She jumped in the taxi, "Where to?" Now that was a good question.
She thought fast. Her car was at the hospital, still. She wouldn't have time to shower at home and get into work on time without her car. She always had spare clothes at the hospital. Formal clothes, mind. They'll do. "Seattle Grace Mercy West," she responded. She'd have to slip in early. Hopefully, no one would see her. She could shower at the hospital.
She sat back in her seat in the car, feeling exhausted as she looked out the window. Sooner than she expected, the taxi arrived at the hospital. She didn't realise how close she was to the hospital. Added bonus.
With a quick thanks to the driver, she slid out the cab, her eyes wary of anyone that might see her at this hour as she darted through the hospital, headed straight to her office. She sighed in relief, sure no one had seen her, or at least recognised her. Time. She checked her phone. 07:25. Plenty of time. She checked the message on her phone. A reminder from her Chief of Surgery, Richard Webber.
My office, 08:00.
Crap. Not enough time. She grabbed the dress bag off the back of the couch that sat in her office. Hopefully, not too formal. She looked down at the clothes she was currently wearing. The blouse and jeans from yesterday. Surely better than wearing these again. She needed out of the clothes. If it weren't for her meeting with Richard, it'd be straight into the comfy, indigo scrubs for her. Dress bag in hand, she grabbed her toiletry bag from the drawer in her desk and walked the short distance down the hall to the attending's lounge, thankful this one time for the proximity. Thankful that no one else was in the lounge. Thankful the shower was free.
A sigh escaped her lips at the feel of the hot water against her skin from the shower, relishing in it for a moment before taking probably the quickest shower of her life. Leaving her hair for now, it would take too long to dry, she stepped out the shower, towel wrapped around her as she tamed her hair with a brush, looking far more presentable than ten minutes ago. She checked her phone again. 07:40. She rushed into the blouse and dress pants she'd brought in with her, stepped into her shoes, and threw the used towel into the laundry hamper. Gathering her things, ready to head back to her office, she heard the voices of two of her co-workers drift in from the adjoined lounge.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the shower room, a grin on her face ready to greet whoever was on the other side of the door. April and Arizona. "Hey guys, love to chat, got to go!" she greeted them, as she sped through the room, leaving them no chance to respond as she fled down the hall back to her office, ignoring their questioning looks as they saw her carrying clothes from the day before with her.
A heavy sigh left her lips as she closed the door behind her. Her eyes glancing up to the clock on the wall. 07:55. Crap. It would take a good two minutes speed walking to even get to Richard's office. No time to waste, she grabbed her white coat, put her phone and pens in her pocket and attached her work badge to her upper left pocket. Ready.
Locking the door behind her, she made her way at a quick pace toward Richard's office. Not noticing the familiar gaze on her as she ignored those she walked past, refusing to be late for anything. Especially a meeting with Richard Webber. Not that he'd mind, but she'd rather not have to try and explain any lateness to him. He was practically a father to her.
He shook his head. He must be imagining things. That can't have been her. But it is. They may not have spent much time with each other, but he could never mistake her face. Her body. He took out his phone, and the post-it he'd grabbed before leaving his apartment. Crap. He can't remember her name. Ignoring this slight bump in the road, he opened his messages and decided to send her one, Hey, you got ready quick.
He was walking with the new head of ortho, Dr. Lincoln, towards the auditorium, as Dr. Webber had directed, when he saw her. He'd been here before, a few years ago for a surgery, and was still able to navigate his way to the auditorium easily. The room was empty when they arrived, so he made small talk with Dr. Lincoln while they'd waited. "You know, call me Link," the doctor said to him.
"Call me Derek then, Link," he grinned at him. They both turned and looked to wards the back of the room as they heard the door to the auditorium open. Derek couldn't keep his eyes off her, if he could just see her name on her coat…
Knocking on the open door, she grinned as she spoke, "Good Morning, Chief Webber! Dr. Bailey," she nodded towards the woman who'd been a teacher to her since she started her intern year, just over 6 years ago, the Deputy Chief of Surgery.
