Second Time Around

Summary: Meredith Grey and Jackson Avery were prodigies in General Surgery, having graduated early from medical school and being the youngest attendings in history. Yet, they were always shadowed by their Grey and Avery names and were feared by people their own age who were only intern. So they decided for change in Seattle.

A/N: Hi there, I recently binge watched 15 seasons of GA (longest series I watched) and I got inspired by Ben Warren story and another story written, I think it's called Hiding in plain sight.

The first few chapters will pretty much follow cannon before it starts to speed up and deviate from cannon around chapter 4/5. That's where the AU fun begins. So it you wanna skip the recap of Season 1, just skim through the first 3 chapters. I write in my free time so excuse me for any grammatical errors, etc.. Enjoy ~

Chapter 1: Starting over

"Are we sure about this?"

Dr Meredith Grey and Dr Jackson Avery stood side by side at the entrance of Seattle Grace Hospital hit by nostalgia.

Meredith let out a chuckle, "Second time's the charm, Jackson Fox."

"After you, Meredith Black," Jackson faked curtsied before Meredith grabbed his hand and led him through the familiar halls of the hospital.

Meredith and Jackson met in Harvard Medical School and grew to be best friends, bonding through their common background of over-achieving parents / grandparents. By 22, the both of them graduated Medical School and interned at Massachusetts General Hospital before becoming the two youngest General Surgery attendings at age 26. They were known as the dream team Avery-Grey. Everyone wanted to be them, be friends with them, envied them. They were younger than their interns and residents. The both of them were married to their jobs, with barely any social life.

As established as they were, many people would come from all over the world requesting the both of them as their surgeons, not forgetting Meredith's mother, Ellis Grey, as well. And as famous as the Avery-Grey dream team was, without a doubt, the most revered team were the mother-daughter Grey. Thanks to the three names, Mass Gen currently had the Best General Surgery team. Ellis Grey was currently a strong candidate for nomination for the years Harper Avery, and that would make it her third Harper Avery - a collaboration research between Ellis and Meredith Grey. But with all these achievements, Jackson and Meredith did not feel accomplished and wanted to be treated normally.

Since the both of them were planning to start a fellowship in Neuro for Meredith and cardio for Jackson, Jackson thought why not become an intern again, a whole new identity.

A change, a chance to start anew.

When Meredith and Jackson told Ellis Grey and Catherine Fox about their plan, they were met with strong objections but after much persuasion, they were given the green light with the only condition of making sure to keep up with their surgery skills. Ellis managed to call her old friend, Richard Webber to get them into the internship program in Seattle Grace Hospital

Using their maiden name, the now Meredith Black and Jackson Fox stood in front the scrutinising Chief of Surgery, Richard Webber.

"It's an honour to have the both of you join our staff. I understand from Ellis that their condition is that you'd still have to clock in some OR hours besides interning. It'll be hard but we'll try at least twice a week? Here is your contract," Richard slid two stack of papers across the table. "You'll be paid the same amount you were earning previously, I have gathered a team for your 'secret' surgeries and they have already signed a contract to protect your secret. You will have to use the attending scrubs when you do your surgeries."

Richard handed a pen to the two surgeons before him, "Are you sure you want this? The offer for fellowship is still open?"

Meredith let out a laugh, snatching the pen and signed the paper immediately. Jackson amused by his partner before following her lead.

Richard gathered the papers before extending his hand, "The intern's mixer is tonight. Welcome to the team, Dr. Black, Dr. Fox.".

"Thank you Chief. That will take some time getting used to," Jackson remarked before grabbing Meredith in a headlock, "Let's unpack. We can skip the intern mixer. I saw a bar across the street."

"I thought we're trying to be normal," Meredith teased.

"Yes going to a bar is perfectly normal. We are going to work with these people for a long time, no rush to get to know them."

After unpacking their things in Meredith's mother old house, the both of them headed to the bar Jackson saw earlier, Emerald City Bar. Jackson was playing darts while Meredith sat at the bar, drinking her shots of tequila.

