For Meredith, the next several days passed in a blur trying to convince Dr. Wyatt she wasn't a public safety risk. The woman was impossible. After two sessions she had declared she was crippled with PTSD and prescribed her 200 milligrams of a drug that would destroy her sex drive.

Other than that, Meredith spent her time catching up on charts and toting Tina around the hospital. Her favorite thing to do was to look into the nursery and try to guess the names of the babies.

"That one's Billy," Tina said decisively. Meredith grunted as she leaned forward to place her chubby hands on the glass. For a three year old, she was heavy.

"I think Billy is a girl," Meredith said idly.

"How do you know?"

"She's wearing a pink hat. See? Pink is for girls, blue is for boys."

"Oh." Tina said. She paused for a moment. "Her name is still Billy."

"Ok," Meredith laughed.

"Well, this is certainly different, Lieutenant," came a gruff voice from behind them.

Meredith felt her blood turn to ice. No one had referred to her as Lieutenant since she had returned - she had almost forgotten she had ever held the title in the first place. Slowly, she turned, still holding Tina close to her.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw who it was. "Major Hunt!"

They were never in the same unit, but had responded to a few of the same raids. Owen Hunt. He was there when -

Meredith blinked and held out a hand. "Wow - it's good to... what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." His eyes drifted to the pocket of her lab coat, where her name was embroidered. "But I guess I don't have to."

Meredith grinned down at her coat. "Oh. Yeah, I work here now. At a normal hospital." she shrugged. "Its kind of boring."

Hunt barked out a laugh. It was then that Meredith noticed there was blood on his face. "You're bleeding!"

Hunt reached up and touched the side of his face - it came away red. "I am." he said offhandedly.

Meredith shook her head and stepped closer to get a better look. "Its deep. You need stitches." She looked at him incredulously. "What the hell, Hunt? What happened?"

He shrugged. "A day in the life of a good samaritan."

It dawned on Meredith that the halls were oddly vacant. Her eyes widened. "There's a trauma in the pit, isn't there?"

"Multiple MVC." He tilted his head to the side. "Which is why I was so surprised to find you here. I thought you were a trauma junkie."

Meredith groaned and readjusted Tina on her hip. "Do you trust me to do your sutures?"

Hunt's eyes fell to Tina. "Whose is that?"

"Not that. She." Meredith grumbled. "She's my friend's, Cristina's. And she's very heavy. Here." she clumsily transferred Cristina's daughter into Hunt's arms. "Lets go find a nce exam room, shall we?"

[]

"I want the full story here. You owe me that," Meredith grumbled as she began cleaning out the cut underneath Hunt's eye with betadine.

He shrugged. "There was a pileup on I-5."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "So of course you got involved."

"You should have seen it, Grey. I was in my element. It was like I was back there."

"I'm sure you were," Meredith mumbled. "I'm about to start, ok?"

"Go for it."

They sat in silence for a few moments as Meredith deftly sutured his face. It took every ounce of her mental energy to keep her fingers from shaking. He had been there. She wondered if he had seen it.

"You know, its nice," Hunt said suddenly. He turned to Meredith and grinned. "You're returning the favor."

She froze. "What?"

Hunt's brow furrowed. "We've both helped each other." When Meredith didn't respond, he shifted so that he was facing her. "I operated on you. After you got shot."

"Oh!" Meredith choked out, trying to act as if this wasn't news to her. In reality, when she swallowed it felt like sandpaper and it was becoming increasingly more difficult to catch her breath.

Hunt frowned. "You didn't know."

She shook her head vehemently. "No! I didn't! But this is great!" her voice was definitely a few octaves higher than usual. "You… performed a very nice surgery. Good job. Saved my life."

She glanced at Tina sitting on the counter, completely preoccupied with a jar of tongue depressors. She thought about the scar on her stomach and the strange emptiness she felt, constantly. Recalled pounding on Derek's chest and screaming about how she would never be able to have children.

She had blamed Derek.

Dazed, she sat down heavily on the exam table. Hunt stared at her. "Grey?"

She was overwhelmed by the terrifying image of herself on a makeshift operating table. Hunt had the scalpel, and he was scooping out her insides.

"Grey?"

"I… need to go," Meredith mumbled, getting to her feet. She grabbed Tina and was out the door without ever finishing Hunt's sutures.

[]

PLOT TWIST. Expecting lotsa reviews for that one, folks