A/N: Chapter 6 is up. Thank you so much for all the reviews.
I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or its characters. Please review.
Meredith was lying on the couch at Mark's apartment, which was comparatively new, as he bought it just ten days back. She was bored and was fiddling with the television remote, trying to find something interesting enough to watch. She had been discharged three days back and was all but forced to move in with Mark till she fully recovered. She had not liked the idea at all, but was outnumbered, as all three of her 'doctors' agreed that she wasn't to climb any stairs. As per the Chief's instructions, she would be allowed to go back in a week, to observe surgeries and do chartings. A week after that, she would be able to resume her intern duties as normal.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Meredith was confused, as Mark had a long surgery and wasn't scheduled to return for another three hours. She opened the door and saw Cristina standing there, with a tub of strawberry ice cream.
"Hey, come on in." Meredith greeted. There was still some awkwardness after their argument the evening of Meredith's surgery.
"I brought ice-cream, strawberry." Cristina said, entering the apartment. "So, how are you feeling?" Cristina hadn't spoken to Meredith since the day she was discharged. She was concerned about her person, despite their argument the day of her surgery.
"Fine, I guess. It pains sometimes." Meredith replied. Though she was fine most of the time, her stitches pulled when she did strenuous work, like standing up for all or picking up heavy items.
"How is it living with McSteamy?" Cristina joked.
"Overbearing, like you wouldn't believe. He wouldn't even let me make coffee." Mark had grown really overprotective of Meredith. So much so that her that he would carry her out if she didn't take the wheelchair.
"Lucky you." Cristina said.
"Lucky…. That's only for a day, then it becomes irritating. He is treating me like I'm handicapped." Meredith was bored out of her mind. Mark tried to stay with her as much as he could, but he too had patients.
"He cares." Cristina said, Mark was antsy in the hospitals, wanting to finish his surgeries and get back home, something the entire surgical unit knew by now.
"Too much, way too much." Meredith groaned. She appreciated his concern, and was glad to have a friend like him, but he wasn't letting her do anything and was asking her about her health every ten minutes when he was home.
"Embrace it. By the way, your operation did get Sloan and Shepherd to call a truce." Cristina said, as they all observed that the two doctors were getting along way better.
"Yeah, Mark told me about it." Meredith replied, recalling the conversation she had with him when she woke up after the surgery. She was glad to hear about it. Life would be difficult if the two of them would be on warpath.
"Man, the betting pool was disappointed. There were so many bets on one of them blasting off on the other sometime soon." Cristina said. The entire hospital was expecting the two doctors to have a go at it. Both of them were at the top in their fields, and had a huge ego, so no one expected them to back down from a fight. The gossip mongers were very disappointed with the turn of events.
"You betted on Mark and Derek getting into a brawl?" Meredith asked, shocked. But she didn't expect anything else from Seattle Grace.
"Uh, yes. Look at you, first name basis with two hot-shot doctors." Cristina remarked after a minute.
"Cris—" Meredith started, only to be interrupted by Cristina.
"I'm not blaming you. Not at all. But even you need to agree that from outside, it does look unfair." Cristina said, trying to explain to Meredith her side of things.
"It might, but it's not as if they only pick me for their surgeries or things like that." Meredith defended.
"Sloan's attitude when you're his intern is way different than with anyone else. Shepherd, not so much." Cristina rebutted.
"Well, I did save Mark's life. I told him about this, preference thing, he doesn't seem to listen." Meredith explained, remembering the first day when he came to Seattle.
"What did you tell him?" Cristina asked.
"The way people think that I get an unfair advantage. When I spoke to him even Derek was there. He almost thought I regretted our relationship." Meredith explained. Trying to get her to understand that she was being negatively affected by their presence rather than positively.
"If it were anyone else, I might have thought that you got chosen just because of your personal connections. But, I know you're good. Not as good as me, but good." Cristina replied. The joke at the end, showing Meredith that Cristina understood.
"Thanks for the support." Meredith said, Cristina was the only one who could relate, having a on- off relationship with Burke.
"By the way, do you regret it?" Cristina asked, changing the topic.
"What?" Meredith asked confused.
"Your relationship with Shepherd?" Cristina pressed. Meredith was seriously happy when she and Derek were together. Maybe not as happy when she met Sloan, but happy.
