Two Weeks Later
Cristina's (Burke's) Apartment
After a week of pleas from Meredith and Izzie, Cristina had finally agreed to allow George to reclaim his spot on the couch in her apartment.
With George moving in she found no reason to continue inconveniencing Meredith, especially now that she and McDreamy seemed to be back together.
Burke wasn't coming back.
She repeated the sentence she'd been reminding herself of for the past several weeks.
Burke is not coming back.
Even if he did, Cristina had decided that now would be too late.
Too late would've been that hour after the wedding when she'd first discovered he was gone in the first place.
When she had looked into the mirror and seen what she had become. Dressed in the perfect white dress with perfectly drawn on eyebrows and the perfect Burke-family heirloom fastened around neck.
When her best friend had literally had to cut her out of that perfect dress because she couldn't stand to be in it any longer.
She hated to admit it but Colin Marlowe had been right, this wasn't her.
She was a surgeon.
Finding Mr. Right just wasn't high on her priority list right now. Excel at work first, everything else can wait.
As she dumped the contents of the same duffel Izzie had packed not long before she heard a crash from the living room.
She tried to channel Meredith's new positive attitude by counting backwards from ten, slowly.
"Dude, she's so going to kill you," Alex laughed from the living room.
Better make it fifteen.
Seattle Grace Hospital
Now that Izzie had helped convince Cristina to let George move into her apartment (in the process also solving the issue of the overcrowded house) she needed a new project.
Meredith and Derek had pretty much worked things out on their own.
Cristina was throwing herself into her work, which with anyone else might have concerned her but she knew it was where she was meant to be.
Alex was keeping a low profile both at work and at home these days, or maybe she had been too focused on trying to analyze Cristina that she hadn't noticed him.
An inability to fix the problems in other people's lives had left her time to think of only one thing.
George.
She wished things would go back to normal already.
Weeks before, Izzie had decided that she could blame her feelings for George on jealousy.
Temporary insanity.
Dislike of Callie.
Denny.
Alex.
Even Meredith.
Whatever the case, whatever it was, she was fully convinced that those feelings were gone.
That she could turn the "best friend" switch back on, erasing the past months, fixing things.
Even if that meant helping George win Callie back.
Surprisingly, he hadn't believed her noble intentions.
"Maybe we should just...take a break."
"Take a break? We're friends George. Friends don't need 'a break'," Izzie said.
He'd given her a look.
Neither Meredith nor Cristina had believed her either.
"So, two weeks ago you were head over heels in love with him and now...friends?," Cristina asked, ice cream carton in hand, spoon waving in the air.
"This is so much worse than when I slept with him." Meredith had concluded.
Alex had actively avoided any conversation involving her and George, really conversation with her in general, not that she could blame him. It was weird. One moment she wasn't ready to get into another complicated relationship after Denny, yet hoped Alex would remain in love with her...the next she's in bed with George.
Best friend George.
Pretty much asexual (though he was married to Callie and had the whole Syph Nurse thing) George.
Obviously that would be confusing. She would have felt worse had she not thought he was too preoccupied with thoughts of Addison and Ava to care.
With Alex and George avoiding her like the plague and Cristina and Meredith being CristinaandMeredith (when they weren't, Meredith was with Derek and/or Cristina was working) Izzie was pretty damn bored.
Today, she was making use of her favorite bench in front of the hospital to eat her lunch. She had brought a magazine along so she wouldn't seem like she was alone alone, though she was.
At moments like these she wished she had thought to spend the time getting to know other people around the hospital.
When she bored with flipping through the latest Cosmo, she tossed it aside and stretched her legs onto the sidewalk in front of her, closing her eyes.
"Dreaming of me, I hope. You know, I am willing to help make those dreams become a reality."
"Don't you have someone else you could be off bothering, Dr. Sloan?," she questioned.
"Always love that positive attitude, Dr. Stevens. As a matter of fact I can't chat for long, I have to catch a flight to L.A."
He had moved her magazine to sit beside her on the bench.
"You're going to see Addison? You can't be serious."
