A.N. Hey all! So this is my first time writing fanfiction in over a decade (I know, right?) so please bear with me. I love Meredith/Alex both as a friendship or romance, so had an idea to write a whole bunch of Merlex one-shots. They should be done in a format that means they can be read as continuous or alone, I'll specify in summaries if romance is involved or if it can be read as purely friendship for those who aren't fans of them as a relationship. They'll take place based from episodes, although likely won't be every episode, just ones I felt I could pull inspiration from. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
Surveying the array of injuries in the ER, it was like an all-you-can-eat buffet. But of course, you want the chow mein... not to fill up on prawn toast. There will be more than starters on display when beyond the boundaries of the hospital people are participating in something they call the Dead Baby race.
Alex didn't look for long before his eyes landed on a bountiful feast. The problem was, Meredith had spotted Viper, too. The ER was a battleground for the good surgeries, the fascinating ones, and while she may be attractive he wasn't just going to step aside and let her steal his cases.
"Heads he's mine, tails he's yours." He figured that was a fair way of deciding who won this battle, without being swayed by the look in her eyes or the way her mouth turned at the corners.
"Why do you get to be heads?" she asked, indignantly.
Oh Grey, don't play this tempting game with me, he thought. "Because I have a head, and you are tail." It was only too easy. She asked him how he made everything dirty, and he felt his resolve crack, because her narrowed eyes and slightly pursed lips made grabbing her face an interesting option. Instead, he flipped the coin. It seemed even they were against him as tails shimmered up at him, and Meredith reminded him there were other cases. But he wanted this one.
While they argued the case, Viper got impatient, and Alex yanked the spikes straight out of him. Not the approach Meredith would have used, but one that satisified the patient enough to allow Alex some power in the situation, and resign Meredith to stitching duty. As he glanced back at her, she was a soldier in vision, a bravery he could crumble to.
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Feeling that itch to be in her presence, Alex went searching for Meredith. Wandering down a hall, he hears her voice coming from behind a door, and lingers to enjoy the melody. Chuckling at hearing her refer to him as an ass, he spots Derek Shepherd also heading down the hall, and dives behind a crash cart. Through the window, he can still see his soldier sharing banter with Viper, who suddenly turns around and kisses her. He tries to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach, plays it off. Of course Viper took his chance, could he blame him? She was beautiful, anyone with any courage would try their luck with her.
As Viper leaves, that's when Alex notices that Shepherd is still stood by the window, also observing the scene with much less subtlety. Meredith has spotted him, too, and he enters the room. Alex feels like he should leave now, but something makes him stay. However, what he overhears makes him wish he had.
Derek chides Meredith about making out with patients, and she mocks his jealousy, and mentions that they had sex once. Alex knew this, but hearing it again didn't feel any better. What really dug into him, was when Shepherd said they also kissed in the elevator. He barely paid attention to much after that, including Meredith's rejection of Shepherd asking her out. Her remarks that this was a game to him told Alex that this actually meant something to her, and the vision was shattered.
Kisses outside of the one-night-stand, having something to prove. She was a ghost of a soldier, not his Meredith.
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After a silent coffee break, during which he pondered when exactly he had started to think of her as 'his Meredith', Alex decided that perhaps he was being unfair. He had stripped her of her soldier title, when nothing she had done could indicate that was who she was, and maybe the problem here was deciding that she belonged in that box. After all, he really didn't really know her that well, maybe he should test her waters in other ways.
He had assumed her promiscuity based on an extra kiss. An extra kiss! Christ, if people judged him on that, he'd never be allowed through a day. Maybe she wasn't a soldier, maybe she was a comfort. Maybe he hadn't imagined her flirtation towards him, and he figured a good way to understand this was O'Malley, she spoke to him in a similar way - if with slightly less contempt. An opportunity presented itself when he saw the man himself behaving strangely, and asked what he was doing.
"Hiding." O'Malley told him, "There's this VIP patient, he likes me."
"Well, that's good, right?"
"He likes me likes me." Was he gay? Because if he was, that made Meredith's comments worth something, because she knew Alex wasn't. She lived with George, she would know. He decided to test his theory.
"Go for it, man, get yours. I'm down with the rainbow." O'Malley looked at him, wide-eyed in horror. Oh, crap. Clearly he had misread this entire thing. "Oh. Are you not gay?"
"No."
"Really? Dude, sorry."
He knew he was apologising more to himself than George. Dude, I'm sorry you're such an idiot. Someone smiles your way and you think they love you. I'm sorry you had to drag O'Malley into your thought process to keep things to yourself and accept that she wouldn't hold onto you tightly and stop putting her into a compassion box either. I'm sorry that if you want any solid answers, you'll have to do something about it yourself.
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Alex spent some time on his real focus here - sneaking surgeries out from under the others, to get himself ahead of the game. Not everyone would survive this scramble, but he was determined to be one of them. However, in the locker room was the one thing that could knock him off course - his Meredith, the lover. Here was his chance to entice her while he was still on a high.
"God, I smell good. You know what it is?" He turned to Meredith, his eyes glazing over with desire. "It's the smell of open heart surgery. It's awesome. It is awesome."
So far, she appeared unimpressed. Okay Karev, he thought, it's time to bring out the big guns and actually be seductive. "You gotta smell me." He approached Meredith from behind, and leaned onto her gently but firmly. He felt his abdomen tighten at being so close to her, and begged his will to remain in control here.
She said she didn't want to smell him, and he responded by simply nuzzling her hair. "Oh, yes you do." he growled, unable to keep the lust from his voice.
Despite knowing it happened with resentment, he couldn't help but be aroused when she slammed him against the lockers, gripping his shirt. He yawned as she listed her problems and smirked as she read him the riot act. Frat boy bitch? He liked that nickname. But when she grabbed his chin after Shepherd entered the room and told him he smelt like crap, he had to admit he couldn't even convince himself anymore. And later, while she and Yang brushed off his comment about boobs, there she was... Meredith, the lover, gone.
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Watching Viper tread the line between life and death, Alex found himself frozen. He was lucky she was there. The journey from ER to OR is always a tempestuous one, and Meredith Grey handled it like a pro. She made the choices that had to be made, no matter how difficult they were, like sitting astride Viper to keep his wound closed. He barely heard her orders to him, struck in awe by her competence, but her voice broke through the sirens in his mind and prepared him to be her sling, back up wherever she needed.
The competitor within him strived to be recognised for his role, until Bailey shot him down in words reminiscent of the verbal enema Meredith had also given him.
"Helped! They tell me down in the Pit that you only want to take the hot cases. In every pack of interns there's always one fool that's running around trying to show off, and Alex, this time that fool is you. Get out."
On his way to the pit, he thought of her again, this time getting to scrub in on the surgery instead of sharing in his victory. Unexpectedly, he did not feel envy, he smiled. His Meredith... the superhero. Yeah, that one felt right.