Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks so much for the reviews. I replied to everyone who I was able to, but to everyone else who replied without a login, thanks so much for reviewing! They really meant a lot and were what motivated me to continue, so please keep them coming ;). So, here's the next chapter, guys, and I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Seriously? I'm in high school. I don't even own my own book bag, so no, I do not own Grey's Anatomy.

"What do you mean I'm being sent to Seattle?" her voice was heard all through the corridors of Mass General's surgical floor. The attention her outburst had drawn registered slightly with her, but she didn't care. She couldn't go back there. She wouldn't. She would stand her ground and demand answers. Dr. Perkins, the Chief of Surgery at Mass Gen, was a little shocked and a little peeved at her eruption. From what Dr. Webber had told him, she had parted with the hospital on great terms – great enough to receive glowing reviews from the Chief of Surgery himself, as well as other department head's recommendations. For this reason, he was confused on two fronts: the first was why she had the words flee virtually blinking in her eyes when he had gotten her a part-time transfer to one of the country's leading neurosurgery departments, and two, why in the hell she thought it was okay to yell at him on his own surgical floor. He decided to deal with latter, first.

His voice was stern, "Follow me to my office, Dr. Grey". She looked like she wanted to protest, but wisely thought better of it. They walked silently down the halls and she tersely greeted his assistant, Jessica, before making way into his office and closing the door.

She waited for the reprimand with slight apprehension that was completely outweighed by her confusion and inner turmoil. She hoped she would be able to talk herself out of the move – her time in Massachusetts had been much less drama ridden than her residency at Seattle Grace. She had purposely kept a low profile when she first arrived, not forging close connections with any of the doctors in her year, nor letting her emotions get the best of her in public arenas, say, like the open surgical floor. Ughh, she thought, Just thinking about that state has me reverting back to my old self, and all he did was say the hospital's name! No. I can't go back there; it'll take away the last shreds of dignity and self-control I have left. She had been more than good here, she had been great. Her mother's name was no longer what made her distinguishable, now it was her talent. She performed surgeries that few doctors would touch with success and she conducted research in their labs that kept Mass Gen not only on the map, but made it one of the locations with a giant red circle around it. She deserved to stay and do what she wanted. She was good and she was entitled to one little crack in her armor after four years. She wouldn't go back to Seattle, and she intended to make her point known, albeit a bit more respectfully than the way she had reacted when the news first came about. She was pulled out of her inner ramblings when Dr. Perkins cleared his throat.

"Dr. Grey" he said sternly. Dr. Perkins wasn't a large man, probably only 5'11. He was maybe in his mid-fifties and was noticeably balding in the center of his head. Despite his lack of physical intimidation, he always carried himself with an air of authority and power, and not many had dared to disregard it. "There had better be a good reason why you even had the thought implanted into your mind that it was okay to speak like that to me, ever, but something must be seriously wrong if you went through with it in the middle of my surgical floor" he gave her a pointed look at which she attempted to divert her eyes. Unfortunately, Dr. Perkins drew her back in, "Now, let's start this over. Dr. Grey, I have great news. Seattle Grace has requested one of our neurosurgeons, a neurosurgeon from Mount Sinai in Manhattan, and a surgeon from Johns Hopkins in DC, to take part in their new study. I have chosen you to represent us there."

Meredith's response was not what he was expecting: "I can't go there, Chief. I, I won't." She shook her head with vehemence.

He saw red. "Dr. Grey. This is not a matter up for discussion. This is my hospital, and you are my attending and the future of our neurosurgery department. This was not a question, it was not a request – it was an order. You will go, and you will do what is asked for you there, and will stay for as long as the trial goes on, or you will not be employed by Mass General. Is that understood, Dr. Grey?" he finished his rant crossing his arms over his chest.

Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered what had begun with those ushered words in Seattle.

She watched him walking away from her, unable to understand why he was acting the way he was. He rarely spoke to her that way, at work or otherwise – actually, that was a lie. He rarely spoke to her that way before. Before she had tampered with his trail, an error he felt the need to bring up in every conversation, every argument, everything they discussed since it happened. She had thought they would make progress, they were embarking on raising a child together, after all, but then she had been fired. She had walked off with Zola, although only to another part of the hospital, albeit the creepy basement, and that opportunity had ended, too. Zola had been taken, and they weren't getting her back. He always lost his temper, but in this, he didn't look like he thought he was right, he looked…suspicious.