"Double scotch single malt please." A voice rang beside her, she turned to find a handsome looking man climbing onto the seat beside her. Maybe Seattle, wouldn't be too bad after all.

"So is this a good place to hang out?" the man turned to her, while Meredith tried to ignore him but when she met his gaze, she was mesmerized by his sparkling blue eyes, dazzling smile and amazing curly hair. All her desire to ignore said man, crumbled, "Uh… I wouldn't know. Never been here before.".

"Oh you know what? I haven't either. First time here. I'm new in town. Never been to Seattle. New job," he told her.

Meredith steeled herself, and turned away to down another shot of tequila but his presence was rather overwhelming. "You're ignoring me."

Boy, the man sure was persistent, it was endearing, Meredith threw a quick glance to him, muttering, "Trying to.".

The edges of the man's mouth curved into a smile, "You shouldn't ignore me"

"Why not?" Meredith asked though knew the answer to her own question. That smile was so dreamy, that hair, those eyes. "Because I'm someone you need to know to get to love."

Meredith couldn't help it, so she indulged the man, "Really?"

"Oh, yes."

"So if I know you, I'll love you," the man sure was cocky. "Oh, yes." But that arrogance was kind of sexy. "You really like yourself, huh?"

"Just hiding my pain," Letting loose, she laughed with the man, destroying all barriers she had from getting to know the man, as the man asked, "So what's your story?"

Meredith shook her head, "I don't have a story. I'm just a girl in a bar.". "I'm just a guy in a bar."

And that was all she remembered before waking up the next day, in the living room wrapped around the guy she met at the bar yesterday. Noticing her state of undress, she wrapped herself in the blanket, which prompted the man to wake up, while she looked for her clothes.

The man sat up, holding up a bra, "This is…uh…"

Meredith snatched the bra, "Humiliating on so many levels. You have to go," motioning the man to the door.

The man beckoned her to join him, "Why, why don't you just come back down here and we'll pick up where we left off.".

Meredith noticed the time, she was late, "No seriously you have to go. I'm late which isn't what you want to be on your first day of work, so…"

The man starts getting dressed, "So, you actually live here?"

"Yes. Kind of."

"Oh. It's nice. A little dusty. Odd. But it's nice. Huh. So how do you kinda live here?" The man was asking a lot of personal questions. Meredith was puzzled, not knowing why she felt the need to reply him, "I moved in yesterday from Boston. It was my mother's house. I'm selling it."

"Oh I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"You said was."

"Oh my mother's not dead. She's … you know what? We don't have to do the thing," Meredith replied frustratedly.

"Oh. We can do anything you want," the man mused, buttoning up the last few buttons of his shirt.

"No the thing. Exchange the details, pretend we care. Look I'm gonna go upstairs and take a shower. Ok? And when I get back down here, you won't be here. So … um … goodbye … um …" Meredith realised that they spent nearly 12 hours together, yet she still did not know the man's name.

"Derek," Derek extended his hand to greet her. "Derek. Right, Meredith."

Derek grinned, "Meredith. Nice meeting you."

"Meredith we're late," A voice echoed through the house, before Jackson emerged into the living room.

"Wait, you're married?" Derek asked in shock.

"What?... No. I don't need to explain this to you," Meredith replied before running up the stairs to shower.

"Mere, please use your room next time," Jackson laughed before turning to the other man, introducing himself and then kicking him out.

Jackson and Meredith ran into the hospital, running late for the interns orientation, but both of them entered the OR managing to catch onto the last part of Chief Webber's speech. "Each of you comes today hopeful, wanting in on the game. A month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the doctors. The seven years you spend here, as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under the pressure. Two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play, that's up to you."

Ah… Nostalgia. Meredith couldn't believe she was doing this again. Richard winked at the pair, so he noticed their late appearance. "We're screwed," Meredith whispered. Jackson grabbed her hand and squeeze it before giving her a knowing smile.

In the locker room, all the interns were putting on their scrubs, coats and stethoscopes waiting to be called by their resident. Meredith knew she'd be under the same resident as Jackson as promised by Webber. Meredith looked around to size up her 'peers'. "Only 6 women out of 20."

