章節 64: 64. Chapter 64
AN: I feel the need to reiterate that I am simply borrowing the characters, as I am also borrowing a fair amount of dialogue in this chapter. We're finally moving away from the ferry arc (but it's not like it never happened) and back into the rest of the season. This chappie picks up at the beginning of the episode after ferry arc (which I've watched three time this week to get this chapter written, so you'd think I'd know it's name by now...). Two main parts, one funny and one more serious, with one little blurb-y in the middle to remind what was going on in the episode (because when you think about it, this epi is more than 2 years old. When did that happen?).
Derek jolted awake to the sound of the bedroom door swinging open roughly, it's hinges squeaking in protest before crashing loudly into the wall behind it.
"Alex is moving in?!"
Derek groaned and buried his face into the back of Meredith's head. "I take it you didn't tell her about Alex..."
Meredith shook her head, her eyes remaining shut as she ignored her roommate.
"Meredith!" Izzy whined, stepping into the room, unheeded by the fact that Meredith and Derek were curled up together in the bed, or by the fact that she was only wearing a towel. "Alex is moving in?" She repeated. "To this house?"
Derek grumbled to himself. Normally he didn't mind the roommates. No one was home often enough to make it a big deal, and it had originally been a novel situation, having roommates. He had never lived with anyone other than his family, Mark or Addison. But today, in this moment, he minded the roommates. He minded a great deal. "We were asleep a minute ago," he pointed out.
"Yeah, and I was naked, in the bathroom, when Alex just walked in. I'm lucky I didn't come out of the shower to find him peeing all over the seat!"
Meredith giggled, effectively ending her facade of pretending to still be asleep. "He knows about the bathroom rules, Iz."
"But why is he here?" She whined, collapsing onto the bed, the towel only loosely held up around her.
"And we're up," Derek muttered, rolling away from his girlfriend and heading into their bathroom. He had already inadvertently seen Callie Torres naked; he definitely didn't need to add Izzy to the list.
Meredith rolled onto her back before responding to her roommate. "He's here because I asked him to move in. He's taking George's room."
"I don't understand. What's wrong with where he was living before?"
"I don't know where he was living before."
Izzy leaned over, burying her face in her hands. "Probably a whore house," she muttered.
Meredith giggled again, sitting up against her pillows.
"I can't have him living in the room next door, Meredith. It's weird."
"People are what matters, Iz. And Alex is one of our people. We can't just leave him out in the cold when we have a room for him."
Izzy paused, turning her head slightly to the side as she stared at Meredith in a way that could only be described as suspicious. "People are what matters? You don't like people. Is this about your mother?"
"No," she said quickly, trying to think how to explain this to her angry roommate. "I had a near death...whatever. I've got a second chance. And I'm determined to be better than the old Meredith, and that means being more positive. So...people are what matters," she repeated, and then off of Izzy's still suspicious stare, "Paint with all the colours of the wind..."
"Oh, I get it," Izzy whispered, shifting to get up. "You're crazy now." She slowly backed out of the room.
"I'm alive!"
"Yeah, okay..."
Meredith laughed as Izzy closed the door behind her.
It only took a few seconds for Derek to re-emerge from the bathroom. "You know that rule you had to implement after Callie was naked in the hallway?" He asked, cocking his head. "You know, the one that stipulated people could only be naked in bedrooms and bathrooms?"
Meredith felt her lips curl upwards at the tone in his voice. "Yeah..."
He sidled up to the bed, carefully lowering himself on top of her. "I think you need to revise it to state that people can only be naked in their own bedrooms..."
"I'll keep that in mind." She giggled before being cut off by his lips crashing down on hers. "Mmm," she murmured when he pulled away, "Much better."
"What's much better?"
She smirked and shrugged. "You usually kiss me before you brush your teeth in the morning. This was a nice change."
He made an indistinct noise in the back of his throat before speaking. "What are you insinuating?"
"You have not so nice morning breath."
"That is not true."
She laughed at the expression on his face, and couldn't help but pull his face down for another kiss. "It is," she insisted when he pulled away, "But I love you anyway."
"Hmm, you do, huh?"
"Yeah, I'm generous like that."
Derek rolled his eyes, before sobering. "Are you ready to go back to work today?"
Meredith felt herself beam. "Absolutely." She couldn't wait to get back to the hospital as a doctor, and not a patient.
"How are you feeling, after last night I mean?"
"I'm fine."
"Meredith," he cocked his head and stared at her, knowing she was holding back.
She sighed. "Fine. I'm a little sore. But in a good way."
