Once he got over the fact that he woke up again in an unknown place with a pounding headache, Derek took a look at his watch and knew he was in trouble. He was supposed to have been at work five minutes ago and he didn't even know where he was. He cursed and jerked out of bed so quickly that he woke up the woman he hadn't even noticed.
"Why are in such a hurry?" she asked sleepy.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I'm late for work, do you mind if I use your bathroom?"
"No, go ahead"
"Where are we?" He had tried to find a better way to ask that question but he was too late to think about it.
She didn't seem to notice or to mind as she gave him their location. But he didn't know Seattle so it wasn't really helpful so she offered "I'm going to call a cab"
"Thanks" he smiled at her before disappearing in the shower.
He was glad the cab was here just after he had showered, not that he minded her company but he had nothing to tell her except "I had a good time last night, bye"
Once he was in the cab, he started to feel a little stressed. He knew he should stop living like that but since his life had turned upside down, he felt as if he had lost control and Derek Shepherd was the kind of man who loved being in control. His new life was about the only things he still felt he had in his control: alcohol, sex and surgery. He hated to admit it but he felt as if his father had been right from the beginning, feelings were just a loss of time. He had been so sure his father had been wrong but now seeing how close to the edge it had brought him, he found no other solution than to put his feelings aside.
A brief image of his girl from the bar passed through his mind with the sound of her giggle and brought a smile to his lips but as soon as he noticed it, he stopped smiling and tried to erase her haunting image from his mind. That's when he heard the cab driver tell him that they had arrived.
Great, he was 40 minutes late for his first day. But knowing the Chief, he wouldn't hold it against him too much because he had heard about what had happened. He wished the Chief didn't know, he wanted to start fresh, not being look at as some pathetic man who was overcome by the events in his life. He walked confidently towards the entrance, reminding himself that he was the world best neurosurgeon.
"Good morning" he smiled warmly at the nurse in front of him, if he had learned something it was to never cross a nurse even since he was an attending, he still was afraid of them, not that he would ever admit it. "I'm Dr Shepherd, could you tell me where the conference is taking place?"
"First floor, on your right, you can't miss it" she returned his smile. "By the way, Dr Montgomery-Shepherd called a few times and she will call back later"
The smile he held quickly dropped "If she calls except if it's work related, I'm not here, okay?"
The nurse didn't understand the situation but still nodded. Addison had even called him at work. He had turned off his phone because she had decided she wanted to talk to him. He had left her three weeks ago and for two weeks he hadn't heard a single word about her but one week ago she had started to ring him. He needed to get her out of his head, a surgery would be really welcome right now. Before taking the stairs, he asked the nurse where he could find some coffee but she offered to bring one for him. She returned with his cup of coffee, he thanked her and headed to the conference room.
It was the first time he heard about such a conference for interns. He didn't even know what it consisted of and it wasn't like he would know, by now, it was surely finished. But he decided to enter anyway, it was better to be late than not to come, right?
When he pushed open the door, too many heads turned to look at him and now he started to feel embarrassed. He looked in front of him where he saw the attendings and residents who were sitting in front of a long table observing him but what he couldn't miss was the disapproving look of the Chief.
"Nice of you to finally join us, Shepherd"
"I'm sorry Chief, I was…" Derek started but couldn't find anything to justify himself.
"You were?" the Chief inquired once Derek had rejoined them on the podium. "You didn't show up last night and now you're late and you have no explanation. It takes less than that to fire someone."
"Then I'm lucky since I'm the best and you love me" Derek said with a boyish grin and some people in the conference room chuckled.
"How many times do I have to tell you that the charming card doesn't work on men?" The Chief sighed.
"You'd be surprised." he chuckled while making his way to the Chief.
"Shepherd" the Chief warned him.
"All right, I'm sorry, I just moved in, I needed some time to adjust" As soon as Derek finished, a distinctive giggle was heard.
Since he had entered the conference room, Meredith had been in a state of shock. She kept telling herself that it wasn't possible, she was just dreaming. The flirting guy from last night couldn't be Derek Shepherd, one of the top neurosurgeons in America.
"You look like a fish" Cristina who she had just met had whispered to her and she had automatically closed her mouth.
Hearing him now, she had no doubt, that arrogance, he really was there, talk about a coincidence. She had to keep herself from laughing when the Chief insisted on knowing what he had been doing the previous night or more exactly who, if only he knew. When Derek tried to explain himself, she couldn't hold it any longer and her giggle escaped. Way to be discreet in a deadly silent conference room, she covered her mouth as quickly as possible but it was too late.
His head and many others turned to that sound and she wished she could disappear. Then their eyes meet again, he was also surprised but made a good job at hiding it.
"You're an intern" his lips curved into a smile.
"You're Derek as in Derek Shepherd" she said forgetting where she was, just stunned to meet him again, she loved neurology, she was planning on specializing in it and she was a big fan of his work. She had never imagined he would be so hot.
"How unfair is that? Now you know my full name, I still don't know yours"
Before she had time to reply, she was grateful the Chief cut in "You two know each other?" he looked between the two of them.
"Not really, it's a long story" Derek shrugged as Meredith seemed to have lost her voice.
"You're not going to repeat the beginning of your internship here, are you?" the Chief warned him.
No one except the two of them could understand what he meant by that. The Chief had been Derek and Mark's resident and he had witnessed more than he had wished, always finding them having sex somewhere in the hospital with a member of the staff.
