This is probably my favorite chapter thus far. It actually reveals what Melanie's and Clark's history was together. It also verges on a crossover with Gone with the Wind, my other obsession, but there'll only be strains of a Rhett-Scarlett relationship. It won't be enough to have to put it into a crossover category. Please let me know what you think, and if you want more of these kinds of chapters, in essence click the pretty green button and leave me a review. Chapter 9 should be up early next week.

Thank you and as always thanks for reading- Jen.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or quotes from Grey's Anatomy or the lyrics to Alabama's Song of the South. Nor do I own any of the quotes from Gone With the Wind.

Chapter 8: Song of the South

Gone, Gone with the wind

Ain't nobody looking back again

Dan was trying to sleep off his late night in the on-call room. He kept drifting in and out of sleep on the uncomfortable mattress, if it could be called that. It seemed more like an inch of batting confined by a squeaky plastic. He was thinking about her, Mel. He remembered what life as an intern was like. The chance of running into her around town was slim to none. He wished he would have asked which hospital she was at. "Could of, should of, would of," ran through his head as he drifted back to sleep.

Within fifteen minutes his sleep was interrupted again, by a voice. "What are we doing in here?" Was it her? No, he must still be sleeping.

Another voice came from beneath his line of sight. "Melanie." So it was her. "We're in here so I can apologize."

"Apologize?" Her voice sounded cold and cruel. "What is that again, Clark?" Neither one of them knew they were being listened to from one of the upper bunks.

"It's where I realize I was an idiot and say I'm sorry." Clark replied sincerely. "We're obviously meant to be together if we both ended up in the same hospital."

Melanie shook her head and looked down, "I don't think so. I can't just ignore the way you treated me."

"That was over two years ago. I was young and stupid." Clark said

"What about yesterday? The first thing you say to me in 2 years is how I used my family to get an internship here."

"I'm sure once people find out, they'll have the same suspicions." He replied.

Melanie stared him cold in the eyes. "By then, everyone will know that I'm here because I am that damn good of a doctor. I graduated first in my class from Cornell and UB. I deserve to be here. And that's not all. If we're 'meant to be' why didn't you treat me that way back then." Melanie's tough exterior broke. "Two years ago I needed someone because I had just made the hardest decision of my life and I felt awful. What did you do? You called me a whore and kicked me out of our apartment."

Up on the bunk Dan just chuckled to himself. The interns' first day and already there was major drama. Clark changed his tone. "Can you blame me, Mel? You had gotten rid of our baby. I was angry and I couldn't stand to look at you. I forgot that you were the love of my life. All I could focus on was that in the eyes of God you were a murderer."

Suddenly tears filled her eyes. Those words were like a slap in the face. "If you're going to put it like that, clearly you haven't changed your mind."

"We could have had a future," Clark said, anger filling in his voice.

"What kind of future?" Melanie's voice asked desperately. "I would have been stuck at home with a baby while you got to live my dreams of being a world class surgeon. It would have been a pretty short future, because I would have grown to resent you and that little baby pretty fast. I thought it was what would be best, for both of us, Clark."

"It wasn't your decision to make. You can't just play God, Mel." The room fell silent as they both just stared at each other.

"I think you should just give me a minute by myself. Maybe you should go back and work." Melanie said finally breaking the silence after what felt like an eternity. "I never thought you'd let it go and that's why we'll never work as a couple again Clark."

Clark looked his old girlfriend in the eyes. "I'll give you some space then, but I think we could make it work. That's why I'm still trying." He left the room banging the door a little louder than intended. Melanie just looked around the room. How dare he throw her decisions in her face and tell her that she hadn't had the right to make them. It wasn't so much that he thought she was wrong. If it had been up to him, she would have never had the choice to begin with. Finally out of anger she kicked the bed beside her.

"Ok, now this is just too much," said Dan as he finally peeked up above the mattress. "Not only do you keep me last night, you keep me from catching up on that sleep before my surgery later."

Mel just stood there with her eyes wide open in shock for a moment. "You should have said something. That was an incredibly personal conversation, one that I know neither Clark or myself appreciated someone over hearing. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

Dan just flashed a smile, "Mine did. Did yours?"

Melanie just about had it, "Yes she did. One of the things she taught me was that it isn't polite to eavesdrop on people's private conversations."

"Haven't you heard?" Dan asked, but without giving Mel a chance to respond. "Eavesdroppers hear very informative things." Climbing down from the bed to get closer to her, he told her, "Don't worry your secret is safe with me, I give you my word as a gentleman. But since I now know where you work and that you're not seeing someone else, maybe we could go out for drinks sometime."

Melanie's eyes flamed. "You are a no good," her anger prevented her from thinking of something to say. "A no good cad and you aren't any type of a gentleman either."

"And you miss, are no lady. Don't think I hold that against you," he said in an exaggerated Charleston drawl. "Ladies and Southern belles have never held any charms for me."

"At least I didn't claim to be anything that I wasn't," Melanie said in retort. "Now if you'll excuse me, I actually do have work I have to do." At that Melanie stomped her foot and left the room.

Dan just stood there chuckling to himself. She would come around, eventually. Until then all he could do would be to sit back and watch her.