Meredith stepped out of the resident locker room, feeling fresh and ready for her shift for the first time in days, and briskly headed for the nurse's station. After finally getting a good night's sleep, she had spent the previous afternoon and most of the evening out with Derek and his family. And surprisingly, it had gone rather well. It wasn't that they weren't nice to her during their first outing, but they had seemed more...neutral towards her and her relationship with Derek. However, the previous day they had seemed more...in favour. Happy, even. Upon prompting, Derek had admitted to a discussion he had had with them when they had headed out to see his land. Apparently they had been updated quite accurately on the goings on of the previous year and informed that she was going to be a permanent fixture in his life. A permanent fixture. Permanent. It made her smile. It meant he was going to be a permanent fixture in her life. And that was something she had never had before.
"Hey, Mer," George called out as he met up with her at the nurse's station, suppressing a yawn.
"Hey, George. Tired?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I was on call last night."
She scrunched her nose. "Did you get any sleep?"
He shrugged. "A few little bits, but it was a busy night, I got a lot of pages."
"Well, you're off early today, right? That's something."
He nodded. "Oh, I'm counting the hours."
She laughed.
"So, how's it going with Shepherd's family in town?"
She shrugged. "It's going okay, I think. A couple awkward parts and all, but I think I'm gaining ground, with his younger sister at least. Anna. She's just finishing her residency, so we have a lot in common. And Natalie is really nice, but more protective of Derek. It must be an older sister thing."
"And his mom?"
Meredith hesitated briefly. "I'm not too sure where I stand with her. I think that she doesn't hate me, but is maybe a little untrusting of our relationship? Derek hates it, but I kind of get it, you know? Our history is kind of working against us, so if she needs some time to realize I'm in this, then I think that's okay. I'm not going anywhere." She rambled, but was pretty sure she was getting her point across.
George smiled broadly at her, his eyes crinkling despite his tiredness.
She narrowed her eyes at her favourite intern. "What?"
"Nothing, it's just...you're all grown up," he told her, with only a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
She rolled her eyes and took a playful swipe at him. "Shut up."
"Hey," Their former resident's voice seemingly came out of nowhere. "Don't hit you interns." Bailey paused at the desk beside them as she jotted down some notes on the chart in her hands.
"He was asking for it," Meredith joked.
Bailey glanced away from her chart. Her eyes darted towards her and to a smirking George, and then back to her. "I'm sure he was, but no matter how many times he asked for it last year, I never hit him."
George scoffed at her accusation, but Meredith laughed, finding Miranda Bailey to have a sense of humour now that she was no longer the woman's intern. "Good point. I guess I just haven't developed your patience yet, Dr. Bailey."
The short surgeon rolled her eyes. "Don't even try to butter me up, Grey. And no more hitting your intern here. As newly appointed Chief Resident, it's my new rule. No hitting interns, and no hitting on interns, something far too many of the residents and Attendings in this hospital have been doing on too regularly of a basis for my liking." And with that, she passed her chart across the desk to a nurse and was gone, disappearing down the hallway into the mass of people before Meredith could even begin to think up a retort. It wasn't like Derek obviously breaking that rule the previous year had been her fault... And it especially wasn't as if they were the only ones.
"She told you," George muttered, causing her to roll her eyes.
"Careful, Bailey's not around, I can hit you now," she threatened playfully, holding up a small fist.
He laughed, but they were cut off before he could retort.
"Meredith," Cristina called breathily as she rushed up to the desk, collapsing between them, effectively causing George to roll his eyes and move around her if he still wanted to be a part of the conversation. "I tried to call you yesterday." She stated, her voice rushed as if she were in a hurry.
Meredith nodded. "I know. I got your message and called you back. You didn't answer."
"I was in surgery."
Meredith blinked. "Then what's the problem? We were both busy."
Cristina scoffed. "You weren't even on yesterday," she explained, her tone still breathily. "The only thing worthy of not answering your phone is surgery. And sometimes sex, but I know you were out with the McFamily, so I'm assuming you had your clothes on."
Meredith laughed and exchanged a look with George, who had an amused smile gracing his face and raised an eyebrow when Meredith met his eyes. "Sorry, Cris. I was busy doing the girlfriend thing, meeting the family and all. They're actually pretty okay. I've won over at least one sister, and maybe the other. And I think his mom is starting to like me..."She began to expand on her exploits of the previous day.
"Whatever," Cristina cut in, holding her hand up. "We have more important issues at hand. We need to figure this out."
Meredith shifted her eyes a few times. "Figure what out?"
Cristina rolled her eyes and breathed out, clearly exasperated. She glared at her person, but leaned in, obviously trying to keep the information as top secret as possible. And she shoved George away when he attempted to lean in to hear.
"Hey, you're not allowed to hit interns," George mumbled, as he staggered to stay evenly on his feet, but Cristina ignored him.
"We need to figure out who ranked first," she hissed, her elbow resting on the desk as she leaned in as close to Meredith as she could. "I've managed to find out that it's not Robinson or Monroe."
Meredith felt her heart rate increase. She had forgotten she needed to hide that single, important piece of important information from her best friend for as long as she could. "Cristina, can't you just let it go?"
She shook her head. "Of course not," she retorted. "And you promised you'd help."
"Well, I've kind of been a little busy, with the whole Derek's family is in town and all and... wait a minute! I never promised I'd help you."
"Well, you're my person. You owe it to me to help; it's like a rule or something. You're being a bad person." Cristina accused.
Meredith rolled her eyes. "Just like you've been helping me with the whole project: make Derek's family stop hating Meredith?" She countered.
"I have my own problems, Meredith," she muttered and quickly turned on her heel and headed down the hall, leaving Meredith shaking her head.
"I'll talk to you later, then," she called jokingly at her departing best friend, laughing as Cristina's interns sped down the hall after her. She knew Cristina wasn't mad at her. And she also knew she would be accosted once again some time later that day. She'd have to watch her back. She had been lucky this time, but would benefit from being prepared. The more second year residents Cristina interrogated, the closer it would bring her to Meredith. She had already had the entire previous day, when Meredith had been off with Derek and his family, her mind far away from the hospital, intern tests and rankings.
