Occasionally I like to offer advice, these are 2 pieces that are useful:
1. ALCOHOL IS EVIL
2. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING AND YOU WISH YOU DIDN'T DON'T TRY AND DRINK AWAY THE MEMORY. THE HANGOVER IS A KILLER AND THERE'S A CHANCE YOU'LL REMEMBER EVERYTHING ANYWAY.
Thanks for the reviews and adding me and the story to subscriptions and favourites. Updates may take a while I'm in the middle of my A-Level exams (for you Yanks that's like the SATs but I have like 7 and they effect whether I get in to university or repeat year 13).
After the Shooting Stops
Chapter Two: The Family Shepherd
After lunch with Mark, Derek's sister Kathleen returned to find Meredith sat on the couch charting.
"Meredith?" Kathleen asked, like she was seeking permission to speak to this woman who she'd never met, but was the most important person in Derek's life.
"Hi." Meredith looked up from the chart she was completing
"Hi, I'm Kathleen, I'm Derek's older sister." She held out her hand to Meredith who shook it. "I brought you a coffee and a packet of chips, Mom wasn't convinced you ate."
Meredith took the coffee and potato chips "Thank you."
"Are you ok? This has got to be hard, going through seeing him shot, then all of us showing up." She sat next to Meredith.
"I'm calm in crisis, besides it's not as bad as Addison showing up." The two women laughed.
"Seriously!" Christina shouted as she walked in not realising she'd interrupted a moment. "Owen is acting all crazy again. Like sex in the boiler room crazy, I do not want another burn on my ass. Any way how's McDreamy doing?"
" McDreamy?" Kathleen asked.
"Hi. Who are you?" Christina asked, "Meredith this isn't another weird friend is it? Because the last one convinced the other interns to try and cut out her appendix."
"This is Derek's sister." Meredith told her.
"Kathleen." Kathleen held out her hand to shake Christina's.
"Christina Yang."
"Does Derek know you call him McDreamy?" Kathleen asked
"Yeah." Meredith and Christina answered.
"It doesn't embarrass him?" Kathleen wondered.
"Probably." Meredith responded
"They call Mark, McSteamy." Derek said from the bed.
"Really." Kathleen said interested.
"Kathleen, don't tell me you..."
"Oh my God Derek, your my little brother why would I tell you that!"
"I'll kick his ass if he did." Derek said.
"McInjured your in no place to kick anybodies ass. Sloan could take you anyway." Derek frowned at Christina. "I'm going to leave now. Oh Mer we get new intern's tomorrow. Don't forget to get your Nazi on." Christina told Meredith.
"Didn't Bailey ask people to stop calling her the Nazi?" Derek asked.
"Yeah but when tormenting interns..."
"They need to be reminded who is boss." Christina finished "I just got rid of the last ones I don't need more."
"I know." Meredith replied.
"Ask the guy who made the decision." Christina suggested as she left.
"Why am I getting new interns anyway chief?" Meredith asked
"I want competent residents to take them. You, Lexi, Christina and Jackson Avery are getting some."
"Not Alex?" Meredith asked, they both seem to have forgotten Kathleen.
"I think he needs some time, to recover and the whole Izzie situation." Meredith nodded her head in agreement.
"Kathleen, we're going to check in to the hotel now." Nancy stuck her head in the room.
"Well it's been fun, Derek, Meredith I'll see you both tomorrow."
After Kathleen left it was just Meredith and Derek, until Derek's mom stuck her head in.
"Meredith, will you have dinner with us tonight, we'd like to get to know you better." Carolyn asked
Meredith looked at Derek who gave a nod of the head, "Ok sure."
Carolyn smiled. "The Archfield at 7:30pm." She left to join her daughters.
"I'm proud of you." Derek told her smiling.
"This is happy married me now I say yes to family. Dark and twisty me would've said no." Meredith's pager went off. "I'll see you before I leave."
Meredith managed to see Derek before she left for the evening, he wished her luck. Meredith arrived at the Archfield hotel at 7:20pm where she waited for Derek's sisters and mother.
"Meredith!" Carolyn Shepherd called across the reception area, where she moved over to her daughter-in-law followed by the numerous Shepherd sisters.