A Korean looking woman with wild looking hair heard her remark, "Yeah. I hear one of them's a model. Seriously, that's gonna help with the respect thing. I'm Cristina.".

"Meredith.".

"Which resident you assigned to? I got Bailey, the Nazi," Cristina replied.

"Nazi? But yes, I got Bailey too. This is Jackson, he got Bailey too," Meredith pulled her best friend who was still changing, groaned before introducing himself.

Another man approached the three of them, "You guys got the Nazi? So did I. At least we'll be tortured together, right? I'm George … O'Malley. Uh…Uh…" George was struggling to hold the conversation while stealing glances at Meredith. Meredith knew the guy was crushing on her and she was trying to be nice but Jackson wasn't being helpful. She knew he was going to tease her for the rest of the day.

Another doctor appeared by the locker room, "O'Malley, Yang, Karev, Stevens, Black, Fox, end of the hall!". The man pointed to a woman by the nurse's station. "That's the Nazi?" Cristina asked not believing that tiny woman was as fierce as the rumours said.

"I thought the Nazi would be a guy," George said.

Meredith knew that a doctor with a reputation like 'Nazi' means that they'd be formidable towards the interns and likely a force to be reckoned with in the OR. Deciding to play along, "I thought the Nazi would be … a Nazi."

A perky tall woman voiced out beside her, "Maybe it's professional jealousy. Maybe she's brilliant and they call her the Nazi because they're jealous. Maybe she's nice.".

"Let me guess. You're the model," Cristina deadpanned.

As they approached Dr Bailey, Izzi introduced herself, "Hi. I'm Isobel Stevens but everyone calls me Izzie. Dr. Bailey just stared at her before raising a single brow. Meredith resisted the urge to facepalm, No one likes a suck up. Meredith would send her interns or residents on a goose chase if any of them tried to curry favours from her.

"I have 5 rules," Bailey started as she beckoned the 5 interns to follow her, "Memorize them. Rule number 1. Don't bother sucking up. I already hate you, that's not gonna change….Trauma protocol. Phone lists. Pagers. Nurses will page you."

All of the interns rushed to follow Bailey as she walked away, "You answer every page at a run. A run! That's rule number 2. Your first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours. Your interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop and don't complain…. On call rooms. Attendings hog them. Sleep when you can, where you can. Which brings me to rule number 3. If I'm sleeping, don't wake me unless your patient is actually dying. Rule number 4. The dying patient better not be dead when I get there. Not only will you have killed someone, you would have woke me for no good reason. We clear?" Bailey finally turned around to acknowledge her interns.

Meredith decided that she like the resident before her. Meredith raised her hand, "You said five rules. That was only … four."

Bailey's pager went off, "Rule number five. When I move, you move." All the interns scrambled to follow the woman as she starts running down the hall, yelling at doctors and nurses to get out of her way leading them to the roof to wheel in a seizing patient from the helicopter. 15 year- old female Katie Bryce.

Bailey handed Cristina a chart, "Cristina you're on labs. George patient work ups. Meredith, get Katie for a CT. She's your responsibility now," Bailey walked out of the room.

"Wait, what about me and Jackson?" Izzie asked.

"You? Honey you both get to do rectal exams," Meredith smirked at Jackson, who was groaning at getting grunt work. Looks like Jackson drew the shorter end of the stick. "Lucky you, Grey," Jackson muttered under his breath. Meredith gave him a pointed look, hoping that no one else had heard Jackson.

While Izzie and Jackson putting on latex gloves and squeezing lube onto her fingers for their rectal exam.

Cristina managed to find Katie Bryce's labs coming out clear with nothing in the results that explains her seizures. On the other hand, Meredith was stuck with Katie, complaining about missing pageants, twisting her ankle in the talent rehearsal while doing rhythmic gymnastics causing her to trip over her ribbon.

"They gave her a sedative for the CT scans so she's a little groggy," Meredith acknowledged her patient's parents as they came to visit.

