Author's Note: So this is just basically the second part, if you have the energy to continue reading. I just had to get this out of me. And this is the last and finale part. Enjoy, and REVIEW!
"Beep Beep Beep Beep"
The sound of the the alarm clock filled the room. A hand stretched out to turn it of. It got quiet, you could hear the birds outside the window, drilling a new morning welcome. Meredith turned her focus towards the big window where the first sunbeams where filling the room with a pleseant light. You could never guess 4:30 could be so peaceful. A small smile spread across Meredith's face as she climbed of her bed. The usual hangover had been replaced by a calmness in her stomach, a slight sence of excitment. It was the first time in a long time she felt out rested. Today had alot of things happening; The first day of her residency at Seattle Grace Hospital. That means, no more bottom of the food-chain, no more observing sugeries and no more running arrends for the Attendings. Mark was driving her crazy with all kinds of different task he would put her to, like picking up his dry-cleaning or buying him a particular sandwich, just so that she would get to scrub in on a surgery. Now, she would get to do her own surgeries, there would be new interns to boss around with. The sence of freedom was overvelming, although that was not what was conqureing her stomach right now. It was the thought of Derek beeing there, them working together on a case. Perhaps she would eat with him. It is almost like in highschool when you know that the guy you so totally have been checking out, is going to be there today as well. And you are going to see him, perhaps even touch him. And maybe, maybe he would look back at you, see what you were thinking about and feel the same way too.
She stopped herself as she was going way too far with this whole perky highschool-crush thing and headed towards the bathroom to take a relaxing shower. But on her way there, she couldn't stop herself from feeling like she was floating.
The feeling of the hot water running down her body made her shiver of pleasure. Suddenly the bathroom-door flung open and a hangovered Izzie kneeled infront of the toilet to empty the stomach from all the vodka shots last night. Meredith quickly turned of the water, wrapped herself in her bathrobe and helped her friend in need. Tears came streaming down Izzies face as she layed down on the floor. She was wearing the same clothes as last night, probably collapsed on the bed as soon as she got in. The pretty make-up she'd layed yesterday had smeered out and Meredith slowly wiped it away as Izzie's hands trembled in her lap.
"This is why I hate drinking!" she managed to say between her sobs. Meredith nodded symhpatically and layed down beside her.
"Late night, huh? I know this isn't the right time to say this but... Bailey is going to kill you if you look like that when you get to the hospital."
"I'm not working today." Izzie hurried to answered and shook her head slowly.
"But it's our first day as residents! You don't look that bad, if you just take a nice warm shower and..."
"No!" Izzie cut her of. "I don't feel so good.. Besides, who is going to check on Cristina?"
Meredith almost argued that, saying Cristina could take care of herself and probably needed to be alone, but maybe she did want some company. To Izzies relief, Meredith nodded and said she would tell Bailey that she didn't feel so good and was staying home. After that Izzie was quiet and Meredith gave her some space. Instead she went down to make some coffee, and she met wreck number two;
"Good morning sunshine!" She grinned at the look of Alex, sitting by the table and drinking his third cup of coffee, his hair spreading out from all kinds of angles.
"Ha ha, very funny "Dark and Twisty"!" He made a ugly face at her.
"Ah, evil spawn. To early for a sence of humor? I take it things got pretty wild last night?" Meredith raised an eyebrow and sipped her hot coffee.
"Are you jealous? Cause I'll tell you we missed our favourite drunkie." He made a sweeping movement of a bottle in his hand and drinking the contents.
"Mean while I'm not the one looking like crap with a huge hang-over on our first day as a residents." At that, Alex hurried of to the bathroom for some major freshen up while Meredith peacefully got dressed and got in the car. At the last minute Alex came rushing down the stairs with a travellers mug in his hand.
"Where is Izzie." He asked.
"Cursing all of the vodka shots last night I guess."
At a nurse station, an irritated Bailey was waiting; "Grey, Karev. Where is Stevens?"
"She didn't feel so good today so she's staying home."
"All right. Today there is going to be chaos. Dr. Burke and Dr. Montgomery has both left Seattle Grace, there are new interns and those of you who passed the internship are today residents. Don't expect any praise from me just because you've made it this far, you still have bosses so don't get cocky. Oh, and the one who is going to have interns is Stevens, but as she isn't here, Grey, you will take them for today."
Then there was silence, as if they hadn't heard what Bailey had said. Addison had left Seattle Grace. So had Burke. Plus, Meredith was supossed to "babysit" Izzies interns. And where was George?
"Well don't just stand there, move people!" Bailey turned her back on them and started walking away. Meredith hurried to follow.
