Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All of Bailey’s interns are all sitting in the room waiting for their assignments. Everyone was still worried for Meredith after her near-death experience which coincided with her mother’s death even though a couple of months had passed already, Meredith hadn’t shown much sadness over the past months so they were waiting for something that wouldn’t happen. She never had a good relationship with her mom. The great Ellis Grey was cold and distanced but that side of herself wasn’t shown to anyone but Meredith; that is until she got brought to Seattle Grace a while before her death.

-flashback-

“Get away from me. AMATEURS!” Meredith heard while walking alongside the nursing station.

“Yang, patient’s name?” Bailey asked

Cristina started to hesitate as she realized who the women with Alzheimer’s truly was.

“YANG! Patient’s name?!” Bailey started to get frustrated with her intern for not answering such a simple question.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Ellis shouted at Meredith. In her shock, she went to his behind a wall. “HAVEN’T I TOLD YOU?! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO BOTHER ME WHEN I’M AT WORK?!?!”

“Ellis Grey” Cristina finally answered “Meredith’s mother” George added

“YOU’RE AMATEURS! YOU’RE AMATEURS!!”

Everyone’s heart broke a little when they saw Meredith hiding from her mother and that’s when they realized that the perfect Harper Avery two-time winner Dr. Ellis Grey might’ve not been an excellent mother to the now Dr. Meredith Grey.

-end of flashback-

Even if they knew Ellis hadn’t been the greatest mom to Meredith, they assumed that there was still a part of Meredith that both mourned and missed her mother a lot. Meredith was unaware of the intern’s hesitation to leave her alone. Her priorities at that moment were on other things. As they all talked, Bailey finally arrived to hand of the assignment.

“Stevens, with Torres. Yang, you’re with Hahn. Karev, scut-“

“Why do I get stuck with scut?!?!” Karev protested

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you questioning your resident right now? Are you begging for scut for the entire week, Karev?” Bailey scoffed at Alex’s protest

“…No Dr. Bailey…” Alex replied defeated

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. As I was saying, O’Malley and Grey to the pit. There’s an incoming trauma.” Bailey said while checking her pager.

Everyone went to their assigned attending (Alex was mopping all the way but just enough so Bailey wouldn’t punish him with more scut) while George and Meredith went along with Bailey. They were quiet all the way mainly because they were with Bailey but also because things were still a little awkward between them since the…interaction in Meredith’s room. George had already admitted wrongdoing but being forgiven is not the same as forgetting it ever happened. Bailey, Grey and O’Malley saw the ambulance pull up to the bay with an EMT, Paramedic and an EMT student inside with the patient.

“27-year-old male crashed into a wall after colliding with a drunk driver. Possible spinal injury. Patient is conscious and responding.” EMT student reported to Bailey, Meredith and George.

“Alright, O’Malley get him to Trauma 1 and Grey, page neuro and ortho for a consult.” Bailey managed to say before the patient interrupted

“Where are we?”

“Sir, you’re in Seattle Grace Hospital and-”

“SEATTLE GRACE?!?! Nononononononono, I can’t be here.” The patient was very anxious and tried to get out of the stretcher

“Sir, you may have a spinal injury that needs immediate addressing otherwise you might end up paralyzed at best.”

“Better to be paralyzed than dead! People die when treated here after supposedly having successful surgery and successful recovery. They go home and bam! Declared dead a few days later.”

Nobody knew how to respond to this. It wasn’t uncommon that people died outside the hospital a few days later. It’s about the same chances as dying a few days after going to the mall. The patient stopped listening to Bailey trying to reason halfway with her and when George was about to say something, Meredith cut in.

“Sir, have you considered they might’ve died to unrelated reason?” Meredith said

That statement even if not even remotely comforting nor impactful, it did make him snap out of it and analyze his current situation.

“I guess not.” The patient calmed down

“Good then let us treat you. Grey, if you haven’t already page neuro and ortho and O’Malley get him to Trauma 1.” Bailey ordered

George takes the patient to Trauma 1 to get him treated. Bailey stands there in disbelief while Meredith begins to walk towards the entrance of the ER.

“Grey, do you have any idea of what he’s talking about?” Bailey asked almost laughing at the fact she’s even asking this question because it seemed so ridiculous to think that anyone would be paranoid about dying weeks later after a completely successful surgery with successful recovery.

“No Dr. Bailey, I think he might just be paranoid or watching too much news.” Grey shrugs and Bailey agree as it’s nothing new for them. Grey walks inside with Bailey following

They had many patients like him but something about this one had George weirded out and he couldn’t figure out why. As he walked to Trauma 1, he took a glimpse of the TV and saw the news was on. He barely could read the subject line that said, “Man found dead at his apartment complex.” George felt his skin craw because of what the patient had told them outside.

Bailey arrived with Grey not short after George got the patient to Trauma 1. Dr. Derek Shepherd, Dr. Callie Torres and Dr. Izzie Stevens arrived for their consults. George and Izzie were uncomfortable with having to be in the same place together but tried to hide it cause George’s wife Callie was also there with them and she was on her service. Callie wasn’t naïve and suspected that something was going on between the two interns, but she secretly hoped she was wrong, so she pretends not to be aware of what’s going on in her head. Derek starts doing a neuro exam while Callie inspects any underlying fractures the patient might have.

“Alright, looks good” Derek said while checking the patient’s eyesight. He was worried to find unequal pupils “Sir, do you know where you are?”

“Yeah, the death hospital”

“The what?” Derek asks while he looks at Meredith and Bailey confused

“He knows, just ignore that” Bailey dismisses it and signals that it’s a long story

“Okay? What’s your name?”

“Taylor”

“Well, alright Taylor, let’s get you up to CT to check your spine.”

While they were prepping to transport the patient, Bailey received a page from Dr. Addison Montgomery needing her assistance.

“O’Malley take the patient up to CT with Stevens and Grey” Shepherd ordered but couldn’t finished before being interrupted by Bailey

“Actually, I need one of them for something.”

“Anyone specifically?” Derek questioned

“Oh, you can have Stevens, I’ll just keep O’Malley for the day and get Stevens tomorrow.” Callie happily answered because she wanted to keep them away from one another

George looked around confused wondering if they could even do that. Izzie just shrugs at him and Meredith was preoccupied prepping the patient, so she wasn’t really aware of what was happening around her. George watches Izzie as she left. Callie notices and starts to get irritated at the thought George and Izzie might actually have feelings for each other.

“Page me when you get the CT.” Callie says while giving her (almost slamming) the clipboard to George and angrily exiting the room

Derek gives a look to Meredith that Meredith describes as the “I have seen you naked” look as he smiles and walks out of the room. Meredith smile softly in return but not to obviously so that George wouldn’t notice and start asking her about her current relationship with the neurosurgeon.

——

Meanwhile Izzie and Bailey arrived at the room where Addison had paged them.

“Dr. Montgomery, you asked for us?” Izzie excitedly asked. Izzie had taken a bit of an interest in neonatal surgery.

“Technically I only asked for Bailey but I’m not going to deny the extra help.”

“What do we have?” Bailey wanted the report

Addison handed the clipboard to the eager intern.

“Eden Collins, 26-year-old 36 weeks pregnant with twins. Scheduled for a C-Section for next week but admitted today because of hypertension.” Izzie responded

“Are the babies going to be okay? Should I call my husband? I don’t want to bother him unless I have to. We’ve been fighting the last couple of days and I don’t want to call him because…I just don’t want to yet.” The patient almost whispered that last part, Addison noticed but Izzie didn’t

“Don’t worry Eden, everyone will be fine, but you might want to call your husband in case he wants to be here for the birth or after the babies are born.” Izzie replied quickly and happily much to the dismay of Addison. The attending wanted to be wary of the situation. The patient had confessed that something was wrong in her relationship with her husband, and it even seemed like she was a bit scared to even talk about him. Addison knew the red flags, but Izzie didn’t.

“Okay, okay.” The patient sighed and murmured something that no one could hear “Can someone pass me my phone?” The patient felt something “Actually can someone call him for me, I don’t-”

“Crap she is seizing. We need to go. Stevens, tell them to clear an OR and page neuro!” Bailey shouted as Izzie ran to do as she was told

——

The CT was routine. Patient went in and the interns waited for the results. They sat there quietly. Meredith appeared to quickly texting someone but George didn’t want to intrude. He just assumed she was updating an Attending or Bailey even if it didn’t make that much sense.

“How much longer do I need to be here?” The patient interrupted George’s thought

“Not much longer now” George said through the intercom

Turning off the intercom he looks at Meredith and see that she’s starring at the monitors waiting for the images to show up.

“Don’t you find it weird?”

“Huh, what’s that George?”

“The thing the patient said…about dying days later?”

“No? People can die at anytime. It’s one thing to say those people died from post-op complications but he’s implying they died several days later from unrelated causes.”

“True but…I don’t know. Something feels off, you know?”

George looks at Meredith for some kind of response. She looks at him point blank and just doesn’t say anything. It’s not uncommon for her to give a look as a response. Still George felt uneasy, that’s until the images go up.

“I’m gonna page Shepherd, I’ll be right back” Meredith says as she steps out

“Are we done now? I don’t want to be here anymore than I have to.”

“Just a little bit longer Taylor, I promise” George wanted to calm him down a bit “So, do you have any family?”

“Just my wife, she’s pregnant right now.”

“Aw what do you have?”

“Apart from an adulterous bitch for a wife? Two bastards’ kids about to be born. Boy and girl.”

George stares in shock, it’s the “oh shit I fucked up REALLY badly look.” As he comes back to his senses, Meredith reenters the room and sees George in shock.

“Something wrong? Is it something you saw in the scans?” Meredith expressed a bit of excitement at the thought of being in the OR

“What? Oh no, it just we were talking, and he was telling me about his wife.”

“Anything interesting? We still have to wait for neuro and ortho to get here.”

“He’s married and apparently his wife got pregnant with affair babies. Twins!”

Before Meredith could react to that, Callie walked in. As she walked in, she noticed the interns were talking between themselves.

“What going on?”

“George was just telling me about the patient’s wife. Apparently, she’s pregnant with twins and they aren’t his!”

“How ironic.” Callie whispered just loud enough for Meredith to hear but not George

“What was that?” George asked since he wasn’t paying much attention

“Never mind, let me see the scans. Yeah, he’ll need surgery book an OR and O’Malley scrub in with me. Grey, get the patient prep.”

George and Callie leave side by side in silence. Neither of them really wanted to talk to the other at that moment. Meredith went to get the patient out of the machine. The patient had been weirdly calm around her since the moment she spoke to him. She couldn’t help but wonder why but didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. Meredith was taking him to pre-op when she decided to look at him. She noticed he was just staring at her intensely, so she quickly looked up because she was getting extremely uncomfortable. As they entered the pre-op room, the patient grabbed Meredith hand and pulled her down. She tried to pull back, but his grip was impressively strong despite not being able to move a lot.

“Why are you like that?”

“Sir, let go of me”

“You walk around this hospital as if you’re in charge just because you whore yourself for anyone and everyone.”

“Sir, I will not ask again. Let. Go. Of. Me.”

“If it weren’t for the fact that people who leave this hospital die, I bet you’d go around sleeping with patients like some common bitch, huh?” Meredith was trying to stay quiet and just let him finish. She would’ve gotten out of that grip if it weren’t for the fact she didn’t want to injure the patient further “Answer me!”

“AH!” Meredith screamed in pain as her wrist fractured. In that moment the patient let go. Meredith saw red at that moment put remained calm “SECURITY! SOMEONE CALL SECURITY, NOW!”

As George and Callie were returning to take the patient to the OR, they heard a code violet being activated and then saw security running to a pre-op room to temporary restrain a patient. As they got closer, they realized it was their patient, and that Meredith had been the one from the code violet. Callie ran into the room with George following right behind her.

“What happened?”

“Patient was verbally violent. He started to verbally berate me while he held me down by the wrist...”

While Meredith gave her verbal report, George noticed how she gripped her wrist tightly as to ignore the pain that came from it. He took Meredith wrist gently and she only noticed him doing this when she winced in pain. George stepped back not wanting to injure her any further (also so that she couldn’t hit him for revealing she was in pain).

“Meredith, your wrist...”

“George, I’m fine” Meredith said while gritting her teeth

“No, you’re not Grey. Let me see.”

“It’s nothing really.”

“If it’s really nothing then you would let me see.” Meredith reluctantly agreed and Callie examined her “you're going to need a splint as this is definitely broken.”

