Chapter Twenty-One: Day Four, Morning
It was Meredith's pager that suddenly woke her up a few hours later and her eyes widened when she saw that it was Cristina's number.
All of the tiredness quickly evaporated when she saw what the time was and she leapt off the bed and quickly left the room in a hurry.
Running to the locker room, Dr Bailey was already waiting for her and she did not look impressed.
"You are an hour late Grey." She said, her voice seething with anger and disappointment.
Meredith in that moment wished that the floor would swallow her up, but the only comfort she could think of was that she had been in worse situations than being late for work.
"I uh…I'm…" Meredith began but Bailey cut in.
"You're sorry? Sorry?! Grey if you were sorry then you would have been here an hour ago on time for rounds." She yelled.
Meredith looked down at the floor and sighed, "What is my punishment?"
Bailey made an exasperated noise and shook her head before licking her lips and looking back at Meredith.
"You are with Dr Shepherd today."
Instantly Meredith's head snapped up and her eyes were wide in shock.
"R…really?" she asked, stuttering slightly.
Bailey just raised an eyebrow at her, "Yes Grey. Really."
Holding out a folder, Bailey gave her a slightly bored expression, "Get over there now Grey before he picks someone else to be his intern."
Meredith grasped the folder and nodded at her, but Bailey just gave her an expectant expression.
"Now Grey!" Bailey ordered and immediately Meredith was running off down the hall in the direction of Neurology.
Watching her, a small smile crept on to Bailey's face and she turned around and began walking down the corridor, shaking her head slightly as she went.
Interns…they just have to learn…
1 1 1 1 1
Meredith ran nearly the whole way but when she was only a few corridors away, Meredith suddenly found herself yanked to a stop when an arm latched her onto her arm and swung her around 180 degrees to face its owner.
The shock of suddenly being forced to change direction and come to a halt got to Meredith as she made a slight noise but when she saw it was Cristina who had stopped her, she immediately stopped the glare that had been starting to spread on her face.
Unsure as to what to say, Meredith studied Cristina's face with a confused expression.
"Cristina…" she began but for the second time that day someone interrupted her.
"Meredith shut up."
Meredith didn't know whether to now glare just raise her eyebrows, instead she just looked at Cristina with an even more confused expression.
"Ok…" she replied, causing Cristina to sigh in annoyance.
Cristina let go of Meredith's arm and crossed her arms, looking at Meredith with a slightly insecure expression.
"I…" she began but stopped, looking off into another direction and sighing sharply.
"I?" Meredith repeated but Cristina suddenly looked at her with a disgruntled look.
"Mer I'm trying to apologise here." Cristina said, sounding very flustered and frustrated at the same time.
Meredith now understood and nodded slightly at her.
Without replying she watched as Cristina got herself together and began to speak.
"Sorry for avoiding you yesterday." She said finally.
Blinking at her best-friend, Meredith watched the 'oh-so-obvious' guilt on her face because Cristina was having trouble keeping eye-contact with her.
"Did Burke put you up to this?" Meredith suddenly asked with slight suspicion.
Now Cristina fully looked at her and she sighed deeply, "Yeah. When he came back to his apartment last night he gave me this whole talk about 'not being fair to you as a friend' and 'how I should support you in your decision' and some other crap that was important but I kinda had stopped listening because I fell asleep. But he made me feel bad enough for me 'doing a you' yesterday, so here I am now. Apologising or whatever."
Meredith raised an amused eyebrow at her, "Is that it?"
Cristina looked relieved, "Yeah."
Meredith nodded and smiled, "Ok then. Thanks for paging me this morning, I was sleeping in an on-call room and it woke me up."
Cristina nodded and was about to walk off when suddenly Meredith caught her arm and gently pulled her back around to face her.
"You and I need to have a 'person' talk." She said, sounding both sad and strong at the same time.
Cristina looked at her for a few seconds before she nodded, her expression mirroring Meredith's.
"Yeah, we do." She agreed quietly.
Meredith removed and Cristina gave her a half-smile, "I only let you touch me just then because you're my person."
"Hmmm...should I consider myself lucky?" Meredith asked, smiling with humour.
Cristina just grinned back, "Definitely, considering there is only one other that has the privilege."
With a smirk Cristina walked off and Meredith found her heart feeling much lighter about their friendship and that they were going to have a 'person' talk later.
Now all she had to do was spend a day with Derek.
I can do that…I hope…make sure there are no McElevator moments and no McDreamy full STOP! Just talk to Derek…Dr Shepherd...in a professional manner and you can get it together without having to worry about melting in front of him like cheese-cake in the sun.
