Grey's Anatomy One Shots

Worth the Wait

There was an overwhelming sense of pride that Cormac Hayes had felt as Meredith walked out of her first surgery post-covid. He was especially glad that she hadn't caught wind of this clap out and escaped as she had done last time. She deserved this. Watching as both Bailey and Teddy pulled her in for a hug, Cormac had to resist the urge to push through the crowd and scope her into his own arms.

He'd struggled to take his eyes off Meredith during the wedding. She was gorgeous and he had been gutted that he hadn't had the chance to talk to her before she'd had to leave for the hospital. Seeing her now though, in her navy scrubs and purple scrub cap, eyes lit up and cheeks flushed, Cormac had never seen her look more beautiful.

The staff had begun to go up to Meredith, congratulating her one by one before slowly dispersing from around the nurses' station. Cormac hung back, waiting until he was the only one left with Meredith. He didn't want anyone else to overhear his conversation. The walls have ears was a saying that was built for Grey-Sloan.

Meredith hugged the only other doctor left, who just happened to be Richard and watched him walk away before her eyes landed on Cormac. The corners of her eyes creased even more, and Cormac has a knack of being able to get a reaction out of her.

"Love showing us all up, don't you, Grey?"

"I've been out of surgery for a year, how is that showing anyone up?" She knew that he was teasing her, Cormac knew how to get a reaction out of her.

"Your very first surgery back is a lung transplant. Can't just ease into it, can you?" Cormac walked closer to Meredith, hands in his trouser pockets. "Told you that you'd be back on that surgical board again."

Meredith just rolled her eyes at him, "This is the only time I'm going to say that you're right."

The comment made Cormac chuckle, "I'm sure there'll be more occasions when we're in the OR together."

The thought of being opposite an OR table with Hayes again set off a feeling in Meredith she had not been expecting. She hadn't realised how much she had missed operating with the Irishman. Whilst they'd still shared stories when they'd go to each other's offices with some whiskey, it just wasn't quite the same feeling as when they were operating. There was something electric about those moments.

"Thank you," Meredith's voice dropped to a whisper. "For making me fight to wake up. For believing in me."

Slightly bashful, Cormac looked down at his shoes. Opening up and being more vulnerable to anyone wasn't something that he'd been used to. Abigail had been his closest confidant and when she had passed, Cormac hadn't bothered to open up to anyone else. The defence mechanism had been in place for the day she had died until the day he had met Meredith.

Without realising he had found himself opening up to her about his life, his kids and his wife. The one thing he wasn't able to be quite vulnerable about though were his feelings for her. The pandemic had turned everything on itd head and had made so many people re-evaluate aspects of their life and Cormac had been no exception to that. For so long he had denied whatever feeling might have been brewing for Meredith Grey. He would tell himself that they were just friends, that he was just glad to have someone that understood what he had gone through. To have a friendly face in Seattle.

Finding her in the parking lot though, the weeks of not knowing whether she would survive, had put everything into perspective for him. The fear of losing her was far greater than he would have felt for a friend. Cormac had found himself walking past her room any chance he got, listening into conversation about her health between her doctors and praying that he would not lose yet another person. Praying that he would have a chance to tell Meredith how he felt.

Cormac had ended up chickening out though. Not sure that Meredith even felt that way about him. There had been ample opportunity to talk to her about it, multiple office whiskey sessions, lunches together and he had even gone to her house to drop of a few things when she had still been off from work. On top of his worry though, Cormac also knew that Meredith needed time to recuperate and heal after everything she had been through.

"If I'm being honest with you Grey, my belief in you getting back to surgery was for more selfish reasons."

Arching an eyebrow, Meredith's curiosity had suddenly piqued. "Do I get to know what the reasons are?" She pushed when she realised that Cormac wasn't going to offer up the information freely.

"Ah," Cormac ran a hand over his head, rocking back on his heels. "Bloody hell this is more difficult that I thought it would be."

Realising that Cormac wasn't teasing anymore, Meredith stayed quiet giving him the time and the chance to get whatever it was off his chest.

"I like you, Grey." He blurted it out suddenly, worrying that he would lose his bottle if he didn't just say it. With that admission out of the way, the knot of anxiety in his stomach began to ease and he found his words flowing more easily.

"More than just a friend. I like you in a way that I hadn't thought was possible after Abigail. And I don't know when it happened, but I know that I can't just stay quiet about it because not telling you, not being with you, it's driving me insane. I knew that you would get back to surgery and I promised myself that I would wait until you did before I said anything."

Cormac took a deep breath, "Surgery is a part of who you are, and I wanted you to feel like yourself again when I told you that I wanted to take you on a date. I didn't want anything to be in the way. And I knew you would operate again because I know you well enough to know that you weren't going to let this virus take surgery away from you. So, Meredith, will you please go on a date with me?"

A wider grin could not have been placed on Meredith's face. She couldn't quite believe that he had waited all this time to ask her out. He had waited for her to step foot into an OR again when she hadn't been sure it would ever be a possibility again. This man had more faith in her that she had in herself. And she had been waiting. Waiting to see if he would ask her out. There had been days where she had wanted to walk up to him and ask him herself but Mer knew that the ball had to be in his court. That, if he felt the same way about her, he had to be ready to take that step without feeling pressured into it.

"You really waited for a year to ask me on a date?"

"You're worth it, Grey. Even if it took you another two years to get into the OR, I would wait."

"I promise you aren't going to have to wait that long. I would love to go on a date with you, Cormac Hayes."

Feeling as though he was on cloud nine, Cormac wrapped his arms around Meredith waist. She reached up, clasping her hands around his neck, inhaling the scent that she had grown so used to when she walked into his office. The two of them were completely unaware that all of their friends were watching them, with grins as large as theirs.