"Ugh," Meredith groaned as she stumbled down the stairs, her hands rubbing away the sleep from her eyes. She had gotten dressed with her eyes closed, wanting to prolong her last few moments of rest before she dove head first into her busy day at work. She just hoped she hadn't forgotten anything important—like pants.
"She said she was going to the bar with him?" Izzie's voice filtered through the kitchen door. "Do you think they're together?"
"They can't be!" George spluttered. "He's her boss."
"We're late. He's all our boss," Izzie's voice rose to a frantic hiss. "He was here the morning after the party!"
"Great," Meredith mumbled, "just great." She was way too tired to take the time to set this straight. All she could focus on was getting some coffee into her system as she shouldered open the kitchen door and made a beeline for the steaming pot. She grabbed the tallest travel mug she could find and filled it to the brim with the strong brew, fighting the small urge to lift the pot itself straight to her lips and gulp it down. "Morning," she greeted her two, now silent, roommates.
"We're late," Izzie repeated, already turned to leave. "Let's go."
At least her fellow interns were all looking a little worse for wear, was Meredith's overriding thought as she and her peers obediently tailed Dr. Bailey. Cristina looked worse than everyone, but of course she was far too stubborn to give up surgeries for something as insignificant as the flu.
"O'Malley, Yang, Karev, go on to the clinic," Bailey ordered, shooing her interns away.
Meredith gave the disgruntled group a wave, sticking her tongue out at Alex when she was certain Bailey was facing Izzie.
"Karev! Keep your tongue in your mouth or you'll lose it!" Bailey barked, having turned just in time to see his parting shot.
Biting her tongue to prevent the giggles from escaping, Meredith gave a mental cheer as Alex scurried away.
"Help! I need immediate help!" a bedraggled woman approached the three doctors, her frustration evident on her face.
"What's the problem?" Bailey asked, her voice torn between concern for the patient and irritation at being interrupted so demandingly.
"My damn boyfriend swallowed my keys," the woman hissed through gritted teeth, her anger directed more at the sheepish man standing beside her.
"I didn't want her to leave," he rasped out, wincing as she hit his shoulder roughly.
Dr. Bailey closed her eyes and exhaled. "Stevens, locate the lady's keys."
"What do you want me to do?" Meredith asked, tentatively, after Izzie had led her new patient away.
"You, Dr. Grey, are in for a treat," Bailey began with an almost evil smirk. "Since you admitted yourself that you will never get to experience the delights of the Dr. Sloan intern treatment, you get to go through mine for the day. It will be painful and vigorous, but at least you'll get to practice medicine instead of playing personal assistant. Okay?" she asked, almost daring Meredith to refuse.
"Okay," She never turned down a challenge.
"There's a consult in the pit: girl with fever and abdominal pain," Bailey began at top speed, her eyes focused on Meredith's hand scrawling her orders onto a pad of paper. "After that, Nicholas in 3311 needs his meds. Mr. Moeller's IV fell out, and he's a hard stick. Post-ops in 1337, 3342, 3363, and 2381."
"Right away," she responded, dashing away from her intimidating resident.
"I hate you," Meredith announced, dropping into the empty chair beside Mark's. She reached across his cafeteria tray to snag a cherry tomato and popped it in her mouth.
"Okay, first of all: you love me, and second: no stealing food, ever. We are not food stealing friends." Mark frowned at her. "Why do you hate me?"
"Bailey's on the warpath," she shrugged, reaching around his arm to grab a carrot stick and ignoring his indignant expression. "She's trying to put me through a day of torture to resemble what kind of treatment I would get on your service."
"I wouldn't torture you on my service, if you were ever on it," Mark protested. "Lots of insults, but that's a different kind of torture."
"That's the problem," Meredith pointed out with a sigh. "You make the other interns fetch things, but you wouldn't with me. Bailey's trying to even the playing field."
"Sucks to be you then," he shrugged, spearing a few leaves of lettuce with his fork.
"Ass," she hissed, flopping back in her chair. "My patient had an illegal gastric bypass in Mexico."
Mark frowned, dropping his now empty fork to rest on his plate. "Ouch. Was she very large?"
Meredith sighed and shook her head. "Not at all, she's a normal college kid. Too much pressure from the mom though," she sighed again, looking up at Mark who nodded in understanding. Even though it had never been spoken out loud, she got the impression that Mark's family life had been about as difficult as hers had been. He knew what it meant. "It abscessed," she continued. "Bailey and I have to remove a large part of her bowel."
