Chapter 4: Conversation with a drunken best man

Derek Shepherd was depressed-for the first time in three months he was depressed to the point where the only way out was drinking himself into oblivion. Joe looked in concern as Derek threw one glass of tequila after another in his system. Derek had been coming to his bar for more than a year now, and he had never seen him drink this way. Ever.

Derek had had the worst day possible. Worse than the day he had found Addison cheating on him with his best friend. To start the day off, he had slept in, which caused him to be late to work, and didn't give him enough time to get himself coffee. He had arrived to see the death glares of nurses all over the hospital. It didn't take him long to figure why, they were all on Rose's side in their break up of course. He knew that he hadn't broken up with her in the best way possible, he could have been a little more discreet with his private life, but that relationship was really killing him, and he had to put an end to it. He couldn't believe that he had thought he would have been happy with Rose, she could give him everything he had wanted-commitment, marriage, kids- but at the end of the day she wasn't Meredith, and that was the core of all problems.

Ignoring the stares of the nurses, and the curious looks of the interns, he made his way to the board to see his surgeries for the day. He had two surgeries scheduled, and he was pleased to see that Meredith would be scrubbing in on both of them. He would have to thank Bailey later, not that she did this on purpose or anything. Finding that Meredith was his resident was the only highlight of his day, his day had been going downhill since then.

He made his way to Room 2113 to check on his first patient of the day. She was a woman in her 40s with a frontal lobe tumor, and was scheduled for surgery that day. It wasn't much long after that Meredith and her interns joined him.

"Dr. Shepherd", Meredith greeted professionally, just the way she had been saying ever since their breakup. Meredith pointed to one of her interns to start reading the chart on the patient, and Derek was surprised at the professionalism towards him. She wasn't working yesterday, but he was sure that she had heard about his and Rose's public breakup. He had seen Christina and Izzie at the scene. He didn't know what to expect, but he had certainly expected a warmer attitude towards him. Oh well, he would talk to her later.

"Dr.Shepherd", Meredith said, waving her hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention.

"Huh?" Derek said coming out of his reverie.

"What do you want me to do for the case?" Meredith questioned.

"Prep OR 2 for her surgery, we will begin in ½ an hour. You and one of your interns can scrub in." Derek answered.

Meredith nodded and turned her attention to her interns assigning them their assignments and picked George to be the intern scrubbing in the surgery. After giving the instructions, she left the room to prep for the surgery, leaving Derek behind.

The surgery had gone successfully, but Meredith had been nothing but professional throughout the whole thing. After the surgery was completed, Meredith and Derek made their way out of the OR to scrub out. Meredith was washing her hands, when Derek decided to initiate a conversation.

"So, I broke up with Rose." Derek stated, deciding to get right to the point.

"I heard, I am sorry about your break up." Meredith replied in a detached voice.

"That's it? That's all you have got to say? I am sorry?" Derek questioned shocked at her cool attitude. He had expected for her to show a little more emotion.

"Well what do you expect me to say? You are nothing more than my boss and a professional acquaintance. We don't do heart-to-heart. Have a good day Dr. Shepherd", and with that she made her way outside, leaving Derek stunned.

What was he really expecting? Meredith to just jump into her arms after he told her about his breakup. She had changed, she was much stronger now. He was foolish to think that she would just crawl back to him.

Absentmindedly, he made his way out, only to find George and Izzie talking near the nurse's station. He had no interest in their conversation that is until he heard his name pop up in the conversation.

"-Derek was there, looking at her, and Meredith was professional throughout the surgery, I was so proud of her." He heard George saying.

"Yea, Meredith had become so strong. She has no intention of going back to McBastard again, she's done with him and his crap. And, she's also been dating Neil for more than 3 weeks, and she is happy. I think she finally realized that she doesn't need Derek to make her happy." Izzie concluded.

