Chapter 17: Katie Bryce

"You look like crap. You're also probably used to me greeting you like that," Cristina quipped as Meredith joined her in the crowded conference room. "Who stepped on your puppy?" she asked as she scrutinized Meredith's face. "Don't answer that. I already know who. That was not your puppy he stepped on."

Meredith rolled her eyes grimly and asked, sweeping over the crowd around, "Do you know why we're here?"

"Shepherd took all night to show you how much of a macho he is, didn't he?" Cristina smirked knowingly, disregarding her question. "So, did he prove he's a man through and through?"

"No, he didn't," she answered bleakly.

"Mer?" Cristina's eyes turned suddenly softer and apprehensive. "He didn't do… anything stupid, right?"

"He wouldn't ever hurt anyone physically, certainly not me, if that's what you're asking," she sighed.

"So that is…?" she pointed at her lap suggestively.

"Normal after two mind-blowing screaming orgasms," Meredith shrugged.

"What's the problem then?"

"Cristina…" she hesitated. "I'm not just a fuck me kind of girl. I really appreciate if we could just drop this. Why are we here?"

Cristina nodded with understanding. "Tom Evans is here for a case!"

"No way, Tom Evans?" Meredith tried to muster the excitement she would feel on any other day. "The Tom Evans, the neurogod?"

"The one and the same," nodded her person. "Apparently even he can't figure out what's wrong with the kid that was transported here a couple of hours earlier. That's why we're here. He's going to talk to us!"

Meredith arched her eyebrow at her skeptically. "Did I just hear you giggle? Did something that's not cardio pique your interest? Maybe just the neurogod?"

"What can I say? I'm a surgery whore," she quipped.

Meredith saw Derek coming into the room but she quickly looked elsewhere not to catch his eyes. She could feel them on her though for some reason. Luckily, a distracter in the form of no other than Tom Evans appeared in the middle of their gathering.

"He's younger than I thought," Cristina muttered.

"I guess," Meredith shrugged.

He cleared his throat and started to speak, "I'm going to do something rare for a surgeon. I'm going to ask interns for help. I've got this kid, Katie Bryce. Right now, she's a mystery. She doesn't respond to our meds. Labs are clean, scans are pure, but she's having grand mal seizures with no visible cause. She's a ticking clock. She's going to die if I don't make a diagnosis, which is where you come in."

He eyed them sharply. "I can't do it alone. I need your extra minds, extra eyes. I need you to play detective. I need you to find out why Katie's having seizures. You're tired. You got more work than you could possibly handle. I understand. So, I'm going to give you an incentive. Whoever finds the answer rides with me. Dr. Bailey's going to hand you Katie's chart."

"You want to work together?" Cristina elbowed her.

"Sure, why not," she answered, seeing Derek talking fast with Mark.

"Do we need to do that?" Cristina groaned.

"Well, what do you think?" she rolled her eyes. "You want to discover what's wrong with the patient without talking to the patient?"

"I'm curious where did this sudden zeal come from?" Cristina narrowed her eyes at her.

"I want to nail this case," Meredith yelled. "I want to win the place in that OR! I want to be the kick-ass surgeon! I want to… I want to be the bitch I am, not a submissive weepy girl!"

"You want to beat Derek in this race," commented Cristina.

"That too!" Meredith huffed. "Come on! Work on your bedside manner!"

Since the moment they entered Katie Bryce's room, Meredith knew it would not be a piece of cake. The teenage blonde looked like… well, a little self-important twit.

"So, how are you feeling?" asked Cristina with a fake smile.

"How do you think I'm feeling?" Katie asked sarcastically. "I'm missing my pageant!"

"You're missing your pageant?" Meredith figured they could start with that.

"The Spokane Teen Miss, duh!" the teenager rolled her eyes at their ignorance. "I was in the top ten after the first two rounds. This is my year. I could have won!"

Meredith and Cristina shared a pained look of commiseration. She felt her high-school dislike for cheerleaders returning.

"What are you, like, new?" Katie snorted. "I twisted my ankle in rehearsal, and I didn't get stuck with someone this clueless."

"You twisted your ankle?" Meredith frowned Meredith. "It's not in here."

"It was nothing," the teenager shrugged dismissively. "I do rhythmic gymnastics, which is, like, really cool. Nobody else does it. I tripped over my ribbon."