"I'm done with doctors" Derek replied bitterly.
"Derek…" the voice of the Chief had gone softer
Derek cut him in "I'm fine, Chief, keep… doing whatever you were doing", he put his briefcase on the floor and sat on the chair at the end of the long table. He vaguely heard the Chief talking as he was mesmerized by his girl from the bar he still didn't know the name. So she was an intern, how was he supposed to run away from her now? She sometimes looked at him too and was blushing at the intensity of his stare. He wished he could stop looking at her.
He saw her move and wondered why but then he realised everyone else was moving. The conference was over, he didn't know how long he had been staring at her or what the conference was about. He picked up his briefcase and was hoping he could talk to her.
"Shepherd, in my office" the commanding voice of the Chief was heard and Derek groaned.
The Chief started walking clearly expecting him to follow and he did so. The walk to his office was silent. It wasn't that Derek didn't want to talk to him but Richard had always considered him as a friend or even as the son he never had and he would want to know how he felt. But he didn't want to discuss his feelings; he wanted to be left alone and to concentrate on surgeries. They finally reached his office and Derek closed the door behind him while Richard went to his desk.
"Derek, how are you?"
"I'm fine"
"Stop saying that. You're not fine. You can talk to me."
"There is nothing to talk about." he paused "I know it's my first day but I don't want to waste it on paperwork, I want to scrub in"
"You're still an addict" Richard smiled, "but Derek, you need to talk to someone, you can't keep everything inside, one day it's going…"
Derek cut him off "Stop that, I'm fine. I don't want your pity, I'm fine. Look, it's nice of you to care but I don't need you to do that, I can take care of myself."
"You don't need to go through that alone."
"I need to get to work, anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"No, you can go" Richard sighed, feeling bad for the man in front of him.
"Okay, I'll see you later" Derek went out of his office.
Derek changed into his scrubs and went to the nurse station to take the chart of his first patient who only needed a craniotomy. It'd be a simple procedure. He wished he had something more exciting and he was a little disgusted by his own thoughts, wishing for someone to be badly injured was morbid. He had been told the name of the residents and he had decided to work with Dr Bailey, as his reputation preceded him. He asked the nurse to page him, thrilled to finally meet the Nazi wondering what he looked like.
He was leaning against the counter when a small woman with interns behind her stopped in front of him. He wondered why she was doing and eyed her confused. He then looked up and his eyes fell on his girl from the bar who was trying her best to avoid his gaze. He smiled at her and he started to feel embarrassed, the small woman was still looking at him.
"You like what you see?" He smirked.
"Excuse me?" she glared at him "You actually paged me for a reason or just to waste my time?"
"You…you're Dr Bailey?" his eyes grew wide.
She pointed to her lab coat and scowled at him "You went to med school, I assume you know how to read"
"I thought you would be…never mind. I'm Dr Shepherd, it's nice to meet you" he extended his hand but she just kept on glaring at him so he lowered his hand "It's nice to meet you too, Dr Shepherd" he chuckled but stoll gpt no reactio from her axcept a deadly glare. "Okay, you're no fun" he shook his head "I need an intern"
"Next time, begin by that. Grey go with Shepherd, the others follow me" she commanded and walked away mumbling something.
Four interns followed her and his girl from the bar stood there, her hands in her pockets and just looking beautiful.
"We meet again" he stated while walking and she just nodded smiling a little "Does it make you as happy as it makes me?"
"I'm happy because I'm getting the chance to work under you, I respect you a lot Dr Shepherd"
"Last night it was Derek and you could have worked under me" he winked at her but was proud she respected him. He liked to tell himself he was the best, it was normal people respected him but coming from her, it felt good.
"Let's just pretend last night never happened" she proposed hopeful.
"I had fun last night"
"I bet you did" she shook her head. "How is the headache?"
"You're not supposed to know I have a headache if last night never happened"
"Fine. I didn't ask" she rolled her eyes.
"Too late and it's okay" he pointed to a room "Here is our patient, take him down to CT and page me when the results are back" he started to walk away but he turned back to her "So DR Grey, what's your first name?"
"I'm not telling" she giggled wondering why he was so interested in her name.
"Fine, I'll keep calling you my girl in a bar"
"No, you can't" she took a serious tone.
"Why is that?"
"People will think things that are not true, I don't want them to think we met in a bar"
"But we met in a bar"
"People who met randomly in a bar generally end up having sex, they will think we had sex"
"You'll start regretting not having sex with me then, if you don't already"
"I don't regret anything and I won't."
"Come on, give me your name"
"Why is that so important anyway?"
Good question, why? He didn't really know but now it didn't mattered "I happen to like to know the name of the people I meet"
"Really? What was the name of that woman you fucked in the ladies room?" she challenged him.
"You should stop mentioning her before I really think you're jealous" he smirked.
"I'm not, I'm just trying to prove my point here"
"What point? That you don't want to give me your name? That's stupid" He laughed and surprisingly she laughed too.
"Yes, it is but I'm still not going to tell you"
"I could just read it on your lab coat but I'd rather you tell me" he told her with a serious tone.
"I'm Meredith" she finally extended her hand after a slight hesitation.
Surprised, he took her hand and repeated her name softly "Meredith" he smiled at her "I'll see you later"
