Disclaimer: Don't own them. Though in my sleep-deprived, applying-to-grad-school state, I could probably argue insanity. Song is Walter Bobbie (I'm branching out).

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"And the people all said, sit down

Sit down, you're rocking the boat"

"I met someone." Meredith slid her tray across the outdoor table and settled herself in a chair with a satisfied plop. The other interns looked up from their huddled discussion, giving her guilty looks, but in her excitement Meredith was momentarily oblivious to their discomfort.

"Er, uh, you met someone?" Cristina was the first to recover her composure. George and Alex shot one last look over their shoulders before turning to give their attention to Meredith. "Geeze, Mer," Cristina continued, "You're already screwing two men at once. Don't you think you're taking this dating thing a little too seriously?"

"Oh my god I am never going to sleep again," George moaned. "McDreamy and the Vet are bad enough. This is going to be worse that tattooed ass guy."

"Like the Non-Doctor makes any noise," Cristina retorted. "He's probably one of those guys who thinks that sex should be all quiet and pure –"

"First of all," Meredith interjected, shooting her friend a dirty look. "I am not sleeping with Finn. Or with Derek. Only dirty whores give it up on the first date, and I am not a dirty whore."

"Anymore," countered Alex. Cristina snorted, milk spraying across the table.

"You are my person," Meredith admonished her. "And secondly, I have gossip. I met a woman."

"Kinky," came Alex's immediate reply. Meredith gave him a practiced glare.

"An immunologist," she continued, as if she hadn't heard him. "Specifically, SGH's new immunologist. She is …" Suddenly, something caught Meredith's eye. Those dark blue scrubs, that wavy black hair – was that Derek? He was leaning in towards a woman over his cup of coffee, an interested expression on his face, and suddenly his dimples crinkled as his companion tossed her head back in laughter. Long waves of chestnut hair, perfectly proportioned figure, neatly manicured nails resting lightly next to his hand.

"… she is apparently currently having her way with my, my –"

"McDreamy?" Cristina supplied helpfully, only to be rewarded with an icy death glare.

"Woah, you met Dr. Gorgeous over there?" Alex was suddenly interested.

"McBeautiful?" George piped up helpfully. "McHot? Mc –

"Shutup George," snapped Meredith.

"What, only girls can give McNicknames?" George was wounded.

"Bambi, you are such a woman." snorted Alex.

"Alex!" George shouted in frustration, his hands going up to run through his messy hair in habitual reaction to the other man's taunts.

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The noise from the other side of the cafeteria caught Cameron's attention, and she glanced over Derek's shoulder to determine the source of the commotion. A table full of rowdy interns, and was that –

"Meredith," she said quietly, catching her eye. The other woman was glaring at her , pale as a ghost.

"Exactly," said Derek, oblivious to her gaze. "Meredith is the reason I stayed here instead of going back to New York. She's – she's – she's indescribable," he finished, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smile.

For an instant, a dark emotion welled up within Cameron and she toyed with the idea of saying something snide about attending-intern relationships. But he is not House, and she is not you. Just as quickly, the emotion was gone, her placid mask replaced firmly over the abyss. Besides, judging from the look Meredith was still giving them, oblivious to her bickering friends, it was pretty clear Derek had bigger things to worry about at the moment.

"Actually, I've already met Meredith," she told Derek calmly. "And judging by the expression on her face right now, I'm pretty sure thinks that this," Cameron gestured to the two of them, "Is more than platonic welcome-to-Seattle coffee."

"Excuse me?" Derek scratched his forehead, puzzled. Cameron sighed and then gestured across the cafeteria. Men were so oblivious.

Derek whipped his head around, but Meredith just gave him a glare and busied herself in conversation.

"Shit."

"If looks could kill …" Cameron began.

"I'd be incinerated?" Derek laughed ruefully. "Well come on then. I want you to meet the rest of the surgical gang … and apparently I have some explaining to do."

For an instant, Cameron hesitated. It had been so long since she had friends of her own - since med school, since Brian, maybe even before? She'd gotten comfortable in her solitude. It was what allowed her to cut her losses and run when PPTH became too much. Run. At that thought, Cameron paused. She was not House. She didn't shut herself off when the going got tough. Plus, if she could put up with House's ways, she could totally do friends. Really.

"Lead the way," she said lightly, giving Derek no hint of the turmoil within.

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Meredith looked up, stony-faced, as the pair approached.

"Gang, I'd like you to meet Allison Cameron," Derek said casually, his hands stuffed easily in his pockets. "A fellow Seattle transplant."

"Temporarily," Cameron added shyly, laughing as George and Alex stumbled over themselves in their haste to give up their chairs for her.

"If we can't convince her to stay," Derek conceded. "She's on loan to SGH Immunology from Greg House's Diagnostics group at Princeton. I'm sure you all remember the case from Grand Rounds a few months back?"

"THE Dr. House!?" Cristina exclaimed, then shoved a hand over her mouth, shooting an apprehensive look at her friend. "Sorry Mer, but Dr. House is like a legend. Plus, he's like living proof that I don't need to develop a bedside manner." Cameron laughed at this, electing to take a seat between Alex and George.

