Where You Belong

23

"Blond ambition tour!" Cristina yelled for the second time, motioning angrily towards her clueless boyfriend as his nonchalant attitude clashed with her competitive nature. "Vogue!" She exclaimed when Burke's face did not light up with recognition. "She's blond...and ambitious with the tour and the vogue-ing and the-" She cut herself off when his attention began to waver from her as their onlookers laughed. "Look at me." She demanded before continuing. "Cones, cones, blond ambition boob cones...and...and...Sean Penn!"

"And that's time," George called with a laugh, causing Cristina to collapse onto her seat, her head held in her hands in shame. Cristina Yang was not used to losing. "That would be zero points for Madonna."

"Oh," Burke said. "Madonna, right."

Cristina made an in-descript noise, her face still hidden behind her hands.

Meredith laughed along with everyone else as she leaned against Derek, savouring the closeness of their position on the large stuffed chair in Cristina and Burke's living room. She had been apprehensive when Derek had come to her the day before and told her Burke had invited them to a games night. But she couldn't say she wasn't having fun.

George and Callie definitely seemed to be on the same wavelength about so many things related to successful games night strategy. But she and Derek were holding their own. And Cristina and Burke...not so much. Cristina's hypercompetitive nature was preventing her from having any fun as she and Burke consistently scored the fewest points round after round after round.

"Okay," George was mumbling as he glanced downward at the pad of paper in his hands. "After a quick tally, Callie and I are in the lead...as expected," he added with a triumphant smirk. "Mer and Shepherd are in second. And then way down in the point category...we have Preston and Cristina...in last."

"Shut up," Cristina grumbled, finally lifting her head. "Just...shut up."

"Hey, Cris," Meredith prompted, "Tell me, what's another term for last?" Derek broke into another round of laughter beside her and it was all she could do not to join him.

Her best friend glared at her. "You shut up too."

"I think the word you're looking for is losing," George supplied, not missing a beat.

"I don't lose," Cristina said quickly.

Meredith raised an eyebrow. "Really? Cause it looks like you are right now..."

"Well...games night is stupid. This whole thing is stupid. It doesn't count."

"Count towards what?"

Cristina glared at her again. "Life. It doesn't count towards life. I was first in my class at Berkeley; that counts towards life. I will beat all of you in our intern exam in three months; that will count. Games night? That doesn't count."

Meredith rolled her eyes. Games night may not count towards the tally where your success can be calculated by education achieved, career choices and performance ratings; the tally her best friend values above all others. But games night counted towards life; at least in her eyes. Meredith had never gone to a games night before. Meredith had never even gone out with Derek to be with other people before. She and Derek barely got any time to go out just the two of them. So, games night meant something to her, because it didn't count towards the big scorecard; it meant she was doing something fun, and extra and new. And she was having fun. She and Derek were having fun together. And that was pretty cool.

"Okay..." Preston said carefully, eyeing his stewing girlfriend. "Why don't we move on to something else?"

000

George didn't know how these things happened to him. He was a good person. He was nice to everyone. He did well in school, and he never had a bad thing to say about anyone. And yet...somehow George was stuck working with his roommate's - and one of his best friend's who he'd recently had a crush on - boyfriend's ex-wife on a patient that apparently was said roommate's half sister. And George was certain that Meredith knew nothing about this half-sister, and the soon-to-be half-niece. Or the stepmother. George didn't even know if Meredith knew her father still lived in Seattle. Early in their residency, he, Meredith and Izzy had been eating dinner together on one of the first nights they had lived together, and family had come up. He had grown up with happy parents and two, annoying, older brothers. Izzy had only ever known her mother. Meredith had been an only child, and her parents had divorced when she was five. She had never seen her father again. That was it. Meredith had never mentioned any more.