Author's Note:
MAJOR Spoilers for the Station 19 Season 3 Finale.
Turn back now if you don't want to be spoilered!
Also, this is a friendship fic, and doesn't contain…
My usual lesbian debauchery. Just so you know.
Enjoy it, and see you round in the reviews.
bobbiejelly
99 Problems
Meredith Grey and Andy Herrera talk about how their lives have at least 99 similar problems.
Grey's Anatomy and Station 19 Crossover from S19 S03-E16. CW: Mentions of Suicide, Death.
Extended Scene. General Fanfiction. Friendship. Hurt-Comfort. Rated M for Mature Themes.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE STATION 19 FINALE FROM MAY 15, 2020. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Meredith Grey & Andy Herrera. New Friends. Grief/Mourning. Non-Romantic. Non-Sexual.
"I got mommy issues and daddy issues and marital issues and I might have some unexpected family problems to boot…" Andy Herrera tries to explain to Meredith Grey in the Plant Room.
Andy's half-sure that Meredith Grey will run away from all of her stupid sad story stuff. Hell, she's already nearly smashed her halfway down a hallway earlier.
"Hah, you're telling me about it," Meredith only laughs, and Andy doesn't know her well enough to get why this is funny.
"Was your dad potentially an abusive asshole?" Andy asks her.
"Father figure problems? Daddy Issues? Which one are we talking about here?" Meredith asks her with a chuckle.
At Andy's confused expression Meredith Grey just continues.
"My biological dad Thatcher Grey needed my liver which I gave him for my currently tragically dead step-sister Lexie Grey. And uncle, Richard Webber is the only father figure I can ever remember? They've both been asses and alcoholics. A bit abusive, at times, but not entirely,"
"God, and I thought I had it bad with just this one," Andy sighs.
"Also my biological dad is dead. I heard about your dad dying. I'm sorry by the way. My best friend Cristina once said that there's a dead dad club that you're not in it until you're in it. Well, I guess we're both in it now. Welcome to the club even though I know it sucks," Meredith sighs.
"Well, I'm grieving hard for him but I'm trying to figure out all this and I might need to talk about something else that's on my mind…" Andy trails off talking to Meredith.
"What's up with your mom?" Meredith asks her, than, guessing correctly what Andy needed.
"I think she might have killed herself," Andy says to Meredith, for the second time, since the first time she said this she was smacking into Meredith and Meredith was hugging her and she wasn't really sure what to think of all that at the time.
"If it helps, my mother, Ellis Grey, tried to kill herself too. She didn't die though. And in retrospect, she didn't actually want to die; she just wanted to get Richard Webber's attention to get him back after he didn't leave his wife for her when she left my father, Thatcher," Meredith explains with a shrug.
"Are you saying my mother might not have died?" Andy asks her.
"Well, I don't think it's my place to give you that kind of hope or not, though I hope, for your sake, she is if you want her to be, even if it's just wishful thinking at this point. I'm just saying that I know what it feels like to have had a mom try to kill themselves, or sort-of, at one point or another…" Meredith trails off at the memory.
"What if I have unexpected family members or acquaintances I have not been in touch with, for years? What if I don't even like them at first?" Andy asks her.
"Well, I sort-of hated Lexie Grey at first. The fact that she took out my old friend's appendix didn't help much back then. But I grew to love her and I was devastated when she was killed in a plane crash that I experienced along with her dead love Mark Sloan," Meredith sighs a bit.
"You were in a plane crash?" Andy asks her, impressed even though she walks through burning buildings for a living every day.
"Yeah, and a shooting, and a bombing, and a fire, and a drowning, and some other stuff. But that's just the nitty-gritty details," Meredith smiles as if she were thinking about it all… Fondly? Andy at least understands a bit maybe because she often likes to tell stories about her saves, too.
"You know, once of the coolest days of my life was when I almost died in a storage space fire. My now-husband came in to rescue me, but then he got all these pains and that's why he's in surgery with your new sister-in-law, Amelia Shepherd now. And then my dad saved us all. And I'm still glad that he did, but it's a whole lot of messy. But I really do like disasters…" Andy smiles.
"You know, it's been a while since I've met someone so dark and twisty as myself," Meredith says to her. "And for what it's worth, your husband sounds like a 'knight in shining… whatever' for you, even if that didn't end up working out for him," Meredith offers.
"I don't know if it's too soon. We got married to each other to show my dad before he died because he had cancer but actually he died falling through the damn roof. Is getting married to only one witness stupid?" Andy asks Meredith.
"I got married on a blue post-it note not too far from here with no one else but me and Derek. And then my intern friend George got hit by a bus, or he already got hit by a bus but we didn't know it was him yet, or either way, no I don't think that it's stupid," Meredith rambles a lot.