Meredith's head shot up.

"What?" Cristina crinkled her eyes.

"I think we might get it," she grinned.

"We might?"

"Yeah, come on!" she exclaimed.

"Damn, for a lady with sex injuries you move pretty fast!"

They noticed him shaking his head at one of their fellow interns and walking into the full elevator.

"Oh, Dr. Evans, just one moment!"

He stopped the door of the elevator from sliding shut, giving Cristina a short look. His eyes then rested on Meredith and specifically on the top of her head. His eyebrows raised in obvious surprise. If the pink hair were going to bite her in the ass depriving her of the chance to assist on the procedure, she would kill Derek. She was on the verge of doing that already for last night.

"Katie competes in beauty pageants," she started confidently.

"I know that, but we have to save her life anyway," he quipped with a smile, clearly enjoying the brief exchange.

"She has no headaches, no neck pain, her CT is clean," recited Cristina. "There's no medical proof of an aneurysm, but what if she has an aneurysm anyway?"

"There are no indicators," he shook his head.

"She twisted her ankle practicing," added Meredith.

"I appreciate you trying to help..."

"When she twisted her ankle, she fell. It was no big deal, not even a bump on the head. She got up, iced her ankle, and everything was fine," Meredith went on relentlessly. "It was a fall so minor; her doctor didn't think to mention it when giving her history, but she did fall."

"You know what the chance is that a fall could burst an aneurysm? One in a million, literally," he argued allowing the elevator to close.

Meredith only managed to give him a hard look when he disappeared out of sight.

They started to work on plan B, but the elevator reopened with a ding and Tom Evans strode out energetically.

"Let's go," he threw at them, his eyes on Meredith.

"Where?"

"To find out if Katie's one in a million."

"I'll be damned, there it is." Evans pointed at the screen shaking his head. "It's minute, but it's there. It's a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She's bleeding into her brain. She could have gone through her entire life without it ever being a problem. One tap in the right spot..."

"It exploded," supplied Cristina.

"Now I can fix it. You two did great work."

"Dr. Evans, you'd said that you'd pick someone to scrub in if we helped?" she led him on.

"Oh, yes, right. Um... I'm sorry I can't take you both. It's going to be a full house."

Meredith frowned as she felt Cristina stepping to stand slightly behind her.

"Dr… Grey," Evans deciphered her ID. "I'll see you in the OR."

"Why did you do that?" Meredith said.

"You need that more than me." shrugged Cristina avoiding her eyes.

"I'm not a charity case!" She hissed.

"You've just proved that! Look, you solved it, you figured out what's wrong with that airhead. You're going to walk in that OR and be the kick-ass surgeon."

Meredith slowly made her way through the hallways on the interns' secret place in the basement. She needed to gather her thoughts before the surgery, she couldn't be distracted during a procedure this important, a procedure led by a world-class neurosurgeon. She just needed a little peace and quiet to wrap her mind around everything, to actually feel the excitement and pride of what she accomplished today. The more she allowed herself the success to sink in, the more optimistic she felt. Maybe she went too far last night. She had hurt him. Used their treasured moment so lowly. God, she never held it against him that he didn't make her orgasm during their first time. It was actually one of her sweetest memories.

She stopped in her tracks when she heard male voices.

"Damn, I'd kill to be in that OR!" Alex sighed, opening a can of some carbonated drink. "I've heard Evans likes to pick favorites."

"He picked your chick all right, Shep," Mark said. "You might watch out or there'll be two horns on your head..."

"She flashed a smile at him, and the guy swooned," grumbled Alex. "Seriously, that was just a lucky guess. An aneurysm? A med student could get that right."

Meredith waited for Derek's reply. It didn't come. He said nothing. No contradiction. Like he didn't care… or was of the same opinion…

She quickly backed out careful not to be seen nor heard.

"You'd never guess who came over when I was just leaving to meet you," Derek said as they took a turn between the stalls in the store, hand in hand. "Mark Sloan."

"Seriously?" she raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Since when has he been talking to you?"

"Since he decided he wants to go to premed apparently," he snorted.

"You're kidding me! Mark Sloan? Premed? God help us all if he ever becomes a doctor! What did he want from you?"

