iLove

Chapter 11

"So who gave you the coffee Mer?" George asked in the locker room.

"Dr. Shepherd did." Izzy giggled before Meredith could think up a proper response, she glared at Izzy.

"No, really." George laughed "Who did?"

"Shepherd really did George." Izzy teased "If I didn't see it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it myself."

"Seriously." George looked baffled.

"Looks like your online boyfriend has some competition."

"Don't be absurd." Meredith muttered "I'm not dating either of them, and I have no idea why Shepherd even brought me the coffee, I'm as dumbfounded as you are."

"Maybe he was thanking you for calling him an asshole." George said.

"Maybe." she shrugged "I have no clue."

"Well there's got to be some reason." Izzy speculated.

"Maybe they just screwed up his coffee at the coffee cart, and he needed someone to pawn the crappy one off to."

"Or maybe Shepherd has the hots for you and wants to give you a hot wet drink in order to get you to return the feeling." George teased.

"You're sick." Meredith hissed. George and Izzy burst into laughter and the doors burst open.

"Which one of y'all nimrods did my morning pre-rounds this morning?" Bailey called out. Izzy and Meredith reluctantly raised their hands, "Nicely done, I need an intern in my OR this afternoon...Grey?"

"Um, Dr. Bailey." Meredith gulped "I'd love to but Izzy was the one who had the idea, I was just here to help her."

"Giving up your first OR opportunity to your fellow intern? How polite." she glared "Stupid! But polite... Stevens I'll see you at two, everyone else come with me."

"Overachieving bitches." George grumbled as everyone filed out of the locker room.

Meredith giggled a little and followed everyone out of the room. Bailey led them down the stairs and into the ER, down the hall and the four of them filed into the trauma bay where Dr. Shepherd sat at the head of a patient laying on the bed in a neck brace and waving his hands in front of his face.

"I can't see." he mumbled to himself.

"What happened?" George stuttered.

"Guy fell down two flights of stairs holding a nail gun, took nine into his head." a nurse filled their awe stuck minds in.

"And he's alive!" Christina gasped.

"And a human two-by-four." George mumbled sarcastically.

"Is that your professional assessment Dr. O'Malley!" Derek snapped, his face turning stone cold.

"Uh, no sir. Sorry sir." George stuttered.

"What should be our next course of action, what would you suggest?"

"A CT."

"CT is down." Bailey mumbled.

"MRI then." George nodded.

"Brilliant!" Derek yelled "His head is full of metal let's put him in a giant magnet!" George shifted a little uncomfortably and Derek glanced over and caught Meredith's wide eyes, she subtly shook her head and made a 'tone it down' hand gesture, Derek cleared his throat and calmed himself "I mean um.. Dr. O'Malley, that wouldn't be the best idea, have you another suggestion?"

"Umm." George frowned "X-ray."

"That will do for now, until CT gets up and running again."

"Let's get him to X-ray then." Bailey mumbled, "O'Malley."

"Right." George nodded.

George followed the nurses out of the room as they wheeled the patient towards radiology, Bailey walked out of the room and Christina and Izzy followed her, Meredith was the last out of the room but felt a tug on her arm and turned to see Derek there with wide, anxious eyes.

"How was that, was it ok?"

"I guess," she sighed

"It wasn't?"

"You can't bite everyone's head off because they get an answer wrong." she said "And you can't be too nice, we're not kids. We can handle the truth, but you don't have to hit us over the head with it."

"Right, ok." he nodded.

"But your recovery was nice," she said with a hint of smile "It was human."

"Human." he nodded. He started to smile then caught something out of the corner of his eye and his deep anger lines in his face returned. "Dr. Grey! If you think for one second, actually if you HAD thought for one second about that then you would see that the answer is so blatantly obvious! If you expect to make it through this program even trailing in at last place you better start opening your eyes and looking at what's in front of you!"

Meredith stared at him in shock after his angry outburst, part of her wanting to cower into the crack in the door, wondering how he could possibly be a living breathing Jekyll and Hyde but then she heard a soft sigh of satisfaction and realized exactly why he'd just laid into her for no reason.

"Keeping our interns on their toes?" she asked

"Too many of them need it Dr. Grey." Derek muttered "I don't know where they got them all this year but something has to be done about our screening process!"

"I agree," she smirked "This one I think is just too much like her father, there's only so much you can teach them."

"Excuse me." Meredith mumbled.

"Go do something useful." Ellis scoffed before prancing off. "Well done Dr. Shepherd."

Meredith just shook her head in disbelief as she watched Ellis's back disappear down the hallway and turned her eyes on Derek who was waiting for a clear coast as well.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "You have no idea."

"You're right." she hissed "I don't!"

"Meredith, please." he begged "Don't be mad at me, I know what it's like. And if it's any consolation, I didn't mean any of it."

"But you've been saying that kind of shit since the first day."

"I know.." he sighed "but it was only because I saw all your potential. And I'm afraid of you, and like I said, I don't know how to act around you."

"Yet you know how to act around my mother?" she frowned.

"Um.. Well.. Yes." he sighed "And thanks for your help in there too by the way."

"Huh." she creased her brow in thought. "You know maybe we could use pointers from each other."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." she pressed her lips together and stared at him "I mean that you need help knowing how to teach without becoming your father."

"Yeah."

"Well I need help understanding my mother, or more importantly knowing how to actually impress her."

"I don't know Meredith." he shook his head

"Just give me some pointers."

Derek's eyes tightened as he reviewed it mentally and then let out a defeated sigh "Alright."

"Really?" she gasped in surprise.

"Meet me on the seventh floor at lunch time."

"But the seventh floor is closed for construction."

"Well," he said almost smiling "Do you want your mother catching us?"

"No." she frowned.

"Then I'll meet you on the seventh floor at lunch." he said with a flash of a crooked smile before jogging off.

"Ok," she said feeling a small twitch of her lips "See ya."

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