"Um, where is George?" Bailey turned to face Meredith, which almost made her crash into Meredith and gave her a stearn eye before answerering.
"George has ... taken some time of, to figure things out. You haven't talked to him?"
"No.. I saw him last night, at the wedding but..."
"Fine." Bailey turned her back again and quickened her pace. As they got to another nurse station, five nervous interns was waiting. Bailey introduced Meredith to the interns and then left her. As she did, Meredith could swear that Bailey was smirking. She began talking to them, and remembered how Bailey had talked to her, a year ago.
" As you know, Izzie Stevens is going to be your resident but she is sick so I'm guiding you today."
"You mean you're babysitting." A short dark girl with curls flying everywhere spoke to her in a familiar sarkastic tone and she knew that she was going to like her.
"And you are?" Meredith asked her, using some of Baileys staredowns just to let her know who's in charge.
"Emelie Withe." You could see she was a smart young girl, probably a little too cocky for her own good but also someone you'd want to get to know.
Everyone else introduced themselves, finally the last person, a cute browned haired girl, which seemed familiar, introduced herself.
" And I am Lexie Grey." Meredith directly reacted to her name, and somewhere in her head, she remembered Molly (her halfsister) talking about her younger sister who was still in college, medschool. So the person standing right infront of Meredith right now must be her other halfsister. Though she hadn't reacted when Bailey introduceed Meredith, so she must have known that Meredith was working here, and that she was her halfsister. Or maybe she just took things like these better than Meredith.
A quick tour through the hospital, showing them all of the places they should know about, Meredith had a hurry to send them of, especially Lexie. She was still in some sort of chock, this was something Meredith was going to have to think about, and she could feel a brand new clump growing inside of her.
"Okay interns, now that you know all of the places and everything you need to know, you will be sent working for our Attendents. Elmonde, you'll be working for Dr.Sloan today."
Rich Elmonde, another cocky type in the gang. He reminded a little of Alex, who lived on looks and superficiulty. There for it was a good choice sending him to Mark, where he'd probably be broken, or at least not so confident and cocky anymore.
"Withe, you are observing on the cardio-floor. There are some confusments, seeing as Burke left, but you'll manage to find something to do." At that comment, Emelie scooted away. How much she reminded of Christina. Meredith smiled to herself as she rememered how naive they all were when they had started this program.
"Grey, you're with De.. Dr.Sheperd today." How odd it felt to call someone else what everyone calls her. Lexie would be fine in Neuro, Derek is a good teacher and the test scores shows that Lexie has got some serious brains under her apperence.
"And the rest of you are following me today." As Meredith still hadn't chose a direction, she could get all kinds of cases, depending on what comes in. The two boys didn't seem disappointed with that decision. In one of the boys, Thomas, she could see some kind of Izzie aoura, a kind soul that has the need to help others. The other, Josh, she could see a bit of George in him. He is the clumbsy guy who isn't to confident in himself. But all together he was a really cute guy, she could tell he was looking at her a little to much for his own good but Meredith was flattered.
As they were walking towards the ER in the hope of finding some good case, Josh closed up on her:
"So, you have just finished your first year here, is it as tough as the Chief lets on it to be?" Josh looked shyly in her eyes and Meredith smiled a warm, beautiful smile.
"Well yes and no. You really change, but it's a good change. And this is one of the top surgery-programs in the country so you got to always stay on you feet and be as competive as everyone else." The had reached the ER, and emidetly they heard the familiar sirene of an ambulance. One of the medicals pushing a big guy in on a gurney. There seemed to be no wrong with him, except for the over weight and the neck collor. "Maybe a carcrash victim." Meredith thought while approaching him.
"What have we got here?"
"36-yearold male, passed out at work. Co-workers called for an ambulance when he didn't responce, possible head trauma from hitting the table edge in the fall. Still unconsious .Bloodpressiour is extremly high but most symptoms directs on a tumour."
"Okay, Thomas, see if he's got any family to call and start a schart. Josh, page Dr.Sheperd and tell him to meet us at the MRI, and page someone from Cardio to, this guys colestrol must be skyhigh." Both of the interns hurried of and Meredith was left alone to push this heavy man of to the MRI. As she reached the transporting elevator, her breath was hard and fast and her muscles sored.
"Would you like some help with that?" A dark haired, good looking guy approached her and helped her push the guy into the elevator.
"He looks like half of his body index is pure fat. His heart must be all worn out from the clocked ateries."
She took a closer look at the guy that had helped her and saw that he was waring hospital scrubs, but she didn't rekognise him. Thoose big nut-brown eyes she would've remembered. He noticed her stares and said:
"Hi, Ethan Miles. It's my first day here. Preston had surely bragged about this place so I had to see it for my self. And then Richard offered me a position here, only a few hours before I've been here, isn't that a bit wierd. And then I saw you with this patient, it's like destiny." He smiled a warm smile that could charm everyone.
