Disclaimer: Not mine.
As Meredith stood deep in conversation with her friends about Callie's appointment as Chief Resident, she was also aware that their central location would make it difficult to avoid Derek.
Considering her luck, she wasn't surprised to hear her name called.
She was, however, surprised to turn and find her maybemaybenot-boyfriend's ex-wife requesting to speak with her.
"Can we talk?" The tall redhead had said.
She always made Meredith feel inadequate.
"I'm waiting for-well, uh...sure."
What Addison could possibly have to discuss with Meredtih was unclear. They weren't working on any cases together and as far as Meredith knew, Addison and Derek hadn't had any meaningful contact in weeks.
What else could there be?
Meredith hesitantly followed Addison into a secluded hallway, briefly considering she might be living her last moments.
"I'm sure you're wondering what I could possibly have to say to you."
"Well, uh, yeah." Meredith stood with her arms at her sides and shuffled her feet, but refused to look away.
"I just thought I should tell you-I guess, for some reason I thought I owed it to you...to tell you that I'm leaving Seattle."
"Oh."
"Not that I've really been any competition for some time.."
Meredith tried her best not to appear uncomfortable.
"...but I'm sure things will be much better without the ex-wife hanging around, issues resolved or not." She smiled.
"I never really thought I'd be saying this, Dr. Montg-Addison, but I'll be sorry to see you go. I've-and I know some of the others, Alex and Izzie, especially-learned a lot from you...about neonatal."
"I always knew you had talent, Grey. From the moment I heard about Derek's new intern."
"Derek and I, well, I'm not quite sure what we are...at the moment."
She wasn't sure why the words had come out of her mouth. She had barely told Cristina and Izzie about her conversation with Derek.
Meredith was taken aback by Addison's matter-of-fact response.
"You'll work it out."
And Meredith believed her.
There was a pause, that (for the first time Meredith could remember in their months of interaction) was not awkward.
Addison's pager beeped.
"Well, I'll see you." Addison said, briefly touching her arm before leaving to respond to her page.
The night before, after Callie left, George remained in the ambulance bay well past dark.
Going home was out of the question.
So, also, was going to Meredith's house. Though he and Izzie were able to function (somewhat) neutrally when around their friends, for them to spend the night under the same roof after the conversation he'd just had with his wife...that would just be asking for trouble.
Had Burke still been in town, or had Alex still had his apartment, those would have been viable options.
Instead, he spent the night in an empty on-call room.
Tension with Izzie would be difficult. Explaining his problems with Callie to his friends even more so.
As he lay on the top bunk, staring at the ceiling he concluded that whatever his decision, he had to move forward.
Swinging his legs over the bed, he prepared for his second year as a first-year intern at Seattle Grace.
Following her conversation with Addison, Meredith rejoined her friends in the hallway.
The three, along with their peers who had also passed their exams filed into an empty conference room.
"Callie's already late on her first day? How profession-" Izzie began as the group took their seats nearest the window.
The words were barely out of her mouth before Callie entered, a stack of folders in hand and a bright smile on her face.
"Congratulations. If you're here I assume it means that you have passed your first-year exams and have now ventured into the world of actually getting to practice medicine on your own. Well, not completely on your own, we don't trust you that much yet. For those of you who don't know, I'm Callie Torres, I specialize in orthopedic surgery and I'm your new Chief Resident. In just a short while a number of you will be receiving your own group of first-year interns."
She paused just long enough for the new residents to begin shifting uncomfortably in their chairs.
"That's right, you will be in charge of the fates of your own first-year interns. You'll probably be assigned approximately five, but, well, you should know the drill you went through it last year. Just try not to screw things up too badly, okay?"
Callie's eyes followed those of most in the room to the four friends.
"Oh, and how about we try and keep our residencies as drama-free as possible? I think we've had enough of that over the past year. Moving along, as usual you have me and the other residents as resources. There's just a little bit of paperwork to fill out, "She began circulating the packets of paper, "And then you can pick up your intern assignments from the nurse's station on your way out. Any questions?"
As Meredith, Izzie, Alex and Christina reached the nurse's station Meredith whispered, "I can't believe she looked at us."
"I think it was mostly you three. Well, mostly you." Alex responded.
"Once again, not helping."
"Seriously, who does she think she is? We're not the only ones who've made mistakes this year." Izzie heatedly whispered back, taking her intern assignment from the desk.
"Sometimes I feel like we are." Cristina said, "Man, I picked the wrong group, didn't I?"
Meredith swatted her friend with her papers and then leaned against the nurse's station to read.
Alex read from own, "Lexie Grey? That's your sister, right Meredith?"
Meredith, preoccupied with her own paper, didn't look up.
"That's what I hear. What about her?"
"She's on my list."
Izzie had ventured a few steps away from then nurse's desk to review her own assignment. Just as she was folding the paper to place back into her pocket Callie appeared in front of her.
"Izzie, can I talk to you for a moment?"
She fidgeted uneasily.
"Sure, Callie, what's up?"
Callie began slowly walking away from where many of the residents were gathering, not bothering to turn to see if Izzie was following her.
She stopped about twenty feet down the hall.
"So...I know."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb. George told me you two slept together."
"Look, Callie-"
"I don't want to really get into it since we're at work, but I just wanted to tell you that I'm done fighting. You win. You get what you always wanted, I'm out of the picture. You can have him."
"Callie, it was a mistake."
"A mistake? You ruin my marriage and that's all you have to say, it was a mistake? You couldn't just let him be happy? From the beginning you never gave yourself a chance to like me. God forbid he spend a little time-that he care about someone-other than you and you just couldn't stand it. Well, now you don't have to worry about me." Callie crossed her arms and leaned against the glass behind her.
One of the new residents looked as if they were going to approach, but turned when they saw the heated conversation.
Callie lowered her voice, "Unfortunately, we still have to work together. And I value my job. You stay out of my way, I'll stay out of yours."
Later that evening Meredith sat on her usual stool at Joe's sipping from a bottle.
"Hey."
She was grateful that she was already well into her third beer.
"Derek."
"This seat empty?" He asked.
"Sure."
"Long day?"
"The longest. I'm starting to understand why Bailey was so tough on us in the beginning."
"Just in the beginning?" He smiled.
She found herself smiling back, "You know what I mean. Plus, I found out that my sister is doing her internship here. With Alex of all people as her resident."
"Yeah, I think I might've heard something about that."
"That was me trying to communicate."
"I noticed," he smiled again.
"So yeah, long day."
"And now here I am wanting to talk."
"Well, the day can't possibly get any worse," she joked. "You want to get out of here?"