Meredith can't believe she's considering dating again. When has she really dated? With Derek it started with a one night stand. Definitely not the way she wants this to go. Thorpe started with a few rides or dinners before they fell into bed. Slightly better. Of ecourse with Riggs they started with angry sex in the back of her car, then joined the mile high club! Not great relationship building there. DeLuca, well it was interesting. Lots of ups and downs in that relationship. But still… Does she want to date again? Look for a partner? With Cormac Hayes? A widower. One who has many firsts to tackle without his wife. Maybe she could do this right this time. Spend time getting to know him. Date. Flirt.
He was worth it, she thinks. He's Cristina approved. Guess that is a good first step. At least Cormac wouldn't be throwing nasty words at her saying he wasn't her equal. They were equals. He respects her. Sure they fought the first few cases they worked on together, but they are both strong surgeons with amazing careers, wonderful kids, and personal tragedies.
She loved sparing with him at work, even when they disagreed they respected one another. They have different work approaches, he wants to tell the patients the worst case outcomes, whereas she likes to be a little more optimistic until the initial testing is complete. Strange that she is the optimistic one. She is usually the dark and twisty one. After he explains about his wife's cancer treatment, she understands more about him and the history that shaped him. He wants the patients to have all the info, all the possibilities up front. She preferred to get the first round of tests done before getting to the worst case options. The first few surgeries, he frustrated her. But that has changed.
Working with Hayes was like working with Jackson, Alex or Cristina. It feels great to work with him, he pushes her, but it's also comfortable, relaxing. Cormac confuses her, he teases her, he challenges her. He has attitude, but then so does she.
If she's going to date, she wants to do this right. Start a relationship, slowly. Date. Become Friends. Was he ready for a relationship? Should she chance it? Start a relationship?
'Sorry can't do Tequila,' is the message she gets back from Alex.
'How about Facetime after work?' she replies.
'8pm your time?' Alex sends back, thinking she'd have the kids in bed or at least reading by then.
'Thanks 3' she replies.
Walking to the nurses station Cormac says, "Morning Grey. Time for a consult?"
"Good morning, Hayes. Yes, just let me finish this," she says as she finishes the forms.
"Did you enjoy the baby cuddles last night?"
"Yes. But you get to cuddle babies everyday at work," she said handing the tablet and signed forms on the clipboard to the nurse and turning to leave the nurses station.
"They aren't usually healthy in the NICU."
"True. Yes last night was great, especially since I didn't have to wake up to feed the newborn in the middle of the night."
"Oh I don't miss midnight wakings. Tough as a resident," he replies.
"It is. I was a resident when we adopted Zola. Although I found it tougher with Ellis as a newborn," she says as they walk towards the peds floor.
"That would have been rough," he says.
"I had Alex, Maggie and Amelia but…," Meredith stops her thought. Cormac guesses what she is thinking, and gives her a few minutes silence. He can't imagine being on his own with young kids, it was hard enough with teenagers.
Meredith gets her kids settled and reading in their bed before climbing on her bed with her iPad. She's glad Alex is finally replying to her messages. Letting them connect by facetime. She misses Alex. Her Person. She'd lost two of them. Cristina to Switzerland and Alex to Kansas. Alex really hadn't been gone long, but...
"So what's up that you need me? Issues with DeLuca?" Alex replies.
"Andrew and I aren't together. Carina put him in the place Jo was. Your replacement is the problem."
"What about my replacement? He's no good?"
"Oh he's good. He worked with Cristina. She sent him after you left."
"Really? So what's wrong? Details, please"
"Well, he's hot. Ummm… He has two boys. He's a widow too."
"He's hot, available and asked you out? Go out with him."
"But…"
"Mer, do it for you. Enjoy an evening out. Just have fun."
"Thanks Alex. I really miss you here."
"Miss you too. How's Webber?"
"Amazing recovery. We're trying to send him home with Jackson," Meredith adds as they continue their conversation about their kids. They avoid talking about Jo or Izzie. It is still a sore spot that Alex left to live with Izzie. But Meredith knows that Alex really had left for his kids and only his kids.
"Why me? And not Cristina?" he asks before they end the call.
"This isn't a subject to talk about in the OR, and she only answers my calls from the OR these days. And since the guy in question used to work there..."
"Is she ever anywhere else?"
"Doubt it. Thanks, I miss you. Hug your kids," Meredith says as they end the call.
"You too, Mer. I miss all of you," he says.
