3. The Right Decision

Meredith stumbled back into the locker room, collapsing onto the bench beside Christina, who was seated in line with Izzy, and then George. She was ecstatic from her talk with Derek. The fact that he valued her that much hit her really hard. That he needed to get divorced first, that he didn't see her some cheep thing he picked up in a bar.

"I hear you won your McDreamy." Christina stated.

Meredith smiled despite her exhausted state. "Yeah."

"You sound surprised," Christina said. "Anyone could have told you he was going to pick you."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you were really sure last night, especially when you bet against me with Izzy."

"I did not," Christina exclaimed.

"Yeah," Izzy cut in. "We would never bet on something like that, Mer."

Christina could have pulled off the lie on her own, but Izzy had yet to develop a good poker face. Meredith shook her head.

"Iz, don't forget she owes you fifty bucks."

"Oh!" Izzy said brightly. "You're right." She looked around Meredith to look at Christina. "You totally owe me fifty bucks." She held out her hand. "Pay up."

"I rest my case," Meredith stated, as Christina simply shook her head.

"What? I- oh..." Izzy trailed off as she realized what had happened. "Sorry, Mer," she said sheepishly.

Meredith shrugged. "At least you bet in favour of me." She glared at her best friend.

Christina scoffed. "Whatever."

Meredith shook her head and laughed gently before quieting. She yawned and closed her eyes, leaning up against Christina, who didn't pull away. In fact, she leaned back up against Meredith. They had been on duty for far too long to be facing another twelve long hours.

0000

Miranda Bailey pushed into the intern locker room, her eyes immediately falling on four of her interns, lined up along the bench, eyes closed, leaning against one another. She shook her head. She had never seen such a close-knit group of interns. She cleared her throat, smiling inwardly when all four heads turned in her direction.

"You may want to clean yourselves up," she said. "Rounds in five minutes."

They nodded tiredly in her direction, and she returned the gesture before leaving the room. They were obviously exhausted. Had it not been for a few short hours off the previous evening, they would have been on duty for forty-two hours straight. It was just about six in the morning, and she knew none of them got off again until six that afternoon, and with the extra patients from the train crash still in their care, the odds any of them would have a chance to sleep was slim. But the fact that they weren't complaining made her smile. Although she wouldn't admit it, she took pride in the fact that she had the best group of interns. The attendings were already favouring them after a few short months.

She passed more than one upper year resident and attending, dressed in street clothes, on their way home after a long night. She shook her head at them. It would be nice to be able to leave.

She jumped onto an elevator, fully intending on making full use of the next five minutes to go down to the lobby and get a large coffee from the cart by the doors. It was much better coffee, and right now, she really needed it.

A familiar figure stood at the cart, awaiting his order.

"Feeling better, Dr. Shepherd?"

He turned to face her. "Dr. Bailey," he greeted. "Yes, I'm feeling better. Thanks again." He smiled.

She shook her head. "Don't try the McDreamy look on me, Shepherd. It's only effective on interns."

"One intern," he corrected.

She rolled her eyes. "Even for an attending, you are far too cocky."

"What? It's not being cocky if I happen to be speaking the truth." He smiled again.

She sighed, turning her attention away long enough to order her coffee.

Derek was already sipping cautiously from his large, steaming cup.

She thanked the server as he set down her coffee on the counter.

"You staying on today?" She asked, surprised an attending would still be here voluntarily.

He shook his head as an answer. "Can't. I have some things to do; some very important things."

Bailey narrowed her eyes in response to his tone. "I take it you've made a decision then?"

He nodded, a smile appearing in his lips. "I have."

"Good for you."

His gaze shifted away from her for a moment, his attention on something behind her. Bailey turned her head, her gaze settling on the object of Derek's attention, or really, the person of Derek's attention. Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd stepped off the elevator, glancing around the open lobby before her eyes settled on Derek as she slowly made her way over, each step she took measured and even.