"What was that all about?" George asked gently, respecting that he may not be given access to any information, but his curiosity forcing him to at least try.
She sighed. "It's...a long story. Cristina is just being..." She shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Cristina." She concluded. George would understand. "I'm sure it'll all be out in the open in a few days."
George nodded, silently accepting her answer.
Meredith sighed and glanced at her watch. She sighed at the late time. "Okay, it's five after seven, where is everyone else?" She asked, referring to her other three interns.
George smirked and tilted his head, his gaze hovering on a point somewhere over her left shoulder.
Meredith craned her head to follow his gaze, spotting her other interns huddled across the room, their eyes focussed on her. She furrowed her brow and turned momentarily back to her favourite intern. "Why are they over there and you're over here?"
George shrugged. "Cause, I'm not afraid of Cristina." He smirked. "And they are."
Meredith snorted and rolled her eyes. "Seriously." She shook her head and sighed, waving the three younger doctors over. They shuffled quickly towards them, automatically forming a semi circle to await her directions.
"Okay," she began. "Dr. O'Malley, Dr. Webber has requested you this morning. Go prep his patient in 5204 and scrub in. Afterwards prep Dr. Hahn's valve replacement for his afternoon surgery."
"Of course, Dr. Grey," he responded, and headed off down the hall.
"Dr. Myers, you can scrub in with Dr. Bailey, but you'll have to find her. She went that way five minutes ago." She pointed in the direction Bailey had headed.
"Thanks, Dr. Grey," he called as he hurried down the hall, as if he could make up five minute in one sprint. He still had so much to learn. Just because Dr. Bailey had short legs, didn't mean she wasn't as fast, or faster, as those gifted with more height.
"And you two," she said, turning back to her remaining interns. "Go to the pit. And I'm feeling generous. If any surgical cases present themselves, feel free to scrub in if you can." They both nodded and headed for the elevator.
She sighed and turned back to the desk. "Can I have Brad Conner's chart, please?" She requested.
The nurse behind the desk nodded. "Here you go, Dr. Grey." She smiled as she passed the chart over the desk.
"Thanks, Liz," Meredith called as she accepted the chart and headed down the hallway towards her patient for the morning. She was to be scrubbing in with Mark on a facial reconstruction. He had requested her for it earlier in the week when the patient had first been admitted. He had also demanded she not include an intern stating something about enjoying his low mortality rates as a plastic surgeon and not wanting to mar his reputation by including an, apparently, incompetent intern.
"Good morning, Mr. Conner," she called as she knocked on the door. "Oh," she said as she spotted Mark standing bedside. "Hello, Dr. Sloan."
"Grey," he responded with a smirk and a nod, remnants of his patented McSteamy face prominent.
She fought the urge to shake her head. Mark would always be Mark.
"It seems that Mr. Conner, here, has spiked a fever overnight," Mark told her. "So, we won't be operating this morning. You'll need to get yourself a new case."
Meredith nodded. "Okay." She turned to head out of the room, surprised to feel a presence following her. She paused down the hallway from the patient room and turned to face Mark. "What's up?"
Mark rolled his eyes. "Four days," he muttered. "It took us four days to get him stable enough for surgery, and then, according to the nurses, the idiot spent the last two days making out with his sick, infectious girlfriend. And now the dumb ass is sick and it took me an hour to explain to him over, and over, just exactly why it is we can't operate. I swear, sometimes I wonder why I bother..."
Meredith laughed. "It can't be that bad."
He shrugged, taking the chart from her hands and flipping through the pages. "Well, the only positive aspect is that this was my third facial reconstruction this week. I've never had so many people smash their faces to pieces in the same time period before."
Meredith shook her head, but fought off the urge to laugh. It really wasn't that funny.
"So," he began. "How's the new cohabitation going?" He raised an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over the chart, evenly meeting his gaze with a small shake of her head.
He scoffed. "Fine. Don't tell me. I'll hear it from him anyway..."
She shook her head. "No you won't. We both know you two are just starting to talk again. And we especially both know that he doesn't talk about me." It was no secret to the hospital that Derek and Mark were slowly rebuilding their friendship. Whether it was loneliness during Meredith's two week absence, or maybe the fact that Addison was gone, nobody knew. But some time in the past few weeks, the two men had set aside their past and began to talk again. Or, maybe more accurately, Derek had set aside the past and began responding to Mark's adamant requests for friendship. He had become less hateful and more neutral following Meredith's drowning accident, but still resistant to actually doing anything with Mark. Meredith had thought the bachelor party thing had been a fluke, but when she had returned from her Hawaiian vacation, she had been surprised to spot Derek and Mark talking in the halls several times.
Mark narrowed his eyes. "Fine," he relented. "Maybe we don't talk about you yet, but we will. Soon. I still remember exactly how to get him to talk about anything I want."
Meredith forced herself to shrug and keep a relatively neutral expression, giving the impression that she wasn't the least bit worried, but on the inside she did, in fact, feel a small twinge of worry. Derek and Mark were closer now than she had ever seen them, and they really weren't all that close yet. But after practically a lifetime of friendship...well, she had to relent that Mark just may be right. She would have to talk to Derek. Soon. And make sure he realized the consequences of speaking about certain things that involved her. Then at least she would have the upper hand. She'd show Mark she was the superior former dirty mistress.
"So," Mark began again, his voice taking on a tone she couldn't quite place as he avoided her eyes. "I, uh, heard a rumour that there were some extra Shepherd's floating around in Seattle..."
Meredith glanced up, surprised. It hadn't occurred to her that Mark would care. But, by the expression on his face, she realized just how much he cared. From what Derek had told her, Mark had been family. "Yeah, his mother is here, and Anna and Natalie."
"Carol's here?" He questioned.
She nodded. "Yeah. They've all been here for a few days. I think they're flying home tomorrow."
He looked hurt. "Oh, okay." He glanced down, and made a few notes into the chart still in his hands. Meredith was sure he was using it as an excuse to take a moment to collect himself. After a few moments he looked back up, a hint of the normal Mark smirk across his features. "So, how are you doing with the Shepherds?"
