Sorry for the long hiatus. It was unintentional. I just had a million and one things going on. Though as a special added bonus I'm making this update a double shot. I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or quotes from Grey's Anatomy, nor do I own the lyrics to Gloriana's song Wild at Heart.

Chapter 11- Wild at Heart

I just wanna free fall for a while
That rebel moon is shining
Those stars burn like diamonds
Hell bent on chasing down that crazy side
I'll follow you where you're leading
To the first sweet taste of freedom
You got me running baby,
Wild at heart

A week had passed since Melanie had agreed to go out with Dan. She was unusually nervous. Though normally she was confident in her actions, something about a first date always made her paranoid. It had been a good year since she had been on a true first date. Dan was taking her out to a nice restaurant tonight. In the locker room, Mel was changing into a cute dress in anticipation. They were going to meet in front of the hospital.

"Nervous?" Erin asked.

Mel grimaced, "Kind of. I don't think I have ever gone out with a one night stand before. Hopefully that won't be too awkward. I don't want him to think I'm some sort of slut."

"I'm sure he won't," Erin replied. "If he was interested enough to ask you out, then he really does want to know you."

Melanie grinned, "I suppose you're right." She checked her reflection one last time. "I have to get going. I'll see you at home."

"You better tell me all the details," Erin said.

"Will do," Mel promised before walking out the door. Right outside of the main hospital doors he was waiting. Melanie saw the bouquet of flowers in Dan's hands and in spite of herself she smiled. A part of her didn't want this to work. She was only an intern. It was too soon to be falling in love, especially with an attending surgeon. She also hated secrets. It was not going to be fun to not be able to brag to her friends that she was dating a world class surgeon. Since he had asked her out, Mel had done a quick Google search. Sure enough, she saw that his method of skin grafts was published in several well-respected medical journals. She also found video of his weekly spots on New York 1, where he would give out simplistic medical advice. The only thing that worried her was the pictures of him and other women; beautiful, modelesque women. Not one of them had appeared shorter than 5'10" or larger than a size 2. Melanie simply didn't fit into those statistics. She was 5' and a size 8. She was average, perhaps a slight bit smaller than average. She would have to get over that though. Certainly the pictures weren't what they looked like or Dan had changed at some point.

Dan saw Mel's smile from a ways away. She simply beamed when she smiled. "I hope you like daisies," he drawled offering his gift to her.

"They're beautiful," Melanie responded, with her eyes glittering. "So where exactly are we going for dinner?"

"I'm going to give you two options. The first is I made a reservation at Union Restaurant. The second is we forget about the reservations and go to my favorite place in Seattle, McKelly's."

Melanie had been to Union before. Clark had taken her there after they had graduated from Cornell together. It was good, but expensive. He had spent a month's worth of paychecks because he had refused to let her split the bill or order anything but the best. It also seemed so typical especially for a first date. "I think we should go with the second option."

Dan smiled a little but held back. He hadn't really expected her to pick the small Irish pub over the fancy restaurant. "You'll like it. They have the best Irish food this side of the Boston."

"That would be great. My grandma Cassidy always made the best food. Sometimes I really miss her stew," she reminisced.

"Well then you're in for a treat," he replied, leading her to his car. The drive to the restaurant was amicable. It was one of those times where two people could talk about everything, but nothing at all. It wasn't until they had already ordered at the pub that Dan broke this pattern, unintentionally. "So what happened to your grandma? If I may ask."

Melanie was taken aback for a moment slightly confused until she remembered what she had said at the hospital. "I just don't see her as often as I did when I was little. She still lives in Iowa. I only get there during the summers. Or at least I did until my internship started."

"When did you move from Iowa?" Dan asked genuinely.

"I moved here when I was 9," she considered telling him more. "My dad lived here and my mom thought it would be best for me to live closer to him. So we packed up and moved west."

Dan could tell by the smile and the pause that there was more to the story. "He must have liked that. I don't have kids but I can imagine it wouldn't be good to have my daughter halfway across the country."

"He didn't exactly know that he had a daughter back in his hometown," she said before she thought. As soon as the last word left her mouth she already regretted it. "My mom didn't tell him. He had left for college and never came back to town. My dad never got along with his father and neither saw any reason to resolve their issues."

"Of course," Dan said as if to drop the subject. The last thing he as a southern gentleman wanted to do was make his date uncomfortable. "So, you must get along pretty well with your mom with it having been just the two of you for so long."

Melanie just stared for a moment when the waitress came with their dinners. "Thank you," she said politely to the waitress. "This looks delicious Dan. You clearly have an excellent taste in restaurants." She had a bite to punctuate her point before returning to his original question, "My mother and I had a falling out a few years back."

Dan spoke softly, "Was it the abortion?"

Melanie had forgotten that Dan already knew about that. There was no use to hiding it, "Yeah. She comes from a very Catholic tradition. We've talked once since the day she found out. I really would rather not take about it though."

"Of course," Dan replied. "I'm sorry for bringing it up. So you're an intern, do you know what specialty you want to get into?"

Melanie smiled, "I do. I always wanted to go into oncology, especially the surgical end of it. Did you always want to go into plastics?"

"Not especially," Dan answered. "My father convinced me it would make me the most money and Dr. Sloan was my attending when I was doing my internship. He thought I was a natural born plastics god and I went with it. I would have probably done general if I had to choose again."

The rest of the evening went without any more awkward conversations or silences. Finally it was the doorstep moment. Melanie knew she couldn't ask him in with Erin and Hannah home tonight. "Look, you're actually a really great guy. I had a great time, but I feel like I should warn you. Crazy runs in my family and I'm not sure if I'm what you're looking for. So if you decide not to ask me for a second date, I might be a bit disappointed but I'd totally understand," she said as she gazed up into his blue eyes.

Dan didn't say anything for a moment. He just reached around her waist and kissed her. It was a kiss that she felt to her very core. It was a kiss that left her dazed and breathless. Breaking away, Dan replied "I think that's your answer. I'd love to take you out again. Besides you're not that crazy." Melanie stood there leaning against her door frame as he walked away. It was then she knew, this wasn't going to be something casual and despite the fact she knew getting involved with her teacher, her boss was wrong, she didn't care. For the first time since she was a teenager, she felt she could just let go.

Please leave a review for inspiration and as always thank you for reading-Jen