Take Me Away

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Grey's Anatomy, I simply worship Shonda Rhimes in a Godlike fashion and thus I'm borrowing her characters for my sick enjoyment…ok, it's not really sick. But you get the point; I don't make any money from this and blah blah blah.

Authors Notes: This story is set after S4E10. It takes place in the wake of the Derek/Nurse Rose kissing debacle and after Meredith and Derek decide they are so over. In my world, Shonda is no longer around and so I've been asked to write every future episode of GA; thus, George left Callie, hooked up with Izzie, and they haven't had any problems since. Everybody else is as messed up as Shonda and Betsey made them. Please review!

Take me away; a secret place

A sweet escape; take me away

Take me away; to better days

Take me away; a higher place

It was all Meredith could think about, getting away from Derek and Seattle Grace and her dead mother. For some reason, whenever shit hit the fan in Meredith's life she always thought about her mother. Mommy dearest had been dead for some time now, and yet when Meredith got stressed the only thing she could focus on was her dead mommy. Point is, leaving everything behind was what Meredith was currently thinking about. The problem with her desire to leave was…everything. To start with, she couldn't leave the resident program at Seattle Grace because every other hospital's resident program sucked. Also, Cristina was in denial about her issues with being left at the altar by Burke, and somebody had to make sure she didn't drink too much tequila and sleep with inappropriate men. But mostly, Meredith couldn't leave because she didn't know where to go.

Finally, after too much thinking and alone time, Meredith finally decided where to go. Thus, it was at Joe's that Meredith was currently enjoying too much tequila and prattling on about her current issues to Cristina.

"Ok, for the record, the tequila and inappropriate men is your thing." Cristina stated. "And secondly, I don't have any issues about Burke leaving. We are so freaking over that, it's a non-issue."

Meredith nodded her head in a drunken fashion. "You're right; tequila is what got me into this mess."

"Exactly, so maybe you want to think about calling it a night?"

Meredith looked at Cristina, well actually Cristinas plural as there seemed to be two of her, and ignored the last comment. She lay her head down on the table and groaned, thinking about her life. It wasn't supposed to be this hard. She was supposed to go to medical school, do her residency some place great on the other coast, and live the rest of her life performing amazing medical procedures and discovering new ways to save lives. Instead she was in Seattle because her mother had Alzheimer's and there was nobody else to take care of her. So Meredith had moved back into her mother's house and started her internship by sleeping with the attending neurosurgeon. Of course, finding out about his wife put a damper on things for awhile, and in between all that was a lot of tequila and inappropriate sex with boys ranging from George to the guy who's penis wouldn't go…soft. Of course, after the potholes had mended Derek and Meredith seemed to resume their relationship and annoy those around them with the sheer intensity of their happiness. But like everything in Meredith's life, things eventually went back to their original state of sucking. Her mother was admitted to Seattle Grace for a heart murmur and while lucid informed Meredith that she was nothing more than ordinary. So Meredith decided to drown herself in a bathtub but Derek, being her night in shining whatever, intervened and she lived. But she got a second chance at escaping when, at the scene of a mass casualty incident, she was knocked into the frigid water and seemed to forget how to swim. Being clinically dead for an unimaginable amount of time had its advantages though. While in limbo she had many interesting conversations with various people including Denny, the bomb guy, Nurse Fallon, and Bonnie; the most important person being her mother who, at the same time as Meredith, was dying. Her near-drowning and death of her mother obviously made an impact not only on Meredith but Derek as well. She knew how to swim but she didn't, Derek realized, and thus also realized that he couldn't keep saving her. Being in love, though, made it difficult as he couldn't leave her yet she seemed to always be leaving him. Things went from sucking to pure hell after her new relationship with her fake-mommy came to a tragic end. Who the hell thought that a case of hiccups would lead to septic shock and death? And with an alcoholic father blaming her for the death of his wife was it any surprise that Meredith found her life to be overwhelming? So when Burke decided to leave Cristina on their wedding day, Meredith decided that not only was that over, everything else was so over. And so she started her second year of residency without Derek, without a real and fake mommy, and with a new step-sister that couldn't take a hint. And that's just the short summary…

"I need to go." She finally said to Cristina.

