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

Richard Webber was a perfectly reasonable man. When Patricia had sent him a memo during his conference call saying that he had an attending and an intern wanting to speak with him, he was mildly irritated that she had interrupted him and hadn't given him names. When the door opened and Addison walked in, he stood up and came around his desk to greet her, expecting Karev to be behind her since he was in the middle of a shift, though Addison's didn't start for another 40 minutes. He was startled, to say the least, when it was not Karev but Meredith Grey that followed the neonatal attending in.

He shot Addison a look as if to say, 'Really Addison, terrorizing the poor girl already?'

Addison responded with a small smile and a shake of her head.

Richard looked at her intently for a minute before turning to Meredith, who was fidgeting nervously. He had no doubt whatsoever that if Meredith was speaking right now she would be rambling, a rather endearing trait in Meredith that had been horrible on her father. There was something different about her… she was certainly a little more thin, a side effect of the accident no doubt, but there was something else. A second later it dawned on him. Her hair had more colour in it than usual, a sight he hadn't seen since a picture he had gotten from Ellis of a certain pink-haired teenager, and she was dressed more fashionably now than she had been since her first year of medical school.

"Addison, nice to see you again," he shook Addison's hand genially and turned to Meredith, pulling her into a brief but warm hug. "Meredith, look at you! I'm glad to see you've been taking care of yourself while you've been on leave."

Meredith chuckled. "Well I had to do something, didn't I? I had no clue what to do with myself Uncle Richard; you've had me off nearly three weeks now! This," she waved her hand at her clothes and hair, "is actually Addison's doing, she dragged me out shopping and somehow conned me into getting my hair done."

Richard looked at Addison and nearly snorted at the look of innocence on her face. "In any case, Adele will be happy to see you looking so well. Now what brings you two ladies here? Since you took her shopping Addison, I'm guessing you two have solved your problems and become friends?"

Addison nodded. "Oh yes Richard, we're past that." She looked at Meredith questioningly and Meredith indicated that she wanted to continue.

Meredith took a breath and addressed Richard formally. "Actually Dr. Webber, we're here about my schedule once you let me return to the hospital."

Richard raised his eyebrows. "We were going to give you reduced hours when you came back Dr. Grey, we were just going to let you know when you come back next week. Is that what this is about?"

Meredith shook her head. "No Chief, this doesn't have anything to do with hours, in fact if I could keep regular shift lengths that would be fantastic."

Addison inwardly sighed, that girl would work herself into the ground. "Chief, we would like to discuss Dr. Grey's assignments, actually."

"Really? What about them?"

"As you know, Dr. Karev has been permanently on my service for the last several months and as I am sure he has learned his lesson, I would like to request that Dr. Grey be on my service for the next several weeks."

"How do you feel about this Dr. Grey?"

Meredith shrugged. "I haven't really done neonatal very much sir, but I love babies and am open to the experience. Plus last time I worked with Addison, on the quintuplets, I enjoyed it and learned a lot."

Richard stared at them for several minutes, scrutinizing their facial expressions and their reasoning. Meredith, he thought, looked slightly peaky and anxious. Folding his hands atop his desk, he cleared his throat.

"I thought you were leaning towards neurosurgery, Dr. Grey. Does this have anything to do with the fact that my head of Neurosurgery has requested a week off to go and 'find himself'? He seemed quite distressed."

Meredith clasped and unclasped her hands. "Well, we did have a rather… vicious fight and I ended things with him. I didn't know that he was requesting time off sir. While I know that in the past we have been able to keep our relationship at work professional, I feel like he may take advantage of my status as an intern to get back at me, so to speak, for ending our relationship. I think that it would be beneficial for me to be unavailable to him, both at professionally and personally, until he has accepted that we are finished."

"Well as long as there aren't any interruptions that disturb my patients, Dr. Grey, then that's fine and I'm sure it can be arranged so that you skip out on your neuro rotation for a week or so after he comes back." Richard sighed. Things had been so much easier before this year's interns had come along. "We will need to discuss this with Dr. Bailey, as a group," he looked pointedly at the two of them. "However, since she is in surgery for the next 2 hours barring complications, I will send her a page asking her to meet us in my office as soon as she is finished. While we are waiting for her, Meredith, I can check on your progress. You had an appointment to be cleared to return to work and to drive tomorrow, right?"

