A/N: I know, it's been ages since I had a new multi-chapter Grey's story. And yes, I am still working on my older stories and will be updating those as time allows (especially The Rest is History, which is in the middle of a rewrite). I probably shouldn't even be posting this one with all of my unfinished works, but sometimes you get hit with an idea and it just takes over until you sit down and get it out of your head. And since it's dealing with the current (mid-season 13) storyline, I thought I'd go ahead and get it posted now before the "moment" passes, so to speak.

This story picks up about two weeks after Meredith's suspension. I have a bad feeling that this week's episode will see Bailey somehow talking Meredith into taking her job back (without Bailey ever admitting she was wrong, which I firmly believe that she was). I hope that's not the case, and Meredith sticks to her guns, but if that is the direction the show goes, it's certainly not the direction this story is going to go!

I've got some great ideas planned for this story, but essentially, it explores how Bailey's actions at GSMH and the (in my opinion, shoddy) implementation of Eliza Minnick's residency reforms could have long-lasting and entirely unexpected consequences - both personally and professionally - for everyone connected to the hospital. Some long-ago characters will reappear, and most of the current cast will feature in at least some way, but as always for me, the focus is on Meredith and her "family".

Please enjoy and let me know what you think! I make no guarantees on the frequency of updates (I've learned the hard way that those promises come back to haunt me), but I will likely have chapter 2 up in a day or two, as it's already almost entirely written.

The sun was setting as Meredith Grey poured herself a glass of wine and looked around her messy kitchen. She'd had all day of nothing to do - all week, really - but she couldn't bring herself to be bothered to clean it. Maggie would have a fit, she was sure of it, but at this point, she just didn't care. Maggie got to go to work in the morning and feel like she was actually accomplishing something, so if she didn't like the mess, she could clean it herself or go find a new place to live.

The first few days of her suspension, Meredith had actually enjoyed sleeping in a bit, playing all day with the kids, having no one to answer to for her time. That had, of course, quickly worn off, and as Zola went off to school in the morning, Bailey started begging to go back to daycare to see his friends. So Alex had taken to bringing the kids with him in the morning, which left Meredith quite literally all on her own all day long until she'd briefly swing by the hospital to pick them up at the end of the day. At this point, she was convinced that Miranda Bailey was just waiting for her to go stir crazy so she'd apologize, fall into line, and beg to return to her job.

"Not gonna happen," she muttered to herself, taking a sip of her wine as she sat down on the couch to wait for Alex and Maggie to get home. Her phone ringing caught her off guard, and she frowned at the unfamiliar number that flashed on the screen when she pulled it from her pocket.

"Meredith Grey," she said, pressing the phone to her ear.

"Meredith! Oh my goodness, it's good to hear your voice after all this time," an overly friendly, almost chirpy, female voice rang out over the line, and Meredith had a sinking feeling of recognition in her stomach. "How the heck are you? It's Sydney Heron, by the way."

"Sydney," Meredith said, almost feeling like she had to force a smile on her face just to speak to the woman. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh gosh, it's just been so long since we chatted," Sydney said. "I was so sorry to hear about Derek, it just broke my heart. He was such a nice man. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to make it to the service."

"It's alright," Meredith said, wondering exactly where this conversation was going.

"Well, any who, I don't mean to pry, and I know I'm over at Seattle Pres now, but it's a small little surgical family here in Seattle, you know that, and I heard tell from a little birdie that you might have had a little difference of opinion with Miranda Bailey."

Meredith sighed. "Uh huh," she muttered.

"Miranda's a wonderful surgeon, very talented, and she was an excellent teacher, just excellent," Sydney continued. "If she could have just embraced a bit of healing with love, she might have come a long way. People are what matters, Meredith, patients and staff. It's just a shame when the leaders of an institution forget that, isn't it?"

"What do you want, Sydney?" Meredith asked impatiently.

Sydney chuckled. "Right to the point, no chit chat," she laughed. "I remember that about you, Meredith Grey, you haven't changed one bit, have you? Except I hear you were just rocking it as Chief of General Surgery until that little kerfuffle with Miranda. Now, I don't want to overstep my bounds here, and I know your name is on the hospital over there at Grey-Sloan, and you're a part owner, but…"

"Sydney, what are you getting at?"

"Seattle Pres is looking for a new Chief of General Surgery," Sydney said.

Meredith frowned. "What happened to Mark Hernandez?"

"Mark got a fantastic job offer in Texas, he couldn't turn it down," Sydney said. "I'm filling in as Interim until his replacement is found."

