Thoughts are in italics :)
Line breaks may be either POV shifts or just time jumps/breaks. Hope that makes enough sense in the context of the story. We are working on our writing skills.
I probably shouldn't be starting another story right now because I have one that I mad need to update. Hope people like gay Grey's stories.
Meredith was tired. She was tired of unpacking her (admittedly few) belongings in her mother's old, dust-filled house. She wanted to get out for a while, there have been very few times in the past ten years when tequila hadn't been able to lift her spirits. She snorted to herself. Spirits lift my spirit.
She was now at the Emerald City Bar, across the street from her place of future employment, and Meredith was tired of the man who had been staring at her. Staring at her and talking to her. All night. This was exhausting. She watched as he opened his mouth again, in an attempt to sway her into falling into his dumb McDreamy arms.
"You said that you were just a girl in a bar, and me, well I'm just a guy in a bar. What do you say we take ourselves out of the bar? Find out what girls and guys can do together?"
Meredith rolled her eyes at his awful flirting. She knew how her next move could backfire on her. He would either leave her be or become ten times more obnoxious. But she was drunk and couldn't care anymore.
"I may just be a girl in a bar to you, Sir, but I am in fact a girl in a bar who likes other girls. Not you. With your stupid boy penis."
At the end of her declaration, Meredith finishes her drink. The man she was talking to looked shocked at first, before he once again got a smarmy look in his eyes.
"Well, girl at the bar, you just made a lot of assumptions about me. How do you know about this hypothetical penis if you haven't seen it. That's not very inclusive of you."
While he fake-pouts at her (definitely faked, as she can see mischief glinting in his eyes), she decides to leave. Going home to the empty rooms is better than staying here with this man who was harassing her.
"Joe, can I close out my tab?"
Meredith slurs a little, though she definitely wasn't as drunk as she had wanted to be by the time she left. She sighed. Men are exhausting.
Joe called her a cab and waited outside with her to keep insistent-bar-man away from her, which she appreciated. When the cab arrived, Meredith smiled at Joe.
"I'll see you around. Thanks, Joe."
The next morning, Meredith considered herself lucky she had left the bar early. With almost no hangover, her first day as an intern at Seattle Grace Hospital was going to go much smoother than it otherwise might have gone. As she took her first sip of coffee, Meredith toasted the guy from last night. Here's to you, creep from the bar. I'm gonna have a kickass first day.
As Meredith rushed around the locker room, she met a couple of the other interns. Well, technically she had met them earlier, but she had been drinking. When they got their resident assignments, her co-budding-surgeons all reintroduced themselves. She felt an immediate bond with Cristina, with whom she snarked to about the puppy-like boy and the model who were also assigned to their unit. This could be fun.
This was anything but fun. Her first case was a mystery. A seizing, jabbering beauty queen mystery. Who honestly liked rhythmic gymnastics?
Also she was lost. Meredith didn't know how she got lost, but she did. It's not like you grew up in this hospital or anything, God, Mere get it together.
After getting in the correct elevator and pressing the button for the correct floor, Meredith (with her charge, Carry? No, Katie.) finally relaxes. Until the creepy man from the bar gets on the lift. And he's wearing a lab coat.
"Oh crap."
The man just smiles at her.
"Hello girl from the bar. I thought about it, and wanted to tell you that I could be a lesbian, too. After all, I like women, right?"
Meredith turns red, whether from embarrassment or anger she isn't sure but she knows she wants to slap that stupid smile off his face. Knowing that he was at least a resident gave her pause though, and she didn't respond. He waves to her before he gets off at the next floor and Meredith is left alone with Katie, who she is decidedly not looking at.
"How can you say no to him? He's dreamy! Wait, does that mean you're actually like, a lesbian-lesbian? Is that why you don't care about my pageant? You just like Nascar or fishing or something? Can I switch to that blonde doctor? She probably wouldn't spend 15 minutes lost in the basement and also she looks like she likes make-up and she would probably just be nicer to me overall than a dyke like you who-"
"Katie! Shut up."
It definitely wasn't proper bedside manner to yell at your patients, especially when they were stupid teenagers who were scared and had mystery seizures. But Meredith couldn't take another second of her talking.
For the rest of the week, Meredith tries to avoid Derek (creepy bar guy). And she tries to keep it on the down-low. She didn't want to be known as the intern who chased an attending, because of course he was an attending and not just a resident and of course he had to have his sights on her and she was miserable. She considered confiding in Cristina, but was worried her new friend would go to Dr. Bailey about the harassment. And what if I want to go into neurosurgery? I can't burn that bridge before I even start.
