Meredith had been pacing the OR corridor for precisely 14 minutes, she was waiting on Nathan finishing up on a Valve Replacement which had run a little longer than the time estimated. He was probably just being thorough before closing up, either that or he had an intern in there screwing things up and almost killing the patient.
In her mind she had decided that he was just taking his time, maybe even teaching. He had so much more patience than she did when it came to interns and residents, they got on Meredith's nerves just by getting too close and invading her personal space, or even just breathing loudly when she was concentrating hard on her sutures.
Eventually, Nathan appeared from the scrub room with a clipboard and some papers in his hands, the red cap still on his head. He smiled at the sight of Meredith and went straight over to greet her.
"Hey, how'd the surgery go?" Meredith asked, as she began to braid her hair ready for her next surgery.
"Hi. It was good. I had Wilson in there doing the continuous sutures, she was loving it. Only had to step in once, I think I'll put her on my service for the rest of the week." He replied.
Meredith frowned. She had always thought that Wilson would be good in General, or in Ortho with Callie, who had now left. Plus, when she was on Meredith's service she always got away with getting her to do the post-op notes without much complaining. Probably because Wilson always felt a little threatened by her.
"Jo Wilson loving Cardio, who'd have thought that? I'm pretty sure Cristina made her cry once in the OR when she couldn't remember the steps of a Coronary Artery Bypass." Meredith let out a little laugh and noticed the bewildered look on Nathan's face. He had never met Cristina and could only wonder what the two of them together would be like.
"Anyway… I was actually wanting to know if you had anything planned for tomorrow night?" Her eyes never left his as she asked him.
Nathan pulled off his scrub and ran his fingers through his slightly flattened hair. "I'm working. On call all night lonnnnng." He emphasised, taking a step closer to Meredith. She was still braiding her hair, her scrub top had risen up revealing a glimpse of her belly button. He couldn't help but look.
She knew he was in fact not working tomorrow night, having already checked the attending schedule. For whatever reason, or maybe Nathan just being Nathan, he was messing with her.
"Why? Did you have a wild night of hot, secret sex planned for me?" He smirked, saying it in a low tone so that the nurses on the desk had no way of hearing him.
"Maybe." Meredith replied. She had finished doing her hair and tied her scrub cap firmly in place. "I guess you'll never know now." Her arms folded and in one swift step in the opposite direction she began to walk down the hall away from him.
In her head she began counting to ten. Meredith was 95% certain that Nathan would have caught up to her before she even reached the number seven.
He was there just as she got to number three. He softly grabbed her arm and pulled her into the supply closet, luckily there was no one else inside. Nathan backed her up against the wall, his face ever so close to hers. He could sense Meredith's disapproval already. Officially they weren't 'dating' but they weren't exactly staying away from each other either. In the words of Facebook, it's complicated.
Meredith tried to keep her calm composure by avoiding eye contact with him. She scanned the closet, taking a particular interest in the 18 gauge needles which had moved from the third shelf on the left to the fifth shelf on the right. 'Remember that one, Grey' she thought to herself.
She could sense the impending smirk on his face becoming bigger and bigger the longer she ignored him.
Nathan stood still for a moment and realised that her breathing was getting faster. He reached up towards Meredith's face with his right hand to turn her face, her blue eyes were now looking into his, they had softened. She was no longer tense in his company. Meredith had previously convinced herself that she hated him, for reasons which she didn't exactly know. Maybe it was the fact that he was cocky towards her all the time, or maybe it was because she jumped him and they had car sex in the hospital parking lot and she enjoyed it; far more than she could let on because he was the first person since Derek died.
The height different between the two of them wasn't that much, Meredith suddenly found herself standing on her tip toes to press her lips against Nathan's. His kiss was what she constantly craved yet very rarely gave in to. His stubble was rough, scratching against her smooth skin but it felt good, so good. She threw her arms around his neck as he found the small of her back, he pulled her close to him but that wasn't close enough. Meredith wrapped her legs around his waist, rocking her hips back and forth against him. She could feel him becoming hard as she continued with the movements, the kiss becoming deeper as he added tongue and an occasional pull of her lip with his teeth.
