Apologies for the delay; enjoy the update!!
"I…uh…I…I mean…I…." Meredith's voice trembled and wavered as she tried to cover her tracks, while Izzie's usually kind brown eyes flared with the anticipation of her response.
"I've gotta go!" Derek snatched up his deep red sweater and whatever was left of his belongings before flashing a horrified gaze at Meredith and making a mad dash for the exit, weaving his way past Izzie.
As Meredith turned back tentatively to look at Izzie, she wasn't able to find the straight answers that her friend so desperately sought in that moment. And then, to add to the drama of the already hectic moment, George emerged through the bedroom door looking rather stunned.
"Did I just see…?"
"McDreamy," Izzie answered flatly.
"But did he…?"
"Yeah."
"With…?"
"Meredith…"
"But he…"
"Has a wife…"
"HEY!" Meredith interjected in what was becoming a rather disturbing conversation between her two roommates. "Can you please stop talking about me as though I'm not here!"
Izzie turned back to Meredith with a steely and cold stare as she folded her long arms across her black night shirt.
She wasn't about to excuse her for what she did; there were so many things that she wanted to say.
"Okay…Meredith," Izzie said. "What's going on?"
"Um…" Meredith shuffled nervously.
"Is that all you can say?" Izzie cried.
Meredith sighed heavily.
"Do I need to remind you Meredith, that Derek is, in fact, married? You know, he comes with the little binding ring on his finger…the She-Shepherd…the whole Mr and Mrs…?" Izzie exclaimed.
"I know Izzie!" Meredith shot back. "I know that! But it's just so…and I mean… and…uh…"
"Meredith, you know what I am like…I believe in true love, the whole Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers, fate and destiny…Serendipity…but I also believe in God, so there is no way that I can condone adultery!" Izzie told her.
"Don't throw faith at me, Izzie!" Meredith said with the guiltiest expression on her face.
George shook his head resentfully and reached over with his left hand to rest it gently on Meredith's shoulder.
"Faith might be one thing Mer…" he said with a heavy sigh. "But morals are another…and that is something that I know you believe in…and I just don't want to see you sacrifice your high standards for a cheap one night stand…"
Meredith shook her head.
"It's not cheap…" she told him.
Izzie tried not to choke on her thoughts.
"It just…it just happened…" she sighed.
"Clearly…because there isn't much thought in committing adultery…" Izzie snapped.
"Enough with the adultery, Izzie!" Meredith cried.
"Not to mention that he is our boss…" George chimed in.
Meredith whirled around.
"I'm sorry?"
"He is our boss…"
"Yeah, I heard you say that the first time…I just don't like what you are implying…" Meredith said.
"I wouldn't…"
"You just did…"
"Oh come on…Mer…it's me," George cried. "I don't ever judge anyone, but well…other people…if they found out…well…"
"They're not going to find out!" Meredith insisted.
Izzie scoffed.
I mean, hello…it was Seattle Grace – the only thing that spreads faster than disease in that place, is gossip.
"No one is going to find out!" Meredith repeated as she stared at her two wide eyed friends. "You can't tell anyone!"
"Oh please…Mer, we may be nosy and judgemental, but we are not squealing little assholes!" Izzie cried.
"I don't do secrecy," George told them.
"Do it for me, George!" Meredith pleaded.
Now, how on earth could he say no to that?
George O'Malley never said no to Meredith Grey.
--
"Okay, people, assignments…" Bailey said as Meredith, Izzie, George and Cristina walked over to the nurses' station.
Meredith felt sick to look at Bailey.
"Stevens, you're with Addison Montgomery-Shepherd today, she needs help on a neonatal case; O'Malley, I want you with Derek Shepherd, he's got a tumour case that will be good for you…and Yang, we have a new intern, I want him shadowing you in the pit…show him how I do things…" Bailey said.
The three interns that were assigned scattered to all different areas of the hospital, leaving Meredith standing nervously before a very annoyed and irritable Bailey.