"That's a good idea. Give me you're keys and I'll drive you."

"No, I mean I need to go somewhere else. I need to be away."

"No." Cristina stated matter-of-factly. "Leaving is not an option. So what if Derek is dating some skanky nurse? It's not going to last. But you know what? Even if it does, you do not get to leave. Because leaving is not an option for you, it's an option for quitters. Meredith Grey is not a quitter."

Meredith nodded again. "That was a great pep-talk coach. But you're right."

And so Cristina drove Meredith home, tucked her in bed, and then lay down next to her. While Meredith fell asleep and began to snore rather loudly Cristina lay there thinking that the skanky nurse thing had to pass because she wasn't sure how much more her friend could take.

Izzie Stevens wasn't sure of many things, but she was fairly confident that she got the crappy interns. They were slow, they were lazy, and overall they just sucked. Why couldn't her interns respect her the way Cristina's interns feared and respected their boss? Oh yeah, maybe it had something to do with the deer she had refused to let die and instead used valuable resources and time to save. Whatever the case was, she desperately wanted new interns.

Since a new set of interns was out of the question she settled for spending the morning hooking up with George in an on-call room. If only everybody could start their mornings off with sex, she thought, then the world would be a happier place.

"So the divorce is final." George said, breaking the after-sex silence and bringing Izzie back to reality. "Yea, so it's a little weird. I feel kind of like Britney Spears."

"Seriously, didn't her marriage last like fifty-five hours?"

"Seriously, you actually know that?"

"Whatever." Izzie said as she sat up and began getting dressed. "You get the point. And besides, your dad died and you were in shock and denial. Britney got married to see what it was like to be married. You got married because you were an emotional wreck."

George looked at her and frowned. He was about to say something when he realized that she was right. A second later Izzie's pager went off and she groaned when she looked at it.

"I hate interns. They don't know how to do anything." She complained.

George, unsure of what to say, let the comment roll off his back. He wasn't going to blame anybody for failing his intern exam and having to repeat his first year, it was all on him.

Meredith felt like crap, and that was the polite way of saying it. Hangovers sucked, her life sucked, the weather sucked, everything sucked. Getting out of bed and going to work didn't seem like something she would enjoy today but that was the problem with being a doctor. Unlike a job at McDonalds or Wal-Mart, there weren't too many people who could do her job and be called in to cover for her. And then she remembered her person who lay next to her in bed and tried to recall if she had to work today or not.

As if reading her mind Cristina, not even bothering to open her eyes, told her in no uncertain terms that Meredith best get her ass out of bed, hose herself off, and get to work.

"Nazi." Meredith said as she slowly dragged herself out of bed and to the bathroom.

"Damn right." Cristina called and then rolled over.

Half-an-hour later Meredith, equipped with coffee and Tylenol, was on her way to work. She tried not to think about having to see Derek and his little skank/girlfriend. Screw it, she thought, I'm not going to worry about it; I have a job to do and interns to boss and Derek is not an issue anymore. She decided the best course of action would be to channel Cristina post-wedding and assured herself that she was fine.

The day went along smoothly, the pit was overcrowded and the clinic was in need of constant help. Her interns stayed busy and didn't bother her and for the most part she managed to hide in the clinic.

After finishing up with a patient who had a sinus infection, she leaned against the desk and completed her paperwork. She looked up in time to see two young girls enter the clinic.

"Hi, can I help you?" She asked

"Um, this is free, right?" One of the girls, approximately eleven years old, asked.

"It is."

"That's good." The same girl replied. "We need to get tested for STDs."

The second girl looked up at Meredith with empty eyes. "We might have AIDS."

Meredith closed her eyes, trying to hide the shock she was feeling. She resisted the urge to ask exactly how old these girls were and realized that her McDreamy issue paled in comparison to having to test these young girls for AIDS. Once again all Meredith could think about was not wanting to be here.

Take me away; a secret place

A sweet escape; take me away

Take me away; to better days

Take me away; a higher place

Lyrics: "Pocketful of Sunshine" - Natasha Bedingfield