Cormac gets off work early Friday arrives home in time to play some 'football' with his boys. Austin and Liam still love to get out after school and play football with their dad. They both were on the starting lines of their school soccer teams. Often they would head for ice cream after playing but given today's typical Seattle weather, rain, they decided to head home for a hot drink and snack. Cormac didn't mind the rain as it isn't that much different than his hometown outside of Galway, Ireland.
He puts the kettle on as he walks into the kitchen and sends the boys off to shower and change. He puts on a pot of tea, still loving the box of loose leaf Barry's tea his mom sent him. Knowing he was letting them eat pizza again, he makes a platter of nachos with lots of fresh veggies and cheese, and dices up some fresh tomatoes, onions and cilantro for salsa.
"Wow! Thanks, Dad," Liam says as he walks in.
"Can I have hot chocolate instead of tea?" Austin asks.
"You know where the Keurig is, help yourself," Cormac says to his youngest.
"You need to be home early more often," Austin says munching on the nachos and adding some marshmallows to his hot chocolate.
"Fresh salsa! Only thing better would have been guac," Liam adds.
"Sorry no avocado. I'm out for dinner tonight. If you want pizza later you can order it."
"Who are you out with tonight?" Austin says.
"Dr Grey. How much homework do you have this weekend?" Cormac questions trying to change the subject. He's a little nervous about what his kids will have to say about him dating. It was bad enough that Liam was dating, but to be dating at the same time as your teenage son.
"Dr Grey? We met her. She's nice. She sent us down to the game room," Austin says ignoring the homework question.
"Where are you going?" Liam asks.
"Yes, you have met Dr Grey. We are going to the Irish pub on the pier," Cormac replies, being honest with his kids. So much for his plans to not talk about this with his boys. He doesn't want to talk about this with his boys, but he doesn't want to lie to them either. It is his first date, but he hasn't dated in years, the last date he went on was over four years ago with their mom.
"Is this your first date?" Liam asks.
"Yes. And to answer the questions I normally throw at you before a date, I work with her, she's a general surgeon, the head of General Surgery. No you can't meet her parents because they have both passed away, but you have met her sisters, Dr Shepherd and Dr Pierce. I will behave like a gentleman, take her home by a reasonable hour and I will be polite," Cormac says.
"You are funny dad," Liam replies.
"Does that mean you'll be home by bedtime?" Austin replies.
"I'm not sure, but since it's Friday and I don't usually start bugging you guys to turn off the video games until 11, I'll probably be home about then to bug you."
"Aww, you could arrive home later and we could keep playing," Austin says.
"And about the homework?" he says.
"Not too much, I can get my math and biology done before soccer tomorrow," Liam says.
"Austin?"
"Aw dad, it's Friday!"
"You don't need to do it today, you just need to tell me what you have. Remember I work on Sunday."
"English, Math, Science and Socials homework. Math and Science are easy. English is simple, we need to write a story about somewhere we have traveled. I'll either do Ireland or Switzerland. The US history is killing me. I don't know it."
"OK, I'll sit down with you tomorrow. My US history isn't great either," Cormac says, this is when he wished he had Abby here to help with homework, she at least was raised in the USA. His history classes covered Ireland and Europe.
"Can you two clean up here while I shower?" Cormac says pointing to the dishes and dishwasher.
"OK," Austin says, grabbing the dishes and starting to load the dishwasher. Liam puts a lid on the extra salsa and puts it in the fridge and then wipes down the counters.
Cormac pours himself another tea and heads to his room to shower and change. He picks out a pair of clean dark jeans, a light grey oxford shirt and a dark grey Aran jumper. He still loves this jumper his mom knit him years ago, although he figures the boys will give him a hard time for wearing it. But what better to wear to an Irish Pub but his favourite sweater from Ireland. And he hopes wearing it will calm his nerves.
He hadn't been on a date in years. He'd been with Abigail since his internship. Meredith interests him. She's strong, fierce and an amazing surgeon. She's a mom of three, she understands being widowed, raising kids on her own, living without the person she thought she'd be with for the rest of her life. And she was definitely easy on the eyes. He hears a knock at the door and says, "Come in."
Liam comes in and jumps onto the bed, lays on his back and looks at the ceiling. "Dad, what's up with that sweater?"
"This jumper? I love it," he answers.
"But it's old! I know it's Móraí's favourite but maybe you need a new one," Liam says.
"This jumper is perfect for tonight's weather."
"Aye. OK. So…"
"What's up?"
"Well… uh, I support you dating."
"Thanks, Liam," Cormac says, wondering where his son is taking this conversation. He is glad that Liam is open to him dating again.
"But… uh… don't forget to… uh… be safe," Liam says a little nervously.
