Author's note: Another chapter before I go back to school, as promised. Review and enjoy!
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine.
"So what's this case you managed to get me on?" Meredith asks as she shuts off the water in the scrub room.
Mark laughs and turns to look at her as he washes his hands. "Did you or did you not just see a man's face cut up on the table? Someone like Yang would have paid to be in that surgery, but you Grey are thinking about the next surgery. Grey you are ungrateful."
Meredith reaches for a paper towel and dries her hands. She pulls her scrub cap off. "I am not ungrateful. I'm just looking forward to working on another case. I mean Dr. Sloan this is my second day on the job. I'm just a doe eyed intern thirsting for knowledge. I'm like a sponge. I'll have you know, I'm very sponge-like."
"Whatever Grey," Mark grabs a paper towel out of the holder, balls it up, and shoots it in the trashcan.
"How mature of you," Meredith jokes as she opens the door to the scrub room and Mark follow her out. She takes a few steps with him and then pauses. "So are you going to tell me?"
Mark stops walking as well. He turns and looks at her. "Tell you what?"
"That you're madly in love with me and can't live another day without me in your life?"
Mark looks at her confusedly.
"Jesus, are you going to tell me what case I'm working on today or should I go talk to Dr. Bailey." Meredith pauses. "I can wait for you to tell me you're madly in love with me until later."
Mark brushes past Meredith and scans through the stack of charts sitting beside the counter. He grabs one of the grey charts and hands it to Meredith.
"Here. This should shut you up for a while." Mark begins to walk away after giving Meredith the chart. "You can thank me later."
"Thanks," Meredith says sarcastically as she opens the chart. She scans over a few of the pages. She looks as sees the authorizing surgeon's signature at the bottom on the page
'Dr. Derek Shepherd—Head of Neurosurgery.'
Meredith rolls her eyes and closes the chart. "Thanks a lot," she mutters to herself.
"Who are you talking to?" Cristina asks as she comes behind her.
"Oh no one," Meredith continues to read the chart.
"Dr. Bailey's letting me scrub in on a routine bypass today. I'll be the first intern allowed to scrub in on any procedure."
"I just scrubbed in with Ma—Dr. Sloan." Meredith doesn't look up from her reading.
Cristina's head snap up. "Seriously?"
"Yeah." Meredith looks up at Cristina as closes the chart.
Meredith holds the chart close to her chest as she walks to the elevator. Cristina stands beside her waiting for the elevator. "Are you about to get your patient into pre-op?" Meredith asks innocently trying to steer the conversation in a new direction.
"Yeah, I'm on my way to do that now. What do they have you working on for the rest of the day?"
"I'm on a case with Dr. Shepherd." Meredith says casually.
"Which one?"
"Neuro."
Cristina takes a step backwards away from Meredith. "Seriously?" She says loud enough that everyone turns to look at them. She lowers her voice and repeats herself. "Seriously? I bet it's an advanced procedure too."
"Cristina…"
"No Meredith I get it. You run around making nice with Dr. McDreamy and McSteamy so you can get on the good cases. If that's a problem just mention your last name and then you should have no problem getting whatever you want. It's a good plan really; I guess you just have to be the right kind of person to pull it off."
"What exactly are you trying to imply?" Meredith snaps her eyes flashing with anger.
"Nothing." Cristina fires back. "Nothing at all." Cristina turns and heads toward the stairwell, leaving Meredith alone waiting for the elevator.
Finally, the elevator arrives and Meredith steps in. Thankful that it is empty, Meredith steps towards the back wall and leans against it, letting out an audible sigh. The metal doors begin to close, but stop halfway. The doors open again and Addison Shepherd walks into the elevator.
Meredith stands up straight and gives Addison her best feigned smile. "Good afternoon Dr. Shepherd."
"Hey Meredith," Addison says cheerfully as she hits the button for the 4th floor. "How has your day been? Are you getting used to Seattle?"