"See, I knew it was too soon. We should have waited- I should have waited."
"Hey," she whispered, lifting her hands to cup his face, wanting nothing more than to rid him of the pained expression on his face. "Last night was amazing, Derek. Being a little sore is nothing in comparison."
"Are you sure?"
Moving her hands towards the back of his head, she threaded her fingers into his hair and used the grip to pull his lips back down to hers. "I've never been more sure of anything, Derek."
***
"How are you feeling?"
Meredith rolled her eyes before turning to meet George's worried gaze. "I'm fine, George."
"Good. I was worried that-"
She held up a hand, cutting him off. "Okay. Let's just do this once," she said, raising her voice. "My mother's dead. I'm not. She's cremated. I'm getting back to work."
The right corner of George's mouth twitched at her attitude. "I'll keep that in mind."
"Good." She offered him a smile, but before she could say more, Bailey stepped into the locker room, oblivious to the tension between Izzy and George, Izzy and Alex, and Meredith and everyone.
"O'Malley, you're with Shepherd today. Yang, Dr. Montgomery. Stevens to the clinic. Karev, Jane Doe. Grey, scut."
Meredith sighed. "Once again, I'm fine." She was dealing with enough just juggling her own and Derek's worries; she definitely didn't need her friends and her resident treating her with kid gloves.
Bailey met her gaze head on. "You can tell everyone you're fine until you're blue in the face. Your mom died. You almost joined her. You're taking it easy."
Meredith rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that morning as Bailey walked away. "Great," she muttered sarcastically to herself. And to think, she had been looking forward to coming back to work.
**
The day wasn't getting any better when, only a few short hours later, Meredith found herself dashing away from her still-complaining roommate. The broom closet door had been the closest to her, and Meredith hadn't thought before she let herself in and quickly closed the door.
"Great, just freaking great!" She ranted to herself. "This whole freaking day is just freaking awesome." Izzy was still upset about Alex moving in. George still wasn't speaking to Izzy; something about an argument regarding Callie that had occurred while Meredith had been dead. The Chief had brought in an old professor from Stanford to compete for his position. Meredith hadn't seen Derek all day. And, last but definitely not least, Meredith had spotted her father and his wife down the hall, leading to her current situation; being holed up in a broom closet.
Her self-ranting was cut off when the door opened.
Meredith glared at her best friend as she hurried into the small room. "This is my hiding spot. Get your own."
"I need it more than you."
She shook her head. "No, I do. My father's out there."
"I need this closet, Meredith."
Meredith raised an eyebrow. "Colin Marlow?"
Cristina sighed and looked away. "He was my professor. We were close."
She snorted. "He had his hand on your ass. I sure hope you were close." When the Chief and Marlow had stepped out of the small conference room down the hall, Meredith had expected to be chastised for lurking. She had definitely not expected the much older man to approach them and cup his hand around her best friend's ass right in front of all the lurkers.
Cristina glared at her, but said nothing, so Meredith continued.
"So, you were that girl... The girl who slept with the professor." She and Cristina were close, but things like this just reminded Meredith of how little they actually knew of each other. She and Cristina rarely talked about their respective pasts at all. "We had one in my class," she continued. "She only got to the radiologist though. No one got near the cardio God." She laughed as she said it. Neither the radiologist nor the cardio God had been much to look at. But ironically, the neurosurgeon had been quite good looking...
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I scored big," Cristina said, in her trademark sarcastic manner of wanting her to drop the subject. "Go hide in the bathroom," she commanded.
Meredith was willing to share her hiding spot, but refused to be kicked out. "Hey, my awkwardness with my father is well established. You and the cardio God, on the other hand, have loads to catch up on." It was almost making her day to see the pained look on Cristina's face. She wasn't the kind of person who was open about her past, and definitely wasn't the kind of person who wanted anyone to know anymore about her than absolutely necessary.
"I don't want to talk about the cardio God."
"You know we can hear you in there," sounded the unmistakable voice of Colin Marlow, Cardio-God-Extraordinaire and Intern-Ass-Groper, effectively cutting off their conversation.
Meredith bit back a laugh. "I guess you're leaving..."
Cristina glared at her best friend before opening the door and stepping out.
Meredith took a breath after the door was closed, and then, hoping the coast was clear, went to leave the closet. But she didn't even get to the door before it was opened from the outside, revealing Susan Grey.
"Oh...I was just leaving..." She tried to get around her, but Susan wouldn't move from the doorway.
"We heard about your mother. I'm so sorry."
