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Chapter 8: "Walk this Way"

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Meredith was laughing, which was all he really wanted. "Baseball? Listen, I know you're a jock and you do the whole … boy jock thing, but what makes you think that I want to go to a baseball game? Does Seattle even have a baseball team?"

"Seriously?" Alex stood, stunned. He gave an exaggerated point to his Seattle Mariners shirt that he wore.

"I'm kidding."

"Get up, we're going." Alex tugged on Meredith's hand. When she didn't budge, he warned her, "Listen, you're going whether I have to drag you kicking and screaming. I don't intend to waste my day off."

"It's my day off, "Meredith said. "You're hijacking it."

"You going to tell your daddy?" he asked with a smirk.

"I can't wear these clothes." She pointed to her jeans and sweater.

And for once, Alex agreed with her. "No, you can't. Don't you have some sort of tank top in your car-"

"My car, at the hospital?" she asked. "Izzie and George are at the hospital, so if we could just drop by the house," she didn't get to finish because Alex had already disappeared into his room. "Was I talking? Am I even here?"

She followed him and pinched the tender part of the back of his upper arm. "Damnit, what the hell was that for!?" Alex jumped. Meredith smiled, completely proud of herself. "Here, wear this," Alex shoved a white ribbed tank top her way. "It's from when I was in high school … and from when I was … smaller than I am now. I'll buy you a shirt when we get to the game."

Meredith smiled. "Seriously? Are you afraid if you take me home, I'll never come back?" But she was already stripping herself of her sweater and pulling the tank top over her head.

"I don't want to take the chances that one of your roommates stayed home today." He threw a zip-up hoodie her way and put on his aviator sunglasses. For a fleeting moment, Meredith was struck by how handsome he looked in that moment. She shrugged off the feeling and let him lead her to his car. "What did you say to them anyway?"

Meredith looked at him, puzzled. "Crap!" she spit out. "I never answered their calls!"

Alex looked at her incredulously. "And there's no search party out?" he asked.

Meredith shrugged and took her phone out of her bag and turned it on. "I have 12 messages and 27 text messages," she told Alex.

"Well, let's hear how much your friends love you." Alex nodded at her phone.

Meredith looked apprehensive, but nonetheless called her voicemail and put it on speaker.

"You have 12 unheard voice messages. Message 1:"

"Hey, Meredith, it's Izzie. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. Call us if you need anything," Izzie's voice sounded soothing and worried. Meredith closed her eyes, knowing that she should have called her. She deleted the message and moved onto the next one.

"Mer, it's me." It was Cristina. "Listen, this whole daddy thing, you should just ignore it." There was silence for a moment. "I'm dating Burke. There. It's your turn. Bye."

Meredith's eyes grew wide at Cristina's announcement, while Alex nearly swerved off the road. "Don't erase that one!" he practically screamed.

"Hey, Meredith, it's George. I'm sure you already knew that, because … well, anyway, you can call me and talk to me. I'm here for you if you nee-" Meredith didn't wait for the rest of the message to delete it.

"Hi. Meredith. It's Izzie." Izzie's voice was now trying to sound supportive and trying not to sound angry. "We're all at the house. Waiting for you, so if you want to come home, that'd be great." Izzie's call was followed by a couple of hang ups, which Meredith deleted.

"Merry, it's Dad. I should be off tomorrow early in the evening. I'm sorry that I couldn't stay last night," his voice sounded pained, and Alex's heart jumped for the guy. "Call me when you can, sweetheart."

"Meredith." Meredith's head snapped down at the phone, wondering what he was doing calling her. "I'm not sure what's going on, with your … father and you. I just want to make sure that you're handling this okay. Please, call me." It was Derek. Alex could feel his blood boiling. Hadn't he told that guy to leave her alone?

The last message played. "Hey, fellow dirty mistress. I was wondering where and when I could pick you up for that dinner." Alex could hear the shit-eating grin that Mark Sloan wore over the phone. He wanted to groan, do something, but his message was making Meredith smile, which was a change from the rest of the messages. "I'm staying at the W, if you'd like to stop by."

Meredith was giggling as she hung up her voicemail. "He's got balls, you have to give him that." Alex silently agreed, but would never forthrightly express his opinion of the guy. He was a little to smarmy for Meredith, in Alex's opinion, but he decided to keep that to himself.

Alex was especially silent as Meredith called Cristina, Izzie, and George in that order to tell them that she was fine, she was taking the day off, she was sorry for worrying them, and she'd be around tomorrow, maybe.

After a quick call to the Chief, Meredith settled into her seat. "So what do you do at a baseball game?" she asked.

Alex tried his best hold back his smile and appear to be frustrated with her. "You're such a girl, Grey."

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"Should I take you to your dad's house?" Alex asked. Meredith was curled up in the seat next to him, wearing her newly-purchased Seattle Mariners jersey.

Meredith nodded, absentmindedly. The two rode together in a comfortable silence after a fun day at the ballpark. When he pulled up to Chief Webber's house, Meredith remained in her seat. "I don't know who it's harder on, me or him." She stared at the house thoughtfully. Something in her voice told Alex that he didn't have to respond, that she just needed to say it. Meredith looked at him. "Are you coming in?" she asked.

He wanted to, but he thought better of it. "Naw, you and your dad should probably talk, or something."

Meredith nodded. She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned across the front seat of Alex's truck and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Alex." Before he could respond, she had disappeared out of his truck and was already running up the walkway to her dad's house.

And, suddenly, his truck felt very cold and empty.