"Didn't care, didn't ask," Derek shrugged. "I didn't want to be late," he leaned in for her lips.

She grinned at him and stepped in front of him walking backwards as she gave him a quick peck. They didn't notice a young pair standing on the way and Meredith bumped into them accidentally.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized quickly.

"Watch where you're going, freaks!" the guy hissed contemptibly as he took them in.

"Hey, she said she was sorry, no need to be an ass," Derek frowned.

"Who did you call an ass?" the man straightened to his full height.

"Someone who deserved that," Derek answered calmly, not backing out.

They eyed each other for a lingering moment until the guy's girlfriend pulled at his arm nervously and dragged him back.

"Wow!" Meredith gasped in awe.

"Look, I'm sorry if you feel I'm hovering-" he didn't have a chance to finish as her lips crashed against his forcefully and her hands dived into his hair.

"Not mad?" he breathed out when they pulled away to catch air.

"You, fighting for my honor? Sexy," she mouthed with a smirk. "I think… I need to thank you properly," she whispered pressing herself suggestively against him.

"Ma's already back from work," he muttered looking around to check if they weren't attracting too much attention.

"I don't want to risk meeting mine. I guess I'll have to hold out that forty-minute ride to our place."

"Let's go," he murmured feeling himself tightening already. That bike ride would be an uncomfortable one.

"I just need to grab one thing," she said and led him to the section of the store with cosmetics and scanned the shelf quickly. "Here, we can get going."

"Mer," he frowned at the little box in her hand. "What is that?"

"Eh, hair dye," she shrugged.

"I know it's hair dye. But it's blonde hair dye…"

"I…" she bit her lip. "I figured it's time. I'll dye my hair until it returns to my natural color. We're graduating next year. I'm happy," she smiled at him widely. "I don't need to be a rebel anymore."

"You'll always be a rebel," he said taking her face in his hands lovingly. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

They went to the checkout when Meredith's eyes slid over the shelf for the last time.

"Der, you care letting me try something out with your hair?"

"Trying something out? With my hair?" he repeated in panic. "I love you, but I prefer my hair color to stay the same."

"I'm not talking about dying," she rolled her eyes. "Just… styling it up a bit?"

"No offence but… it's a girl thing," he eyed her nervously.

"Well, you have girly hair," she quipped and laughed. "Aw, come on. You know I love your hair; I love… to pull on it when you make me cum…" she licked her lips suggestively.

"Okay, do whatever you like," he gulped, staring at her lips.

"I promised I'd make her look cool," Evans smiled glancing at Meredith. He was shaving Katie Bryce's head before the surgery. In her deeply confused state of mind, she let herself be slightly surprised by the gesture. He didn't have to do that. The leading neurosurgeon didn't have to prep his patient himself. "Apparently, being a bald beauty queen is the worst thing that happens in the history of the world."

"Did you choose me for surgery because you want to sleep with me?" she asked bluntly.

His eyes hardened as he looked up at her. "I didn't believe it was an aneurysm. But I decided to check it out because I saw something in your eyes that I couldn't ignore. Deep conviction, almost certainty. That's what the best surgeons have. But if that confidence is weaker than what I presume to be other people's jealousy, don't bother coming to my OR."

Derek pushed his way into the crowded OR gallery. It seemed as though entire Seattle Grace came over to admire the famous neurogod. Rumor had it that Chief Webber intended to lure him to stay in the Rain City's best hospital.

At this moment, Derek didn't care much for the surgery. He managed to catch a glimpse of Meredith standing at the table holding the sucker in her steady hands. She was actually allowed to personally assist, he smiled with pride. He was aware of some talking among his colleagues, he had to listen to Sloan and Karev's rant for hours. He didn't' react, he didn't want to incite another fight as it would only add fuel to the gossip fire.

Meredith wasn't even speaking to him. She was avoiding him. She couldn't even look at him. Was he too rough last night? He didn't think so. It was just like during their wilder nights. Things between them were weird in general in the. He was usually too tired to ponder on it longer or he pretended he didn't notice it sometimes. He blamed it on the nervousness of the final stage of their internship. Two months, in less than two months, they would be able to forget about the hospital and enjoy the honeymoon. His pager beeped on his hip and he elbowed himself out of the gallery.