Thank you again to the wonderful reviewers. You really do make my day. I hope that you like this update. Please read and review.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cristina awoke in Meredith's bed the next day, her senses startled by unfamiliarity. The alarm clock hadn't gone off yet and something was cooking. Meredith was no where to be seen.

Cristina got out of bed and went downstairs into the kitchen to find George and Izzie sitting at the kitchen counter while Meredith dressed in sweat pants and her favourite Dartmouth shirt was cooking French toast.

"Okay…" Cristina said, unsure. "Meredith's cooking breakfast."

"Yes she is," George said. "And we're being supportive."

"Yes we are," Izzie said, taking a sip of the coffee that Meredith had made and almost spitting it back into the cup.

"Coffee, Cristina?" Meredith asked. Izzie shook her head at Cristina, indicating that the coffee was bad.

"I'm good," Cristina said.

"But you love coffee," Meredith said. Cristina sighed.

"You know what? I will have some coffee," she said. "Because I'm being supportive." Meredith poured Cristina a cup of coffee.

"French toast?" she asked.

"Sure," Cristina said. "Why not?" She was trying not to act on how weird she thought the whole situation was. "So, Mer…" Cristina said as the sat at the table. "What's with the exercise gear? Are you thinking about going running?"

"She's already been running," Izzie said.

"For an hour," George added.

"What!" Cristina exclaimed, surprised. "I'm sorry, but Meredith, we don't run. YOU don't run. It's not even six AM and you're taking bright and shiny to a whole new level." George and Izzie glared at Cristina. "But… I'm being supportive," Cristina added. "So if you want to go running then good for you."

"What's cooking?" Alex asked as he joined them in the kitchen.

"Meredith's cooking French toast," Cristina replied.

"I… uh… gotta go into the hospital early," Alex said, making a hasty exit.

&&&

"Morning, Chief," Derek said as he went into Richard's office. Richard tried to hide the ice pack which was covering his badly bruised hand which he had punched Thatcher with the night before. "What the hell happened?" Derek asked.

"Long story," Richard said.

"Let me see it," Derek said, holding his hand out. Richard looked reluctant. "Give me your hand," Derek said defiantly. "I want to make sure that you haven't done any permanent damage." Richard reluctantly showed Derek his hand.

"You punched somebody!" Derek said straight away. Richard didn't reply. "Who did you punch?" Richard didn't reply. Derek put his hands on his hips. "Put that ice back on it," he ordered. "Who did you punch?" he asked again.

"It doesn't matter," Richard replied.

"Yes it does," Derek said annoyed. He held out his own fist which was showed signs of where he had hit Seth the day before. "You're supposed to lead by example. You dragged me in here yesterday and put restrictions on my job because I hit someone and then you turned around and did the same thing."

"You hit a patient's relative," Richard said. "There's no excuse for that."

"And who did you hit?" Derek asked. Richard stood his ground.

"You have an early surgery," he said. "You shouldn't keep the family waiting."

&&&

Meredith, Cristina, George and Izzie walked into the hospital together

"I'm off to the gallery," Meredith said, knowing that she wasn't allowed to interact with patients. Meredith didn't bother to change into her scrubs because she knew that she wouldn't be going anywhere near the inside of an OR. She checked the surgical board and saw that Derek was performing a craniotomy. For a moment she thought of finding paperwork to do instead but the surgery was too appealing. Meredith snuck into the gallery where Bailey and a few interns were already seated.

"Are you okay?" Bailey asked Meredith.

"I'm fine," Meredith answered. Her usual answer to such probing questions. She watched as the nurses prepared for the surgery. Meredith noticed that one of them was Rose. She didn't need to see her. Not today.

Derek scrubbed in and entered the OR. Rose immediately turned her attention to him but Derek didn't even acknowledge her. He was not so secretly wishing that she wasn't on his surgery. The patient on the operating table was anesthetized and Derek stood over him, ready to begin. He looked up at the gallery and immediately spotted Meredith sitting in the corner, a few seats down from Bailey. He hasn't expected to see her there. She was writing in her notebook.

Meredith looked up and straight into Derek's eyes. They had the effect that they always had on her, as much as she wished that they didn't. Meredith looked back down at her notebook, waiting for the feeling to pass.

&&&

Alex was walking back from the cafeteria when he saw a man stumble through the doors of the emergency ward.

"Whoa," he said, rushing over to the man. "That's a lot of blood."

"It's been bleeding all night," the man said. "I didn't want to come here but I feel very weak."

"Yeah well you should have come here earlier," Alex said, taking a look at the man's injury. "It looks like you've broken your nose and lost a hell of a lot of blood. What happened to you?"

"It doesn't matter," the man said. He turned to leave. "I can't be here," he said. "Not here. I'll go somewhere else."

"Whoa," Alex said, grabbing the man by the shoulders. "You're not going anywhere. The nearest hospital is an hour away in this traffic."

"That's why I came here," the man said. He was making no sense to Alex.

"Well let us treat you then," Alex said. "Come with me." Alex went through the triage doors and took the reluctant man straight into the emergency room.

"Over here," a nurse called out, spotting the massive amount of blood which had obscured the man's face and stained his clothes. Alex led the man over to the bed.

"What's your name?" the nurse asked as Alex put gloves on and began examining the man's face.

"Thatcher," he answered. "Thatcher Grey."

&&&

Meredith sat in the gallery watching Derek's delicate surgery. For the most part she had been able to observe from a purely medical perspective but occasionally she felt her eyes wondering to Derek's hands, his shoulders, his neck.

"Stop it," she said quietly to herself. Bailey looked at her oddly.

"Excuse me," Meredith said, standing up and leaving the gallery. The next time that Derek looked up, she wasn't there.