“Oh, come on, I’m fine-” Meredith got interrupted by Callie readjusting her wrist “MOTHERFUUUUU OUCH. Okay yeah, it’s broken.”

“Come on let’s get you a splint for it.”

——

“What do we have?” Dr. Shepherd walked in just as Addison was finishing the emergency C-Section

“26-year-old 36 weeks pregnant presumably had a seizure brought on by undiagnosed eclampsia. Came today with hypertension which could’ve been a factor of the eclampsia.” Izzie reported to Derek as Addison was still preoccupied with the babies

“Alright let me see.” Derek goes to see the eyes before checking anything else. He sighs when he sees the one thing he didn’t want to see. “Dr. Montgomery”

“Give me a second Dr. Shepherd”

“Dr. Montgomery”

“Give me a second.” Addison was doing cpr on one of the twins because he wasn’t breathing. Finally, the baby started crying and Addison went to go help with the mother “What is it Dr. Shepherd?” Addison said smiling as she managed to save the newborns

“The pupils are fixed and dilated” Derek said softly to Addison as her smile dropped

“No. Damn it! We almost had her!”

“Dr. Montgomery” Derek went to her side to comfort her a little

“Derek, I don’t need you to calm me down, I’m fine” Addison calmed down while saying this “Stevens, Bailey, can you two close for me?”

“Sure Dr. Montgomery”

Addison scrubbed out as Derek followed right behind.

“Addie, you sure you’re okay”

“Yes, Derek. I’m fine.”

“Okay it’s-” As Derek was about to tell Addison that she could rely on him for anything, he received the page that the CT results were available “I’ll find you later, okay?”

“Sure, whatever”

As Derek left to got to the CT room to review the films, Addison took out her phone quickly and look at her notifications.

[Txt when u get out of surgery]

Addison couldn’t help but smile when she read that. She wasn’t one to communicate by text since it was still something relatively new to her, but she didn’t mind doing it with her.

[I am out. Are you busy? I need to talk to you.]

Now all Addison could do is wait so she went to an on-call room to truly feel what just happened in her OR.

——

Meredith, Callie and George where outside the patient’s room as Derek finally pulled up to see how they were doing with him. As he got closer, he saw that Meredith had a splint on her wrist. He practically ran to her to see if she was okay.

“Mer! What happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Derek I’m fine. I just fractured my wrist.”

“Just fractured your wrist?? You don’t just fracture your wrist!”

“Well technically you can” Everyone just stared with a “shut up” glare directed at George "I’m just saying it is possible”

“Honey, shut up.” Callie redirected her attention to Derek “Mer got attacked by the patient.”

“YOU WHAT?!?!”

“Derek, I am fine. Look at me” Meredith said while cupping Derek’s face in order for him to look at her in the eyes “Worst thing is that I’ll be unable to operate for 4 weeks. Other than that, I am fine.”

“Okay but do we know why he attacked?”

Meredith got quiet and walked away. She didn’t really want to talk about what had gone wrong between her and the patient as she did not want to possibly affect patient care. She knew the attack hadn’t come from any neurological defect, but she prefer they found that out on their own later. For now, she just wanted them to operate on him and get him the hell out of the hospital. As she walked, her phone made a sound. When she pulled it out, she saw it. The reply she had been waiting for a while.

[I am out. Are you busy? I need to talk to you.]

[yeah wya?]

[I am going to assume you just asked where I am. On-call room on floor 3.]

[aight omw]

Meredith always found interesting that Addison refused to use any kind of slang during text messaging, but it didn’t seem out of place for the kind of person Addison wanted to present as. Composed and regal, on top of everything, authoritative, everything a Forbes-Montgomery should strive to be. Even if Meredith knew that Addison deep down went against many of the things she presented herself as. As she walked to the on-call room she reminisced about the time she first meets Addison.

Derek and her where about to go out when in comes Addison.

-flashback-

“Long day” Derek said a Meredith walked towards him

“Yeah”

“Somewhere out there is a steak with your name and maybe a bottle of wine.”

“This is why I keep you around.”

“So, we need to talk”

“Wine first then talk”

“You trying to take advantage of me?”

“Ha, I think I like this rules thing”

“Yeah, me too”

After Derek fixes her collar, he turns around. Derek looks ahead happily but as he saw Addison him smile quickly faded. He rapidly turned back around at Meredith and with a sad expression he started to speak to Meredith as her happy face turned to confusion.

“Meredith...I’m so sorry”

Derek turns back around as Addison approaches; Meredith can’t help but be utterly confused by the situation. Why was Derek sorry? As she pondered, she realized a figure walked towards them.

“Addison, what are you doing here?”

“Well, you would know if you bothered to return any one of my phone calls”

Addison faces the woman just standing there bewildered

“Hi. I’m Addison Shepherd.”

“Shepherd?”

“And you must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband”

In that moment, Addison wasn’t just a random woman. She became a real person. She was real and this was a problem. Addison was Derek’s wife. Not ex-wife, not ex-fiancé, not ex-girlfriend, not ex nothing. She’s his CURRENT wife. He is married. That second changed their entire dynamic. Meredith was no longer his girlfriend; she wasn’t the only one. In that moment, Meredith became something she never wanted to be; she unknowably became the dirty mistress, the hospital slut.

-end of flashback-

Meredith honestly was impressed how far they have come ever since they met. It seemed impossible for them to be even cordial at the start but now their relationship had evolved so much faster and further than they thought the ever could. She tries to open the door and realized it’s lock. Usually this meant someone was busy using that room but since she heard nothing was happening inside, she knocked on the door just to see if Addison was there.

“Who’s there?”

“Dr. Montgomery, it’s Dr. Grey. I have the file you wanted.” Meredith had a random file she grabbed as to not look weird because no one knew that Addison and Meredith didn’t hate each other.

Suddenly Meredith heard someone moving through the door and unlocking it but didn’t open the door. She heard as Addison presumably sat right back down on one of the beds. Meredith opened the door but not too widely that anyone outside could see that much inside. When she entered, she quickly turned around and locked the door just in case someone was to wander inside and find them. Meredith saw Addison lying in the bed with her back turned away from her. She walked to the bed and sat down, her back touching Addison’s back. Meredith could hear Addison trying her best to not cry out loud, but it was obvious to her that she wanted to cry intensely.

“Adds” Meredith said softly, she had gotten used to calling Addison Adds when they were alone “Look at me”

“I’m fine Mer”

“Adds, come on. If you’re fine, you would look at me” Meredith had use Callie’s word and modified them for her convenience

“...”

“Addison, look at me. Please.”

Addison looked visibly hesitant but decided to turn around. She had eyeliner running down her face, her face was puffy, and her eyes were red from crying. It’s a sight that many would think it’s impossible to see on the great Addison Adrianne Forbes Montgomery but nevertheless, it is a sight that Meredith is witnessing. Addison hates when people get to see her as "weak and vulnerable”. The image she works so hard on is slipping by the second with Meredith there. Meredith could see the guilt in Addison’s eyes, as if the fact she wasn’t perfect was one of the greatest worst things a person could ever be. She was guilty that someone saw her like this, she shouldn’t be like this.

“Adds, it’s okay to feel. It’s okay to let go sometimes.” Meredith reassured Addison because she thought Addison might need verbal confirmation to let herself cry

Addison wraps her arms around Meredith as she cried on her lap; she didn’t have the energy to sit up. Meredith ran her hand through Addison’s hair in order to soothe her and provide much needed comfort to Addison in that moment. When Meredith heard Addison cry slow down, she cupped Addison’s cheek and turned her face so that Addison’s eyes met Meredith’s.

“Hey, wanna talk about it?”

“I’m so sorry. It’s just...I don’t know why this patient hit me so hard. She transferred from another OB to me because of personal issues between the doctor, her husband and her. She felt save with me and comfortable enough to finally feel happy with the fact that she was having kids just for her to suffer complications mid-surgery that could’ve been avoided if she saw me sooner.” Addison confessed as she wiped the leftover tears on her face

“First, you don’t have to say you're sorry just because you cried due to a lost, happens to every one of us. Secondly, you did everything you could with what you had. You can’t linger on the what if’s, or it will emotionally consume you.”

“Damn it, I got to tell her husband” Addison expression quickly turned to distain when saying that “it normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I just greatly dislike Mr. Collins” She was going to say something a bit harsher but decided to bite her tongue.

“Wait, what’s the husbands name?”

“Taylor Collins, he’s 27 I think, black hair and amber eyes”

“Addison, we admitted a Taylor Collins this morning for spinal nerve injury due to a collision while driving”

“What??”

“Fits your description and everything”

“Is he seriously hurt?” Addison hid a subtle smile due to the possible karma

“No but he does need surgery.” Meredith hesitated a bit in asking the next question due to her knowing how that conversation would end “Question, was the conflict issue between her doctor, husband and herself due to her cheating and getting pregnant because of the affair?”

“Yeah? Doctor and her husband both were being horrible with her after they found out the babies' origins. She just wanted to have the babies cause it had been her dream to have a baby, and she couldn’t care less if the only good thing to come from the affair was her chance to be a mother. Why?”

“Well...her husband told George who in turn told me that he very publicly revealed that her wife had an affair and that the babies were a couple of bastards”

“Oh, that ass. He told that to people he didn’t know in an attempt to spread the word?”

“Honestly, I don’t know because I wasn’t there”

“Still, it’s enough to make me dislike the guy even more. I just wish I could just-” Addison did choking gestures in the air “AAAAGH. You know?”

“Yeah, I know” Meredith expression darkened when she saw Addison air choking...well the air

Addison went to grab Meredith’s arms when she felt the hand that Meredith had hidden all this time so that Addison couldn’t notice, she felt a weird texture. At the touch, Addison sat up while Meredith realized that Addison had felt the splint. Meredith quickly stood up and practically ran to the door so they wouldn’t have this discussion now. Unfortunately for her, Addison pinned her to the door so she couldn't get out.

“Mer... where did you get that?”

“Adds, stand down. We are in the hospital. You look like your about to kill someone.”

“Oh, that’s because I am unless if this was an accident”

“Addison”

“Meredith”

“I am fine.”

“That wasn’t my question”

“That was my answer”

Meredith easily gets out of the grip due to Addison not pinning her with a lot of force. Meredith pulled Addison down and kissed her softly in an attempt to calm Addison quickly.

“Now get that psychotic look out of your face and come with me to tell your patient.”

“Fine”

Meredith left the on-call room first. Addison stayed a little longer for two reasons; 1) so that people around wouldn’t get the wrong impression and 2) to compose herself before returning to work. Between Addison and Meredith, Addison was always a bit hot headed when it came to the people she loved even if most people wouldn’t notice. She was very good at hiding what she truly felt; but then again so was Meredith. The only difference was that in their angriest moments, Addison could contain herself and Meredith was mostly incapable of doing that. Then again, Meredith had to be REALLY mad for this to happen.

——

The patient had a L4-L5 fusion and after an overnight stay was being reprimanded by the police for attacking a doctor, luckily for him, Meredith dropped all charges against him despite everyone’s protest. Meredith really just wanted to get him out of the hospital as soon as humanly possible. Meredith and Cristina stood outside the door having a casual conversation.

“No but why did you drop the charges?”

“I told you; I don’t want to deal with this anymore than I have to.”

“Well, don’t complain that you can’t do anything will I pull ahead of you.”

“Cristina, you are not going to get better than me in 4 weeks.”

“Of course, I will because I already am.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I can operate, and you can’t. So technically I win.” Cristina said with a smug smile.

“If you win by cheating then yeah.”

While they were going back and forth with their banter, Addison walked up to their direction. She waited out the door for the police to exit. As she waited, the two interns watched her intently.

“Why is Satan here?”

“No clue” She knew why but it would set alarm bells ringing in Cristina head if she did anything that indicated that she knew

“Can you imagine it was because he has something like anal cancer?”

“Maybe but, why would a neonatal surgeon need to check on that?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Maybe she’s getting McNasty with him.”

“I can hear you both.” Addison said while turning around “Yang, didn’t Dr. Hahn need you for something?” venom seemed to almost come out as she spoke

“Yes Dr. Montgomery but-”

“Then go be with your attending instead of gossiping in the hospital halls.”

“Yes Dr. Montgomery”

As Cristina walked away, Meredith could hear her muttering under her breath “God I miss working with Burke instead of the bitch.” Cristina had been “left at the altar” a few weeks before and no one has heard from him. He never showed up at the chapel nor did anyone know what happened to him. It was as if he left the face of the Earth on that day.

