Chapter 6: You Owe Me

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Meredith opened her eyes, abruptly woken by an energetic knocking on the door. Not the practice door, that would have to be the doorbell. Someone was knocking on her bedroom door, someone meaning Izzie. No one else could be at her door at… she groggily gazed at her bedside clock, at 6 fucking a.m. in the morning.

The knocking went on.

"Gettin' up, gettin'," she muttered, disgruntled, pulling herself up to a sitting position.

With a yawn she slid from the bed, allowing her feet to sink into the thick carpet. She loved that carpet. Ah, the simplest pleasures seemed the best at the crack of dawn.

"Coming," she called loudly. Come to think of it, why hadn't Izzie barged into her room already like she was used to? "Where's the fire, Izzz-" she got stuck at that monosyllable she opened the door. She noticed her visitor was most certainly not Izzie. Unless Izzie dyed her hair black and went through a transgender surgery in the course of last night. Nope, unlikely.

Derek Shepherd. Who else would enjoy poisoning her life from the early morning? After an embarrassingly long moment before her befuddled brain could react in any way, she just stood there with a messy mop of sleepy hair and her skimpy pajamas consisting only of a short top and boy shorts. If he ever wondered about her body, and he undoubtedly did, his curiosity might have just been satisfied. She would throw herself under a truck if her nipple peeked out. She had a strong suspicion it did since the perv's eyes were glued at the level of her left breast as if it was a world wonder.

She hid herself behind the door with a shriek, all her sleepiness gone, "What are you doing here?" Of course, she knew a disaster was imminent when she passed him the practice keys.

For the first time this morning, his eyes settled on her face, for the lack of any other body part, "I'm hungry."

Meredith's jaw went down disbelievingly, "Say what?"

"Actually, I'm starving."

"Okay, I don't give a flying fuck why you chose to share with me that fascinating piece of information but I'm not your-"

"It's your fault!" he reproached her. "Thanks to you everyone is cold shouldering me. No one's even going to sell me anything, including food. I've been living on old toasts, chewing gum and muffins for the last few days. This is paranoid! It's Middle Ages!"

"You overestimate me," she snorted. "No one wants to help you because they see you're an ass!"

"Oh, come on. You know as well as I do, they will do anything if you tell them to."

"You're clearly deluded," she rolled her eyes becoming tired of hiding behind the door in her own home. "They might do something if I asked them. I can't think of a reason why I would ask them anything on your behalf."

"You owe me," he pointed out accusingly. "For your little stunt yesterday."

"You had it coming for trying to make my life miserable!"

"You're bound by the oath! Do no harm!"

"Seriously, you're pulling the doctor crap on me?" she moved to fold her arms in front of her but jumped right aside realizing she was giving him another eyeful.

"I am," he said firmly, leaning against the doorframe with his arm outstretched. "I want to have a real breakfast. And you'll help me, or I won't move an inch," he warned her, putting one foot forward in order to prevent her from shutting the door. "I can also pull your-apartment-is-on-my-side-of-the-building crap. Take your pick, I don't give a flying fuck," he hectored mockingly mirroring her earlier arrogance.

"Fine! Fine!" she spat out feeling the control ropes slipping from her grasp. He had her in this one. "Go to the kitchen and help yourself! Just get out of my sight!"

"Thank you for your kindness," he snorted. "I want you to go to the store with me and show these narrow-minded folk how to treat me like a human being."

"You would have to be one first! Fine, I'll go to that goddamn store when I have time. Now, I'm going to get my two precious hours of sleep. I've already told you, go to the kitchen and help yourself. I'm not your damn maid! Just don't eat the whole content of my fridge, don't make noise and don't even try to go into my room! I'm locking it anyway!"

Derek finally relinquished and she shut the door violently. He let out a deep sigh of relief, that was progress. Sorta… he chuckled when he heard the metallic click of the lock. Not that he could blame her for it. He probably had dirty in his eyes the whole time they were sparring. He couldn't help it though. The way she looked in that flimsy pajamas… He would gladly trade his breakfast for her… He hoped for the strap of her top to slide down but somehow his willpower wasn't effective enough.

"Get the hell away from the door!" Meredith's irritated shout reached his ears. "It's creepy!"