"What?"
Suddenly his expression was a full fledged smirk. "How much progress have you made in convincing them you aren't a slutty intern who is vice president of the dirty mistress club."
Meredith rolled her eyes. "I'm so not vice president. What makes you think you get to be president?"
Mark smiled back in good humour. "Cause, I make a much better dirty mistress than you. I have years of practice." He raised an eyebrow as his lips tightened confidently.
She scoffed, but knew she couldn't argue. From what she had heard, he was absolutely right. She couldn't compete...not that she really wanted to compete in this particular category.
"But if it's that important, you can be vice president and cofounder." He smirked.
She laughed. "Okay, deal," she relented with a joking smile.
He nodded. "Good, glad to have you on board." He jokingly held out his hand, to which she laughed, but shook. "But seriously, how have you been doing convincing them you aren't a slutty intern?"
She shrugged. "Well, the intern part is easy, seeing as I am a resident now." She laughed. "The slutty part...I'm working on it. I don't think they hate me, so that's something."
Mark's smirk faded. "They're good people, Meredith," he told her, his voice more compassionate than she could ever remember hearing it. "Just give them some time."
She smiled sympathetically back at him. "Okay," she told him, not knowing what else to say. She only knew a little of what it felt like to lose family, and her loss had only been after a few months of knowing them. Mark had lost a family he had known since he could remember. She may not know what it felt like to lose a long term family, but she definitely knew what it felt like to not have one. She could definitely sympathise with that. And she knew better than anyone that there just wasn't anything she could possibly do or say to make him feel any better.
Mark shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with her empathy. He closed the chart and passed it back to her. "Well, I have to be going, busy morning and all," he spoke quickly before escaping any further discussion by disappearing down the hall.
Meredith shook her head sadly, wondering if he even realized how stupid his excuse was when his morning surgery had just been cancelled. She shrugged, realizing there was very little she could do to help him. The only thing she could possibly offer at this point was to not comment on his slip-up.
"Mer," Cristina called out, appearing from behind her, causing Meredith to jump. She turned to face her approaching best friend, cursing under her breath.
"What's up?" Meredith questioned lightly, hoping to keep the conversation out of dangerous territory.
"It's not Martin. Have you ruled anyone out yet?" Meredith sighed. Apparently the conversation was well in enemy territory before it had even begun.
"Cris, it's been like fifteen minutes. How could I have possibly ruled anyone out yet?"
Cristina huffed. "Well, hurry up!" And then she rushed past Meredith and around the corner, before Meredith had a chance to respond at all. Meredith shrugged. That had gone much better then she had expected. If only her run-ins could stay like that, but she knew better.
She sighed and headed back down the hall to return the chart. She had been at the hospital for less than an hour, and Cristina had already confronted her twice about discovering who ranked first. That left her with no doubt that her best friend was confronting every second year resident in the surgical department. That meant word would quickly spread through the hospital that not only were the ranks out, but that some mystery person had ranked first. Meredith suddenly wondered how much access Derek had to that kind of information. She couldn't let him find out from another source.
After passing her chart back across the nurse's desk, Meredith made a bee line for the locker room. She glanced around to ensure she had privacy before she quickly opened her cubby and pulled the crumpled envelope out from the back corner. Pulling the edges to straighten the letter out, she regarded it for several seconds, a smile coming unbidden to her lips at the sudden swell of pride she felt. The events of the past few days had forced her thoughts away from her results, but now, thanks to Cristina, they would soon be out in the open, whether she liked it or not.
She took a deep breath, folded her envelope several times and stuffed it into her lab coat pocket. Then she closed her cubby and headed for Derek's office.
000
Meredith knocked hesitantly on the door, and slowly turned the knob and pushed it open when Derek's familiar voice called out for her to come in.
"Hey!" He greeted happily as he looked up from his paperwork, a smile on his face.
"Hey," she responded, quieter than him, as she gently pushed the door shut behind her. She definitely wanted privacy for this conversation.
He stood and came around his desk to hug her. "I'm so glad you're here. I haven't seen you in almost an hour," he joked.
Meredith laughed as she leaned into his hug, smiling at the sight of the three postcards she had sent him from Hawaii still pinned up on his bulletin board. He pulled away and tilted his head gently as he regarded her. "So, what do I owe this great honour?"
She rolled her eyes in good nature as he smiled at her. "Great honour, huh?"
He smirked and stepped side to side to shuffle closer to her, his hands landing on her hips; his fingers clutching at the hem of her scrub top. "Mmmhmm," he mumbled. "A great honour..." his breath was hot against her cheek as he leaned in. "I assume you're here to continue what we started this morning..."
Meredith laughed aloud, realizing he had vastly misinterpreted her closing his door. But she couldn't resist sidling close to him, her arms reaching under his to skim along the back of his navy blue scrub shirt. "Derek, seriously, it's only been like two hours..."
He breathed against her neck. "You're one to talk." He brushed his cheek up and down hers gently, his always present stubble creating a wonderful array of friction and electricity. She groaned despite herself. "You came to me..." He whispered into her ear.
She sighed, knowing she had to either remove herself from the situation or commit herself to the project before the decision was made for her. And she knew what the result would be; she could never resist him for long. "I did," she conceded. "To talk, not to...do...other...stuff." He narrowed his eyes, causing her to giggle. "Not that I don't want to do other stuff, but we're only an hour into shift."
He smiled and kissed her quickly before making an overly dramatic show of sighing and releasing his gentle hold on her. He stepped to the side and leaned back against the edge of his desk, his ankles crossed in front of him, as he surveyed her, his gaze purposely scorching. Just so he made sure she knew what she was missing. Meredith smiled. This was one of those times she regretted dubbing Mark with McSteamy. Derek could definitely pull off both when he wanted to.
"So," he prompted when it became apparent she was sufficiently too distracted to remember she had come to him for some unknown reason. "What was it you needed?"