Meredith is relieved that Addison has decided to take the lead in this conversation. Meredith would have opted for awkward silence. "Day's been good. I scrubbed in on my first surgery. It was a simple procedure, but it was amazing. Not that simplicity…" Meredith stops herself realizing that she was beginning to ramble. "It went well. I grew up here in Seattle, so I'm more or less used to it."
Addison smiles at her. "That's good. Have you found a place to stay yet?"
"I'm living in my mother's old house. It's been sitting there ever since she you know… passed away. It's a bit odd living in that big house by myself, but I'm getting used to it."
"I was always a big fan of you mother. She was such an inspiration to me while I was in school, and even now."
"She was a great surgeon." Meredith says blankly. She doesn't like talking about her mother. So many people had so many great things to say about her, but Meredith felt as if she hardly knew the woman.
The elevator doors open and the two women exit the elevator. Meredith turns to walk out of the elevator.
"I'll talk to you later Dr. Shepherd." Meredith says as Addison walks away.
"Okay Dr. Grey." Addison smiles at her and walks down the corridor towards the surgical offices.
Addison finds the door she is looking for and softly knocks on the hard, wooden frame. Slowly, she opens the door and sees Derek typing rapidly into his computer.
"Hey," Addison says as she slips into the room and sits down in the chair opposite of her husband.
Derek doesn't look up from his computer. "Hey, how was your night last night?"
Addison crosses her legs and smoothes her skirt. "It was good. I got caught up on my reading. I didn't hear you come in last night."
Continuing to type, "Yeah I came in pretty late. I slept down the hall in the guest room. I didn't want to wake you up. I knew you had an early surgery this morning."
"Yeah," Addison says absently. "Thanks. I did… Are you coming home tonight?"
Derek finally stops typing. He gets up from his desk and begins to search for a file in his filing cabinet. "Um… I haven't really thought about it. I don't have to come in until tomorrow afternoon, so sometime out of the house would be good."
"We could get reservations at the new Thai restaurant that Dr. Finnland told us about."
Having found the file he was looking for, Derek sits back down at his desk to read the file. "I was thinking of doing something a little more low key, besides don't you have another AM surgery tomorrow?"
Addison uncrosses her legs and moves to stand up. "No, not tomorrow, but I guess you're right." Addison says trying to remove the hurt from her voice. "I'll probably try to do something tonight, so maybe we'll run into one another while we're out."
Derek scribbles his signature at the bottom of a form. "Yeah, maybe." A long silence descends over the small office.
Addison moves towards the door. "I'll see you later Derek."
Derek mumbles a few barely audible words and continues his work. Addison closes the door behind herself and down the corridor to her office. She slides into her chair and picks up the phone. She dials the number and awaits an answer on the other end of the line. The voicemails picks up and Addison decides to leave a message.
"Hey Mark it's me. I haven't seen you around today. I guess you're still working on that facial reconstruction case. Anyway, I was calling to see if you wanted to go out for dinner and drinks tonight. We should go to the restaurant we tried to get reservations to last week but couldn't get. You know the Japanese place… Anyways give me a call back. I should be in the office all day. Talk to you later, bye."
Addison places the phone back on its base. Nearly every week Mark and her went to a restaurant. Derek used to go with her back when then lived in New York, but they stopped going when they transferred to Seattle Grace after their fellowships. They just got too busy. Derek couldn't sneak away to the hot new restaurant or bar, but Mark was always up for it.
Addison kicks off her heels, powers on her computer, and begins to sort through her paper work. She smiles to herself as he office phone rings a few minutes later. She picks it up on the third ring.
"This is Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd." Addison pauses and listens to the voice on the other end of the line.
"Hey Mark… You already made the reservations… Sure eight sounds great… Okay, I'll see you then."
Addison hangs up the receiver already feeling her mood pick up. Her eyes glance at the picture of her and Derek sitting on her desk. The picture was from about five years ago when they visited Rome. Derek's arms are wrapped tightly around her waist. Addison is looking up at Derek. In the picture one could literally see Addison's reflection in his eyes.
'A lot has changed in five years.'