Chapter Three: Don't Stand So Close To Me
"So Meredith Grey, an intern, is foolin' around with her boss?" Stillman asked, arching his brows in surprise as he sipped his coffee. "Her married boss?"
"Looks that way, Boss," Miller replied.
"Anybody else know about this fling?" Stillman asked.
"Well, they kept it a secret for a while," Scotty answered uncomfortably, "but…it kinda got out."
"As secrets do," Stillman commented drily, glancing briefly in Scotty's direction before turning his attention back to Miller. "We got any leads on the wife?"
"Addison Montgomery…OB/GYN, neonatologist, a whole handful of other specialties. She's workin' in LA now," Miller replied, "but Vera just got off the phone with her, and she says Chief Webber called her from New York to come do some…" she trailed off as she tried to decipher Vera's handwriting and cursed the smear of donut frosting that obscured part of his notes. "…twin-twin transfusion thing…whatever the hell that is," she said with a wry grin.
"Sounds like it was work-related," Stillman commented, as they made their way through the squad room to where Lilly and Jeffries sat discussing their interview.
"But we're thinkin' maybe it kinda wasn't," Scotty remarked, perching on the edge of Lilly's desk. "If the Chief knew about it, no way does he not tell Addison. Question is: how'd the Chief find out?"
"George O'Malley says Izzie found out about the affair," Miller began, consulting her notes.
"Wonder if Izzie mighta stuck her nose where it didn't belong. Think she mighta told the Chief?" Scotty asked.
"I wouldn't put it past her," Lilly chimed in. "Sounds like Izzie Stevens had a habit of getting a little bit too involved with other people's business. If she told the Chief about an illicit relationship between Shepherd and Grey…"
"That would give McDreamy…a McMotive," Miller finished triumphantly. The others just stared at her.
"What?" she asked, glancing around.
Jeffries smiled wryly. "We're…not gonna do that here," he declared softly.
Miller rolled her eyes, and Stillman seemed to come to a decision. "Let's have a chat with the secret lovers," he suggested. "Maybe they won't be so protective of their secrets now."
Upon reaching the hospital, Vera opened the door for Lilly, and she glanced at him in surprise as she walked through it, unaccustomed to a display of gentlemanliness from Nick Vera. Scotty, sure. Scotty had always opened doors for her. It was something she'd always noticed about him; never pushy, never insistent…just…polite. Normally, Lilly Rush hated having doors opened for her, yet when Scotty did it, it never seemed insulting. But to have Vera do it…Lilly wasn't insulted, just surprised.
In response to the questioning look he got from his blonde colleague, Vera just smirked slightly and shrugged.
They hadn't wandered the halls of the hospital for long when they spotted a slight-framed doctor with a messy, dishwater blonde ponytail. When the detectives greeted her, she flashed them a slightly relieved smile. "Any luck with the case?" she asked them casually.
"We…got a couple leads," Vera answered.
"Is there someplace we can talk?" Lilly asked, and a flicker of concern crossed Meredith's face. She nervously beckoned them into an exam room, shut the door behind her, and stood nervously next to it, hugging her clipboard to her chest and glancing at them uncertainly, like she might bolt any second. Lilly recognized that look.
"Meredith, we just have some questions," she began gently.
"Yeah, questions like…where were you the night of the murder?" Vera asked, and Lilly shot him a brief glare.
Meredith's pale green eyes widened in shock. "Me?" she squeaked. "You think I killed Izzie? Why? Why would I kill Izzie?" she asked, a touch of anger coloring her breathy voice.
"'Maybe 'cause she's lousy at keepin' secrets," Vera guessed.
"Secrets? What kind of secrets? I don't have any secrets," Meredith protested.
"But you did," Lilly replied, softly but firmly. "You had a big secret."
Meredith stared at them blankly, her mouth working to form words, but none would come out.
"You and boss-man?" Vera asked. "Ring any bells?"
When Meredith continued gaping at them cluelessly, Lilly continued. "Your boyfriend? Derek? An intern sleeping with her married boss? That's a secret worth keeping, and we know Izzie knew about it."
Meredith sighed. "That…wasn't a secret for very long," she remarked.
"Yeah, we know," Vera replied. "We figured if Addison Montgomery heard about it all the way back in New York, then you guys musta been pretty lousy secret-keepers."