"That sucks," Mark said. Both stared down at the cafeteria table until he continued, a slight grin creeping across his face. "But you know you'd never be in surgery on my service."
Meredith threw a napkin at him, huffing in disappointment when it fluttered to the ground a few inches short of her target.
"Stop with the teasing and lunch dates, Grey. People are going to suspect something." Mark waggled his eyebrows at her.
"Damn," Meredith groaned loudly. "I'd forgotten about that. Izzie thinks we're dating."
He shook his head with a wry grin. "You say that like it's such a bad thing."
"Mmm…why want to go out for a fancy dinner, come home and cuddle, talk about our lives, and limit yourself to sex with only me?" Meredith ribbed, laughing at Mark's exaggerated shudder. "Didn't think so. I'll talk to her when I have the time; if Bailey ever lets me sit down."
"You are sitting down."
"Shut up."
Meredith's pager beeped, jolting her in her seat. "See, Bailey. Told you," she complained. "That woman is omnipotent, I swear."
Mark shot her a sympathetic smile which quickly disappeared when Meredith stole another tomato before dashing off to the O.R.
Oh, her wonderful day was just getting so much better, Meredith thought as she tried to suppress the urge to gag from the smell of the intestinal pus still sticking to the strands of her golden hair. Dr. Bailey walked beside her, a bare hint of a grin making intermittent appearances on her face as if she was doing everything she could to avoid it.
"Say it," Meredith urged as they neared the locker room. "I need a shower."
"Hey, I need a shower," Bailey said, "You need to tell that girl's parents what kind of kid they're getting back."
Meredith stopped still and stared at her resident. "You're not going to let me shower first?"
Bailey released a single bark of laughter. "Shower first. You know that wasn't supposed to be part of my punishment for the day."
"I didn't think it was," Meredith giggled, then pulled a disgusted face. She left Bailey in the hallway and entered the locker room, waving her right hand weakly in Izzie and Cristina's direction.
"Oh, God," Cristina groaned, her face paling rapidly as she quickly lifted a hand to plug her nose. "Oh, Meredith, you smell like..."
"Karma," Izzie sing-songed from over by her locker.
At least it sounded like 'karma,' Meredith wasn't sure. "What?"
"Nothing."
"Something vile is stuck in your hair. You know, just go stand over there, please," Cristina ordered, directing Meredith to the opposite side of the locker room.
She stood facing the mirror, tilting her head from left to right to examine the full extent of the gut explosion covering her head. "Ugh, how much do I love being a surgeon right now?"
"Karma," Izzie chirped again.
Okay, she definitely heard it this time. "What does karma have to do with anything?" She turned and demanded.
"I'm just saying," Izzie shrugged, her eyes not meeting Meredith's. "You've been given all the best surgeries, and now you smell like putrid goo; and you're giving off a stench. Karma's a bitch."
Dr. Bailey entered the room demanding a new intern for Dr. Drake's pediatric surgery, quickly brushing off Cristina's attempts to get in on the case. "Grey?"
"Of course," Izzie scoffed, throwing her hands up in the air, and turning violently open her locker.
"What is your problem?" Meredith demanded.
"Um, you!" Izzie screeched, rounding on Meredith. "You get all these amazing surgeries, and you're helping McSteamy for his personal operations…"
"I am not!"
"Hey!" Bailey's bark interrupted the argument. "Yang! Hemispherectomy in O.R. 1 with Dr. Drake. Go." She sent Cristina running out the door with a jerk of her thumb. "Izzie, clinic, now."
Meredith sank down against the wall, the tiredness from earlier returning full force to make every joint and muscle limp. She rolled her head to look at Bailey.
"You'd better explain things to her, Grey. I told you other interns would get upset about your choice in friends." Bailey threw out her parting words before exiting the locker room, leaving Meredith to drop her head into her hands.
The light was on in the kitchen. That was the first thing Meredith noticed as she eased open the front door to her house. The next thing that came to her was the heavenly smell of baked goods wafting from that direction. Her stomach rumbled. No matter how much a part of her wanted to avoid this unnecessary confrontation, food was a necessity.
She entered the kitchen, her green-grey eyes narrowing in on Izzie carefully icing a chocolate cake. "I thought you'd be asleep by now," Meredith began innocently, not sure how else to break the silence.