With an amused shake of his head, he finally headed for the kitchen. Breakfast time. His insides were squirming impatiently.

His face fell spectacularly when he opened the fridge. This was a joke right? Leftover pizza? A single apple and a lump of cheese? Did she seriously tell him not to eat out the whole fridge? With a snort, he took everything out. She might throw another fit but at least she would have to do the shopping with him.


About two and a half hours later, Meredith went downstairs to start her workday. She held a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe Derek Shepherd would leave her the hell alone but the sound of his voice, accompanied by Izzie's dispersed all illusions.

"Seeing that you cleaned out all my food I'd think you were gone by now," she remarked sourly reaching for her lab coat. Derek Shepherd was lucky she had a portion of chocolate cake in her secret stash, otherwise, she would be forced to kill him for eating her leftover pizza.

"Did you forget?" he sent her a wide grin. His breakfast wasn't exactly what he'd wish to be, but it still left him invigorated an in a generally good mood. "I'm here to work."

"Again, with that one!"

"He might actually be of help today, Mer," Izzie interrupted sneakily. "We have quite a busy day. Two vaccinations, 3 weekly appointments, Tom Brewer called he's on his way, his son hurt his arm falling from a tree and-"

"That's quite enough, Iz," she hissed sending her a death glare. "You're not his PR rep."

"Well, he's my boss too," shrugged the blonde while Derek nodded approvingly.

"Not for long."

"We don't know that," remarked airily Derek.

"God must hate me to treat me this cruelly."

The conversation was interrupted by a woman entering the practice. "Dr. Grey?" she asked shyly. "I know it's early but-"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Fry," Meredith assured her warmly. "I'm all set up and ready to start the day so-"

"Don't you think we should discuss how we're going to share our patients?" cut in Derek and looked around the counter. "Where's her chart?"

Mrs. Fry's eyes went wide as saucers as though she was scared Derek might abduct her any minute.

"Mrs. Fry, please go to my office and wait for me, I'll be with you in a minute," Meredith assured calmly. "Dr. Shepherd, I'd like a word with you. Now," she barked, shoving him on the arm when he was protesting. A little part of her brain, which she immediately vowed to silence, registered approvingly the hard muscle beneath that silky shirt of his.

She pushed him inside William's office and looked him carefully in the eye.

"What?" he frowned.

"Look around, look around this office, Dr. Shepherd," she gestured around with her arm. "This is not your office in New York. No leather couches or your favorite gadgets. It's not a hospital where you're the head of a department. You don't have an army of residents at your back and call. You're your own resident and attending. You do everything by yourself. You talk with the patient, complete their medical history, examine them, do whatever it takes to help them."

"I understand that," he said quickly.

"Do you, Derek?" she asked skeptically.

"I am a doctor and I actually care for my patients," he argued, a little color rising on his cheeks. "And I am perfectly capable of treating them in Rachel."

"Not yet no. Just hear me out," she advised him. "Our town now counts over 160 people. A little community, but a community, nonetheless. And the members of this community have similar needs like in every other community. But there were, or are, just two doctors."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I want you to understand that sometimes I need to be every doctor not just a-" she hung off almost catching herself at telling too much. "Sometimes you need to have to be a doctor of every specialty. That woman who's just came in? She's not physically sick. Her health is exemplary. You know what? Her son had a car accident in Vegas two months ago. They managed to save him, but he never regained consciousness, he's in coma. Now, his systems are all shutting down one after the other."

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "What's his condition? I can have a look at him."

"The case has already been reviewed by one of the best neurologists," she let herself say. He didn't need to know she was talking about herself. "And there was nothing we could do for him. The amount of the trauma sustained is the underlying problem. His organism cannot recover. We can't help him. But we can help her, his mother."

"You're giving her… psychological help?"

"I wouldn't go as far as to call it psychological help. It's not my specialty. But I have read literature and spent a lot of time talking to people. They have problems, they have fears, they have addictions. They won't go hundreds of miles just to see a shrink. They would never agree to see a shrink per se. hey want to talk. And here I am for that. So don't try to tell me you're taking these patients with whom I've been working for quite a time now."

