Chapter Twelve: Day One, Afternoon

Addison was driving her into the ground with paperwork.

When Meredith had returned to her after handing in the completed paperwork, Addison just handed her another huge case folder.

And it was filled with more paperwork.

Meredith's heart had sunk below her duodenum when she saw to her utter dismay that this pile was even bigger than the last pile.

Again Addison had asked her if she had a problem, except this time Meredith had stormed off in the opposite direction without even answering Addison.

Addison could only help but smile in amusement as she watched Meredith trudge off down the corridor.

Knowing that her husband's ex-girlfriend must hate her by now, Addison turned around and began walking down the corridor with a smile on her face.

Hopefully her being hard in her would put Meredith back in her place, thinking that she was not going to get out of the hospital easily. Everybody else may be taking pity on Meredith, but Addison wanted to give her such a bad time that by the time the two-week mark came, Meredith would be fleeing out of the hospital just to escape her.

No longer would Meredith be thinking 'I'm leaving to avoid Derek', but Addison was going to make her think, 'I'm leaving to avoid Addison.'

Addison knew that maybe she was being very harsh but she knew it was going to be the only way to make sure once and for all that Meredith Grey was going to leave Seattle Grace for good and never return.

Derek was wandering the corridors in-between surgeries, chewing a sandwich when suddenly he saw a flash of blonde-brown hair out of the corner of his eye.

Quickly turning he saw it was Meredith walking into an office with an enormous amount of paperwork.

Curiosity got the better of him and he began walking towards the office.

The door was already open so he was able to just pop his head and have a quick look around.

She was sitting with her back to him, but even from looking at her back he could tell she was tired and stressed.

Against his better judgement, and the Chief's orders, Derek quietly walked inside and moved to the side of the desk.

He knew she knew he was there because her steady writing faltered for a second before continuing onto the next sentence.

He didn't say anything so he just watched her writing for a few seconds.

Meredith's heart sped up as she sensed him. But she was not fearful of him like she had been yesterday. Today she was indifferent and a part of her had craved his simple presence because it felt like that only he could save her from bursting into tears from his wife's cruelty. Today she decided that she was just going to be nice and speak to him as if the transfer didn't even exist. However he reacts around her is his own fault, not her own.

"You know, this is stalking." She suddenly said.

She stopped writing and looked at him with a slightly bemused smile.

His heart swelled with love at her expression. Oh how he had missed this.

"Stalking?" he asked, his eyebrows rose in surprise but he smiled at her in amusement. "I wouldn't call this stalking."

"Then what do you call it?" she asked, her smile slowly disappearing into one of slight sadness.

Derek's expression slowly fell too as he looked at her.

"I don't know." He replied honestly, his voice very quiet as he studied her.

Meredith sighed and turned back to the evil paperwork.

"Your wife really is Satan." She grumbled and Derek could not help but smile.

"Tell me something I don't know," he replied in amusement, sitting himself down in a nearby chair that was a metre from the desk.

Meredith smiled, despite herself, and continued writing.

"She's determined to break me with all of this paperwork so I'll be begging to leave this hospital sooner." Meredith grumbled in annoyance, seriously not caring about the fact her head was screaming at her to just get up and leave the room because he was breaking the Chief's orders by being here with her.

Derek looked at her with a hurt expression. He could not help but feel responsible for it.

"I think it's my fault she's treating you like this." He admitted and Meredith immediately stopped writing and looked at him in confusion.

"How?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "We had a fight last night and…"

"It was about me." She finished and he just nodded.

"Why?" she asked, but she already knew the answer.

"Because of…" he started but he trailed off because he couldn't bring himself to say it. Saying it to her seemed so final and real.

"My transfer." She finished, raising her eyebrows at him.

He looked sadly at her and opened his mouth to speak when suddenly Meredith held up her hand and stopped him.

"Derek we are not having this conversation here, not now. Later."

Derek opened his mouth to talk regardless but suddenly his face burst into a smile as he suddenly noticed something.

"You just called me Derek."

Meredith blinked at him in surprise then she suddenly realised that she had.

"Uh…it was a slip up Dr Shepherd. It won't happen again."

Derek nodded at her in understanding but his eyes were beaming with happiness.

"Ok Dr Grey, whatever you say." He said with a smile and he leaned over and gently placed his hand on her arm.

"Dr Shepherd, that is inappropriate touching." Meredith said warningly, but she felt herself begin to melt under his caring gaze.

"It's not inappropriate." He said quietly, gently rubbing her arm a few times before giving it a small squeezing and finally letting it go.

He slowly stood up in front of her and smiled at her, "It's just the small etiquette that work colleagues are able to give to one another."

