Chapter 1 Something In The Water

'Why did this always happen to her?' Meredith wondered to herself after she entered the hospital after a weekend of partying. A weekend that was supposed to make her forget all the problems she had, the mother issues, the daddy issues and her dark and twisty ways. For one weekend she wanted to be the girl she was she went to college, the girl that didn't have a mother that suffers from Alzheimer, the daughter who didn't have to listen to her mother's stories about the days of her residency in which she screwed one of her fellow residents. Her mom was a filthy whore for all she the weekend didn't go as planned. All the fun had haunted her by the time she woke up on Sunday at a hotel room she didn't recognize. It hadn't been her hotel room for sure.

Before pre-rounds even started on Monday Meredith dragged Cristina into a supply closet saying "Hey, I really need to talk to you! I know you're going to think I'm crazy and this time I know you might have a point, but please I really need you this time."
Cristina looked surprised, but not confused, she knew her person usually ended up being a mess after a night of sleeping with inappropriate guys and asked "What is it now, Mer? I haven't seen you all weekend and now you come to me looking for help like you want me to help to hide a body. Another broken penis one night stand admitted to the hospital?"
"No, no guy this time, well maybe there might be, I'm not sure, I can't remember." She answered quickly reassuring her friends that the to the date most embarrassing moment of her internship wouldn't have a sequel. What she said didn't make a whole lot of sense to Cristina, who had covered her shift on Saturday.
"What are you talking about Mer?" the she wanted to know. The response was quite effective, shocking!
"Look at this", Meredith said showing her a big diamond ring on her left ring finger.
Cristina said "It's a ring. What about it?" in a matter of fact tone. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It didn't make sense. Why would Meredith wear a wedding ring.

Meredith was just as confused about the situation as her person was. "I don't know, I wore it when I woke up and I can't remember anything about the night before" she explained as she looked into Cristina's eyes in horror. She couldn't have gotten married, she thought, could she.
Cristina smiled and couldn't believe this was happening again "I guess you got married! Classic Meredith, classic Meredith. What is it about you and Tequila? Wait, you can't get married to your one true love, so who's the guy?"
"I don't know, Chris, I was alone in the hotel room when I woke up." Meredith answered.
All of this didn't make any sense to Cristina, "Why would wake up in a hotel room in Seattle? You usually take the guys home straight away!" she asked because she knew how Izzie and George used to complain about frequent screams at the weekends ever since they had moved into the house at the start of their intern year eight months ago.
"Maybe because I wasn't in Seattle this weekend. Sadie called and we sort of, well, we went to" Meredith admitted.

This was unbelievable, not comprehendable at all. As it turned out she had covered Meredith's shift at the emergency room so her person could drink tequila and screw guys with a girl she had never heard of. "What? Don't tell me you went to Vegas after asking me to cover your shifts this weekend. Damn it, Mer! Don't tell me that's it. Why? Why would you go to Vegas?" she said in disbelief.
"Die, my friend from college invited me to go. I mean I don't have any responsibilities here apart from the job obviously. I haven't been seeing anyone since I started my internship. I just wanted to feel like I did in Europe again, way before everything with my mom went down." Meredith tried to explain. This explanation raised more questions than it answered.
"Who is Die and what did happen in Europe?" Cristina asked.
"Oh, sorry, Sadie. We were known as 'deth and 'die back in Europe. Three months of getting to know the European culture. It was breath taking." Meredith explained.
"That's a way to describe having sex with inappropriate men, Mer. So you and this Sadie person went to Vegas? And you don't know what happened after you got there?" Cristina tried to summarize their conversation.

"Well, I do remember being on the plane and getting drunk, and the waking up bit and the getting to the airport and leaving without talking to anyone directly after I found this on my left hand." Meredith admitted pointing to ring on her left hand.
"This is brilliant. You got married in Vegas and you don't know anything about it. Sure it's not Sadie you're married to?" said an amused Cristina.
"I know this much, yes, she texted me last night saying she lost me Saturday afternoon and asked me whether I was okay." She answered. Continuing her interrogation Cristina asked whether Sadie had told her when she lost her?
"Yes, Cristina, she told me, Saturday around noon." Meredith answered.
"And obviously you don't have a clue about what happened afterwards" was all Cristina could get from this.
"I don't." Meredith admitted.
"You don't." Cristina repeated.

After a long pause where none of them said anything, Meredith finally managed to stutter "Cristina, what am I supposed to do now? I mean, I might be married or I might not be married, but if I'm married I don't know my husband's name, I might not even know my name."
"Glad, you can't marry Tequila. That would be one hell of a love story." Cristina said smiling.
"I'm pretty certain you can't get married to Tequila anywhere. Or do you think the guy's name is Tequila. Meredith TEQUILA. I'd certainly make a career as a doctor with this name. Screw, Grey, I'm Meredith Tequila!" said a slightly disappointed Meredith.
"Tequila is no good for you, it doesn't call, it doesn't write and from I can say it's not nearly as much fun to wake up to. You need a guy to get married Mer, don't think they legalized getting married to alcohol yet, even though you are the living proof that you can get married intoxicated. As you don't remember anything it might be a good idea to have a look at your credit card transactions." Cristina answered.
"No need to do that. It's still here, I'm sure it's not stolen." Meredith said not knowing why Cristina would suggest this. She was too worried, too confused and too puzzled to understand the point of it.
"That's not what I was worried about, Mer. For a doctor you are not that smart. You might have paid something with it after getting lost." Cristina explained to her friend.
"I might have. I mean Die wasn't with me, so I must have paid for my drinks, my food and everything at some stage after Saturday afternoon. I mean nobody treats a stranger to all of this, I mean I would remember this, but then who gets married to a stranger the night they met and who doesn't remember their husband's name or their wedding in the first place." She said rambling again.

"You're rambling!" Cristina reminded her.
"Yes, sorry! But please, I need you to promise!" Meredith said.
"Promise you what?" Cristina wanted to know. "
Promise me you are not going to make fun of me if I got married at one of those Elvis chapels!" Meredith said slightly embarrassed. She knew how everyone had treated George after his wedding in Vegas and she was dreading their reaction when they would find out about the circumstances of her wedding.
"I don't make promises I can't keep. So check those transactions already." Cristina said knowingly that she would tease Meredith with this until the end of their residency. Looking at her watch Meredith interrupted her
"Can't rounds start in 5 minutes and I don't want to piss of Bailey" and the two women hurried to get to the intern locker room.