Assumption on Meredith's kids ages Ellis - 2years, Bailey - nearly 5, Zola - 7
Jack and Andy are good friends, but never friends with benefits.
You Can Dance by Bryan Ferry
"Smoke alarms are one of the simplest and most effective inventions. They watch over us. They can sense things we can't. They alert us when something's not right. Trouble is, they only work if we're paying attention. To effectively fight any fire, you face it head on. You look it in the eye. You don't let it scare you. But what do you do when you're going in blind? Our protocol says follow the rules, hug the wall, think it through. Find your anchor. Let that guide you. But sometimes, your instincts are all you've got. You better use them if you wanna get out alive." — Andy Herrera, Station 19 Season 1 Episode 2
Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital
"Dr Grey, I understand you are entering a dance competition?" Catherine says approaching Meredith at the ICU Nurses station.
"Word travels fast," Meredith replies.
"I'm going to call my seamstress for you. You'll need amazing dresses," Catherine says.
"You don't need to, I'm sure we can find something at the store," Meredith protests.
"Nonsense! Dance gowns are fun to design," Catherine says.
"Let me guess, you are waiting for Harriet to be old enough to need them. And until then, you'll dress me?" Meredith replies.
"Jackson wears suits, not as fun as pretty dresses, so let me spoil you," Catherine admits.
"Fine. I'll check with Lt Herrera for her schedule," Meredith agrees knowing it's not easy to say no to Catherine.
"Capt Herrera, how are you feeling today?" Meredith asks, entering his room to do his post surgery checks.
"I want to go home," he grumbles.
"I understand. Probably a day or two. Let me check your incision," she says, approaching the bed and reviewing his chart.
"Sure. Especially if it'll get me out of here," he says.
"It looks good. And your last antibiotic will be after lunch so we can take the IV out then. Physio and OT will be here this afternoon," she says.
"I don't need them," he grumbles.
"Sir, I know what this is like. I was in the hospital last year. I wanted to get home. But physio and occupational therapy will evaluate any help you will need at home. It did help. You'll recover faster with help. Accept their help, or…," she explains.
"Don't tell Andrea," he replies.
"Then listen to your doctor. Have me paged if you need anything," Meredith says heading out of his room. Barely out the door she runs directly into Andy nearly knocking her over so automatically grabbing Andy's arm to steady her.
"Oops sorry," Andy says, steadying herself and releasing Meredith's hand.
"Lt Herrera, you really need to watch where you are going," Meredith replies smiling.
"Dr Grey, this is so embarrassing," Andy admits turning a little red.
"I was just letting your dad know he should be released within a day or two. And Dr Catherine Fox, Jackson's mom, will be having her seamstress make our dresses."
"Really? Personal seamstress?"
"You haven't met her yet, have you?"
"No," Andy admitted.
"She is the Chairperson of the Catherine Fox foundation that owns multiple hospitals, including part of this one. And it's hard to say no to her," Meredith says.
"Guess I'll be meeting her soon, I'll send you my schedule and we can set up some times," Andy replies.
"Hope you don't mind meeting at my place for practice. It'll be easier with my kids," Meredith says.
"No problem, how old are they?" Andy asks.
"Zola's seven, Bailey is nearly five and Ellis is just over two," Meredith replies.
"Oh, they are still little," Andy says.
"Hey, I'm not that much older than you," Meredith teases.
"I never said you were old. Now I should visit Dad," Andy says.
Station 19
The shift had been crazy. So much so she hadn't made it to the hospital to pick up her dad. Thankfully Ryan had heard all the calls for Station 19 and decided to pick up Pruitt at the hospital. Pruitt refused to go directly home and stopped in at the firestation on his way home. Most of the team was out on calls, so Ryan and Dean were able to convince him to head home.
"So shift's almost over. And I don't know about you, but I am anything but tired right now," Andy says to Jack as they finish up the paperwork in the office.
"Good first day in charge?" Jack questions.
"Great first day. We made a pretty excellent team out there," Andy says.
"We did. We are an excellent team," Jack replies.
"I'm not gonna lie. I didn't mind bossing people around," Andy responds. At that point Meredith walks up to the open door.
"Dr Grey," Jack says.
"It's Meredith, please," she replies.
"Meredith, what are you here for?" he asks.
"I think we had dance practice planned. That is if you aren't worn out," Meredith says.
"It was a busy day. My first one as Captain. It was great and I'm energized," Andy replies. They head upstairs and start a gentle warmup dance routine. "Sorry about still being in uniform, I can't change until shift is over," Andy says.