Addison turned back around, away from Meredith and continued to wait for the police to leave the room. The only reason Addison didn’t send Meredith away was because Meredith was still one of the doctors in the patient’s case. She had volunteered to check the patient before they started with the discharge. Bailey, Richard and Derek protested but she didn’t want their special treatment. The deal was that she would be able to do so with the patient restricted and with another doctor in the room. Since Addison had to inform the patient about his wife, they decided she would be the one accompanying Meredith since even if they hated each other (that they know of), Addison and Meredith were able to put that aside for the patient’s benefit. They briefed Addison on what had happened before hand (she already knew but they didn’t know that) and sent her to please supervise Meredith.

“So, now I have a guard dog?”

“They’re worried about you.”

“Nothing is going to happen.”

“Chin up Dr. Grey, I wasn’t forced to do this. I already had to come here.” Addison spoke to Meredith like they always did in public even if no one was really around. Meredith also did the same.

“With all due respect Dr. Montgomery, I’m fully capable of doing this on my own.” Meredith caught the switch in Addison’s voice and followed suit.

“I have no doubt about that but considering there are police in there, I would get fired if I let you anywhere near a criminal.”

After what felt like an eternity, the police came out of the room.

“Ma’am, are you sure you want to drop the charges”

“It’s Dr. And yes, I am sure.”

“Alright then, you two have a great day.”

When the police walked away, Meredith and Addison finally stepped inside the room. The patient had been tied down to the bed. Anything sharp was just out of reach and anything that could be used as a weapon that was not necessary medically was removed from the room entirely. If you wouldn’t have known what had happened, you probably would think he was a high-risk criminal. Addison stood right next to while Meredith stood behind her for precaution. Usually, interns were on the other side of the bed.

“Mr. Collins”

“Please call me Taylor since that bitch probably told everyone that she was a “victim of a violent patient” or that someone call her a whore.”

“MR. COLLINS” Addison said strongly trying to hold herself from angrily shouting at him “I’m Dr. Addison Montgomery; I’m a neonatal surgeon in this hospital and I treated your wife Eden and the twins.”

“Great, just great. What happened?”

“Eden came in earlier with hypertension correlated with her eclampsia. She stroked will in the pre-op room and unfortunately, that stroke was due to an ischemic stroke. We did everything we could. Eden died in surgery due to the complications.”

For the first time in a while, Taylor actually looked sad. He was capable to feel a bit sad for what happened his wife. That didn’t last long as his crying turned to laughter as he realized something.

“Wait, wait, wait, the little bastards are still alive right?” Taylor almost couldn’t stop laughing for a reason that Addison and Meredith couldn’t wrap around. “Maybe I’ll take the babies outside for a few days and let this hospital curse take care of them.”

Meredith was fuming because she knew what he meant. She knew the hospital curse he was referring to and she was livid that he could even consider saying that about two kids who were recently born and just as recently lost their mom in the process. Meredith knew that they would feel guilty their entire lives because they lived, and she didn’t but Meredith never anticipated this from the dad. Addison was just confused by what he meant and why Meredith was suddenly seeing red.

“Everything looks fine, we should start his discharge papers.” Meredith hissed

“Maybe you should do the babies one first” The patient said quietly but not too quietly because Meredith could hear him

“OH, YOU WANT TO BE LIKE THAT YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE SHIT? YOU’RE KIDS LOST THEIR MOTHER AND YOU WANT TO STAND ON THE MORAL HIGH GROUND?! YOU LOW LIFE PIECE OF TRASH SHOULD BE THE ONE AFFECTED BY THE SO-CALLED HOSPITAL CURSE!”

“DR. GREY GO WAIT IN THE HALL. NOW!”

“BUT-”

“I SAID NOW!”

“Fine”

Meredith stepped out of the room to find everyone looking at her. She knew that in 15 minutes, everyone in the hospital would know she just went off on a patient. More so, she went off on her patient. Frustrated by this, Meredith couldn’t help but scream at everyone watching.

“STOP STARING AT ME LIKE I’M NUTS! SHUT UP AND CONTINUE WITH YOUR WORK!”

Everyone around her scrambled to act like they weren’t still interested in the tea that would happen when Addison walked out of that room and reprimand her. As Addison stepped out of the room, Meredith had enough of everyone being involved in her drama and decided to start walking away.

“Dr. Grey, where the hell are you going?”

“I’m out of here”

“Dr. Grey!”

When Meredith wouldn’t answer her, she screamed so loud and angrily that everyone stopped what they were doing instantly and just starred at what was going down.

“DR. MEREDITH GREY, STOP BEING A BRAT AND QUIT WALKING AWAY OR YOU’RE FIRED!!”

Meredith stopped right in her path; she contemplated turning. She didn’t want to increase the trauma but at the same time, she was too busy being in her own mindscape. Meredith without looking back gave Addison the middle finger and started to walk away again.

“THAT’S IT!”

Addison grabbed Meredith by her upper arm and dragged her into a storage closet and locked the door behind them. While Meredith anger and frustration was real, Addison’s wasn’t in its entirety. She wanted to know why Meredith just blew up like that. Meredith had excellent control, so this was extremely weird.

“Mer calm down”

“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN”

“Meredith”

“DON’T MEREDITH ME”

“I’m this close to speaking to you like your superior so unless you do want me to suspend you completely well after your authorized to return to work, you will talk to me like a civilized person”

“Fine” Meredith calmed down a bit “He just received the news his wife died. His WIFE, the person he USED to LOVE at the very least, died. And all he’s looking for is for some karmic justice against two newborn babies. He wants them dead and not because he doesn’t know how we’ll take care of them or because it’s too hard to look at them because they were the cause of their mother’s death but because they just had the bad luck to be made out of a loveless affair. Instead of just saying that he’ll give them up for adoption, he’s wants death to them.”

“Okay so what do you want to do?”

Meredith expression changed; she realized she was talking to Addison. Meaning, she was free to talk about anything, including none work stuff they had unscheduled. Addison noticed Meredith’s expression changed and realized what Meredith was about to ask her.

“I can’t do anything with my wrist like this but you?” Meredith looked deeply and darkly into Addison’s eyes as she smirked “I know exactly what you can do”

——

“Come on Addie, pick up” Derek frantically called Addison since he heard the rumours of Meredith yelling at the patient and later on Addison yelling at Meredith

“Hello”

“Addison, finally; what took you so long to answer?”

“We’re at work, Derek. I have patients just like you.”

“Sorry, I just need to know what happened in the patient’s room. Some nurses are saying there was a fight between you two.”

“Everything's fine. She was just a bit overwhelmed that’s all.”

“You sure?”

“Yes Derek, stop hovering over her.”

“Sorry but you don’t know the relief you have given me, thanks Addison”

“No problem.”

Derek hangs up, finally letting out that breath he didn’t know he was holding onto. He had been so worried about Meredith that he didn’t even know what he was supposed to be doing or what he was currently doing. That’s until George approaches him with the discharge papers.

“Oh, right. This asswipe.”

“I’m sorry Dr. Shepherd?”

“Sorry O’Malley, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” As Derek said this, he looked at George and realized that he probably thought he was talking about George “It’s not you just to be clear, I meant this patient.”

“Yeah...”

George was still thinking about what the patient had said yesterday. Even though George wanted to do nothing more than to listen to the words of the person that hurt his friend, for some reason what he said stuck with him. He wanted to talk to someone about it other than Meredith of course.

“Dr. Shepherd...”

“Yeah?”

“I...you know what, nevermind” George used his brain and realized that talking to Meredith’s BOYFRIEND about it wasn’t the smartest idea

“Okay? Need anything else?”

“No Dr. Shepherd. Good then go home unless you want to finish his discharge.”

“You know what, yeah, I’ll do it.”

“Oh really? I thought you didn’t want to deal with him anymore.”

“I don’t but you should check on Meredith, you know, to see if she’s okay.”

Derek thought about if he truly wanted to leave George to complete the discharge by himself or if he wanted to stay to oversee that George didn’t screw it up. That didn’t last long since he couldn’t care less what happen with this patient unless his life was in active danger. He signed the forms and handed them to George so he would finish the discharge and transport.

“Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t sir, I promise.”

Derek nodded and walked away. George saw Derek dialing someone as he walked away; he assumed Derek was calling Meredith to see if she was still in the hospital or if she already went on. That seemed like the most probable thing to happen. Honestly George couldn’t care less about who Dr. McDreamy was calling, he was more interested in talking to the patient as he did the discharge and the escort. George entered the room and help the patient into a wheelchair.

“I’m sorry”

“Sorry?”

“About that doctor, I was stressed out about being in the death hospital.” George could see that he was lying. He wanted to say that to make sure Meredith wouldn’t sue him. And yet, George did see there was some truth to what he was saying. Not about the stress causing him to lash out but the fact that he was extremely worried and scared to be in the so-called death hospital. They had a long walk to the exit, so George took his chance to learn a bit more on why the patient insisted calling Seattle Grace, the death hospital.

“So w-why do you think it’s the death hospital?”

“Haven't you seen the news? Three people this month have died mysterious death a while after being patients here. Police say it’s unrelated since their death were from different things, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Well sir, to be fair, wouldn’t it make more sense that the cause of the deaths come from the hospital if the deaths occurred after being released?”

“I don’t know what their objective is, but I just KNOW this hospital is involved somehow. Not even this hospital, I think it’s someone who works here.”

“You got that from watching the news?”

“Well, no, I also skimmed through the case files after they were released publicly. No fingerprints and impressive cuts on the ones that did have stab wounds. Private investigator in a past life.”

“Oh, so just paranoid” George whispered so that the patient couldn’t hear him

“I know you think I’m crazy cause of that whore”

“Dr. Grey is not...that”

“C’mon, she is. They always are. Plus, I heard from some of the nurses that she is also an adulterous bitch so is her bitch that redhead?”

“Dr. Montgomery?”

“Whatever that harlot’s name is”

“DR. Grey and DR. Montgomery aren’t together. Why am I even explaining this to you?”

“Eh beats me; you and I aren’t that different kid.”

“I’m older than you”

“The only difference is that I speak my mind.”

George basically threw the patient out the entrance after this cause the patient wouldn’t stop being an annoying prick. The only thing that made George not punch the patient out beside the fact that they were in a hospital was that the patient did give him so curious information even if he, by that point, just thought the patient was crazy.

——

4 days later...

“BREAKING NEWS!”

George and Izzie were in the pit close to the TV’s since it was a slow day and turned their head to watch what was happening. They thought it might be an accident that hopefully (and not hopefully) land people in the ER so they could do something productive.

“Local man was found murdered this morning in apartment building by landlord. Victim has been identified as Taylor Collins of 27 years of age. An insurance investigator for a local insurance company. The police believe the investigator was followed and killed by an ex-client as more than one witness have stated that they saw someone dressed in red and black following him around all day. More information at 5.”

“Taylor Collins, wasn’t that the one who broke Meredith’s wrist?” Izzie pondered

“Yeah, he’s also the one who called this the death hospital.”

“No way! Karma got the better of him?”

“You could say that.” Meredith appeared from behind scaring the both of them.

“Mer, what are you doing here?” Izzie questioned

“What? Just because I can’t operate doesn’t mean I can’t work. I’m just catching up on paperwork don’t worry.”

“I just didn’t think Bailey, or the chief would let you.” Meredith didn’t respond “they don’t know you’re here, do they?”

“C’mon Iz, don’t tell them”

“Too late” Izzie pointed to a figure closing in on them

“Meredith Grey!”

“Dr. Bailey, I can explain.”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses; you can return next week but today you need to go home.”

“But-”

“GO Grey or I’ll call the chief”

“Fine, there’s nothing to do at home” Meredith protested as she left

“O’Malley, Stevens, get back to work”

“What work Dr. Bailey?” Izzie pointed out to the empty ER

“Oh, well, keep working then” Bailey walked away from them

“So, what was this about this being a death hospital?” Izzie suddenly noticed that George was basically frozen into place “George, you okay?”

Izzie tried to reach out and put her hand on his shoulder. He jumped at the contact. His face full of fear and worry.

“Sheesh George, people will believe that Mer just killed your loved ones with that face.” Izzie laughed at her stupid joke about Mer scaring George half to death except.

This was not a joke to George. He wasn’t scared of Meredith scaring them from behind. He was scared at non-probable scenario in his head. He was scared of Meredith.

