Lexie stood on the lawn at the front of Meredith's home. All around her sat piles of camping gear; what was meant to be just her and Meredith had turned into a massive group trip. Meredith had invited Cristina, Alex and Izzie, so she invited George and then they all realized they were probably going to need some equipment so Meredith invited Derek.
Now all this equipment was spread out across the lawn. There were mats, pillows, sleeping bag, lanterns, gas cookers, saucepans, fry pans, and several large boxes of food.
Derek looked down at his watch, it was going on 8am, it was getting late, at least in his book. They should be on the road but the cars still weren't packed.
"Come on everyone. Lets get this stuff in the car so we can go." He yelled trying to get everyone moving. He felt like a school teacher trying to get a bunch of kids to do something. They were all amateurs, they didn't know what they were doing, and he was starting to wonder why he'd let Meredith talk him into coming.
George picked up the sleeping bags and started shoving them into the boot of Lexie's car. The small model hatch back wasn't going to fit much more, if he filled it with sleeping bags he could say he packed one of the cars.
Alex looked at the mass of things on the front lawn, he didn't want to admit it but he didn't know what half the things were, he didn't know what they were used for or how they should be handled. He picked up one of the giant tubs of food and carried it over to Meredith's car. He shoved the box inside and then went back for another tub, he knew what food was and he knew he wasn't leaving the house without it.
Cristina stared at the piles of stuff on the ground. She picked up one of the lanterns and examined it.
"Mere, what's with the lanterns?" she yelled. "I thought you said this place has electricity."
"It does," Meredith called back to her. "But I was five the last time I was there."
"Five? Are you telling me no one has been there for twenty five years?"
"Maybe, just help pack the car."
Cristina carried the lantern over to Derek's car and placed it just inside. She was beginning to regret agreeing to come. It would seem this cabin might not be the wonderful place Meredith had convinced her it would be.
Izzie stood in the kitchen watching everyone outside start packing the cars. There were a lot of things that needed packing and she planed to avoid it all. She'd done enough packing already, she didn't trust anyone else to handle the food so she'd been single handedly packing it all. She was almost done, in the oven were the last batches of muffins, apple and cinnamon, she planned to give them to everyone for breakfast. She'd make her exit from the kitchen at the last possible minute.
-8-8-8-8-
One hour later everything was packed. The three cars, Meredith's, Derek's and Lexie's were packed to the rims with stuff, most of it they didn't need, it had been thrown in under the motto of 'be prepared', prepared for what they weren't quite sure but they seemed to have everything. Meredith's car was full almost entirely with food and cooking stuff.
"Are we ready to go?" Derek asked looking around at everyone. He found Meredith's eye and gave her a look. He wanted to get on the road, he wanted to get to the cabin and see what kind of state it was in.
"Yeah I think we're ready." Meredith said looking around, everything that had been on the lawn was now packed in one of the cars. "Yep we're ready. Lets go."
"Wait." The voice came from Alex. "Where's Izzie?"
"What?"
As a group everyone seemed to look around, her absence hadn't been noticed while they'd been working but now it was obvious she was missing.
"She's probably inside getting more food." Someone grumbled. "Did she help us pack any of this stuff?"
"No." The voice came from behind them and they looked up to see Izzie walking out the front door of the house. "But I did make and pack all the food last night and I made breakfast." She held out the bag of muffins, inviting everyone to take one. No one seemed to want to take them though, not until George reached out and took one followed closely by Alex.
"Okay, so we're packed, we've eaten, and everyone is here. Now lets get moving." Derek called again. He was sick of wasting time, everyone was already getting on his nerves, he wanted to hit the road so he could go fly fishing.
"No need to snap." Lexie glared at him. She was still a little annoyed that him and everyone else of that matter was coming. "We're moving."
Everyone began piling into the cars, Meredith and Cristina in one, Derek traveling solo in his car and Lexie, George, Izzie and Alex all in another. The seating arrangements hadn't been discussed they'd kind of just fallen into place but they worked well.
Everyone sat in the cars waiting for Meredith to leave, she kind of knew where this place was so it had been agreed that she should lead.
"Come on Meredith." Derek yelled from his car. "What's the problem?"
There was a pause before she yelled back. "The car won't start."
"What!" The cry came from almost everyone's mouth. "What do you mean the car won't start?"
"It won't start. I'm turning the key and nothing is happening."
"Shit."
Everyone started climbing out of the cars again. Everyone that is except for Izzie and Alex who were already making themselves comfortable in the back seat of Lexie's car.
