"What happened?"

"My mom invited me to dinner tonight!"

"Why?" same as her and Alex, Derek was surprised to hear this, not as shocked as them but it did surprise him.

"I am asking myself the same thing!"

Derek started to walk and motioned her to follow him. When he saw the elevator's door opening and the last passengers coming out from it, he ran to stop the doors and motioned Meredith to hurry.

They both stepped inside and when the door closed, Derek turned to Meredith "Do you think that she suspects anything?"

Meredith didn't think at this not even for a second, but now that she heard Derek asking her this, her heart stopped and the panic made her face to look frighten. But this state of horror lasted just for a few moments, because soon the image on her mother's good mood dissipated it.

"No, her mood was too good; if this would be the reason then she should have killed me instead of inviting me for dinner! She said that she doesn't need a reason to invite her daughter to dinner!"

"Will you go?"

"I don't think that I have any choice!"

Derek put an arm around her waist and gave her a smile "If you are too scared to go alone, I can come with you!"

Meredith took his arm away from her "Please Derek, don't start!"

Derek stepped back a little, not before to give her a quick his on forehead "Okay! The last thing that I want right now is to fight with you again… as much as I love our make ups, I prefer to have them without a fight before!" he smiled suggestively at her.

"This means that I am still invited to visit you tonight?" Meredith responded him with the same type of smile.

In that moment, Derek pressed the emergency button with one hand and stopped the elevator, while with the other he pulled Meredith to him, both of them starting a kissing session. It didn't last long, because they knew that some other people need the elevator, so they pulled apart consoled by the thought that they will recover this later tonight.

Derek let the elevator go and soon the door opened "Good luck!" he told her when she stepped outside.

Meredith just smiled back and looked at him until the door closed and hided him behind it.

------------------------

She was having two more hours before the shift to end and three hours until the mysterious dinner that her weird mother had planned for them, and all the duties that Bailey had charged her with were done, so she went to find her again and see what else does she has for her.

Meredith found Bailey talking to a patient's relative so she waited for her to finish. When she saw her turning around to leave, Meredith ran to her.

"Dr. Bailey!"

Bailey stopped and looked at her "Is all the work done Grey?"

"Yes Dr. Bailey!"

Bailey gave her a weird look with an even weirder smile "Very efficient!"

Meredith looked at her confused, not knowing if she should take that as a compliment or as an irony.

"Go and make yourself useful down in pit! Yang is there too!"

"Yes Dr. Bailey!" and she turned around fast to leave, to avoid any eventual comment of hers.

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Down in pit, Meredith saw Christina yelling to a nurse for something that she asked to bring her and the nurse didn't do it. When she saw Meredith, Christina asked the nurse to leave and came towards bringing a smile on face with her.

"Hi Meredith!"

"What is wrong with you people today?"

"What happened?"

"This is what I am trying to find out; first it was my mother, then it was Burke and now you! Why are the most frowned people of the last month are smiling today?"

"Thanks Meredith!" Christina smiled sarcastic at her.

"Are you going to tell me what happened today? Oh wait…" and she started to smirk at her "I know why you and Burke are smiling, but what happened with Ellis?"

Christina shrugged and took a seat on an empty bed, stretching her arms. Meredith set down next to her looking at her smiling "She was not in the on-call room with you two, was she?"

At Meredith's question, Christina raised her look from ground to her giving her a look as if she was having a psycho next to her. "You have a dirty mind Meredith!"

"Sorry!" Meredith giggled and immediately after she took a grimaced face "Eww… she had sex…Eww!" she was shaking her body to take out of her mind this thought.

"What is wrong with you?" Christina asked her annoyed when she saw all the craps that Meredith was saying.

Meredith stopped and looked at her serious "She invited me to dinner!"

"So?"

Christina was the only person who was not surprised by Ellis's invitation.

"Christina, my mom is happy, the other day she complimented me for my work, today she invited me to dinner…" her words stopped on tongue and Meredith looked panicked at her "OMG!"

"What?"

"What if she has an incurable disease and she is dying?"

Christina looked at her and didn't know what to tell her. She was not sure if this it would be a good or a bad news for Meredith.

"She does not look ill" was the only thing she could find to tell her.

"No, she doesn't but…no!" Meredith shook her head to get rid of that thought "This would have not changed her and … maybe this just a phase and soon she will become the same witch we all know!... Yeah… it's just a phase… you are right she does not look ill!"

Christina was a little surprised to see Meredith so worried for her mother. She patted her leg "It's just a phase!"

Meredith found more reasonable the faze thing than a potential disease, so she recovered her calm and gave Christina a smirk. "So you and your lover are back together, huh?"

"He is not my lover!"

"He is not?"

"No, he is my… my sex partner… that's all!"

"Sure! If you say so!"

"You know what? I don't need to hear a discourse from the intern who is secretly dating with her boss in her parents' hospital!"

Meredith faked a smile and dropped the subject. "So… you don't find anything weird in my mom's invitation!"

"No… as you said… she has a sex life so be happy for her because this way you might get to know your mother better!"

"Sometimes the sex can do miracles, isn't it?"

"Yeah" Christina admitted smiling and looking ahead.

The rest of the shift was not that stressful and busy, so Meredith ended it in time and left home to take a shower and put some clean clothes on her. Even if her mother seemed nicer now, she did not trust too much in it and she wanted to avoid a speech about her hygiene.