Chapter Text

So much has happened in the last two years. Addison moved to Los Angeles to work in a private medical practice. She visits Seattle one week per month to take care of some things. Callie had discovered George and Izzie’s affair and the two ended up divorcing each other. Callie realized she is bisexual and got involved with Erica Hahn until the latter left Seattle. She then got together with the pediatric surgeon Dr. Arizona Robbins. George was with Izzie for a while until they realized they were not good together. Izzie got together with Alex. Izzie found out she had Stage IV metastatic melanoma with metastases to the liver, brain, and skin which gave her a 5% survival rate. Cristina had gotten involved with a veteran trauma surgeon named Dr. Owen Hunt and was left without a consistent cardiothoracic mentor since Hahn left thanks to Callie. Mark stayed around to try and rebuild his friendship with Derek. Unluckily for him, he fell in love with the previously unknown Grey sister, Lexie Grey even though he was warned to stay away from her. After a good beating and Lexie stress eating, the two made up even if they weren’t completely ready to be the best of friends yet. Meredith and Derek finally had a stable relationship, kinda. They had broken up then Derek dated nurse Rose for a while until finally Meredith and him got together again. Unfortunately, this was interrupted by Derek giving in to a depressive episode after the loss of a patient. But when he managed to get out of it, he properly proposed to Meredith. So yeah, a LOT has happened in the past two years, and this was just a quick summary.

In between those years, George never let up with the thought that his patient had giving him so long ago. Since that day, George checked the news daily and if there was a murder victim, he’d check the hospital record to see if they were a hospital patient and when. Every information he gathered, he put it on a file in his cubby. He didn’t want to bring it in the house back when he lived with Meredith nor now that he lived with Lexie specially since Lexie had a photographic memory and would be able to recall anything to Meredith. So, he keeps it in the resident lounge and label the file as “George O’Malley Medical Records”. It was so mundane that no one, not even Alex would be interested in reading it.

These past few weeks, George has been taking an interest in Dr. Owen Hunt’s department. For some reason, he was actually very skilled for Trauma, and this didn’t go unnoticed. Last month when Dr. Montgomery was in Seattle, she had mentioned this to Hunt who until that point hadn’t really thought about it. Since then, Hunt was always looking out for signs of George potentially being a Trauma Surgeon in the future.

Today, Dr. Montgomery was in town for her monthly visit and just so happened to arrive just in time for a trauma case which needed a neonatal surgeon. Addison walked into the Trauma Room 1 and saw that George was assisting Hunt today. George didn’t mind working with Addison, unfortunately for him, Addison did dislike him A LOT. She wouldn’t openly admit she hates him, but it was clear to anyone with a pulse that Addison would never be caught being friendly with him. Sure, she treats him with respect and still teaches him like any other intern BUT she didn’t do any more than what was required from her. By everyone with a pulse, it is everyone except George because he was the only one that didn’t catch on to Addison’s dislike for him. She initially was neutral to him but over time there were more and more reason to dislike him. Nevertheless, she had to work with the now resident in order to help her patients.

Meanwhile Meredith, alongside Lexie, were on Derek’s service again for the second time this week. Both Grey sisters had an interest in neuro with Lexie in particular slowly showing the potential for the specialty. Derek always liked Meredith being on his service. She knew exactly what he wanted without him asking. They would also steal glances at one another midway through surgery whenever it was safe to do so. Lexie was always unaware when they did this cause she was always so focused on the task.

After their scheduled surgery, neuro was paged to the pit, so Derek went ahead, and Lexie and Meredith stayed a bit behind walking slowly so they could chat a bit. Meredith had grown to like Lexie and started treating Lexie like the little sister she always wished she had. She had also grown quite protective of the Little Grey and would do anything for her. They even made room in their house so that she could stay after something happened with George; Meredith still doesn’t know what happened exactly, but she wasn’t going to intrude on Lexie’s personal business if it wasn’t prompted.

The two Greys were happily laughing and chatting as they went into the pit. As they arrived, they saw that Derek, Addison, George and Owen were in the Trauma Room. Lexie went in quickly to be with Derek for the neuro exam while Meredith just stood by the door watching Addison with George. She was trying to figure out what mood Addison was in today now that she knows George is her resident for the day.

“Grey” Addison said hiding her frustration

“Yes Dr. Montgomery?” Both Lexie and Meredith responded

“I meant Meredith” Addison clarified “Are you going to be useful or are you going to just stand there?”

“Sorry Dr. Montgomery” Meredith walked and stood next to Lexie

“Oooooooh you’re in troubleeeee” Lexie teased quietly

“Shut up”

“Neuro exam is good. Guess you won’t be needing me right now. Lexie can do the rest.”

“O’Malley go with Little Grey to get an X-Ray before we consult ortho.”

Lexie stood there a bit uncomfortable when Owen mentioned that George should go with her. Addison immediately noticed and thought of a way to get her out of the predicament without involving Meredith.

“Actually Dr. Hunt, I’ll be accompanying Grey to take the X-Ray. She’s my patient and I want to be there just as the results arrive. I can page O’Malley when the results come in. Meanwhile, let him stay here so that he can learn from you.”

“Thank you” Lexie quietly mouthed to Addison

“Don’t see why not, come on O’Malley. Incoming trauma.” Owen ordered

“Guess we should go check that Trauma while we’re here.” Derek added

Lexie and Addison took the patient up to get an X-Ray to determine if there were underlying fractures. They waited there quietly, for the results. Addison had taken a special interest in watching over Lexie. If Meredith saw and accepted Lexie as her sister, then Addison would protect her at all costs.

Lexie fidgeted her fingers while the X-Ray was being taken. She wanted to ask the neonatal surgeon why exactly she had gone with her for the x-ray. Firstly, because this was an intern’s job, not an attending’s. Secondly because the person next to the attending is Lexie GREY. For all that Lexie knew, Addison must have hated her because she was Meredith’s sister and Mark’s current girlfriend. Honestly in her mind, Addison had every reason to hate her even if she had never truly met the intern but for some reason she didn’t, and Lexie’s curiosity was eating her alive.

“Doctor Montgomery, can I ask you something?” Lexie just needed to know

“Sure Grey, what is it?” Addison responded nonchalantly

“Why…why did you decide to remain with your patient? She’s in no critical danger and this isn’t something that warrants an attending to be here. It doesn’t even require a neonatal surgeon.” Lexie did her best to go around her actual question

Addison examined her closely in order to figure out what Lexie truly meant. “I had a bad feeling”. She decided to not be so direct.

“With the patient? But there was nothing that’s worrisome.”

“Wow, you are more similar to your sister than you realize.” Lexie was starting to worry that she started on the wrong foot with Addison. When Addison realized she quickly readjusted her statement “No, it’s not about the patient although I was honest when I said that I wanted to keep a closer eye on her. I meant about you. You’re a little off your game. I don’t know you that well, but it truly seemed like you were uncomfortable being with O’Malley.”

“Oh” Lexie thought “It’s that obvious?” As if she had not said thank you to Addison previously

“It’s none of my business Grey but I wasn’t going to do nothing about it.” Addison continued “It would be very bad of me if I just left you with someone who’d make you as visibly uncomfortable as O’Malley did back there.” Lexie sighed heavily after Addison said this

“Thank you, Dr. Montgomery, you don’t seem like your nickname.” Lexie realized she said that last part out loud, she wished the ground would just swallow her whole right there

“My nickname?” Addison knew she had a nickname floating around but she never was sure what it was

“People call you Satan here, but you don’t seem bad to me.”

Addison remembered how she originally got the nickname from Derek. “Actually, I prefer Ruler of All That Is Evil but nevertheless trust me, there’s a reason why I have that nickname.” She wasn’t about to explain everything that had happened with her ex-husband of 11 years to who was essentially a stranger. “Hope you never find out why.” She rolled with it as a sign of pride

They both laughed at this statement. Lexie and Addison had found themselves in a familiar comfort with each other in record time. Maybe it was because Addison was a Grey expert or because Lexie was just incredibly friendly and welcoming, nevertheless it wasn’t hard to connect with each other. Apparently, they were backed up in X-Ray, so Addison and Lexie were going to have to wait a while before they had the results. Since Addison didn’t have any other patient at the moment, she decided to stay with Grey for the long wait. In the silence, Lexie was going through her options in her head of what to do next. In a move that shocked even her, she started to speak.

“Dr. Montgomery?”

“Yes, Grey?”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure”

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone especially Meredith” Lexie honestly felt kind of dumb for adding that last part because for all that she knew, Meredith and Addison heavily disliked each other if not outright hated each other’s guts

“Okay? I won’t” Addison was extremely confused at this point but did everything possible to not let that show

“It’s about why I’m uncomfortable with George...I mean, Dr. O’Malley”

Addison skin began to crawl “Grey, it’s none of my business- “she started to respond before being interrupted by Lexie

“Please just hear me out, I need to tell someone, and I can’t face Meredith with this. Not yet.” Lexie looked like she was on the verge of tears

“Okay, I promise I will hear you out and not say anything to anyone” Addison’s heart hurt for Lexie even if she still had no idea what Lexie was going to say

“One night I got home from work and George was there. I could smell he was drunk. He had the day off and apparently decided to drink. He was basically trash talking Callie, Izzie and Meredith. This was after I found out that George had slept with Mer while she…wasn’t in the right headspace.” Addison was shocked at this because she knew that Meredith slept with George, but she thought it was 100% consensual and not like what Lexie insinuated. She had more reasons to hurt the guy, but her face remained stoic as to not scare Lexie into shutting up “Wanting to not deal with it I decided that I wanted to leave for the night, but George didn’t like it, so he pinned me down to the sofa and started kissing me. Before he could do anything else I knee’d him and ran out. I stayed in the hospital until Derek found me in an on-call room and invited me to stay living at Mer’s house.”

“Lexie…”

“The worst part is that I really did like George before but after that. He’s not the same person I used to call my friend.” Lexie started crying

“Lex-” Addison found herself interrupted once again by the tech telling them that the scans are done. Addison quickly helped Lexie get rid of the tears in her face as the tech hands them the scans. “I’m sorry you had to go through that” Addison spoke softly to Lexie

“Yeah, me too.”

Lexie walked side by side with Addison as they headed to a lighting room to see the scans. Lexie entered the room first with Addison coming in quickly after. When she closed the door, the young intern spoke again.

“Thanks for hearing me out even if you don’t really know me. I needed to tell someone, and it couldn’t be Mer nor Derek or Mark. I promise I will tell her but I’m just starting to admit and accept that it happened.”

“Your sister is a HUGE pain in my ass” it was very hard to keep the lie of Addison’s and Meredith actual level of hatefulness for one another when the intern had just admitted this huge personal thing to her “BUT it’s obvious she cares for you so when you are ready to talk about it, I’m sure she will be by your side no matter what.” Addison knew the length that Meredith would truly go for Lexie now that’s she’s getting closer to her sister by the hour.

“Thanks Dr. Montgomery for saying that even if it isn’t completely true.” There’s a part of Lexie that wished that Meredith was as caring as Addison put her out to be. She could never truly know with Meredith. Meredith was a very complicated person which in turn made them have a very complicated relationship where it seems that some days Meredith hated her entire existence. So in Lexie’s mind, Meredith could’ve easily said that this was divine justice or karma for Lexie being the daughter that her dad wanted and Meredith being the kid he didn’t.

“Call Dr. Torres for the broken leg but these scans don’t show anything worse than that. I’m going to go tell Dr. Hunt that he can pass on the patient because his services won’t be required.” Lexie nods and goes to leave the room to page Callie “Little Grey, wait.” Lexie turns around a bit surprised Addison used that nickname in particular “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me that. I know it took a lot of courage to do so and so I will keep this between us. I do still think you should tell your sister; she might surprise you at the end of the day.”

“Next chance I get to see her privately, I will but...” Lexie suddenly realized WHO exactly she was talking to “Never mind. You won’t do it.”

“What?”

“Could...could you be there? When I tell her, could you be there? I don’t want to do this alone.”

“Grey...Lexie. Of course I will, just tell me when and I’ll be there.”

“Promise?”

“Promise”

Lexie stepped out of the room to page Callie. Addison finally being able to feel everything gets out her phone and starts texting Meredith.

[Meredith, we need to talk. It’s about Lexie.]

[Is she gud?]

[Not completely. She needs to tell you something so when she approaches you, please hear her out. Oh, and don’t be surprised if you see me there.]

[u 2 aight?]