"No. We were good together; I don't regret that. Though now, our relationship is platonic and only that, I don't regret the times were spent flirting and you know, together." Meredith truly enjoyed the time she and Derek were together, but they were not meant to be a couple. They did realize that them being just friends was better.
"Any hard feelings?" Cristina asked, concerned as Meredith was really invested in her and Derek's relationship
"No, you know. We are good as friends. He has Addison and I have—" Meredith started, but stopping as soon as she realized what she was about to say.
"Mark?" Cristina asked amused. All of them were expecting the both of them to get together. The new betting pool being as to when they would do so.
"Yes, not like that, but…" Meredith said, herself confused.
"Why not like that?" Cristina pressed, wanting to know how Meredith truly felt about Mark. It was pretty obvious to everyone else, most of the time, the couple in question is oblivious to the other's feelings.
"Mark and I are not" Meredith said, herself not knowing the answers.
"But you kiss and you both do look good together. And he will kill for you." Cristina pushed.
"I know he will. But, do I want to risk me friendship with him… I don't know that. And I don't think he feels that way about me." Meredith explained. She was conflicted about her feelings about Mark, she liked him, a lot but didn't know if she liked him a friend or liked him-liked him.
"Oh, he does." Cristina said. They came face to face with Mark's protectiveness of Meredith. It wasn't something anyone did for their 'friends'. Meredith meant much more to Mark, Cristina was sure about that.
"Let's talk about something else, please." Meredith requested, not wanting to confront the feelings. Cristina started sharing stories about her surgeries and about the other stuff that was going on in the hospital. She joked with her about Alex and Izzie, and George's Syph nurse.
After an hour or so of them talking and sharing ice cream, they heard the door's lock being turned, indicating Mark was home.
"Hey, McSteamy." Cristina waved.
"I'm your boss Yang." Mark said amused at the intern's behaviour. Sometimes the four of the =m would treat him as their boss, other times as if they've known him since ages. He really didn't understand them. But, they were good surgeons and friends with Meredith, so he didn't mind them.
"Uh, no. Right now, you're my person's roommate, soon to be lover." Cristina said, bluntly, dismissing his boss comment.
"What?" Meredith and Mark shouted together, glancing at each other awkwardly. Meredith did not expected Cristina to be so frank and voice her thoughts so openly.
"Oh please. I give the two of you a month, max, before you are ripping each other's clothes off." Cristina said. She had though bet on two months, she knew they needed the push if they were ever going to act on them.
"Cristina!" Meredith admonished.
"You know I'm right." Cristina said, she said getting to leave. "I'll leave the two of you to it. I need details." She said, facing Meredith.
"Thanks for that." Meredith told her, annoyed. She didn't want any discussion about that at that time. They were living together for god's sakes. It would be too awkward. She like the bubble she and Mark were in.
"Okay, what was that?" Mark asked genuinely confused. That wasn't something he was expecting Cristina to say in that manner.
"Well, apparently, there is a bet going on in the hospital, about when the two of us will end up with each other." Meredith said, as mark came and sat beside her.
"Not whether… when?" Mark was amused. This was new to him; he had a private practice in New York, so stuff like this didn't happen.
"Yup. That's Seattle Grace for you." Meredith exclaimed. She knew how gossip hungry the hospital was and that if anyone heard any 'news' the entire hospital would know in no time. But it was home for her, and she would never change it.
Thankfully, they were able to keep most of the weirdness out and continue talking about other stuff. Mark had ordered Thai on his way from the hospital for dinner, during which mark told Meredith about his surgery that he performed that day. Meredith was badly missing going to work and would have to be content with Mark's tales. He knew that, so was always ready to explain to her the procedures in detail. Mark had also brought some of Ellis's old surgical tapes for Meredith to watch when she was alone at home.
Soon, the week passed, and Meredith was allowed to go to the hospital. Mark was supporting Meredith while she walked, despite her protests. As they exited the elevators, the nurses saw them and started whispering amongst themselves.
"Hey! You're back." Alex exclaimed as he saw the pair enter the intern locker room.
"Yeah, can't wait to start back. It was a boring week." Meredith said. Finally, Mark let her be on her own, as Alex was there and went about his work. He was being overprotective but didn't want Meredith's condition to be adversely affected by coming to work.
Soon, the other interns too came in and greeted Meredith back. Bailey came in her usual form and started ordering them to hurry. Despite that, it was noticeable that she was walking the group slower than the other days, to make sure Meredith was comfortable. Not that she would ever admit to it.