Lilly approached Meredith slowly, her eyes never leaving Meredith's gaze. "Now, we know Izzie knew, and we know that Addison found out about you and Derek from Chief Webber. The question is, how did Chief Webber know?"
"'Cause we think Izzie mighta blabbed to him," Vera added.
"Giving you motive for murder one," Lilly finished.
"No," Meredith protested, nervously shoving a lock of hair behind her ear. "Izzie didn't--well, she knew. But she didn't tell the Chief."
"How do you know that?" Lilly asked.
Meredith sighed again and looked down at the floor. "Because he saw it with his own eyes."
Music: Grey's Anatomy, original underscoring
Chief Webber lay recovering in a private room, after the special super-secret silent sunset surgery to remove a tumor that had been pressing against his optic nerve. Meanwhile, Meredith spoke grudgingly into the phone with the people at the nursing home for what seemed like the seventeenth time that day.
"I know, but something came up, an important surgery, and I couldn't," she insisted softly.
"I'm just sorry you couldn't be there for your mother," Ms. Henry replied, a touch of reproach in her voice.
"Ms. Henry," Meredith said, a little irritated at the guilt trip these people insisted on laying on her, "if my mother were lucid, she would understand. She's a surgeon. She's done this countless times." More times than she could ever even begin to count, Meredith thought wryly.
"And besides, she doesn't even know who I am anyway, so…" she trailed off.
"Today, she did," Ms. Henry replied softly.
"What?" Meredith replied in disbelief.
"Your mother's been asking when her daughter Meredith gets off from work," Ms. Henry elaborated.
Crap. Meredith froze, unable to reply, and then jumped when she sensed someone touch her arm. Both startled and grateful for the interruption, she flipped her phone closed and turned to see Derek standing behind her. "Hey," he said quietly.
She fixed him with a wide-eyed stare. "Hey," she greeted him softly.
He glanced into her eyes briefly, then down at the phone. "Lotta secret phone calls today," he commented.
Oh, you're one to talk, Meredith thought. You've had a lot of secret phone calls today, yourself. But something told her that maybe, just maybe…she could trust Derek with her secret. Her big, huge, horrible secret that she'd never, ever dared even breathe a word of to anyone. Could she trust Derek? With her secret? That secret?
"Yeah, it's my mother," she answered quietly. Glancing up at Derek, she saw him still consulting his notes, not responding in any way. Emboldened by his lack of prying curiosity, she took a deep breath and decided to spill the truth.
"She isn't traveling, she isn't writing a book. She isn't anything." At this, Derek looked up, and she read the surprise in his blue eyes. The great Ellis Grey being described as not being anything? She knew how shocking that was to her surgeon boyfriend. Ellis Grey was a surgical legend.
"I've been lying to everyone," Meredith continued.
Derek's brow creased with concern. "Why?" he asked, mystified.
"She has Alzheimer's," Meredith replied, and Derek's mystified frown turned to one of concern and compassion.
"How advanced?" he asked, instantly the neurosurgeon.
"Very," Meredith answered. "She's in a home, and I'm the only one who even knows she's sick. I just don't know what to do anymore, y'know?"
Derek shook his head slightly, his eyes filled with sympathy and sadness, and he gently brushed a wayward strand of hair away from her face. As she looked up at him, he softly caressed her cheek with his thumb, then pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
A while later, Meredith nervously entered Chief Webber's room to check on him. She never felt like an intruder when checking on patients, but this wasn't just any patient. This was Chief Webber.
"Meredith," he began, and if she wasn't mistaken, she could almost catch a warning note in his tone.
At his next words, her worst fears were confirmed.
"He's an attending," Webber continued. "You're an intern."
"You saw us?" Meredith asked incredulously, embarrassment and panic coursing through her body, but then the doctor in her took over. If Chief Webber had seen them, that meant the surgery had been a success.
She crossed the room, her eyes fixed on her boss. "You can see," she breathed in amazement, then whipped out her penlight and examined her patient's pupils. Webber, however, wouldn't let her change the subject, much to her chagrin.
"I'm gonna tell you what your mother would say if she were here," Webber began. "You're making a mistake. A big one."
Meredith, having finished her examination, raised herself up and looked him square in the eyes. "And I would tell my mother it's not a mistake," she said firmly, with a slight smile.
