Sorry for the delay...updates may not be as frequent as I'd like them to be. I'm back to uni which means back to workloads. I'll try update as often as I can so please be patient :) and keep reading and reviewing ;)

A week later the hospital was back to it's usual self, that is it was back to being chaotic and noisy, exactly what Derek needed to get him through his work day. The arrival of the new interns was the topic of discussion this week among the staff, they had arrived earlier that morning and as presumed there was already some poor young victim who had screwed up his chance to shine in the OR. It was only 02:30pm and Derek found his schedule overloaded and messy. He scrambled through the halls checking on his pre-ops and post-ops aswell as running up and down to the trauma rooms when his beeper announced his assistance was needed. Finally becoming overwhelmed and exhausted he collapsed onto a comfortable couch in the residents lounge, it was closer than the attendings one. There was no one inside so he took the opportunity to throw his feet up and close his tired eyes for a moment. It didn't last long however when someone came bursting through to the doors.

"Dr. Shepherd...what are you doing in the residents lounge?" Dr. Bailey questioned as she eyed him up and down.

He sighed heavily and sat himself upright. Brushing his fingers through his mess of curls with one hand and wiping the sleepiness from his eyes with his other he edged himself closer to the edge of the couch.

"Sorry...it was the closest" he yawned. "How you getting on with your new interns?"

She gave a obvious huff and went over to sit alongside the tired doctor. Although Dr. Bailey was an excellent resident and teacher she was not the most patient of beings and hated being in charge of new interns every year. Like Derek she saw them as children who could serve only one purpose...screwing up!.

"Them fools are already making my life a living hell" she stated "why do I always get the duds?"

Derek laughed at her harshness but he understood her annoyance. He remembered what it felt like to be in charge of interns and how their bad calls reflected entirely on their residents.

"I have this one guy...O'Malley...he couldn't even diagnose a common cold this morning" he could see her temper beginning to flare as she slated her interns "Stevens...the model, she doesn't even look like she belongs in a hospital, she looks like someone who belongs in a mall....then there's the eager one who likes sucking up but that's not going to get her anywhere and Gr..."

"Okay Bailey I get it...you hate your interns" he laughed again standing up from the couch and moving towards the door. He felt like Bailey needed some time to herself for a while having such a rough morning with her new infants. The minute he vacated the couch she lay herself down and closed her eyes. He smiled at her, shaking his head before leaving the lounge.

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After doing another brief check on all his post-ops and having no surgery until six he decided to go and relax for a while up in the viewing gallery. He had a mound of paper-work to do and couldn't think of a more appropriate place to attack it. His office was too quite and dull, he'd much rather a bloody surgery in the background to help him concentrate. He climbed the stairs to the gallery of OR 1 where the chief was performing a liver transplant on some poor alcoholic who's own could no longer function. On stepping into the room he noticed how quiet it was. A few interns sat near the front but other than that there was only himself, Dr. Cox and Dr. Weller present. Nodding to the other two attendings he found a seat in the middle row and focused his attention on the surgery before him.

"Dr. Shepherd" he heard a whisper behind him...it was a familiar voice but he didn't pay much attention merely humming in response. "Dr. Shepherd" the voice repeated again and next he saw two legs hopping over the chairs from behind and sitting in alongside him. He looked over and there she sat in blue scrubs with a purple longsleeve underneath smiling casually at him like he should have expected her presence.

"Hi" she greeted, her glowing smile still painted across her porcelain face.

"Meredith!" he could not hide the shock in his voice nor the puzzled look that now consumed his own face "Hi" he laughed shaking the astonishment away, she continued smiling."Your...um...you work here?"

"Yeah...I um...I'm an intern...I just started this morning" she nodded, her lips now pressed together with the amusement she was getting from his expression of disbelief.

"Seriously...your one of the new interns?" he retorted just to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Yup...I wasn't going to...I mean I was going to put it off until next year...you know the whole thing with Adam...but then I think its better if I keep busy you know...like you said"

Derek immediately regretted his advice. Not only had he to see this woman when dealing with his patient but now he had to work with her and whats worse; he was now her boss. He smiled polietly trying to hide his own anxiety. His feelings were still simmering within him and now this would just make things worse for him.

"Adam's mom arrived yesterday...so she'll be with him during the day" Meredith interjected noticing the atmosphere was getting a little too awkward. She could tell her recent friend and now boss was being a little quiet. Derek smiled politely not knowing what else to do with himself. He knew he needed to direct the conversation out of such awkwardness.

"So how's your first day going...are you liking it so far?" he continued on with his paperwork, jotting down notes, seeming to be a little unconcerned with what she would answer with, but he did care, he longed to know how she was doing and if she was struggling any bit.

"Yeah...its been a little chaotic but I'm learning alot" she smiled "Dr. Bailey scares me a little though"

Derek laughed knowing all too well how Bailey treated her interns. Her main ambition was to make their internship as terrifying as possible becasue if they failed, she failed and Dr. Bailey was not a doctor who liked to fail at anything.

