A/N: Okay, so here it is, the new chapter. And I really, really, have to apologize that it's up soooo late!! But unfortunately it's not always that easy to co-write a story, especially since we're living extremely (!) far away from each other... I (Vivi) live in France and Keet lives in Australia... kinda getting a picture of it xD
So yeah, back to the chapter. I really hope you guys like it!! We worked quite hard on it, and... we added one of our fave characters!! I hope you all like the way we're going, though I won't tell you too much 'bout it ;).. C'mon, there has to be some mystery 'round it... okay, it's not that much mystery... but yeah.
Okay, I'm gonna stop rambling and let you read the chapter in peace. Just one thing I have to say: WHERE THE HELL WERE THE MD MOMENTS IN THE LAST EPISODE!! C'MON, ONE KISS, THAT'S NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK, IS IT??
Disclaimer: If we owned Grey's Anatomy, because if we did...then Meredith and Derek would have gotten more screen time in the 2 hour season premiere...and that would have made lots of people happy...but sadly...Shonda is a wonderful ruiner...and for that...we all love her...somehow
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Derek let out a sigh of relief when he saw Meredith standing at the nurse's station, alone. He made a step towards her, but Bailey stood in his way.
"Uh uh. I think you've done enough already... Just leave her in peace." she sighed looking over to her. "She's doing the best she can. She's trying to repair the damage you did. Don't break her again." At those words she left him to his thoughts.
He looked over to her, she seemed peaceful, yet broken... shattered even. He was about to make his way over to her but as Bailey's words echoed through his mind.
Just leave her in peace... don't break her again.
He had to talk to her, tell her that staying with Addison was no more than a big mistake. He had to tell her so many things... mostly that he was in love with her, that he wanted to stay with her. But he already broke her. Maybe it was just too late to pick all the pieces up... maybe he should 'just leave her in peace', give her time and space to get back to the... not so shattered Meredith.
He thought it over once again and then decided it was best for her to go. So he turned away and left her to it.
Right then Meredith turned her head over to where he stood, she had seen the whole scene but didn't want him to know. She found herself with little tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched him walk away. As much as it hurt not talking to him, actually talking to him was a lot worse. She was really glad that Bailey sent him away; she wouldn't have known how to deal with him. Should she ignore him? Listen to him? Maybe even forgive him? She had no idea. But the only thing she actually felt like doing was to run away. Run away from him, Addison and this... messed up situation... Run away.
/
"Hey Derek. How are you going?" Addison asked in her usual cheerful voice.
"Hmm" he shrugged, clearly annoyed.
"Okay, so I actually thought that we should... buy a house somewhere actually in Seattle and not somewhere in the jungle."
"Jungle?" he mocked her "Did you just say my trailer's in the jungle?!" he stifled a laugh.
"Well, it's surrounded by trees, so that kinda makes it a jungle." she smiled. "My point is, I don't wanna live there. It's far away from the hospital and in the middle of nowhere, I wanna live somewhere."
"I'm definitely not moving out of the trailer. And besides I like the solitude." he smiled thinking back to all the times he was there with Meredith. Solitude with Meredith included sex and quiet, non-awkward moments when it seemed that nothing in the world could possibly go wrong. She never had a problem with the trailer, she even liked it. She was the exact opposite of Addison. "You'll just have to get used to it."
"I'm not gonna get used to it!" she snapped. "If we want this marriage to work we should start to compromise, Derek. Please try to save what's left. I think it's worth it." she begged him.
"I'm gonna try and save it; but I won't change who I am, I've done that for long enough. So no, I'm not moving out and buying some stupid townhouse just because you don't like the trailer." he frowned dryly. "Now, if you would excuse me, please, I have a surgery to get ready for." he said professionally.
/
"Dr. Bailey" Meredith called. "Can I talk to you?"
"Yeah, but hurry up. I'm busy."
"I... I saw what you did before. The thing that you... sent Der- err Dr. Shepherd away. And well..." she rambled twisting her hands.
"Grey, just say what you wanna say. I don't really like listening to... all of this." she said pointing out to her.
"Thank you." she blurted out. "Just... thank you."
"Hmm... go back to work now." she sighed trying to imagine what this poor girl was going through. "Finish your charts."
"Couldn't I scrub in? I saw that you have an appendectomy later." She smiled pleadingly, hoping to do something else other than those boring charts she'd been doing all day. She'd even prefer to go into the pit, at least she was pretty sure Derek wouldn't be there.
"I already have O'Malley scrubbing in on it." she sighed, a sympathetic sadness crossing her features. But Meredith knew that she didn't want her to scrub in anytime soon, not before she'd decide she's over him.
/
"Ugh! I'm going crazy!!" Meredith frowned doing what felt like the hundredth chart for that day.
"I'd go insane without surgeries... told you it was a bad idea to sleep with your boss." Christina smiled.
"Just shut up! You're getting surgeries all the time. I'm not even in the pit... I'm just... charting! I want a surgery, I want a scalpel in my hand, I wanna cut someone open! I wanna do the same stuff I'm always doing!" She yelled before sighing sadly remembering her last surgery... with Derek. "I miss him."
"I know." Cristina said, her voice suddenly a lot softer. Friendlier. They didn't do the whole talking thing. Both of them lived under clouds of avoidance.
"I'm looking for Dr. Shepherd…Montgomery-Shepherd. Have you seen her?" a man-candied man asked. He was tall, had short hair, blue eyes, and an extremely arrogant smirk on his face.
"Wish I hadn't..." Meredith frowned.
"Huh?" the guy asked quite confused, as his featured turned into a cute sexy confused look.
