Alone With So Many People
BeepBeepBeep
"Uh," says Meredith as she slaps off the ringer on her alarm clock.
"Izzie I'm gonna kill you!" Meredith shouts as she sits up angrily in the bed
Moments later Izzie comes prancing through the door, decked head to toe in running gear, but with several layers over that, seeing as it is only about 10 degrees in Seattle.
"Come on Mer! Let's take a run! Carpe Diem, SEIZE THE DAY!" chants Izzie.
"Carpe Diem my ass," says Meredith. "The only thing I want to seize right now is a couple of hours more sleep."
"Meredith it's beautiful out! You need to get out of this room and get some fresh air!"
Meredith lazily gets out of bed, goes into the bathroom and comes out with a can of air freshener. She proceeds to spray it around the room.
"There, now I have fresh air, ya happy!" she asks sarcastically.
"You know Meredith ever since Derek went back to Addison, you've been acting like a bum. I mean come on, what has it been now like three months?" asks Izzie.
"Yeah well ever since you got back together with Alex, you've been a little to happy-go-lucky if you know what I mean!" Meredith shouts back.
"Yeah well at least when we were broken up I didn't sit around a sulk all day!" says Izzie.
"You were to dam busy making our fricken house look like Whoville!" accuses Meredith.
"Whatever. Do you want to go running or not?"
"Does it appear to you that I might want to go for a run?" Meredith inquires.
"No," says Izzie.
"Well then there's your answer!"
"Fine. I'll see you later. If the hospital pages us, just call me on my cell ok?"
"Yeah," Meredith says more nicely, "I will".
When Izzie shuts the door, Meredith gets back into bed. Why would she ask me if I want to go running, she wonders. This is my first Saturday off in three months and I'm going to spend it however dam well I please. But she knows that staying in bed all day is not really even an option. For Meredith, other than during surgery, lying in bed is the best place to think, and right now, there is so much stuff she doesn't want to be thinking about!
She rolls out of bed and puts on the torn blue jeans laying next to her dresser, and then grabs the tee of the nightstand that says, 'I'm a doctor, trust me'. She then puts on the gray old sweatshirt that used to belong to her mother reading SGST. (Seattle Grace Surgical Team) She notices that it's disturbingly quiet; she doesn't hear George at all. She can't even make out the light pitter-patter of Roscowell's feet. They had just gotten the dog a few weeks ago. She hoped they hadn't lost him already.
"George!" she calls. No answer came.
"Roscowell! Here boy!" Nothing made a sound, the house was completely silent.
"Great," she sighs, "I lost George."
Why am I making jokes, she asks herself. This is really not an appropriate time. When she arrives in the kitchen, she immediately heads over to the refrigerator to look on the whiteboard and see if there is a message from George. Every time one of them goes somewhere, they must write on the whiteboard where they are going, so that no one gets worried if they don't return soon, and as to avoid confusion. All that she saw was WENT JOGGING – IZZIE, scribbled across the top of the board.
"Where is he?" she asks herself out loud.
Just then Meredith hears a loud BOOM outside the window, and then hears a hysterical laugh. She glances over the windowsill to see George doubled over on the ground, clutching his stomach from laughing so hard. Meredith bangs on the window and gives him a 'what the hell are you doing' look. But George just continues laughing. By the time Meredith reaches the sliding glass door and steps out onto the freezing cold porch, currently with about a foot of snow on it, George had stood up and was pointing and chuckling at Roscowell.
"What on earth is so funny," Meredith asks with a bemused look on her face.
"The dog… he just…" George panted. "And the wall…" he then started to have another laughing attack.
Meredith finally catching on says to the dog, "Oh you poor baby! Did you run into the side of the house?" Roscowell runs up to her and tries to kiss her, but Meredith turns her head thinking that she doesn't want to smell like doggy drool all day long.
"George, why are you laughing at this poor innocent puppy? Is uncle George being mean to you?" she asks the dog. Roscowell just simply wags his tail and turns to the door. He's had enough playing outside. They all go inside and George takes off his wet coat and throws it by heater.
"Hey Mer, I made you some pancakes this morning. Not that I was planning on making you any or anything, I just had some extra batter," he stumbles over his words.
