Meredith was more than ready to leave work. Her first shift shouldn't have gone worse, and she was seriously starting to regret moving to Seattle. Her talk with Addison had been enlightening, she had no idea Derek had been or could be so deceitful. And no matter how many times he now says that he loves Meredith, there will always be a part of her that doesn't trust him. She didn't understand how he could just go from pretending like she didn't exist and chasing down beautiful leggy redheads, to proclaiming his everlasting and undying love for her practically once an hour. She needed to have a long therapeutic talk with Mark, only she didn't know where he was. She decided she would go home in the hopes of finding Mark there, and if she didn't then she would just call him and tell him all about her day.

When Meredith arrived home she had a shower and changed into her pyjamas, desperate to get the remains of the day off her. She ordered food and then walked around the house in search of Mark. She called out his name a couple of times, but with no response. She knocked on his bedroom door- no answer. Meredith soon gave up and sat on a stool in the kitchen, waiting for her food to arrive. She heard something fall from inside the house, but she couldn't quite place where it was. She armed herself with a frying pan and went to discover.

Passing by the door to the unused garage, Meredith heard someone swearing repeatedly. Meredith tightened her grip on the frying pan and opened the door to the garage. When she saw Mark standing there she let out a scream, dropping the frying pan in her shock. The frying pan landed on her toe, which caused her to let out a squeal and jump up and down in pain. Mark turned around and tried to conceal his laughter. "What are you doing?" He said, a huge smile plastered across his face. Meredith frowned at his smile and hopped next to a wall so she could lean on it. "I thought you were a serial killer!" She shouted at him. Mark laughed "Now why would I want to kill my best friend?". Meredith simply shook her head, "you gave me the fright of my life, I think I may have had a heart attack and my toe might have fallen off." Mark chucked in response, "Don't be so melodramatic, come here, I'll take a look at your toe." Mark walked closer to Meredith and looped an arm around her, helping her wobble to the living room where he plopped her down on a sofa. He knelt on the ground in front of her and started inspecting her toe. "You'll be fine, it's just a bruise," he smiled and put her foot down. Meredith nodded, "Thanks Dr. Sloan," she joked. "So what were you doing in the garage anyway?" She asked as he sat down on the sofa next to her. "Oh nothing, just looking for some tools," Meredith nodded and the doorbell rang. Mark looked at her curiously, "Who's that?" he asked her. Meredith looked confused for a moment before she remembered she ordered food. "Oh, I ordered some food, can you go get it for me?" Mark nodded and went to collect it for her.

Mark put the food on the kitchen counter, set out place mats, plates, and cutlery and then helped Meredith back into the kitchen. "So how was work?" he asked her as they tucked into their food. Meredith shook her head "awful, so bad, absolutely terrible." She exclaimed. "What happened?" Mark asked her. "Derek had this whole fairytale story with his girlfriend, and all the interns hate me for turning up and ruining it. And everyone thinks I'm stupid for taking him back, which I'm also starting to believe was a bad idea." Meredith took another bite of her food, "And all Derek can say in response to everything is 'I'm sorry'," she swallowed her food, "but he never actually does anything to show that he's sorry. All he does is give me mopey looks, but that's about it. He's not giving me anything to go on, and he has the whole hospital wrapped around his finger. I hate this place, moving back here was such a bad idea." Mark put his hand on her arm and stroked it with his thumb, "I'm sure the idiot interns don't hate you, they just don't know you or your side of the story. And Derek, well we all know Derek is an idiot, just give him a bit of time and he'll realise he's being an idiot and come running back." "What if it's too late by then?" Meredith whispered. "Don't think about that, just take each day as it comes. If things get better then great, you'll move back in with Derek or Derek will move in here, and if they don't then we'll deal with that when the time comes. But just know that I'll be here with you through it all. You're like a sister to me, and I certainly wouldn't let any sister of mine deal with idiots like Derek alone." Meredith smiled and gave him a side hug, "I genuinely don't know what I would do without you, you're the best friend a girl could ask for."

The next day Meredith walked into work with a new resolution, she was determined to make friends with her fellow interns, and get out of the shadow that was her husband and his glorious glossy hair. She marched her way up to the interns' changing room, coffee in hand. She got changed quickly and made her way over to Dr. Bailey, where the blonde girl and short boy were standing with her. "Morning," she said politely. The others nodded in response and continued talking. When the other interns arrived, Doctor Bailey started handing out assignments. She got to Meredith last, "Grey, you're with the new plastics attending: Dr. Sloan." Meredith smiled and inwardly pumped her hand up in the air in joy. As she walked off, one of the other interns also walked in the same direction as her. "Sorry about yesterday by the way," she said, slowing down and turning to look at them. "Don't worry about it, we all know that men can be complete idiots sometimes." The girl responded. "Husbands are the worst of all, don't ever get married," Meredith laughed as she joked. They walked on to an empty elevator and pressed the buttons of the floors they both needed. "So how long have you two been married anyway?" "Three years," the elevator reached her floor, "I'll tell you about it at lunch?" The girl nodded "Meet me at the cafeteria, I'll show you our usual eating spot." Meredith smiled, "Okay," she then walked away in search of Mark.

