Chapter Twenty Five

Meredith rolled over and looked at her phone. It was three a.m. Quickly, she calculated that it was noon in Zurich. She had been watching Alex sleep for the better part of an hour, trying to not freak out.

She didn't understand the cause of her freak out. This is what she had wanted, and did not regret it at all. A part of her wanted to wake Alex and tell him she was freaking out, but she couldn't bear the thought. She needed to handle this on her own. However, she was going around in circles, so clearly help was needed. This left one option.

She grabbed her phone and quietly slipped out of bed. Glancing back at Alex to make sure he was still sleeping, she very carefully closed the door behind her, and made her way down the stairs.

The living room was dark and quiet. She switched on a small light and dialed.

"Oh hey Mer! Wait until you hear what we're doing…"

"Cristina! I don't have time. I need your help! I'm freaking out" She whispered sharply.

Cristina chortles. "What did you do? No, who did you do!"

"I need to tell you something, and I need you to be supportive." Meredith begins.

"Okay. I'm being supportive."

"Seriously, Cristina!"

"What? Okay, Mer! I'm being seriously supportive."

Meredith took a deep breath. "I did something."

"Okay…"

"Something huge. And now I'm freaking out about it. And the thing is, I don't want to be freaking out about it, because this thing I did, I really want it to work..."

"Did you…." Cristina starts to guess, then realization hit her all at once. "Did you have sex with Alex?!"

"How did you….yeah." Meredith listens for a second. Silence. "Cristina?" Sudden hysterical laughter floods the line.

"Cristina! Stop laughing! It isn't funny!" Meredith intones sharply.

Cristina tries to talk through her laughter. "Wait a minute, wait a minute wait a minute….so, you mean to tell me you made it through your slutty intern phase, your dirty mistress phase and your sleeping with inappropriate men phase, and now you're sleeping with Alex?! Good job, Mer! You almost made it!" She dissolves into another fit of laughter.

"Will you cut it out?! I'm in crisis!"

Slowly, Cristina calms down. "Sorry, now I'm being supportive. Why are you in crisis?"

"I don't know. It was amazing, Cristina. Seriously amazing. And we said I love you. And we fell asleep together. And then I woke up and I'm freaking out! Help me!"

Cristina was silent for a minute. Her voice was completely different when she next spoke. "You love each other? Like really love each other?" She was incredulous.

"We really do." Meredith said quietly.

"Who would have guessed…Evil Spawn!"

"Don't call him that, Cristina. He's an amazing man."

"Then why are you freaking out?" Cristina questioned.

Meredith hesitated, as if afraid to say the words out loud. "Because it's the first time since Derek that I've said that."

Cristina was once again silent for a moment. She recognized that this was a huge moment in her friends life. "Then I think you should take a minute to freak out. It's okay to freak out for this. But only for a minute. Because Mer, I really think this could be a great thing."

Meredith smiled. "I do too, Cristina. Thanks."