"Thanks George, but I'm not really hungry."
"Yeah that's what I thought," George mumbles to himself. "So what are you planning on doing today?" George asks with great emphasis on the word you.
"I don't know," say Meredith. "Maybe I'll just go to the mall. Get a little Christmas shopping done."
"Oh well that's cool," says George.
"Yeah," Meredith says with a long awkward pause. "Ok so I'm gonna go now."
"Wait you have to write on the board where you're going."
"Come on George! I just told you!" she exclaims.
"Yeah well I might leave, and if Izzie comes home, and she doesn't know where you're at, she'll freak!" he adds.
"Fine," Meredith says reluctantly. She goes over to the board and writes MALL – MEREDITH. "Ok see you later," she calls after grabbing her purse and throwing on her jacket and scarf.
"Bye," George says in a somewhat sad tone.
Upon arriving at the mall, Meredith goes into her three favorite stores, New York and Company, Abercrombie and Fitch, and believe it or not, Victoria Secret. While standing in line at VS she thinks that she can vaguely hear her name being called, but she's not sure. A few seconds later she hears it again.
"Dr. Grey! Hello!"
"Oh," Meredith says with much distaste. "Hello Dr. Shepherd." Of all the luck. She just has to run into Addison on today of all days. This is her first Addison-free day in 3 months and now, it's now Addison-free!
"Wow Dr. Grey, that's quite a lot of bags you're carrying. You must be almost done with your Christmas shopping."
"Well no," says Meredith, "seeing as almost everything in these bags is for me."
"Oh well you have to splurge on yourself ever once in a while right?" she asks.
"Yep," replies Meredith. God her voice is like nails on a chalk board!
"Speaking of Christmas shopping," Addison begins, " For the Secret Santa at work, I drew Izzie's name, and since she isn't speaking to me, I don't have the slightest idea of what to get her. Then again it probably doesn't even matter since she'll most likely just throw it in the garbage. Anyway, do you have any idea of what she might want?"
"Um no not really. But I know that she really likes lotions and perfumes and such. So maybe something like that," Meredith suggests.
"Ok thanks, that really helps," says Addison.
"No problem," Meredith remarks dryly.
"Hmm, I wonder who got my name," says Addison out loud.
Thank god it's not me, Meredith thinks. She was lucky enough to pull Cristina's name out of the jar, and she knew exactly what Cristina wanted for Christmas. Plus Meredith doesn't hate her guts, so she's much easier to shop for.
"Excuse me miss, are you ready to pay," asks the waiting cashier.
"Oh yes sorry," replies Meredith.
"Hey Addison!" Derek calls.
Oh-my-god is all that Meredith can think. Why does Derek have to show up when I'm buying lingerie! I don't want him to see this! Or me! She quickly shifts so that her body is covering the items she's buying, and so you can also not see her face.
"Hey honey, I'm right over here," Addison calls out.
"Geez Addy you can't do that!" Derek complains. "I turn my back for a second and then you're gone! I've been looking for you for the past 5 minutes!"
"Oh well sorry," says Addison. "But I saw Meredith over here and thought I'd come and say hello."
"Oh hello Meredith," Derek says now realizing her for the first time.
"Hi Derek," Meredith says with a very forced smile on her face.
"So you're Christmas shopping as well?" he asks politely.
"Yep," she says quickly. "I thought you know with this being my first day off in so long that I'd get some shopping done. I've fallen quite far behind seeing as Christmas is in 2 weeks."
"Well that was our idea too," Derek says while plainly staring straight at Meredith and never taking his gaze away from her for even a second. Addison was about to say something to break the silence, and the glances she saw her husband and his ex-girlfriend giving each other, when simultaneously all of their pages went off. Derek was the first to grab his.
"911," he said. "Looks like our day of shopping has come to an end."
"Looks like it," says Meredith.
"Hey do you need a ride?" Derek asks Meredith. "I mean I'm sure you have your car here but if you just drove with us we could get you there faster. Maybe save a life or two."
"Ah, sure," says Meredith. They exit the mall, get into Derek's jeep and head towards the hospital.