George walked over to Meredith's car and lifted the hood. He stared at the inside of the car looking for something, hoping that what ever was wrong was obvious. His dad had known about cars, his brothers knew about cars, they never shut up about the cars, he somehow hoped that some of that 'nonsense' might have sunk in but he had nothing. Looking at the car he couldn't tell what was wrong. Derek came up beside him and joined in the staring. They were doctors though not mechanics, they didn't fix cars, they paid people to fix cars. They didn't have time to fix the car though, they needed to get moving.
"What are we going to do?" Meredith asked the group.
"We could take my car." George offered. Everyone else gave him a strange look.
"Your car isn't going to fit all that stuff."
"It was just an idea. I don't see you coming up with anything better."
They all stood there as a group mulling over their options, trying to think of a solution. Half the problem was Meredith's car was full of everything, it was full of food and they couldn't leave that behind. It was Derek who finally came up with a solution.
"Mark's got the weekend off. We could ask him to come, use his car."
"Sloan?" Everyone else stared at Derek. Mark was his friend, not any of theirs.
"Do you have any better ideas? He's got the car, and we really need to get going." He stared everyone down, challenging them to come up with something better but in the time they had there wasn't anything better.
"Fine." They all said. "Go invite Sloan."
-8-8-8-8-
Mark lay in the bed of his motel room. His prize from the night before, a woman who's name might have been Mindy lay in the bed beside him. He was running his fingers along her body, he loved a beautiful body. He was thinking of maybe letting Mindy stay till lunch when his phone started ringing. He glanced at the caller ID, it was Derek.
"Hey Derek, what do you want?"
As Derek explained what was going on, what he wanted, Mark couldn't help but laugh. Derek had mentioned something about going away somewhere with Meredith but he hadn't realized the rest of Meredith's crowd were coming along too.
"You want me to go camping with you and all of them?" He asked trying not laugh, the mere idea that he might want to do something like that was crazy, he wasn't really the outdoors type.
"It's not camping, we'll be indoors." Derek tried to convince him.
"What, in that cabin which no one has seen in twenty five years. You don't even know if the thing is still standing."
"That's why we packed tents."
Mark let out another laugh, as Derek kept talking.
"Come on do this for me. We can ditch all the others and go fly fishing, like when we were kids."
"I'm not sure if you remember Derek but you were the only one fishing."
"Oh right. Well don't go fishing then come for the scenery. How's that new leaf of yours going? Some time in the woods might do you some good."
Mark let out a sigh and glanced over at the woman in the bed beside him. Derek had to do it, he had to bring up the new leaf.
"Fine." Mark replied, finally agreeing to come.
-8-8-8-8-
Derek hung up the phone and walked back to the group. "He's coming." He told them before they had time to ask. "We should start unpacking Meredith's car so we can make a quick transition."
There was a collective groan from everyone, as they turned to Meredith's car, packing it had been a bitch the first time, it wasn't going to be any better the second.
George walked over to Lexie's car. "Are you guys going to help?" He asked sticking his head into the back seat where Alex and Izzie still sat.
"I'd love to." Alex replied with a smug look on his face. "But I can't, she's asleep."
George looked closer into the car and noticed Izzie was slumped over, her head resting squarely in Alex's lap, and her eyes closed.
"Is she okay?" He found himself asking.
"Yeah, she's fine."Alex assured. "She was just up till 5am cooking."
"Oh right." George said walking away, he wasn't entirely suspired Izzie had spent the night cooking, he'd lost count of the number of times she'd done that while he'd lived in the house. He couldn't help wondering why she'd done it, they needed food for the trip but they could have brought it, usually she only did all-nighters when there was something on her mind.
-8-8-8-8-
Half an hour after the phone call Mark pulled his car up in front of the house. Derek led the charge in packing the car. He really wanted to get going, in his mind they should have been on the road two hours ago. It took thirty minutes for them to pack everything again, to make everything fit.
"Is everything packed?" Derek asked for the second time that day. He waited for the chorus of yeses and then he started moving towards his car. Mark moved to his car, and George and Lexie moved to hers. Meredith went to move towards Derek's car but Cristina reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Meredith wait." She hissed. "Do you expect me to ride with Sloan?"
Meredith looked back at her, an amused look across her face. With everything packed there were only two empty seats left and they were next to Derek and Mark.
"Would you rather ride with Derek?" Meredith offered but Derek wasn't any better an option, in fact he was probably worse. "If you really want to you can ride with Derek but I think you'd have more fun with Sloan."
Cristina tried to give her an evil look which only made Meredith laugh harder. "It's only a couple of hours. You'll have fun."
"Whatever." She glared at Meredith again and started walking off. If she'd thought she might enjoy herself more in one of the other cars she might have tried to kick someone out but all the cars kind of sucked. She was really wishing now she hadn't agreed to come but Meredith had promised her a good weekend and kept assuring her it would be great when they got there.