She shook her head, realizing she had spaced out a bit. Her cheeks blushed just so, but she ignored it, hoping he would follow suit and be good enough to not mention it, although his growing smirk told her he had definitely noticed. "I, uh, came to-"
She was cut off by the sudden chirping of a pager. Derek jumped just slightly as the small electronic box attached to his waistband began to vibrate. His fingers expertly sought out the pager and tilted it upwards, his eyes squinting as he read the tiny letters flashing across the equally tiny screen.
"Nine-one-one," he muttered. "I'm needed in the pit." He looked back up at her, his blue eyes meeting hers dead on as he shrugged. "Sorry. We'll have to put this on hold."
She shook her head. "It can wait," she told him. She could only hope she was right.
"Good." He leaned in to place a quick kiss on her forehead, his hands landing on her waist line once again as he gently manoeuvred around her small frame. "Close the door behind you when you're done." And then the door was swinging shut behind him as he rushed to save the life of an unknown accident victim.
The heavy wooden door landed back against the door jam, not quite hard enough to close and bounced back a few inches before hovering and becoming still, allowing Meredith a slit of a window into the serene hallway servicing the department head offices. The quiet stillness of the outdoor world gave her the confidence to hang around for a few minutes without the fear of being caught. She made her way around the large, oak desk and collapsed into Derek's chair. She toyed with the thought of playing with the settings to bug him, but shook her head, deciding against it. Derek had ranted about just how long it had taken him to get the chair just right. For a man who spent so little time at his desk, he was very picky.
She pivoted side to side several times, shaking her head at the framed picture he had of the two of them on his desk. It had been taken when they had first gotten back together. A rare day off together had sent them wandering through the park, hand in hand. An older couple, obviously tourists complete with matching fanny packs and cameras handing around their necks had requested their help in taking a picture. Meredith had smiled lightly as Derek had valiantly stepped forward, snapping several shots of the couple as they posed. When he went to return the camera to its owners, Meredith hadn't realized what he had been doing as he suddenly dug his hand into his pocket. And he had turned his back to her for several moments as he passed the mystery pocket item to the woman. Then he had turned back towards her and smiled as he approached. She had looked curiously at him and tried to turn as he slid around, to stand mostly behind her, but his arms wrapped comfortably around her middle, keeping her still. Then she had realised the tourist woman was now holding up Derek's phone, adjusting it as she tried to find the perfect frame for a photo.
The first shot showed her surprise and his laughter.
The second showed her struggling to pull away. He looked somewhat concerned.
The third was now framed and sitting before her on his desk. After a short stint of gentle coaxing, she had accepted his apology and consented to a photo. The snapshot had caught them flawlessly, the happiness and relief at their newly found reunion with each other evident in their smiles and posture. He had his arms wrapped loosely around her middle, her fingers weaved through his as they leaned into one another. And his chin was resting gently on her shoulder as he leaned his cheek against hers. His eyes were bright and shiny, matching the broad smile on his lips. He looked happy. Her expression was a little looser. He had said something funny, something she couldn't even remember now. But at the time it had made her normally suppressed smile break open in a torrent of light giggles as the photo was taken. They looked really happy. The horrible few months before them was over. They were back together, with no idea of the events to come in the following months. Back then they had had no idea just how easily everything would almost come loose around them. They had just been happy to be together again.
It was a feeling Meredith hoped would never cease. The joy she felt at being together was what she attributed to having kept them together long enough for the two of them to finally stop acting like they had, and set to developing a stronger relationship. And they had.
Meredith smiled despite herself and swung the chair all the way around, her eyes catching on the only other photo in the room. She stood and wandered over to the shelving units on the opposite wall, her hands reaching out to carefully pull down the framed keepsake. The family photo showed a much younger Derek, his frame lankier, his hair much less controlled and his shoulders lighter, as if the weight of the world had never yet settled on them for any amount of time. But his smile was the same. Light. Happy. Free. Very Derek. It made her feel good, that she could recognize some part of him from so many years ago; that she could see even a hint of the Derek she knew now.
When they had first been together, long before the name Addison rang any bells in her head, Meredith had wandered up to Derek's office after a long thirty-six hour shift. He had promised her dinner when she finished. It had been the first time she had been in his office and had immediately narrowed in on the single personal item he had graced his office with the presence of, that wasn't his med school diploma. She had pulled the photo down, much like she was doing now, and asked him if that was his family; anything to get more information about his past.
Derek had smiled and nodded, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms loosely around her waist as he pointed out the smiling faces in the photograph on by one. That's my mom, Carol, and that's me, of course. This was probably taken in my senior year of high school. I was just starting to understand the importance of product for the hair, he joked. And that's my younger sister, Anna, we're a little more than three years apart. And that's Nat, she's only a year and a half older than me. And then Nancy, he pointed her out. She's two years older than Nat. And there's Kathleen, she's the oldest, and that's her husband Simon, though I can't remember of they're married in this picture. They may just be engaged. He had squinted, as if searching for a ring on Simon's hand.
Wow, she had responded. You really weren't kidding when you said you had four sisters.
He had laughed, his chin coming to rest gently on her shoulder. Nope. And trust me. That's not something you joke about.
Back in the present Meredith smiled at the happy memory as she traced her eyes over the old photograph once again. The only difference was she now recognized all of the occupants except Kathleen and Simon. And from the conversation the day before, she was pretty sure she's be meeting them soon enough. And the three husbands who were absent. And the fourteen kids. And who knows how many aunts and uncles and cousins she didn't yet know about.
The previous day had gone well, Meredith had felt much more comfortable with the Shepherd clan, and Derek had been ecstatic that they had gotten along so well. But it seemed to her that Carol and her two daughters had conspired together, as the conversation commonly took turns to question when Derek, and Meredith, apparently, would come to New York. There had been talk about Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And March Break. And a big family gathering based around Carol's sixty-fifth birthday the following spring. And so on.