Nathan was overly engrossed in trying to keep Meredith steady whilst he tugged at the bottom of her scrub top, she was backed against the wall once again, legs still wrapped securely around him. The top was thrown up and onto a shelf somewhere, even if someone did enter they were mostly hidden right at the back of the rather large closet.
Nathan very much enjoyed the situation he was currently in, a hot girl in a lace bra straddling him, grinding against his scrub pants, although because of the material there really wasn't that much friction.
Meredith's pager abruptly brought things to a halt.
"No, no, no!" She exclaimed. Pulling the pager straight out of her pocket and into her eye line. "They're ready for me across in the OR."
"Crap. Just as we were getting to the good part." He huffed. Nathan grabbed her top and handed it to her as she jumped down and took a few deep breaths to try and cool herself.
He was disappointed, of course he was. He could even sense the disappointment in Meredith; she had her pouty face on.
"I don't have anything planned for tomorrow night by the way…" He declared.
"Duh. I checked your schedule anyway." Meredith straightened up her scrubs, he raised his eyebrows at the mention of her checking out his working hours.
"I need you to come with me to a fundraiser; it's some fancy hotel with a dinner and entertainment evening. I got the short straw, it was for a board member at Grey Sloan plus their guest so… You're my guest, yay!" She overenthusiastically grinned at him.
Nathan laughed. "Grey, it would be my honour to be your date."
"Not my date. Just be my plus one." Meredith shot him a glare, she really didn't like to class it as a date; because well, they weren't dating.
He pulled at her scrub cap which looked lopsided. "You're good to go."
"Anyway we need to continue with this." He looked at her suggestively.
"Uh-huh, you think that." She walked towards the door, he was hot on her heels.
She turned to face him and looked down at his crotch area where there was still a large bulge restricted by his pants, she shook her head, reaching for the door handle. "You need to um…" She coughed. Pointing at the area in question with her index finger. Nathan noted what she was referring to with a quick shrug of his shoulders, he wasn't phased one little bit by his erection, that's what she did to him; made him crave her, anywhere and pretty much all the time.
He let out a laugh which created a domino affect as Meredith giggled too, ever so quietly. "I'm telling you Grey… we'll be one by the end of the night. You find it impossible to resist me and I, you." He leant forward to quickly kiss her, Meredith narrowed her eyes at his crude sentence but more than happily obliged to kiss back.
"I'm going. Right now." She opened the door, Nathan briefly noted that there wasn't anyone around and slapped her ass on her way out. Meredith harshly slammed the door in his face. She imagined him sitting in there for a further five minutes or so, he wouldn't dare go out into the hall like that in front of other busy professionals.
The next morning was a busy one. Meredith was upstairs in her bedroom stuffing a dress and heeled shoes into her bag which didn't seem big enough for her needs, she also threw in a razor, deodorant, the odd few bits of makeup – lipstick, mascara and an eye liner, a bottle of small perfume and a hairbrush… Maybe there was already a brush at the bottom of the bag, she had no idea but felt it was best to be over prepared.
She planned to get ready at the hospital, Nathan was on an odd shift rotation that day and agreed via text message in the early hours that she would meet him at his place at around 5.30pm and go from there in her car.
Her room was a mess. Ellis, Meredith's youngest child was on her bed, pulling off her socks which had just been put on. She took no notice of her middle child, Bailey until he dumped a large handful or plastic cars all over the floor.
'Why can't Mom get organised in peace?' She thought to herself, moving the collection of cars out of the way with her foot.
"Bailey! Please don't... Too late." He had already pulled out his sister's hair ties, resulting in Ellis's blonde, curly locks to become an unruly mess.