"Thank-you." It was the only response Meredith knew to give. She still didn't even really know how she felt about her mother's death. It had been sudden, yes, but it wasn't like Ellis had been Ellis for years.
"There wasn't a funeral or anything?" It was a conversation she had had with Derek and her friends already. Her mother wouldn't have wanted anything like that. Ellis Grey hadn't been one to celebrate life when she had been alive; she certainly wouldn't have wanted her life celebrated after her death.
"Oh, she didn't want anything like that."
Susan nodded, but said nothing. And they fell into awkward silence. And Meredith hated awkward silence. It often led to excessive rambling. She cleared her throat. "I hope everything is alright with the baby." The last time she had seen Susan had been some time before she and Thatcher had taken Laura home. And the last time they had really talked had been the first and only time, when she had tried to make excuses for Thatcher, and Meredith had walked away. She could only hope Susan would say the baby was fine and then walk away herself. Meredith couldn't understand why the woman kept trying to talk to her.
"We're not here with the baby," Susan explained, dashing Meredith's hopes of an easy getaway. "We're here because we wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Oh, that's...strange..."
"It's not strange, Meredith. I can still remember when my own mother passed away. It was years ago, and it still gets to me sometimes."
"Well, that's sweet, but you don't have to do this. I'm not in shock or wracked with grief or anything. I'm fine and I'm moving on."
Still not budging from the doorway, Susan countered Meredith's claims. "But you're hiding in a broom closet."
Meredith sighed. "Yeah, well, if you could just move my father, I'd be fine."
"I already sent him to go get some coffee."
Meredith sighed, relieved Thatcher wasn't going to join the conversation. Her relief, however, was short lived by Susan's next words.
"But we'd really like to make dinner or...something...for you. He's been really worried about you."
She fought the ever rising urge to roll her eyes. He was worried, but went to get coffee while his wife coaxed his daughter out of her hiding spot down the hall. Meredith doubted the man cared an ounce, which was why she had no idea how to act around Susan. The woman was kind and soft spoken, Ellis's complete opposite. And she had two, apparently, perfect daughters, so Meredith couldn't fathom why she would keep trying to initiate conversation with her husband's first – imperfect – daughter. Meredith was fairly certain she had spoken more words with Susan than her father in her entire adult life.
"Oh, I really don't think-"
"He's the family you have left, Meredith."
"I don't see it that way," she retorted, thinking of her friends. Thinking of Derek.
"When is this going to stop?" Susan was clearly frustrated. "Yes, he made some mistakes, but he's not a monster. He's...an inarticulate person who spills food on his shirt a lot."
Meredith almost smiled at the description, remembering standing with her friends and watching Thatcher attempt to eat and talk on his cell at the same time.
"Have dinner with us tonight, please? I'll make some chilli. The whole thing will be over in an hour."
Meredith hesitated, wanting so much to say no and make a run for it. But she had been given a second chance. And she had vowed to be more positive. The old Meredith would have said no and run. But the new Meredith...was admitting to herself how much she would like to know what it was like to do the family thing. She had never even had a family dinner before. Things like this had always ended badly for her before, but just maybe this one didn't have to...
Susan smiled, obviously sensing Meredith's debate. "Come over around seven. Bring a friend if you like."
"Okay."
**
Meredith let out a breath in relief as she spotted Derek for the first time since they had driven in together than morning. "There you are," she stated, walking into the small office room behind him.
He turned to face her, a lopsided grin on his face. "Missing me already?"
"My short and stress-free first shift back is not so stress free."
His grin all but faded, unhappy that she was having a tough day, but sensing her lighter tone. "What's up?"
"I agreed to have dinner at my father's. Tonight."
"Okay-"
"And, Cristina slept with Colin Marlow."
Derek blinked as he processed her words, the second set briefly outweighing the first. "Marlow-transplant, Marlow?"
"Apparently they had a thing when she was a student." She sighed. "How can I possibly have a meal at my father's house?"
"He slept with Cristina?" Derek asked, cutting into her building rant. And other time she would have laughed at his eager expression. He acted so against spreading gossip, and yet he was so eager to know everything that was going on.
"Derek!" She hissed.
He shook his head. "Right. Sorry. You're having dinner at your father's..."
She nodded. "Susan cornered me in the broom closet."
He pursed his lips. "How did she get you in the broom closet?"
"Well, I was kinda already in there..."
He raised an eyebrow in question.
"I saw them down the hall, so I hid. And then Cristina came in, because she was hiding from Marlow. And then she left, and Susan wouldn't let me leave until I said yes. She wouldn't let me leave, Derek!"