"Um…" Meredith didn't dare ask for an assignment.
"You are on SCUT!" Bailey told her. "You will not scrub in on any surgery or be anywhere near an OR until I say so!" she watched Meredith's face drop in disappointment. "No, you don't get to pull that face, Grey because what you are doing at the moment – I don't know if you're damn stupid or just don't care…but I am going to tell you that you are in way over your head!"
"I…uh…"
"SCUT!"
"Okay…"
Meredith ran quickly from Dr. Bailey, not daring to turn around and object to the appointed assignment.
--
Derek walked into the attending's lounge later that day where he came face to face with Addison for the first time all morning.
"Addison…"
"You didn't come back home last night…" Addison told Derek with the slightest hint of resentment in her normally sweet voice.
"I got called into a surgery…" Derek lied.
"Oh…okay…but straight away? I mean…when you left…you left really angry…did you go to Joe's or something?" Addison asked.
Derek nodded.
"Yeah…" he answered.
Another lie.
A tangled web of lies.
Derek Shepherd wasn't a liar; in fact, he was so bad at it, that when he stole a lollipop at the age of eight, he ran back to the store and immediately turned himself in. He cursed the day that his mother brought him up an honest man.
Lying was certainly, most definitely not Derek Shepherd.
--
Nor was George O'Malley, so when Bailey assigned him to Derek's service, he felt that the certain apocalypse was nearing and that his whole bright and shiny world was collapsing around him.
"D—Dr. Shepherd…" he stammered.
"Dr. O'Malley,"
"I…uh…you…I'm on your service…"
"Great, so, what do you know?"
"I…uh...nothing…I know absolutely nothing…I am uh… I'm just an empty book…a clean slate…what do I know about what?" George stumbled as he wondered just what Derek meant.
"About the patient, Dr. O'Malley!"
"Oh…oh, um…Richard Carlson in room 3217, age forty-eight, he is in for a removal of a tumour on his frontal temporal lobe…" George answered.
Derek nodded and handed him the chart.
"Prep him!"
--
"Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd!"
Addison whirled around to see Izzie making a quick stride over to the very irritated red head.
"I'm on your service,"
"Clearly," Addison answered flatly.
"I…uh…" Izzie, like Derek and George, was not a great liar, nor secret keeper when it came down to it.
"Stevens…have you, by any chance seen my husband today?" Addison asked Izzie.
Izzie gasped.
Did she know?
"N-no…not today…I mean…no, not recently…"
"How about Dr. Grey?"
Izzie nearly choked.
"Who…Meredith?" she asked in the next breath. "Oh…oh no, well not with Dr. Shepherd – I mean…yeah, I live with her and all…but yeah, no I mean, no, I haven't…"
"Stevens!"
"Yeah?"
"Ellis Grey!"
"Oh…you meant Meredith's mom Dr. Grey, not Meredith herself Dr. Grey…yeah I saw her earlier…why?" Izzie breathed a sigh of relief.
"I need a consult…can you page her?" Addison asked.
Izzie nodded.
"Yeah,"
--
Meredith sat down in the cafeteria with a hard thud, letting the stack of charts finally leave her hands as she set them down on the table. Just as she took a sip of her fresh coffee, Cristina walked over.
"Okay, the new intern…Karev, he is an asshole!" she flopped lazily onto the awaiting chair. "As in a total and complete, disease ridden, rodent infested vermin asshole!"
Meredith groaned.
"Your day couldn't suck more than mine…"
Cristina shook her head.
"Deal me in, I'll play…" she said.
"I did something really, really bad…" Meredith sighed.
"How unusual for you…"
"I had sex with McDreamy."
Cristina's eyes widened.
"Are you calling my bluff?" she asked.
"No," Meredith replied.
"Then I fold…"
I felt bad that Cristina was the last to know, but I look forward to writing her reaction.
Let me know what you think and...
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