Chapter Two
Heather was frustrated, it was nearing the end of her shift, actually her shift probably ended awhile ago, but she hadn't had a moment to check the time- she needed to find Dr. Grey and tell her that all of her post-ops have been checked and all her charts have been signed, but she could find her nowhere. She paced around the corridors of the hospital, running into corners and dead-ins, furrowing her brow with a sigh, trying to keep her clipboards of information stacked under her arm, without somehow fumbling and losing all the work she'd done in the past few hours. She hated this, she absolutely hated this, and the one person she hated more then anyone in the entire freaking world could be found absolutely nowhere. Medusa, the name crossed her mind with such disdain, was somewhere in this huge, freaking hospital, but where, where the hell was she? Heather thought for a moment, maybe her pager had beeped in the midst of her searching, she looked down at the black box and let out a deeper sigh, leaning against the closest wall, and falling to the ground. She let her eyes droop and eventually close, sleeping for the first time in forty-eight hours. The code from the room next door startled her, and she immediately realized it had been a whole hour since she fell asleep, and that Medusa was probably out there waiting to murder her senselessly. She sped walk down the hallway, peeping through every room and alley trying to find her, but still at a loss.
"Lost?" a familiar voice clouded the air, she stared at Heather for a moment, "have you been napping?"
"I just fell asleep for like a minute," she replied, quickly, now nervous that Dr. Yang was talking to her-
"I'll call you Sleepy!" Cristina laughed, "who are you looking for?"
"Um, Dr. Grey, I've been looking for her everywhere and I literally can't find her anywhere," she quipped, "I checked every on call room, all the patients rooms on this ward, the fellows' office, Dr. Shepard's office, the-"
"Did you check the passageway in the basement?" Cristina asked, smiling at the ignorance and aggrivation of the intern.
"We have one of those?"
"That's where all the interns hang out!" Cristina laughed again, "where else do you go to eat and bitch about your attendings?"
"Oh, we've been going in the back alley of the cafeteria," she grimaced, "it's not ideal."
"Silly Sleepy," Cristina said, still smiling, "just go down the hall, take a right, like you're going to radiation and go down the stairs until you hit the bottom, then follow the hall and there should be some old hospital beds that used to house the most overworked and hungry interns."
"Thanks Dr. Yang," Heather, finally grateful, as she walked, at almost a running speed, down the hallway and followed the directions that Cristina had given her. She reached the infamous tunnel, lined with hospital beds and old O.R. equipment; but in the distance saw a figure on one of the beds, limply lying with one hand on her stomach and the other over her head.
"Dr. Grey?" Heather poked her slightly, amused by her loud snores and lackadaisical position; then frightful that she wouldn't be able to wake her up. "Dr. Grey?"
"Huh?" her voice was soft, she grunted at the sight of her intern, "Heather?"
"You, um, had me, um, get some charts, and I couldn't find you anywhere, and, um,-
"Stop," Meredith interrupted her, slowly rising from her position on the bed, "what time is it?"
"Ten after eight," Heather looked at her phone, realizing herself that her shift was over at five.
"Crap." Meredith groaned, "crap, weren't you supposed to leave like an hour ago?"
"Three hours ago, actually," Heather responded, quietly, "but it's okay, I, um, don't mind it."
"That's bull," Meredith leveled her eyes, "go home, the next time I do that, just leave, I'm sorry, I don't know where my brain has been the past couple of days."
Heather said nothing, but continued to look at Meredith, this person who used to be such a monster, they deemed her Medusa, now fragile and somewhat empathetic, she was so confused.
"I'm not, I'm not a terrible person," Meredith countered, her voice still low, "I'm just trying to teach you, and sometimes I get a little vicious, but it's only because the best way you'll learn from your mistakes is if you know how wrong they are."
"I get that, I do," Heather agreed, "but if you don't mind-"
"You want to go," Meredith smiled, "I get that, I'm sorry, go, enjoy your night, sleep! Sleeping is the best!"
"Thanks," Heather began to walk away, "have a nice evening Dr. Grey."
"Derek pick up!" she pressed her ear against the phone as she continued to drive down the highway, "Derek!"
She was late, so late, and they had made these plans a long time ago, but she had fallen asleep and her dumb pregnancy brain made her forget that these plans even existed. She couldn't remember anything that actually happened today, besides her somewhat too sensitive conversation with her intern and waking up in the morning feeling like someone had gutted her stomach, which resulted in vomiting for a good twenty minutes while her husband rubbed her back and held her hair.
"Meredith! Where are you?" he whispered, "we've been here for forty-five minutes."
"Derek, I fell asleep, in the hospital, I just fell asleep," she explained, "I just was so exhausted that I thought I could take a nap and I don't know what I was thinking, you can tell everyone they don't have to wait for me, I can just meet you at home if you want."
"No, don't be ridiculous," he countered, "I already ordered your dinner, plus we're already on our second bottle of wine, so I'm sure they don't even realize that you are that late."
"Good," she laughed, "was Zola okay with the babysitter when you left?"
"Yeah, she was fine," he reassured her, "I gotta go, but I'll see you soon, okay?"
"Okay," she replied, "love you."
"Love you too," he hung up, leaving her in the car for a few silent minutes; sad realizing that she could not get drunk like the rest of her friends tonight, still tired because she was always tired, and a bit apprehensive towards leaving her two year old alone with a woman she met once. She let her thoughts fester as she continued to drive the relentlessly boring road, stopping a few miles ahead at a restaurant that had one of the best views of Seattle.
"Meredith!" Cristina's voice loudly greeted her as she took off her jacket and sat down with the other doctors, "Meredith's here!"
"And drunk Cristina is here!" Meredith laughed, giving Derek a kiss on his cheek as he grabbed her hand-
"Very drunk Cristina is here," he added, the others laughing at his comment. Callie and Arizona sat across from them, both of their faces holding countenances of a sort of content that no one had seen in a long time. Arizona's eyes had the sparkle in them that had been missing for so long, and Callie seemed to be smiling so long it was hard to say how she could maintain her grin. Cristina, on the other hand, was slouched in her seat next to Meredith, her glass of wine cupped in both of her hands, taking frequent sips as the conversation persisted.
"A toast!" Callie rose her glass, "to a year of change and loss and grief, but also to a year of new friendships, new memories, and an even newer happiness."
"Here, here!" Derek chipped his glass with hers, the table raising all of their glasses and clinking with smiles; Meredith felt uncomfortable with her water, afraid that people would pick up on her lack of usual alcoholic beverage, but figured they were all too incapacitated to notice.
It was a nice night, conversation floated across the board, they discussed some of their cases, Arizona sharing pictures of Sofia, Derek boasting about Zola's latest feats, but Meredith remained the most quiet, smiling along with the others, yet hesitant to participate in the conversation. She was having such a spacey day she didn't want to let it slip that she was pregnant, it was one of her greatest fears, accidentally spilling the news, the news that she anticipated would be gone in a matter of weeks.
As they were leaving, Meredith realized that she forgot her coat (surprise) and ran back inside the restaurant, only to be greeted by Cristina, who patted her on the back, and smiled.
"I'm not an idiot," she stated, "I know."
"Oh." Meredith's face dropped, "how?"
"Lack of alcohol, the double A's have somehow become C's, and the fact that your intern suggested you had fallen asleep in the middle of your shift," Cristina giggled, "congratulations."
"Please don't tell anyone," Meredith begged, "I mean it, I-I don't know how long, exactly, I'll stay, you know, pregnant."
"Meredith," Cristina wrapped an arm around her person's shoulder, "stop being so pessimistic, you aren't living until you realize that everything is going to be okay, because it has to be."
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