"So the Chief saw you two makin' out in the hallway," Vera concluded.
Meredith glared at him slightly. "We weren't…making out. He was comforting me."
Lilly looked over at Meredith in sympathy. Her mother had Alzheimer's, and Meredith was the only one available to take care of her. Lilly knew what that was like…to an extent, anyway. Alzheimer's, alcoholism…each had its blessings and its curses, and Lilly knew in a flash how difficult Meredith's life had been.
"What were Derek's secret phone calls about?" Lilly asked softly. "Did he ever shine any light on that?"
Meredith chuckled bitterly. "Well, he didn't…but a couple hours later, Addison showed up. So…yeah, I guess you could say he did."
Lilly and Vera exchanged a glance. "If Derek's secret phone calls had been about Addison," Lilly began, the wheels in her head turning rapidly, "then she'd been trying to call him all day. And no way would Chief Webber have time to call Addison from the recovery room and get her here from New York in under two hours, in rush hour traffic. He had to have called her before that."
"Besides," Meredith continued, her voice slightly triumphant as she pulled her lab coat more closely around her thin frame. "I was in OR Two the night of the murder. Just ask Bailey."
"We will," Vera replied, clicking his pen closed.
"We'll let you know what else we find out," Lilly answered, as Meredith opened the door for them. Lilly brushed past, admittedly a bit relieved that it seemed Meredith hadn't killed her friend. Their eyes met briefly, though, and Lilly could tell by peering into their green depths that Meredith Grey was hiding…something…Lilly just couldn't tell what. The blonde doctor darted her gaze elsewhere before Lilly could ascertain the secret, but she knew she couldn't let Meredith off the hook quite yet.
"She may not be our doer," Lilly remarked as she and Vera headed down the hallway. "But I think she knows who is."
Meanwhile, Scotty and Kat stood in Derek Shepherd's office, a small room with dingy carpet and shelves cluttered with medical journals, old textbooks, and piles of papers. Scotty noticed a few photos lining the shelves, including one of Derek surrounded by four attractive, dark-haired women who all bore a striking resemblance to him, assorted men, and a bevy of small children. Sisters, Scotty instantly surmised. Poor bastard's got four sisters. Moving onto another photo, he recognized Meredith Grey's dimpled smile. She and Derek had their arms around each other and were grinning broadly as Niagara Falls thundered in the background.
"So…you and Meredith…you been together awhile, now," Scotty began, replacing the photo and turning to face the neurosurgeon.
"Yes," Derek answered, defensiveness already coloring his tone. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against his desk.
"How'd that get started, anyway?" Kat asked.
Derek raked a hand through his dark, wavy hair, and chuckled at the memory. "Drunken one night stand. She was just a girl in a bar, I was just a guy…I had no idea I'd ever see her again, let alone that she'd be my intern."
"Somethin' like that, you sure as hell don't want gettin' out at work," Scotty remarked, and Derek could hear the suspicion in the detective's voice. "Why not just break it off?"
Derek's blue eyes began to shoot sparks in Scotty's direction. "Break it off?" he repeated incredulously. "You ever met a woman who was just so…amazing…so incredible, that you'd do anything to see her again?"
Scotty's glare softened somewhat, and he knew without even looking in Miller's direction that his partner was rolling her eyes.
"This ain't about me, Doc," Scotty replied, and he could sense the surprised relief from Miller. "This is about you and Meredith, and the fact that you're married and bangin' your intern ain't exactly somethin' you want the whole hospital knowin' about."
Derek started to protest, but Miller cut him off.
"We know Izzie Stevens knew about you and Meredith," she interjected softly. "She saw you leaving the house early one morning."
Derek nodded and sighed, and Scotty continued. "So…you know that Izzie Stevens knows, and Izzie's got a big mouth. She's a gossip to the core. And you got a big secret you don't want gettin' out. You're married, you're her boss, she's your intern…"
Derek glared menacingly at Scotty. "I don't like what you're suggesting, Detective," he said, his voice a low, threatening growl.
Scotty wasn't intimidated by this egomaniac of a doctor, and returned Derek's glare with a fiery one of his own. "Hell, I don't like what I'm suggestin', either, but that ain't gonna stop me from suggestin' it," he retorted, the muscle in his cheek beginning to twitch.