Izzy (the model) and George (the puppy) move in and things are alright. George is so focused on convincing her he's not gay that she is beginning to worry he might be a little homophobic. Hopefully it's just a little crush that will work itself out once he realizes he would ever have a shot with her. Izzy on the other hand has been walking around in her underwear and it's been putting both Meredith and George in a tough spot. Meredith didn't normally go for blondes, but the girl was hot. Dr. Bethany Whisper, she could make Meredith feel a lot better.
No! Bad Meredith. We aren't fetishizing our roommates and we aren't looking for a girlfriend. Maybe we could all go out to Joe's and I can find a girl for the night? It'll also show George that he needs to focus his attention elsewhere.
Meredith wasn't too worried about George becoming creepy about her sexuality. If he did she could just call his mother and Mrs. O'Malley would straighten him out. When Meredith suggests a night of drinking at Joe's, she is met with approval and the three interns decide to head out right after work, since it was a Friday and they would have tomorrow to recover.
At the bar, the three interns are taking shots when Meredith notices Dr. Shepherd on the phone, seemingly in a heated discussion. She sneaks over, as sneakily as a girl who is four shots in can, and listens in to his conversation. Maybe she can get some blackmail on him and he'll leave her alone.
"- no. Don't come out here. I have a good thing going, there's this blonde. She's got knock-out tits and we're going out. She and I hooked up at the bar and then the next day it turns out she's an intern. You know the type. Here she comes now, hey babe, we're going on the ferry boats tomorrow right? Gotta have a fun weekend before I pull you to help with that craniotomy Monday morning. Bye, gotta go."
He smirks at her and pulls her closer to him by the wrist.
"I'm serious you know Mere, you can scrub in on the craniotomy Monday if you spend tomorrow with me. Even part of tomorrow. Nothing else, and if you decide after our date that you don't want to date me all will be forgotten. Deal?"
When he extends his hand, Meredith shakes it. Before her drunk mind catches up to her and realizes that A) she just pimped herself out for a surgery and B) Who was he talking about her with? Fuck.
Derek's POV:
Maybe it wasn't ethical or right that he coerced the intern into going on a date with him. But he hadn't lied to her, he would back off a little if she truly didn't want to see him after this date. He just had to make sure they had the perfect time, and that he could get the perfect photo to rub in his dirty ex's face. She probably thinks I'm making things up with Meredith just to spite her.
So far they have seemed to have a lovely time. Derek was a gentleman and Meredith was polite, if a little cool towards him. They enjoyed a nice lunch on the ferry, and now he was watching Meredith let loose a little, her hands braced against the ship's railing as she leaned forward, face in the wind. He could almost picture the carefree smile she had on, except for the fact that it wasn't aimed in his direction. This is the best I'll probably get.
Derek snaps the photo, texting it to his wife with the caption "The only thing she likes riding more than the boats is me" with a winking face emoji. He was letting the intern scrub in on a surgery. That was more than enough to make up for his dragging her reputation through the mud in New York. It wouldn't matter.
Addison's POV:
"Damn it."
Her husband (estranged husband, but still her husband) hung up the phone and she decided she needed to go out there. She now knew he was in Seattle, thanks to Richard, and also Derek's flaunting of the stupid ferry boat date he was scheduling with his intern.
She was the reason he had left, sure, but it hadn't entirely been her fault. Her and Derek had always had an open understanding of their marriage. Infidelity had always been a factor in their relationship. She didn't know what possessed her to get emotional about Mark. Or maybe it was the fact he was Derek's best friend that crossed the line. But Derek hadn't felt shame in his pursuit of her best friend, Naomi, who was also married. She and Derek had a good thing though and she didn't want to lose him. They've run a successful practice together for over a decade and then he just leaves? For Seattle?
As for the intern, well, Addison would challenge her. She knew she was hot. She also knew how intimidating she could be – she didn't earn the nickname "Satan" for being all gooey and soft. For all she knew though the blonde was fictitious, invented to drive Addison crazy. Derek didn't date. He liked sex and he liked a lot of different women to give it to him but he didn't go on ferry boats and he didn't usually like inexperienced girls. Though the power imbalance of the situation could've drawn him in, enticed him. What can he get from that child? He's at least ten years older than her, God her husband would hit on anything with a vagina and a pulse.
