Hey guys! I am sorry for the time it took me to update the story. My life took a 180 degree turn in a month. I got a new job so I had to resign from the one I was at, a job I enjoyed, I was pretty sad for leaving it but still it appeared the opportunity of having a better paid contract and to go do a training in France. So for 3 months I will be living in a hotel in Paris, I've arrived 2 weeks ago, for the first time I've left my country, I am from Portugal BTW, it was the first time I travelled by plane too so those past few weeks have been pretty hectic to me in order to get everything prepared for the trip. I am good, still a bit unsettled with all these changes, I hope you are good as well.

I am flying back home to spend Christmas with my family so it's likely that another update won't be posted next week. So I just wish you all a merry Christmas and if you have any suggestion of places to visit in Paris, please let me know, I have to become less homebody…

So back to the story, I hope you haven't forgotten about it…

Meredith glanced at her phone and noticed 2 unanswered phone calls from her boyfriend. Martin was stressing her out, he was becoming too controlling of her and even though she knew how sweet he actually was, nowadays all their phone calls seemed to end up with them arguing and him questioning her about the time she had been spending with Derek. That infuriated her, as if he didn't trust her enough, she always knew that deep down, even though Martin was a pretty confident guy, he felt threatened by Derek. When they were living together and Derek was in DC, that didn't affect their relationship at all but now with the distance between them and her ex-husband living in the same city as her, turned the usually perfect caring guy into a green eyed monster full of jealousy and without being able to control the way he was feeling.

Meredith used to be in love with Martin, now she wasn't so sure about that, she had been feeling like that for a while as if the things she used to love about him, annoyed her now. The distance between them felt like a breath of fresh air to her life and Meredith was glad for Derek being close to their children again. She appreciated being back to Seattle, all the confusion with her paternal family didn't make her regret her decision at all, it made her confused and without knowing how to process all of that, but she was just glad to have her family backing her up and supporting her through this.

Meredith had been inside her office trying to work on a future clinical trial but her usually concentrated mind kept divagating to the previous night, of Derek's messy hair after a night of sleep, of his aftershave all over the bed, his crazy deep blue eyes and… how comforting it was to be able to have him as a pillar again. He used to be her best friend, Meredith missed having him as her friend, she wishes for them to be close again, if only it would be that easy as her wanting for it to happen… And then there were her half sisters, so close to her that there was no way she could avoid them, she needed to deal with them and to make matters worse on a daily basis, since one was a teacher to one of her kids and the other one was an intern that would inevitably be appointed to her services.

She decided that she couldn't keep using Grey as her surname at workplace, people would find a link between them and she wished so hard that nobody would find out about it. That both Alexandra and Molly would be in the unknown so that Meredith could keep her distance from both of them, especially what Meredith dreaded the most was Thatcher wanting to get in contact with her.

There were already too many Webbers at Seattle Grace, and besides Webber wasn't her surname, she still felt like a Shepherd and she was one, she was the mother of two little Shepherd kids and maybe it wouldn't be so bad to become known at work as Dr. Shepherd again, there was Derek but she knew that after last night's talk he would be okay with that too. She would talk to him about it but she was sure that she had found the right solution…

Right at that moment Meredith's work phone, started ringing… She had no idea who might be, it was only her second day at Seattle Grace and she had never given her office phone number to anyone before. She picked the call after the forth ring and answered expectantly.

"Dr. Meredith Shepherd speaking." Meredith answered surely, just trying out the words after so long.

"So you got back to Shepherd as your professional name now… I am astonished!" Meredith knew well who was the person she was talking to, the woman had been a mentor as well as a personal friend for the last 6 years. "Things have certainly changed in a week!"

"Hello to you too Margaret… And you know that is my last name actually…" Meredith responded to Margaret Goodwin, Martin's mother and her former boss. "Don't take it personally."

"That also belongs to your ex… Gosh, if Martin had been the one calling you, he would freak out." Margaret said in an annoyed voice, Meredith could sense how her friend was judging her. "You don't return his calls, all you do is fight and now the name thing… What the hell are you both doing? What are you doing Meredith?"

"Calm down Margaret! I have only been here for 5 days, it was Michael's first day at school yesterday, before that there was the moving into the apartment thing and all the other stuff that have to be taken care of once you move from another city… I have been pretty busy myself…"

"First of all why are you going back to Shepherd? You are a Grey girl. I need to know about that before anything else."

"There are other people with the same surname in the hospital and besides I don't identify myself with that name anymore. I have been raised in the Webber household, as I am not officially a Webber, at least I don't have the name, I want to be from now on Meredith Shepherd! It doesn't have anything to do with Derek or with me wanting to hurt Martin. My kids are Shepherds, I am not ashamed of having the name."