"No worries, I understand. How's the race for Captain?" Meredith says.
"Well today had its ups and downs," Andy answers.
Travis walks into the beanery and claps as he sees them dancing. "Travis, what are you still doing here?" Andy asks.
"Don't feel like going home. And I heard the music," he says.
"What's up?" Meredith asks seeing the lonely look on his face.
"About a year ago, I lost my husband in the line of duty. He was a firefighter, too. Inside the house, you know, alone like that, it's just too quiet," Travis says.
"I get it, although my house is rarely quiet. Lost my husband in a car accident nearly three years ago. He was a surgeon at Grey-Sloan," Meredith replies.
"And you have 3 young children? That's tough," Travis says.
"So you were pregnant with Ellis when he died?" Andy asks.
"Found out I was pregnant after the funeral," Meredith replies.
"Oh my!" Travis says.
"So if you need to talk, I've been through it," Meredith says squeezing his arm.
"Thanks, Meredith," Travis says.
"You want to film us dance a couple of these?" Andy asks him.
"I can do that," Travis says, taking Andy's iPad, while Andy starts the music playing from her phone. They dance through a couple of dances for the camera and then call it a practice.
"And if you want noise at dinner time, I'm ordering pizza at my house tonight. Three kids, two sisters...," Meredith says.
"I think I'll head home, but thanks for the offer," he replies.
"If you ever want noise, just text me, you can always come and put my kids to bed," Meredith says.
Meredith's House
Thursday evening Meredith and Amelia both managed to get home early and tackled getting their house ready for Andy coming over. Meredith tackled the living room and kitchen, while Amelia took the older two kids and tackled Ellis Grey's old office, now a playroom. Meredith's youngest sat in the highchair eating snacks and babbling while Meredith cleaned the kitchen and reheated dinner.
"Zola, Bailey, we need to clean up these toys for mom," Amelia says.
"Why, Auntie Amy," Zola asks.
"Your mom has a friend coming over to practice dancing," Amelia answers.
"But where will we put our toys?" Bailey asks.
"How about on the bookshelves or in the toy box, Bay?" Amelia replies.
"But I like them on the floor," he complains. Typical boy, Amelia thinks, he doesn't like cleaning up.
"Why are they dancing?" Zola asks.
"They are dancing at an upcoming competition," Amelia replies.
"Oh, like my dance class," Zola wonders.
"Yes, but not ballet. They will be doing latin dancing," Amelia patiently answers as they pick up the barbies, Lego and cars from the floor.
"Auntie Amy, where will we play if mom is dancing in here?" Bailey asks.
"You can play in the living room. Great job cleaning. Are we ready for dinner?" Meredith says walking into the room.
"Mom, did you cook?" Zola asks.
"I reheated a meal from Dr Catherine."
"Yummy!" Zola and Bailey say putting the last few items into their buckets and running to wash their hands. As kids of surgeons they knew that washing up was required before meals. Meredith was impressed they had cleaned the main floor and were ready to eat dinner all within an hour of getting home.
Andy arrived as they were finishing their meal. "Hi, I'm Andy," she introduces herself to the kids.
"I'm Zola, my brother is Bailey, and that is Ellie," Zola says.
"Thanks, Zo. Andy, you remember Amelia?" Meredith says.
"Hi Amelia, do you live here?" Andy asks, not quite understanding the housing arrangements here.
"Meredith, Maggie and I do. We're sisters. ZoZo, Bay & Ellie, time to head upstairs for baths," Amelia says.
"Do you mind if I quickly do the dishes first? If you want something to drink, there's beer, juice, sparkling water in the little fridge?" Meredith asks, and points out the small drink fridge on the opposite side of the kitchen.
"Here, let me help," Andy says.
"You don't need to," Meredith says.
"I was raised in the firehall. We always work together. Many hands make light work," she replies, thinking of the number of meals she'd eaten at the firehall over her life.
"Right, I was raised in a hospital. We ate in the cafeteria. The kitchen is much better," Meredith says.
"Probably," she says. Once the dishes were done, they each grabbed a glass of ice water and headed into the office.
"Do you have some music? There's a bluetooth speaker system in here if you wish to connect to that," Meredith says.
"Let's do some warmup first, and then we can work on some dances," Andy says.
"Sounds good. It's been years since I've done any formal dance. I might tire out," Meredith says.
"You'll be fine, I'll take it easy on you," Andy teases as they start with some basic warm ups to get their body limber and ready to dance. They start with a fairly basic plié routine and move into some of the latin dance moves.
