The Starting Line

Chapter 3

Eleanora was sitting on a bench in the resident lounge, her worried eyes on Meredith as she shoved a bag of dust into her cubby. Cristina is directly behind Eleanora, all the other residents staring at the strange scene before them.

"What exactly are we looking at?" Cristina interrupts. Izzie answers for Meredith, her voice a little displeased.

"Meredith put her mom in a bag and brought her to the hospital."

Eleanora gasped; her voice high-pitched. "Meredith, you didn't!?"

Meredith snorted, turning to look at her fellow residents. Her eyes were slightly narrowed and her tone was sharp. "I had to get her out of my closet. She was haunting me."

"And now she's haunting us as well." Alex complained, Eleanora shook her head at her friend.

"Mer, really? I feel like this is somehow illegal."

"I'm putting her to rest!" Meredith argued, grabbing her lab coat to put it on.

Sydney Heron spoke, her voice filled with understanding. "Meredith cleanses herself. In tribal culture, when one wants to cleanse the past, she cuts off all her hair and burys it in the ground. You could try that too."

Cristina and Eleanora slowly turn to look at the woman, raising their eyebrows. Sydney gave them a smile, but before Cristina could say anything rude or forceful, Callie and Bailey entered.

"Okay, listen up. Today is a holiday, which means the ER will be busy." Eleanora stood up from the bench, making a happy noise. She loved Halloween and, above all, she loved what Halloween brought to the ER.

"We'll have the usual drunken stupidity-"

"And then you have the annual Seattle Pumpkin Carving Contest. I love this city." Bailey interrupts, her voice matching Eleanora's enthusiasm.

Eleanora grabbed her stethoscope and pager, preparing to leave as soon as Callie finished. She wanted to finish the rounds completely before the ER became chaotic, which meant she had to be quick.

Callie gave a small laugh at Bailey's excitement, focusing back on her residents. "Stay alert, and I want you to keep an eye on your interns, okay?"

Izzie raised her hand to get her Chief Resident's attention. "So, we should do rounds before we head to the ER or..."

Callie scoffed, raising her hand to point at Izzie. "You should direct your questions to Dr. Bailey, Stevens."

Eleanora tilted her head in concern, her voice showing it too. "Why are we directing our questions to Dr. Bailey? Oh, you have a big surgery?"

Callie shook her head, giving Eleanora a tight smile. "Oh, not you. Just Stevens."

Eleanora's face fell, her eyes widening slightly. George hadn't talked to her much about whether he had continued seeing Izzie, probably because he knew she would be disappointed. But if Callie was acting like this with Izzie, plus the other day with the almost fight...

"Why is Stevens directing her questions to Dr. Bailey?" Bailey asked, looking between Callie and Izzie as if they had an inside joke that she wanted in on.

"Because she slept with my husband." Eleanora closes her eyes tightly, the room becoming silent and tense. "Very well then. Have a good day."

Callie quickly leaves, and after a few moments, Izzie storms out. Eleanora opens her eyes to look at Cristina and Meredith, both faces full of surprise.

Cristina finally made a noise, pointing at Meredith. "Okay, this is even more disturbing than your bag full of mommy."

Eleanora sighed, shaking her head as she left. She stopped right next to Meredith's cubby and looked at Ellis Grey's little bag of ashes, feeling a shiver run down her spine as she hurried to get out there.