The entire first day at the hospital was spent filling out paperwork, getting to know her way around the hospital and observing surgeries and teaching methods. She was quite happy with the different departments and barring the relatively new heads, the doctors seemed competent.
She sought out Arizona Robbins, after observing one of her surgeries, and told her about hiring Alex. She was initially thrown by the bubbly and happy surgeon wearing heelys, but found her a pleasant and competent surgeon. She seemed open to the idea of Alex and assured Meredith she'd look his credentials up and make sure he was a good fit.
Meredith also made it a point to avoid Derek Shepherd, and when she went home exhausted that night, found Stella ready with a bottle of Tequila and laughter at her expense, having already been informed of her situation by Alex.
The next day, determined to get in the OR after a long time, she went to the hospital and immediately changed into scrubs. She had a patient transferred from Mass Gen for a nice, long tumor resection and looked forward to spending the majority of her day in peace.
She picked up the patient chart from the Nurse's station before rounding on her patient and ran into just the person she was booking for.
"Dr. Bailey, I have a pancreatic tumor resection this afternoon, how would you like to scrub in?" She asked the short resident, she had heard such glowing praise about.
Bailey, who had been assigning tasks to her interns, nodded and asked George to scrub in with them.
"Excellent, I'll see you in the patient room for rounds."Meredith left to get a cup of coffee before meeting the patient during rounds.
After rounding on her patient, Jen, she did some admin work that still remained and went down to the cafeteria to grab a quick bite before what was sure to be a long surgery.
She was hurrying down when she slammed into a solid person and almost fell.
"Fancy running into you" she heard Mark's familiar voice as he steadied her. "I've barely seen you at all. I mean I moved to Seattle for you and now you ignore me." He mocked with a wounded expression.
"You cannot imagine the amount of admin crap I'm supposed to handle. I swear I know more about budgets and insurance and crap than actual accountants. I'm seriously thinking about hiring someone just for paperwork." She grumbled running her sore chest.
"Then hire someone. The board will let you do anything, I heard you're already bringing in patients." He said lightly "and tonight you're coming out for a drink with me to Joe's let's see if I can out drink you yet."
"In your dreams. I've gotta go get some food before my surgery. Are you free to come with me?" She asked.
"I'll come by your surgery later, half the hospital will be in your gallery I'm sure. But right now I'm already late for a rhinoplasty." He said, turning to walk away.
Meredith watched him walk away and shouted "have fun with your nose job!" Before resuming her walk to get food.
She ended up never making it to the cafeteria as she had to call a code on another patient and rushed to reach her surgery on time. She made it to the scrub room a few minutes late and found Bailey scrubbing in.
"Hey Dr. Bailey, I look forward to working with you." She greeted pleasantly. Bailey continued to stare at her and she felt two foot tall under the resident's gaze. "Um ...I've heard you're the best General resident that this hospital has seen in a while."
Bailey fought the urge to correct her boss for saying um. Instead, she just nodded in response as she finished scrubbing in and headed to the OR. Bailey was a big believer in action over words, and had yet to see her Chief of Surgery in action and judge for herself if she lived up to expectation. She couldn't stand talentless fame.
Meredith was slightly puzzled by the residents' attitude, but decided to ignore it for the time being. She finished scrubbing in and entered the OR and felt a wave of calm confidence wash over her. Meredith Grey may ramble occasionally, drink too much and sleep with inappropriate men, but inside the OR, she was god.
She glanced up at the packed gallery, greeted her team, and made the first cut. She was clean, efficient and skilled and no one could doubt her talent. She asked the scrub nurses to switch on her favourite music and answered the occasional question that came her way. The high of surgery was back.
The gallery was packed with people trying to see the new chief in surgery. All residents and interns, not currently assigned to a surgery, were fighting for seats. Webber sat in the front row next to Addison and Burke, waiting for the surgery to start.
Meredith entered the OR and began and for a while, all talking stopped. Her movements in the OR were mesmerising and her talent undeniable. Eventually, conversation started back up, but it was clear most were still focused on the surgery.
Richard sighed to himself "isn't her surgery a thing of beauty?" He asked, addressing the two sat on either side of him.
"It's … something." Was Burke's response. He wasn't sure what to say.
"It's brilliant." Said Addison "how is she so good? No one is this good." She added, still watching.
