Surrounded by Doctors

A/N This is going to be a series about my o/c Charlotte (haven't given her a last name yet but may do at some point) from Charlotte's perspective as an outsider living with the characters of Grey's and will cover anything that I want to put in (or if anyone suggests something then I might do those as well) probably going to be focussed primarily on hurt/comfort and maybe some funny or cute situations but we'll see how it goes, this is my first attempt at writing any sort of story or fanfic so please be kind but suggestions and constructive criticism welcome. Disclaimer: I own nothing of Grey's Anatomy and I'm getting nothing from doing this it's just all for fun .

Intro:

- Charlotte is 20 years old (turns 21 on July 24th) and has done her Bachelors degree in Biology at home in England already.

- She is the cousin/niece of Derek (Derek's mums sisters granddaughter) and Charlotte will end up renting the loft room (the one that I think Lexie uses at one stage in the show though I'm not 100% sure it exists so may be a bit of creative license) in Meredith's house and so lives with all the doctors, this is set in about late season 4/season 5 so basically when Alex, Izzie, George, Meredith and Cristina are all still interns and Derek and Meredith are living together in Meredith's house and all the other interns.

Chapter 1

Charlotte's p.o.v.

I never did quite work out how it is that I've ended up living in a house with so many doctors, for someone who usually blushes and gets shy just by seeing a regular doctor I must be crazy to live with a house full of them now. It works well enough though just because 99% of the time that I'm with them they are just like normal people.

This whole thing started last year in October when I told my parents that not only did I want to get my Ph.D. but that I want to do it in America, I've always wanted to go to America and this feels like the best way to do it, I get to go out there study and maybe do a little travelling and get away from the life I have back home in London and then at the end of it all I can always come back to England and get a job if I decide America isn't for me after all. The conversation with my parents was probably the most tense that I've had they have always loved and supported me and would always tell me that it's my life for the taking but I could see it in my mum's eyes that she never thought that I would want to roam so far away as America. Eventually my mum agreed that it was something I'd always wanted to do and that if I was sure then I should apply to American colleges to go to next September.

The problem is I didn't really know where to go, I've never been particularly drawn to any particular state and so I was spoiled for choice in terms of where I could go. What I didn't know was that my mum, sneaky and conniving, as she is already had a plan. My grandma moved to England from the US taking my then 15-year-old mum with her and starting a new life but never lost contact with her family back in the US. So, it wasn't particularly surprising to me when my mum announced a week later that she'd contacted my aunt (A/N this would be Derek's mum in case all these relatives are getting confusing) and had been running up the long distance phone bill talking to her all night. She told me that as it turns out my cousin, or maybe he's my uncle who knows really, lives in Seattle near the university there and his mum insists that I should go there because that way I could meet him and then I wouldn't be on my own completely. So that's the current plan, I applied to Seattle University to do my Ph.D. in Biology and got accepted to start next year, and so at the beginning of July I'm moving to Seattle to get set up and hopefully find somewhere to live.

-July 2009-

Oh my god it's time, I'm shaking as I step out of the taxi at Gatwick Airport and hand over some notes, not really bothering to check if I've just wildly over-tipped the guy or under-paid him. My mum wanted to come to the airport to give me a final hug but I insisted it's better this way so I had dinner last night and stayed up late talking to her and she was up at 4:30 this morning to help me with my inevitable last-minute panic and to drag out my suitcases to the cab while I just held my rucksack and tried to remember why I was doing this. My mum though seemed to be a rock and barely showed any hint that she was upset and instead hugged me for longer than was maybe strictly necessarily and then practically shoved me in the back. I think the cabbie may have tried to start up a conversation but I was too busy trying to imprint every little detail of my hometown and England in general in my mind since this'll be my last chance for quite some time. At least there's a bright side to this, I'm not going to have to stay in a hotel when I get there, I called Derek and he said that his mum had already talked to him and there is a room available in the house he lives in with his girlfriend, they have been trying to rent it out anyway so I'm welcome to stay with them, which is a relief but I'm still nervous because I've never met any of my family in America and this is going to be so strange.

Well deep breath and here goes nothing and any other cliché your supposed to think in this situation and I walk into the terminal and head for the check in desks, luckily since I've gotten such an early flight the queues all look short and I spot the right desk for my flight to Seattle. After a few minutes waiting behind a family who look like a travelling circus with the amount of stuff they have, I walk up to the desk and hand over my boarding pass and passport, then heave my suitcases up onto the scales and watching as they disappear away on the conveyor belt. Security is again pretty empty since it's only 5:30am and I head for a little coffee shop to get some breakfast before my flight, I'm hoping it won't be as bad as flights I've had in the past because I always used to get sick on planes when I was younger and even now I know the plane food is going to turn my stomach so might as well eat something now cause it's going to be a long flight. I sat down with my coffee and sausage sandwich, at a little table by the window and people watched for a bit while I ate.

It got to about 6:30 and I figured it's time to head over to my gate and so I found one of those big screens with all the flights on them and got my gate number and headed over to it stopping for a minute to buy a big bottle of water and some mints in WH Smiths, and walked up just as they announced my row so I walked into the plane said a quick "hi" to the lady waiting at the door and went to my seat, getting settled in with my ipod. Hopefully I'll get some more sleep, but I know it's more likely I'll watch 5 movies back to back and hide in the toilet from the smell of the plane food. Well Seattle here I come.