Strangers in the night

16

Derek hadn't actually though about this part of his day. He had been so busy getting settled in the last few weeks that lunches had consisted of sitting alone in his office and working through paperwork and other things and hadn't even thought of going to the cafeteria. Except now he had nothing to do during his lunch break and his office had just felt empty. He just didn't know where to sit.

There seemed to be some sort of weird clique system to the cafeteria during lunch time, and he suddenly felt transported back to high school. The band geek looking for somewhere to sit, and finding no friendly faces. There was an empty table towards the back, but he felt as if he had moved past this. He wasn't the band geek anymore, he was Dr. Derek Shepherd, the new hotshot attending.

Sitting alone at a table in the back just seemed wrong. That had been highschool him and he was past this, he was beyond this. Even if he was the new guy here, he wan't the dork anymore, regardless of how much Mark wanted to remind him of it. He just had to figure out somewhere else to sit. He could do the clique thing, it couldn't be as bad as it had been a long time ago. Someone would want to sit with him.

His eyes moved over the many tables again, his salad in his hands. Nurses at several different tables in the back right corner, interns in the center, some of the older attendings sitting apart from everyone...there was definitely a class system at work here. And then he heard a giggle he knew so well and his head snapped back towards the left corner of the cafeteria.

Meredith was laughing with some people he vaguely recognized as other fellows and Mark's girlfriend. And Mark. Mark was sitting there with his girlfriend's friends and looked completely comfortable. He could sit there. His best friend in the entire world was sitting there and he knew Meredith. He had no reason not to sit there. Except Meredith wanted to keep it professional and he didn't know the rest of them now.

"Shep!" he heard Mark call over the din of the cafeteria, one arm raised in greeting, the other thrown loosely around his girlfriend's shoulders. This was definitely a bit like high school. Except in high school, he never would have been invited to sit by Mark.

"Mark," Derek nodded anyway, heading toward the table. It would probably beat sitting alone for the next hour or so.

"Finally getting the hell out of your office?" Mark smirked, gesturing towards an empty chair next to Meredith, who was glaring at Mark furiously.

"Yeah," Derek sighed, looking carefully at Meredith. "But I think I'll just go sit back there"

"Sit your ass down," Mark rolled his eyes.

"No, you're sitting with your friends," Derek shook his head.

"Don't make me go all girly and say you're my friend too. Sit."

"I don't know," Derek sighed.

"It's fine, Dr. Shepherd," Meredith sighed, still glaring at Mark.

"I should probably just go back to my office," Derek shrugged. "I have stuff I should be doing."

"Shep, sit down," Mark sit down. "And Grey, if you're going to stare at me, at least offer to buy me a drink or something."

"I am not staring at you," Meredith groaned.

"You're not staring at me," Mark laughed. "I get you can't help it, I do. Girls have been staring since puberty."

"Of course they have," Meredith rolled her eyes.

"Shep, sit. Grey won't bite. Unless you want her to bite."

"Fine, I'll sit," Derek sighed, sliding into the seat. "And I don't want her to bite."