"I'm sorry," he admitted. "I won't interfere. It doesn't change the fact that I'd like to help."

"Okay," she sighed loudly. "You'll take Mr. Brewer's kid for a start. We'll see how it goes."

She left him standing in his room in wonder. Most of the time Meredith Grey evoked in him an urge to bury her alive, after getting his way with her first of course. But the way she talked about her patients, with that fierce spark in her eyes... It took his breath away. It was obvious how deeply she cared for these people. How amazing it would be to get on her good side…


Meredith copied her last notes into her patient's file and put away the pen. She was done for the day, and she was tired. Shepherd's assistance didn't lessen her workload a bit. She was pulled away from her patients every now and then when he had a question, or when a local didn't want to be treated by him. Shepherd. He was making her head hurt.

She hung her lab coat around her chair and walked out of her office stretching herself and wondering what she should do with her evening. She didn't feel like going to see Cristina. Her comments from the previous night still irked her like hell. When she entered the waiting area, her eyes saw something she didn't expect to witness.

Derek was apparently seeing off his last patient. He actually had a patient. Well, that was easily explicable. The woman and her daughter weren't from Rachel.

Meredith watched with surprise as the dark-haired doctor knelt beside the little girl that kept laughing madly. To her delight, he performed a sort of magical trick pulling a candy from behind her ear. She burst into giggles and took it, blushing furiously. The mother was equally enraptured. Meredith grimaced sourly, apparently Shepherd charm worked on everyone with a vagina. But, she had to admit he was good with kids. She wondered if he had his own. Well, he didn't wear a ring. On the other hand, seeing how he hit on her minutes after he had met her… he could have hundreds of love children. Not that she should be concerned with Derek Shepherd's children in any way, she chastised herself quietly.

"That was my last patient. I actually had two of them today," he chuckled but she clearly distinguished the hint of pride he tried to hide. Maybe she was a bit too harsh in her judgment earlier this day.

"I'm finished too."

"Great," he brought his hands together. "We can go now."

"Go where?" she asked warily.

"To the store of course."

She raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Look-"

"No, no excuses, you're coming with me," he declared. "They won't sell a dead cat to me without you."

"Can you tell me how you have survived so far?" she arched her eyebrows. "And I can't even imagine how you managed to complete such a demanding program as surgical residency. Unless it was some second rate hospital-"

"NY Pres," he quickly provided the information. "Internship, residency, fellowship, head of neuro for five years and the future chief, all New York Presbyterian."

"You plan to be buried there too if you kick the bucket?" she quipped, unimpressed.

He rolled his eyes, a bit stung, and beckoned her outside. "Shopping, now."


"This is so embarrassing," Meredith muttered under her breath, her face buried in her hair as she inconspicuously looked around. She could feel a million pairs of eyes on her as she led Derek to the store.

"What, walking beside me in the street is embarrassing?" he chuckled. "What if were to hold hands?"

"My arm would fall off."

"Really? That would be very interesting from the medical point of view," he said. Seconds later a shiver ran through her spine as she felt his thumb grazing her palm. She couldn't be faster to wrap her arms around her, praying no one saw it. Apparently, there was already enough gossip circulating about them.

"Keep. your. damn. limbs to yourself," she gritted through her teeth.

"I just wanted to check if your hand would fall off," he laughed. "And it's still firmly attached to the rest of your body."

"You have no interest in my body."

"Who would have thought you were such a prude," he commented.

"I'm not a prude."

"You so are."

"Am not."

"You are."

"If you only knew," she snorted.

"Care to show me?" he smiled giving her smoldering look.

"I've already told you, you have no interest in my body!"

"Why don't you try to convince me you're not a prude then?"

Meredith stared ahead of her. "Shut up."

"Meredith? You have goose bumps," he added conversationally.

"Ugh!" she quickened her step getting away from him.

"Okay, okay!" he caught up with her with a smile. "I'll refrain myself from making such inappropriate comments."

"How gracious of you."

"But it's going to be hard given the fact how stunningly beautiful you are," he sent her a charming smile.

"I thought the message was clear enough," she huffed. "Those pants are staying on."

"What about when you're wearing a skirt?"

"You're such a manwhore."

