Her alarm on her cell phone woke her promptly at six. She groaned as she rolled over to silence it. Rubbing deep circles with her fists into her eyes, she rolled back onto her back and stared up at the bottom of the top bunk that was slightly lit by the light from the crack in the door. She sat up raking her slightly tangled hair with her fingers as she set her feet on the ground. Letting out a deep sigh, she stood up only to find the dark room spinning as her stomach churned threatening to cause her to empty the contents of her stomach. She was able to breathe through the nausea as she slipped on her shoes and walked out.

The bright light was not all the welcoming that morning. Her eyes squinted into a straight line to the point they were almost closed as she walked down the hall towards the locker room. By the time she open the locker room door, she was able to fully open her eyes. The smell hit her as she walked in reminding her of out nauseous she was. It felt like her stomach did a full 360 sending her running to the bathroom.

It wasn't long after emptying the little that her stomach contained into the toilet that she returned to her locker, got her spare toothbrush, and brushed her teeth. She began changing just as she heard the first group of residents flock into the locker room complaining about the upcoming arrival of interns that day. She sighed as she thought about having the baby-sit them and carry a baby. It all seemed slightly redundant. One baby was enough; five newly graduated medical students were just uncalled for. She stopped listening to the conversations as she got lost in her own thoughts until two familiar voices caught her attention. Christina and George were arguing as they walked into the locker room.

It wasn't for another second that they turned the corner just as she finished tying the drawstring of her pants. Izzie, George, and Christina stopped and looked at her.

"Where's Alex?" She thought.

"Meredith!" Izzie squealed practically jumping at her with open arms.

Meredith forced a smile and gave her a light hug. "Hey guys. Miss me much?"

"It's not often that you disappear out of the blue for no apparent reason." Christina pointed out as she headed to her locker.

"Sorry about that." Meredith sighed. "Needed to go see someone."

They all shrugged it off getting the hint she didn't want to talk about it. After tying her shoes, she said 'goodbye' and hurried away. She had to check in with Richard before picking up her charts for the day, and she didn't want to be late for the meeting.

--

He woke up and moved throughout his morning routine feeling unusually sluggish as he did so. He was already five minutes late getting out to the car. The he hit traffic. He continued to fight his "inner battle" that had been in his head all night, on the way to the hospital. And to make matters worse, he pulled into the parking lot ten minutes late. Mentally kicking himself, he ran as fast as he could into the hospital.

The locker room had been emptied by the time he got there. So he was able to move swiftly about and was changed in record time. He hurried out of the locker room as he hastily tried to get his lab coat on, his stethoscope around his neck, and his pager on his waistband. His morning definitely wasn't going well.

--

She leaned up against the wall next to the window nursing her queasy stomach with a small pack of saltines. Christina sat on the window sill still trying to pry the reason she had disappeared for nearly two weeks out of her while George and Izzie argued over a patient. To make matters worse, she still hadn't seen Alex which was making her even more anxious.

The door opened, and Richard walked in. The room became a quiet murmur opposed to the volume it had been. He set a large stack of files down on the table and glanced at the clock. Two minutes. Finally, Alex strolled in pretend he had been frantically running throughout the hospital only moments before. Meredith couldn't help but stiffen as his eyes scanned the room. Part of her didn't want him to see her. Part of her did. Fortunately or unfortunately, he saw her and smiled as he made his way over. She couldn't help but smile back, and in an instant he was by her side.

"Hey, your back." He said with relief.

"Yep." She nodded. Before he could say anymore, Richard called for the room's attention. He couldn't help but glance over as she shifted around. Something was different, he could feel it.

--

Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been really busy.