"Okay," Christina began, "So who wants to start?"
Derek raised his hand hesitantly, like he was in grade school and waiting for the teacher to call on him.
Meredith rolled her eyes.
"What? You want to go first?" he offered.
She shook her head.
"Okay then. I'm sorry," he glanced over at Christina warily, "but can you go into a stall or something?"
"They're not sound proof."
"I know, but just so that you're not there….spectating."
"That's what I'm supposed to do-make sure that Meredith doesn't kill you."
"Meredith, will you kill me?"
She hesitated a second before shaking her head.
"She won't kill me."
"She hesitated."
"Yeah, what was with that?"
"I won't kill you, now can we get this over with please?"
Christina let out a grumble of annoyance before shuffling off to one of the stalls and pulling the door shut behind her. The click of the lock resounded against the walls, and Derek turned back to face Meredith, eyes pleading.
"I didn't tell you."
She snorted and folded her arms across her chest, "Glad we agree."
"I'm sorry."
"Uh huh."
"Mer-"
"Listen, this conversation is completely unnecessary. We obviously had different ideas about what our relationship meant, but it's over-we move on."
"What if I don't want to move on?"
"Then you don't get what you want."
"You're seriously considering just letting us walk away from the past two months?"
"You're seriously considering fixing this?" she shot back.
His shoulders slumped, and his entire body seemed to curl forward in something close to defeat. She wanted to reach up and brush her fingertips against his arm, but she fought against the impulse. A voice carried over the stall door, and their heads both turned reflexively towards the sound.
"Stop avoiding," Christina shouted, louder than necessary, "He wants you, you want him, so go for it."
A smile tugged at the corners of Derek's mouth, a smile that made Meredith's knees weaken despite her better judgment.
"Listen to Yang," he prompted playfully, the angst from two minutes ago melting into something warm.
"Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" She whined, ignoring the man in front of her who was suddenly looking a lot better.
"If you were being reasonable? Yes. Now? No."
"Christina…"
"If you don't listen to him, I'll have to hear about it for the next month."
"I promise I won't bitch to you," she offered.
"Meredith, just listen to him. This is coming from me, Christina Yang, your best friend, who's as dark and twisty as you are. Listen to him."
"No," Meredith said, turning to look at Derek, "There are things you don't know- things that don't have anything to do with you having a wife and a kid that you didn't tell me about. Things that would have you running in the opposite direction if you knew so just…just stop trying to fix this, okay? It's just wrong on so many levels."
She tapped on the stall door that hid her best friend and rocked back on her heels.
"Mer, I-"he stammered, but she cut off his sputtering.
"Christina, I'm done."
A tangle of dark hair appeared as the door creaked open, and Christina stepped out almost shyly.
"She's done," the Asian intern repeated firmly after seeing the frantic deer-in-the-headlights look on Meredith's face.
"Can't you just tell me what the things are so that I can decide for myself if they're going to make me run in the opposite direction?"
"No."
"I think it's a little unfair that you're making that decision for me."
"Well, it's not."
Christina was looking back and forth between them like she was watching a particularly intriguing ping-pong match.
"What would you call it then?"
She paused, "Sparing you?"
He scoffed.
"You don't really believe that, do you?"
"I have to go," she mumbled, before slipping past him and clasping her fingers around the door handle, "Christina?"
"We're going," Christina added, with a swift nod in his direction. He cocked his head.
"Thank you, Christina."
The sarcasm was just barely noticeable in the undertones of his voice.
--
Richard Webber had known all along that Hannah was really Meredith's daughter. It would have been obvious even if he hadn't had an affair with Ellis. The golden hair, the green eyes-he was surprised that no one had figured it out before now. The second he had seen Addison and Hannah, he had thought it was all over, that the secret was out. But the characters scuttling around Seattle Grace were oblivious, it seemed, only focusing on the betrayal that Dr. Grey was obviously struggling to cope with.
The only person that had shown a flicker of recognition was Yang, and he hoped to God that she'd figure it all out soon so that he could stop being the only one who knew.
"Done!" Hannah exclaimed, dropping her pen on to the stack of old medical records and pushing her chair back. He held up a stopwatch and squinted down at the numbers.
"You were 20 seconds faster," he said proudly, "That's a new record."
She smiled, but the smile quickly slipped off her face as an awkward silence weaved between them. She wrung her hands together nervously, sinking down into the chair opposite Chief Webber's.
"Do you, I mean …what do you think of Dr. Grey?"
"Meredith?" He could feel the sweat start to dot the tips of his fingers, "She's….why do you want to know?"
"No reason! Just wondering, cause of my dad and her…"
"Oh. She's nice, you'll like her."
Hannah fell silent and he breathed an inward sigh of relief. He wanted, more than anything, to avoid being the one to tell her that her biological mother was the woman her adoptive dad had been sleeping with.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine."
"Good."
He sighed, "Why don't you go find your dad."
AN: Sorry that took soooooo long. I'm in a play, and we had two tech weeks instead of one and the performances are this weekend so, you can imagine, I was a little busy. But hopefully after the opening-night excitement dies down I'll be able to write more---thanks for your patience and reviews!!!
They're much appreciated.