The doctor and the detective stood there, their faces only a few inches apart, jaws clenched and eyes shooting sparks. Kat Miller glanced from one to the other, rolled her eyes with a sigh, and took over the conversation.
"Look, Dr. Shepherd, we know that your secret got out. We know Chief Webber found out about you and Meredith. Now, we think maybe Izzie told him, and that makes us think you or Meredith, either one, might have a reason to kill her," she explained softly, but firmly.
Derek's angry glare turned even darker as he fixed it on Kat, but she didn't even blink as she stared him down.
"Are you calling my girlfriend a liar?" Derek asked incredulously.
"You callin' my partner a liar?" Scotty retorted, stepping protectively between Miller and Derek, and the two glowered at each other once more.
Kat rolled her eyes again. These two Neanderthals needed to dial down the testosterone, and fast.
"Dr. Shepherd, can you think of any other way Chief Webber would have found out about your affair with Meredith?" she asked, stepping out from behind Scotty, drawing herself up to her full height, and fixing Derek with a no-nonsense stare of her own. Scotty glanced over at her in surprise, then turned back to staring fiercely at Derek.
Derek's glare softened a bit as he stood there, arms folded across his chest, and searched his memory. Suddenly, one particular night flashed into his mind.
"Bailey," he replied instantly. "Miranda Bailey."
"And who's Miranda Bailey?" Kat asked, pen at the ready.
"Meredith's resident at the time," Derek answered. "A real battle-ax. She's just a resident, but she's got this entire hospital under her thumb."
Kat glanced up with interest. "So how did Bailey find out about you and Meredith?"
Derek sighed, and his cheeks flushed slightly. Scotty felt a secret thrill at the doctor's discomfort as he launched into his tale.
"Meredith had this…party…at her house that night," he began, running his fingers through his hair once more.
Music: Ivy, "Edge of the Ocean"
Derek pulled his Lexus up to the curb outside Meredith's house. It certainly wasn't every day that a woman blew him off for what basically amounted to a college party, and he wasn't about to let her off the hook. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was just something about Meredith Grey that made her dominate his every thought, appear in his dreams each night. When he was around her, it was sheer chaos. She drove him absolutely crazy and made it impossible for him to feel normal. He'd never experienced anything like it, but it was hopelessly addictive.
Climbing out of his car, Derek noticed some guests still arriving, and then a slender, familiar figure on the porch caught his attention. She had on this beautiful lavender sweater that accentuated her gentle curves, a mostly-empty bottle of tequila in her hand, and a dreamy smile on her face. He casually leaned against his car and watched her in silence for a few minutes as she danced drunkenly to music only she could hear, and with a start, Derek Shepherd realized that…he was falling in love with Meredith Grey. That somehow, through all the mess that was his life, through all the hardship…he'd been drowning, he realized…and she'd saved him.
Meredith kept dancing and chugging tequila, and after a moment, Derek broke the silence. "Y'know, in some states, you could get arrested for that," he remarked.
She looked up, met his eyes for a moment, then slowly began to walk toward him. He smiled and met her halfway.
Meredith smiled drunkenly up at him, biting her lower lip the way she usually did when he was around, a habit that he found so maddeningly adorable. But he couldn't let her off the hook. Not yet.
"So you blew me off for a bottle of tequila," he surmised. "Tequila's no good for you. Doesn't call, doesn't write…it's not nearly as much fun to wake up to," he finished, glancing up at her seductively as he remembered waking up naked on her living room floor after that first night, catching a glimpse of her, and knowing instinctively that his life was forever changed.
Meredith didn't respond with words, she merely smiled broadly at him, tugged at the lapel of his coat, and pulled him in for a tequila-soaked kiss. The smell of the liquor on her breath reminded him of their first night, and he pulled her closer, feeling every nerve in his body responding to her touch.
They pulled apart after a moment, mindful that they were still in front of Meredith's house, in clear view of pretty much the whole damn hospital, and she finally spoke.
"Take me for a ride, Derek," she ordered softly with a grin, and Derek chuckled, his own smile broadening, as he wrapped his arm around her and led her toward his car.