"You know Shepherd is not an exclusive name either there, it is not a plausible reason. Stop being a mean girl to my son, Meredith." Margaret was a bear mother, that was the reason why it took Meredith and Martin so long to make their relationship official. It didn't make things better as Meredith loved Margaret and she knew everything concerning Martin and Meredith's relationship with him would directly affect their friendship, she decided to be truthful to her friend, hoping to get her to calm down.

"My biological father has a daughter working in the hospital, I want to be Shepherd so that I won't have to deal with the Greys…" Meredith stated, Margaret didn't reply till a few seconds later. "Please, try to see things by my perspective…"

"I am trying Meredith. I am definitely trying… But you are hurting my son with all of this!"

"How is Amanda?" Meredith decided to ask about Martin's little sister, hoping to change the topic.

"She is pretty pissed with you too… Martin is being mean to everyone and she misses having you here to talk to. Apparently you never go to whatsapp or to any other social media."

"Well, I am a mother of 2 kids who has a lot on her plate right now… Margaret, I am your friend and I appreciate all the things you have done to me in the past but you don't have any right to talk to me like that and expect me to babysit your son because he doesn't handle the fact that I live in the same city as the father of my kids…"

"Ohhh Martin is handling it, that was the reason why I called you…" Margaret said. "You make my boy insecure and now he is making decisions that he shouldn't be making…"

"What are you talking about?" Meredith was now annoyed, when Margaret was about to respond, she heard a knock on the door and whoever was at the entrance of her office, came in.

In front of her appeared two doctors in light blue scrubs, an Asian woman with what seemed like a constant frown on her face and a baby faced man, who had made small talk with her during the intern's gala.

"I am sorry Dr. Grey…" Both of them said, Meredith was actually grateful to both of them for saving her morning from the awful conversation that she was about to have with Margaret Goodwin.

"Look Margaret, I have to go. My interns are here… We will talk some other time!" Meredith said purposely not setting up a time. "I have to go now."

"I hope you are not lying to me Meredith Grey. We'll talk soon then…" Margaret hanged up the call and then Meredith looked to both of the expecting interns.

"Good morning Dr. Grey!" As Meredith got up to meet them at the entrance of her office, the Asian doctor greeted Meredith with an unexpected cup of hot liquid.

Meredith decided that she would speak to Derek first before going back to Dr. Shepherd again, it was to be expected, he should have a say in that as Shepherd was his name and not hers.

"We are sorry for interrupting your call, Dr. Grey…" The man said.

"Next time just wait for my answer first please…" Meredith said to them, without being able to reprimand them.

"We are sorry… Mocha latte, if you have it." The girl doctor offered.

"Thanks Doctor..."

"Yang. Cristina Yang." The frown in that intern's face turned into excitement as Meredith gave a careful sip on the cup.

"It doesn't have any sugar Yang, do you think I need to be on a diet?" Meredith asked giving the intern a hard stare.

"No, you seem... great as you are right now..." Yang responded with a stressed out expression, realizing she just screwed up her attempts of getting the favors of her attending.

"Besides this coffee is as strong as chamomile tea. I need energy to teach you and put up with all your crap. With this, I will end up falling asleep and leaving you to handle all the patients and make history as the day with highest mortality rate ever in Seattle Grace, I am sure we would go bankrupt with all the lawsuits. Is that what you want?" Meredith repeated again, succeeding in intimidating the interns.

She noticed the baby faced intern as he looked closely at her face.

"Do you want to say something doctor?" Meredith asked, impatient of being stared at, he just moved his head rapidly to each side as a response.

"Good. Let's get to the business, shall we? So you are Yang and what is your name?"

"I am George O'Malley... You were at the intern's mix."

"Yes Dr. O'Malley and I wasn't the only one that went to that event." Meredith said sarcastically. "What is your point?"

"We talked with each other over the schrooms plate..." George said embarrassed that she was acting like she didn't remember him.

"What does that have to do with anything? I talk with a lot of people, are you expecting me to give you a present just because we had a 5 minute talk while I was devouring some appetizers?"

"No Dr. Grey, I was just..." George was dumbstruck and he wouldn't chance a look at Cristina's face, because he could clearly hear her muffled laughter impulses by his side.

"Just stop talking and let's go work." Meredith impatiently left her office with the 2 interns closely behind her and making one of her goals to that morning, to find Derek as soon as possible so that she could expose her ideas to him.

Her life was messy and it was only her second day at Seattle Grace… Oh boy, what could happen more to her? Meredith thought as she went to make the rounds on her patients and introduce the cases to the interns.