Derek, although he had rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, had seemed pleased with the thought of going home and visiting. And she was pretty sure that flying across the country to spend the holidays, whatever holiday it was you were currently celebrating, including taking your girlfriend with you. So, whenever it was that he decided to concede to his mother's wishes and fly to New York, she was pretty sure she would end up accompanying him. And the thought made her...apprehensive. Dealing with Carol and Anna and Natalie was fine. In Seattle. She was on her own turf. She still had her job, and her friends, and her own space. And there were only three of them. In New York she would be isolated. The only outsider in a sea of Shepherds. And there would be a lot more. Twenty-three in the immediate family alone. And who knew how many aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and stuff he had. She wouldn't have anywhere to escape to. Which gave her every right to feel a little apprehensive at the thought.
Not that she wouldn't go. Of course she would go. The sight of Derek's cheerful face the previous day as he had watched her interact happily with his family had warmed her heart. Although their life had been amazing recently, the strained, unhappy events were only weeks old; still fresh in her mind. And if there was something she could do to keep that expression on his face...then she would do it. If she could make him happy, then she was doing something right in this relationship. And she was determined to do it right this time.
Meredith took a breath and returned the photo to its rightful spot above the dusty medical text on the shelf before her and made her way back to his desk. She had wasted enough time, and needed to get back to work soon. But it was nice to spend a few quiet moments alone in a place that was so him. She smiled to herself as she leaned over the desk and pulled a pen out of the old Knicks coffee mug being used as a pencil holder.
Derek,
Hope your surgery goes well. Come find me when you're done. Love you,
Mer.
She placed the short note on the center of his desk and stood, slowly making her way around the desk to the door. After one last glance around the room, Meredith pulled the door shut behind her and made her way down the hall to the elevators.
000
"So, any idea who it is?" Alex's voice cut through her concentration as she scribbled notes down on the chart in her hand. After Cristina had cornered her again in the pit, Meredith had opted to spend her morning in the clinic. The ratio of surgical to non-surgical cases was much lower, more often then not driving Cristina as far away as possible. And today that was a good thing. Meredith needed a safe haven.
"Hmm?" She asked, glancing up shortly before returning her eyes to the chart. She was determined to become the first doctor at Grace to have fully legible hand writing, and therefore needed to keep her eyes on the form.
"The lucky bastard who beat Yang."
Meredith's heart lurched as she realized exactly what Alex was talking about. She forced herself to act normal. Alex had this odd way of seeing through her much more often than she would have liked. And she wasn't so sure he would take it in his best interest to not tell Cristina if he so happened to discover her secret.
"Or maybe unlucky bastard is more like it," Alex continued. "Cause that poor guy is going to have to watch his back for the rest of his career." He laughed.
"What makes you so sure it was a guy?" Izzy asked, appearing beside Alex, a clipboard in hand. She had been quietly working alongside Meredith for about an hour.
Alex rolled his eyes. "Just going with the odds. More men. And Yang's already ruled out most of the women."
"Whatever," Izzy responded, obviously not accepting his explanation.
Alex narrowed his eyes. "What are you two both doing here? With the number of interns down here, you hardly need to be wasting two residents."
Meredith shrugged, glancing at Izzy. "My surgery got cancelled and I was here first."
Izzy scoffed. "It's my clinic."
"It's Bailey's clinic." Meredith countered.
The blond shrugged. "I paid for it. I get dibs."
Alex snorted.
Meredith rolled her eyes.
"Anyway," Alex stated, turning his attention back to Meredith, choosing not to respond to Izzy. "Back to my original question, the one that was so rudely interrupted." He glared at Izzy. "Who do you think it was?"
Meredith sighed inwardly, wishing she had found a better place to hide. It had never occurred to her she would be cornered by her other friends. Alex alone wouldn't be so bad, but Izzy loved her gossip. She hesitated, not sure of what to say. But she lucked out when Izzy butted in once again.
The blond laughed. "You know what's funny? Cristina thinks it was me. She keeps asking me, as if she's sure I'm lying. And she demanded I show her my letter as proof this morning, and doesn't believe me that I took it home. Like I would lie about that when we live in the same freaking house. I'm just glad I got that lock installed. Oh, and she's got some theory about Callie giving her fake study cards and George and I studying from the real ones. Seriously. Does she not realize how much work would go in to making fake, realistic, study cards? And why would someone do that anyway?"
"If she thinks you two had the good cards, what's her explanation for Bambi failing?" Alex asked.
Izzy paused, as if the question hadn't occurred to her before. "I'll have to ask her that next time she corners me. Seriously. Why would I lie? I'd be gloating if I beat her."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "How did you do?"
Izzy hesitated, meeting Alex's eyes for several seconds as she debated answering him. Finally she sighed. "Fifth."
"Damn," Alex muttered. "I was Sixth."
Izzy smiled broadly. "Ha! I beat you."
"Shut up," he muttered, turning his attention to Meredith again. "Your turn, Grey. How'd you do?"
Meredith sucked in a breath, her mind reeling to come up with a suitable excuse. "Oh, well, I don't really want to...say..."
Alex smirked. "We totally beat her."
Izzy smiled. "Totally."
Alex made a big show of sighing. "That's something to put on the old resume; beating the daughter of Ellis Grey."
Meredith rolled her eyes as she debated allowing the assumption over her reluctance to vocalize her results go, or countering it. In the end she didn't have to make either decision.
"What are you fools doing?" Bailey's voice rang through the clinic, causing all three of her former interns to flinch. "My clinic is not for socializing."
"Sorry, Dr. Bailey," Izzy responded quickly as they turned to face her. Alex and Meredith nodded their agreement. Meredith spotted Dr. Myers hovering behind the short resident, obviously uncomfortable with the situation.
"Fools," she muttered, striding forward, leaving Meredith's intern shuffling behind her. "What's more important to discuss than patient care in my clinic?"
"Oh, well," Izzy said brightly. "We were wondering who, umpf." She cut off when Meredith elbowed her in the ribs. Izzy sometimes had trouble distinguishing rhetorical and non-rhetorical questions. And Bailey's was obviously supposed to be the former.
Bailey shook her head at Izzy before narrowing her eyes at the three of them. "Care to explain why there are three residents down here?"
