what i'm here for

Chapter 23: Everyday life

Meredith found she couldn't effectively wipe the happy grin from her face for more than a few minutes at a time. So far her record was somewhere around eight minutes. She would force the happiness from her mind, focus on work, attempt to be an adequate role model for her interns... but then something would happen. Something would remind her of Derek and the happy smile would flutter back onto her face uninvited. She couldn't help it. She, Meredith Grey, was happy. She and Derek had spent the entire previous day together, just happy to be spending time with each other, no schedule to follow. It was nice. They had gone for a walk through the city, and walked along the boardwalk hand in hand. She smiled at the thought.

She sighed as her interns gave her another questioning glance. Only her second shift with interns and she was sure she was already being labelled the crazy resident. Good for her. Her mother would be so proud. Forcing a more neutral expression to her face, she inwardly chastised herself. She needed to be making a better impression on the four individuals she now silently referred to as thing one, thing two, thing three and... George. Because George didn't deserve to be a thing, he was George, and as sorry as she was that he had to repeat his internship, she was glad he was assigned to her. She could honestly say she had the best intern.

"Dr. Myers, can you present?" She prompted her intern. He looked worried and kept sending nervous glances towards Dr. Riley, the upper year cardio resident who was standing, arms crossed menacingly on the other side of the patient. Dr. Riley was practically glowering at her and her interns, his dislike for teaching and hostility towards interns displayed openly. He was almost like Mark in that respect, although Meredith found Mark rather human in comparison to this man. Mark was selfish, Dr. Riley was cold.

"Uh, Dave Alders, post-op day two from a double bypass surgery on Monday-" Dr. Myers' shaky voice was cut off.

"You don't need to say Monday if you just said two." The arrogant surgeon reprimanded as if it were some horrible faux pas, and not a simple repetition. "You're wasting our time."

Dr. Myers gulped, his fellow interns seeming to draw away from him as he tried to regain his bearings. "I'm so sorry, Dr. Riley. I'll try not to-" But he was cut off once again.

"Still wasting my time. If you want to be a surgeon you need to learn to be efficient or you need to go home right now. You're wasting the time of a hospital full of doctors who have better things to do than-"

"Dr. Riley," Meredith heard herself cut in as she suddenly remembered she was in charge of Dr. Myers. "Might I remind you that Seattle Grace is a teaching hospital and it's only Dr. Myers' second day. He's doing fine."

Dr. Riley stared at her in shock, his dark eyes narrowing as she glared right back, refusing to back down. "I don't need some punk second year resident talking to me like that." He spat. "I won't be requiring any help today, Grey." And with that he was striding out of the room.

Meredith rolled her eyes at his behaviour as she turned to face her interns. George was staring at her with something resembling surprise and maybe a little admiration. Thing one through three just looked shocked. Dr. Myers especially looked a little pale. She wasn't about to be nice to her interns, George excluded of course, but she also wasn't about to let some other cocky surgeon yell at them just because he had obviously woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

She turned her attention to Dr. Myers. "Don't let him get to you. Riley is an ass, it's been well established. You were doing fine, it was him that was wasting our time." She turned her attention back to the group. "Lets go, we'll find something else to work on."

As he interns shuffled out the door, she returned the chart to its hook on the foot of the bed and smiled at the patient. "Everything is looking good, Mr. Alders."