Meredith smiled in new confidence as she began walking again but when she turned the corner into a new corridor, Meredith stopped in her tracks when she saw Derek waiting at the end of the corridor with his arms crossed and not looking particularly happy.
Gulping slightly, Meredith took a deep breath and tilted her chin up as she started walking towards him and trying not to look intimidated as he watched her.
"Good morning Dr Shepherd." She said, trying her hardest to make it sound genuinely warm in the slightest hope that maybe she would be able to get on his soft side.
But Derek saw right through it.
"Dr Grey if you are late again like this I will never have you as my intern again."
Meredith's act dropped faster than the speed of a bullet as hurt flashed on her face before suddenly changing into one of anger.
"Well in ten days you won't have to worry about that anymore." She shot back.
Now it was his turn to look hurt but it only flashed at his head for an instant before his face clouded with anger.
Without replying he turned around and began to walk away but Meredith followed him, sending invisible knives into his back a thousand times over.
They walked in absolute silence but everyone they passed could see the visible angered tension between them.
When they walked into an elevator and Derek leant forward and pressed the button and the doors slid shut, Meredith found herself glaring at her own reflection on the shiny elevator doors.
"Why were you so late this morning?"
His voice sounded extremely tight and suppressed of emotion, but it immediately eased the unbearable tension in the enclosed space.
Meredith did not turn to look at him, she kept her eyes on her reflection, but she replied, "I had slept in an on-call room this morning."
Now Derek turned to look at her, looking at her with slight confusion, "But you weren't on-call last night."
"I checked in on Rosie and watched her for a few hours." She replied, glancing at him sideways.
Derek looked thoughtful for a few seconds before looking up to watch the elevator level lights.
"How she doing?" he asked quietly.
Meredith now looked at him a little bit more, "She's doing fine."
"Like you?" he asked, turning to look fully at her.
Meredith looked directly at him, "Yeah. Like me. I'm fine. I'm always fine."
Derek sighed suddenly and began to raise his hand from his side but abruptly stopped.
"Try saying that again to make me believe you." He replied, looking at her with emotion but Meredith looked away from his McDreamy expression.
"I am fine Dr Shepherd." She repeated firmly.
The elevator suddenly stopped and Derek immediately walked out of the elevator and muttered something underneath his breath but she still heard him.
"Whatever say Mer…whatever you say…"
Meredith glared at his back as she followed him in silence until they entered a room and Meredith suddenly found herself bursting into a smile when she recognised the patient.
It was Viper, the crazy yet devilishy attractive British Dead Baby bike racer whom she had met, looked after, saved and had received a kiss from, only a few months ago.
"Hey luv, wasn't expecting to see me again so soon I bet." He said with a chuckle, grinning at her.
Meredith just laughed slightly, "No I wasn't. What have you done to yourself now?"
Derek instantly stepped forward and spoke loudly, "Mr 'Viper' has been racing again and now he is in here to have a CT and an MRI scan to see what he has done to himself this time. He's my patient because he hit his head and we have to see if there is any bleeding due to his carelessness."
Meredith gave Viper a surprised yet very concerned expression, "You are still racing?"
Viper gave her a crooked smile, slightly tilted his head and shrugged, "What can I say luv? Old habits die hard...and go-karts are faster than bicycles."
Derek's eyes narrowed at him at hearing him call Meredith 'love' for a second time, but as he went through Viper's patient file he said harshly, "Well Mr 'Viper', maybe this time it is going to kill you."
Meredith looked at Derek, her eyes wide as shock and hurt ran through her body. Why on earth was he talking to their patient like this?
"Dr Shepherd!" She barked, not caring if she was being out of her league but how he was talking to Viper was unacceptable.
Derek gave her a half-glance, his face hard and his tone came close to harsh, "Dr Grey, do you have something to say?"
Meredith glared at him for a second before forcing her face to become blank, "May I please have a word with you outside…"
Derek could clearly see the anger seething out of her but he was not going to allow the fact that she had kissed his patient in the past to get to him.
"Sure." He replied quickly, walking straight out of the room with Meredith quickly in tow.
The instant they were outside the door and it had been pulled too, Meredith let it all loose.
"Derek what the hell was that in there?!" she said in a harsh whisper. "We're supposed to reassure patients that we are going to do everything we can for them, not give them no hope or have them be scared that they are going to die anyway!"
She grew even more angry at him as Derek just crossed his arms and regarded her with a bizarrely smug expression.