Meredith glanced at her silent companions, both wide eyed at being caught. She stuttered. "I was here first," she mumbled, her mind unable to come up with a new excuse, so she went with her original one.
"That doesn't answer my question, Grey."
"We're sorry, Dr. Bailey," Izzy tried again. "But Meredith was right. She was here all morning. And then I came about an hour ago, and it was busy enough to warrant the two of us being here. Seriously. And we were doing really well until Alex came down here and distracted us."
Alex scoffed. "Seriously? You're going to blame this on me? Well, guess what? You can walk home tonight."
"You wouldn't dare..."
Bailey cleared her throat, causing Izzy and Alex to fall silent immediately. "You two are acting like children. Honestly." She glanced at Meredith. "You've been down here all morning?"
Meredith nodded. "Yes, my surgery got cancelled."
"And where are your interns?"
"Dr. O'Malley is in OR 3 with the Chief. Drs. Bradshaw and Howard are scrubbed in with Dr. Shepherd on an accident victim from the pit. And Dr. Myers is standing behind you."
"Right," Bailey said, her head pivoting to motion the young surgeon forward. "Dr. Myers did well in surgery this morning. You're doing a good job with them."
Meredith was taken aback. "Thank-you, Dr. Bailey."
Bailey nodded and her eyes flickered towards the other two. "Can either of you fools give me an accurate account of where your interns are right now?" She asked. "I didn't think so," she stated before they even had a chance to stutter a response. "Now, you two are going to spend the rest of your day down here with me, and work up every patient that comes through here with a smile on your face. And if I see either one of you so much as consider stepping out of line, you can spend the rest of your week here. Am I clear?"
Izzy and Alex nodded and quickly turned to grab new charts from the desk.
Bailey turned back to Meredith. "Grey, you've done enough for today. Go find yourself a surgery or something." She nodded, effectively dismissing her.
Meredith didn't hesitate to comply. She motioned for Myers to follow her and she hurried out of the clinic, not slowing her pace until she was out of sight.
Her intern fell into step beside her. "Sometimes that woman scares me," he admitted quietly, with a bemused smile.
Meredith laughed. "Me too. Just be glad you don't have her as your resident."
He laughed and shuddered, then paused as he met her eye. "Does that mean... Was she your resident?"
Meredith nodded. "Yup. And Dr. Stevens and Dr. Karev. And Dr. Yang." She wasn't sure why she kept George's name out of the list. She knew his secret was well out in the open now.
He whistled. "Wow. That must have been tough."
Meredith shrugged as they arrived at the elevators and she hit the button and began to wait. "Not as bad as you'd think, I guess. She made us work, but I guess she made us learn." Meredith shrugged, realizing she was socializing with her intern, but not caring too much for the time being. Dr. Myers didn't care who beat Cristina. And he wouldn't question her. "Her bark is much worse than her bite. I wouldn't have traded for another resident."
"Seriously?" He asked, causing Meredith to smile. The phrase was contagious. She wasn't sure if Izzy had infected the hospital, or had simply been the first of them to pick it up, but sure enough everyone who worked at Seattle Grace seemed to end up using the term seriously, at some time during their daily lives. Maybe they put something in the water.
She nodded. "Seriously."
He nodded, accepting her answer. And then hesitated.
"What?" She prompted.
He sighed and his cheeks reddened, but he met her eyes. "I'm just...surprised...that she was your resident and that you're so...well, less harsh. I mean Dr. Yang and Dr. Karev, I can see being her interns... And I guess I'm glad I got you as my resident. I wouldn't trade either."
Meredith couldn't help the smile that flittered across her lips. "Thank-you, Dr. Myers. I'm trying my best."
He nodded. "Not a problem. I mean, I'm...friends with Nicole Harold. She's one of Dr. Yang's interns. And she's terrified, like all the time."
Meredith narrowed her eyes at the reverent tone he had used to say the other interns name and she almost laughed, suddenly realizing there may be relationship drama between her and Cristina's interns. "I'm sure she is," she agreed lightly, as the elevator doors opened and they boarded quickly. It was crowded, so they remained silent while the elevator lifted them upwards and deposited them on the surgical floor.
"Meredith!" She flinched as she heard her name come out of her best friend's mouth as soon as she stepped foot on the floor. It felt like Cristina was stalking her today. Or had a Meredith-locator or something.
"Anyone to rule out yet?" Cristina asked after she hurried over. She glared at Dr. Myers, who averted his eyes and stepped back, distancing himself from the conversation, but remaining close to his resident until he was given new instructions.
Meredith hesitated. "Well, it's not Alex or Izzy."
Cristina blinked several times as she surveyed her. "Seriously? That's all you have to tell me? Meredith, I told you it wasn't Alex two days ago..."
"But you also said he wouldn't tell you his rank. I found out that he was sixth..."
"Sixth? Well, at least you're not completely useless," Cristina muttered as she pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and scribbled something down.
"What are you doing?"
Cristina shrugged. "Keeping track. That way I can rule out who is left and catch people if they're lying. I really think it may be Izzy. Callie probably gave me the second rate cards and gave George the good ones. And if he and Izzy were all kissy faced back then, they would have studied together. It fits. She could have had access to the good cards. That's the only way she could have beat me."
Meredith hesitated, before choosing to let the comments go. For now. She didn't need Cristina questioning why she was so sure it wasn't Izzy. She needed some excuse to change the subject.
She spotted Mark over by the nurse's station, waiting for a chart, and made a beeline for him.
"Dr. Sloan," she greeted. "Are you operating on Mr. Connors?"
"Grey," he greeted and shook his head. "Nope. Still has a fever. And because there aren't any more exciting cases at the present time, I am currently on my way to remove a rather large mole from a woman's leg. Exciting, huh? Care to join me?"
Meredith laughed at his fake excitement. "No, but I have an intern who needs something to do."
Mark surveyed her before rolling his eyes and nodding. "Fine. I suppose a mole resection is safe enough to allow an intern to watch. It would be pretty hard to kill the patient."
Meredith rolled her eyes back at him and motioned her intern over. "Be nice," she hissed at Mark before turning her attention to Myers. "Dr. Myers, you'll be working with Dr. Sloan this afternoon."