Meredith nodded, trying not to look too ecstatic. "Yes sir. I've been off the pain meds for two or three days now. There hasn't been too much pain unless I sleep funny or overdo it and the swelling has gone down considerably… the contusions and abrasions on my back have healed as well."

"Good, good." He stood up and the three of them walked out of his office. "Change into a gown and we'll head down to X-ray to check on your ribs. Addison, you can meet us in exam room three after you round on your patients."

"Yes… my patients. Shall I let Karev know the good news?"

Richard shook his head. "Not until we figure out when Meredith is coming back." He raised his hand to stop her from vocalising her protests. "Young lady, I promised your mother I would take care of you and if your ribs are not healed enough then you will not return to work until they are."

Meredith put her arms on her waist and pouted. "But Uncle Richard… I'm going crazy! My mother would have gone back to work last week. Couldn't I at least chart and observe? Please?"

"Meredith Anne Grey, you are not your mother and I am your boss. So until I have given you the all clear the answer is a firm no. You have enough hours already that you aren't behind and you're a brilliant intern and don't need to worry about the exam coming up next month." Richard glared at her sternly, daring her to argue with him.

Meredith just sighed. "Fine. Lead the way then. See you later, Addison."

Addison waved, looking distinctly amused before turning and walking towards the attending locker room to put away her bag and grab her lab coat.

In OR 3, a pager sounded and one of the scrub nurses, Rose, checked to see whose it was. "It's yours, Dr. Bailey."

Miranda Bailey didn't look up from the body cavity but held out her hand impatiently. "Clamp please." After making sure that the patient was stable, she acknowledged the nurse. "Who is it?"

Rose read the page. "It's from Dr. Webber."

"Well what does he want? I'm elbow deep in this man's large intestine, I can't go anywhere." She was slightly impatient, she had already been in surgery for 3 hours and by the looks of it had at least another 2 to go. Why couldn't the damn nurse get to the point?

Rose continued, oblivious to the death glare being sent to her by the Nazi. "It's not 911, just wants to see you in his office as soon as you're out of surgery. Says it's important you stop by before you leave."

"Alright then." Dr. Bailey cleared her throat before surveying the intestine. "Yang, hold the clamp. Can I have a 10 blade, please?"

She turned her focus back to the surgery, making a mental note to find out what the chief wanted after- shit!

The sound of gushing blood greeted her ears. "Yang, what did you do? Another clamp, now! Yang, I need you to stitch right there or this man is going to bleed out," and then impatiently, "Yes, right there, I have over here… keep going Yang, you know how to do this." They almost had the bleeding controlled when the monitors flat lined.

"Charge to 150!"

"Clear!"

The patient's body convulsed. No response.

"Charge to 200!"

"Clear!"

They waited again.

"Charge to 300! For God's sakes man, don't do this!"

"Clear!"

Finally they could hear the beeping of the monitor start to regulate and Bailey motioned for the nurses to put the paddles away. "All right people, let's finish this up without him coding again."

An hour or so later found Meredith in her regular clothes again, waiting in the exam room for either Addison to come in or for Dr. Weber to come with the results from her X-rays and blood tests. When the door opened, she smiled at Addison widely. "Hey! How are your patients doing?"

"Good, they're doing well. Molly brought Laura in for a check up today, she's strong and developing well. I've scheduled a C-section next week for a woman with triplets and an in-utero surgery for a woman whose son has spina bifida… the child is almost to term, I can't understand why her ob-gyn didn't catch it before, it's glaringly obvious." Addison wrinkled her nose in disdain.

Meredith chuckled. "Well Addison, we aren't all as good as you!"

"Thanks." She grinned and hopped up onto the bed next to Meredith, swinging her legs childishly. "So do you have the results back yet?"

"Nope." Meredith sighed. "He should be back any minute now."

The two sat in silence for the next 10 minutes or so until Richard walked in with the X-rays and lab results in his hand. Putting the X-rays on the screen, he handed Meredith her labs. "As you can see, you're blood results came back clean so I don't see why you can't drive. If the pain keeps up, don't take anything stronger than Aleve or Extra Strength Tylenol and avoid the alcohol for at least another week."

Meredith grinned. Freedom at last!

"Now, about your ribs. The fractures all appear to be healing nicely and there is minimal bruising as you can see. You said the only tenderness you were experiencing was between 5 and 6 and it appears as if that should be cleared within the next few days. Today is… Thursday? The way things are I can allow you to return to work on Monday. At that point your discomfort should be minimal."