Derek throat seemed to have closed up when he had heard that Meredith had been dating someone else. And for three weeks too. How could he have thought that she would be waiting for him, when he had finally come back to his senses? He had started dating Rose the night of their breakup, he couldn't blame Meredith, because she had waited two months. Miracles have happened to her in those two months, she came back stronger and more determined than before. She didn't do anything wrong, but that didn't stop him from feeling his heart break into a million little pieces. This was worse than Finn, because Meredith had been weak and vulnerable back then, this time she was the complete opposite. He didn't know how he managed to go through the rest of the day. He had bumped his second surgery up to another day, because he knew he was in no condition to operate. As soon as his shift was over, he headed directly to Joe's to let alcohol consume the emptiness in his body.

And that was exactly how Burke found him. After his meeting with the chief, Burke decided to head over to Joe's to see if he could find a familiar face. He needed to speak to someone before starting at SGH tomorrow. He had to know what was going on for the past 6 months he had been gone.

While everyone at SGH was very familiar with Joe's, it had not been a place Burke had visited often, only being here once on the night of his Bachelor's party. Looking around the crowded bar for a familiar face, he quickly found Derek Shepherd, who was taking glass after glass of tequila. Smiling slightly to himself, he made his way over to where his ex-best man sat, apparently trying to drown some of his sorrows.

"Derek", Burke greeted as he sat on the vacant stool next to Derek.

Derek turned his head to where he had heard his name come from, and was surprised to see the smiling face of Preston Burke. His old friend and colleague.

"Preston Burke", Derek answered in surprise.

"The one and only", Burke replied smirking.

"Even though I am so drunk right now, no one could miss the cockiness in your voice. The one that oozes the essence of Burke", Derek said drunkenly.

Preston laughed at the accusation and retaliated: "Well my voice is oozing cockiness, yours is filled with liquor. What happened to you to turn you into an alcoholic overnight, or is it an everyday thing now?" Burke questioned.

"Haha…very funny. If you had gone through the horrendous day I have gone through, you would be doing more than just heavy drinking." Derek semi-explained

"Really? What made your day so horrendous?" Burke asked in concern for his old friend.

"Hmm…let's see. I have been getting kicked in the ass the whole day for being the biggest idiot on Earth. I broke up with Meredith…" Burke sighed in understanding, but Derek waved his hand in a motion to indicate that he had more to say. "So, I broke up with her three months ago for a nurse, Rose. Then yesterday I broke up with Rose in front of the hospital. Then today, I go to the hospital to make amends with Meredith and guess what I find? I find her already dating. Dating!" Derek banged his empty glass on the table to prove his anger. "She's been dating for three weeks, and she is happy. According to Stevens, she doesn't need me to make her happy." Derek finished off miserably. Burke listened in shock as he heard Derek's woeful tale. He had missed a lot while in those six months. He tried to say something to comfort Derek, but was again shushed by Derek's hand. "And I told Mark about my problems yesterday, and you know what my so-called best friend does?" Derek paused as if waiting for an answer, while Burke realized that Mark and Derek had repaired their relationship. "He laughs. He thinks its funny, when I can't find anything funny in that situation. Just because he's been dating one woman for five weeks, without cheating on her too, he thinks he's accomplished all goals in life." Derek broke off disgustedly at the apparent cockiness of his friend.

Burke took this chance to interfere, "He's been dating ONE woman for five weeks, without cheating on her? Wow, that must be some sort of a record for him. Who's this woman that have kept Mark in line for such a long time?" Burke questioned surprised. "Erica Hahn." Derek replied dully, still lost in his own misery.

While Burke was surprised at the previous revelation, he was stunned at this one.

"Erica Hahn, the new head of cardio at the SGH? The one who used to work at Seattle Presbyterian?" Burke questioned, not believing Derek.

"The very same", looking at Burke's expression he continued, "yea, the whole hospital had the same expression when their relationship went public three weeks ago."

Six months hadn't seem that long to Burke while at Boston, but listening to Derek, Burke realized how much he had missed in those six months. He had gone to med school with Erica Hahn, and she would be the last person he would have thought to date Mark Sloan.