[Yeah, we had to wait a while for the results, so we got to know each other a bit. She really is as you said. I like Little Grey now.]

[told u she nice]

[She is a lot more similar to you than I previously thought.]

[rly? Huh dunno but I’ll take ur word for it. Gotta go, McDreamy needs me]

[Alright, talk to you later.]

-------------

Meredith puts her phone in her pocket just as Derek turns around to face her.

“Let’s get her up for CT!”

Derek and Meredith ran the patient up to CT. As they were taking her up, Lexie caught up to Meredith who was a bit ahead than Derek since she had the patient. The Grey’s arrived and set everything up. Derek was waiting in the room for the results. As Lexie and Meredith stepped out, Lexie grabbed timidly Meredith’s hand.

“Meredith, wait a second.” Lexie was reconsidering if she should in fact go on with the plan, Meredith sees this hesitation and soften her expressions

“Lexie, what’s wrong?”

“I...I need to tell you something.” Lexie looks around as if making sure someone wasn’t hearing her “Can we talk about it later, please?”

“Sure. Are you okay though?”

“I’m...we’ll talk about it later.”

Before Meredith could ask anything further, Lexie entered the room with Derek. Her demeanour changing to bubbly and smiling as she entered as to not let Derek know what she was feeling. Meredith caught this little changed and knew that whatever it was that was going on was something between Lexie and her (and Addison but she wasn’t thinking of that right now).

“Find anything?” Lexie said

“She’s cleared of any trauma related symptoms; but both of you come here.” Meredith and Lexie get closer to the monitors “What do you see?”

“It seems like there are abnormalities with the images.” Meredith notices

“Are you thinking of trigeminal neuralgia? The patient has had complain of pain and has gone to several Ent's to see what could be causing it.”

“Very good Lexie, get her admitted and schedule an MRI to confirm. If it’s trigeminal neuralgia, then I want to do a microvascular decompression to relieve the compression. Book an OR just in case for me tomorrow morning to do it.”

“Alright Doctor Shepherd!”

Lexie left the room and Meredith and Derek stayed behind. Derek gently pulled Meredith down into a kiss. The resident returned the favour and pulled him closer. Before they could even think of escalating it further, Bailey walked by.

“Oh, come on, you two are doctors! This isn't a high school gym where you both can just do stuff under the bleacher. Do that at home.”

As she walked off, they stared at each other and laughed. Ending the interaction, with Meredith giving Derek a little kiss before leaving the attending there looking at his wife up and down with a sense of pride. Meredith went to look for Lexie.

-------------

Addison was on her way back to the emergency to reluctantly find George. She really wished she could just be with any other intern right now. She was contemplating stealing any available intern, but she knew that everyone knew she despised George, so she didn’t really want to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that she was incapable of working normally with the resident. As she approached the bay, she noticed George was just staring at the TV. Addison wanting to ask him why the hell he wasn’t doing his job but stopped when she noticed what was on.

“Working 4 you, KOMO 4 News starts right now! Breaking overnight, local nurse anaesthetist found dead in Tacoma. Police are investigating whether this was an assassination or a suicide.”

Addison steps just behind George; overlooking the resident. Despite this George still hadn’t notice the attending being in the same room as him let alone overlooking him. He was way too focused on the TV news.

“34-year-old Leire Furtado was found dead yesterday after not reporting to work for 2 days straight which alarmed her coworker. Prompted by this unusual action, a fellow nurse called Seattle Police. They reportedly did a wellness check just to find the 34-year-old on the kitchen floor. Furtado was a nurse anaesthetist at the local Seattle Grace Hospital. She was facing charges of assault against Orthopaedic Surgeon Calliope Torres in addition to disturbing the peace for events that happen last month on a bar located just across the hospital where both Furtado and Torres worked at. Police are still trying to figure out the cause of death but we’re just getting reports that the police are leaning more to a suicide rather than an assassination. We’ll be able to report more at 5.”

Addison watched as George heard this news. She couldn’t help but noticed the resident internally analysing something before almost sprinting to the resident locker room. Addison stood there intrigued by the resident’s behaviour. She had never seen him like this before and she wanted to know why he acted like that.

George looks around in the locker room; when he sees no one is there, he runs to his locker and pulls the folder out. In a blank paper, he started writing what he just saw on the news. For him, this was the most interesting case because it was the only one in his folder that was actually trying to hide what exactly was that happened in the death. All the others were clear that they were murders but this one? Why would the killer hide the death? Any normal person at this point would’ve just chalked this one as a suicide and gone on with their day but George? He was obsessed at this point. He HAD to know why there was a pattern with this hospital in particular and who was the person here responsible. In George’s mind, he already knew who was responsible for all of this, but he didn’t have proof. If he showed his research to anyone, he would’ve been chalked up as crazy and looking into it too deep, but he knew he wasn’t wrong and he was going to show everyone eventually. Just as George was putting the file back in the locker, a redheaded attending entered the lounge.

“O’Malley!” Addison scolded “What are you doing here instead of working?”

George jump scared dropped his file to the floor and several pages flew out. George scrambled to pick them up. Since she was already incredibly frustrated with the intern, she helped picked them up just to notice a picture of Meredith attached to a piece of paper at the distance. She quickly grabbed the piece of paper with the photo and put it in her lab coat pocket. She helped pick up the rest of the papers and handed them to George.

“I’m so sorry Doctor Shepherd...I MEAN, Montgomery”

“Call me Shepherd again and you’ll be in big trouble.”

“I’m sorry Doctor Montgomery”

“Now care to tell me WHY you are looking at your medical records...” Addison observes as George places the file on his back as if trying to hide them from her “instead of looking at our current patients’ records?”

“I, uh, was asked by Dr. Hunt to find this and bring it to him” George quickly pulled a pen from the locker

“Uh huh, well then tell Dr. Hunt, he can have you. You’re off my service.”

“But Dr. Montgomery, I’m behind on hours in neonatal”

“You should’ve thought of that when you decided to stop doing your job to take a nostalgia trip in your personnel files. Am I understood?”

“Yes Doctor Montgomery” George said defeated

Addison turned around and started to walk to the attendings’ lounge. As she walked, she could hear various nurses and staff talking about the nurse featured on the news. Some were saddened by her death; some were talking about how she was an ass and somewhere talking about the criminal charges and what would happen now. She looked at some groups of nurses talking and told them to get back to work. Addison still had the power to make nurses, residents and intern fear her even though she didn’t work there full time.

Addison finally arrived at the table in the lounge and noticed no one was around. It was the perfect time to pull out the photo with the paper. The photo was weird for her because it clearly wasn’t one you would find in any newspaper or research paper. In fact, the photo couldn’t be from when she was an intern nor a resident because she looked way too young in it; also, very drunk. Addison flipped the photo in order to read the inscription.

“From Die to Death, thanks for the fun time last night ;]! Love you babe!” “November 13, 1999”

Addison had met Sadie before and didn’t like her that much but this photo...only made her dislike her more. She was a bit confused if it was worded flirty because Meredith and Sadie were something other than just friends or if Sadie was just very flirtatious with everyone. Addison didn’t really care to find out anyway. She removed the stappled photo and put it in her pocket just in case anyone walked in and saw her reading the paper they wouldn’t see a compromised young Meredith.

The paper had outlined a ton of murders by chronological order and the victim’s association with the hospital. Addison was shocked by all the detailed given in this one paper. The part that was truly worrisome was the last part where George starts listing suspects and puts Meredith on number 1. She honestly didn’t know what to do with this information. Luckily, she didn’t have to think about it right now because as she was folding the paper to put it her pocket; Lexie and Meredith alongside Callie enter the attending lounge.

“Hey Addie, the Greys were looking for you and I told them you were in here. You busy?”

“No, I don’t have cases for now” Addison shoved the paper to her coat pocket which definitely didn’t go unnoticed by Meredith “do you all need something?”

“I wanted to talk to you alongside Meredith, can we, please?”

“Sure”

“Alright, I’m going to leave you three alone now.”

“Talk to you later Callie” Addison stood from her chair and towards the Greys while Callie left “how about we go somewhere more private? Follow me.”

Addison, Meredith and Lexie walked into an empty on-call room since it was one of the only places in the hospital with locks and that they had absolute privacy apart from the offices. Addison locked the door and sat on the bed. She signalled to Lexie that she could start talking while Meredith looked at them both confused.

“Mer” Lexie said nervously “I have something to tell you.”

“Yeah? You told me this earlier, you okay?”

“...no. But before I tell you, I need you to promise me you won’t tell Derek.”

“Oh okay Lexie but you are sure, you want Dr. Montgomery here with us then?”

“Yes, Addison helped me realise something earlier and I need her support so please, I know you hate her” this hurt Meredith a bit but she wasn’t going to show it “but please let her stay and please don’t tell Derek”

“Okay Lex, I won’t tell Derek AND Montgomery can stay”

“Whenever you’re ready Lexie” Addison spoke softly “It’s okay if you’re not”

“Thanks Addison but I want to do this.” Lexie looked back at Meredith “I want to tell you what happened between George and me.” Meredith lightly shivered when Lexie said George's name.

“Okay.”

“I...I had a crush on him. I had told him about it but I think it’s not relevant to the events. I got home while he was very drunk and complaining about Izzie, Callie and you. When he started talking about how he...slept with you, I got really uncomfortable and wanted to leave but he-” Lexie started crying as the realisation of what had happened dawned on her “he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down to the couch. Don’t worry I knee’d him before anything else but yeah. That’s what happened in a nutshell.” Adding that last part was definitely an indicator that there was more to the story, but Lexie didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Addison recognized and was proud that Lexie at least had the bravery to say what she said.

In an unforeseen turn of events, instead of saying anything back. Meredith pulled Lexie into an intense hug. Lexie’s resolve broke and she just started crying on Meredith’s neck while hugging her back. Meredith was remembering when she slept with George, but she pushed all those thoughts to the back of her mind because no matter what she was feeling, Lexie comes first. Lexie pushed Meredith away quickly when she heard her beeper go off. She looked behind her scared and was almost visibly shaking. She quickly calmed down when she realised what had happened was that a nurse was paging her to come to the nurses’ station.

“I gotta go” Lexie said wiping her tears “But we’ll talk later”

“Lexie...” Meredith tried to reach out but Lexie pushed her arm away

“Thank you for hearing me out tho” Lexie quickly said as she turned away and walk out in a hurry

Addison and Meredith were left alone in the room. Addison could see Meredith trying to resist whatever it was she was trying to hide. Addison got up from the bed and locked the door. With the sound of the lock Meredith looked at Addison angrily but attending knew that the anger wasn’t directed at her.

“Go into the bathroom” Meredith pleaded quietly

“What? I’m not going into the bathroom; you are not okay.” Addison stuttered

“ADDISON, GO INTO THE BATHROOM; NOW!” Meredith snapped “I don’t want to hurt you accidentally” Meredith whispered

“Fine but don’t do anything you’ll regret”

After that Addison entered the bathroom; with Addison in a secure place Meredith started to break anything and everything in that on-call room as a form to de-stress. It was unfortunately a thing she inherited from Ellis. She normally didn’t indulge in this action (at least not in the hospital) but it was too much too quickly.

When Addison heard everything quiet down, she walked out of the bathroom. She had never seen so much destruction of property done so quickly. She was a bit worried on how they were going to explain it.

“Richard is going to know it was me, don’t worry” Meredith sensed Addison walked out of the bathroom and questioning all the destruction even if Meredith’s hands were on her face making it so she couldn't see the attending “my mother did the same thing. In any case I’ll just pay for the stuff broken.”

“You okay?”

“What do you think?” Meredith retorted “My sister was assaulted Adds.”

“You know I am not asking about Lexie right now”

“What are you implying?” Meredith asked but her voice was muffled

“She told me. About what happened with George and you.”

“She did WHAT?!” Meredith immediately looked up at Addison but while the attending thought the resident was going to be angry at her and/or Lexie, what she saw was that Meredith was starting to panic.

“Little Grey didn’t tell me details, she just said you weren’t in the right headspace. I’m assuming she thought I knew about what had happened since everyone knew you slept with George.”

“It’s nothing.” Meredith turned away from Addison

“So, she was right. He did sexually assault you.”

“He didn’t Addison, drop it.” Meredith warned

“You should have reported him!”

“Addison. Drop. It.”

“NO, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell Derek?!”

“Addison, I am serious, drop it.”

“He should be fired! He took advantage of you! Were you even sober?!”