"Not that it's any of your business, but I have a consult at Cedars-Sinai"
"Right."
"One of my former patients ran herself into a tree this morning. Probably drunk off her ass. She won't trust anyone else with her face. Not that I can blame her...that place is filled with incompetents."
"Surely. Strictly work-related, then?"
"Well, I didn't say that," He said, a sly grin spreading across his face.
"Aren't you tired?"
"I'm afraid to ask 'of what?' "
"Of chasing after her. You followed her all the way from New York to Seattle, on more than one occasion I do believe, only for her to get back with her ex-husband...and then when that didn't work out she decided she'd rather take her chances with an intern than try things with you again. Shouldn't that tell you something?"
"I'm afraid you don't know what you're talking about, Dr. Stevens."
He looked away.
For the first time, maybe ever, Izzie regretted her attitude.
She didn't know where it had come from. What right did she have to lecture him on his past relationship with a friend?
Not to mention that, inappropriate as he often was, he was still her boss. She'd definitely gone too far.
She could feel her cheeks flush pink in embarrassment.
"I apologize, Dr. Sloan," she said, collecting her magazine and the remains of her lunch. "Have a safe flight."
She hurried away before he could say another word.
Meredith sat on a bench in the locker room, impatiently waiting for her boyfriend to finish up a surgery.
She had promised Cristina she'd stop by her apartment before dinner with her family, and time was running out if she wanted a chance to relax beforehand.
Earlier that week she had been all but accosted by Lexie in the hallway.
"Meredith."
"Oh, uh... hey." She'd unconsciously folded her arms in front of her chest.
This was the exact situation she had prided herself on having avoided for the past several weeks.
She should've known her luck would run out eventually.
"So, it's kind of crazy that we've been in this hospital for so long and haven't run into one another yet, right?"
Not really, Meredith thought. She saw her at least once a day but had thus far managed to avoid her by ducking behind a corner or someone in the hallway, often at the last minute.
"Yeah, it is. But it's a big place, so..."
"So, I was thinking...we should get together for dinner. Dad keeps asking about you and Molly really wants to see you and we'd love if you could come over for dinner on Friday. I checked your schedule, I know you're off at 12...that gives you plenty of time to rest up and come over for dinner later...I know I'm being pretty pushy but I can promise you if Molly calls she'll be ten times worse. You might as well say yes to me now. Say yes."
Meredith was pretty sure she hadn't stopped to take a breath. That must've come from Susan.
"Well, my dad and I haven't spoken since..."
"I was there, I know what he did. He feels horrible about it Meredith, and I'm sure he'll apologize himself if you come over. You can bring Derek if you'd like."
Meredith sighed.
"Or we could meet at a restaurant, you know...neutral territory." She laughed. "We just really want to get to know you better, my mother really liked you...Plus, we have to work together and I think it would be better for both of us if you didn't feel like you have to avoid me at all costs."
"I'm not avoiding-"
"Say you'll come."
"I just really don't think this is a good idea."
"Just order something small and I promise we won't say anything if you cut out early. Just come, for a little while."
Eventually Meredith had given in.
So here she sat, hands shaking, in the locker room, silently wishing her boyfriend would hurry back before she had a panic attack.
What seemed like hours later, the door finally swung open.
"Hey."
"Hey, how's your patient?" She stood, wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans.
"In recovery. Have you been here the whole time? I was looking for you in the gallery."
"Yeah, I just needed somewhere to think..."
"About dinner?"
"What else?"
"It won't be so bad, Mer. Think of how horrible you thought that first dinner with your dad and Susan would be."
"And it would have been if it weren't for Susan."
"You'll have me. And Lexie and Molly."
"I guess. I'm kind of wishing this was at the house, though."
"Really? No where to hide if things get tough." He teased.
"Good point." She sighed, staring blankly ahead at the lockers.
"Let's just go?"
She grabbed onto his outstretched hand and let him lead her out of the room.
Minutes later, still reeling from his brief conversation with Izzie, Mark managed to make it as far as his car.
He'd tossed his briefcase into the back seat and slid in behind the steering wheel.
