Hiding in the Shadows

14. Scut and Visitors

"Glad to have you back Grey. Now, in honor of you coming back, you get to be on scut." Bailey informed her.

"What? Why? I just had a week off which sucked...like majorly sucked...please Dr. Bailey don't stick me on labs and paperwork." Meredith pleaded.

"What part of scut don't you understand? Were you this whiny before the concussion?" Bailey asked.

"Yes, but I just whined in my head." Meredith muttered.

"Well start doing that again before you give me a headache." Bailey ordered. "You could always go home."

"No. Scut is good." Meredith said quickly. Home sucked worse than scut...at home there is laundry and cleaning and...ugh! Horrible shit.

"It could be worse Mer, you could have to be on Shepherd's service." Alex joked.

"That will not be an issue any longer." Bailey announced. All five interns came to attention.

"Why? Did he quit?" Izzie asked.

"Move?" George asked.

"Get fired?" Cristina asked.

"Got ran over by an ambulance and died?" Alex asked.

"No. How did you five get through medical school?" Bailey asked, irritated. "In light of certain events, Dr. Grey will not be working with Dr. Shepherd for the remainder of her internship. Let's just leave it at that." Her tone brooking no room for argument.

Meredith looked at Bailey shocked. He didn't want to work with her. She had not had any contact with him since that very odd visit to her house. Had she offended him somehow?

"Bailey. Why? I mean I am very interested in Neuro.'

"And you can still do Neuro rotations but under Dr. Weller. Now that is the last I want to hear of it, now everyone get to work...Now." Bailey left and they all scattered.

Meredith walked slowly to the elevator. She wouldn't let him do this to her...it was not going to happen. She was going to go to his office and speak her mind...if it was the last thing she did, and knowing his temper...it very well might be.

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Beep Beep Beep

Derek looked down at his pager and furrowed his brow in confusion.

Visitor 3rd Floor Nurses Station

Visitor? For him? There was no one in Seattle who was going to visit him. He didn't have friends...well, he used to but he knew how that turned out. With his friend sticking it to his wife...literally.

He strode up to the Nurses' Station.

"I have a visitor?" He asked Liz disbelievingly.

"Yes I know, that was my reaction to. I personally thought you were raised by wolves but apparently that is not the case." She commented dryly.

"Well who is it?"

"Do I look like your social secretary?" She said.

"Okay, the sarcasm? Stops now. You are just a nurse. You don't get to talk to me like that. You need to learn your place." He hissed.

"Derek Christopher Shepherd! I did not raise you to speak to anyone like that. And if you remember, I was a nurse for 25 years which put food on the table that you had no problems eating when you were growing up."

Derek closed his eyes and turned around slowly, blinking spastically, hoping that this was an apparition, a hallucination, a tumor for Christ's sake...anything but his mother who was glaring at him with disapproval. He decided to turn on the charm.

"Ma! Good to see you." He said weakly, trying to smile. It came off as a grimace which his mother noticed.

"Don't Ma me, Derek. You apologize to this nice nurse right now." Carolyn Shepherd demanded.

'Ma..." He whined. He was 40 years old, his mother shouldn't be able to tell him what to do.

"Derek..." She said warningly.

"Sorry." He muttered to Liz, who wasn't even trying to hide her glee at him being taken down a few notches.

"Good boy. Now, let me look at you." She frowned. "You look like hell. Your hair is too long, you have bags under your eyes, your frown line is more prominent..." Liz snorted in the background. He shot her a withering look.

"My hair is still great." He joked weakly.

"I am hungry so lets go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. I had to take the red eye and they only served peanuts on the plane." She looked at him expectantly.

Derek groaned inwardly. Outwardly he smiled and led his mother to the cafeteria, dreading what was to come.