Something changed | Merluca

Part 1

It has been a crazy day to say at least. They were supposed to present their new innovations and instead they ended up to strive for "damage"-control after half of the hospital staff ate weed cookies.

Before Maggie and Meredith went home, they found DeLuca in the attending's lounge. It was obvious that he ate a few too many of those cookies. Not wanting to let him behind Maggie suggested to take him to Meredith's house with them. Now he was laying on her couch, while Meredith was reading in her mother's journal.

This whole competition had brought back a lot of memories. She had reached out to Marie Cerone to ask for the use of her polymer in her research. Cerone told her that she couldn't use the polymer for the mini livers, unless she would name the Grey Method, the Grey-Cerone method. Cerone claimed that Ellis and her had developed the surgical method together. And just on top of that, she heard about the Harper Avery scandal, that was part of the fall out between Cerone and her mother, back then. She wanted to understand everything that happened at that time between the two better. That's why she started to read in her mother's journals again, hoping to get more details.

Maggie had left a while ago, to get some sleep. Meredith hadn't felt like sleeping; and still didn't feel like it. Instead she got up to go over to the kitchen to get two glasses and some water. She thought DeLuca might want or need some water, too, when he wakes up.

She put the glasses on the little table in front of the couch, while taking a quick glance at DeLuca, before she sat down on the couch again. He was still sleeping. And she wondered herself, why she never noticed him. Sure, he was a resident at the hospital, he was at her house a few times when he was with Maggie. But she had never really seen him. He was just a person, like so many others, that passed her life, without paying closer attention to them. But seeing him here, laying on her couch, was the first time she really saw him.

She somehow felt comfortable having him next to her, even though he was sleeping. She almost always had people around her, and it wasn't the first time she offered people to stay at her house. But somehow she wondered why she enjoyed his presence maybe a bit too much. She quickly tried to shake that thought away and returned to the journals.

Some time passed, when she noticed a motion next to her. She looked over to her right side, when she saw that DeLuca had woken up. He looked around, slowly registering where he was.

"There's some water if you want." She said after a moment, feeling like she needed to say something, while pointing at the glass on the table in front of them.

"I- I should go." Andrew answered still a bit confused, mixed with embarrassment slowly being visible on his face. He tried to stand up, struggling a little with keeping his balance.

"You're not going anywhere" Meredith replied, when he stood up. When she saw his confused expression she added, trying to reason her answer "Where do you want to go? In the middle of the night? Besides, in all the rambling you did when we found you in the hospital, you said you didn't have a place to go to..."

"Right." He answered slumping down on the couch again.

Meredith was somehow relieved to see him sitting down on there again. The thought of him wandering through the streets in his condition somehow made her uncomfortable. She pointed at the glass again to gesture him that he should drink something.

She caught herself still looking at him and quickly returned to read in the journals.

It was quiet for some time before DeLuca started to talk "So, what are you reading, Dr. Grey?"

Meredith startled a bit, hoping it wasn't too obvious. But when she looked at him and saw his smile she knew that he noticed it. He didn't call her out on it though.