"So how's work going?" Meredith asked while they were doing some right and left turns, basic cross body lead exercises.
"I feel like dad is watching my every move," Andy responds.
"Sounds familiar. My mom did her residency in Seattle. I was the shadow of Ellis Grey when I arrived," Meredith replies.
"Ugh, parents," Andy answers.
"Yes, but it did get better. Just took a while to prove myself," Meredith says before the move onto
Zola came down the stairs and sat quietly and watched them dance. At one point when Meredith stopped for a drink, Zola got up and demonstrated her ballet.
"That looks great, Zola. Just keep your knee straight. Watch this," Andy says demonstrating the movements that Zola had performed.
"You do ballet as well?" Meredith asks.
"10 years of ballet, but much prefer the movement of latin music," she replies.
After an hour of dancing Meredith is tiring out and sits down on the couch. Andy says, "No crashing on me here, you need to cool down properly, or your legs will tell you off tomorrow."
"Oh I think my whole body will tell me off tomorrow. No matter what," she grumbles.
"Up! Now. Or I'll bring Maya over next time," Andy threatens.
"What is scary about Maya?" Meredith wonders out loud.
"She's an Olympian. If you want a hardcore training schedule, she's an amazing coach. We did fire academy together. Now finish your water, and I'll go fill them up," Andy explains.
"How about a nice and easy cool down?" Meredith says getting off the couch as Andy comes back in.
"Ok. Let's get your posture correct first," Andy teases. She places her hands on Meredith's shoulders gently guiding them into position before they do their upper back and arm stretches. Then they move down and work on torso and back mobility with Andy's hands once again on Meredith's hips correcting her posture. And then they work down the legs through to the feet and ankles. They are rolling out their feet with a tennis ball when Meredith hears a tap at the front door.
Meredith jumps up quickly and heads to the front door, not wanting Catherine to hit the doorbell as the kids were asleep upstairs. Meredith opens the door and says, "Welcome Catherine. Thanks for not ringing the doorbell."
"Are they all asleep? Harriet and Jackson just headed home before we came over," Catherine asks.
"I think so, but Amelia is still upstairs so maybe not, unless she fell asleep with Elli," Meredith answers, leading Catherine and Nadia, the seamstress into the office. Introductions were made and Nadia proposed a couple of ideas. There were a few changes, mainly because Meredith didn't want to show skin on her torso. Catherine and Andy both teased Meredith that she had the body, why not flaunt it, to which her response was "I'm a widowed mom of 3 kids," which shut down their arguments. They chose a style that would work for the whole evening and in coordinating colours with silver accents. Nadia took their measurements and chatted with Catherine about the dresses.
"We will need to find shoes quickly, so we can practice in them," Andy says.
"Can I be wimpy and go with 2" heels? I'm not sure my left knee will handle higher heels." Meredith asks.
"As long as you don't mind if I have higher ones, and they need to be sparkly and strappy," Andy says.
"Sparkly? What are you five?" Meredith teases.
"No! But I'm not an old lady either," she quips back.
"Really, back to this age thing again. You can't be that much younger than me. And it was only a year ago ago that I was attacked at work and had a tibial plateau fracture," Meredith complains. They figure out that Meredith was only 6 years older than Andy.
Everyone heads out, and Meredith grabs a wine glass, partial bottle of white wine, and heads upstairs to check on her kids and hit the bathtub. Not only is she sweaty, her muscles are sore, but she also feels good. Dancing with someone who wants to dance is amazing. The last time she regularly danced was before Cristina left for Switzerland.
Meredith puts the wine on her dresser before gently grabbing Ellis from Amelia's lap in the rocking chair and slips her into the crib. To Amelia, she says, "Go to bed. You'll be more comfy there."
"Oh thanks for moving her," Amelia says.
"No worries, now I'm putting my sore muscles in the tub, and you should go to bed. Thanks for watching the kids."
"It wasn't an issue. Just little miss over there wanting to cuddle then fell right to sleep."
"Another evening trapped under the toddler," Meredith jokes.
"Yup. Enjoy your bath. See you in the morning," Amelia says heading down the hallway. Meredith fills the tub with hot water, adds her favourite bubble bath, pours her glass of wine and climbs in.
Sitting back in her soaker tub, Meredith enjoys relaxing in the hot water and thinks of Andy's hands moving over her body. Between the sensuality of the latin music, the latin dancing, Andy's dancing and leadership, the wine and the hot bath, Meredith's body is humming. Meredith eventually climbs out of the time, dries her off with her warm towel and slips on a nightie, choosing a silky nightie with lace.
