I'm alive. Sorry it took a while.

Chapter 10: Drunks

"Jimmy! Come dance with me!" Meredith practically skipped over to him and grabbed his hands.

"Meri? How drunk are you?"

"Allie and I had a drinking contest. I'm not sure who won. It was fun though."

Cameron swayed towards them and wrapped an arm around House grinning. She kissed him hard and the mouth and swayed her body enticingly close to his.

"I don't know who won either."

"Maybe Joe knows?"

"We could ask him." Cameron tried to stand on her own and wobbled. House caught her before she fell.

"Woah there. I think someone had too much to drink."

"Nah. Never."

Meredith was swaying in Jimmy's grasp. She turned to look at Allison. "I think we're going to be very hung over tomorrow."

Her voice was serious and the two dissolved into laughter. The kind that you laughed so hard you cried.

"I like her Greg. You can keep her. You can keep her forever."

"That's awesome" Allison deadpanned, they looked at each other and it sent them both into another fit of laughter.

"Let's get you two some drinks."

Both turned and stared at House. "We're already very drunk. Thankyouverymuch."

House sighed. The two of them were trouble. Meredith pulled on Jimmy's arm.

"I want to dance."

"And I want the two of you to drink some water. You'll thank me later. When you're puking your guts up."

"I don't puke my guts up."

"Neither do I."

"I can testify for both of you that that's a lie. I can also out drink both of you."

"You're also bigger then us. And Jimmy can't out drink me. He's a wimp."

"I'm also your boyfriend Meri Anne. Be nice."

"Why?"

"Because it's nice."

House turned to Wilson. "I can take down Al if you take down Meri. We can get them to the car and the hotel."

"Why would I be going to the hotel with you?"

"So you can go to the hospital tomorrow with Jimmy."

"Ohhhh. Okay. Let's go home." Her voice was really loud and Derek's head shot up and watched as Meredith wrapped an arm around Wilson's shoulder, placing a sloppy kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah let's."

"Derek."

He looked up and barely acknowledged her presence.

"Addison."

"This isn't working."

"What?"

"You're not trying. And I don't think that you want to try."

"I – I - of course I want to try."

"No you don't. But that's okay."

"It is?"

"We fell out of love Derek." Addison sat down in front of him with a beer in her hand.

"And instead of facing it and trying to deal with our problems we did what we do best – we avoided. You found comfort in work and I found comfort in Mark."

Derek flinched but Addison shook her head.

"You can't be the wounded party here. We were both hurt and we both regret it."

"But-"

"Don't say it Derek." Her eyes flashed. "We can argue about wounded parties until we are both blue in the face. I was wrong to sleep with Mark, but you were wrong to dive into your work and the two of us were wrong to stay together because it was comfortable. You'll get the divorce papers as soon as my lawyer can send them."

She stood up and walked out without another word.

"So Seattle, interesting place."

"Oh yeah we are."

The interns had spent the last few hours telling Chase and Foreman about all of the drama that went with Seattle Grace.

"Do you guys ever think of writing a book, making a movie?"

"About the adventures that we have because the hospital can't keep their pants on?" Cristina's innocent comment caused Chase to choke on the beer.

None of the interns batted an eye and Alex automatically lifted his hand and pounded Chase on the back.

"You get used to it." Chase and Foreman turned to see Burke standing there.

"What?"

"The bluntness. You ready to go?"

"Sure." Cristina grabbed her coat and caught something in the corner of her eye.

"Has he been sitting there all night?"

"He's been in a pissy mood ever since Meredith walked in with Dr. Wilson." Izzie offered.

"Pissy?"

"Is there any other way to describe him?"

"True." Cristina nodded her head at the group and walked away with Burke.

"I have to be in early tomorrow, I'll see you guys later."

Izzie stood up and so did Alex and George.

"We all do Iz" George started. "I have to go home too."

Alex nodded.

"Good-bye."

The three walked out trailing Cristina and Burke and Foreman shook his head.

"This is one weird town."

"So, you passed the test. What'd you talk about?"

