chapter forty one

haunt you every day.season four, episode five.

When she was younger, she would always wear the scariest costume possible, complete with fake blood and special effects makeup. She wasn't very big on holidays, but something about spending all night scaring small children shitless never failed to make her smile.

"What are we looking at?" Cristina asked as she entered the locker room and saw everyone staring at Meredith.

"Meredith put her mom in a baggie and brought her to work," Izzie said.

Meredith shrugged. "I had to get her out of my closet. She was haunting me."

"And now she's haunting us all," Alex sighed.

Meredith scoffed. "I'm putting her to rest."

Cassie stared at the bag of ashes with a brow raised. "I had no idea it was bring your mother to work day. You should remind me next time."

"That's dark," Alex grimaced.

The brunette shrugged playfully. "It's Halloween."

"Meredith is cleansing," Sydney Heron said, coming out of nowhere and spooking the others. "In tribal culture, when one wants to cleanse the past, one cuts off all of one's hair and buries it in the earth. You might try that, too."

"Sounds fun," Cassie smiled, earning herself odd looks from the other residents.

"Okay, listen up," Callie said, entering the room with Bailey by her side. "Today is a holiday, which means the pit will be overrun. You've got the usual drunken stupidity—"

"And then you've got Seattle's annual chain saw pumpkin carving contest," Bailey excitedly interrupted her. "I love this city."

"Did you know that last year during the final round, a man attempted to carve a face into his pumpkin, but ended up removing his entire left calf on accident?" Cassie perked up with a wide grin. "He actually stayed in the competition with a freshly amputated limb, just so that he could finish his carving. And he ! I mean, he died, but he won." Everyone stared at the girl with varying levels of amusement and concern. "What?"

"Anyway," Callie shook her head. "Stay on your toes, and stay on top of your interns, okay?"

Izzie raised her hand. "So we should round before heading to the pit or—"

"Yeah, you should direct your questions to Dr. Bailey, Stevens."

"Oh," Cristina frowned. "We're directing our questions to Dr. Bailey?"

"Oh, not you. Just Stevens," Callie deadpanned.

, Cassie thought, smirking to herself as she glanced between the two.

"Why is Stevens directing her questions to Dr. Bailey?"

Callie smiled tightly. "Because she's been sleeping with my husband. All righty, then. Have a good day."

After they left, it was silent until Cristina spoke up. "Okay, this is even more disturbing than the inside of Cassie's head."

The brunette made a face. "Rude. True, but rude."

☆

"Oh!" Meredith exclaimed, running into Derek and causing Cassie to run into her back.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing to the bag of Ellis' ashes that were now on the floor.

"It's charts."

"Meredith."

"It's her mom," Cassie told him, helping Meredith scoop the ashes back into the the bag.

Derek sighed. "What?"

"I had her in the cubby, and she was freaking people out. So I was just gonna go put her in the car," Meredith defended. "Do you think that's disrespectful, to leave her in the car?"

Derek tilted his head. "It's a little..."

"It's not strange," she sighed. "I'm trying to figure out how to put her to rest. I can't shove her in the back of my closet anymore. I have to deal with her. And this is me trying to evolve. I'm trying here. So... cubby or car?"

"Cubby," Cassie answered with little hesitation.

Derek rolled his eyes at his sister. "Okay, and you don't think that's very, very strange?"

"Are those really your mom's ashes?"

Cassie turned her head to see a young boy, no older than thirteen, standing in front of them with a questioning look on his face. She also noticed how he didn't have any ears, instead wearing two hearing aids on either side of his head.

"Hi," Cassie smiled at him, standing up and letting Meredith finish gathering her mother back into the bag. "What's your name?"

The boy smiled back. "Ryan."

At that moment, Cassie's intern, also named Ryan, happened to be walking by the group. "What's up?"

Cassie waved him off. "Not you." He nodded confusedly, moving to leave but being stopped before he could. "Oh, before I forget, did you remove Mr. Shelton's drain like I asked?"

"Yeah, and I also finished the charts left over from yesterday," he nodded, showing her the stack of folders in his hands.

"Nice work," she said. "Go see if Torres needs any extra hands in the OR."

Ryan grinned as he took off towards the operating floor. "Really? Dude, thanks!"

Meredith gave her a look. "You are much nicer than I am."