"There's a lot of fighting in my marriage right now," Andy sighs. "He's not always good to me. Sometimes I feel like he's trying to tell me what to feel, or discounting me. But the problem is that I like it, because the treatment, it just feels so familiar," Andy finally realizes as she says this.
"Sometimes we let bad love be better than no love, if we're lonely and hurting," Meredith sighs at her own memories. "Derek couldn't pick between me and Addison, and then Me and Rose, and then Me and Some Other Intern he kissed in Washington, DC, once almost right before he died. And I still loved him through all that, even if I wasn't always his one, or I felt that way," Meredith reflects for the first time in this light.
"What do you think, now?" Andy asks her.
"Well, I guess I hope I finally find someone to love me in a good way," Meredith tries to sound hopeful.
"And what about your mommy and daddy issues, did that all work out for you?" Andy asks her.
"Well, I mean, my biological dad died, you knew that. And my mom died while I was temporarily dead in a coma, but I saw her briefly in purgatory or in the afterlife while I also saw my dead dog… It was nice, but I don't recommend near-death experiences for that. And now I only have Richard, who almost died a while ago and called me 'Ellis Grey' in a hallucination," Meredith says.
"I get what you mean about the visions," Andy explains. "I got them about my dead best friend Ryan Tanner, who got shot in front of me. And of other dead people I know. And also of Jack who is not dead. All while I was dreaming or who knows," Andy shrugs again.
"How do you cope?" Meredith asks her, both to see if Andy has a plan now, and also to see if she has any better ideas than her not-so-swell coping strategies.
"Well, I guess I drink and talk to boys, and that doesn't always end well," Andy sighs as she remembers how she sometimes screwed her best friend Jack in these situations, but at least she didn't the other day. "You?" Andy asks her.
"Tequila. My other half-sister Maggie Pierce does it too. I've been shooting tequila since college and I used to screw boys left and right and I guess I've only calmed down since Derek, and after Derek, I've dated but I'm less promiscuous than before, at least slightly, mostly for my kids' sake," Meredith answers.
"Do the plants help? Amelia says the plants help her?" Andy asks hopefully.
"Well, you tell me. At least I feel not bad in this room and it's nice to open up to you now. It's been a long time since I talked about some of those old scars. It's like I got 99 problems and a 'Derek' ain't one anymore, except he still is, you know?" Meredith says, surprising even herself.
"Yeah, it's nice. The talking about the feelings without the drunkenness and the hangovers and the dirty bar bathrooms. Maybe we could do it more often, seeing as I'll be around the hospital more taking care of Sullivan," Andy suggests to her.
"Sure, you just bump into me whenever you want. It seems like this is how we've always met in the past. Other than you coming in holding onto a patient," Meredith chuckles.
"Well, it looks like we're a pretty good match. It's like I got 99 problems and a 'Dad' ain't one anymore, except he still is just like your dead Derek is to you," Andy chuckles right back.
"We can totally hang out sometime, not at the hospital as well, if you want. To just talk, I mean," Meredith offers.
"Sure, and you can give me all the good gossip about your love life," Andy laughs as she promises to fill Meredith in on her relationship woes in the future.
"What are you going to do now, about your mom?" Meredith asks her, seriously.
"Well, I think my aunt might know something," Andy offers a limited answer.
"I once had an aunt, Marie Cerone, who exposed a serious misogynistic asshole Harper Avery as an abuser of women," Meredith offers as if that might help a little.
"You know, we really do have so much more in common than we originally thought. You're like, the surgeon counterpart of me!" Andy exclaims finally.
"Yeah, and you're the firefighter counterpart of me," Meredith giggles.
"God, out 99 problems could be like a sitcom. Or maybe a TV series, for all we know," Andy offers.
"Nah. I don't think anyone would even ever watch a medical drama about us, much less a firefighter spin-off. But then again, you're pretty enough to star on a TV show. If you were the star of a firefighter show, I would call it 'Andy's Anatomy,' or something" Meredith laughs.
"Yeah, well, you're pretty enough to be a TV star also. I would call your show something like "Hospital 19" because we bring all the patients from our Station 19 to Grey-Sloan Memorial," Andy laughs.
"Good thing that's never gonna happen, ever," Meredith high fives Andy who returns her high-five back.
"For sure! Andy exclaims. We got 99 problems…" Andy starts to say to Meredith.
"But a TV show or two it just ain't one!" Meredith finishes with a flare.
And the laughter and friendship that followed those statements seemed to make it just a little less hard for both of them.
***** FIN *****
Author's Note:
Hope you enjoyed this non-romantic fic that just leans into the fourth wall until it almost breaks.
In other news, feel free to check out my other Station 19 Fics: Seattle Fire Queers
Other Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery Fics: MerAdd My Heart 3
And other GA/PP Fics: MerAdd My Heart 3
See you round in the comments, friends.
Have a great one, hope you enjoyed the S19 finale like I did!
bobbiejelly
bobbiejelly