I found out last weekend that my summer camp won't be running this year. I'm very sad about it and have channeled my feelings into creating camp for our favorite doctors. This one's dedicated to all the campers and counselors out there. I'm not sure what sort of audience is out there for this type of AU, so be sure to review, follow, or fav if you'd like to see more!
xx Lissa
Meredith woke with a killer hangover to the sound of her phone ringing and reached over to her nightstand to grab it. She groaned in annoyance when her hand didn't find her nightstand in the small bedroom of her Hanover apartment. Instead it met the warm skin of a man's back. Slowly, the events of the night before came back to her. She and Jackson had gone out for one last night of fun in Boston before leaving for their last summer as camp counselors. She was a bit surprised, as it had been a couple years since the last time they hooked up, but at least it wouldn't be as awkward as when she'd brought home random men from the bar in her college town.
Damnit. Meredith thought to herself after opening her eyes to see that the man she was in bed with had fair skin and a head full of dark curly hair, neither of which described her best friend. Her head was pounding from too much tequila, but she pulled herself up and looked around the room for the source of the noise, hoping she could silence the tell-tale device before her companion woke up.
The ringing stopped just as Meredith noticed her little black dress crumpled up in the corner and her leather jacket a few feet away. She carefully pulled herself away from her latest one night stand and started to put her clothes back on. As Meredith struggled to reach the zipper behind her, her phone started ringing again. She dug it out from her jacket pocket, read Jackson's name, and ducked into the bathroom to answer.
"Hey Jackson. I'm so sorry. I'll be there soon." Meredith hit her speakerphone button, set the phone on the counter and pulled her panties on under the short, tight dress while he spoke.
"Mer, we were supposed to leave for the airport ten minutes ago. Let me know where you are and I'll come pick you up."
Meredith looked around the bathroom for any sign of what hotel she had spent the night in. "Okay, gimme a minute." she said before struggling her way through zipping up her dress and taking the phone off speaker.
Meredith opened the bathroom door slowly, making every effort not to wake the man sleeping in the bed, and walked over to the desk. Thankfully the stationary pad listed the name of the hotel.
"I'm at the Four Seasons."
"Of course you are." Jackson laughed. "Which one?"
Meredith groaned and made her way to the window, pulling the curtain aside to be met with the harsh glare of sunlight and a view of Boston Public Garden.
"The one by the Commons." she whispered, closing the curtains and turning to look for her shoes. "No need to come get me, I can just get a car to the airport."
"That's ridiculous, Mer. Just grab me a double latte while you wait. It's pretty much on the way." Jackson told her. "But I expect you to be downstairs and ready when I get there. Oh! And maybe one of those Salmon bagels."
"Jackson, I'm not ordering you room service." Meredith quipped. "I'll be walking out the door as soon as I find my shoes so get moving."
"As you wish." Jackson said with a laugh before hanging up.
Meredith sighed and stowed her phone away in her jacket pocket before grabbing the one boot she had located from the floor near the bed and scanning for the other.
"If you're looking for your shoe, it's under the desk." a tired voice came from behind her.
Meredith jumped at the intrusion and mentally cursed herself for not sneaking out more quietly.
"Thank you." she replied curtly before sitting down at the desk and pulling both boots onto her feet.
Meredith stood and moved towards the door, but something caused her to pause. She stood a few feet from the door and turned to look back at the man who was now sitting up in bed. The messy dark curls complemented a pair of striking blue eyes and the half of his physique that she could see made Meredith wish she could remember their activities from the night before.
"It was nice to meet you…" she trailed off, not remembering the man's name.
"Derek." he provided, standing from the bed and extending a hand for her to shake. A smirk crossed his face as Meredith scanned the rest of his body before finding his eyes again.
"Right. Nice to meet you, Derek."
"Any chance I could convince you to stay for breakfast?" Derek asked.
Meredith shook her head. "Y'know Derek, I had a great time with you last night, but I have somewhere to be today, so it will just have to be a one time thing. Enjoy the rest of your trip."
Without allowing him to say another word, Meredith turned on her heel and left the room in search of Jackson's double latte.
True to her word, when Jackson Avery pulled up outside in his black Lexus GX, Meredith was waiting outside with two cups of coffee. She slid into the seat next to him and placed them in the cup holders between them before taking two more cups from the kind valet she'd been chatting with.
"Thanks, Jake." Meredith smiled as Jake shut the door and Meredith handed one of the cups of coffee to Jackson.