“DOCTOR MONTGOMERY, I SAID DROP IT!!” Meredith infuriated screamed at Addison so loud that anyone outside the room could hear her

“OH?!?! YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE THAT ATTITUDE DOCTOR GREY?!” Addison purposely replied loudly so people outside would hear

“FUCK OFF!” Addison could hear people outside talking about what is going in there but apparently Meredith couldn’t

“WATCH IT, I AM YOUR SUPERIOR” Addison made gestures so that Meredith understood that people outside could hear and where eavesdropping.

“OH, I’M SORRY, IS THE TRUST FUND BABY MAD WITH ME??” Meredith finally could hear the people outside “Give me a sec”

Meredith unlocked and opened the door just to find nurses and interns eavesdropping. One of the interns even stumbled when the door opened due to them leaning against it. She angrily looked at them but said nothing. Addison noticed this.

“ALL OF YOU GET BACK TO WORK!” Addison demanded

Withing 3 seconds, everyone ran away from them and Meredith slammed the door while locking it after. Meredith still was angry but was conscious of her current state. Unfortunately, being conscious of how she is, doesn’t stop her from shedding tears. As she dropped to the floor due to her legs giving out, Addison ran up and caught her.

“Mer, hey” Addison rubbed the resident’s hair softly, so she knew she was safe “It’s okay, you’re okay. Come on, let’s go to the bed.”

“Adds, please” Meredith whimpered “stay for a bit”

“Don’t worry” Addison put Meredith and herself down on the bed “I’m not leaving. Anyway, if I leave now then I’ll just have a bunch of people calling me Satan while the perfect 12-year-old gets out scotch free.” Addison tried to lighten the mood a bit and it worked as Meredith did laugh but she quickly shut down again.

“I’m not a victim Adds” Addison was intrigued by what would come out of the intern's mouth “He didn’t sexually assault me. I consented. Hell, I even initiated it. He just followed me lead.”

“Answer me this Mer... where you drunk?”

“Yeah, I was. It was a shitty day, and George was saying all the right things. I just needed to feel something.”

“Meredith, was he sober?”

“I think he was. No yeah, he was sober.”

“Then he took advantage of you Mer”

“But I initiated and gave consent so he couldn’t have done that”

“Meredith, you were drunk. He was stone cold sober. He knew the situation. You were vulnerable, he knew that. He purposely entered your room, he purposely said the right things, he led your choices that night.”

“When I cried, he stopped-”

“You cried?!” Addison said alarmed

“Yeah?”

“Mer, that was an extreme indicator that you didn’t want this. What did he do when you cried?”

“He got pissed at me but stopped.” Meredith pondered “Well, he did stop but honestly, I don’t remember how long it took.”

“This is very important that you answer me, did he or did he not finish inside you?”

“Uh, he might’ve. I only remember parts of it.”

“Meredith. He sexually assaulted you.”

“But I-”

“Meredith, if he did exactly what he did to you but to Lexie; what would you tell her happened?” Meredith started thinking about what Addison said. She never thought of it like that but now. She wished she never had to

“Addison, I. I don’t think I’m a whore.”

“Wait what?” Addison wondered what the resident was talking about

“Derek said I was a whore for sleeping around after he saw me with Finn. He thought I had slept with him, which by the way I didn’t but that didn’t matter. He knew about George. Well, he knew I had slept with George. Only Lexie knows how far it got. He told me I was a whore for sleeping with George and Finn but... I don’t think I’m a whore. Well, not in that aspect anyway. George took advantage of me, I... wasn’t a whore that night. Lexie wasn’t a whore either.” Meredith realised

“You two” Addison grabbed Meredith cheek “are not whores and I’m sorry” Addison slowly moved Meredith face so that she could look at the resident in the eyes. Meredith’s piercing blue eyes resalted by the tears that have pooled up.

“Addison...” Meredith closed the distance between the two before quickly reaching for Addison’s pocket and pulling out something “what were you hiding when Lexie, Callie and I entered the attendings’ lounge?”

“Wait Mer that’s not it” Meredith had grabbed the photo and not the list

“The fuck? You went through my panty drawer?” Meredith smirked a bit “If you wanted to get into my panties, you should’ve just said so.”

“That was on your panty drawer?”

“Yeah, but you knew that already. Weird, why did you steal a drunken photo of younger me given by Sadie? Pretty sure there are better photos of me on your phone.”

“Meredith” Addison was absolutely disgusted “that photo of you... was on your panty drawer?”

“Yeah?? That’s where I keep some of my more secret and/or embarrassing stuff.” Meredith was extremely confused at this point “Wait a second, when have you ever been to the house? Has Derek ever invited you over?”

Addison just stared at the resident with a face of disgust and regret. She had already put together the clues, but Meredith was taking a while to figure it out.

“Meredith, I have never been to your house.” Something clicked in Meredith

“Addison, WHO had this photo of me?” Meredith was hoping she would say Derek, God, she hoped it was Derek. When Addison did not answer, that was her confirmation “George went through my panty drawer?!?! THAT LITTLE PRICK!! I’m going to kill him with my bare hands...”

Meredith continued scrambling trying to wrap her hands around the situation (and George’s neck). All the while, Addison just stared at her and wondered what else George could’ve done. Then she remembered the list in her pocket. Addison took the list out of her pocket and unfolded it.

“I swear I will shove a stick so far his ass that-”

“Meredith, stop. You can’t go around saying that to George.”

“Wait, what?” Meredith stops suddenly and turned to face Addison “Why can’t I? It’s not like I’m actually going to do it.”

“I’m not saying it because I think you are just going to brutally kill him right now.” Addison shows Meredith the list “I’m saying it because of this. He has a list of people that have been murdered and how they connect to this hospital.”

“Yeah so? Many conspiracy people also make lists like this to prove that the hospital are scams by the government or something like that. Why is this one different?”

“Look at the names and at the end.” Addison hands the paper to Meredith “Many of these have been patients of ours. He’s trying to prove you are responsible for these murders. Don’t give him another reason.”

“Oh, come on Adds. No one is going to believe him. He’s crazy.”

“If you say so but just think, imagine if something were to happen to him. Wouldn’t that be just be a great sense of karmic justice?” Addison whispered

“God, I love when you talk like that” Meredith pulled Addison down for a kiss before hearing the door banging

“Meredith, are you in there?” Richard called out “The nurses told me you and Addison were shouting.”

“Yeah, we’ll be out in a sec” Meredith expressed “You know Addison, you might have something there.” Meredith winked at the attending before opening the door.”

“Ellis rampage?” Richard nonchalantly asked as he looked at all the destruction in the on-call room

“Ellis rampage”

“I’ll get the janitor for this area” Richard sighed as he walked to the nurses’ station to get a hold of the janitor

“Told ya it wouldn’t be a problem” Meredith said while walking away leaving an Addison quietly chuckling while leaving the on-call room to an opposite direction

To be continued...

Chapter Text

-Flashback-  

“George?” Lexie opens the door using her keys “You here? I picked up food on the way here, wanna eat together?”  

As Lexie walked to the kitchen, she hadn’t heard anything back, so she assumed George wasn’t home. Just as she laid the food down, she heard grumbling from the couch.  

“George?” Lexie accidentally kicked a glass bottle. Red flags started going on in her head. “What are you-”  

“Who’s there?” Lexie could smell the alcohol from a mile away. George looked visibly drunk also.   

“How much did you have to drink?” Lexie questioned but it was clear that George was already far gone. The smell and the tension in that room more than confirmed it.  

“Why? So, you can bitch and moan like any other woman in my life?”   

“George!”  

“Callie was sooooo irritating. She was nice for a while but my god, she didn’t have any substance to her. The only redeeming thing is that mom liked her. Izzie. Sex with her was SO GOOD that one time. Too bad Alex and cancer ruined her for everyone...” Lexie was flabbergasted by George’s current attitude and how he bad mouth everyone “Meredith...”  

Lexie tensed at her sister’s name. She may not have the best relationship with her, but she was still her sister. The last thing she’d want was to hear George degraded her that way.   

“She cried while we were having sex. She’s a whore with everyone except me. She’d sleep with anything that talks; married, single, men, women. She’s incapable of not sleeping around. Well except with me of course. She cried and cried when she was the one who started the sex.”  

“George! That’s my sister!”  

“She’s a whore that lures people and then sucks the life out of them. Literally. I bet all of those dead people were truly happy in their last moments before she killed them. I can only imagine how she licked and sucked on them and let them finish before finishing them off; y’know what I mean.”  

“You know what? You are drunk, you are not making sense, and I don’t feel comfortable here. I’m staying somewhere else tonight.” The calm in her voice clearly a shield to not seem scared when in reality, Lexie was utterly terrified and disgusted with George’s behaviour.  

Lexie turned around to leave when suddenly George grabbed her by the arm and forced her down to the couch.  

“George! What are you doing?!?! LET ME GO!” Lexie tried her hardest to get out of the grip, but George just gripped her harder to the point of almost drawing blood from her wrists due to him digging his nails “YOU’RE HURTING ME! LET GO!”  

George ignored her and started kissing her on the mouth forcefully while grabbing her breast. Lexie was shocked by these actions. She couldn’t recognize her friend in this state. When he started kissing her neck and touched her just above her vaginal opening, Lexie knee’d George in his balls making him scream in pain and fall to the floor. She grabbed her belongings and ran out of the house leaving George behind in pain and drunk.  

-end of flashback-  

“Shit I am late!” Lexie agonized in the parking lot “Where is it? Yang is going to kill me for being late!”  

Lexie was throwing everything around trying to find her pager. Normally she’d know where it was but since that morning everyone in the house did carpool, it was all chaotic and she didn’t have visuals of where her pager was last. She had told Derek and Meredith that she had left something in the car but didn’t want to tell her it was the pager because of the possible lecture attached to it. Due to her flipping the whole car inside out, she hadn’t notice who parked just next to her.  

As George pulls up to the parking lot, he notices that there’s a space next to Meredith’s Jeep Cherokee. He analysed whether if he should park there or not due to someone being in the proximity of the car. On one hand, George didn’t mind encountering Derek because he would be fine, but he didn’t want to be next to Alex because of Alex’s hate for the now resident. As he got closer, he saw long hair and knew it had to be one of the Grey sisters. Months upon months of research into the murders have George feeling unease around the blonde. Sure, he tried to act normal round her, but he knew that if his theory were true, Meredith would be extremely unpredictable. On the other hand, if it was Lexie then George could take that time to talk to her. Upon seeing that it was Lexie in the car and not Meredith, he decided to park next to her.  

“Ugh!” Lexie groans “It’s a tiny black box, IS THAT SO HARD TO FIND?!”  

“Lexie.”  

“Derek, I’ll go to rounds now don’t worry” Lexie wasn’t really aware of who just called her name, but she thought it was a safe bet that it was Derek "I know I’m late”  

There was an audible silence following this. Annoyed and frustrated, Lexie slammed the door of the backseat.  

“What is it-” Lexie grunted before realising “George...” Lexie’s shoulder tensed, and eyes widened  

“Lexie” George whispered, “You’ve been avoiding me since the trauma patient last month.”  

“I got to go inside now” Lexie affirmed. Her eyes dropped as a way to avoid looking at the resident in the eye. “I’m late for rounds” She started to walk away.  

Unexpectantly, George grabbed her just as she started to walk away from the car.  

“George, Let. Me. Go.”  

“You’ve been avoiding me. Why?”  

“It’s none of your business”  

“It is because you’re avoiding ME . How much of my business can it be?”  

“George just let me go, I’m late.” Lexie struggled to get her arm out of George’s grip  

“NO” George exclaimed while gripping her arm even harder and digging his nails into her arm “not until you tell me why you’re avoiding. Is it something Meredith told you? Is that why you're staying with her instead of going home.”  

“George please” Lexie pleaded “don’t do this.” The memory of that night when Lexie found George drunk fresh in her mind.  

Meanwhile just outside the parking lot, Derek and Addison were taking a stroll while he told her about a surgery he was excited about later that day. Taking a stroll while drinking coffee and talking about their respective surgeries was something they used to do a lot in New York and both were glad that even with the divorce, they could still be the other’s person and just enjoy being friends. Just as she sips her coffee, she noticed at the distance in the parking lot, Lexie with George. Due to the cars around them, Addison couldn’t clearly make out what was happening, but something didn't sit right with her. Luckily at that moment, Derek was paged inside the hospital and with a hug he left Addison outside. Just when Derek was out of her line of view, Addison started running to the parking lot. As she closed in on the two, the attending realizes the grip George had on Lexie and Lexie’s tears flowing down her face.   

