Obligatory disclaimer: sadly, Grey's Anatomy is property of Shonda Rhimes and ABC, not me.

After Addison had gone back to the Archfield to change, the unlikely duo had headed out into downtown Seattle to a quaint diner that Meredith remembered going to in her youth. She claimed they had the best pancakes, and proceeded to order them and devour them as if she had not eaten in days. Addison, who had opted for eggs and bacon, had tasted a bit of Meredith's pancakes and promptly agreed. They were now walking around the city's shopping district, with Addison looking positively gleeful and Meredith looking distinctly nauseous.

"Addison, I'm not that much of a shopper. Really."

"I am though, and your wardrobe needs an update. All the new summer lines have just come out and even though we live in rainy Seattle you could still pick up a few new pieces."

Meredith had quickly learned that with Addison, resistance was futile and soon found herself the new owner of an amount of clothes large enough to be a new wardrobe, at least 10 pairs of shoes and 4 new bags. They had had fight number two in the first store, when Addison had pulled out her credit card to pay and Meredith had objected, saying she could pay for it herself.

"I'm not broke you know, I already had a large trust fund and I've recently inherited at least six million dollars since my mom never spent any and just let it pile up."

Addison just looked at her in the way that made Meredith agree with the devil nickname and she surrendered once again. So it was three hours later that an exhausted duo returned to Meredith's house laden with shopping bags, which were promptly put away in Meredith's closet. They went downstairs and reheated pizza and some soup that had been in the fridge for their lunch.

While they had been eating, Addison had been looking at Meredith with a pensive expression on her face. 'Her hair is really nice, but if she had it trimmed, with the layers just a little bit shorter yet long enough to put in a ponytail… and maybe some red and dark brown highlights… yes, that would look quite nice!'

Meredith clearing her throat interrupted her musings. "Is there something on my face?"

"Nope," Addison replied cheerfully, "Just thinking about what to do with your hair!"

Meredith's hand flew up to grasp her dirty blonde locks. "Addison… what do you mean, 'do with my hair'?"

Addison grinned. "See, there's this really nice place in town where I get my hair done at, and while we were shopping I may have made a reservation there for you in about… oh, 20 minutes."

"Addison! There is nothing wrong with my hair!"

"No, there isn't anything wrong with it, not necessarily. When was the last time you had it cut?"

Meredith squirmed uncomfortably under Addison's piercing stare. "Um, 5 months ago? I haven't really had time."

Addison grinned triumphantly. "See! This will help with your self-confidence, Meredith. Not only will you feel like a million dollars but you'll look that good! Now let's go, you don't want to be late."

With that, Meredith was ushered out the door and into the passenger seat of Addison's car.

An hour later, Meredith was sitting with her hair in foils, wondering how the hell she had ended up in this position. 'Honestly, is this the Twilight Zone? There's red in my hair. I mean sure, it's a lovely color and it will look amazing with the mocha and my natural blonde, but that's the farthest I've deviated since the pink haired days! If she makes my hair shorter than is acceptable for a pony tail I will kill her.'

This last thought was directed at Addison, who was sitting next to her reading a new issue of Vogue, having just gotten her hair retouched. When they had entered the salon Addison had promptly told the stylist exactly what to do with Meredith's hair, making sure that Meredith had no clue what was being done... other than the red highlights. She had seen the color when Addison had pointed to it in the styling book.

When the women left the salon at 1:30, they had just enough time to go to Meredith's house again for Addison pick out an outfit for her to wear to the hospital. Addison eventually settled on black leggings, a flowing royal blue cap-sleeved tunic top and a pair of yellow ballet flats. Meredith's look was completed with mascara, deep purple eyeliner, and shimmery pale gold eye shadow to compliment her grey-green eyes, while her lips were tinted with a soft pink lip-gloss. Overall, Meredith was astonished at how pretty she looked. Her hair fell in soft curls and had been given lots of dimension with the new layers and the red-and-brown highlights. She didn't normally put very much makeup on but was pleasantly surprised that it had only taken less than five minutes. Addison looked stunning as usual in her black skirt, light blue shirt and black Prada heels. Meredith wasn't even positive that Addison had anything other than mascara and some brown eyeliner on.