"Grey, today you observe surgeries. Nothing else. Not even charting. Go to the OR board, you know which ones have the gallery, choose the ones you like and sit there. You do not do anything else. Understood?" Bailey told her intern after assigning cases to the rest.
Meredith nodded and walked off towards the board. She saw that Derek had a craniotomy scheduled in ten minutes. The problem was that it wasn't in an OR with a gallery. She was disappointed and was glancing over the rest when Derek came to her.
"Her, first day back?" He asked standing beside her and writing something on the board.
"Yeah. Choosing which surgery to observe." Meredith said, deep in thought.
"I have one in ten minutes." Derek knew that Meredith was interested in neuro, she was also good at it.
"I know. But no gallery." Meredith said sadly.
"Are you doing some other work while watching?" Derek asked her after pondering for a minute. He had an idea, which would only work if she had no other task to complete while observing.
"No, why?"
"Then come to the OR. Don't worry about the gallery." Derek told her smiling.
"Are you sure?" Meredith wasn't sure where Derek was going with this. All other ORs were booked or scheduled for the same time.
"One hundred percent. This case is a bit different. It'll be good for you to watch." Derek gently patted other shoulder and went to prepare for his surgery.
"Okay, thanks. I'll be there." Meredith told him gladly. She would stand and watch for as long as she could. She didn't mind that a bit. She saw that Burke had a surgery just half an hour after Derek's was to end. Thankfully, that OR had a gallery. She didn't think Burke would do whatever Derek was planning to get her to observe nor was she willing to exert her body and stand for two continuous operations. Finally, Webber had a transplant surgery in the evening. It would be three interesting procedures for Meredith to observe and learn. She was excited, and giddily walked to Derek's OR.
As she entered the OR, Derek had just finished scrubbing in. He instructed the nurse to put a chair, just beside where he would be standing. "Come on, sit here." He told her.
"Really, you won't be disturbed?" Meredith was pleasantly surprised. Many surgeons find it disturbing even if someone is standing this close to them while they operate. Any other surgeon, except Mark, would definitely not do something like this.
"Not at all. I'll even be quizzing you. You better be prepared." Derek told, now in attending mode.
"Sure, I did nothing but watch my mom's tapes and study this entire week." Meredith smiled happily. She was ready, and what she studied would also be tested. It was a great opportunity for her.
Meredith met Mark in the lobby after the transplant surgery had ended. It was late and she couldn't wait to get back home. "Hey, how was your first day back?"
"It was amazing. I saw three procedures today. Totally different ones." Meredith said, leaning into Mark as he put his hand around her waist.
"Yeah? That's great." Mark told her smiling. He was glad that Meredith was comfortable her day back. He was worried about her.
"It was. Derek also quizzed me about neurosurgery while he was operating. I was able to assess whatever I studied this week." Meredith added. She was able to correctly answer most of his questions. The ones she couldn't, Derek explained in detailed along with telling her the steps of the procedure he was performing.
"You weren't in the gallery?" Mark asked confused. He thought sitting in the gallery watching surgeries was all she was supposed to do. He had sat down with Bailey, Webber, Addison and Derek the previous day and discussed her return.
"No. I was in the OR." Meredith answered, innocently, not understanding his point of concern.
"Meredith you're supposed to rest-" He was going to have a talk with Derek about this. She shouldn't have been standing in the OR for such a long time.
"I was sitting. The OR he was assigned didn't have a gallery. He met me at the OR board and saw that I wanted to observe his surgery, so he asked the burse for a chair, just beside where he stood." Meredith explained. Mark and Derek were on decent terms after a long time, a small misunderstanding was enough to reignite the animosity. She didn't want that.
"Oh, sorry. I just thought-" Mark told her sheepishly. He should have known that Derek wouldn't do something of that sort. He didn't understand their friendship completely, but as long as Meredith was happy and Derek was caring for her as he did today, Mark was fine with it.
"You got overprotective. I know." Meredith gently patted his chest and snuggled further.
Cristina and Alex saw the interaction between the two from far. "I'm changing my bet from two months to one. They won't be able to keep their hands to each other. Especially, once Mer is fully recovered." Cristina said. She didn't know what the two were talking about, but she did know that sooner rather than later, the two would confront their feelings and get together as a couple.
"Same. I'll let Nurse Betty know our change." Alex told her as he headed upstairs to pull an all nighter.