"Meredith has always been talented. It's in her genes after all." Richard replied.
"Oh I know she's talented but she can't have much experience in surgery, Richard. I get that she's intelligent and innovative, but she's still so young she can't have so much practical experience." Said Addison.
And indeed, dressed in navy scrubs with a slightly ridiculous skull and bones surgical cap on her skinny frame, she looked like a teenager with a scalpel, swaying a little to the beat of the music even as she operated.
"I met Meredith when she was an intern. She was already better than most third year residents so I can imagine her skill just grew with her." Richard continued "she wins all these awards, Addie, because she really is good at this stuff."
Burke's pager went off just as Richard finished and he had to leave for a patient. Derek entered the gallery just as Burke exited, having just finished with another surgery.
"So what did I miss?" He said taking the seat Burke had just vacated.
"Nothing much, just me ranting in jealousy over our chief down there." She said with a mischievous smile as she looked pointedly at Derek's gobsmacked expression as he looked down at Meredith.
"Is she ...dancing?" He asked, barely unable to tear his gaze from the figure below to look at her surgical dexterity.
Addison nodded "Yup, and still showing us all up by being a better surgeon." She said with a smile towards Richard. "She really isn't going what you'd expect, huh? Especially with that scrub cap." She finished with a small laugh.
"The kid likes to wear her lucky scrub cap when she's nervous." Said Mark, who had just entered, from behind them as they turned to hear him. "Alex gifted it to her as a joke when she won her first Harper Avery, even though she was just a resident."
"I still cannot believe you never told us you knew her." Huffed Addison. Mark just smirked and went back to watching Meredith operate along with the rest of the gallery.
000
Meredith was scrubbing out when Bailey emerged from the OR. Bailey had watched Meredith, and found it bizarre that a woman younger than herself could be so talented.
But Meredith hadn't just been great at surgery, she had also been a good teacher, answering all questions in detail and allowing residents and interns to assist. While Bailey wasn't one to praise another 'overblown ego', she had to admit Meredith Grey surpassed expectations.
Letting go of her earlier reservations, she addressed Meredith "you were very impressive today, Dr. Grey" she conceded.
Meredith smiled, a little taken aback, but continued "you were really good in there, too Dr. Bailey. I um..certainly understand why everyone in this hospital says you're the best." She said just as Bailey finished drying her hands.
Bailey nodded a thank you and left with a spring in her step. Her surgical idol had certainly lived up to the hype and she was proud of the praise she had received. She was also amused at the woman who was so self assured in the OR but still a child outside.
Meredith was satisfied with herself. She had finally managed to reach a professional understanding with the challenging resident and truly believed she could be great one day. She had also completed her first surgery in days, suitably impressed her new hospital and managed to avoid a certain neurosurgeon all day again.
She pulled off her scrub cap and stared down at it with a smile. She'd worn it the first time as a joke, for her first surgery as an attending, but it soon became a comfort thing. It reminded her a bit of home when she was all the way across the country.
She was just about to leave the room to get changed and head out to Joe's to meet Mark when she glanced up to see the very person she had successfully avoided corner her.
"Dr. Shepherd" she muttered resignedly.
A/N I know I'm a horrible person to finish yet another chapter without giving you guys the MerDer meeting we've been waiting for but I swear I'll update really soon. I promise the next chapter will be the last about these days.
My chapter length is generally around 1200-1400 words and I want to keep it this short because otherwise I'll lose motivation writing massive chapters. This way I can have reviews as my motivation.
I've finally sat and planned out the basics of the story so I'll actually have a plot direction now. My basic storyline will be Mer having a much better support system and going through her issues like in the show. Obviously it'll be different but I'm trying to make it fun. This is the end of all real information so you can skip the rest of you want to.
Also I can't believe I've actually written this much. English is my second language and the most I've ever written wasn't more than a 1000 words. So this is quite literally insane. Also please excuse the grammatical errors. I can actually write now without getting exhausted after a hundred words and I'm writing for fun.
Also I have no idea about any medical terms or surgeries or things, and I'd really like to add some of it to the story to make it seem more realistic. I might end up using surgeries from later seasons now just for the sake of it so please don't get mad. Also, if anyone has suggestions for specific surgeries from specific episodes please share it'll be so helpful.
Thank you for reading! R&R!