Meredith left Finn's place and instead of going home, she went to the one place she knew would comfort her. Thirty minutes later, she parked her car at Belvedere Park and turned off the ignition. Opening the moon roof to her car, she sat staring up into the night sky. She liked being here. It reminded her of Derek and the night of their first date.
She snuck into the house at 2am in the morning, being careful not to wake Izzie. Exhausted from the events of the previous night, she turned off her alarm clock and collapsed onto her bed.
It was mid-afternoon before Meredith made it into work. She was changing in the locker room when Cristina came charging in.
Rubbing her neck, she said "Ugh, I am so glad I get off in three hours." Turning to look at Meredith, she said "What are you doing in so late?"
"I have the late shift today," she replied.
"You look like shit. Didn't the date with the Vet go well?"
"It went okay, I think," she said, pulling her top over her head.
"You think? You don't know if it went well or not?" she asked, being her usual sarcastic self.
"I ended it with him," she mumbled softly.
"You did what with him?" Cristina yelled.
"Shh! I broke it off with Finn, okay? Go ahead and gloat," she said.
"I don't gloat, but I will say that it's about time! Now you can go running to McDreamy and have McBabies together. And don't try to deny that Shepherd isn't the reason for the split."
"Wh—how do you know these things?" Meredith asked, shocked that Cristina could always read her so well. "Am I that transparent?"
"Yes."
"Seriously?...Seriously! Do you think people know?" Meredith asked, freaking out.
"Relax. No one knows, not even Barbie. I know because I'm Cristina Yang and you're you," she said, giving her a knowing look. "You might want to ease off on the eye sex. Even I was getting hot and bothered watching the two of you do the surgical resection from the gallery last week."
Meredith gave an inward groan and pulled her hair into a ponytail.
"So tell me, Mer. What does the future hold for Mr. and Mrs. McDreamy?" asked Cristina, relishing in making Meredith squirm.
"I haven't decided if I'm going to tell him yet. I want to see if we can be friends…try it out and see how we do," she said, ignoring the look Cristina shot her.
"Try it out? You make him sound like a pair of shoes." Cristina said, laughing at how naïve Meredith was being. "Tell him about McVet and get on with the honeymoon already!"
"I'll tell him…soonish," said Meredith, moving to walk out of the locker room.
Derek was looking for Meredith. She left so suddenly yesterday that he didn't get a chance to talk to her about their marriage. Talking to her about Addison got him thinking about the circumstances of their own marriage. As much as it pains him, he's finally accepted the fact that Meredith has a boyfriend and aside from the occasional flirting, she was not emotionally available to him. He needed to cut his loses and move on.
He saw Izzie walking down the hallway and called out to her "Dr. Stevens!"
Izzie heard her name being called and turned to see Derek standing there. She walked up to him, smiled and said "Do you need something, Dr. Shepherd?"
"Yes. I was wondering if you knew where Mer—Dr. Grey was? I have been looking everywhere for her, but it seems she's nowhere to be found."
"I haven't seen her since yesterday. I didn't hear her come home last night so she probably stayed over at Finn's," said Izzie, not realizing that what she said literally made Derek's heart break.
She started to walk away, then paused to turn around and said "I think she's working the late shift today."
Derek looked at his watch and guessed that she should be here since her shift is about to start. He thanked Izzie and started heading in the direction of the locker room.
Meredith and Cristina were walking out of the locker room when the literally ran into Derek.
"Derek!" Meredith said, shocked to see him.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Grey…Dr. Yang," he said, giving them a polite nod.
"H-how have you been?" Meredith asked, still a little breathless at the sight of him.
"Good," he replied, his eyes devouring the sight of her.
"Good." Meredith said, smiling at him
"Uh…Meredith was just telling me about her night last night," Cristina piped up, causing the both of them to look at her.
"I was?" Meredith asked, confused.
"Yes you were. Remember?" Cristina gave her a pointed look.
"I'm sorry to interrupt. I'll leave you two to talk," Derek said, thinking he had intruded on them.
"No!" yelled Meredith. Lowering her voice, she said "You're not interrupting anything at all. Please don't go."
"Alright," said Derek, smiling at her. His happiness at her asking him to stay was clearly evident in his facial expression.
"Oh for crying out loud, just tell him that you dumped the Vet already!" yelled Cristina, before she stormed off mumbling something about "eye sex".
Derek and Meredith stood staring after Cristina, speechless at her sudden outburst.
"I'm sorry about Cristina," apologized Meredith.
"Don't apologize for Dr. Yang. It's actually nice and refreshing to have someone be so…honest," he finished, smiling sweetly at her. Derek made a mental note to remind himself to thank Dr. Yang later.
"I…um…should go," she said. "My shift has already started."
Meredith didn't know why she said that. The truth was that she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay and be with him. Cristina, in all her bluntness, had just given her the opportunity to tell Derek the truth about Finn and yet she was hesitating.
"Before you go, can I ask you something?" said Derek, moving to stand closer to her.
"Sure," she said, feeling the heat from his body as he moved closer still.
"Is it true?" he whispered in her ear.
Meredith knew what he was asking of her. She thought about it for a few seconds, letting herself recover from the feel of his warm breath against her skin before answering "Yes."
"Okay," said Derek, his smile broadening as he moved away.
"Okay," she replied, waiting for him to say something else. When he didn't, she backed away, slightly disappointed and said "I really should go now."
He gave her a polite smile and nodded his head. Meredith took a few steps backwards and fled around the corner. She was finding it difficult to breathe and needed to escape. His reaction to hearing the news about Finn was not what she had hoped. Was he over her? Did she misread all the signs he'd been giving her over the past few weeks? What about the elevator kissing and the eye sex? She was so confused and preoccupied with all the thoughts running through her head that she didn't pay attention to where she was going. All she knew was that she needed to get as far away from him as possible. She rounded the corner and smacked right into Cristina.
"What the hell!" Cristina yelled, annoyed at nearly being mowed down.
"Cristina…," said Meredith, bending over to rest her hands on her thighs to help catch her breath.
"What happened?" asked Cristina.
"He…he…doesn't want me," she said, still struggling to get air back into her lungs.
Pulling Meredith over to the empty chairs in the waiting room, she asked "Did you tell him about Finn?"
"Yes…," she said, tears forming in her eyes.
"And what did he say?"
"He said "okay"."
"You told him you dumped the vet for him and all he could say was "okay"?" repeated Cristina.
Meredith nodded, afraid to open her mouth to speak because if she did, the tears were sure to fall.
"That McBastard!"
Taking a deep breath, Meredith stood up and said "I have to go. I need to prep for surgery." She gave Cristina an appreciative half-smile and walked away.
Meredith was exhausted. She'd spent the last few hours in two back-to-back surgeries and didn't get out until 11pm. She usually liked working the late shift because the hospital isn't as chaotic, but tonight all she wanted to do was crawl into the comfort of her bed and disappear from the world. Her shift wasn't due to end for another three hours and her patients were stable, so she decided to make use of the on-call room. Dragging her feet across the hall to the on-call room, she opened the door and let out a welcomed sigh at the dark room. She saw the faint outline of the bed and didn't see anyone lying there, so she closed the door and stumbled her way in the darkness over to the bed. Kicking off her shoes, she moved to lie down, letting her muscles relax at the feel of the soft bed beneath her aching body.
"I should warn you that I'm a married man," said a deep male voice that she clearly recognized.
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