Meredith leaned back in the bar stool, running her finger along the condensated rim of her glass. She liked the guy who worked the bar here. Joe, he had said his name was. He was easy to talk to, which she appreciated, because lately she'd had trouble talking to anyone.
Which was why she was unhappy when, completely unwarranted, a stranger claimed the stool beside her and ordered her a refill of tequila.
"Who are you?" she grumbled as the man made himself comfortable.
He flashed her a winning smile. "I was about to ask you the same."
Meredith laughed, dry and humorless. "I'm just a girl in a bar."
The man guffawed and threw back his beer. "Then I'm just a guy in a bar."
Surprisingly, conversation with the stranger flowed freely from there. He was just as easy if not easier to speak with than the bartender was.
It definitely helped that within an hour, she was so drunk the man's beautiful face was swimming in front of her.
He pulled a cell phone out of his jeans pocket. "I'll call a cab. We definetely need a cab," he slurred, causing Meredith to giggle hysterically. "Where do you live?"
Meredith scoffed. "You are not coming home with me."
"Who said that's what I had in mind?" The stranger waggled his eyebrows at her (he was pretty sure he'd told her his name at one point. Maybe a few times. She was still drawing a blank), and Meredith almost fell off her stool laughing.
That was how they'd ended up on the hardwood floor in her mother's living room with a single comforter surrounded by dust covered boxes.
The sex was excellent. And not just because of the tequila.
They laid there, panting and staring up at the ceiling, legs still twisted around one another.
"I got divorced three months ago," the stranger breathed.
"I just got back from Iraq," was Meredith's reply.
He twisted his head to glance at her. "Really?"
Meredith smirked. "Hey, I'm just your rebound, remember? Mr. Recently Divorced doesn't get to ask any personal questions."
Grinning, he lunged forward and kissed her again.
XX
Meredith both loved and hated change. She certainly didn't enlist in the army because she was opposed to it. She did so because of it.
Before she'd left for Dartmouth, her mother was forgetting her keys and missing appointments. When she returned for spring break, she was refrigerating cereal and confusing the couch and the coffee table and asking where Thatcher was.
Meredith knew herself, and she knew she wasn't the type to sidle up to the bedside of her ailing mother for however many years.
Maybe she would have been if Ellis Grey wasn't Ellis Grey. Maybe.
So, a nursing home it was. A nice one, back in Seattle, because that's where Meredith had always planned on doing her internship.
Now her mother and her early onset Alzehemeir's felt like dead weight chained around her ankle.
She considered abandoning her mother in the city and going back to work at Mass Gen. They'd already offered her a spot in their program. It wouldn't be hard.
But no. The nursing home had a telephone and they could reach her in New England. Whine and beg her to come be accountable for her mother. She couldn't do it.
All things considered, and out of any other options, the next day she drove herself to the recruitment station, figuring she would make a good trauma surgeon as any.
And she was. An excellent one, even, or at least that's what Stevie had always told her.
At any rate, Meredith Grey was well equipped to handle almost any unexpected scenario that could possibly be thrown her way. Multiple GSWs. Shrapnel to the skull. Locating a missing limb in the field.
Waking up on the floor next to a stranger was an exception, apparently.
"Oh, my god!" she screeched, jumping to her feet. Realizing she with horror she was naked, she yanked the comfotor out from underneath her guest and wrapped it around herself.
He blinked up at her and raked a hand through his stupidly well-placed hair. "Good morning to you too, Meredith." he grumbled.
Meredith rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Good morning -"
It occurred to her she had no idea what his name was.
"Derek," he finished, smirking slightly. He stood up and began rooting around for his boxers. "Although last night it was Mr. Recently Divorced."
"Oh, my god," Meredith groaned again as she felt her face heat up. Derek laughed.
"So, how do you like your eggs -"
"I don't have time for anything like that," Meredith insisted, backing up towards the doorway. "I'm late for work. It was very nice meeting you, Derek. Even if I can't remember anything, I'm sure you were very good."
Derek lifted a brow. "Well, I do remember, and I can confirm that I was." he grinned mischeviously. "So were you."
His words barely registered. "Yes. Thank you," Meredith said hurriedly, whisking herself up the stairs.
XX
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