Meredith was shifting uncomfortably on the bar stool. Her glance was fixed on one point in front of her. She was so focused on it that she didn't even realize she had turned the napkin in front of her in a million pieces.
"Are you sure you don't want a drink?" Asked the bartender. She almost jumped off the stool "Yes! I'm waiting for someone."
"A boyfriend?"
"Nope."
"A girlfriend?"
"Nope."
"Okay." The bartender sensed Mer wasn't really into chatting and went on the opposite counter. He came back 2 seconds later with a bowl of nuts. "Here. At least eat something. You seem so nervous."
"Thank you!"
Mer went back to stare at that one spot in front of her. She wasn't really nervous per se, more anxious. She had gotten a call from Cristina the day before. They never really called each other on the phone, let alone at the hospital.
(~)
She was in the residents' lounge checking some post-op charts when she got a message on her pager saying "income call from Dr. Yang. Come as quickly as you can." She didn't think about it twice and ran to the closest nurses' station.
"Cristina!" Said as soon as the nurse passed her the receiver. She was almost out of breath.
"Have you been running?!" Replied Cristina in her usual sarcastic tone.
"I ran as soon as I got the message. I thought it was an emergency...?"
"It is. Kind of. I have a conference in LA in two days, so I arranged to make a stop in Seattle for a few hours tomorrow night."
"I'll be there."
"I didn't even tell you the time."
"I'll be there. E-mail me the details."
(~)
Now she was sitting at a bar at the airport waiting for Cristina. It was the same bar where they drank while waiting for their flights a few years back. Right before their boards. The same bar where Mer had asked Cristina if she really wanted to leave Seattle. And she
did leave for a while that time, but Mer never thought she'd leave again. Not to go that far away, at least.
She was definitely too anxious to be drinking right now; but maybe not to be eating. She hadn't realized she had finished all the nuts in front of her until the bartender came and replaced the bowl with a new one.
Mer looked away for a moment when she spotted Cristina walking in her direction. She didn't even think about her next move, because if she had, she wouldn't have done it in a million years. She got up and ran toward her person and actually hugged her.
"You do realized you're hugging me?"
"I missed you, too!"
Cristina couldn't think of a good comeback to this because she did indeed miss Mer, so she just hugged her back.
It was a fairly long hug. The hug of The Twisted Sisters not seeing each other for 5 long months.
When they finally let go, Mer asked "Do you want tequila?"
"Do you even have to ask?" was Cristina's reply as they walked toward the bar.
As they were sitting on the stools, the bartender walked toward them and said "oh, I see that your person is here." Mer didn't give him any details about who she was waiting, so he didn't know who Cristina was. Cristina looked a little confused though "You told him?"
"No, it's not... Can we have two tequila, please?"
"Coming right up!"
"What was that about?" Cristina still confused about his comment.
"I told him I was waiting for someone. And he assumed it was a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I told it wasn't, and that was it."
"Ugh. Like everything has to be about sex!" Exclaimed Cristina. She looked at Mer and they both started laughing. Both thinking about all those times it was all about "screwing boys like whores on tequila".
A few minutes later he brought them 4 shots of tequila, lime and salt.
"These two are on the house. I always do shots with my best friend, too." And left to give them some privacy.
They started with the first shot, as usual.
"So, did you finally get to do that super secret surgery you didn't even tell me about?" Started Mer.
"I'm working on it. The conference is in fact about it. I will tell you as soon as I'm done with it."
Mer didn't seem too happy about it.
"You know what?" Promptly said Cristina "I'll send you a video of the whole surgery."
"That sounds more like it."
"So, how is the long distance thing going?" It was Cristina talking this time.
"Ha! That's actually funny."
"What do you mean?"
"Since Derek left for DC, every time someone asks me that question, I always start with "Well, we do Skype a lot, but it's actually not easy with the time difference between here and Zurich!" And when I see the confused look in their eyes, I realize they are talking about Derek."
"Well, everyone at the hospital should be used to us by now!"
"Yeah." Mer didn't seem too happy to talk about the subject. She had been avoiding it on Skype too, but Cristina couldn't really insist through the computer. She did now though.
"So? How is it really going?"
"Well, it's been two month now. Things haven't really been great. He calls every day. We don't get to have real conversations. He mostly wants to talk to the kids. I really think they miss him, so it's good he calls a lot. He misses them too, I'm sure."
"Wait. Where are my Zozo and baby Bailey now?"
"Amy is with them. And I think Maggie went to keep her company."
"Oh! We like the new sister now? Enough to let her watch your kids?"
"She is pretty cool once you get over the cheerfulness and the normal parents."
"Ew."
"I know."
"Let's drink to that."
They both raised their glasses "Cheers!"
They only had a few hours together before Cristina had to catch the next flight, but it didn't matter. What mattered in that moment was that they were finally reunited!