When Meredith awoke a few hours later, two thoughts ran through her mind almost simultaneously. The first was that she could barely open her eyes and she wondered why. Then the second, more painful thought crossed her mind. The memory of Derek, and what had transpired the previous evening. Now she knew why she was having difficulties with her eyes. They were swollen from extensively crying herself to sleep early this morning. She wondered why she had to wake back up so soon to this realization. She had only been asleep for a few hours and didn't have to be back at the hospital until 4 tomorrow morning. She wanted to sleep away the pain until that was no longer a possibility. As the minutes passed she sensed that that moment had arrived because her body would not allow sleep to return. Finally Meredith gave in to this fact and stumbled to the bathroom to find a warm, wet washcloth for her swollen, encrusted eyes.

As Meredith lay with the cloth over her eyes flashbacks of last night at the hospital with Derek and his wife zipped by in her mind. What was she going to do? She knew she would have to face the music sooner rather than later, so she got up, brushed her teeth and hair, and went downstairs to start the inevitable task of facing this mess she had gotten herself into, and unfortunately was going to have to get herself out of.

As she entered the kitchen, only Izzie was there, baking up some new dish and having her morning coffee. Meredith quickly walked behind her to get to the coffee maker. Now that she was down there, she didn't know what to say. Izzie spoke first, "Good morning Mer, I didn't even know you were here. I thought maybe you guys stayed over at Derek's last night. We probably need to make more coffee."

Meredith just responded with, "Is George here?"

"I don't think so, he had a hot date with his girlfriend last night. He was still pretty upset over the whole Alex thing, but I guess he still wants to see her."

"Oh, well…Derek's not here either, so I guess its just us girls. I'll make more coffee later if we need it."

"Wow, that hasn't happened in a while. Are you two finally starting to get sick of seeing each other constantly?"

"I wouldn't say that exactly."

"So do you have any plans for today?" Izzie asked.

"Honestly Izzie, I'm trying not to think about today."

For the first time Izzie turned to look at Meredith.

"Mer, is something up? What's going on?

"I'd really rather not talk about it right now, but I know I'm going to have to eventually, and eventually soon, so I may as well start now. Atleast you're my roommate, my friend."

The tone of her voice told Izzie that something WAS up, now she just wondered what it was.

"I'm not sure how exactly to say this Izzie," Meredith started, "but I met somebody last night."

Izzie's mind quickly went to work with this piece of information. Meredith 'met somebody last night', who? And what does this person have to do with her strange mood right now?

"Who…who did you meet last night?"

"Her name was Addison Shepard."

Still not making the connection, Izzie asked, "Okay, so who is this Addison Shepard?"

"She introduced herself as Derek's wife."

Just as Meredith spoke the words, George walked though the kitchen door.

"His What?", Asked Izzie and George in unison.

"You heard me right, his wife, Derek has a wife!"

"Oh my Gosh Mer, I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say. What did he say to you?" Izzie inquired.

"Damn him! He actually made the point once to tell me that he was not using you! What a Jerk! How could he do this to you?" George was outraged.

"I didn't stick around last night to hear his explanations or excuses, but I can't think of any right now that would ever be able to excuse such deception. I know we'll have to talk eventually since we work together; I'm just not ready for that. For that matter, I'm not ready for tomorrow, for Bailey, Derek or Addison." Now Meredith was back to fighting the tears again.

Izzie asked "Is there anything at all we can do for you? This just has to be a terrible shock for you."

George walked over to Meredith and held her in a hug as she began to cry again. "We'll help you get through this, I promise."

Izzie joined them, "Yeah, don't worry Mer, we'll face tomorrow together."