"We don't know where she is." Cristina interjected for Meredith.
"Oh, well then... if you do see her then please tell her that I'm looking for her." he said turning away from them.
"And you are…?" Cristina said, slightly amused that this hot guy thought he could walk through SGH and act liked he owned the place.
"Dr. Mark Sloan." he called over his shoulder, a smiled flashing across his face as he pronounced his name. 'Arrogant.' Meredith thought.
"Mark Sloan... I think I've heard that name somewhere..." Meredith said trying to remember why it sounded so familiar to her.
"Well, he's one of the best plastic surgeons in the country." Christina pointed out.
"I think I heard it somewhere else..." she said still trying to figure it out. "Whatever. It's not that important." she said going back to her work. "I so need a surgery!"
/
"Hey Derek!" he heard a voice from behind calling him. He froze when he recognized it, his best friend…or rather... ex-best friend.
"Mark. What are you doing here?" he turned around to face him, a smile so fake you could see it was fake amongst those 'Gucci' handbags in Bali.
"Talking to my best friend." he smiled as if nothing had happened. "So, how've you been lately?"
"Oh, suddenly you care about how I feel?!" he said dryly. "Sorry…you're kinda late for that." he frowned walking away.
"Come on Derek. Will you ever forgive me?" he said, chasing him. "I need my best friend back."
"Should've thought about that earlier." Derek snapped still walking away from him; this time Mark didn't follow him.
Addison was just walking towards the elevator when she saw someone familiar standing there, and someone else, also familiar, walking away. She took a second to put the pieces together, but then turned around in shock. Though it was too late, Mark had already spotted her.
"Addison. Wait!"
What?" she said, acting like she couldn't care less about him; she was just afraid Derek would see her talking to him.
"Wow... everyone seems ecstatically happy to see me." he teased sarcastically.
"You didn't really expect a VIP treatment and red carpet arrival or something like that, did you?" she frowned. "I came here to save my marriage. Because I love Derek. And you're not really helping. You do know he's extremely jealous."
"We both know that you don't love him. And we also both know that he loves that slutty intern that I've heard about all the way back in New York. You didn't mention him once in the past months. You don't love him."
"I do." she said looking down to her Manolo-clad feet.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me you love him. If you can do that I will be outta here as soon as you wish for me to leave. I'll be gone…just say the word."
"I... I" she stuttered looking him straight in his light blue eyes. "I..."
"Hmm... that's what I thought." he said walking past her. "Call whenever you feel like it." he added before disappearing, a small smile playing on Addison's face, much to her own disgust.
/
Derek saw Meredith standing at the nurse's station, she was still doing her charting. He thought back to this morning, what Bailey had said. But he still decided to go over to her. Just talking to her, hearing her voice, would make his day.
"Meredith." he smiled slightly not really knowing how he was supposed to be acting in front of her.
"Dr. Shepherd." she acknowledged him, but got straight back to her work.
"You know you can call me Derek." he let the typical McDreamy look etch into his features "So, I realized you've been charting a lot lately. Maybe you'd like to get back in the OR."
"No thanks. Bailey won't let me scrub in anyway. And I'm fine here." she frowned barely looking at him.
"Think about it. I'd let you scrub in." he smiled at her and fought against the urge to let his thumb walk up and down her cheek.
"Hey." Mark smiled leaning against the nurse's station, looking at both Meredith and Derek, but none of them really acknowledged him. Both were two busy. Meredith trying her hardest to ignore him, and Derek trying his hardest to get a moment of her attention.
"Meredith, just think about it." Derek sighed, still hoping she'd accept his offer.
"No thanks. I don't need your help to scrub in on a surgery. By the way, I don't even like neuro." she snapped at him, while Mark started to put the pieces together.
"You love neuro."
"Oh! You're the slutty intern!" Mark suddenly interrupted them, and they both turned around to face him.
"What?" Meredith asked in shock, while Derek clenched his fist.
"She's not slutty!!" Derek called, suddenly releasing all his anger in punching Mark across his cheek bone.
"What the hell was that, Derek?!"
"That was Mark!" he pointed out, anger lacing his voice. But Meredith didn't seem to understand. "The one who slept with Addison…back in New York. And he shouldn't have called you that."
/
"So, just to get this right... Derek punched you because... you're Mark?" Meredith asked as she was attempting to stitch him up.
"He punched me because he's obviously in love with you. Though you might be right too... I mean, I'm Mark Sloan, I'm damn famous! And he's definitely jealous." he smirked
"He saves peoples actual lives. You save people's social lives." She told him. "What's there to be jealous of?" she asked "Well…you ruin people's social and actual lives." She muttered to herself as she turned away to get some new cotton swabs.
"You know I wasn't talking about my status as a surgeon making Derek jealous…unless that turns you on." He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Dr. Sloan." Meredith warned.
"What?" he pulled his version of the McDreamy face on her. She really had to find Christina and Izzie to make a new McName for this new man-candy.
"This is inappropriate." She said signaling to the air in between them.
"Wanna get a drink with me tonight? Hear about how it all happened."
"I'm not sleeping with you. And I'm not dating. And I'm really definitely not sleeping with you." Meredith repeated more to herself.
"Did I ask you to sleep with me or date me? Do you wanna sleep with me?"
"Now I see why you two are friends. God knows how you passed high school, let alone college and med school. And no! I will not be sleeping with you. Ever."
"Not even once?"
"No!"
"So you wanna get that drink?"
"I get off at 6. Meet me at Joe's" and with that, Meredith turned and exited the room.
"Joe's? Who's Joe?" Mark asked to the empty room.