"Apparently Mark and Erica are the only happy people in the hospital", Derek continued, "And Meredith now, according to Izzie. The rest of us, not so happy. The chief still can't over his divorce; you know he moved in on my land, he brought his own trailer of course. Mark said we were dating. Isn't that funny? And George, well he and Callie got separated because he slept with Izzie. He still hasn't gotten over the separation, I think he still loves Callie, he just doesn't know how to approach the situation because he was the reason that their marriage failed. And then there's Izzie, she and George tried to work on a relationship, but that failed, and she has been single ever since. And who's left, o yea, Alex. I am telling you that guy is a young version of Mark. He had been romancing two women at once. The Jane Doe or Ava, the married woman and Meredith's younger half-sister Lexie. Ava was married and left town with her husband and daughter, and Lexie basically hates Alex after the way he had been two-timing her." Derek paused to catch his breath and Burke asked in wonder, "How in the world do you know all this?"

"I have been dating a nurse for the past three months that should answer your question. Well, where was I? O ya, Bailey. Her son was in an accident, and her marriage is on rocks, you wouldn't wanna piss her off, she could bite your head off. Now, the only one left is…Christina. Well she…." Derek was interrupted by Burke hastily cutting in: "Ah no, that's okay. I really don't want to know about Christina." Burke broke off awkwardly. He wasn't ready to hear that Christina was dating someone else. He knew that she wasn't waiting for him and that she would have moved on, but he didn't want to know. Not now. Not ever.

Derek seemed to understand his hesitancy, but before he could answer, he heard his cell phone ring. He looked at the caller id, flipped his phone open and said: "I'd be right there."

Looking at Burke he said, "I have to leave now, so I will see you tomorrow at work?"

"Yes, you will. But Derek, you are in no condition to drive, you can hardly see straight." Burke said, worried.

"Oh I am not driving. Mark's out there, he's driving me to the trailer. He was on a date with Erica and volunteered to pick me up from here cuz he knew I would be hammered." Derek explained.

Burke nodded and said: "Alright then, good night. I will see your hung over body tomorrow at work."

"Very funny. Night." Derek said waving his hand and making his way to the exit of the bar.

Burke watched as Derek stumbled towards the exit, and disappeared behind the doors.

Waiting for a couple of minutes to digest all the information Derek had provided him, he made his way to the exit of the bar and into the dark and wet streets of Seattle.

--

At Cristina's apartment- 11:30 p.m

Cristina had just came home after date with Jacob. She had just stepped in her apartment, when she heard her cell phone ring. She knew without even looking, who it was. Groaning, she flipped open her phone and said:

"What do you guys want at 11:30 at night?

"Ooo…someone's grumpy. Guess the date wasn't that good?" she heard the smirking voice of Meredith over the phone and Izzie giggling in the background.

Rolling her eyes, Cristina answered: "No, the date was…good."

"Good? Just good? That's all we get? You know we won't let you off the hook until you give us the details." Izzie replied.

"What details? We went to an Italian restaurant, we had some great food, you know he actually eats meat! Now that's a normal man. We talked a bit, and oh he was one hell of a kisser." Christina finished in an overly casual voice, knowing that it would stir a reaction from the two of them. She was not disappointed.

"Ooooo…Cristina! You kissed on the first date?" Izzie questioned excitedly.

"Psshh Izzie, I am pretty sure, he is naked in her bedroom right now." Meredith giggled.

"Oh shut up the two of you. He isn't in my bedroom right now. He said he's too gentlemanly or whatever to sleep with a woman on the first date." Christina finished.

"Oh well, I guess you have to settle for a kiss now. So, are you going on another date?" Meredith questioned.

"Maybe, we haven't really talked about it", Christina said.

"Well, don't worry Cristina, you'll get lucky very soon." Izzie said smirking.

"O shut up Barbie, anyways I am tired and I need my sleep to be awake at work tomorrow. So good night."

"Good night Christina." Meredith said.

"Sweet dreams." Izzie answered hanging up the phone.

Lying in bed that night, Cristina realized that she was finally ready to move on.

A/N: Wow, last chapter must have really sucked…reviews went down from 8 to 4! I know most of you guys want Christina and Burke to meet, but I have to build it up to that point. Next chapter is the one that you have been waiting for forever….they finally meet! So, I need lots and lots of reviews so that I can update the next chapter by tomorrow. Hope you liked the chapter, I added a bit about Derek, so you guys are free to hate him just like I am hating him right now for what he did to Meredith. So guys please, please, please REVIEW!