Cormac pauses before replying, this must have been hard for him to say, but must have really bothered him. They had talked recently about being safe and respecting boundaries of their dates as Liam and his girlfriend were getting more serious and starting to go out on dates themselves instead of just in a group of friends. "Liam, I will be safe when I'm ready for that step. Right now, I'm not ready for anything more than a date. Definitely not expecting anything more than a good night kiss on our first date. I'm also going to respect the house rules that you and I set up. They aren't just 'Your rules', they are OUR house rules and apply to all three of us."
"Thanks dad. Can Amahle come over tomorrow night after soccer?"
"Yes, as long as you get some homework done either tonight or in the morning."
"Aye."
"I better get going," he says hugging his oldest, knowing he needs to leave so he can pick up Meredith at 7 and head to a local Irish pub, Paddy Coyne's Pier 70. He'd found the pub on the pier but hadn't been in because the boys weren't able to go in. It was one of the difficult differences between Europe and here. At home the pubs were open for all during the day. Basically a restaurant. The pub would be something casual tonight, not too fancy, with a local Celtic folk band and some good Irish Whiskey.
Cormac arrives at Meredith's house, it wasn't actually all that far from their townhouse. Taking a deep breath he heads up to the front door, wondering who all he'll meet at the house. Link opens the door.
"Hayes, good to see you. Welcome to this crazy house," Link says welcoming Cormac inside, where Meredith's kids were running around chasing one another.
"Thanks, these kids are a little wound up," he replied.
"Yes. I may have fed them sugar afterschool. We went for donuts."
"Brave, aren't you watching them tonight?"
"I'll cuddle the baby and get Amelia to do that," Link replies.
"I heard that. You have the 3 older ones!" they hear Amelia yell from the kitchen.
"Ooops, I was caught," Link says grinning.
"Is Meredith ready?"
"Zola, can you go check on your Mom," Amelia asks, coming out into the living room.
"Yes Auntie Amy," Zola says running up the stairs.
"Amy? Thought it was Amelia?" Cormac says.
"Amelia please. Only Mer & her kids are allowed to call me Amy. Derek & Mark always called me Amy," she answers.
Cormac knows that Derek was her brother, but isn't quite sure who Mark is, so asks, "Mark?"
"Yay, another non-Seattle doctor… You've missed the history," Link replies.
"Mark Sloan was Derek's best friend and was basically raised by my mom. So an extra older brother," Amelia said.
"Sloan, as in Grey-Sloan Memorial?"
"Yes. Mark and Lexie, Meredith's sister, both died in the plane crash," Amelia says.
"Sorry you both lost family members," he says not sure what else he should say.
"Thanks. I did get part of a hospital out of it," Meredith says walking down the stairs. He turns to look at her, and wow! Gone was the tired doctor at the end of the day, or the surgeon in scrubs. Meredith had on tight jeans and a lavender sweater with a white lacy tank top peeking out the top of the v-neck.
"Shall we go?" he asked.
"Just let me say goodbye to these crazy kids. Someone fed them sugar! ZoZo, Bays, Ellie, come here for a hug," she says trying to corral her kids. She hugs her kids and reminds them to be good for Amelia and Link. She slides on her jacket as they head outside and to his car.
"I heard that Link got them donuts. It was much quieter at my house tonight."
"Oh?"
"One doing homework, and the other playing video games. They'll be good until they each want to play different games." He opens the car door for her before she gets in and then walks around and gets in his Tesla model 3.
"Nice car," she says.
"Had to spoil myself when I got here. I didn't have a car in Switzerland."
"Ah! Does your oldest have his learners permit?"
"Liam, yes he does. I was glad I still had my valid license from Pennsylvania or I would have had to re-do all the steps. They didn't accept my Irish or EU license."
"That must have made it difficult," she says.
"It would have made it hard for Liam, if I was having to repeat the steps to qualify."
"So where are we headed?"
"An Irish pub, Paddy Coyne's Pier 70. A local celtic band is playing. Have you been there?" he says.
"No, I don't think I've been to an Irish Pub since I was in Dublin."
"When was that?"
"The summer between Pre-Med and Med School."
"So just a few years ago," he said laughing.
"I toured Europe on the cheap with a friend. It was lots of drinking and…"
"I did some travels during med school, Amsterdam, Madrid, Rome."
"So when did you learn Italian?"
"Highschool. Irish, English and Italian. You?"
"During pre-med. Before I was committed to medicine." They pull into the parking lot at Pier 70 and then walk to the pub. As they approach, they hear the music and choose an outside table. The weather has cleared up, and it is a clear spring evening. The deck seating has heaters and a little quieter than the indoor seating. The Pacific Northwest isn't normally a place either one of them would consider sitting during April, but it is fairly warm and the pub is set up for warm outside seating with plexiglass windbreaks, propane heaters and blankets on the backs of each chair. The view of Elliot Bay was amazing.