"Don't you want to be his replacement?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, no!" Sydney laughed. "Oh, you probably don't know, we've kept things so quiet, I'm sorry…Mark Hernandez is my husband. I only agreed to stay behind as part of the agreement with Seattle Pres so they'd let him out of his contract here. The sooner we get a replacement in, the sooner I get to go to Texas to be with my husband. And Meredith, it's been four months, they've interviewed 7 candidates, and they've hated all of them. Quite frankly, so have I, and I love this program too much to leave it with someone who isn't worthy. But I'm seven months pregnant, and I really like to move before I have the baby, Meredith."

"Sydney, I have a contract with Grey-Sloan," Meredith pointed out.

"Meredith, contracts were made to be broken," Sydney said. "Bring it with you when you meet the board tomorrow, we'll have our lawyers take a look at it."

"Sydney, I'm not coming to meet the board tomorrow."

"Why? What's holding you back, Meredith?" Sydney asked. "Miranda Bailey clearly doesn't have any loyalty to you or anyone else who made her program what it is. I mean really, what do you owe her? I've heard a lot about what's going on over there, and if half of it is true, she's creating a dictatorial environment, Meredith, and that's not good for the patients or the staff. And I think if you think about it, you know I'm right."

"I don't know," Meredith said hesitantly.

"Just come meet the board tomorrow," Sydney said. "No commitments, just come hear what Seattle Pres has to offer. If nothing else, it's a free lunch, and who doesn't love one of those?"

Meredith was surprised when she found herself almost smiling at Sydney's cheerful persistence. "I guess lunch couldn't hurt," she conceded.

"Fantastic!" Sydney practically squealed in delight. "I'll meet you in front of the hospital at eleven, I'll walk you up to the boardroom myself."

Three days later, Meredith found herself sitting at her kitchen table, staring a neatly typed letter she'd have never imagined herself writing. With a shaking hand, she picked up her pen and signed her name to the bottom of it. Folding it up, she placed it in an envelope and sat back at in her chair. Holding the envelope in her hand, she stared at it and wondered how something so small was about to turn her whole world upside down.

"You're up early," Alex Karev observed as he walked into the kitchen. "Hey, Maggie was in the OR pretty late last night, so she said she'll take Bailey and Ellis to daycare when she goes in later."

Meredith nodded. "Okay," she said, not looking away from the envelope.

"And I'm still good taking Zola to school this morning, but…" Alex trailed off as he looked at Meredith. "Meredith? Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Meredith asked in confusion. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

Alex frowned as he grabbed the cup of coffee he'd just poured and walked over the table. "Are you fine, or are you Meredith-fine?" he asked.

"I don't know," Meredith admitted.

"Look, it's been two weeks, I think this suspension thing has gone on long enough," Alex said. "Why don't you come in with me today, and you can go talk to Bailey? I'm sure she'll give you your job back."

"I am going to talk to Bailey today," Meredith said.

"Good. That's good," Alex said. "Have you thought about what you're going to say? How you're going to apologize?"

"I'm not going to apologize," Meredith said.

"Meredith, I agree with what you said to her about Webber, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure she'll lift your suspension if you don't apologize."

"Alex, I'm not going to ask her to lift my suspension," Meredith said.

"Then what…"

Meredith sighed and held up the envelope. "This is my letter of resignation," she said. "I'm done, Alex."

"Meredith, you can't just walk away," Alex said, practically stunned speechless by her unexpected statement.

"I look at that department, and I don't recognize it," Meredith said. "That is not the program that we trained in, that is not the program that I've been a part of for the last ten years. The building's the same, some of the people are the same, but that is not the program that I loved. That program is dead and gone, Alex, and I could stay another ten years and it's not coming back."

"What are you going to do?" Alex asked anxiously, a sudden thought occurring to him. "You're not moving, are you? Because if you are, you better be prepared for me to come with you this time."

Meredith smiled. "I'm not moving, Alex," she assured him. "Actually, I'm taking a job at Seattle Pres."

"Seattle Pres? Seriously?" Alex asked skeptically.

"I know, we rag on them all the time," Meredith said. "But they're a level one trauma center, they've got a well-respected residency program, a brand new surgical suite with state of the art equipment…and they're almost doubling my salary. Plus, they're really the only other big name in town, and I don't want to move."

"I'm going to miss you," Alex said.

"Alex, we live in the same house," Meredith reminded him.

"Yeah, but we won't be working in the same place," he said. "It won't be the same."

"Don't you get all sentimental on me now, Alex," Meredith said. "I need you to put on the brave face when I have to tell Maggie."

Alex scoffed. "Yeah, good luck with that," he said, taking a sip of his coffee as they sat in silence for a moment. "I am going to miss you, Meredith."

Meredith smiled sadly. "Yeah," she said, squeezing the hand he reached out to her. "I'll miss you too."