"Yes...Dr. Bailey is tough" he sniggered again now pulling his attention away from the paperwork to look at her. There was something more attractive about her in scrubs, they suited her well. Now that she obviously shared a passion for surgery and medicine with him, made it a little harder for Derek to dismiss his feelings.

"Well...I better get going...I don't want to give Dr. Bailey any more reasons to hate me....I'd hate for her to think I was sucking up to an attending for extra points" she joked, winking at him before getting up and leaving the viewing room. Derek watched her leave, his heart aching for her just a little bit more every time he saw her.

All interns had gone through hell that day. Bailey had them suturing, digging through faeces, mopping up vomit and performing rectal exams. Collapsing into the locker room they all groaned with exhaustion and disgust.

"I cannot do another suture...my hand is about to fall off" Izzie complained as she massaged her aching hand.

"Get over it Barbie...surgery is hard core...if your going to be a surgeon you need to toughin up...maybe your better suited to paeds" Christina commented as she slid down to the floor by her locker. Christina was hard core and they all knew she would fight to the death to assure her spot as a resident after first year, however Meredith saw a friend in her and despite her better judgement found herself liking her.

"Shut up" Izzie hissed back tying her blonde hair back from her face noticing the stench that was now emitting from her "Oh my god I stink!" she acknowledged scrunching her nose up in disgust. The interns laughed knowing they all probably stank. George was looking over at Meredith like a puppy, the whole group had noticed he fancied her from the mixer yet Meredith was oblivious to it.

"So um...Meredith...what's your story?" he asked smiling over at her in a creepy manner. Meredith's eyes widened as she looked over at him realising she had been asked a question, her mind had been elsewhere. She laughed a little amused at his comment.

"What?...I don't have a story" she stated shaking her head at the interns who were now all focused on her.

"What's the deal with you and McDreamy?" Christina interjected, wagging her eyebrows with amusement. Meredith blushed although she didn't realise she had until they all started wooooohing at her. She didn't even know who the hell this McDreamy was that they were all referring to!

"Who?" she asked confused. Christina huffed and stood up from the floor, opening her locker to retrieve an apple.

"You know...Shepherd!" she continued before biting into her snack. Meredith still looked confused, why were they calling him McDreamy? and why did they think something was going on between him and her?

"Oh...Dr. Shepherd is just my fiance's doctor that's all...my fiance was admitted last week, he's in a coma after being in an accident" she had yet to tell her fellow interns about Adam but knew she had to now to dismiss their notions that something romantic was going on between her and Dr. Shepherd. The whole room fell silent, everyone feeling extremely guilty for their stupidness!

"God we're sorry Meredith" Izzie finally apologised for the groups behaviour. "How serious is it?"

"Well Dr. Shepherd said we'd just have to be patient and see what happens...he's done everything he can" Meredith felt herself getting upset and it didn't go unnoticed by the interns. There was an awkward silence among them until finally Christina decided to lighten the situation

"Well...you wouldn't kick him out of bed" she sniggered and the rest of the girls followed suit while the guys just groaned. Meredith found herself blushing again. She never really looked at Derek in that way, he was Adam's doctor yet now that she thought about it he was obviously extremely attractive.

"Oh my god Christina!" Meredith found her mood changing dramatically and joined in with the contagious laughter that was now filling the room. She couldn't remember the last time she laughed so heartedly, she knew she had found new friends.

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Derek found himself hiding in the x-ray viewing room for the rest of the day. The only thing that he swore would move him from there was a 911, anything else could wait. Now that Meredith Grey was working under him he knew he wouldn't be able to hide his feelings for long. Yet he barely knew this woman, perhaps it was possible that what he was feeling was excitement about gaining a new friend. He had been feeling extremely lonely in Seattle since his arrival and now he found someone who was easy to talk to, maybe thats all it was. He started at the illuminated xrays that hung infront of him until his pager sounded, it was a 911. Grabbing his coat he ran through the door and up to the third floor nurses station to where he was paged to. The atmosphere seemed calm, no code had been called and everyone was working in a normal fashion.

"You paged?" he asked the nurse sitting behind the station desk "what's the emergency?"

"No emergency" the nurse replied standing up and shoving a pile of papers into the filing drawer "he wanted me to page you...said you'd only come if it was a 911" she pointed over to a tall man who stood at the other end of the desk. His smirk was mischievious as he grinned over at Derek.

"Miss me" his grin was now stretched across his face unable to conceal his amusement at surprising his friend.

"Mark!" Derek looked over at him in amazement eventually letting his giddiness shine through "what are you doing here?" Derek walked towards the taller man and threw his arms around him, patting his back in a very masculine way before breaking away again.

"Ah...the city was boring me...so here I am"

Derek was glad to see his old friend but also knew he could be bringing alot more than himself to SGH and that meant trouble!