"Me? Not a manwhore. I like sex but I have rules."

"Really?" she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, for example I don't sleep with married women. My best friend, now, he's a manwhore."

"Yeah, right, I bet New York is full of little illegitimate Shepherds." She couldn't stop her curiosity.

"I don't have children," he informed her. "But true, there are a lot of little Shepherds in New York. I have four sisters, all very girly, well except one. Nine nieces and five nephews in total."

"Wow," she said. So that was why he got along with the little girl so well. He probably had lots of experience.

"Okay, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well, I said something about me, now it's your turn."

"I didn't ask you to share, I wasn't even curious."

"You're a killjoy," he whined. "And just to clarify, I really don't have sex with everything that walks."

"Somehow your behavior the night we met makes me think otherwise."

"I was stressed, I was somewhere I didn't want to be and-"

"Oh, so you thought you'd go for a little stress reliever with the blond from the province," she said angrily, reproaching herself for feeling hurt. Why would she care at all. "That just makes everything better."

"Meredith, this… came out bad, it's not like that," for the first time he sounded serious. "You didn't let me finish. You just… had this something, you have this something. That I liked. I thought we could have a nice time together."

"Forget about it," she spat out. "I'm not a philandering whore."

"I do know that," he said. "I'm sorry you had the impression that I didn't."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes. What, now he was playing Mr. Sensitive? "We're here. That's the store."

She came in followed closely by Derek and immediately found herself in the spotlight. Everyone, literally everyone, stopped doing whatever they were doing to see what exactly why she was in the company of the stranger.

"Good afternoon, everyone," she smiled slightly and grabbed the basket, hoping they would desist the staring.

"Can you unglue, please?" she hissed through her mouth as he continued to follow her.

"Sorry," he breathed out. In fact, he was completely oblivious to the staring. He was currently occupied with the store's fascinating inventory. They had virtually everything there, he even spotted a little stash of iPhones on one of the shelves. "I'm just… shocked I think."

"I told you we have needs just like every community," she couldn't help smirking at his awe. She quickly sobered though, as she noticed frowns appearing on her fellow customers' faces.

Derek kept tugging along after her, dropping various products into the basket.

"That's all you're getting?" he asked curiously peeking into her shopping, noticing a patch of grapes and cheesecake. "You've got nothing left in the fridge."

"I don't cook," she shrugged.

"You don't cook? What do you eat? Air and energy of the sun?"

"I eat at Cristina's," she explained raking out her purse. "Under The Alien."

"Hmm."

"Hmm?"

"Interesting."

"Yeah, fascinating. Okay, I'm done," she said, packing her items into a paper bag. "See you… never."

"Funny. But you have to stay until I pay."

Sure enough, when Derek handed his credit card to the cashier he heard, "No cards."

"Isn't that the terminal?" Derek pointed out. "And it's written right here: American Express, Visa, MasterCard. It's a platinum MasterCard."

"The terminal's broken," the teen behind the counter answered challengingly.

Derek turned to Meredith with an expectant look.

"Eddie, please, try again," she asked him with a sigh. "A favor for me?"

Albeit reluctantly, the boy took the card.

"What a surprise, it worked," Derek commented sarcastically when the transaction was accepted.

Eddie's eyes turned into narrow slits as he gritted out, "Thank you for choosing our store."

"Oh, I sure will be back," smiled Derek taking his bags. "Thanks for helping me out," he said to Meredith when they were back outside.

"Mhm."

"You know, It would be more polite to say you're welcome."

"I am an impolite person then. I did what you wanted so why don't you just walk your way now and I'll walk mine. I want to have an evening free of babysitting you."

"I can thank you with a dinner," he offered eagerly. "I really can cook."

Meredith widened her eyes at him with horror. "Sure, I just want everyone to see you going back with me to my apartment. Please, leave me alone."

"You don't know what you're losing," he laughed. He really would like to have dinner with her. Not only in hope of wooing her. He realized he enjoyed her company, when he wasn't the victim of her wrath that is. He had a chance to observe her all day when she threw herself into work, when she interacted with other people and he liked what he saw. Meredith Grey was a fascinating person. "So, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ugh," she mumbled and hurried away. A dinner together? Not a chance in the world.