MerHayes Christmas

Things had been easy going for Meredith and Cormac. They'd gone out for a drink together, ended up sitting for lunch at the same table most days and had spent countless hours across an operating table from each other. The entire hospital could tell that there was something going on but no one said anything. Meredith's sisters couldn't get any information out of her, she just smirked at them and walked away.

Truth be told, Meredith wasn't entirely sure where she stood with Cormac. Sure, they spent a lot of time together and he was flirty with her. Very flirty. He'd begun to slip his hand into hers when they walked to their cars after work but that was where it ended. Mer hadn't wanted to push him. She knew that he hadn't been with anyone since Abigail had passed away and whilst she was pretty sure of her feeling for him, she knew that Cormac was probably facing a lot of conflict in his own head if he even had any feelings for her.

Meredith groaned internally as she heard the carol singers next to the coffee cart that was located just outside of the hospital. She had nothing against Christmas, she loved seeing the way her kids faces lit up when they ran down the stairs to see the presents Santa left them. Carol singers were something else though, Meredith was pretty sure they came for the depth of hell just to annoy her for a month. Grabbing her coffee, she briskly walked pass the group as they carried on their rendition of Silent Night.

As she walked through the hospital entrance, Meredith's instantly caught the Christmas decorations that had been put up overnight. Tinsel framed the doorways; a large Christmas tree had been put up and decorated and the nurses' station looked as though an elf had just thrown up on it.

"Morning, Grey." A smooth, deep Irish accent spoke from behind her.

Mer turned to the voice, hair flying around her as she came face-to-face with the gorgeous paeds doctor who had been taking up more of her thoughts than she would care to admit. "Hayes, you're here early." She was pretty sure he had mentioned that he wouldn't be coming in until later that day.

"One of my patients had some complication early this morning, I needed to come in to operate on him again. Poor lad only had surgery yesterday. Looks like he'll be spending Christmas here."

Meredith winced, "Was the surgery okay though?'

"Aye, he's in recovery now but it's going to take some time."

Meredith could feel the glances of her co-workers, as they tried to listen in on the conversation between the two head's of department. Not wanting Cormac to feel uncomfortable, she tried to bring an end to their conversation.

"Okay, well I'm going to go now," she awkwardly pointed over to the elevators. "So, I'm just gonna…" Meredith swivelled on her heel and quickly made her way over to the elevator, thankful that the doors opened. She stepped in, cursing at herself for being so awkward.

Just as the doors were about to close, Cormac slid through them and stood in front of Meredith, facing her. "Do you want to tell me what that was about?" He asked her.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Mer took a long sip of her coffee.

"You know exactly what I'm going on about, Grey. What happened that made you run from me?"

Meredith heaved a sigh; she didn't want Cormac thinking that he was the issue here. "It wasn't you…" she began reluctantly.

"Then who?" He asked, not letting up. God, this man was almost as stubborn as she was. Almost.

"No one, not really. It's just," Meredith threw her head back in frustration. "The nurses, the doctors. They were just staring at us, trying to listen to us."

Cormac chuckled and that threw Meredith completely off-guard. He was a private man, didn't really like many people knowing about his private life so she thought he would have hated other people trying to pry into their business.

"It wasn't like we were talking about something scandalous, Grey." He smirked at her, making Meredith's heart beat that little bit faster.

Meredith hit his arm, "I know that. It's just that this isn't the first-time people have tried to listen in to our conversations and I didn't want you to feel like…" she trailed off.

"Like what?"

"Like there was any pressure. People talk and I didn't want them thinking…"

"Thinking that there might be something going on between us?" Cormac finished off, raising an eyebrow.

Meredith's stomach dropped a little, maybe she had read this all wrong. Maybe Cormac didn't like her at all. The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Meredith let out a quick sight of relief and skirted around Cormac on the General Surgery ward. "I'll see you later." She quietly muttered to him, leaving him in the elevator wondering what had just happened.

For the rest of her morning, Meredith tried to push the thoughts of Cormac Hayes to the back of her mind. She wasn't in the best mood after their conversation, feeling stupid that she thought he would feel like that about her. She knew she was a walking mess. Her entire life was messy. She came with far too much baggage; it was more than just a dead husband. There was the rest of her family to deal with, and three young kids that needed her to be there for them. Why would Cormac want that mess in his life? He was trying to bring up two teenage boys by himself and that wasn't an easy task. He didn't need any more complications in his life and Meredith was just one big complication.

Meredith was just about the head to her office to sort out next week's rota when her pager buzzed. She saw that Cormac needed a consult on the paediatric ward and immediately looked around to see if any of the other attendings were around that could go instead. With no one else there to push the responsibility to, Mer knew she was just going to have to pull herself together and go do this consult. Hopefully, it wouldn't take long and wouldn't end up being awkward with Cormac. Even if he didn't feel that way about her, Meredith didn't want to lose him as a friend. He was a good person and they had been through a similar trauma in their lives. Talking to him about it, sharing the same struggles, it helped her cope with being a single parent and a widow.

As she walked into the paeds ward, Meredith saw Cormac leaning against the nurses' station and couldn't help but stare. Feeling someone's gaze on him, Cormac looked up and smiled at Meredith, who tried to fight against the blush rushing towards her cheeks. He walked towards her, smile still on his face with his hands in the pockets of his white lab coat.

"You got my page then?"

Meredith nodded, "Yeah, so which patient did you need a consult for?" She tried to keep her tone neutral and professional.

"This way," Hayes motioned with his head towards a room and Meredith followed just behind him. He came to an abrupt stop outside of a room which had the lights off.

"Uh," Meredith began, confusion written all over her face.

"Shh," Cormac turned to face her, the smirk still not wiped off of his face.

"Hayes, what is going on?" Meredith pressed him.

"Grey, could you just shut up for a second?" He teased before taking a step towards her. His hand cupped her face, and he ran thumb over her cheek.

"Hayes," she whispered, wondering what the hell had gotten into him.

"I don't care if people talk, Meredith. I don't care if they know as long as you know that I want to be with you." He looked up to the ceiling and Meredith followed his gaze, seeing mistletoe hanging from the doorframe. Meredith looked back at Cormac who grinned at her before leaning into for a kiss, both of them knowing that the entire ward was watching them, and the rest of the hospital would find out by the rest of the day.