He nodded. "Thanks, Dr. Grey."
Mark shoved the chart into his hands. "First rule, you carry the chart. I expect you to know every detail about the patient by the time we get to her room. Second rule. You follow me." And with that he nodded at Meredith and hurried off past the nurse's station and down the hall, Myers struggling to keep up and read the chart at the same time.
Meredith shook her head.
"Good job, you got rid of him," Cristina stated as she pulled Meredith away from the nurse's desk towards the nape of the hallway for some privacy. "Now, did Izzy mention a ranking at all? That way I can at least pencil her in and then confront her when someone else claims the same one."
Meredith sighed, seeing no way out of it. "Uh, she said she was fifth."
"Fifth, hmm," Cristina said as she pulled out her sheet once again and pencilled Izzy's name in. "Well, I don't have anyone else there yet. But I'll get her."
"Who are you going to get?" Derek's voice broke through the air behind Meredith. She turned to face him, her eyes wide as she realized just what could happen. He gave her a questioning look at her wide eyes, but leaned in to give her a quick kiss before turning an expectant look to Cristina.
"Oh, I'm going to catch Izzy in a lie."
"What kind of lie?" He asked. Meredith took a deep breath, forcing an outwardly calm expression as she reached over and took Derek's hand, trying to look casual. She squeezed, trying to signal him to stop asking questions. To her dismay he squeezed back gently and sent a happy smile her way. She sighed. They really needed to work on their undercover stealth communication stuff. Here she was trying her best to discreetly signal for him to stay off the topic because it could end horribly for her, and he was content, believing her to be doing the PDA holding hands in the hall thing. Seriously.
"I'm pretty sure she and O'Malley got the good cards from Callie, and left me high and dry with the second rate crap cards. And now she's lying about winning."
Derek blinked. Then blinked again as his mind obviously raced to make some sense of what his girlfriend's best friend was telling him. "Cards..." he muttered, as if that would prompt something. It didn't. He shook his head. "Sorry. Win what?"
Cristina scoffed. "Seriously. Like you don't know. What have I been talking about for three days?"
Derek shook his head. "Sorry. I've been kind of busy. I don't think I've even talked to you in three days."
She sighed. "The intern exam. Izzy won, and she's lying about it."
"How do you win an exam?"
Meredith stepped in. She squeezed his hand. "They released our rankings from the exam this week." She squeezed his hand again. "And Cristina came second, and is convinced it's Izzy who beat her." She squeezed his hand again. Hard.
"Oh, I'm with you now. Has it really been six weeks already? I forgot that was this week." He turned to Meredith, his eyes suddenly full of wonder. She met his eyes, hers pleading for him to not ask the question she knew was on the tip of his tongue. It only took one innocent question about her rank for Cristina to remember Meredith hadn't actually given her a ranking to go on. She used whatever ability she had at communicating through looks to beg him not to ask. And if that wasn't going to work, she widened her eyes and squeezed his hand again, even going so far as to dig her nails in to the soft flesh of his palm. Just a bit.
He stared back, his eyes narrowing just so at her odd behaviour. He opened his mouth. Meredith held her breath.
"Well, good for Izzy, then," he stated, returning his attention back to Cristina, acting nonchalant. He smiled and squeezed Meredith's hand; his way of telling her he had no idea what was going on, but he would do whatever he could to help her out. She sighed in relief.
Cristina narrowed her eyes at him briefly. "You don't happen to get access to that kind of information, do you?"
"What?"
"Well, you're an attending and a department head. So, you probably get access to the list of ranks..."
Derek smirked and shook his head. "Sorry, Yang. Only the Chief knows for now. And even if I did, it wouldn't be ethical for me to tell you."
"Whatever," Cristina scoffed. She glanced at her watch, as if suddenly bored. "Well, I should be going." She glanced at Meredith. "Keep asking around," she commanded and turned to head down the hallway.
Meredith breathed a sigh of relief.
Derek dropped her hand to wrap his arm loosely around her waist. "Care to explain that to me?"
She laughed at his confused expression and nodded. "Yeah, just not here. Maybe we could go to your office..."
He smirked. "We can always go to my office..."
She rolled her eyes and playfully pushed him away. "Seriously," she muttered, but Derek turned it on her.
"Seriously." He nodded, his eyebrows flashing up and down suggestively.
She laughed. "Do you think about anything else?"
He paused and pretended to think, and then he laughed and shook his head. "When you're around? Not really."
She shook her head as he released his grip and began to lead her towards the elevators. "What did you do with my interns?" She questioned as they boarded the first car.
"Post op. Two hours, at least. That gives us plenty of time."
She laughed, glad the car was empty besides them. It gave her a reason to not have to kill him.
Once they reached the floor, Derek followed her to his office, motioning for her to enter first, and then shut the door behind them, just like Meredith had that morning. The only difference, however, was he made a big, joking show of turning the lock.
She laughed and rolled her eyes, but allowed him to step forward and wrap his arms around her in a gentle hug.
"So," he started when he pulled away. "I assume whatever is going on between you and Cristina is what you came to talk about this morning?"
Meredith nodded, smiling up at him.
He narrowed his eyes. "Do I need to be sitting down for this?"
She laughed and shook her head. "No. It's not a bad thing."
He raised an eyebrow. "Not a bad thing? Then why did my poor palm have to suffer. I can still see the indents of the razors you call fingernails..." He pulled his hand away from her, jokingly shoving his palm in her face.
She laughed and pushed at his hand. "Derek," she chastised. "There's no mark." And there really wasn't. She barely had finger nails to begin with. As a surgeon, they had to be kept short at all times.
"Well, I can still feel it." He whined, a sparkle in his eye.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, pulling it closer to place a quick kiss on his palm, then laced her fingers through his and pulled their combined hands down to their sides.
"That's a little better," Derek muttered, though his eyes were now dancing with light and amusement.
She shook her head.
"So," he prompted.