The sex had been amazing, even though they were in his car. Derek hadn't had sex in a car since he was a teenager, but Meredith brought out a wildness in him he didn't even know he had. Afterwards, she perched on top of him, half-wearing his white dress shirt, and he drank in her creamy, glowing skin and that delicious pale purple satin bra she had on. Lavender shirt, lavender bra, the delicious smell of lavender in her hair…this woman would be the death of him, he knew.
"You know, the party's probably winding down now," he began, not wanting this to end, but knowing that Meredith needed to get back to her party before she was missed.
"Listen to me," he insisted, a dreamy smile filling his face.
"What?" Meredith giggled.
"We should probably sneak inside now," Derek said reluctantly, brushing her hair from her face and caressing her cheeks.
"Oh, we've done enough sneaking for tonight," Meredith answered with a smile. "It was good sneaking, but enough sneaking."
"Yeah, I'd say we're pretty good sneakers," Derek agreed, as he pulled his shirt all the way up over her shoulders. She began to button it, but somehow, she got distracted, and leaned down for another kiss, bracing her hands on his bare chest. Sneaking was good, Derek realized as their tongues intertwined once more. Sneaking was…very, very…
They were interrupted by an insistent knock on the window of the Lexus, and they both looked up in alarm to see Miranda Bailey through the glass. Their lusty smiles froze on their faces as Bailey's coffee-colored eyes seemed to bore holes through the both of them.
"You mind movin' this tail wagon?" she demanded sarcastically. "You're blockin' me in." Much to their relief, she then turned to go, and Derek turned back to face Meredith.
"Apparently not good enough," he replied soberly, then cleared his throat as Meredith looked helplessly at Bailey's retreating figure.
"Yeah, I'd say so," Scotty chortled, meriting glares from both Derek and Miller. Derek's was one of challenged masculine pride, while Kat's was one that clearly said, Ain't like you got a lotta room to talk, Man Candy.
Miller stepped in. If she had to watch Scotty and Derek glare at each other like a couple of damn fighting roosters one more time, so help her, she'd smack the both of them.
"So, you think Dr. Bailey might have told the Chief?" Miller asked.
"Well, she did make Meredith's life hell for a while after that," Derek replied, "so it seemed like she was keeping our secret…but then Addison showed up, so…" he trailed off uncomfortably, clearly not wanting to discuss the subject of his former wife.
"Well, if you think of anything else," Miller replied quickly, handing him a card.
"There is…someone else you might want to talk to," Derek volunteered.
"Somebody besides you?" Scotty retorted. "This better be good."
Derek shot Scotty another icy glare before continuing. "Oh it is. Dr. Torres," he supplied. "Callie Torres…she's an orthopedic surgeon."
"What's she got to do with any of this?" Scotty asked darkly.
Derek shot Scotty a triumphant glance. "Dr. Torres was, for a brief while, Dr. O'Malley."
"Callie O'Malley?" Kat replied in disbelief. "As in, Mrs. George O'Malley?"
"The one and only," Derek replied with a tight smile. "But that marriage was…tragically brief."
"I still ain't hearin' what that's got to do with Izzie Stevens," Scotty reminded Derek pointedly.
"If you'd let me finish," Derek answered, glaring once more at Scotty, "you'd learn that George O'Malley cheated on his wife…with Izzie Stevens."
Scotty and Kat shot one another a surprised glance.
"O'Malley didn't mention that," Scotty remarked, hating to concede defeat to this pompous jackass, but knowing that, if George O'Malley had, in fact, slept with Izzie Stevens, that certainly gave Callie Torres a clear motive for murder.
"Well, it sounds like you all have a far more productive interview to conduct," Derek remarked smoothly as he opened the office door. "Now, if you'll kindly leave Meredith and me out of this, we'd be most appreciative."
"I wouldn't count my chickens just yet…Doc," Scotty spat as they left the office.
Kat rolled her eyes yet again as Scotty fumed next to her. "Man, I hate that guy. That arrogant, know-it-all brain surgeon. Who the hell does he think he is, anyway, all cocky and condescendin'? Callin' me a liar…y'know, this is exactly why I don't like doctors."
Good lord, there's two of 'em, Miller realized, only this one cuts people open for a living. She shuddered slightly, and Scotty shot a fiery glance in her direction.
"What?" he demanded.
Miller shot him a withering glance. "Next time, just whip out a ruler, for God's sake. It'd be a helluva lot easier."