"I'm happy you came, Derek said you're not really a family gathering type of girl." Carolyn led the Shepherd family in to the dining room, it was very posh and Meredith was glad she took the time to go home and get ready before going to meet the Shepherds.
"Well you already know Nancy and Kathleen says you too talked earlier, so I'll let the others introduce themselves." Carolyn smiled at all the women who surrounded her.
"I'm Sarah." One of Derek's sisters said as she smiled nervously at Meredith
"Amelia." Amelia Shepherd shook Meredith's hand, "Addy told me about you." She quickly realised how bad that sounded and added "All nice things, I assure you."
"Meredith." She shook the hands of all the Shepherd sisters before Carolyn led them all in to the dining room.
"So Meredith have you thought about a specialty?" Kathleen asked
"No, not yet."
"I bet Derek's push neuro, right." Sarah asked
"I think he'd like it, if I chose to be a neurosurgeon." Meredith smiled at the Shepherds, they weren't as scary as they initially seemed.
"Is your mother really Ellis Gray?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, she taught me a lot." Meredith didn't feel the need to tell them that all Ellis had taught her whilst she was alive, was that she wasn't good enough. Everything else she learnt from the diaries.
"Really that must be so cool, I was sorry to hear about her passing." Sarah added.
"It was her time, I think it was the right moment, before she got sicker." Meredith said, it was her honest opinion, she knew her mother would've been horrified at the thought of the nurses in the care home being responsible for changing and washing her.
"I bet the others hated you, dating the attending, Ellis Gray as your mother." Nancy said, she could sense the disapproving undertones.
"It was hard, but everybody sort of realised I was there because I deserved it. Not who my mother or my boyfriend was." Meredith retorted as subtlety as possible.
"So have you thought about kids?" Amelia asked honestly, Carolyn realising this was going to be a very sensitive subject for Meredith, managed to attract the attention of a passing waiter.
Kathleen who noticed her mother's urgency to change subjects decided to help.
"So your friend Christina?" She asked
Meredith smiled, "She's just Christina, she doesn't have a filter. She just shows up in the morning sometimes."
"Derek doesn't mind?" Nancy asked sceptically.
"I think he's grown accustomed to it, between Christina and our roommates he stopped caring."
"Roommates, so it's a bit like sorority." Nancy said
"A little bit, but they're doctors, they get it, they get us. Excuse me I need to visit the bathroom." Meredith got up and left quickly, Kathleen quickly excused herself as well.
"You'll have to excuse Nancy, there's a land far far way called passive agressivia and she is their queen." Meredith laughed at Kathleen's description of her sister.
The rest of dinner passed with Nancy, who'd obviously been warned by her mother, remained relatively quiet for the rest of the evening.
"Thank you for dinner, I had a nice time." Meredith told the Shepherds honestly as she prepared to leave and return to the hospital.
Derek was flicking through one of the magazines Meredith had left behind, when he sensed her presence. "How was it? He asked.
"Ok, they're nice. Nancy still doesn't like me. Kathleen referred to her as the queen of passive aggressivia."
"I said the same about Addison, they were always very similar." He frowned.
"Imagine what they would've said if they heard about the post-it."
"What's wrong with our post-it?" He asked
"Nothing, but it doesn't make it legal." She replied
"Do you want a proper wedding? A legal one anyway?"
"I don't know." She said as she settled on the couch.
"I thought we agreed on the on-call room." Derek reminded her.
"We did, and I'm going home, I thought I'd spend some time with you first."
"Oh you did." He smiled.
"Porny thoughts Derek? Because if you haven't noticed you're hooked up to all these machines, and it's not really private in here."
"Neither is the on-call room, the supply closet, conference room and my office has lots of big windows." He told her.
"Seriously Derek." Meredith walked over to him kissed him on the lips. "I'm leaving now."
"Tease." He mumbled.
Meredith gave him a look and told him, "but you love me anyway."
"Meredith! We will talk about the post-it!" He called after her as she left his room.
Derek reached for his phone and asked the nurses to page Mark.
TBC...
Hope that was ok. Don't worry, Nancy will get hers. Update when I can and the advice at the top it's good advice.