"Yeah," she responded, knowing she had to say something, but had no idea where to start. It was like she was suddenly embarrassed or something. "Well, I, uh..." she trailed off and stuffed her free hand into her pocket to pull out the rumpled, folded envelope she had been carrying around all day. She stuffed it into his free hand. "Here."
He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly unsure, but dropped her hand to be able to unfold the envelope. He pulled it straight between his hands and stared at the letterhead. "What's this?"
"My results."
"Okay," he glanced at her. "Can I...?" he motioned towards the letter.
She nodded, giving him permission to read it.
He sighed and made a big production of pulling the single sheet of paper out of the envelope and slowly unfolding it. She waited silently watching his eyes flitter side to side as he scanned down the paragraphs of text. "Hey, we got third, that's good," he muttered as he read through Seattle Grace's results. His eyes continued to scan back and forth before they stopped suddenly. A smile slowly started to develop as he looked up at her. "Mer..." He trailed off as his McDreamy smile became full fledged. He dropped the letter onto his desk without taking his eyes away from hers. "You... I'm so proud of you."
She smiled back at him, her eyes filling with tears. She just couldn't help it when he was looking at her like that. She blinked furiously, suddenly unable to meet his powerful gaze. "I...uh..." She tried, but found she just couldn't speak.
He slipped his arms under hers, pushing them upwards as he pulled her in tight. She wrapped her arms around his neck in response as he held her. She buried her head in his shoulder. His face was resting in the crook of her neck and she could feel his breathing rustling her hair. He kissed the nape of her neck and pulled back just far enough to meet her eyes. His were bright. Bright and shiny and happy and dancing with light. His smile looked like it was going to burst off his face.
"Congratulations," he shook them slightly back and forth with every syllable of the word.
Meredith laughed as they swayed.
Then his smile turned into a smirk. "I told you."
She rolled her eyes good naturedly. "I know."
"I told you that you were amazing. And smart. And talented." He kissed her. "You should listen to me."
She laughed. "I did listen to you. But, seriously, Derek. Thank-you. You're the only reason I got through that day. I owe this to you."
He smiled and she could swear she saw his eyes well. "Meredith..." he spoke her name low and throaty. "I...you got yourself there. All I did was give you that final push. You really are amazing."
She averted her eyes, unable to accept his praise, but found her chin being gently forced back up to meet his eyes again. She couldn't take the intensity and her watery eyes overflowed.
"Oh, Mer," he rubbed his thumb under her eyes to remove the extra moisture. "I'm so happy for you. You deserve this. Hell, after the year you had, you earnedthis, more than anyone else."
She laughed, closing her arms around his neck to pull their faces closer. She leaned her forehead up against his, laughing as the tears continued to weave slowly down her cheeks. For the first time she could remember, she cried, and not out of sadness or hopelessness or a broken heart, but out of happiness, love, and hope for the future. Their future.
He laughed as well, his hands drifting lower to lift her up and he spun them around. Once. Twice. Three times. When he allowed her to rest her feet on the ground once again, he stumbled backwards, pulling them both down on the couch near the back of his office.
"Okay," he admitted as he pulled her in close from their position on the couch. "That wasn't my best idea," he said, clearly a little dizzy.
She laughed and pressed her lips up against his. It only took him a moment to respond. And two moments to deepen it. Meredith groaned as she felt his strong hands leave their supportive place on her back to work under the hem of her scrub top. She allowed him to lower her down onto the couch, and pulled his shirt over his head as he leaned in over top of her, forcing their lips apart as her lithe fingers worked the unwanted garment out of the way. He smiled down at her, his hand slipping under her back to raise her enough to follow suit in removing her top.
"That's better," he grumbled as he hovered lower over her, their bare skin meeting in an explosion of electricity.
"Mmm," she agreed as his lips found hers once again.
It wasn't until his fingers began to work methodically at the tie on her scrub pants that she realized what they were doing.
"Derek," she muttered into his mouth. He deepened the kiss, causing her to giggle. She pulled her hand out of his hair and gently pushed up against his chest. As much as he was into this, Derek was nothing if he wasn't a gentleman. And he would always stop if she asked him to.
He pulled his hands away from her pants to support himself and pushed away several inches, panting, his deep blue eyes staring quizzically down at her.
She smiled, removing her hand from his chest to return to his hair, where she wrapped his curly locks around her fingers. "Derek," she breathed. "We can't...do this here."
He smirked, his lips meeting hers for several seconds. "Sure we can."
She laughed. "We cannot have sex in your office."
"Why not?" The fingers of his left hand brushed up her neck and across her clavicle, running along the path of the thin chain still resting around her neck.
She paused, suddenly realizing she couldn't come up with anything resembling a good reason. "Because," she stuttered. "It's your office..."
"Yes. It is. And I give us permission. We need to celebrate."
She rolled her eyes. "Can't you wait until tonight?"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Can you?" He shifted his leg, which was resting between hers, upwards, just slightly. She had to fight to keep her eyes from crossing. He smirked. "Exactly."
"Derek..."
He flexed his strong arms, leaning his body in closer, his lips only millimetres from hers. "Come on, Mer. I told you that you need to listen to me more..."
She laughed slightly, knowing there was no way she could say no at this rate, but right now, with his strong body covering hers, and his loving gaze focussed squarely on her, there was no where else she would rather be. "I love you, Derek," she breathed.
His lips fell onto hers in a feather light kiss. "I love you so much," he whispered.
Meredith smiled, and tightened her grip on his hair. He breathed, waiting for her to make the first move, his beautiful eyes blinked as he gazed down at her, never revealing anything but love and happiness. A year ago she would never have guessed she'd end up where she was now. In her entire lifetime of loneliness and unhappiness, she had never dared dream of what she had now. She had him. And they had plans. And the surprise visit by his family promised her a place in their future. And she was starting to create her own reputation at work, independent of her mother's status. And she, Meredith Grey, was happy. For the first time in her life, she was completely, one hundred percent. Happy.
She breathed, suddenly wanting to savour the moment. Then she arched her back and pressed her lips upwards against his. It was all the invitation he needed as he lowered himself back down, leaving his hand free to dance with the drawstring of her scrub pants once again.