Chapter Six: Tell Them All Tonight
"So where did you disappear to last night?"
Izzie's voice was knowing, having lived through four years of Meredith's living habits. Meredith smiled as she tugged on the top of her scrubs, ignoring George's eyes on her.
She ignored the two of them and turned to the woman beside her.
"You know, I heard there's only six women out of twenty. And one of them's a model," she said in disgust. Meredith smiled at this comment and glanced at Izzie.
"Who's your resident?" she asked.
"Bailey. You?" asked the other woman.
"Me too."
"They call her the Nazi."
"I know. But she's not. But don't tell her I told you," asked Meredith, smiling.
"How do you know?"
Meredith shrugged.
"I sort of grew up around here."
The woman stared at her, comprehending this slowly.
"You're the prodigy, right? Ellis Webber's daughter? The Chief's stepdaughter?"
"Guilty as charged."
"I'm Cristina."
"Meredith Grey."
They walked out of the locker room to the end of the hall toward Miranda Bailey, followed closely by George and Izzie.
"You know her?"
George glanced up when he realized that one of the other interns, one who didn't have Bailey and had just managed to make Meredith yell at him, was addressing him.
"Meredith? Yeah," he said.
"Damn, she's pretty fine," said the other Doctor. "O'Malley, right? I'm Alex Karev."
"George. I used to live with her,"elaborated George.
"You and her? Seriously?"
"No. Not like that." George looked over to Alex and frowned. "You should stay away from her."
Alex smirked, and George realized that he was laughing at him.
"Not because of me. She's the Chief's stepdaughter. You really want to go there?"
George walked away, telling himself that it was only his brotherly, protective instinct, and the strong feeling that this guy was no where near good enough for her.
He caught up to Izzie. He hadn't seen Meredith, who was watching over a teenage girl, all day.
"That guy back there is a jerk,"said George. Izzie nodded.
"He called me Doctor Model," she agreed.
"He was talking about Meredith," he expanded.
"She's a big girl, George."
"I wonder where she was last night," he went on.
Izzie frowned. She and George, more than anyone, knew about Meredith's living habits, but he was known to be in denial every time she had a boy in her room all night. It wasn't often, but she hadn't been known to hide it.
"It would help if you were to ask her out," said Izzie. She knew, because George had told her eventually, of the short history of him and Meredith and how quickly it had progressed to nothing.
"I'm over her, Iz. Just didn't want Alex to get in trouble with the Chief," he mumbled.
"Why would we care? Anyway, you know Derek Shepherd works here?" she asked.
"Seriously? Meredith's friend?"
"Yeah. Weird, huh? Anyway, I thought he was married."
"Maybe not so much anymore," suggested Izzie. George nodded vaguely, his thoughts preoccupied again.
Meredith sat with her new friend, Cristina, on an abandoned gurney in a back hallway of the hospital, exhausted from filling the demands of her Drama Queen patient.
"So what's the story with you and George?"she asked offhandedly. Meredith shrugged.
"We tried to have a relationship when we were younger. Not much else. I lived with him and Izzie all through med school,"she explained.
"Do you guys still?"
"No. I live with someone else."At Cristina's curious look, she continued. "This friend of my parents, Derek Shepherd? He just moved here from New York."
"Right, the neurosurgeon. You two are together?"
"God, no. I've known him since I was a kid. My stepfather knew his best friend's parents, and he taught both of them at some point. I kind of grew up with the two of them. They were always around. Even when I moved back here. It only really stopped after I went away to school,"she admitted.
"You're all glowing. It's kind of disturbing,"said Cristina. "Are you guys sleeping together?"
"I thought we just went over this? No. Of course not. He's married. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd, world famous surgeon? Plus tall and gorgeous and red haired."
"Then why is she not here, with her McDreamy husband to scare off lusty interns?"asked Cristina.
"Shut up, I was a bridesmaid at their wedding, they trust me."
They sat in silence, appreciating the dark calm of the hallway. They'd been run off their feet for the entirety of their long first shift, and they had only just found the only place Bailey didn't seem to be able to find them in.
"You have plans for tonight? George and Izzie and Alex are going to the bar across the street after work," said Cristina.
"Alex and Izzie? That's a thing now?"
"God I hope not. You in?"
"No, sorry. I have a date, actually."
Derek watched Meredith as she ran around her bedroom, putting on her makeup and experimenting with her hair. She was looking grown up, he realized with alarm. Like she had the night before. He wasn't so alarmed at the sight of her in her scrubs, or her pajamas, but her dress up clothes would take some getting used to.
"I can't believe you're going out. What am I supposed to do?"he demanded. She shrugged.
"Go out. Unpack the boxes, dust. I'm sure you'll think of something," she said.
"You're heartless. You are without heart," he complained.
"And you're just going to have to get over it. Damn it, he's here," she said, as the doorbell rang. She swiftly assessed herself in the mirror before running toward the stairs. She stopped when she realized that he'd followed her.
"What are you doing?"
"Going to answer the door,"he said.
"You can't. You'll be all big brother and you'll terrify him," she protested.
"Isn't it better him finding out now than after the date?" he teased. She stuck out her tongue at him but let him follow her down the stairs.
"Derek?"
Meredith's voice, four later, came in a stage whisper, but he woke instantly.
"Mer? You're back already?"
She slowly crept into the room and he noted that she'd changed out of her evening wear and into her pajamas.
"Yeah. Kind of a dud. Were you sleeping?"
"Yeah. Kind of. What happened?"
"Nothing major. He was boring. He tried to cop a feel," she explained. Derek half rose from the bed, looking alarmed. "Don't worry, you don't have to kick anyone's ass. I took care of it."
"Good."
He stared at her for a moment, waiting for her to move. She hesitated slightly before she walked to his bed and climbed in beside him, and stared up at the ceiling.
"Men suck."
"I'm not such a fan of your gender right now, either," he admitted.
"That's why I'm here. Thought you might need a shoulder to cry on."
"Not because you thought you might need one," he agreed.
She inched toward him and put her head in the space between his shoulder and his head.
"Maybe we chose a good time to find each other again," she suggested.
He smiled and again tried to place these two Meredith's, the one he knew now and the one he'd known then. He quickly found it impossible, and gave up. Knowing, without realizing it, that letting himself see Meredith as a grown up would make him feel what he'd rather repress.