Mrs. Bryce gazed her unconscious daughter, "Will she be all right? Our doctor at home said that she might need an operation. Is, is that true? What kind of operation?"

Meredith was in a pinch. As much as she knew the answer, no intern would have been able to answer that question, "She's um … well … you know what I'm not; I'm not the doctor. Um I'm a doctor. But I'm not Katie's doctor, so I'll go get him for you." It hurt her pride to ask a resident what to do, she was an attending for god sake, but Meredith swallowed her pride as she approached Bailey. Playing the part of an intern, "Katie's parents have questions. Do you talk to them or do I ask Burke?"

"Ah no Burke's off the case. Katie belongs to the new attending now. Dr. Shepherd. He's over there," Dr. Bailey gestured to the attending and walks off. Meredith let the door close behind her and surveyed the room. As she was about to walk to Dr. Shepherd, she stopped abruptly. Dr. Shepherd is Derek from this morning with other doctors! She stood frozen. Dr. Shepherd took a glance at his chart, before making eye contact with Meredith and turns back to his chart. He did a double take as he realised who it was, Meredith scurried back the way she came. Dr. Shepherd watched her leave in shock. As Meredith walked down the hallway. Dr. Shepherd approached from behind her and pulled her into an empty stairwell, "Meredith, can I talk to you for a second.".

Meredith was at a loss, "Dr. Shepherd…"

"Dr. Shepherd? This morning it was Derek. Now it's Dr. Shepherd," Derek teased.

"Dr. Shepherd we should pretend it never happened," Meredith had to put her foot down. After all the effort she made to move to Seattle to lead a normal life, so being in any kind of relationship with an attending is definitely going to destroy whatever plans she made.

"What never happened? You sleeping with me last night? Or you throwing me out this morning," Derek was very amused, "Because both are fond memories I'd like to hold onto."

Meredith glared at the older man, "No. There will be no memories. I'm not the girl in the bar anymore and you're not the guy." Meredith was struggling to keep her resolve with Derek smiling at her, "This can't exist. You get that, right?"

Derek nodded, "You took advantage of me and now you want to forget about it."

"I did not take …" Derek interrupted her, "I was drunk, vulnerable and good-looking and you took advantage."

Meredith smirked, "Okay I was the one who was drunk and you are not that good looking."

"Maybe not today. Last night? Last night I was very good looking. I had my red shirt on. My good-looking shirt. You took advantage. Want to take advantage again? Say Friday night?"

Meredith was a little shocked. This attending has no shame, "No. You're an attending. And I'm your intern."

Derek leaned forward and stared at every inch of her face, tempted to kiss her.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Meredith took a step back. "Like what?" Derek feigned ignorance.

Meredith said adamantly, "Like you've seen me naked."

Derek smirked at her. "Dr. Shepherd! This is inappropriate. Has that ever occurred to you?" Meredith left the stairway to the cafeteria, not wanting to be anywhere the guy who was doing an amazing job at seducing her.

"Katie Bryce is a pain in the ass. If I hadn't taken the Hippocratic oath I'd Kevorkian with my bare hands," All the interns stare at Meredith in awe. "What?"

Breaking the awkward silence that ensued, Izzie pulled out a magazine, "Have you guys seem the latest magazine, Ellis Grey is on the front cover again," Izzie placed it on the table where all the interns were sitting. Meredith and Jackson glanced at each other nervously, hoping no one would catch on.

"Who's Ellis Grey?" George asked. Everyone turned to look at George in disbelief. Meredith couldn't help but laugh, it was refreshing change to know someone who did not know about her mother. But this drew unwanted attention from the rest of the interns to look at her.

Cristina ignored her new friend before explaining, "Ellis … The Grey method? Where'd you go to med school, Mexico? She was one the first big chick surgeons and she practically invented the abdominal retractor. She's a living legend. She won the Harper Avery. Twice! I'm pretty sure she'll win her third one. God I would kill to have Ellis Grey as a mother. I'd kill to be Ellis Grey. Or be the Grey daughter or the Avery kid. Hell, I wouldn't mind having kids if the father of my kids was an Avery."

