The Ghost house and the Ferris wheel
A/N: Okay, this is my first published fanfiction, so please don't kill me. I am no doctor and have no clue of what I'm talking about during the medical mumbo jumbo. I also have never been to either New York or Seattle, so I'm going to be making stuff up as I go along. I'm sure this has been done before, most storylines probably have. Still, this felt a bit different from all of the unexpected baby- and Meredith's suicide-stories I've read recently. I don't particularly like angst, but it probably will be a lil' bit on the angsty side in the beginning… It gets better though.
I wasn't sure if I was going to even publish it (since I am a little chicken) but please let me know if you want more or if I should just give up on this thing altogether.
Meredith and Mark got married four years previous to this story and Addison and Derek were married eight years ago. They all work at Mount Sinai in New York and are super-successful and happy. All of them are close friends and do the couple dates and the summer vacations thing together. It's all very fluffy and great. Everything is changed though, when Meredith and Derek comes home from their late shifts only to find both of their spouses in bed together. Realizing they are in the same boat, Meredith and Derek together decides to start fresh in a new city and become closer than ever before.
Disclaimer: I own nothing relating to Grey's Anatomy.
Chapter 1 – Cry me a river
Now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried, a river over you
(Cry me a river – Ella Fitzgerald)
The storm was only getting worse.
"Oh God! Mark!" The woman screamed out in ecstasy.
"Addison!" The man roared in response.
A roar of thunder resonated outside.
The sound of rain smattering on the roof and howling wind tearing at the tree branches outside the window seemed mute. It was hardly registered by anyone in the room.
Heavy panting sounded from the bed facing the window. The couple that had just made love on the expensive scarlet sheets lay in shameful silence. Blissfully unaware of the two soaking wet people standing speechless in the doorway. Water dripped unrelentingly from their sopping clothes. The carpet beneath their feet was slowly turning darker and the man in the doorway closed his open mouth before swallowing soundly. His hands turned into fists as he slowly closed his eyes in agony. The woman beside him fared no better. Her teeth were shattering and she gripped her maroon-colored skirt tightly before letting out a strangled sob. The sound echoed in the room and started an immediate reaction from the bed.
Derek Shepherd, world-renowned neurosurgeon and husband to the woman in the bed, had not expected this scene when he entered his brownstone in New York that night. Him and his good friend Meredith Grey-Sloan, world-renowned general surgeon and wife to the man in the bed, had been working late at the hospital and had decided on a nightcap with his wife before he drove Meredith home to her waiting husband a couple of blocks down. It had been an ordinary night. A lot of trauma from the storm was the reason for the longer stay, but they were both in good spirits when they ran up from the car to the front door in the downpour. Initially, the sight of Mark's jacket on the floor had surprised Meredith. She had been told her husband would not be home from his plastic surgery medical conference before tomorrow. They both discarded the thought quickly though, thinking that Mark spent half of his free time in Derek and Addison's house anyway.
"Derek!" Addison's wail broke the silence and Mark was quick to hide his naked body behind a sheet before giving Meredith a pleading look. She felt Derek's hand on her shoulder and she silently followed him down the stairs, tears falling silently down her cheeks. Not many seconds passed before the thundering of footsteps came tumbling after them. Meredith and Derek had just reached the first floor when her arm was grabbed roughly by a sheet-clad Mark.
"Please, Mer… Let me explain." His voice was calming but she could see the panic flittering in his eyes as he tried to placate her stony stare. This was unbelievable. Entirely fucking incredible. The fantastic four as they were called, Mark the plastic surgeon, Addison the neonatal surgeon, Derek the neurosurgeon and Meredith the general surgeon, had just been sawed apart with a two single orgasms. It would have been funny were it not so goddamn devastating. Meredith looked from her husband to her best friend and felt it like she didn't even know them anymore. Derek still had a hand on her shoulder and it gave her a little comfort. She was not alone… And yet she was totally and utterly alone.
The silence was deafening and she heard Derek's agitated panting beside her. He was looking at his wife with such contempt, that Meredith felt his anger even though she was just an innocent bystander of it. Meredith thought fast. She was dark and twisty. She had a horrible past. This was just another chapter of the horror story that was her life. Her eyes flickered as she thought.
We have to get out of here. Came her voice from inside her head.
Right.
Derek needs you. It spoke again.
Oh yes. Poor Derek. His life had been a fairytale so far. He had grown up in a happy family, had the perfect grades, married the perfect woman, got the perfect job and now loved in a perfect home with dinner parties and wine. In the amusement park she was the ghost house… But Derek was the Ferris wheel. He had never felt this kind of despair before. She had to take action. Had to be the strong one.
With as much strength as she could muster she took control of the situation.
"Addison." Her voice was croaky. She cleared her throat and tried again.
"Addison. Derek and I are going to leave now. He will come get his things tomorrow, so will you please be so kind as to stay away during this time?" She didn't wait for a response.
"Mark. Derek and I will be sleeping at our house. We'll be gone by tomorrow afternoon. Please be so kind as to find somewhere else to sleep tonight." She quickly grabbed Derek's elbow and led him towards the front door without even meeting Mark or Addies's eyes.
"Wait! Mer... Don't do this!" Mark's voice was pleading. He was beginning to realize the deep trouble he was in. "I love you! Please let me explain." Addie's wailing cries were heard from the staircase where she lay in a heap staring at her motionless husband with tears running down her cheeks. The black mascara streaks made her face look unrecognizable.
"There's nothing to explain, Mark." Meredith's voice was made of stone. "You made- well… screwed in your bed, I think is the better word. Now lay in it." Her words were final.
She opened the door wide, which made the pounding rain splatter all over the hallway floor tiles. She ignored Addison's desperate cries after Derek and pulled him with her out the door.
"But where am I gonna sleep? Here?!" Mark's voice rang hoarse and echoed in the too white and modern room. Meredith sighed. This was her husband in a nutshell. What he would do without her she had no clue. Probably move in with Derek's mom, since his own was so very shitty. She glared at him one last time before grabbing Derek's keys and her purse from the bureau.
"Goddamn it! Go sleep in a sewer for all I care. I don't give a rat's ass, Mark!" Her yell was followed with silence and then a loud bang as she slammed the front door shut and left the building.