Meredith smiled at him in disbelief and shook her head, "Whatever you say Dr Shepherd."

"I'm a great neurosurgeon, of course I know what I say." He said with cheekiness before turning around and walking out of the room.

Meredith watched him disappear and she could not help but smile as warm fuzzy feelings raced through her body.

When she turned back to the unfinished pile of paperwork though, her heart sank and the warm fuzziness quickly disappeared.

"Crap."

Sighing heavily, Meredith checked her watch and sighed again.

Her stomach suddenly rumbled loudly and Meredith rubbed her empty belly.

"Hmmm…food sounds great right about now." She mumbled to herself and she got off the chair and slowly wandered out of the room and down the corridor towards the cafeteria.

Everyone was there when she sat down with her lunch and she had a great time.

Everybody was complaining about his or her day and comparing his or her cases, but Meredith couldn't help but notice that no one was asking her about what she had been doing all day.

Cristina had been complaining about being sent to the Pit for the day because she had been late for rounds and once she had finished Meredith had instantly let loose all of the horrors of her day.

Although she had left out the part that Derek had come in and said hi and that they had nearly flirted…

Which was a terrible thing, which was why she had left that part out.

Cristina, Izzie, George and even Alex stared at her with mouths open as she told them everything and how she was convinced that Addison was doing it on purpose because she wanted to have her running out of the hospital ASAP.

When she had finished, they all looked at each other with uncomfortable looks but fortunately it had been Cristina, who had been brave and forward enough, to speak up first.

"That McBitch."

She said it with such anger and disgust that they all looked at her in shock for a second but it was Meredith who started laughing.

George, Izzie and Alex looked at Meredith in shock, but Cristina suddenly started laughing and then the confused trio looked at her too.

The trio looked at each other, obviously feeling as if they were missing the joke, but quickly the laughter of the two dark and twisted best friends soon caught up with them and they were all laughing too.

All of the other inhabitants of the cafeteria looked at the interns with concerned looks but soon they quickly ignored them and focussed back on their own food and gossip.

By the time Meredith had finished her lunch, her cheeks were sore from laughing and she went back to her paperwork office with a smile on her face.

As she restarted it, Meredith knew that no matter how hard Addison worked her or what she threw at her, that there was not a chance in hell that the She-Shepherd would be breaking her spirit and making her run away just to escape from her.

She knew she would be able to cope no matter what because her friends…her family…were there for her no matter what.

And there was nothing more important to her than that at the moment.

Bring it on Addison. You can't break me like your husband did.

A/N: Hey guys, it is that glorious time where I have finally updated:D HAPPY DANCE! Well I hope you guys like it. :) I worked extra hard on it and even added some more McDreamy action.

Simply because I could. :D

Reviews would be nice but they are not necessary. :) I have written the first four days of this story and I have realised that this is going to take me ages to write...and post...but hopefully not too long. :) I aim to finish it before the end of the year. Lol. Oh dear.

gaforever: I really don't blame Addie but I know what you mean. Glad you like it! I hope this update is soon enough for you. :) Thanks for the review!

mysticpearl: I'm definitely going to continue it and I am definitely still writing it at the moment. I hope you will continue to read and enjoy it. Thanks for the review. :)

MissRe: Addison does have her evil side like every normal human, she can just use it to give Meredith hell. I love the friendship between Meredith and Alex. It's very nearly like brother and sister but not quite. It's very fun to write too. :) Thanks for the review again:)

sweetgreuy: you can bet on it she is going to give Meredith hell. :) Thanks for another great review. :)

TVHollywoodDiva: Thanks and thanks for the review:)

DeniseSB: Her halo will have completely disappeared in the latest update. :) Meredith is yet to ask Izzie, but Izzie is just going to have to deal with it. Hehe. The paperwork trail hasn't finished yet but you are a very good prophet! Is it really that predictable? Lol.

I just could not resist but add him in for this latest chapter. :D

I'm glad you like it though and that you are looking forward to the next chapter. That is great to know that. :) And writing the rest of this story is going to be a long tough haul…that is a huge amount of chapters but I am committed enough to doing it. Even though it is going to take up some time in doing it so this story is going to be around for a while I think. I hope you will continue reading it because I look forward very much to reading your reviews. They are very informative and introspective which is fantastic! I can see where I have gone wrong and I can always go off and fix them. Thank you very much. :D

malfoyie456: Thankyou very much. I hope you read the update. :) Thanks for the review too!

merederdreamy5: Hi! Thank you very much for reading what I have posted so far and I hope you will continue to like it as I continue it. But I'm glad you like it and thankyou for the review too. :)