She had just finished transferring her essentials- house keys, Blackberry, wallet, pager (just in case), lip-gloss and a hairbrush- into her new dark brown purse when Addison walked into the kitchen.

"Ready to go?"

Meredith nodded, picking up her cream coloured coat and folding it over her arm just in case.

Addison looked her up and down to check that she looked okay (in fact, Addison thought she looked more than okay- she thought she looked fabulous), grabbed her coat and her car keys and walked towards the door.

"Alright then, I'll drive since you won't be cleared until your appointment tomorrow- "

Meredith scowled at the reminder, but Addison pretended not to notice and continued.

"If it's alright with you I'd like to grab a coffee from Starbucks and then we can go talk to Richard, it's only 2pm so there's still an hour until my shift starts."

It was only when they pulled into Addison's parking space near the front of the hospital that Meredith started to get nervous. What if they ran into Derek? Or Cristina? What if the Chief and Bailey said absolutely not and stuck her with him? Honestly, at this point even staying on permanent scut would be preferable to dealing with him for the next little bit.

Addison noticed Meredith's squirming and squeezed her hand reassuringly. "You'll be fine."

Meredith smiled at her gratefully before getting out of the car and following Addison into the building. She paused inside the doors and took a deep breath, savouring the smell of the hospital.

Addison had paused with Meredith and then looking at her and receiving a nod, began walking purposefully towards the elevators. Pressing the button for the surgical floor, Addison was glad that the elevator was empty except for the two of them; she didn't think the nervous intern could deal with a crowded elevator right then. As the doors opened, she prayed they could get to the chief's office unscathed.

Meredith eyed the crowded halls with apprehension, following Addison as she walked quickly towards the chief's office and hearing people call to her in greeting. She smiled at them and hurried to keep up, only pausing to give Alex the finger and a scrub nurse, who she thought was named Rose, a dirty look after she had made a comment about her finally learning how to dress when Alex had wolf-whistled jokingly. Seeing the door of the chief's office approaching, she tightened her grip on her coat and tried to remain confident.

The pair walked into the reception room of chief's office and sat down to wait after Patricia told them that he was in a conference call and would be done in a minute. When Richard's voice called for them to enter, Meredith gulped and followed Addison in.

A/N: Okay, so some of you may have seen my profile update at the beginning of this month and know why it took so long for me to get chapter 5 up.
1) I had a nasty case of writer's block and by the time it was cured my house was full of people coming and going so I was constantly distracted.
2) My grandmother passed from a brief but devastating battle with cancer at the beginning of this month and it has been incredibly hard for me to find not only inspiration but time. I was recently out of proovince for a week for her funeral and to go through her things.
3) School has just picked up again and I am unusually busy right now with all the catching up after missing 6 days of school.
4) Honestly, if I'm going to take the time to write, I would like some feedback. I am one of those people who lurks occasionally, but 99% of the time I review stories. I'll add them to my story alert so I can find them again when I have the time to read them, and if I have time I review them. It would just be nice to know that I have readers (having to go and check the story stats doesn't count. I know you're there, people! I'd like to hear your voices.)

A huge thank you to everyone who has added me to author/story alert, reviewed or added this story to your favourites since the last chapter! There were quite a few names but I figured that instead of me taking the time to go through my email and find them you would want me to work on more chapters.

In regards to the path this story is taking- chapter seven is Meredith's meeting with the chief and I think there was maybe something about Derek in there, but I can't find it right now and since I wrote it before I left I can't remember. The coming chapters will shift view points and will include Meredith returning to work. As I am mostly following the path the show took, all of you know that Addison goes to L.A. to visit friends in S3 and then leaves the show. While I'm changing many things about this season and consequently the following ones, I would like to know what you guys think. Should she go to L.A.? Should she stay there, and should Meredith go with her? I know some of it depends where their relationship goes but let me know what you think about it please! I am also planning a sequel to this story so keep in mind that whether she goes or not will have a big influence.

If you want to follow me and find out when I'm planning an update or how the chapter is going, check out my lj account- http:// andyoullenjoyit . livejournal . com . If any of you are lj users that could help me with some really simple problems I'm having, could you please PM me? Thanks so much.
Stay tuned for chapter 7!

(PS- This only added about 500 words, the chapter was already over 1000 words. Shorter than usual, but still.)

Posted September 26th, 2009