She followed behind him a little bit; she needed to know what he was really going back to do, although she had an inkling as to what it was already. She had seen the way his eyes roamed the sister, Stacy's, body as she stood by her older sister's bed awaiting to hear what was wrong with her. She knew he must have been thinking about how pretty she was, because Meredith certainly had been. She was gorgeous, and it would only be natural for Derek's mind to travel to the same place. He was a guy. Guys thought about things like that. He was allowed to find other women attractive. The only thing was that he used to look at her like that. Not only when they first met in the bar, or when he wanted to have her at the prom, or when she was choosing between him and Finn, or even during their sex and mockery relationship. He had looked at her like for as long as they had been together, and even when they had been apart, except for lately. Lately, he looked at her like she was a stranger, like she was despicable, like it pained him to even be in the same room as her. And she didn't even want to think about how long it had been since they'd had sex. And Derek liked sex. He liked it a lot, in a lot of different ways and at a lot of different times of day and in a lot of different places. But he didn't want it with her anymore, so the fact that he looked at Stacy the way he used to look at her, the way that told her he wanted to devour her, to mount her, despite all of the people around that could see, that was what worried her.

She saw Derek lead Stacy into a private room, where it looked as if he had meant to close the door but it stopped before it reached its destination, and stood, just slightly ajar. She stood next to the door, feeling far too clingy for her liking, as if she was a step away from rifling through emails and phone bills, but she couldn't bring herself to leave. She heard the woman's voice first, "That depends, are you in a relationship?" Meredith held her breath. If she was asking that question, she had to wonder what Derek had said before it. "Let's leave the questions for later tonight" she couldn't hear the woman's response. "Don't answer now; I'll meet you there at 9, when my shift ends." She hurried away from the door, not wanting to hear any more of the conversation.

The day went by in a blur for her, she hadn't really had much time with Derek, but the few minutes she had managed to get alone with him, he had seemed nervous and jittery. She saw him in the halls as she went to do post-ops for Bailey, who had actually let her scrub in earlier in the day, when he was heading towards the door.

"Derek!" he turned around upon hearing her voice. He cleared his throat and began playing with his coat sleeves. "Uh, hey"

"Will you be home tonight?" she asked with hope in her voice, "My shift will be over in a half hour. We could leave together?"

He shook his head vehemently, and his response was rushed and short and a bit squeaked, "No" he cleared his throat again, "uh, No. I'm going out with Mark tonight. Maybe have a couple of drinks. I'll probably stay at his place, or maybe at the hospital" he jerked his head, as if confirming his story in his mind. She nodded her head slowly, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then" her voice had been stripped of what little bit of hope she had possessed earlier. He started to turn, but she grabbed his hand, "I love you, Derek" he looked back at her with hesitance, before mumbling something that sounded like a 'yeah' under his breath before walking out of the hospital.

She stood there for a while, but then went to wait for the elevator, hoping to finish her work quickly and head home to wallow in the bottom of a tequila bottle over her rapidly deteriorating marriage. She was surprised, then, to see Mark taking it up, too. "Hey, aren't you out of here yet?" He looked at her a little strangely, "Almost, yeah, just forgot something in my office" Meredith let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, but her relief only lasted for a moment before it was taken once again, "Gonna head over to Torres and Robins' place. Kiss my little girl good night." Her head fell as she mumbled back a hollow "oh, that'll be nice." He pushed the stop button on the elevator and turned to look at her.

"Everything alright, Grey?"

"Um. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine. Derek's fine. Stupid busty Stacy is fine. Everything's fine." She then hit the stop button again to resume its motion as Mark looked at her like she had two heads, unsure what she was talking about, but completely sure that she was so not fine. When the elevator finally reached her floor, after what felt like centuries, she rushed off of it. Derek always accused her of lying, but if that was the case, what did he consider what he was doing right now?

Meredith shook herself from her reverie, and nodded, "Yes, sir. When am I scheduled to leave?"

"I have taken the liberty of cancelling your remaining elective surgeries this week. You are to arrive there next Tuesday morning. Jessica will print your ticket and give it to you sometime before then. Are those your only questions?"

"Yes, sir. Well, no, no, yes, no, no sir," she cut her ramble off when she saw the irritation growing in Chief Perkin's eyes again. "Yes, I uh, I was wondering how long this project is expected to take?"

He let out a frustrated breath that sounded more like a growl, "They say four to six months, but you will stay for as long as it takes" he took a moment to ponder her, looking closely for the first time since they had entered his office. He took in the nervous way she twirled the bracelet on her wrist and twiddled her thumb, the gnawing of her lip, and the clear anxiety written legibly across her face. "What in the hell is the matter with you, Grey? I thought you'd be happy to head back for a little while. When Richard called me to get you this job, he said you were leaving the hospital on impeccable terms."

She wanted to snort at the irony. Leave it to Richard to say something like that. Sure, none of the past incidents were on her record, but she hadn't left town on good terms at all, not with the most important person there.