Jackson almost choked on her coffee, while Meredith was doing her best to suppress her laughter.

Dr. Burke walked into the cafeteria and approached their table, "Good afternoon interns. It's posted but I thought I share the good news personally. As you know the honor of performing first surgery is reserved for the intern that shows the most promise. As I'm running the O.R. today I get to make that choice."

All the interns looked at him expectantly. Ah the memories, the first surgery, the most important lesson for interns which Meredith botched during her first time as an intern because she actually succeeded the surgery.

Dr Burke smiled and slapped George on the back, "George O'Malley. You'll scrub in for an appendectomy this afternoon. Congratulations. Enjoy."

While Meredith and Jackson were itching for a surgery, the both of them were looking forward to George's performance. The intern surgery was one that they both looked forward to every year a new batch of interns joined the team, the both of them having led the intern surgeries themselves before. After all, terrorize one and the rest fall in line. Cristina looked annoyed while George was dumbfounded. George was a puppy, he was a perfect choice.

Interns, resident and attending alike were gathered in the observation deck above the OR where to watch George help with the surgery.

"He's gonna faint. He's a fainter.", "Nah code brown. Right in his pants.", "He's all about the flop sweat. He's gonna sweat himself unsterile.", "10 bucks says he messes up the McBurney.", "10 says he cries.", "I'll put 20 on a total meltdown."

"50 says he pulls the whole thing off," All the interns stared at Izzie as if she grew another head, "That's one of us down there. The first one of us. Where's your loyalty?" As much as Meredith and Jackson enjoyed the rivalry and jealousy of the interns, it was nice to know there was a supporter. After all, Meredith was a living proof of wiping the floor on first surgeries.

Cristina broke the awkward silence, "75 says he can't even I.D the appendix."

For the OR, George exclaimed, "Appendix is out."

The Interns cheered for him. But this was where the good part starts, "Not Bad, O'Malley, Now all you have to do is invert the stump into the cecum. And simultaneously pull up on the purse strings but be careful not to …" And of course George being an intern broke them, "… break them… You ripped the cecum. You've got a bleeder. Filling with stool. What do you now?" George was panicking.

"Think. Start the suction and you start digging for those purse strings before she bleeds to death"

"He's choking," Cristina stated the obvious.

"Today! Pull your balls out of your back pocket. Lets go. What are you waiting for? Suction," George was still frozen. The heart monitor starts beeping rapidly but George remained unmoving causing Dr. Burke to sigh. It was pretty much expected this would happen. Hopefully, George would not be discouraged.

Dr Burke shoved George out of the way which prompted calls of "007" in the observation deck.

"What's 007 mean?" Izzie asked.

"License to kill," Jackson replied her.

Back in a deserted hallway lined with hospital beds, a dejected George asked, "007. They're calling me 007, aren't they?"

Meredith and Izzie replied in unison unconvincingly, "No one is calling you 007."

"Maybe I should've gone into geriatrics. No one minds when you kill an old person," George sighed.

"Surgery is hot. It's the marines. It's macho. It's hostile. It's hardcore. Geriatrics is for freaks who live with their mothers and never have sex," Cristina lamented.

Meredith pager went off, 911 for Katie Bryce. Fully expecting a medical emergency, Meredith was annoyed that there was no one else is there except for Katie who's reading a magazine, and only called her because she was bored. Being an intern sucks.

After entertaining her patient, Meredith walked into the post-op ward. Meredith walks in where Alex introduced himself, calling her hot before her pager goes off again. Damn it Katie again. Meredith had experienced may cry wolf before, and everytime she did, she knew that no matter how much it was a pain, she had to treat every 911 as an emergency, so she rushed off to Katie.

Katie was seizing.

"She's having multiple grand mal seizures. She's got diazepam. 2mg lorazepam. I just gave a second dose. Now how do you want to proceed?"

Meredith was fighting her instinct to take over control but here she was an intern and she knew she couldn't call the shots. "Okay she's full on the lorazepam? You paged Dr. Bailey & Dr. Shepherd?"