The pair giggled at one another uncontrollably, Meredith smiled at their encounter. It was always a great feeling to watch her kids be so happy, they had put up with a lot in their short lives. She admired their resilience and how quickly they made her feel positive again when things got rough.
She zipped up her bag and swiftly stepped towards Bailey, lifting him away from Ellis before things took a turn and ended up in a fight.
"You go and find your Aunt Amelia and tell her to get your lunches out of the fridge for me please, good boy." She ushered her five year-old out of her bedroom. Bailey was the troublemaker of her brood. Always finding some way to cause chaos in Meredith's hectic morning routine, one time he spilt the milk from his breakfast cereal all over the rug in the front room. This was of course 2 minutes before Meredith had to be out of the house, she had to either decide to leave the mess on the rug and come home to a house that smelt of sour milk or make all three of her kids late for school and day-care. She chose the second option and the guilt hit her when each one of her child's teachers disapproved of her being so late.
"Zola, can you come to Mommy's room please?" Zola quickly ran into Meredith's room, she was ever so helpful and well behaved, most of the time.
"What is it Mommy?" Zola smiled. She was all ready for school, shoes on, hair tidy and had even cleaned her teeth.
"Can you help Ellis put her socks back on and tie her hair up for me?"
"Of course, pass me your socks Ellis." She got stuck in straight away; Zola adored being a big sister.
Meredith smiled whilst quickly placing a kiss on her oldest child's head. "Thank you sweetie. You're my big girl."
Outside, Amelia was fastening Bailey and Zola into Meredith's car, Alex appeared with a flask of coffee, a slice of unfinished toast and his phone clutched in the other hand, he jumped in the front, most likely dropping crumbs all over the floor. Amelia was in the very back next to where Ellis usually sat. The carpool was surprisingly running like clockwork this morning. Maggie had took her own car along to the hospital that morning with her being on the early shift, it was just as well seeing as Alex and Amelia (and Ellis) would need a ride back home in the evening.
Rebecca the babysitter was due to collect the older kids from school and watch them until Meredith's family returned home.
Meredith secretly loved her hectic household. She knew just how lucky she was to have her two sisters and her best friend live under her roof. They enriched her kids minds, helped them learn and grow and most importantly, they truly loved them.
She appeared at the door. One bag over her shoulder, Ellis who seemed to be throwing a tantrum perched on her right hip and yet another bag hanging from her arm. Locking the front door was far from simple when trying to balance so many things. Alex was chuckling from the car, spurring Bailey on to also laugh at his Mom's struggle.
"Go help her, you moron!" Amelia piped up from the back.
"It's funny to watch. You go help her." He turned around in his seat and stared at Amelia for a few seconds, eventually giving in because of her unpleasant scowl... The car door opened and Alex hurriedly jumped out, he jogged over to Meredith and grabbed her mischievous two year old. Ellis calmed immediately due to the fact that he had placed her on his shoulders, her little hands gripped firmly onto his. Alex began running around the driveway which resulted in a fit of giggles from the little girl.
"Okay we're good here. Thanks for that Alex." Meredith walked over to her car and placed the bags in the back, Alex followed with Ellis who was now walking besides him. Her Mother reached down to pick up her up.
"No Mommy!" Yelled Ellis. She collapsed to floor in rage, obviously still unimpressed with her Mom. She tugged on Alex's jeans and lifted her little arms up to him.
"Fine." Throwing her hands up in defeat, Meredith walked over to the driver's side and jumped in, deciding it was best to walk away and let Alex strap her in.
"She's an angel one minute giving me wet, slobbery kisses, saying 'Love eww Mama' ten times in a row and then the next she's screaming because I pulled a crayon out of her hand to save my wall from scribbles. I told her to wait by the door for me."
Alex glanced at his best friend in the seat beside him and laughed at her statement, Meredith was concentrating on the road but occasionally glanced back to see what her kids were up to in their seats, they looked pretty well behaved, Ellis especially who was now cheekily grinning at her Aunt Amelia.