"You still attracted to him Meredith?" he asked and Meredith's jaw just dropped.
"What?!" she asked in numb-shock, "Where the hell did that come from?"
Derek felt hurt, anger and even more annoyance all at the same time but seeing Meredith deny the connection between her and Viper was immediately getting to him.
He was going to have to be careful throughout the rest of the day on this case.
But Meredith saw right through him.
"Dr Shepherd if you think that there is anything between me and Viper then let me tell you now that there is nothing! I haven't seen him since he was last here and if you are still thinking about that short meaningless kiss that he and I shared when you and I were still together…"
Derek visibly flinched but Meredith continued, "then you are more stupid than I thought. And you have no right to be thinking about it at all as a matter of fact."
Meredith glared at him and quickly added before Derek had a chance to reply, "If we can't work together professionally with this patient then just tell me and I will ask Bailey to assign me to another attending and I will get out of your face."
Derek studied her carefully for a few seconds before sighing deeply and shaking his head, "No Meredith, you don't have to go. I'm sorry."
Surprised at just how easy he had apologised and the fact that he had said she didn't need to go, Meredith gave him an easy smile and replied, "Ok then. So can we work this out?"
He smiled slightly back at her and nodded, "Yeah…I guess we can."
Meredith beamed and quickly walked back into the room
Anger filled him and Derek forced himself to swallow it heavily and he sighed deeply as he felt it settle in his stomach.
His anger at her leaving him was beginning to get him, but no matter how hard he tried to forget her impending transfer Derek found himself counting down the precious days he had left with her.
How was he going to manage with her gone?
Sighing again, Derek made his 'professional' face and walked back into Viper's room.
A/N: Woah! Overwhelmed with reviews and how many people read it in three days! Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and added this story to their alerts. That means more than anything to me that you are all enjoying my story and that you are still reading it!
Now enough of my chatting, here are all of the answers to the lovely reviews I got for the last two chapters.
This update is for all of you.
Jenn a.k.a fizzwizz15
sweetgreuy: Lol! Your song made me laugh. :D I am happy that I am being able to make the reader sympathize with Cristina…because that is exactly what I wanted to do. I want to show everyone else's point of view and portray their feelings instead of it just being about Meredith, although it would be much easier to do it that way. Lol.
Burke is going to be in next chapter. :) Well this chapter that I updated today. Thanks for the two great reviews. :D
whitepoodle23: Hey! Thanks for the review! I love writing the 'Meredith and Rosie' bits and I because I enjoyed writing it the first time I just had to have her again. The suspense between our intrepid pair is sadly going to go on for a little while, but I promise that tensions are going to start breaking and anger is going to be let loose. But I want the suspense to grow to breaking point because when it will…look out. :D
beautifulbearljb: Well thank you very much. :D Burke is definitely playing buffer between them. Lol. And he tries his best. Cristina would be heartbroken I think if Meredith left… And personally I am happy that I was able to get Addison out of the story for a few chapters, but sadly she is going to have to come back at some point… Thanks for the review! :D
Captain Zeebeth: Thank you very much. :D The character of Rosie is actually inspired by my young cousin and she is just the sweetest baby…but I love writing the character of Rosie and her role with Meredith. :) Thanks for the review and I hope you will like the next update!
lilxjames: Yes she will. :) Well I think she will…when given the chance. :D Thanks for the review!
InGreyEyes: Lol, I am sorry the angst is killing you but trust me when I say that it could be much worse. :) I wish they could just do the same thing too but I don't want it to be that easy. :D I actually really like writing Burke surprisingly. When I first started I thought it would be hard to capture him but he actually isn't that hard compared to someone like Cristina or Bailey. But I love Meredith's character…I wish Derek could have heard her too but not in that chapter, that will be for another time. :D Thanks for the review. :)
TVHollywoodDiva: I'm sorry but it ain't going to come for a while. :) Thanks for both reviews! Means a lot. :D
MissRe: I tried to think up of cases that were more emotionally involved and challenging than actual extremely rare cases that Meredith is faced with on a weekly basis. I am going to play out the story of both Rosie and Gloria because they are both going to affect Meredith as the story develops further. Thanks for the review and I love the idea of Meredith just pouring her hear tout to a baby. I don't know why it appeals to me so much…
Liz86000: Hmmm…I actually hadn't thought of that to be honest, but Rosie is promised to another I am sorry. But Meredith is definitely taken with Rosie though, it is going to help her deal with future issues. But great thinking though! It would have been to have spun a web with that twist. Thanks for the review! :D