It wasn't that he was upset, everything that she had said to him had been something he'd thought to himself a time or two before. He was, however, in shock that she had said it.
Bad day, maybe. He'd thought.
Maybe people really were just sick of seeing him clearly pining after Addison while still managing to work his way through a good portion of the hospital staff.
Was everyone thinking that he needed to let it go?
Why did he care?
He rarely cared what others thought. People other than Addison.
The whole bet fiasco had been a prime example of that. It had been simple. He didn't want Addison to think that she had been the first to move on, to hurt him. Despite his long history of hurting her. He couldn't let her believe she had that much control over his emotions. A front he'd probably blown that night a few weeks ago when he'd helped her pack.
As he sat thinking he turned to see Derek and Meredith advancing in his direction.
He noticed Meredith's Jeep parked only two spaces away from where he sat in his own car.
She must not have noticed when she'd pulled in earlier. Not that it would really matter to her, she was one of the few people at the hospital who could actually stand him.
Their hands were intertwined, Meredith was visibly upset and Derek, at this point, was practically pulling her to the car.
They leaned against the back bumper, Derek lifting Meredith's chin and saying a few words before kissing her forehead.
Without thought he extended his hand for the keys she was fishing out of her pocket.
They still hadn't noticed Mark.
He retrieved the information he'd been sent on his patient at Cedars-Sinai, pretending to flip through it until the two pulled away.
Cristina's Apartment
Surprisingly, George and Alex had managed to bring in a good amount of George's belongings before Cristina had peered into the room to glare at them.
Even more surprisingly, when she'd done so she'd only told them where the broom and dustpan and ducked back into the room.
"She okay?" George had whispered, cocking his head towards her bedroom.
Alex shrugged.
"Things are really fucked up around here lately."
That was an understatement.
"Yeah." George had agreed, sweeping up the remnants of what had to have been one of Burke's expensive pieces.
About a half an hour later after his things had been situated Alex had left. Cristina remained in the bedroom, asleep at this point, he figured. There was no way she had that many things to unpack.
George tentatively reclined, removing his shoes before he lifted his feet onto the coffee table.
He sighed.
How had he gone from life living in a hotel room mostly paid for by his apparently very wealthy wife to living on his friend's couch, a friend who he was pretty sure only tolerated him because of the others?
He knew what he had to do.
He had to apologize to Callie. Maybe for making her fall in love with him, maybe for proposing, maybe for wasting her time. At the very least she deserved an explanation.
He just had to figure out what that explanation was first.
Canlis Restaurant
Later that evening, after stopping by Cristina's apartment for the few minutes she'd promised, Meredith and Derek stood outside the restaurant where they were to meet her family.
"Do we have to?"
"Well, we don't have to but then you will likely face a lifetime of awkwardness when you happen to run into your sister in the hallway. Or bump into one of them at the grocery store, or wherever."
"Okay, looking for a little more support here."
Derek smiled, "I'm not going to lie to you."
"So basically we have to go in?"
"We have to go in."
For the second time that day, Meredith let his hand envelop hers and lead her into the restaurant.
They approached the hostess.
"We're supposed to be meeting...is there a reservation for Grey?" She had managed to choke out.
"Right this way."
Good, they were already seated. That would save the awkwardness of deciding where to sit, they'd have no choice.
As they approached the table Meredith spotted the two empty seats, one beside Lexie, the other next to Molly who also sat beside a man she assumed was her husband. Thatcher sat between Molly's husband and Lexie.
"Meredith! I'm so glad you came." Molly sprung out of her seat, taking her into a hug before she had time to process.
Meredith's arms hung limply at her side before she gave in, loosely wrapping her arms around the blonde.
After a moment she broke the hug, briefly touching Derek's arm and then introducing him to her sister.
Molly then introduced the man who was in fact her husband before Derek reached over to shake his hand.
Meredith smiled hesitantly, raising her hand to greet the others at the table. Her eyes slid past her father's to Lexie, who motioned to the seat beside her.
Maybe the night wouldn't be so bad after all.