They start with Irish Whiskey with their appetizers before moving onto Irish Beer. It had been quite a while since he's had any Irish beers on tap and they had Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks. He chooses the Smithwicks Red Ale and Meredith orders the Harp lager. Sticking with the traditional Irish meal items, they order the Irish Beef Stew and Shepherd's Pie respectively.
During dinner they talked about their kids, about life in Seattle and about their upcoming weekend. Cormac complained about having to learn US history to help his youngest with his middle school work. "Not looking forward to Liam's US history requirements. He's taking them over the summer as he's behind as not all his courses transferred from Switzerland."
"What grade is he in?"
"Officially grade 11. He's finished some grade 12 requirements from our two years in Switzerland, and of course is missing US History. The first few months here he worked on a couple of grade 11 courses in a self paced program to align with the school system here. I don't plan on moving now until Austin graduates. I definitely don't want to do that again."
"That must have been tough for Liam."
"He handled it well. He is driven and plans to go into medicine."
"Another generation of surgeons?" she asks.
"Just him. I think Austin will do something with computers or technology. What about yours?"
"Zola wants to be a neurosurgeon, although Maggie keeps trying to get her to choose Cardio. Bailey says he's going to be a surgeon, currently he wants to fix bones like Link. And Ellie is currently saying she'll be a princess."
"Love the princess stage with my patients. They do grow out of it," he says laughing.
"Hope so. I don't see too many princess jobs open," Meredith says.
When the band heads back on, they announce it's their final set and Cormac realizes it is already after 9:30 pm so he asks, "Do you want anything else? Desert? An Irish Coffee?"
"I'll take an Irish Coffee," she says. He orders a tea for himself and her coffee and they sit chatting and enjoying the last set of music. When the music ends, they walk back to his car and head to her place. Once at her place he walks her to the door and she says, "Thanks for the great evening."
"I had a good time. That was my first date," he said.
She squeezes his hand and asks, "So are you game for another evening out?"
"Yes, guess we'll need to check our calendars," he says.
"Definitely. Goodnight, Cormac," she says, hugging him quickly and heading inside.
"Night," he says as she retreats into the house and walks back to his car.
Amelia is making breakfast the next morning when Meredith comes in and asks "Well? What happened? I want all the details!"
"Nice dinner. Good music. Good company. And I want to know your baby's name? Does Baby Boy have a name yet?" Meredith replies.
"We haven't decided."
"Come on. Baby needs a name. No name, no details," Meredith says filling her coffee mug. She was trying to avoid the next conversation. This is the conversation she has hated since Derek died. How do you talk to your sister-in-law about wanting to move past her brother, find a new life partner, have sex with someone else. Of course the last time Meredith had this discussion, Amelia was supportive of Meredith moving on, it just wasn't a favourite conversation.
Link comes into the kitchen and Amelia hands him his coffee in a travel mug. "Are you long at the hospital today?" she asks.
"No just going to check on Richard," he says.
"Are you meeting with Jackson too?" Meredith asks.
"Yes. I'm meeting with Jackson first. We have an ultimatum for him. He's either going to be shipped to a rehab facility or he moves in with Jackson," Link says.
"Good. I've been working on him. I did suggest he could move in here."
"That's a good daughter," Amelia laughs.
Meredith shoots her a nasty look and replies, "Just another stray."
"I think 4 kids and 4 adults might be a bit much for Richard," Link says.
"Very true, but he's one of the few from our core group that hasn't lived here. Although I don't know if he'd want to live in Ellis' house," Meredith adds.
"Probably not. Well, I've lived with him. So does that count?" Amelia says.
"This group is crazy," Link says shaking his head.
"Maybe, just maybe," Meredith says.
"Who all has lived here?" Link inquires.
"Well I lived here from birth to four years with Ellis and Thatcher. I moved back for my internship. Izzy and George were my first roommates. Then Derek, Callie, Alex, April, and Jackson all lived here at some point. Cristina sometimes stayed here, but she never had a room. We fixed up the attic for Lexie. Alex bought the house from me for a few years, and he and Jo lived here. Arizona lived here with Alex. And now it's Amelia, Maggie, you and I," Meredith says.
"Wow!"
"Derek lived here with interns?"
"Yes, after he left Addison the second time."
"And you really don't mind me living here?" Link asks.
"Not at all. You are family. Family sticks together," she says.