Before they knew it, Addison had pushed George against Meredith’s car and held him there by the elbow while Lexie quickly stood behind the attending. George was stunned by this action. The tension in the parking lot was intense and now George had to figure out how to get out of this predicament.  

“Dr. Shepherd, I-”  

“How many times do I have to tell you O’Malley? It’s Mont-Go-Me-Ry, NOT Montgomery-Shepherd and NOT Shepherd.” Addison frustratingly stated “What do you THINK you were doing with Little Grey?”  

“We-we were just talking” George smiled as his body betrayed him and showed fear  

“Yeah, and I’m Catherine Deneuve.” Addison scoffed “Don’t you think I can see that Dr. Grey is uncomfortable with your presence?”  

“She’s just upset because of something that happened. I just wanted to clear something it up.”  

“Oh and you thought putting your hands on her was the best idea?”  

“I did not-” George tried to protest but was rightfully interrupted  

“Shut up. Little Grey. Show me your arm, now.” Addison eyed the youngest Grey sibling   

Lexie hesitated so while Addison held her grip on George, the attending turned around with a soft expression so the intern would trust her. When Lexie felt safe, she pulled her arm out so that Addison could see any damage done. It was clear that George almost drew blood on the hand and his grip was so hard that the skin has very red and would likely be bruised later. Addison thanked Lexie for showing her and quickly faced George with an even more intense Satan look than ever since it was also mixed with what can only be described as murdery eyes.  

“I should report your sorry ass. You should be fired from this hospital.” Addison heard Lexie whimpering in the background “Luckily for you, I have bigger things to worry about right now so get away from Grey and go to work. Oh and you will be called to my office later today for personal disciplinary action. Now leave.”  

With Addison’s warning, she let go of her grip and George ran inside while whispering something they couldn’t quiet comprehend. There was a deafening quiet. Lexie’s breathe shaking intensely as she tried to register everything that had happened. Lexie stared at the attending in front of her gripping her own hands shut. Out of the blue, the attending startled her.  

“Lexie” Addison let out a big sigh as she turns towards the intern “Are you okay?”  

“No... but, I will be” Lexie breathes stabilizing as Addison puts her hand on the intern’s shoulder  

“Yeah, I imagined.” Addison looked at her watch “Come on, I’ll walk you inside and excuse you to your resident.”  

The two walked inside trying to process all that just happened. Due to fear, Lexie didn’t even want to go back to look for her pager but also didn’t want to bother Addison with something like that. As they walk in the saw Meredith and Cristina talking by the nurses office. Addison and Lexie could hear Cristina complain about her interns always being late and not very useful while Meredith just laughed. Lexie was trying her hardest not to run away in embarrassment but still not wanted to be left alone.  

“Yang.” Addison spoke “I believe this one is yours.”  

“Dr. Montgomery” Cristina greeted…I guess “Three, were where you?”  

“Oh uh sorry I had to grab something in the car-”   

“Hey Lexie, I was about to find you to tell you I had your pager. Apparently Alex grabbed it in a hurry and couldn’t find you so he gave it to me.” Meredith interrupted   

Lexie couldn’t believe it. She didn’t have to go back to the car. She couldn’t control what she did next and no one could blame her because she was so happy that she hugged Meredith. Everyone was surprised. Lexie didn’t hug a lot but more shocking, Meredith wasn’t one to accept a hug like this one. Yet, she happily took the hug and even reciprocated it. After a while, Lexie realised what she was doing, she quickly let go of Meredith and profusely apologised. Cristina just stared and started to walk away with Lexie following. Addison and Meredith stayed behind in the nurse's station. At this site, everyone around there were looking to see if they could see another fight.  

“Dr. Grey” Addison said “You’re on my service this morning”  

“Your service? I’m on neuro today.”  

“You’re on Dr. Shepherd’s service this evening, you’re with me in the morning”  

“Does Dr. Shepherd know or are you just stealing me of your service because who knows what?”  

“He knows and we discussed it. Also, stop back talking Grey. Just cause your not an intern and are a resident doesn’t mean I am not your superior. Now come with me.”  

Meredith and Addison walked to the attending’s office. It wasn’t a big one like when she was chief of neonatal but it was a reasonably sized one. Meredith suspected this was due to her connections with Richard because she didn’t know why a monthly visiting attending needed one. Addison unlocked the door and let Meredith in. As Addison relocked the door from the inside, Meredith closed the blinds to her office. When that lock made a sound, Meredith pushed Addison to the door and started kissing the attending.  

“Mer” Addison struggled between indulging the resident or getting to her point “Meredith, wait a second”  

“Oh, I’m sorry…” Meredith whimpered while backing away “Is this now what you wanted?”  

“Of course it is. I just need to talk with you first.”  

“Oh, okay.” Meredith saw as Addison sat down in her desk chair and Meredith followed suit by sitting on the desk itself while facing Addison “Did I do something wrong?”  

“No, Mer, no. You haven’t done anything. This is about Lexie.”  

“What about Lexie?” Meredith sounded confused “She was fine this morning, you saw her being grateful for the beeper.”  

“Yeah I know you saw her this morning but so did I, under difference circumstances.”  

“Different circumstances? Adds, what are you talking about?”  

“Mer, Lexie was with George this morning”  

“Lexie…” Meredith nervously stated “was with George this morning.”  

“Yes. I was walking with Derek when in the distance I saw them together in the parking lot.”  

“Lexie was in the parking lot BECAUSE she couldn’t find her pager. That’s why she was glad I had her pager. What did George do to her?”  

“Nothing so bad, I found them just in time for anything worst could happen.”  

“WORSE?!?! YOU JUST TOLD ME NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!”  

“No I said, nothing SO BAD. He gripped her arm and dug his nails into it. He almost drew blood.”  

“Oh he’s dead.”  

“Nope, not yet and you aren’t going to him now.”  

“HE INJURED MY SISTER ADDS!”  

“And I stopped him. That wasn’t done just so you can go all psycho on him. Anyway, I have a better plan.”  

—A bit later and in another place in the hospital—  

“Dr. Hunt…I’m not on trauma today?”  

“Follow me, O’Malley” Owen and George enter an exam room “Lieutenant Lowell, I’m Dr. Hunt. We spoke on the phone.”  

As Owen, Callie and the military soldier talked, George received a pager from Addison indicating that he needed to arrive at Addison’s office as soon as possible. He knew this was coming but he didn’t tell anyone about the disciplinary action just in case Addison was bluffing so he waited until Callie and Owen left the room so he could also leave and go to the attending’s office. Just as he walked out of view of Owen and Callie, he quickly ran to Addison’s office. Being late to a page is bad enough but being late to a page because of disciplinary action AND because it was Addison freaking Montgomery was worst. He stopped just in front of her office and fix himself a bit as to not seem like he’d just run across the hospital.  

“Dr. Shepherd? I MEAN Montgomery?” George whispered as he opened the door “You paged me?”  

George looked around the room but couldn’t find the attending. For a split second he thought that maybe Addison had paged him to the wrong room but that quickly changed when he realised someone grabbed him by his scrubs and pushed him up against the door. When he looked down, he saw Meredith with the same expression as Addison earlier only more visibly furious.  

“I thought you already knew that you SHOULDN’T be near my sister George” Meredith spat “I DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO REQUIRE VERBAL CONFIRMATION”  

“Where’s Dr. Shepherd?” George whimpered  

“IT’S MONTGOMERY. And she stepped out a second, I just needed a minute with you alone, so I paged you to her office.”  

Meredith couldn’t help but smirk a bit at the sight before her. George was terrified and knowing that partially it was due to her made it more worthwhile. Meredith couldn’t help but let her mask slid off a bit just to prove her point.  

“I’ve heard some rumours you’ve told about me. Actually, I’ve heard several. Since they came out of your mouth mind telling me why you seem determined in spreading them?”  

“What are you talking about?”  

“I hate when you act like that, it almost makes me want to…hm never mind” Meredith looked at George to see if he caught her innuendo “just now the next time you even DARE to look at Lexie’s direction, be prepared to find out if the rumours are true. Got it?”  

“Yeah sure” George rapidly agreed  

“Now get out of here”  

George ran out so quickly that if anyone was in the hall and collided with him, they would both be in pain. He didn’t know where to run off to, so he just went into a room hoping it was empty. It was not.  

“Dr. O’Malley. Hiding from someone?”  

“Huh?” George quickly noticed the soldier from earlier alongside Owen “Oh I’m sorry. I thought you all wouldn’t have noticed me.”  

“With how you’d entered here, it seemed like you were hiding from someone.”  

“Plus, you didn’t even notice us at first” Owen added  

“Sorry Dr. Hunt”  

“Captain Mason said you saved his life at least four times in the field.” The soldier return to his previous conversation with Owen  

The soldier and Owen just kept talking while George was processing everything that had happen. Was Meredith capable of doing that or was she just bluffing? George didn’t want to find out so in all his wisdom he was hatching a plane. A plan to leave Grey Sloan Memorial.  

--Meanwhile--  

“Thanks for letting me do that Adds” Meredith sighed in Addison’s arms “I needed to do that. You have no idea how much it helped.”  

“No problem, one question, however. What now?”  

“What do you mean by what now?”  

“Has George been acting off in the last month since I’ve been here?”  

“I mean, depends. I don’t know about this past month since he’s basically glued to Dr. Hunt’s service but for a few months? Yeah but then again, since Callie, he’s basically wary of everything.”  

“Since Callie?”  

“Yeah, come on, you knew they were married.”  

“I’ll be completely honest, I forgot about that. That’s how much I dislike the guy.”  

“I know Adds, you made that perfectly clear” Meredith laughed “but you haven’t told me what do you mean what now.”  

“You just fed George’s paranoia. I can’t help but thinking about what George is going to do now with that fear.”  

“Calm down, George is just…well, paranoid like you said. All he can do is try to say I am a horrible person which he has already done before and Alex told him to stop acting like a beat up dog. I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Meredith puts her hand on Addison cheek “I promise.”  

Just before the two kissed, Derek knocked on the door. Addison and Meredith quickly made the office look like they were using it for completing case files and not for them just hanging out in there.  

“Can I come in or are you in a reunion Addison?”  

“Come in” Derek enters and sees Meredith sitting innocently with several case files on the couch while Addison had her reading glasses and sat on the desk “Hey”  

“Hey” Meredith kissed Derek “Is it time for the surgery?”  

“Unfortunately no” Derek sighed while sitting on the couch alongside his wife “Patient died this morning so no surgery. Honestly, if it were for me, I would honestly go home right now.”  

“Do they know what he died from?” Meredith comforted   

“Complications from an Acute ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction” Derek responded  

“I’m sorry Derek” Addison stood up from the desk, putting her glasses away and reached out to hold his hand “I knew you were excited to do the surgery.”  

“I’m sorry for his family, I know they were trying to get him help.”   

Everyone sat in silent, the septic aroma taking a back seat to the somber environment in that office. Derek let his head fall on his hand while Meredith rubbed Derek’s back as he contemplated what had happened to the patient. Addison gripped his shoulder softly, the least she could do for who she had spent 11 years married.   

 “Alright” Derek stood up after a while and looked softly at his wife “Want to get some food? I need to take my mind of it and I haven’t ate in a while.” He looked ahead to where Addison was “You can also come if you don’t have anything today.”   

“You know what, I am hungry” Addison stood up at the same time as Meredith “Let’s go.”  

The trio left the office as it was and went to the cafeteria. Derek held Meredith’s hand as they walk. He was grateful that Addison and Meredith were not fighting and were actually trying to get along. He remembered how last month, they had a huge fight according to the nurses. He never did ask Meredith what happened because he just imagined that if she wanted to let him know, she would’ve already told him and he didn’t want to intrude on why they fought; tho he was still very curious.  

In front of them, a variety of foods. Half of them not exactly looking so appealing but there were several hidden charms. The smell lingering of freshly cooked meals but also of the sterility of the hospital sneaking its way to the scent. Nevertheless, it was still food and they weren’t exactly going to complain. After all, if they wanted to eat something better, they would cook it (not Meredith since she’s almost banned from the kitchen) or they would buy it somewhere that is not the hospital.  

