their close proximity making her feel anxious. "Because it's a bad idea," she says queitly, her eyes the ones trained on his lips. "No, I hear you. I'm just asking why," he says and she shakes her head. "Because I'm an attending and you're a resident," she says and he stares at her, swallowing. "And that happens all the time," he says quietly his eyes searching hers. "It happened for you, I think." He says and she sighs. "Well, I'm trying to learn from my mistakes," she says and he laughs a little. "I promise not to tell your kids that you called them that."
She laughs with a scoff, pushing on his chest as she walks backwards with a shocked smile. "My marriage and my kids aren't a mistake," she says, leaning back against the wall of the elevator. "Then what are you learning, exactly?" He asks her and she finds herself going quiet. She stares at the floor, before shaking her head. "I don't know," she says quietly, before looking at him. "Just go back to speaking Italian. I liked it better."
"Quando finalmente ti lascio baciare (when you finally let me kiss you), e tu mi lascerai baciare (and you will let me kiss you), e non fermerò mai." (I won't ever stop). Meredith watched him walk closer to her, his gaze locked on hers as he rested his palm by her head against the wall, caging her in between him and the wall. His other rested at her waist, gently playing with the loose material of her shirt towards the bottom. Her heart hammered against her ribcage, her breaths shallow as he stared at her, their breaths intermingled. "Ti ho detto che ho preso tre anni, di italiano in universital?" (Did I tell you I took three years of Italian in undergrad?)
"Wow," he whispers hoarsely, his eyes flicking between hers as she gives off a shy smile, swallowing roughly. "Yeah," she murmurs with a smile, his mouth open in amazement and adoration. He leans a little closer to her, her hand hesitantly coming to rest on the back of his neck, his hand by her waist now cupping her cheek, both of their labored breaths the only thing she could focus on. The anticipation between the very little space between them was electric, his eyes flicking to hers one last time before hers closed, his lips soft and firm against hers. She let herself relax, her other hand clutching his bicep, as his hand that was braced against the wall held her face with his other one, the kiss breathtaking. He pulled back only to kiss her again, more passionately, his mouth opening over hers to kiss her deeper.
His hands trailed down her arms to pull her closer, her hands clutching the soft dark locks at the base of his neck, her body hot and flushed against his. She pulled back from him, panting, her eyes wide and trained on his. "What—" She begins, before he gives her his signature head tilt and knowing smile, her heart a thundering mess under her breastbone. "Don't pretend you don't feel it too," He says quietly, his arms around her waist as he leans down to kiss the skin of her cheek, his nose turning her head to the side so he could drop kisses onto her neck. "There's something here, Meredith." another kiss. "You just have," another kiss, "to let yourself," another kiss, "feel it." another kiss.
"I can't," she says in a pained gasp, her fingers digging into the skin of his arms, his head tilting further as he gently nips her neck. She could feel her pulse getting sporadically faster, making distinguishing dreams from reality nearly impossible. Had he really taken them to the tardis? Because it felt like they were stuck in time, thoughts of being anywhere but there mind boggling. "You can," he whispers back, brushing his nose across hers, his head hesitantly turning to kiss her lips again, before she shakes her head. No matter how badly she wanted it, she couldn't. "It's a bad idea," she tells him, her head leaning against the wall to avoid succumbing into his touch. He sighs, slowly pulling back, his hands reluctantly falling from around her waist.
She clears her throat, watching him shove his hands into his pockets, his head down and his gaze on the floor. The small space made her feel trapped, as she walked back over to the doors, jamming her thumbs into the buttons again, praying that they'd turn on. "They're not going to work, Meredith." DeLucas voice held a certain tone that made her heart ache, before she sighed, leaning her forehead against the doors. "Link asked me out for drinks tonight," she says with a grimace, spinning around to look at him. Her back rested against the doors, her arms defensively crossing over her chest. "And I told him yes."
"I heard," he says quietly, still looking down at his feet. "You can with him but you can't with me. I completely get it," he says bitterly, but she can only shake her head. "No. You're the one who said you regretted kissing me at Alex and Jo's wedding—" she began before he looked up. "Literally a couple hours ago I told you that I didn't regret it," he says but she shakes her head. "That was after Link asked me out for drinks, and after I agreed for him to take me out. While I was waiting around for your confession, sure, I found someone that I could try with."
Silence filled the elevator car again, before she sighed. "All I'm saying is that this is going to get messy. And you're Maggie's ex and a resident—" she begins before he interrupts her again. "Senior resident, and Maggie doesn't care. Like at all." She's trying to tell herself that she can't do this with him, but he's giving her so many reasons as to why she could. "I," She begins, his gaze on her, before he shook his head. "I'm not going to be a doormat, Meredith. If that's what you're looking for than maybe Links your guy."
Meredith only stared at him, her heart thundering as he shoved his hands in his pockets again. "I'm a persistent guy, Meredith. Don't think for one second that I'm gonna back down. Because I won't."
The doors to the elevator finally dinged open, relieving all the pent up stress inside of it. She didn't hesitate to run from the elevator car, DeLuca on her heels as they ran towards CeCes OR room.
One thing was certain—she was definitely inside of a love triangle; and it was only a matter of time before it blew up in her face.
A/N: [i translated all the Italian phrases in google translate (yikes) but it should be pretty similar] I had been thinking about the "what if the doors didn't open when Meredith and DeLuca were about to kiss" question, and had written my take on it. If this gets enough reviews and favorites, I'm more than willing to keep this going, but as of now it's a one shot :)
The whole Merluca evolution can't be that easy, so expect major frustration and resistance... because in the end, it might just be worth it ;)
With allll of that, rr? :)
