Earth, Wind, Water and Fire
1
With a sigh the petite Meredith Grey closes her locker.
"Are you ready?" she asks Cristina Yang, level-headed Korean descent and ambitious doctor. The latter swings her bag over her shoulder.
"I'm going to miss out on surgery. A lot of surgeries. Vacations..." she mutters.
"I guess you are ready," Meredith smiles at the retreating form of her best friend who has already begun to walk away, her dark curls dancing on her shoulders.
"You coming?" Cristina stops and turns around to see what is taking Meredith so long.
Together the young doctors walk out of the hospital heading for Joe's Emerald City Bar where they would meet with their friends for the last time before they all went on a well-deserved vacation.
"One tequila and..." the owner and bartender Joe greets Meredith and Cristina as they take a seat on the stools at the bar.
"Whatever," Cristina answers.
Joe puts their drinks on the bar and Cristina empties her glass in a few large gulps.
"Good," she says, "That's good."
The door is swung open and the other members of the Seattle Grace Hospital-'gang' enter.
"Good evening ladies," says the dark handsome cardio-thoracic surgeon Preston Burke. He bends down to kiss Cristina, his girlfriend, and places a warm hand on Meredith's shoulder.
"Hello to you," neurosurgeon Derek 'McDreamy' Shepherd with the perfect hair kisses his girlfriend Meredith on her forehead, "Are you excited yet?"
"I am," she smiles and her eyes sparkle as she holds his gaze for another moment.
"Hi," George O'Mally says as he, too, sits down and gratefully takes the beer Joe offers him.
"Hey George," the three girls replie in unison. The third being the blonde-haired, brown-eyed ex-model Isobel 'Izzie' Stevens who has walked in with her boyfriend Alex Karev a.k.a. former doctor Evil Spawn. He and Izzie proved that love and hatred are close. As much as they hated each other at the beginning of their internship, they merely left each other's side now. What's more, they are called by some: 'The conjoined ones'.
"So, doctor Burke, where are you and Cristina going?" George asks his favourite attending.
"We're going camping," Preston replies friendly in his low, warm voice, "How about you and Callie?"
"Oh we, we're going to this hotel in this town where it's really cold and snowy but where you can't actually ski," George explains with content.
"That's pathetic," Cristina replies, "At least Burke and I are going somewhere exciting. Where we're going there will be no running water except in the streams, no toilets except in the ground, and no surgeries except at least a hundred miles away."
"Don't even try to pretend that you're happy with that," George answers but is ignored as Izzie cuts in.
"Like that's so impressive," she says mockingly. "Alex and I are going to survive under the same circumstances as you only we will be hiking, not sitting on our asses in front of a tent all day."
Assuming that he is in every conversation Izzie's in Alex gives countenance to her statement: "A physical challenge we are happy to take on because our bodies are stong, and muscular, and dripping hot on top of that. Izzie and I are as tough as old boots. But what we're about to undertake is very dangerous..."
"Old stinking boots must be what you're referring to, doctor Evil Spawn," Cristina says dryly.
"Seriously, take a good look at the both of us because it might be the last one you'll ever get!" Izzie, always ready to defend her boyfriend, takes over from Alex.
"Well don't look at us because at least we're positive we're coming back here," Cristina spits back triumphantly. Izzie is just about to say something back but is interrupted by the entering of doctor Callie Torres, George's girlfriend that outweighs her boyfriend by some pounds but is bright and beautiful nonetheless.
"Hey guys," she exclaims cheerily and sits down beside George and kisses him on the cheek.
"I'm glad you're here," George tells her, "They were about to start a fight about who's got the least chance to survive their vacation."
"Really? Why did they stop?"
"You interrupted them. Fortunately."
"Oh all right. So where are y'all going?" Callie informes.
"Derek and I are going to spend two weeks on a yaught together," Meredith answers with a smile.
"Together with two other men that is," Derek corrects her. "To keep us from sailing straight to China," he chuckles.
"You're ruining the idea," Meredith scoldingly as she contradicts her tone with a loving kiss on his cheek.
"Doesn't look like you're embarrassed being affectionate around other people," Cristina comments.
"No we aren't, are we?" Meredith replies simply as her gaze meets Derek's once again.
"So where are Izzie and Cristina going?" Callie reminds them of her question.
"Alex and I are going hiking," Izzie says.
"Burke and I are going to the woods and we, as opposed to the conjoined ones over there, are coming back," Cristina says in her usual sarcastic tone.
"You don't enjoy vacations?" Callie asks in a serious voice.
"Yes," Cristina answers staring at the wall, "Yes I do," she sighs.
"She's going to love it, just wait till we're back. She'll tell you she loved vacation," Preston says, smirking.
"I'm sure she will," George whispers more to himself than to the others.
"Anyway, George, did you tell your friends what we're going to do?"
"I did."
Callie swings her arm around George's shoulders.
"We are going to take some time for ourselves," she says and touches her head with George's.
The rest of the evening goes by smoothly. Smoothly as in the many drinks sliding down everyone's throats and the roars of laughter. They all leave early, at any rate earlier than usual, because they would drive off to their destinations the next morning. Joe watches his frequent customers hugging and kissing each other goodbye and is sure he's going to miss his favourite group of interns. Two full weeks... He hopes all the relationships would still be intact by the end of the vacation. There'd always been a lot of strong egos colliding. Oh well, they were bound to stick together eventually. Joe chuckles at the thought of the still so young interns and grabbes a tea-towell to clean his bar until it would mirror his face.