"Dr. Grey!" Chief Webber grinned back at her, "right on time! We have to be quick; the new interns start at half eight and I need us all ready in the auditorium. We have new members to our staff I'd like to introduce to yourselves before we go. They should be waiting for us at the auditorium any moment, I just sent them down to HR for their badges," he spoke as he led Dr. Grey and Dr. Bailey out of his office and across the walkway towards the auditorium, a look exchanged between Grey and Bailey with a small laugh at the Chief's enthusiasm. As they walked, other attendings, heads of their respective specialities joined them. April Kepner, head of trauma. Arizona Robbins, head of foetal surgery. Alex Karev, head of paediatric surgery. Maggie Pierce, head of cardio-thoracic surgery. They expected to meet the new department heads in the auditorium, head of neurosurgery and head of orthopaedic surgery. Meredith's phone buzzed in her pocket with a chime. She pulled it out quickly to check she wasn't being paged. A message from an unknown number. She didn't give it another thought and put her phone back. That could wait.
As they filed into the auditorium, her attention was elsewhere as she spoke with Maggie Pierce, her half-sister on her mother's side. As usual, Maggie was pushing for answers from the night before. Maggie had seen her leave with him. Maggie knew what happened when you mixed Meredith and tequila. Meredith deflected her questions, wanting to know if Maggie had found anyone after she'd left. Maggie knew her tactics but played along anyway, talking about her drink with Avery.
Speaking with Maggie, she didn't register the eyes watching her from the moment she entered the auditorium. He couldn't take his eyes of her, but he had to. He looked to Richard Webber, giving him a firm handshake, "Good morning, Chief Webber."
"Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Lincoln! Good morning! Let me introduce you to our current department heads before the rest of the residents and attendings arrive!" Looking towards his department heads with a sigh as they spoke amongst themselves, he cleared his throat and they all looked to him, unaware of the slight shift in the atmosphere as Maggie choked slightly in amusement, quick to gather herself as she recognised one of the men stood in front of them, Meredith stood in silent shock for a moment before also composing herself. Dr. Webber continued, "Dr. Atticus Lincoln, our new head of orthopaedic surgery, and Dr. Derek Shepherd, our new head of neurosurgery, meet my dream team," the name he used for his top attendings earned him a few chuckles as he introduced them one by one, each taking their time to shake hands with the two new attendings.
"And this is our Head of General Surgery, Dr. Meredith Grey," he introduced her last, after Maggie. By this point, Meredith had managed to clear her expression of any trace of surprise. Because he was here. But she was professional. She offered her hand to Dr. Lincoln and then to Dr. Shepherd, muttering a welcome. He held her hand for a moment longer than was necessary before releasing it. The noise of the new interns entering the auditorium caused her gaze to break from his, so did the nudge she felt in her side from Maggie.
She turned towards the noise as Maggie grabbed her arm, muttering in her ear, "you didn't say he was going to be working here!" They went to stand beside Richard on the stage.
"He didn't tell me he was going to be working here, there really wasn't very much talking…" she muttered back quiet enough so she was sure only Maggie could hear her. Her eyes glanced over to where Dr. Shepherd was stood and saw him looking back at her, only for his gaze to drop and look beyond at the sea of people in front of them as he clocked her gaze.
"Welcome, everyone!" Richard announced to the auditorium with a grin, "Welcome to Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital! You'll see we have two new additions to our leadership team, our heads of Neurosurgery and Orthopaedic surgery, Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Lincoln, both were unable to attend last night's mixer so I thought best to put names to faces before we begin today. We'll start with a quick tour around the hospital…" Richard's speech continued, each of the attendings on stage with him assessing the look of the new interns as he spoke, until multiple pagers went off, a sign of carnage in the pit.
Thankful for the escape, Meredith left with Maggie and April, whose pagers had also signalled to the incoming trauma, and they made their way down to the pit, followed by the new orthopaedic head, Lincoln. After checking the ETA of the ambulance, Meredith and Maggie, the only two not yet in scrubs, rushed to go change, leaving April to take Lincoln to the pit.
"I'm not talking about this right now, Maggie," she said to her sister, but with a grin, as Pierce pressed her for more information, "I don't know any more about him than you do at this point!" She laughed and added on, "Okay, maybe more but not now!"
Maggie laughed with her as they made their way down to the pit, each collecting and putting on gown and gloves before meeting back with April and Lincoln at the doors to the emergency room. April looked questioningly towards the two sisters, "Okay, what's happening? What have I missed?"
"We'll tell you later!" They both said in unison as the ambulance arrived in the bay, and they got to work.