Derek was having a very rough day. He had lost his first patient during what was supposed to be a routine craniotomy, and then had to sit through Mark's retelling of his latest conquest. It wasn't that Derek didn't think Mark's stories were amusing, but they just reminded him of what he'd lost through his own stupidity. To top it off, he was now stuck using pronouns in almost every sentence as he racked his brain to try and remember the name of a woman…the sister of a post-op patient in with dizziness, with whom he had entertained a very short, meaningless affair many years back. He wasn't even sure why she was here; her sister's operation had gone one hundred percent smoothly and the dizziness she was describing sounded a lot like a headache – definitely not something worth making a trip to the neurosurgery department at Seattle Grace Mercy West for a check-up.

As he finished double checking her charts, he cleared his throat to do away with some of the awkwardness he felt having the sister staring at him like a lioness stares after her prey. "So, it looks like you've experienced a headache. Maybe a little more severe than you're used to, but one that could have a multitude of causes, stemming from reading and sight issues, sensitivity to light, or not eating and hydrating enough throughout the day. Try changing those things in your daily life, Ms. Dalkin, and then if the headaches don't stop, we'll have some more scans and labs run, okay?"

His patient smiled and turned to look at her sister. Rolling her eyes, she spoke in a humored yet slightly annoyed tone, "You see, Stacy?" so that was her name! he thought to himself,
"I told you I was fine" she then turned her attention back to Derek placing a cupped hand beside her lips before continuing in a mock conspiratorial tone, "I think the only reason she forced me to come in today was so that she could see you, again, Doctor Shepherd" and then she winked. Stacy looked on, licking her lips as if confirming that suspicion, while Derek's eyes widened and he shifted his weight from one side to the other uncomfortably. "Well, since it seems everything here is in order, I've got to check up on some other patients. If you ladies would excuse me…" he turned on his heel quickly and retreated from the room towards a stairwell, not waiting for a response from either woman.

Marie Dalkin had come in for a routine procedure that he wasn't too worried about. What he was concerned about, however, was the patient's sister. She was tall – probably 5'8" with flat shoes on, and her legs seemed to be endless. Her loose, dark, chestnut curls fell past her shoulders and her hazel eyes were even more pronounced against her olive skin. He wasn't sure when he had become this guy, the guy who stared at beautiful women, worked through plans in his mind to do more than stare, all the while standing next to his wife. His wife, he was married. He kept trying to remember that. 'Then again, she lied when we were together, she lied about my trial and then she lied about Zola and then she had the gall to not even feel guilty about actually tampering…just about getting caught. I can do this. Meredith always does what she wants, it wasn't about me or any of the other millions of people affected by Alzheimer's that I was on my way to curing, it was all about what she wanted to do in that moment. Now I have something I want to do, too.' He turned to Meredith, who had been unsuccessfully trying to keep his pace ever since they'd left the patient's room, and spoke, "I have something I need to remind the Ms. Dalkin's sister of…"

"Oh, okay. I can come back with you" he could see the wheels turning in her head, but as she came up with nothing, she frowned. "What did we forget to tell them?" He played with the drawstring of his scrubs and became irritated that she was questioning him in the first place. "You actually need to run some of my labs and do my post-ops, Meredith. I can talk to her alone." He started to walk away when he heard her voice behind him.

"Derek! You want me to 'run your labs and do your post-ops'? That's intern work, and there are already two on this case, I'm a year away from being an attending, so why are you assigning it to me?" she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him expectantly.

"Maybe if you weren't still making intern's mistakes I wouldn't give you intern's work, but since you can't seem to stay away from situations like Denny's, you will do as I ask of you. Is that understood, Dr. Grey?"

"I, uh, yeah, sure, Dr. Shepherd. Labs today."

Derek saw the hurt and confusion in her eyes, so he turned and walked away to escape the intensity of her stare, but as he moved, he could still feel her eyes on his retreating form.

A door slamming brought him back to the present and he jumped a little. He turned to see who the intruder was, and sighed when he saw it was Stacy.

"Seemed like you couldn't get away from me fast enough back there, Dr. Shepherd." Her hands were on her hips, but she let them fall to her side as she moved closer to him. "And here I was thinking we had fun when we, got to know each other, before." She smirked. He couldn't help but notice that it wasn't as effective or flirtatious without going overboard as Meredith's had been. She leaned in closer to him and he stiffened as her breasts pressed lightly against him. Her voice was low and sultry, "We could have fun again." Derek cleared his throat and stepped away. He ran a hand through his hair and then down his face and looked at her blankly.

"I was married." She looked at him with open confusion, so he elaborated. "When we were together, I was married. I was married to Dr. Grey, your sister's other surgeon. I never answered your question later, at the bar, about being in a relationship. Maybe you forgot to ask again, or were already tipsy, or just didn't really care, but I was married. I, Meredith, Dr. Grey, she left Seattle, left me, but, but I'm still married."

Let me know if you liked it or not in a review (: I hope you enjoyed it.