Chapter 7: It's Not Somebody Whose Seen the Light
Meredith Grey stood outside the doors to Seattle Grace knowing exactly what awaited her inside. Gossip. The way gossip traveled around the hospital she was sure that everyone already knew about what had happened between her and Derek last night.
"Meredith, are you coming?" George and Callie looked back at her.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute, just go ahead without me."
"Ok" George took Callie's hand and walked inside.
Standing outside Meredith looked up at the suddenly imposing building and thought about whether she should be better off faking sick and staying home. The constant gossip had hurt when she and Derek and first gotten together, and even more so when he had chosen to go back to Addison, but both times she had pulled herself together as much as possible and gone through these doors to face the music. This time however, she wasn't sure she could.
"Meredith?" She turned around to see Christina walking up to her.
"I thought you'd be with Burke?"
"I was but Bailey threw me out around 3 this morning told me to go home and get some sleep. Come on, we've got rounds."
"I can't."
"What?"
"I can't go in. I just can't"
"Why the hell not- what hell went on last night!"
"I slept with Derek."
"You're kidding. When, why?"
"He was looking at me, and I left the dance to get away from him, but he followed me to this exam room. We fought, then he kissed me, and then we had sex- really, mind-blowing good sex."
"You really like to make your life complicated, don't you."
"Christina!"
"Look I'm sorry, I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm worried about Burke- can you believe that I really am loosing my edge. Look, think of this like ripping off a band-aid the quicker you get in and get it over with the less it will hurt."
"Thanks. So how's Burke doing?"
"Not great. He's having trouble with shaking in his hand, and he's worried that he won't be able to get back on top of his game."
"He's Burke, he'll get through it."
"I know that, but try telling him. Geez, would you listen to us, we're a bunch of saps now. Let's just get in there."
Walking in Meredith could feel the eyes on her and wanted to shrink out of sight.
"I'm going to go see Burke."
"Okay" She wanted to yell at Christina not to leave her on her own to face everyone, but instead she took a deep breath and walked into the locker room. She quietly slipped over to her locker before anyone could see her.
"You know what I heard"
"What!"
"I heard they've been going at it in the on-call room for months."
"Oh that's old news! You know what I've heard? I heard she's pregnant and leaving the program."
That was it! Meredith was no longer nervous, now she was pissed. She slammed her locker closed and walked over to the three gossiping interns.
"Alright you know what, you all need to get a life! What happens in my life- it's none of your business. But for your information, no I am not pregnant or leaving the program. And it would be great if you just all shut your mouths and stop talking about things you have no clue about."
They sat there and stared at her for a moment. Then very quickly got up and left the locker room leaving Meredith alone.
Addison closed the door behind her from Derek's office and took a deep breath. She was surprised, as broken as she thought she would feel, what she really felt was relief and a sense of absolution. That was, of course, until she ran into someone she really didn't need to see right now.
"What the hell are you doing here!"
Mark's rakish grin played upon his face as he walked up to her.
"And here I was thinking you'd be the one person in this hospital who was happy to see me. Don't tell me you and Derek are still playing at happy couple."
"Mark I'm really not ready to talk about this- particularly not with you." She began to walk past him when he grabbed her arm.
"What happened?" The smile had dropped from his face and he looked deeply into her eyes.
"He- I- We just ended it." She pushed her hair behind her ears and swiped at her eyes. Everything she had been holding in the past few months finally poured out of her. She didn't care any more why he was here. He was here, and he loved her. "You were right he doesn't love me any more, he loves Meredith. I'm such an idiot. I knew things were over but I stuck around. I guess I felt like I deserved the punishment, or- I don't know- I thought the way we used to feel about each other would still be there, but it isn't. He doesn't love me, and maybe, I don't really love him anymore." The tears were falling from her eyes and she couldn't stop them.
"Tissue?"
"Thanks" She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "You never told me what you were doing here anyway."
"I'm here for a special consult. There's a baby with a harelip and cleft palet the parents want to get rid of it."
"So you'll be leaving eventually."
"Actually, the chief wants to expand the plastics offering here so he's asked me if I'd consider moving to Seattle.
"You're joking." This was not good. Mark moving here would make things that much more uncomfortable for her. What she really needed right now was time to heal, not Mark dogging her footsteps.
"Nope, I'm here, for good. It'll be just like old times, well almost, seeing as my best-friend still hates my guts. Speaking of the devil-"
Derek was walking down the hall and looked up from his chart to see Mark standing with Addison. He glared in their direction, not wanting to cause another scene by punching the guy again, turned and headed in the opposite direction hoping to get some sort of explanation from the Chief.