"Moving on to Jake already?" Jackson teased, handing Meredith a pair of oversized sunglasses in exchange for his latte. "You and Eric looked pretty cozy when I left you last night."
"Derek." Meredith muttered. She slid the sunglasses onto her face and pressed her large cup of black coffee to her lips.
Jackson laughed. "You remembered his name. I'm impressed, Mer. Did you get his number, too?"
"Oh please. I only know his name because I got caught sneaking out."
"Wow. Someone's losing her touch."
"Says the man who always made breakfast the morning after."
"That was only ever for you, Mer." Jackson told her. "And only because I knew it was the only home-cooked meal you'd get all day."
Meredith laughed and knew she couldn't argue his point, so she chose to nurse her coffee in silence the rest of the short drive to the airport.
Meredith and Jackson had been best friends for as long as either could remember. Their mothers worked together as surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital and they both had absent fathers, so they'd shared a very small social circle of children who were regularly abandoned at the hospital daycare until two or three in the morning. They'd started going to summer camp together before starting sixth grade and attended the same elite Boston high school. They'd spend their weekends sneaking in and out of each other's houses, not that it had been much work as they'd pretty much raised themselves while their mothers' careers took off.
Jackson Avery had been the king of the Boston elite teenagers. While his mother was jetting off to Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Barcelona, Jackson was hosting the entire school at his South End home. He was their senior class president, captain of the baseball team, homecoming king, and even managed to win prom king four years in a row. There was just something about Jackson Avery that was magnetic, drawing in just about anyone. Perhaps that charisma was what kept the much less social Meredith Grey by his side. Meredith lived in a more modest two-bedroom condo with her mother. Ellis Grey never desired to entertain, and the only person she ever did have over was her best friend, Catherine Avery, who always brought Jackson along to entertain Meredith. More nights than not during their high school years, Meredith would wake up in Jackson's bed. Despite their closeness, the two best friends never had a formalized romantic relationship. They talked about it once, but decided they were better off as friends who sometimes had sex.
As the two lived their separate college lives - Meredith in Hanover, New Hampshire and Jackson in Boston, the hook-ups slowed but they stayed best friends and continued to tell each other everything and spend their summers working at camp. Meredith had never really considered herself the camp counselor type, but where Jackson went, Meredith went. Just as there was something special that drew her to Jackson, there was something about Camp Grace that just seemed to fit perfectly into Meredith's life.
Camp Grace was also where eleven-year-old Jackson and Meredith met Alex Karev and Cristina Yang, who were currently impatiently bickering on a bench outside of Boston Logan International Airport.
Jackson pulled up to the curb and Meredith slid out of the front seat and gave them a smile before climbing into the back seat.
"Lose your pants, Mer?" Alex teased upon taking in her walk of shame-worthy ensemble. She shot him a glare before pulling the door shut.
"What part of 'one bag' didn't make sense to you?" Jackson asked Cristina as he rearranged the trunk full of camping gear, duffel bags, and backpacks to make everything fit.
"You don't get to complain when you show up late." Cristina told him before climbing in next to Meredith.
"That's Mer's fault." Jackson chided before slamming the door shut and getting back in the car. "But she brought you both coffee to make up for it."
Cristina held her hand forward expectantly and Jackson sighed as he passed her one of the two full cups of coffee. Alex laughed and grabbed the other one and the group set off on the four hour drive from Boston to Camp Grace in upstate New York.
It had been a tradition of theirs since the summer after senior year of high school, when as junior counselors they made the same drive from Boston up to camp. They stopped about half an hour away from camp and set up their own tents for the night - one for the girls and one for the guys. They built a campfire and Jackson and Alex cooked hotdogs for them all while Mer and Cristina made the s'mores and called it cooking.
One the tents were up, Jackson got to work building the fire while Alex strung up his hammock, knowing that Meredith would climb into their tent in the middle of the night claiming she couldn't sleep and would eventually fall asleep with Jackson, pushing Alex out of his own tent.
Sure enough, at 2 AM, Meredith Grey climbed out of her own tent to find Alex sitting by the fire.
"Can't sleep?" she asked, moving to sit next to him.
Alex laughed and shook his head. "No. I've just learned that if I wait up for you to decide where you're sleeping I won't be as disappointed when I get kicked out of my own tent."
Meredith shot Alex a sympathetic smile. "I can go back to my own tent if you don't want to share with Cristina."
"Good night, Mer." Alex smiled back before going to grab their bucket of water to extinguish the fire. He watched as Meredith climbed into the tent with Jackson before dumping the water on the fire and making himself comfortable in his hammock for the night.