The trio got their tray and sat down in the cafeteria. Meredith eating faster than the attendings due to her always having to be prepared for a page, even if she’s on Derek’s service today. In contrast, Addison ate across the table from the married couple with the delicacy that a name like Forbes-Montgomery brings. Always posh even in situations where it’s not required. Derek sat there looking at his wife while eating, unaware of Addison also staring at the blonde. With her mouth full, Meredith started a conversation about something medical, but neither would be able to recall what it was about. Addison looked up and saw Owen approaching Derek while George strung along. At this sight, Addison quickly adopted her Satan persona and starred at George.   

“Derek, hey” Owen asked “Can I steal you something for a sec?”  

“Oh, uh” Derek hesitated  

“Don’t worry, it won’t take more than 5 minutes.”  

“Okay, fine.” Derek stood up and looked at Meredith “Don’t throw my food away”  

“Alright I won’t”  

As Owen, George and Derek started to walk away, Addison stopped them.  

“Hunt? Can O’Malley stay here for a second while Derek goes with you? I want to talk to him about something and this might be the best time to do so.”  

“I don’t see why not” Owen shrugged  

“Thanks, I promise you I’ll return him in one piece.”  

“Don’t leave me” George whispered so low that it was impossible for anyone to hear him  

“O’Malley!” Addison ordered “Take a sit.”  

“Okay” George sits down next to Meredith and gets incredibly uneasy “Does Meredith have to be here?”  

“Considering it involves her and her sister, she does”  

“What did I do to her?” George confusingly asked while pointing at her  

“That’s confidential considering they have decided to launch a complaint against you.”  

“Wait, WHAT?! I have NEVER done anything against them in the hospital”  

“You are suspended until I speak with the chief and decide what to do with you. You can’t interact with patients, you cannot be involved in any surgery, you cannot even do scut. Your privileges are revoked, and you are only allowed to do paperwork. Bailey has been informed of this decision and is ordered to not let you do anything as she is the chief resident.”  

“Dr. Shepherd-”  

“It’s Montgomery! What’s your obsession with calling me Shepherd?” Addison frustration was very cleared even if her voice was relatively calm.  

“Dr. Montgomery, you can’t do that! You’re not even a permanent doctor here!” George pissed off to no end. He turned to signal to Meredith “She’s lying to you! She’s lying to everyone! SHE’S DANGEROUS!” George screamed that last part and everyone in the cafeteria turned around to face them.   

“SUSPEND HER! I BET SHE ISN’T EVEN TELLING YOU THE FULL STORY! SHE’S A MURDERER AND A LIAR! WHY ARE YOU SUSPENDING ME FOR SOMETHING I DID AT HOME, TWICE! I ONLY GRABBED LEXIE HERE, NOT MEREDITH!”   

Everyone around them gasped at George’s admission. The silence that echoed in that cafeteria started to fill with murmurs of questioning directed at George’s character. George didn’t even realise what he said until he heard people whispering and looking at him with disgust.   

“Shit-I-I mean-I didn’t mean it like that-”  

“O’Malley, that’s enough! You are suspended until further notice. Inform your attending and pack up your things for the day. I want you out of this hospital in an hour.”  

“But-”  

“Leave.”  

Derek walks back into the cafeteria just as George sprints out of there with his tail between his legs. The murmurs flooded the cafeteria, and Derek couldn’t help but wonder what happened. He saw his ex-wife ahead with a face that he probably wouldn’t recognize if not for their 11 years of marriage. She was angry and frustrated but hid it under a mask of control. As he approached, he paid no attention to what the people were saying and only focusing on the clear tension both Addison and Meredith were suddenly surrounded by.   

“What happened Addie?” Derek reached out for her hand as he sat down. No matter how much the three have gone through, at the end of the day Addison was still one of the most important people in his life and sought to comfort her anyway he can  

“I have to talk to the chief now” Addison sighed as she removes her hand from Derek’s  

“Addison, wait-”  

“It’s okay Derek, thanks for letting me join you both for lunch” Addison walked away  

“I left for 5 minutes Mer, what happened?”  

“George happened”  

-Meanwhile-  

The rumours spread like wildfire. Every nurse, physician assistant, rad tech, er tech, phlebotomist, nurse practitioner and even some physicians were talking about what had happened in the cafeteria. Basically, everyone was tuned into the drama that had happened. On his way to find Hunt, George spots Lexie going into a supply closet. Seeing that no one was around, he hurried up and entered after her. The intern was looking for some supplies Teddy and Cristina had asked for when she turned around to a very disturbed George. Lexie tried to get out not wanting to do anything with George when suddenly George got up to her face.  

“YOU TOLD MERDITH?!?!”  

“I told Meredith what, George?”  

“ABOUT THE DRUNKEN NIGHT AND THIS MORNING! COME ON LEXIE, YOU KNOW!”  

“I don’t know considering I don’t know what you are talking about”  

“YOU FILED A COMPLAINT AGAINST ME, I’M SUSPENDED NOW THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR BITCH OF A SISTER!  

“Okay you know what, NO I DIDN’T launch a complaint, but I AM GLAD IT HAPPENED BECAUSE IF YOU’RE GOING TO ACT LIKE THIS, YOU DESERVE IT O’MALLEY”  

“I COULD LOSE MY LICENSE OVER THIS!”  

“OH PLEASE, Hunt loves you. We both know you’re getting out of this scot-free. He’ll find a way to get you out of this situation.” Lexie scuffed “Now move, Dr. Altman needs these supplies” Lexie pushes George out of the way.  

George is left standing there bewildered. In the distance, he can hear the intercom calling out to doctors and nurses paged alongside the sound of outside chatter. Remaining there as he contemplated what he was going to do now. He left the room seeing as he had no other choice but to tell Owen about the suspension.  

Walking the halls, they murmured of the argument in the cafeteria. People where pointing at him an avoiding being close to him. George had thought nothing could get more embarrassing than the syphilis he got from Alex and Olivia, oh how wrong he was. Finally, he reached Hunt but noticed he was in the patient’s room. Addison had told him not to interact with but then again, what Hunt didn’t know couldn’t hurt him so even though he was scared of what Addison would do. He walked in.  

“Dr. Hunt? Got a minute?” George stood by the door, debating how far he wanted to go against Addison’s orders  

“O’Malley? What are you doing over there? This is your patient too.”  

“About that, can we talk outside for a second?” As George said that he could feel everyone watching and questioning what he was doing. Not wanting to give them more ammo and wanting to control how much Hunt knew, he decided to forgo Addison’s order and went inside the room “You know what actually, how about we talk in this corner.” George closed the door behind him and went to close the binds leading to the hallway  

“Oooooookayyyy?” Owen said as he approached George and away from the lieutenant “What’s going on?”  

“I am required to inform you sir that I am no longer allowed to attend to your patients because I have been suspended from the hospital until further notice. My formal suspension should be given to you in a while by Chief Webber.”  

“The hell? Why are you even suspended?”  

“I am not allowed to disclose that sir” George actually doesn’t know if that’s true, but he didn’t want Hunt’s opinion on him to change so quickly  

“Just go to the military and continue your training there.” The forgotten lieutenant has been eavesdropping on their conversation “You can do that, no?”  

“It’s not like he’s going on the run. It’s probably something to do with his tests.” Hunt turned around to face George “I’ll talk to the chief and get this all figured out. Now go get your stuff and leave.  

As he left the room, he was already determined to escape. Meredith’s threat was too real now and the fact that he once again confronted Lexie behind Meredith’s back probably wasn’t the best idea. In the locker room, he hurried to get all his things. He realised if he was going to escape in the military, he couldn’t leave the file with all his evidence against Meredith on his home which Lexie still co-owned even if she wasn’t living there right now. Seeing no other choice, he decides to leave the files in an office nearby and currently in use because he knew that if it was in use, it probably wouldn’t be found. Ironically, the office that perfectly describe this was Derek’s office.  

After he hide the file, he ran away from the hospital and went to the army recruitment centre. He ignored any incoming calls and texts from Izzie. As he enlisted, there was a calm sense of relief. Despite the overly intense environment associated with a United States Army Recruitment centre, for the first time since the murders happen, he felt liberated to not be watching everything occurring over his shoulders and on his back. The quiet of the town was noticeable as he left the recruitment centre. The car sounds muffled under the bird singing and the light rain that is almost always present. He began to walk the street-  

George’s POV  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

“Whoa”  

“Man vs bus. The bus won. Check out the left arm.”  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

“Nice work, Dr. Grey. I'm gonna go get some bacitracin for that face.”  

...  

...  

What’s going on?  

“All right. Let's get his head rotated. Easy. Watch ... watch his neck.”  

“Welcome back, sir. You had us worried there for a minute.”  

Meredith? What’s going on? Do they not know it’s me?  

“What did you do to O'Malley?” Owen voice could be heard in the distance  

“Excuse me?” Addison responded  

“Somebody else around here likely to put forth charges against O’Malley? We all know you hate him anyway.”  

“You’d think just because I dislike a resident, I would jeopardize their position.”  

“I don’t know Addison; didn’t you do that to Derek and Meredith?”  

Stop please  

...  

...  

...  

“V-fib. charge the paddles to 360.” Meredith ran code  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

“I know it was your idea. No change. Charge again. Clear. I did what I could to give him a decent education in trauma and you decided to throw that away.”  

“He keeps coding.” Meredith interrupted Owen and Addison’s argument  

“Here's why ... open-book pelvic fracture. There's too much bleeding. We take him to an o. r. now, he'll die on the table. He needs to go to angio if we're gonna stop the pelvic arterial bleeding. sinus tach. We have a rhythm. It's barely there, but it's there.” Callie intercepted  

Callie? CALLIE! WHAT IS HAPPENING??  

“Sir, I know it's tough, But I'd personally be very grateful If you'd try and stay alive for the next few minutes.” Meredith grabbed his hand  

Okay.  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

“How’s his ICP?”  

“Lower than we were expecting.” Owen sighed “I thought you were getting married?”  

“We did”  

Derek and Meredith got married?  

“Congratulations, you sure you want to spend your honeymoon in the OR?”  

“We’re sure!”  

Derek and Owen left the room, leaving only Meredith in the room. George can see her picking up his chart and checking his vitals. The hallway silent as it echoes the emptiness of it in favour of suspense. George took his chance and tried to move around in order to get Meredith’s attention. This might be his chance to make it know who he was.  

“Sir, I need you to lay still.”  

Mer, Mer it’s me  

George grabs Meredith’s arm and started writing on it with his fingers. His movement desperately emphasising his need to make it know that he was alive and well.  

“Double O 7?”  

George gripped her arm as an indication that she was right. His eyes gleamed with the thought of getting out of this nightmare.  

“George? Are you trying to tell me your George?”  

Meredith stared blankly at George. Her stare uncomforted George. He hadn’t expected Meredith to react with anything other than shock or horror.  

“I already know it’s you”  

What?  

“Now please, let me finish the chart before you crash, and I have to run off and tell everyone you’re you.”  

What do you mean when I crash?? WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS IT’S ME?!?!  

“George please, stop thinking. Your wheeze is annoying.”  

I gotta alert someone, she’s crazy. I gotta get out of here!   

George managed to lift himself a bit before Meredith pushed him down. George’s eyes widened as Meredith’s cold eyes starred at him.   

“Dammit, I was hoping you were worse off by the bus. Too bad Adds didn’t push you harder.”  

George raspy gasp was evident, but Meredith didn’t pay much attention to it.  

“Okay, where’s that needle?”  

George squirms as Meredith gets closer with a needle. He tried screaming for help but no one was nearby, and he couldn’t really scream, just whimper.   

“Stop it, George” Meredith pushes him down “You know, we wouldn’t have to do this if you would’ve just stayed the hell away from Lexie when I told you. I don’t even care that you assaulted me, that you went through my private stuff in my underwear drawer or that you deprived me of my personal privacy. You don’t get to do that shit to Lexie. Alex and Addison are right about you, you know? You really are a sorry ass. Just a beat-up dog that takes pleasure in beating those he deems lower. Don’t worry, I’m not telling anyone about how you decided to run off to the other side of town and enlist in the army only to get pushed into a bus path. You’ll be hailed as a hero for some but in these last moments know that your nothing more than pathetic.”  

Meredith takes the tip of the needle and injected too deep into the dura. As George slips away, he sees Meredith smiling at him as how he succumbs to his injuries. The cold in the air surrounding him as his body starts to fail. Meredith’s face not bringing comfort as her eyes radiate more coldness. As he finally slips, he hears how Meredith gasped and ran out of the room.  

“It's George! It's George! It's George! John Doe is George!”