"Seriously?"

"Yes Meredith, I am serious."

Meredith looked as if she was the cat that had eaten the canary, making Addison grin. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Richard's pager went off. "That's Patricia, Dr. Bailey is waiting for us. After you, ladies."

The elevator ride up to his office was mercifully quiet as it was only the three of them and a visitor to the hospital who knew nothing about the gossip.

When the three walked into his office, Dr. Bailey was already sitting in one of the chairs across from his desk. He walked around to his side, leaving Meredith and Addison to take up chairs next to her.

"Miranda, thank you for coming. How did your surgery go?"

Before answering, Dr. Bailey glanced suspiciously at the intern and attending. "Mr. Jenkins had the blockage and the tumour removed successfully and while he coded once on the table there were no other complications. Dr. Yang is currently with him in post op."

"Ah, excellent. Now, there is a matter of scheduling that we need to discuss. As you know, Dr. Grey will be returning to work on Monday. Dr. Montgomery has requested to have her on her service for the next two weeks or so."

'Well,' thought Miranda, 'that explains why the two of them are here.' "Okay, so I should inform Karev that he has been freed? And Grey- what did you do? You aren't even back at work yet!"

Meredith looked at her resident innocently. "I haven't angered Dr. Montgomery at all, Dr. Bailey. I'd just like to try my hand at something other than neuro for a while."

"She's right Miranda, we're all good," Addison chimed in with a smile.

Dr. Webber shook his head at the three strong willed women across from him. "Also- Dr. Shepherd will be replaced with Dr. Brown for the next week so any interns that are on neuro can be directed to him."

Dr. Bailey just looked at Meredith. "Honestly Grey? Talk. Now."

"Derek and I are no longer seeing each other and as I would like our relationship at work to remain professional we need to take time apart because last time it didn't work out so well… and exams are coming up and he'll do the sniffing thing and it's so distracting and he'll make me lose my game… I just can't deal with him right now, Dr. Bailey." Meredith rambled in her usual style, stopping to take a breath.

Miranda looked at her and her expression softened marginally for the young woman who had just been through hell and back. "Okay then Grey. Addison, are you all right with sharing her with Drs. Burke and Sloan every once in a while? She still needs hours in their departments."

Addison nodded her assent. "Fine with me Miranda."

"Thank you Dr. Bailey."

Miranda gave Meredith a rare smile. "Not a problem."

As Meredith and Addison stood up to leave, Miranda spoke again. "Oh, and Meredith?"

She looked over her shoulder. "Yes Dr. Bailey?"

"Don't do anything stupid before Monday. Keep taking care of yourself, you look good."

Meredith smiled at her resident. "Thanks. See you Monday for rounds!" With that, she turned and nearly skipped down the hall with Addison following her.

Miranda sighed and turned to the chief. "How long until they're together?"

Richard blanched. "What? Meredith and Addison? What makes you think that?"

She just shook her head. "I just know, sir. It's the way Addison looks at her. It's the same way Dr. Shepherd did, but more intense and with more respect. Look at Meredith, Addison's already worked on her confidence."

Richard had to agree with that. "I don't know, Miranda. Maybe they'll end up together, maybe they won't. It depends on Derek's reaction when he comes back."

Miranda scowled. "That man will stay away from that poor woman if he knows what's good for him. He's done enough to her and she doesn't need to suffer any more." She snorted. "McDreamy my ass."

"Even so-"

The sound of Miranda's pager interrupted Richard. "That's me- 911 in the pit. I'll bring you the schedule after, Chief."

With that the short woman left his office to rush down to the ER, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

A/N: Hey guys! I know it's been two weeks but this is the longest chapter yet (it's 7 pages on Word- I think it's longer than 5&6 combined!) so I hope that makes up for it. I'm all caught up with my schoolwork now so I'm going to try to update once a week, probably on the weekends. It's Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and I'm not in school again until Tuesday so hopefully I can get chapter 8 up before I go back. Thanks to CordeliaHalliwel for the review as well as to rheaps and femslashlvr for adding this to their alert list and to LR-kmyl for adding it to their favourites! CordeliaHalliwel: I meant to answer your review but I've been a bit busy- I do have trouble writing Cristina. But did this chapter answer your question? Miranda Bailey knows all!

Posted October 11th 2009 (12:45am EST)