"You're going to hate me." Mark said as Meredith walked into his office. "Why?" she asked as she sat down on the chair in front of his desk. "We've got surgery in twenty minutes," he paused, "with Derek." Meredith groaned and slumped in her chair, "Can't you just put me on charts or something like you used to do to your poor interns in New York?" Mark shook his head, "no can do, Webber's ordered me to actually teach interns, and besides, you're my favourite- being in surgery with you won't be so bad." Meredith rolled her eyes, "So can I see the patient's chart?" Mark nodded and handed it over to her.

As they were scrubbing in Meredith looked at Mark nervously. "It'll be okay, the surgery will be amazing for you, just focus on that. You haven't done any cutting in ages. This will be good for you." "I suppose," Meredith replied. Just then Derek walked in, "Morning," he said as he stood at the sink next to Meredith and started scrubbing in. "Good morning Doctor Shepherd," Meredith replied. She chose to use his title to make it known to him that this was a professional environment and that she expected him to behave professionally. Meredith and Mark finished scrubbing in and moved to get their gowns on. They both walked into the OR and took their places, Meredith standing at Mark's side. Meredith gave a few comforting words to the patient, who was still awake on the table below them. She was then put under, and Derek walked into the room. "It's a beautiful day to save lives, let's get started," he said as he picked up a scalpel. Meredith and Mark got started on the patient's leg, which was also injured. Derek kept quiet as Meredith and Mark spoke quietly to each other, Mark often interrupting their conversation to show Meredith what he was doing.

Meredith and Mark finished up before Derek and left the OR. They scrubbed out, and Meredith went off to fill in the patient's chart before she went off to lunch. Meredith was taken to a corridor in the basement, where all of Bailey's interns were sitting. "Hey, I just wanted to say sorry about yesterday, I guess I'm just not used to having people talk about my love life right in front of my face." The blonde nodded, "It's alright, besides we're sorry for talking about you like that." Meredith nodded and sat down next to a small boy with floppy hair, she really needed to make an effort to remember their names. "So, what do you guys want to know?" Meredith asked before they proceeded asking her questions. "We've been married for three years," she answered, "went out for two years before that." She was then asked about the whole Addison situation by the other boy, "Alex!" a girl called Izzie, she had learnt, scorned him when he asked. Meredith shook her head, "No, it's alright. So things were going fine in New York, but then things started going south and Derek told me he got a job here and was going to move here, I said I didn't want to move as I grew up here and didn't particularly want to come back, but he didn't care. He left and we didn't speak for months. Then in an attempt to smooth things over, I decided to surprise him and come over here, where I found him and Addison. He didn't even say sorry, it was only when I came back here to move my mother's things to New York that he suddenly decided he wanted to amend our relationship. Eventually after many long conversations with Mark, I decided I didn't want to throw away a five year relationship, I used to think he was the love of my life and I didn't just want to throw that away. So I told him that I would try to forgive him, but he needed to prove that he was worthy of my forgiveness. My side of the bargain of trying to forgive him resulted in me moving here, which I'm starting to regret because it seems Derek and Addison's relationship ran far deeper than I thought. So yeah, Dr. Shepherd isn't all he seems." "Oh my god that's awful," Izzie said. "Who knew McDreamy could be such a McAss," Cristina remarked. Meredith nodded and continued to talk to her newfound friends. She became glad that she took a chance when talking to Cristina in the elevator.

Later in the day Meredith was standing by her patient's bed taking her stats and filling it in on her chart. As she was doing her work, Derek came in to do some of his checks after his surgery. After he shone a light in the patient's eyes to check her responses, Derek looked towards Meredith. "Can I take you out to dinner?" He asked her. "I don't know Derek, I started at 5 AM, I think I might just go home." Derek nodded understandingly, "Let me bring dinner to you, I want to explain my side of the story to you. I know you've been wondering why I behaved the way I did, and you deserve an explanation." "That I do, but why now Derek? You've had weeks to explain yourself to me, but all you've done is let me hang on to blind hope, you've given me nothing whilst I keep stumbling into information that is making me trust you less and less. Why are you only willing to tell me now?" Meredith closed her chart and looked up at him sharply. "Seeing you and Mark today just made me realise how much I want our old life back. I want us to be that couple that's been together forever, with the kids and the porch and the swing, and the goofy uncle who the kids love. I realised that in order to have that you need to trust me, and you're not going to be able to trust me if you don't have the full story. You and Mark have remained friends throughout all of this because you trust each other, and I never thought the day would come where my wife and my best friend have a better relationship than we do. We need to get back to where we were, and I'm just now realising how far I'll have to go to get that. But for now, the starting point is giving you the whole story, which I'm going to tell you tonight over dinner." Derek finished his monologue, leaving Meredith just staring at him. She nodded her head in consent, "Come over at 7:30." She said before she left the room.

Meredith went to find Mark, she eventually found him getting a coffee at the coffee cart. "You need to be out the house tonight," she told him. Mark looked at her confused, "Why?" he asked. "Derek's coming over-" "you two are finally doing the need again?" he interrupted her. Meredith frowned, "No, he's going to explain everything. And he's cooking me dinner. So you can't be at home, go to a bar, hook up with someone, I don't really care, but please just don't be at home." Mark nodded, "Alright, alright. And if you and Derek do find yourselves doing it, just let it happen, you need to get laid." Meredith hit his shoulder and laughed before she was paged off to a patient's room.


Okay, so this chapter wasn't that great IMO, buuuuuuuut I'm BACK!

Turns out procrastinating is a good writing aid, lol.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this, please remember to review (nicely)!

Love you guys, and thanks for sticking with me,

girlinabar xxxxx