She had no choice, she had to take charge, the patient comes first. While the lorazepam was not working, they moved onto loading her with Phenobarbital which was to no use as well. "You paged Dr. Shepherd? Well page him again. Stat."

The EKG monitor flat lines. Heart's stopped. code blue was called. There was no time to lose, she couldn't wait for the residents or attendings. Meredith grabbed the paddles from the nurse who had placed gel on it. "Charge paddles to 200."

"Charged. Clear," Monitor is still flat lined. "Still V-FIB. Nothing."

"300!" "360!" Seeing no change, Meredith performed manual CPR, before charging again. Katie's heart monitor started beeping again before Dr. Shepherd ran into the room, "What the hell happened?"

"She had a seizure and her heart stopped," Meredith reported.

"A seizure? You were supposed to be monitoring her!" Derek reprimanded.

Meredith huffed, the audacity of the man before was baffling, "I checked on her. If you had answer your pager earlier instead of waltzing in, you'd realised I just saved your patients life. If I was not there, she'd be dead by now." Meredith huffed before exiting the room, leaving behind a stunned attending.

For some reason the interns were called to gather in the boardroom. Jackson handed Meredith a banana and the both of them were practising suturing. They had to compensate for the lack of OR time. Cristina watch them in awe at their finesse, their steady and graceful hands. Stitch by stitch it was perfect. But she was a woman of pride, she would never voice out the complement to them.

Dr Bailey stood by the door while Dr. Shepherd walked in to address all the interns, "Well good morning. I'm gonna do something that's pretty rare for a surgeon. I'm gonna ask interns for help." This caught the attention of all the interns, even those who were falling asleep. "I've got this kid Katie Bryce. Right now she's a mystery. She doesn't respond to our meds, labs are clean, scans are pure but she's having seizures. Grand mal seizures with no visible cause. She's a ticking clock. She's gonna die if I don't make a diagnosis. Which is where you come in. I can't do it alone. I need your extra minds, extra eyes. I need you to play detective. I need you to find out why Katie is having seizures. I know you're tired; your busy, you got more work than you can possibly handle. I understand. So I'm going to give you an incentive, whoever finds the answer rides with me. If Katie needs surgery, you get to do what no other interns get to do, scrub in to assist on advance procedure," All the interns perked up. Meredith looked up from her banana to see the twinkle in Cristina's eyes. She smiled, it was always nice to see interns motivated to get themselves in the OR, Meredith had been working for more than 5 years and she still felt she did not have enough time in the OR.

"Dr. Bailey is going to hand you Katie's chart. The clock is ticking fast people. If we're going to save Katie's life we have to do it soon," Dr. Shepherd walked out, while all the interns scrambled to grab a copy of Katie's file, which was sitting on the middle of the table before leaving to head to the library.

Jackson and Meredith waited to take the last files before sitting down in the boardroom. Cristina noticed the two of them and for some reason knew that if any of the interns would get a chance to scrub in, it was the two of them, "I want in on Shepherd's surgery. Meredith, you've been the intern on Katie since the start. You guys wanna work together? If we find the answer; we have a 33/33/33 chance of scrubbing in."

Meredith glanced over to Jackson who simply shrugged in response. While it would reduce their chances to scrub in, it was nice to have an addition to the Avery-Grey team.

The three of them joined the rest of the interns in researching what Katie could have in a medical library.

"So she doesn't have anoxia, chronic renal failure or acidosis. It's not a tumor because her CT's clean," Cristina listed out.

"No. What about infection?" Jackson suggested lazily.

Cristina flipped through Katie's file "No. Ah there's no white count. She has no CT lesions. No fevers. Nothing in her spinal tap."

"What about an aneurysm?" Jackson asked. Meredith sighed, "No blood on the CT. No headaches."

Cristina scratched her head, "Okay. There's no drug use. Ah no pregnancy. No trauma."

Realisation dawned on Meredith, "Rhythmic gymnastics…"

"Isn't it something with like a ball and ah …" Cristina finally notices Meredith's thoughtful look, "What? … Meredith what?". Jackson realised Meredith train of thoughts filled Cristina in about their suspicions.

