Title: A Tale Of Two Cities
Authors: Sara and Lizzie
Rating: T for language, sex, you know.
Disclaimer: We happen to own our personal anatomies, not Grey's. Or Patrick Dempsey's. Sadly.
Summary: Another shot at Post Prom. It's going to be a little silly. It will be our version of what happens post prom, and then jump a few months in the future when uh, some bicoastal high jinx ensue. So we'll start right after the prom.
Author's Note: Thoughts that go in first person inside a characters head are in italics.
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Eight Days
Four days had passed since the night she had asked him if he loved her in a bar. Four days had passed since her small hand had closed over his scalpel.
Four days, three surgeries, and about a hundred stolen kisses later, Meredith walked into room 3952 to check on Mark Sloan.
"Dr. Sloan," she said, flipping open his chart. "You're looking fine this morning."
He snatched his chart from her hands and started reading it impatiently. "When am I going to get out of this bed?"
"Mark." Meredith said sternly. "I took a chunk of windshield of your face. Your blood alcohol level was through the roof. You need a few more days."
"That's what you two days ago." He muttered. The he blinked at her, for the first time noticing a change. There was a sparkle to her eyes, a glow to her face, and her entire demeanor was faster, jumpier. "Why do you look like that?"
She coughed. "Like what?" she asked defensively. Mark sat there, turning the pieces over in his head. Derek hadn't been all the hostile to him. Addison had. Derek let an intern perform one of his surgeries. It all made sense.
"Nothing." He told Meredith, in a voice that indicated it was anything but nothing. Her pager went off. She checked it, and a flush spread across her other wise pale cheeks. "See?" Mark taunted. "Obviously nothing."
Meredith rolled her eyes. "Well you seem fine for now Sloan. Call a nurse if you need help going to the bathroom." She left his room, chuckling to herself and set a course for the cafeteria.
She walked outside and hovered above a chair at a table occupied by one other person. "Seat taken?" she asked.
"Funny thing is, Dr. Grey, that seat is not taken, and you know what it does to my self esteem if I have to eat alone." Derek said. "It happens to be why I paged you. Couldn't bear to eat without a strikingly beautiful woman at my table."
Meredith rolled her eyes, but smiled at him all the same. "I checked on Dr. Sloan." She said, choosing not to use his first name in front of Derek. "He should stay for a few days, just in case, but he looks good."
Derek nodded. "I'm glad to hear it." He paused and took a bit of his sandwich. "And how are you holding up?"
"Eight days." She whispered.
Addison strolled outside, and looked around for a place to sit. Her eyes landed on the tell tale wave of dark hair that occupied her husband's head, and she headed in his direction. From the petite girl next to him came a tinkling laugh.
She stood back and observed, watched them as she had frequently over the last few days. Almost hoping to catch them, almost praying to find some sign on an affair, some reason to have this suspicion that had been trailing behind her confirmed.
But they weren't touching. They weren't sitting particularly close together. There was a chart open between them, and she was pointing something, and he was pointing to something else and she was laughing about it.
Addison would never understand. A few days ago they had wanted to kill each other, and now all of a sudden, then were friends that ate lunch and laughed together? She walked over to the table and sat down. "Hi." She said, kissing Derek's cheek and watching Meredith for a reaction.
Nothing. She merely flipped to another page in the chart and speared a lettuce leaf with her fork. "Dr. Grey." Addison said.
"Dr. Shepherd." Meredith said with a smile. "How are things with Cristina?"
Addison was taken aback by the sincerity in her tone. "Dr. Yang is an extremely gifted surgeon. But she really does not like babies." Meredith laughed.
"Good luck with her."
Addison nodded, confused. "Thank you." She peered over Derek's shoulder. "What's the case?"
Derek and Meredith exchanged a look. "It's not really important, Addie." Derek said.
Addison swallowed. "Well if you brought it to lunch, it must be important."
"It's Mark's chart, Addison. You can't see it, and unless you want to tell my why he's here, let it go."
Addison was silent. She had nothing to say to that.
He pulled the door shut and pressed her up against the opposite wall. His lips crashed into her with the urgency of a man who was tired of waiting. Their tongues battled each other for a brief moment, before he trailed jaws down her jaw line, neck and collarbone. He kissed her neck, and she sighed.
"Derek, we shouldn't." she breathed. He raised his head and kissed her lips again.
"Are you sure about that?"
"No." she said, kissing him again. Her delicate fingers slipped under his scrub top and played across his abdomen. He let out a low moan and pulled her closer to him. They broke apart as the door opened and Richard Webber loomed in the doorway.
He slammed the door shut and gave them a tactful minute to collect themselves. Seconds later, he was back in the room. The first thing he did was lock the door. "In the future, try this." He said, turning the lock.
They sat side by side on a bottom bunk and he stood in front of them, as though they were petulant school children and he was their teacher.
"Now, tell me what the hell is going on here?" he boomed. "You're married. And Meredith, you know that! I don't know how to say this, or how to tactfully… you don't want what happened to your mother."
Meredith was silent, waiting for Derek to defend this. He didn't disappoint her. "Richard!" He said sharply. "This isn't an affair. I'm leaving Addison."
Dr. Webber sat down on the bunk opposite them and placed two fingers on the bridge of his nose. "Have both of you thought this out?" he asked. Meredith nodded.
"This is what I've always wanted." He said, placing a hand over Meredith's. Richard nodded.
"All right then. But Derek, you need to tell her. Sooner rather than later."
"Dr. Shepherd." Came a familiar male voice from somewhere behind her.
Addison turned around. "Dr. Karev." She said. "What can I do for you?"
"I was just wondering if there was, um, anyway you could… if you could talk to Izzie."
Addison's face showed her obvious hesitation, so Alex jumped ahead. "It's just that she respects you, as a surgeon and a person and I think if you could talk to her, you might be able to get through to her."
Addison nodded. "I'll stop by the house tomorrow morning. Around eleven? I have surgery scheduled at one, but I'll stop by."
Alex looked at her for a long time. "Thank you." He said, walking away. Derek plopped down next to her.
"What was that about?"
"I agreed to go talk to Stevens."
Seven Days
Meredith woke up the next morning, smiling. Seven days. She didn't have to be at the hospital until three, when Derek had his first surgery. She could get used to this. It wasn't a bad routine. Lounge around all morning, and in the afternoon, perform brain surgery with the guy you love.
She looked at the clock and grinned. It was almost noon. She hadn't slept that much in long, long time. Her stomach clenched before she could stretch out and burrow beneath her covers again. She jumped out of bed and practically leapt into the bathroom.
She leaned over the toilet, and proceeded to, for the third day in a row, heave out everything she had eaten the day before. A sickening sort of feeling washed over her. She padded back to her bedroom and pulled a shoebox out from under her bed.
She sifted through the contents of the box. Packs of condoms, a few morning after pills she had gotten from the hospital and a home pregnancy test.
Addison climbed the stairs in Meredith Grey's house feeling awkward. She didn't want Meredith to know she was there, but she really had to pee. She crept quietly towards the direction Izzie said the bathroom was in, mercifully undetected by the intern assigned to her husband.
She perched awkwardly on Meredith's toilet, washed her hands in Meredith's sink and blew her nose with one of Meredith's tissues. She was tossing the tissue in Meredith's trash can when something caught her eye. She reached in and pulled out a pregnancy test.
A positive pregnancy test.