Seattle Grace Hospital

Surgical Floor,

Late Morning

-

"Since Drs. Montgomery and Sloan are on medical leave, surgery's officially short-staffed for the time being," Bailey stated with her usual charm as she was rushing down the hallway towards the nurse's station, fully aware of her interns doing their best to try and keep up with her. "O'Malley, Karev, Stevens, you're covering the pit and I expect you to pitch in wherever you're needed regardless of whether you think a case is interesting or not, am I making myself clear?"

"Totally."

"Absolutely."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Grey, you're with Dr. Torres," Miranda continued and Meredith did her best not to groan at her assignment. Despite the peaceful timeout last night in the conference room, she really wasn't keen on working with Callie after everything that had happened, but Bailey was on the warpath right now and rubbing her the wrong way was certainly not advisable.

"Yang," Bailey barked over her shoulder as if to confirm her thoughts, "you're with me."

"Great," Cristina cursed under her breath and Meredith gave her a sympathetic look. Ever since Bailey had found out about the intern wiping her name off the board Cristina was so far away from Miranda's good side she couldn't even see it from afar.

"I'm sure she saved the best for last," Alex whispered from behind her before he made a turn to head for the elevators, leaving Cristina without a chance to retort.

"Don't look at me," Meredith shrugged when Cristina turned to glare at her instead. "I got Torres."

"Yang," Bailey yelled, already disappearing around a corner and Cristina abstained from whatever comment she had been ready to make in order to catch up with their resident.

Looking past her Meredith caught sight of a lonely figure standing at the nurse's station, busy filling out some forms. Walking up to him Meredith couldn't help but think that even with the cast around his leg and the dressing covering his head wound, Mark Sloan still looked hot. In fact, it only seemed to make him more attractive. Venturesome and bold with that touch of bad boy. The way he was resting his knee on the handle of one of his crutches, letting the cast dangle in the air - he just seemed to have such ease and certainty about his entire appearance, it seemed like nothing could really shake or break him.

"Nice bruise you got there," she commented as she came to stand next to him, motioning towards the left side of his face.

"Yeah. I hear the color makes me look even more audacious," he replied in his usual playful manner and she couldn't but return his smile. For some reason she had always found herself incapable of not flirting with him just a little bit. Not that she was really interested but there was something about him that made it so easy to be with him. And easy was just the thing she could really use. She had never had trouble seeing why Addison had cheated with him of all people.

The thought of Addison made her uncomfortable for a moment and she lowered her gaze for a second or two before looking up to him again.

"So, how are you?"

"Not exactly on top of my game," he smirked, "but you and me could still have a lot of fun. I just need to drop these papers off and I'm free to go. How about you?"

Shaking her head she smiled at him incredulously. "Why is it that you can't talk to me without hitting on me?"

"Why is it that you can't talk to me without avoiding what you really want from me?" he countered, causing her to frown at him and cross her arms.

"And what would that be?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't be able to avoid it any longer, would you?"

"Right." She eyed him with a mixture of confusion and curiosity before deciding to dismiss his remark. He was just trying to mess with her, as usual. Smiling again she motioned over her shoulder. "I gotta go."

"Figures," he remarked with a shrug but didn't attempt to stop her otherwise so she just furrowed a brow at him before turning around and leaving. Surely Torres was already looking for her, looking forward to the opportunity of torturing her.

It was, of course, in the elevator she would run into Derek. A tired, gruff looking Derek, who was still in his street clothes and barely looked at her.

"Hey," he sighed as if the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders again. She flinched at the nagging thought crossing her mind.

"Hey," she replied, trying not to sound too cheery but not too hushed either. He could use a little, well-dosed cheering up. "So you got some sleep?"

"Yeah."

Yeah. Of course he had. She knew that. She had slept next to him and he had still been asleep when she had left for work.

"What's that surgery you got?"

"It's been cancelled. Patient's not stable enough."

"Oh." She frowned. "But you still came in?"

"I was awake anyway and at least I get a chance to catch up on some paperwork, check on some patients."

She nodded.

"And look after Addison, of course," he added as if on second thought.

"Of course," she nodded with emphasis, determined not to let this become awkward or weird. "I thought I'd go see her as soon as I can sneak away from Callie for a bit."

"You're with Dr. Torres today?" he asked, showing some interest in her day after all.

"Yes, I am, because my resident, who also goes by the very illustrious nickname 'the Nazi' decided to give her interns the assignments they want least of all and team them up with the people they want to be teamed up with least of all."

"Why would she do that?"

"Again: the illustrious nickname 'the Nazi'."

That actually made him smile a little while he was avoiding her gaze and peeking down at his shoes.

"Come on, say it," she demanded teasingly.

"Say what?" he asked innocently.

"Something about interns and the bottom of the surgical food chain."

His smile widened.

"Really, I can take it," she stated with her head up high although the way his eyes roamed her features and studied her own made her week in the knees.

"Actually I was just going to say good luck."

She pulled a face and he chuckled before leaning in and placing a soft kiss on her lips just as the doors opened to the administrative floor.

"See you for lunch?" he asked with another one of those McDreamy looks she just couldn't…

"Sure," she smiled in return and with one last parting look he left.

Leaning back against the rear wall of the car, Meredith sighed as the elevator started to make its way down again, aware of the silly smile still lingering on her face, just like the taste of his lips still lingering on hers.