Derek bit back a laugh. "Why didn't you call security then?" He asked sarcastically.
She smacked him on the arm. "It's not funny! How am I supposed to go over there and act like everything is all just freaking peachy? What am I supposed to talk about? What do I say? So, this is a nice house. I've only ever seen the outside because last time I was here you didn't invite me in. Seriously! This is not a good idea, Derek. I already have a family. I don't need to subject myself to some stupid awkward dinner where everyone pretends everything is freaking normal."
He reached for her hand. "Then why did you say yes?"
"Because old Meredith would have said no."
"Old Meredith?"
She nodded. "I've been given a second chance, and I'm taking the opportunity to be more positive. But you know what, Derek? Being positive is stupid."
He laughed. "That's not always true."
Meredith rolled her eyes, wondering if the action would start to hurt soon. "Maybe not for you, Mister-always-looking-on-the-freaking-bright-side."
He latched onto her other hand, holding them both between them. "Hey, look where being positive got me with you."
"You won't be thinking that tonight."
"Why not."
"Because you're coming with me."
"I...what?"
"Susan said to bring someone with me. And you're it."
"Are you sure you don't want to get to know them yourself before we-?"
"Of course I'm sure." She cut him off. "You have to come with me, Derek, or I'm not going. Or I can't go. I don't do the family thing. I've never done the family thing. And this specific family thing is stupid. Because it's not even a family thing. These people are not my family. But you are, so I need you..." She stammered ever so slightly. "Please."
He stood, still holding tightly to her hands. After a quick glance to ensure they weren't being watched, he leaned in and kissed her quickly. "I'll go anywhere with you, Mer."
"Including dinner at my father's?"
He nodded. "It'll be fun."
She glared at him.
"Okay, maybe not fun. But it'll be fine. They're your family."
"But they're not. Why does everyone keep saying that?"
"Because they are," he repeated softly. "He's your father. That makes both of them your family. And you have to have a family, whether you like them or not."
**
Meredith opened and closed her fists as she shifted her weight side to side. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot-
"I can ring the doorbell if you want..." Derek spoke up.
"You sound like you think I'm physically incapable of doing it."
"We have been standing out here a long time," he pointed out.
She glared at him. "I just need freaking minute."
"Yeah, you said that five minutes ago. Only you didn't include the word 'freaking'..."
"This is stupid." They were standing on Susan and Thatcher's front porch.
"You've said that several times."
"Well, it's true."
"Yes, but sometimes it's less painful to just rip the band aid off."
"Or just leave the damn thing on."
"If you're taking the analogy where I think you are, then you mean we just leave. And there are two problems with that. One; the bandaid has to come off eventually, meaning Susan will just hunt you down in the broom closet again..."
"And the second one?"
"If she's anything like my mother, she already knows we're here."
Meredith grumbled. "This is beyond stupid."
"What happened to being positive?"
"Positive is stupid. There is no new Meredith, only old Meredith who is thankful for her second chance, but doesn't want to change."
"And talks in third person," he bantered.
"I swear to God, Derek..."
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, one hand rubbing her back while the other clutched onto the bottle of wine he had brought. Because he was the kind of positive person who brought wine to dinner.
"It's going to be okay."
She pressed her nose into the crook of his neck and inhaled deeply. "I like the family I have."
He pulled back to meet her eyes. "I know. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for more."
"You'll still be here afterwards, right? No matter what?"
"No matter what."
"Okay." She pecked his lips, and then frowned, her palms against his chest. "If you're promising me everything is going to be okay, then why are you so tense."
"I'm not."
"You so are." She cocked her head. "You're friend is okay, right? I know I've been a little distracted today, but-"
"Helen is fine." One of Derek's old colleagues from New York had flown in for Derek to operate on her. She had coded on the table with a massive air embolism blockage in her heart. Derek had been forced to crack her chest and manually aspirate, only to be accused of showboating by Burke.
"Then why are you tense."
"It doesn't matter."
"It does," she insisted.
He cocked his head. "Promise you won't be mad?"
"As long as it's not stupid."
He cracked a smile. "I know you don't see it this way, but technically I'm meeting your family tonight..."
Meredith blinked. "Seriously? Seriously! You're nervous?"
"Just a little."
"Arghhh!" She growled, and quickly reached up to ring the doorbell. "We need to get this thing over with."
He chuckled and stepped up beside her. "We stick together."
She could hear footsteps on the other side of the door. "Get in. Get out."
The doorknob turned. "Simple as that."
"This is stupid," Meredith muttered, right as the door was being swung open.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票