"So you know Burke and The Chief?" she replied and find this Ethan very relaxing to be with.
"Oh yes, me and Preston did our internship together. Funny how we both chose Cardio, although we are both such different people. I have been traveling through Europe to deepen my tekniques. Then when I decided to pay Preston a surprise visit, he left. And now I'm working in his position, how odd isn't that?" Meredith listened to him talk, he was very karasmatic and she couldn't do nothing else but to watch him. It wasn't like there was any attraction between them, it was just the feeling they created. Like they could tell anything to each other, which sounded very weird seeing the only just met.
"I'm rambling aren't I? I'm sorry, I doess that sometimes. It's just that..."He stopped, looking for words.
"I know..."she replied. They rode the rest of the elevator trip in silence, though not in an awkward sort, rather peacefully. Then the clock dinged and the doors opened, revealing the stressfull life of a surgeon.
"Well, here's my stop." Meredith said, breaking the silent.
"If I'm right about this guy, which I am, then I'm happy to help out on the case." He reached for something in his frontpocket of the scrubshirt and handed over a card that had his paging number on it."
"Yeah, you are probably right, thank you." She grabbed the card and was just about to walk away when she saw a very familiar asian woman strutting towards them.
"Christina!" She called. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supossed to have a day off? Has Izzie visit you?"
"I'm not some kid, I can take care of myself, and besides, as long as Bailey doesn't know I'm here, I might as well be here, saving lifes. And who are you?" She turned to face Ethan who had been staring at her. She had a sort of annoyed look on her face, which he found extremely charming."
"Ethan Miles, the new attending for the Cardioherastic floor. And who are you?" He held out his hand to shake but soon dropped it as Christina made no movement of taking it.
"I'm Cristina Yang, just started my residency here, acctually, I'm choosing Cardioherastic as my specialty. Tekniqally, I'm not supossed to be working today as it should have been my honeymoon." Christina didn't know why she told him this, it was somehing hypnotic about his nut-brown eyes, and she thought she saw a stab of hurt flash through his gaze at the mention of her honeymoon, but she had also said that it should have been her honeymoon and his warm gaze came back.
"Well I'm sorry to hear that but as an attending, we could probably find you something to do, you know. As a bandaid for everything." She almost said that she didn't need any comfort-favours but as she realised she could play on that and maybe get in on some awsome surgeries, she agreed and they walked towards the Cardio-floor.
The MRI wasn't far away, and standing there waiting was Josh. He watched in jealousy at Meredith and her new found friend, who was very goodlooking, exchanging cards, probably phone numbers. He was just to go intrud when, to his relief, an asian woman distracted the guy, apparently somebody Meredith knew, reading her bodylanguage. The goodlooking guy and the woman walked the opposite way and Meredith came towards Josh, struggling with the gurney.
"Here, let me help you" He offered and pushed the man into the MRI, enjoying the soft touch he got from her.
As Meredith sat down in a chair and Josh next to her, the pictures came up on the screen and they saw a huge tumour located on the upper-spinecord.
"See here how the tumour have grown around the nerves and are now starting to eat its way throug?" Josh leaned more closely as they enlarged the photo to really see how it had growed almost into the bone. The door opened and revealed Derek, and behind him Lexie Grey.
He stopped at the look of Meredith and Josh, sitting too closly together and felt the jealousy boil inside of him. Luckily, Josh didn't noticed anything, neither did Lexie, and both of the interns didn't know that Derek and Meredith had been together, loved each other. The interns had other plans, each of them wanted Meredtih and Derek. So the room was a bit tence when the four of them, all wanting the other one in the room.
"Dr.Grey you paged?" She spun around to look straight into his blue, calming pools and she had some truble answering the question as she lost herself in his eyes. Derek noticed that and teased a little.
"Dr.Grey, today preferably." He broke eyecontact and her brain started working like normal again.
"Um, 36-yearold male with a large tumour wrappet itself around one of the upper vertebra that's been eating up the nerves. As it looks right know, he requires surgery as soon as possible. But, considering his high bloodpressuer, I would like to do an EKG and talk to a specialist before booking any surgery, Dr.Sheperd."