"Everything." Allison rested her head against the cool glass of the car and sighed in relief. House handed her the water bottle he had gotten from Joe and she took another sip.

"And everything means?" House poled her as her eyes fluttered closed.

He wanted to hear what his niece said to his girlfriend and he would find out if it meant harassing her all night as she dealt with the aftermath of alcohol.

That was why you didn't have drinking contests with the Houses. They could drink.

"Well, first we talked about my family and my husband and then we talked about how I met you and much of a bitch Stacy was and then we talked about guy problems."

"You did?"

"You're niece is a very fun person to talk to."

"I asked Joe who won the drinking contest."

"You did? What did he say?"

"You did by a shot before you decided you wanted to go and talk to me and Meri admitted she felt like puking."

"That's lovely."

"Isn't it?"

"How are you feeling Meri?"

"I don't think that I should drink with Allie again."

Wilson chuckled. "She can hold her own. So she passed. That's good. What'd you ask her about?"

"We talked about her family and stuff. And how Greg started to date her."

Wilson grinned. They had never talked about how exactly the relationship had started, and Wilson was interested to hear it.

Greg had threatened him with multiple types of violence if he ever brought that night up again.

Meredith was out of 'slap happy' drunk faze as they called it and onto 'serious drunk'.

"And how did her story go?"

Flashback

"So, I want to hear it. How did you and Greg shack up?"

Allison laughed.

"Well, how much do you know?"

"Not a lot. Nothing Jimmy and Lisa always told me that if I wanted to know I could ask him myself, and that wasn't gonna happen."

"A patient coughed blood on me. He had AIDS."

Meredith had gasped but Allison had shrugged.

"Greg was pretty much an ass about the whole thing. Foreman offered to beat him up because he was upset about his sarcasm. Greg doesn't know that though. Anyway, I took some of the patient's meth and called Greg high as a kite. I don't remember all of this so it's what I could get from everyone else. I told him that I wanted him to come over and he said no. I said fine, told him I would call Chase to have sex with me instead and hung up."

"Ouch Uncle Greg. That's what he gets for being an idiot."

Allison laughed. "Anyway, I called Chase and told him to come over. He agreed. About ten minutes later the doorbell rang and it was Greg. He asked me if I had really called Chase. I told him that Chase was going to be there soon and that he should leave because we weren't a free porn show."

Meredith choked as she took another shot of tequila.

"House was arguing with me and trying to get me to call Chase and tell him I changed my mind. The doorbell rang again and I got there before him. As soon as I saw Chase I kissed him. House pulled me off him and told Chase to get lost. They argued, Greg threatened and Chase left. After that I threw myself at Greg. His words, not mine."

Allison did another shot and both gestured for Joe to refill.

"So then he called James and had him pick me up a prescription of Ativan. They gave it to me, got me to calm down. I passed out on my bed and when I woke up the next morning Greg wasn't there. He left a note telling me to take the day off and comeback in tomorrow. No one would know about my meth 'thing'. I went back to bed with the mother of all hangovers and then that night went over to his place. I asked him if I hadn't been high if anything would have been different."

Meredith was watching Allison and grinning.

"This is better then General Hospital."

"You too?"

"Yep. Has he gotten you on it yet?"

"I watched in college with my husband when he was sick. After he died I stopped, but Greg has gotten me into it again. I freaked him out the first time we watched. I started asking questions about all the old characters and what had happened to them."

Meredith laughed. "So finish your story. I want to hear the end."

"Long story short, he said that he wouldn't have slept with me if I wasn't high anyway. I kissed him, called him a liar and left. The next day I showed up at work like everything was okay. He called me into his office and told me that I didn't let him finish. He told me that unless he was with a hooker he doesn't put out on the first date."

Meredith giggled. "I love him on days like that."

"I do too. So I asked him if he put out on the second date. He said definitely not until the third or fourth. And that's how it started."

Meredith waved for another shot and handed one to Allison.

"Welcome to the family." She said simply before draining the tequila.

Hopefully the next chapter won't take me as long...

Jess