Addison shook herself out of her thoughts and ordered her plane ticket from New York City to Seattle. She wanted her husband back, and if she couldn't have him then she at least wanted back her friend and business partner, and she was willing to trek out west to fetch him.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––slight time jump––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
When Addison was boarded on her flight, she once again zoomed into the photo Derek had texted her. A small blonde woman looking out at the water from the ferry boat's bow. Her hair was wind-tousled and she was dressed in tight jeans and a light coat, braving against the cool breeze. Addison frowned. She had convinced herself that the lusty intern story was made up, but it seemed her husband was trying to date this woman and Addison was not happy. They didn't "date" people. She had messed up with Mark but Derek had quit spending any significant amount of time with her. Grabbing a coffee together on their mid-morning break was not enough to sustain a marriage, even one that was mostly a sham like theirs. They had rules and she had broken them by spending time with Mark and not just fucking him, but Derek is the one who sent Mark over on hastily cancelled date nights and anniversaries, birthdays. Derek was the one who quit coming home for their once-a-week "have sex with your spouse" night. Maybe she could let him go, she just needed him to tie off the loose business ends. Addison sighed and asked the steward for some advil, she had a nasty headache forming and this was not a quick flight. Addison closes her eyes, remembering the last time she had been "unfaithful" and gotten involved with another, though her then-fiance had known nothing about it. And how badly that had ended.
/flashback/
Addison looked at the sobbing girl on her bed. This didn't feel nearly as good as the past weeks had. But she was due to get married next month and she wasn't about to throw it all away for a vacation fling.
"Renny. Ren please. Why can't we try state side? I just live in Boston. It's a 4-hour train ride away from the city. We can still be together, I only have two years of school left. Please, I love you. Why can't-"
"Stop it! Meredith you don't love me. You don't even know me. We spent a month fucking in London and that's it."
Meredith cries harder at Addison's cruelty. The redhead took a deep breath in, releasing it slowly. She walked over to the younger girl, sitting next to her on Addison's hotel bed.
"Merry, it's not your fault okay. I didn't let you know me."
Addison places her hand on Meredith's thigh, exposed by her mini-shorts. She rubs her fingers across the skin absentmindedly, not prepared for Meredith to jerk away from her as if she'd been burned or cut.
"Adrianne, you stop it. You ca-can't just hurt me and then touch me like I'm fine or li-li-like I'm yours. You don't want me? Then stop! Touching! Me!"
Meredith shouts the last words, curling into a ball at the head of the bed, hyperventilating now. Addison sighs, scooting closer to the wreck of a girl.
"Merry, you're going to be alright."
Addison calmly places a hand on Meredith's back, rubbing circles in it that should have been soothing but just seemed to upset the blonde even more.
"I'm going back to New York and I'm getting married, Meredith. I have a fiance and he is the right man for me and regardless of how you feel, we are strangers. Letting yourself get emotional with me was a mistake. My real name isn't even Adrianne, that's my second name. You do not know me."
The calm way Addison spoke contrasted deeply with the pain in her chest as she dealt blows continuously to the already broken woman. I need to drive this home so she doesn't come looking for me.
"I don't even like women, Merry. You were hot and my boyfriend loves hearing me tell all about the conquests I make. How I pin down sad girls looking for love and fuck them until they think I care about them and then I go riding off into the sunset with De- my actual love. I'm sorry you thought it was real."
Meredith falls silent at this and Addison pulls her hair back out of her face to reveal the emptiness there. It was done. Meredith wouldn't come looking for her in New York.
Addison places a kiss against the catatonic woman's temple, the salty tang of her tears clinging to her lips. Addison walks out of her hotel room for the last time, her last image of the girl she loved was one filled with pain and hurt that she had caused. This was for the best.
Addison strutted into Seattle Grace. She hadn't thought about Merry in a long time and she was a little shaken by the vivid daydream. She hoped the girl was doing alright and had found someone to pick up the pieces Addison had broken her into. Right now though, Addison had other issues than decade-old guilt. Addison greeted Dr. Webber before having a nurse show her to OR3, her husband's operating room of choice. He should be getting out of the craniotomy soon and she was going to rip him and the blonde a new one.
It seemed the surgery ended sooner than expected as the only ones left in the room were those on scut who were disposing of biohazards and sanitizing the work table. She stormed back towards the cafeteria, determined to catch the intern, all the better in a public situation. She quickly descended the stairs, seeing Derek standing close to a girl, trapping her against the nurse's station.
Addison saunters up behind them, pushing Derek to the side and grabbing the blonde by her shoulders.
"So you're the girl that's been sleeping with my husband."
"Renny?"
Addison meets the intern's eyes before her own widen in shock. No no no no no no. This can't be her-
"Merry? Addie, are you seriously telling me your little british girl is Meredith Grey?"
Derek weighs in, pushing himself and Addison further into Meredith's personal space. Meredith looks overwhelmed before her eyes roll up into her head and she collapses, hitting her head on the nurse's station before either of the Dr. Shepherds could catch her.
"Help! I need a stretcher over here!"
Addison cradles Meredith's head in her hands, all the time feeling like the world is crashing down around her.