Bailey turned back to look at Derek, trying to read his expression. He looked relatively impassive, while Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd looked...determined. For the life of her, Bailey didn't know which woman he had picked. Addison should look happy if it were her, but if it weren't, why were they obviously meeting?

"You say you've made your decision?"

Derek nodded.

She stared him down. "And is my intern happy with this decision?"

He smiled. "She is."

Bailey motioned at an approaching Addison. "And will you be keeping her happy about it?"

His smile evolved into a more serious look. "Absolutely. I plan on keeping her very happy."

"Then why...?"

He shook his head. "You're becoming a gossip, Dr. Bailey." He smirked.

She gasped. "I am not, Dr. Shepherd. I'm none of the sort."

He shook his head. Addison was very close. "We're going to meet a lawyer," he told her quickly. With that he nodded and moved away. "Goodbye, Dr. Bailey. Thanks for the hard work last night." And with that, he matched stride with Addison, and the two of them made their way out of the hospital, and into the bright light of the rising sun.

000

Hours later, Meredith scrubbed out of a successful surgery with her resident. She pulled off her gown and gloves, following Dr. Bailey into the scrub room she took her place along the sink and washed her hands.

"Good work, Grey."

"Thank-you, Dr. Bailey." She stifled a yawn.

Bailey had moved behind her to dry her hands, but Meredith felt eyes on her back. She turned, to find Bailey's eyes on her, a pensive expression on her face.

"What?" She asked, suddenly uncomfortable.

"I-," Bailey started, knowing she had been caught. "He made the right decision." And with that Bailey left the scrub room, leaving Meredith alone.

She smiled to herself, glad she finally had the support of her resident.

After drying her hands, Meredith reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, citing one missed call from Derek. She sighed, having expected to miss his call. She had been in surgery for hours, her phone on silent.

She dialled into her voicemail and held the phone up to her ear.

'Hey Meredith. I'm assuming you're in surgery. I just wanted to let you know that we couldn't get in to see the lawyer today. The lawyer from New York belongs to a firm who has a branch out here. But they don't have an appointment open today. We're on call for an opening, hopefully tomorrow or the next day. Sorry. I'm going home to get some sleep. Call me if you want. See you tomorrow.'

Meredith sighed, her heart growing heavy as her exhaustion hit her head on. She had been so hopeful that she hadn't realized that the divorce may take some time. She was so tired, and all she wanted right now was to fall asleep in his arms; it had been far too long. She glanced at her watch. By the time she finished her paper work and checked on her patients, it would be time to go home.

Stepping out of the scrub room, she dialled Derek's number.

He answered on the fifth ring.

"Hello." His voice was full of sleep.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey," his tone changed as soon as he recognized her voice. "Sorry, I was asleep. Could barely find my phone in the dark."

She laughed. "I hate you for getting to sleep. I'm on my fifty-something-th hour."

"Ahh, I'm sorry. At least you get to go home soon."

"Yeah, to sleep. Then I'm back here at six tomorrow. Another thirty hours."

He laughed gently. "That's life as an intern. I've been there."

"Whatever."

"You okay?" He asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just tired. Very, very tired."

"You have much left to do?"

She shook her head, even though he was on the other side of the phone line. "Not too much. I should get out of here on time."

"I'll let you get to it, then."

"Okay. Goodnight," she said, somewhat sarcastically because he got to sleep.

He chuckled. "Goodbye, Meredith."

"Bye, Derek."

Meredith hung up her phone, stashing back in her pocket. Only two hours to go.

AN: Okay, so this is really a filler chapter. It feels to me like nothing happened, but I can't add more without massively getting into the next chapter, where things actually start to happen. So, awkward, but necessary. Sorry, but the next chapter will be better, I promise. Oh, and a few people mentioned that the whole Derek picking Addison was essential for keeping the show going and pretty much the whole of season two's plot (for those characters), which I totally agree with. Totally agree. If it happened the way we prolly all wanted, it would have been boring. This is just my way of experimenting with what could have happened. But I will try and make sure it's not all smiles and happiness. Lol.