"Good to see you again, Allison," Meredith said, but her tone was strangely distant and her eyes never strayed from Derek's face. "I see you're … making yourself at home." Meredith's pager picked that moment to erupt, and she sighed angrily as she glanced at the message. "I'm on code team, I've got to go." With that, she was darting out of the cafeteria, long dirty-blonde hair covering her eyes and her emotions.

Cameron shot Derek a glance laden with meaning. Fix this, Derek. If she had the opportunity to have real friends she sure didn't want him screwing it up. He nodded, following Meredith from the cafeteria.

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"Meredith. Meredith, wait!" Derek grabbed her arm, pulling her to a halt. "Are you OK? Talk to me."

Meredith wrenched her arm from his grasp. "I'm fine, Derek, other than the slight problem with my patient coding up on Four. Go back to your coffee date." It came out sounding more vicious than she had attended, but she wasn't sorry.

"Meredith," Derek sighed in that way that made her feel like a completely petulant child as he slipped into the elevator behind her. Luckily, it was empty. She refused to meet his gaze. "First of all, it's not a date. She's on my neuro case, she had some ideas for diagnosis, it turns out I went to med school with her boss." Probably not the time to tell Meredith that they'd been comparing notes on the kinds situations that would make one move clear across the country to a trailer, or, in her case, no home at all. "And secondly, it's OK for you to date multiple men, but it's not OK for me to get coffee with another woman?"

At this Meredith whirled, turning on him furiously. "Yes, Derek. That's exactly what I am saying. And guess what? I get to say that. Because you broke me. And your divorce was just finalized. And your ex-wife is my boss, and she won't look at me, and that bothers me, so I guess I'm not quite over being the dirty whore yet. Trust is a hard thing to repair, and I don't see you trying all that hard. So if you'll excuse me, my patient is dying."

Her tirade spent, she dashed off the elevator in a dead sprint towards the ICU. Still trying to untangle and absorb her words, Derek leaned back against the elevator wall in a daze.

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The door to the supply closet opened just an inch, letting a ray of fluorescent light pool around Meredith's feet. She sat holding her knees, head down, refusing to acknowledge the intruder.

"Ah, so this is where you've moved the meetings for the dirty mistresses club," Mark Sloan joked.

"Didn't think you were a part of our little gang anymore," Meredith said crossly, not allowing herself to be cheered up. "Go away."

"What's wrong?" Rather than heeding her request, he sat, cross-legged, at her feet, looking expectant. "You've ditched making out in elevators for crying in supply closets?"

"I'm not crying," Meredith protested guiltily, rubbing the remaining moisture from her red eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm not – fine, but not because of what you think – Mark my patient died!" she cried, exasperated by the raised eyebrow she was receiving from him. "On the code team? Seriously! Doesn't anybody care about the patients around here anymore? Derek's all flirting with random immunologists and you're – glowing," she said suspiciously. "Mark Sloan, you are glowing. Please do not tell me you've just had sex with a certain red-headed OBGYN within the walls of this hospital. Seriously!"

Marked shrugged, good humored. "Mighty high ground, little miss take-me-in-an-exam-room."

"You're glowing," Meredith said in wonder, and more calmly. "How do you do that?"

Mark guffawed. "OK now I know that you, Meredith Grey, are not asking me for the finer details of my sexual technique," he kidded.

"Not that," she brushed him off, serious now. "How do you do that? Go back, I mean. Go back to the way things were. I'm asking, you know, because you seem happy, and I'm crying in a closet because Derek bought coffee for an immunologist. So I could use a little advice here."

"You just do it," Mark shrugged.

"But how? How do I trust him again? How can you just take her back like the past year didn't mean anything to you?" Meredith asked, earnestly.

"Listen," Mark replied. "After Derek caught us – the first time, I mean – and left, she stayed. She stayed in my arms, and I picked up the pieces, and we were together – really together – for six months. And then one day she left, too. But the thing was, those were the happiest six months of my life. So no, I'm not over it. But she means too much to me for me to give up without a fight." Meredith gazed up at him, grasping for answers, any answers. "That's what we dirty mistresses do – we don't play fair, we fight. Fight for what you want, Meredith."

"I think I've made a horrible mistake," Meredith admitted. He waited. "This dating thing I've been making them do. I do know what I want – I made my choice long ago. But I was scared to admit it. Scared he might hurt me again. And I don't want him to go away again." I can't believe I'm confessing my innermost, deep-down, can't-even-tell-Cristina secrets to McSteamy.

Mark just smiled. "Then don't let him."

Meredith sniffled.

"So now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get myself out of this supply closet before Derek walks in here and lays me flat again. These good looks are worth protecting." He paused. "And speaking of good looks - there is a young lady out there, and she is extremely attractive. If I weren't a taken man, I might seduce her myself," Mark said smugly, rising to stand.

"Your point is?" Meredith raised an eyebrow.

"My point is, there is an extremely attractive immunologist outside this door, which leads me believe she is no longer drinking coffee with a certain special someone. Decision time, M-dawg. You in, or are you out?"

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A/N: That's all she wrote, folks (until next time, that is). You know the drill.