-----------------------

With a few minutes before eight o'clock she pulled the car in front of her mother's house. She saw the lights on, so she took a deep breath and opened the door to step outside from car. After a few moments of pacing at their door, a neighbor passed by the front of the house and stopped looking at her a little strange. When Meredith saw that lady staring at her, she faked a smiled and immediately knocked at door.

The door opened after just a few seconds and Richard appeared in the doorway.

"Meredith, hi! Come on in!"

"Hi Richard!"

Meredith stepped inside and let herself leaded inside by Richard, while she was studying the surroundings. She had not been in their house for over 10 years; she was back in Seattle for 4 months now, but this was her first visit to her mother's house.

Richard leaded her in dinning room, where he was setting the table. The atmosphere was the same solemn one that she knew with everything at its place and many of the objects from house looking useless and untouched.

Meredith took of her jacket and placed it on the chair's backrest.

"Richard, my mom cooks?" She asked a little surprise to hear Ellis in kitchen.

"No, we ordered the food!" Richard smiled and returned to his previous duty, to set the table.

"Good evening Meredith!" Ellis came in holding a big bowl. Her voice tone and her look were the serious ones she knew, but the attitude was softer.

"Hi!" Meredith answered her a little unsure of what she should do and say.

"Come take a seat!" Ellis pointed to a chair "The dinner is ready!"

Richard helped Ellis to take a seat on the opposite side of table from Meredith, and then he took his seat above the salt. He was also the one who served them the soup.

The first minutes from dinner were awkwardly quiet, Meredith was trying to keep her mind clear, and in alert to any potential conversation, that Ellis or Richard would start.

"What do you think about your first months as doctor so far?" Richard was the one who tried to build a conversation, even if he was doing it with a banal question.

"Hard! I knew that this field it is not easy, but I was not expecting to be that hard! But I like it!"

"The surgery is a hardcore, not everyone is born for this. Only those who will pass from the first year can start consider themselves surgeons even if they won't be for real yet." Ellis added as an answer to Meredith's answer.

"I know! And I think that I will be able to make it through the first year!"

"Meredith, think it is not a sure thing! You have to feel yourself capable, not to think that you can do it!" Ellis let the spoon down and looked serious at her daughter.

In that moment, Meredith recognized again the mother that she knew, cold and very strict when it comes about work.

"You did great so far, Meredith!" Richard wanted to encourage her and, in the same time, to prevent any tension that it could have been created after Ellis's tone.

"Thank you!" Meredith tried to respond him with a smile, even if she was already feeling uncomfortable.

"You can become a great surgeon in future if you will have confidence in everything that you have learned and you are learning here! Keep a strong personality and don't get pregnant."

When she heard her mother mentioning about that, Meredith's spoon froze at the entry to her mouth. She looked at each of them, but just Richard was giving her a small uncomfortable smile while Ellis was eating calm from her food, without even looking at her. Meredith returned from the shock produced by her mother's advice and stub the spoon in her mouth.

"Talking about pregnancy… are you dating anyone, Meredith Or you …?" this time Ellis put the question looking at her and paying attention to Meredith's reaction.

When she heard that, the knot from her throat stopped the soup to flow to esophagus and redirected its way to trachea causing her a big and violent cough.

"… have Alex only?" the continuance of the question came out just slipping out in a low tone and a little surprised by her reaction.

Richard handed Meredith a glass of water to calm down, while he and Ellis were looking at each other. Ellis raised her eyebrows like she knew the answer already.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' so, who is he?" she asked her.

Meredith's cough stopped and she wiped her mouth nervous hesitating to answer her.

"Do I know him?"

Meredith had started to shrug and to shake her head nervous "Maybe" she opened the mouth and let the answer to come out slow.

"Ellis please, leave her alone! It is obvious that she doesn't feel comfortable to talk about this!" Richard had noticed Meredith's discomfort.

"First, she should not feel uncomfortable to talk about these things with her mother"

At Ellis words, Meredith could not help herself not to feel angry on her "Now all of the sudden she wants a mother-daughter moment and to talk about my sex life! She must be kidding!" Meredith was watching her mother shocked, but also with anger imprinted on her face.

"And secondly…" Ellis continued her advices for Meredith "… you are a grown-woman now Meredith and I hope that you know how to choose a man. It's your life, you can date who ever you want to as long as he is not married, preferably without kids too and as I have said already… as long as you don't get pregnant because a baby is the last thing that you need right now!"

Meredith faked a smile and nodded at her "Sure mom! I'll take care!" "you forgot to mention not to be my boss either" she smiled a little at her thought.

Meredith hurried to finish with the food, so in about an hour she was done with the dessert too. The discussion about Meredith's love life ended immediately after her assurance that she will take care of not getting to wrong man and the last part of the meeting continued with discussions about the surgeries performed lately at Seattle Grace, mainly between Richard and Ellis. This did not bother Meredith at all; contrariwise, she felt relief because this way her life was standing outside from Ellis's critics.

When everyone was done with the eating, Meredith stood up from table and excused herself, saying that she is tired and that the intern statue requires many sleep.

"Thank you for coming Meredith! Go home and sleep, we know how precious these sleeping hours are!" Richard leaded her to door and gave her a hug before going out.

"Good night Meredith!" Ellis saluted her into a very politely tone.

"Good night!" Meredith smiled back at them and then she headed to her car.

She heard the door closing before she could get to her car. She unlocked it and got in it, smiling amused at Richard's word "We know how precious these sleeping hours are!" In that moment she was having her mind just at all the sleep that Derek will give her later that night and at the sleepless nights that she and Derek, her boss, had lately because of the sex.