Derek leaned closer to the screen, to Meredith, and gently pressed on her as he looked at the tumour. Lexie stood also and watched and leaned dangerously close to Derek and placed her arm very close to his as she looked. Meredith saw that and felt jealousy filling her up. It was obvious that Lexie was flirting with Derek, and she felt like a dog that marked her territory. Derek's cheek was only a bit from hers so she pretendended to look at the patient and stroked her own cheek against his. The small touch became unnoticed to the both interns but that little gesture made Meredith all warm and tingly. She wanted more, wanted to feel his breath on her, his soft fingers exploring her body, she wanted to take him right there. But she didn't. Instead ordered Josh and Lexie to get the patient and take him to a room. After the door had closed behind them, Meredith sighed and put her head in her hands. Then she giggled that sweet laughter that only she could make, the one Derek loves. When she looked up and met his eyes. There was something trubbling him, she saw that.
"What? There is something bothering you, I read you to well."
Derek thought about telling, weighed the pros against the cons and come to the conclusing that it was better to tell then for her to find out from somebody else.
"Remember when I told you I flirted with a girl in a bar... That girl turned out to be the same girl that stood right here a while ago. The girl that I assume to be your halfsister. Lexie Grey."
Meredith stared blankly at him for a moment. Lexie, her halfsister, was the girl at the bar. The girl that Derek had flirted with. Maybe she meant more to him? Maybe he would leave her now and start fresch with Lexie? As if he guessed to what she was thinking about, he said in a serious tone:
"I love you Meredith. I spent the whole morning thinking about you. She doesn't mean anything, she was just like a get-away from the problems we were having. I looked at her, really looked at her, and tried to find something that was as amazing as you, and I couldn't come up with anything. She is a beautiful girl, but not as beautiful as you. I love you, and nothing can take that away from me. All I need is for you to love me back, the whole you. Nothing else works, you have to put your heart and soul in this Meredith."
She walked up to him and stood closly, as if she was cold and he was her fire. And she wispered:
"I'm scared." He cupped his hands under her chin as kissed her softly, then he broke free and walked out from the MRI-room, leaving Meredith alone in the room. The one thing she was afraid of, to be alone. Perhaps that was why she didn't fully commited to their relationship. And as she realised that she would be alone of she blew this, no more Derek was inpossible to imagine. She made a decision...
The rest of the morning staggered by with delayed labs and chaos on the OR-board. She had barely seen Alex or Christina all day, everyone seemed to be busy with their own stuff. The whole hospital seemed to be overflowing with new faces, at the cafeteria, some new gang had taken over their old table, and she noticed Derek sitting with his laptop in a corner and she sat down beside him to eat her lunch.
"This is a pleasent surprise." He looked up at her and smiled.
"Yes, I thought I'd start eating with you." She answered and took a bite of her sandwich. "And you will have to put up with me, cause you will see me alot from here on." He shined up when he heard her say those words and grabbed her in his embrace. She snuggled in his neck, and she knew it was here she belonged. She could get hurt, but she could also have her fairytale ending, life is a game and you got to loose some to win some. She pulled her hand through Dereks hair and pressed her cheek againts his. So warm, and now she could do that whenever she would like to, because he was hers and she was his.
On the afternoon, Ethan cleared the fat guy, whose name was James, for surgery. Derek and Meredith worked together and got most of the tumour out so the operation was very succesful, then they put the interns on the post-up work.
Derek stands by a nurse station and writes on some patients schart when Meredith sneaks up on him from behind. She stands, with her frontside almost touching his back, and peeks over his shoulder to read what he's doing. She places her hand over his hand and strokes it gently. Derek looks up from the papers, happily surprised. She pecks him on the cheek and smiles a half sneeky smile.
"What?" He drops his paperwork and turns to face her.
"Derek Sheperd, will you go out with me?" She says it straight up and looks him in the eyes. Derek looks around and notice that both of the interns are intensly watching them with a mix of chock/horror/jealousy as they have heard every word Meredith said, and watched her hitting on him all open as if it wasn't a big deal. He turns back his focus at Meredith and smiles back.
"I'd love to."
"Great, I'm off at seven."
"I can probably get off then too, I'll meet you at the entrance?"
"That will be good." She turns to walk away but gets an impulse and wispers in his ear: "And afterwards, maybe we could go to my place?"
Then she turns and walks towards the elevator and disapears before he can reply. He glances over to the two interns, both in chock, Josh's fists in hard balls and Lexie with a hate look in her face. Derek chuckles loud and walks the opposite direction to his office, feeling not completly safe standing near the interns who seems ready to expload.
At seven o'clock, Derek meets Meredith at the entrance. Meredith, with her hair wildly loose and wairing a new, lavender perfume, shines up when she see him. "God you look beautiful!" he mumbles in her hair and takes in the new smell with much appreciation. "Where are we going?"
"I thought I'd show you a special zoo where I usted to go when I was little..." She takes his hand and leads him out to the summer night.