After Afterall

22

I'm walking down the hallway towards the kitchen the next morning, hungover to high heaven, when I hear Cristina ask from the kitchen, "You get any sleep last night?"

"Oh, jealous?" Alex asks.

"I'm not jealous."

"Well, I am. But at least I know she'll be having a long day," Alex says with a laugh.

I'm too hungover to go a minute more without coffee, so I trudge into the kitchen. "Hi. Good morning."

"Hey, so it sounds like you were having some pretty radical sex last night, all night long."

Callie walks into the kitchen looking refreshed. "Morning," she says brightly. She's followed closely by Arizona, who also looks well-rested.

"Who was having sex?" Arizona asks.

"Meredith and Derek. Very loudly," Alex adds.

"Do tell," Callie says.

I grab a coffee mug from the cabinet. "Nothing to tell."

"That says it all, huh?" Arizona says with a wink.

Alex slides up next to me and gets the first cup of coffee. "Embrace it. Share it," he says with a grin.

Derek walks into the kitchen looking not nearly as bad as I feel. He stops abruptly when he sees the five of us pouring out cups of coffee. "Morning," he says and walks over to grab his own cup. "Well this is cozy."

"Wait, how didn't you hear them?" Cristina asks.

"Hear who?" Derek asks. Alex is the first to give Derek a look and realization floods his face. "Oh. Got it."

"Please for the love of god give me coffee," I beg.

Cristina fills up my cup. "If I had known your sexual escapades sounded like that, I would've gone home to my own bed in my quiet apartment."

"Oh yes, and endured the silent fight with Owen all night? Not likely."

Cristina says nothing.

"You're cranky," Alex says.

"Piss off."

"Okay kids, let's not fight," Callie chimes in. She looks at Derek as if he might be offended by Alex and me squabbling.

"We should probably get going," Arizona says. "I have a surgery in an hour."

"Me, too," says Alex.

Cristina takes a sip of coffee and then says, "I have no surgeries this morning, but maybe someone is having a heart attack right now. That would be good."

Derek raises an eyebrow.

"Don't ask," I tell him.

I walk my friends to the door and say quick goodbyes since I'll see them in a couple of hours. I head back towards the kitchen and meet Derek in the middle. He's already dressed for the day and his hair is still damp from his shower. I'm pretty sure I look like a pile of hot trash.

"So they spent the night?" Derek asks.

I try to think back to last night and when I told him my friends were going to sleep over, but I can't find the conversation. I can't even remember saying goodnight to them all. "They were all too drunk to drive."

Derek nods. "Okay."

"Why does that 'okay' sound like I did something wrong?"

"Well this house isn't really equipped for you to have houseguests."