"I'm not," the blonde replied, stating the obvious in a quiet tone. "If you wait a few minutes, you can have a piece of cake. Baked it chock-full of love. Actually, chock-full of unrelenting, all consuming rage and hostility, and guilt," she continued, her eyes finally lifting to meet Meredith's, "but it's still tasty."
"So you know I'm not seeing him?" Meredith asked, tentatively.
"Cristina said something about it, and Alex threw in his opinion," Izzie's nose wrinkled. "You're friends?"
"Yeah," Meredith nodded, hoisting herself up to sit on the countertop. "You want the long, sordid story?"
"Nope," Izzie shook her head. "I shouldn't have yelled earlier. I didn't have the right information, and it shouldn't have come out at work. But you…" she gulped, and looked down, fiddling with the ragged edges of the placemat. "You went to Dartmouth. Your mother is Ellis Grey. You grew up...look at his house! You walk into the O.R., and there isn't anyone who doubts that you should be there. I grew up in a trailer park. I went to state school. I put myself through med school by posing in my underwear. I walk into the O.R., and everyone hopes I'm the nurse," her eyes lifted to clash with Meredith's. "The idea of you throwing that respect away for sex with an attending just got to me. So, I'm sorry."
Meredith nodded, "I get that. And you'll earn their respect," she soothed, hopping down from the counter to approach her seated roommate. "You have the luxury of only being able to go up in their estimation. I've started up high. I have so much farther to fall."
"This calls for cake," Izzie announced, cutting two thick slices of the rich chocolate dessert and placing them onto two plates.
"It's good," Meredith mumbled around her mouthful of the treat.
"Yeah," the blonde agreed. "Pity you aren't sleeping with McSteamy, he looks like he'd be good."
"He is," Meredith replied without thinking, before Izzie's shriek made her eyes widen. She dropped her head against the tabletop and started banging it repeatedly against the hard surface.
"You said you were friends!" Izzie cried.
"We are," Meredith mumbled.
"You're having sex!"
"No," Meredith shook her head, lifting it from table surface and rubbing one hand over the now red spot on her forehead. "That's how we became friends. We had a one night stand before I found out he was my boss."
Izzie's anger instantly dissipated into gossip mode, and Meredith fought the urge to go back to banging her head. "Ooooh. That's so awkward. How hot was the sex? I mean, the nurses keep talking about it…"
"Izzie…" Meredith groaned.
"What?" she asked, an innocent grin on her face. "Come on, I'm not getting any. Help a girl out with a few details."
"I straightened things out with Izzie," Meredith began without preamble as she sat at the bar beside Mark. "Except, I accidentally mentioned the sex."
"It's your subconscious telling you that you want me, Grey." Mark told her with a cocky smile. "Too bad I won't help you out."
"More like my subconscious telling me to go to bed so I stop saying stupid things," Meredith grumbled. "Joe, I love you, seriously," she told her favourite bartender when the shot glass full of tequila slid her way without asking.
"Of course you do," he agreed, grabbing a glass and a cloth to wipe it with. "Just don't tell my boyfriend that."
"It will be our secret," Meredith agreed, knocking back her shot, and slamming the glass down at the counter. "Any good victims for tonight, Mark?" she asked, as she watched her friend scan the bar out of the corner of his eye.
"Brunette with the great breasts at the dartboard," he announced with a smirk. "She's been eyeing me all night. Which means you'd better scram or she'll think I'm taken."
"Going!" She replied, downing her second shot as she walked away to the empty stool beside Alex.
"Hey," he grunted in greeting.
"Hey, I heard about your patient," she said quietly.
"Yeah, first guy I'd met out here from back home." Alex swirled his nearly empty beer in the tall glass, his eyes fixed on the foam streaks sliding down the transparent surface.
"I get that," Meredith said, motioning Joe over to refill their drinks. "It doesn't seem like anyone had a good day. Lots of drudge work."
"Yeah," Alex nodded. "Even Drake is here," he motioned to the far corner of the bar with his chin. "That guy is so cheerful I didn't even think he had bad days. Something about feeling bad for not taking O'Malley's advice about the anesthesiologist."
"Hmmm," Meredith murmured. "We all have those days." She lifted her glass as a toast in Dr. Drake's direction, returning his sad smile.