AN: A little clarification about the timeline of this story: Meredith left after the whole 'pick me choose me love me' fiasco fell apart, so around the middle of season 2. She returns in the middle of season 4, around the time where she and Derek begin the clinical trial (which is evident in this chap). In my head, she was gone for around 2 years; I understand that there wasn't technically a 2 year gap between seasons 2 and 4, but for the purpose of this story, there was
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In the week she had been back in Seattle, Meredith found it surprisingly easy to evade Derek. As an attending she was at the liberty to assign her own surgeries and run her own service. When she did cross paths with Derek, it was brief, and they barely nodded at one another.
However, there came a point where interacting with him became necessary. Meredith stood with her back against the wall by the door to the scrub room. Derek was currently in the OR, clipping an aneurysm. Taking a deep breath, she glanced down at the medical journal she was holding and ran through what she would say in her head.
Suddenly the door banged open and Derek walked out. Meredith wasted no time rounding on him. "Dr. Shepherd."
Raising an eyebrow, Derek regarded her strangely. "Meredith." his mouth twisted into a smirk. "Or is it lieutenant, now?"
Meredith barreled through before she could stop herself. "I wanted to run something by you. I think I have something for a clinical trial."
Derek's eyes dropped to the medical journal in her hands. "What is it?"
Meredith launched into her explanation, starting with the bear attack victim turned brain tumor patient and finishing with her method to cure deadly, inoperable tumors. Derek remained silent the entire time, only nodding slightly when she made an important point.
"Let me see that," Derek said once she was finished, gesturing for the journal. Meredith transferred it to his hands and watched him scan through the pages she had marked with post its. He nodded slowly and glanced up. "There's definitely something here."
"So you think we could do it?" Meredith asked hopefully.
Derek tilted his head to the side and smiled. "We?"
"Well, I only just became an attending. And most of my neuro cases in the field were hematomas and whatnot. We didn't exactly have time to do experimental surgeries on rare brain tumors," Meredith said defensively.
"Well, Lieutenant Grey, I would be honored to assist you in this trial. Should it be approved by the FDA," Derek said.
"Don't call me that," Meredith muttered.
Derek barked out a laugh. "Its a good idea. Run it by Webber and get back to me. You still have my number, right?"
Meredith felt her face flush. "I could just page you."
"But you do still have it."
"Yeah," Meredith snapped. Chuckling, Derek patted her on the shoulder and headed off down the hall.
"Well, its a good thing I kept yours too, then," he called over his shoulder.
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Reviews, puh leaze. Lets see if we can get to 35:0. ambitious...
