Fic Title: A Grey Christmas

Author: ILoveNascar

Fandom: Grey's Anatomy

Pairing: DerMer, Alexi, Gizzie friendship

Date: December 1, 2007

Feedback: Yes, please

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: This is not meant to be true. I own none of the characters.

Summary: Meredith's first family Christmas

CHAPTER 1

Derek Shepherd was glad to get out of Seattle for awhile, if only to escape the drama and chaos in his life. Although he had been separated last year, it was the first Christmas to truly be divorced and he was more than glad to have his best friend at his side. Still, some part of his heart, the part he tried very hard to ignore, missed Meredith, wished he had her with him instead of Mark.

"Hey." Mark tossed a pillow at him, letting it hit his face. "Thought you were taking a break from her."

Derek glared up, more annoyed at his friend being able to read his mind than at being hit with the pillow. "I am," he lied.

"Liar. Look, what you do in Seattle is your business, if you want to sulk, follow her around like a puppy dog, and ignore all the hot…girls that come your way, fine. But we're back in New York now. What happens in New York, stays in New York. So let's go get laid."

Derek rolled his eyes, but did smile. "First of all, we're staying at my parents', so 'getting laid'…not an option. Unless you know some hotels that…never mind, you probably do." Mark grinned proudly. "Second, that's Vegas, not New York."

"Vegas…Now there's a trip. Maybe New Year's…" Derek tuned his friend out, replaying images in his head while still managing to seem interested, a technique he'd learned long ago.

George O'Malley found Meredith Grey as soon as she got off the elevator. "What's wrong?" Meredith asked, her blue eyes trained on her friend.

"Lexie got sick during rounds. I mean, really sick. Dizzy, vomiting…I talked Izzie into running some blood tests." Although he had interned in the same year as his two best friends, he'd failed his exams and now was repeating them with Meredith's little sister.

Meredith's face turned instantly concerned. "Did you find Alex?"

George shook his head. "She wouldn't let me." He'd been surprised when she'd asked for Meredith, given their animosity for the past month.

Meredith had sensed that something was amiss. Lexie had backed off completely, from both her and Alex, after Thatcher had turned up in the ER, drunk. "Where?"

She walked quickly, George barely keeping up, until she saw Lexie sitting in a chair in the clinic, Isobel Stevens sitting beside her, trying to keep her entertained. "Meredith," Izzie saw them approaching first, standing, letting Meredith take the chair.

"Hey." Meredith put a hand to her sister's forehead. "You don't feel hot." She turned to look at Izzie. "Fever?"

"No." Izzie shook her head for emphasis. "Look, I've got to run these to the lab and then I'm assisting on a surgery…"

Meredith nodded, knowing what her friend was trying to say. "Thanks, Iz." She barely paid enough attention to them to know that Izzie and George were leaving, focusing on Lexie. "What happened? George said you got dizzy and sick?"

Lexie nodded, noting to herself that Meredith was acting maternal, almost the way that her own mother had acted when she or Molly had gotten sick as kids. "I've been getting dizzy for awhile, but sick for about a week…I'm just so tired all of the time."

"You've been putting in long hours. You don't even realize how tired you can get until you go home," Meredith answered, having been in the same situation herself. "You've been upset for awhile, since Dad came into the ER. I thought you were angry with me."

Lexie took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "No. I don't know. Maybe I was." She paused. "I didn't grow up in a fairyland. Since Mom died…he's been drinking more and more. His mood changes, he's uncontrollable. When you told me what to do, to watch him, to take care of him…I lost it. That's all I ever do anymore. Watch him, take care of him, and work."

"Is that why you and Alex broke up?" Meredith asked, really listening, not just feigning interest as she had before.

Lexie shook her head. "No. I don't want to talk about that." She still remembered all too vividly discovering what a fool she'd been.

"What about Christmas? What do you do for Christmas?" Meredith asked, understanding. She didn't like to talk about Derek much these days either; it hurt too badly.

"This year?" She didn't even have to think about it. "Probably nothing. He hasn't been too big on holidays since Mom died."

Meredith didn't have to think either, just spoke. "You'll spend it with us." Lexie looked at her. "Izzie likes to cook a lot of food, we have presents, not exactly the Brady Bunch, but we like it."

Lexie paused, weighing the idea of spending the day with Alex against spending Christmas with her sister. "I'll be there."

Alex Karev crossed his arms, as if to protect himself from what he had to do, what he had to say. It had been a month since Rebecca Pope had reappeared in his life, a month of hiding out, of sneaking around, a month to learn what he should have known all along.

Rebecca sneaked up behind him, wrapping her arms around him, kissing his neck, then coming around to face him, seeing that look on his face. "What? What is it?"

"We can't do this anymore." He never thought he'd say those words to her and tried to close his mind to what he was doing.

She looked at him in shock. "What?" She asked, not sure she heard him right.

"You're not Ava. Ava's this girl I made up in my head, one that I created, that belongs to me. You belong to your husband. If the marriage isn't working, that's between you and him, but you're Rebecca. You're not Ava. I can't make you into something you're not." He knew that he was not only pretending that she was someone she wasn't, but that he was as well. He was guilty over sleeping with another man's wife, taking her away from her family, and for once understood what Meredith had gone through a few years back.

It was obvious to see that she was upset, madder than anything else. "Which girl is it? The two you live with or the one from surgery that day?"

He couldn't answer, didn't know how to answer, and finally he just said, "It's Christmas Eve. Go home. Be with your daughter." He turned around and walked away.

George returned as Meredith was still sitting with Lexie. "Izzie got caught up in surgery, but I have the test results."

Meredith took the folder from him, opening it, reading to herself, a look crossing her face that neither one could interpret. "Mer?" George finally asked.

Meredith looked at her sister. "You're pregnant."