Meredith rushed out of the library, with Jackson and Cristina trailing, and finally manage to catch Dr Shepherd who was about to enter the elevator.

Meredith tried to collect her breath while Cristina started off, "Oh, oh Dr. Shepherd. Just one moment um…Katie competes in beauty pageants."

"I know that but we have to save her life anyway," Derek pointed out.

"Okay she has no headaches, no neck pain, her CTs clean…" Dr. Shepherd glanced at the people on the elevator waiting for the doors to close while Cristina kept it open to continue, "There is no medical proof of an aneurysm. But what if she has an aneurysm anyway?"

"There are no indicators."

"But she twisted her ankle a few weeks ago when she was practicing for the pageant. She fell when she twisted her ankle. She fell," Meredith hoped he would catch on to what Cristina was saying.

"Well you know what the chances that minor fall can burst into an aneurysm? One in a million! Literally," Dr Shepherd entered the elevator, losing hope the three of them walked away. But the doors binged open and Dr. Shepherd got out, "Let's go."

"Where?" Cristina asked.

"To find out if Katie is one in a million." They performed an angiogram on Katie. Dr. Shepherd noticed something on the screen, "I'll be damned. There it is. It's minute. But it's there." Cristina took a closer look.

"It's a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage. She's bleeding into her brain," Meredith muttered as she stared at the screen in awe. Meredith was broken out of her stupor when she noticed Jackson's pointed look and glanced at Dr Shepherd's and Cristina's surprise look on their faces. Right, she was an intern now.

"That's right Dr Black, I am surprised you could identify sub-arachnoid hemorrhage from the scans. Katie could've gone throughout her entire life without it ever being a problem. One tap in the right spot… it exploded. Now I get to fix it. You 3 did great work. Love to stay and kiss your Asses but I got tell Katie's parents she's having surgery," Derek was about to rush off before Cristina stopped him, "Dr. Shepherd you said that you'd, you'd pick someone to scrub in if we helped."

"Oh yes right. Um, I'm sorry I can't take you three. It's gonna be a full house. Meredith I'll see you in OR," Cristina looked shocked and upset at Meredith and walked away in a huff.

Meredith tried to call out to her new friend, "Well there goes my resolve to make friends…"

Jackson chuckled before giving her a side hug, "She'll come around. After all, you deserve it, and you want to specialize in Neuro anyway… By the way, don't you find Shepherd a little familiar?"

Meredith walked into Katie's room and noticed Dr. Shepherd shaving Katie's head for surgery.

Derek noticed her entrance, prompting him to smile at her, "Promised her I'd make her look cool. Apparently being a bald beauty queen is the worse thing that happened in the history of the world."

Meredith pondered over Jackson's question earlier in the day. She had to agree with him. Had she worked with or met Derek before? "Did you choose me for the surgery because I slept with you?"

"Yes," Derek teased, "I'm kidding. You're Katie's doctor. And on your first day with very little training you helped save her life. You earned the right to follow her case through to the finish. You shouldn't let the fact that we had sex get in the way of you taking your shot. And you did great diagnosing her."

Richard Webber was checking on Alex's post-op patient when Meredith passed by to get Katie's charts. "She's still short of breath. Did you get an ABG or a chest film?" Alex nodded. "What did you see?"

Alex made up excuses, which was interrupted by Chief Webber "Name the common causes of post-op fever."

Alex flipped through the charts, Chief Webber shook his head and pressed for an answer, "From your head. Not from a book. Don't look it up. Learn it. It should be in your head. Name the common causes of post-op fever." When he saw Alex struggling to answer, Chief Webber interrupted him and called out loudly to the whole ward, "Can anybody name the common causes of post-op fever?"

Everyone was silent. Another intern looked down to look through her own notes. Meredith shook her head, these were basic, even as an intern, they should have know, she decided to break the silence to speaks out, "Wind, water, wound, walking, wonder drugs. The 5Ws. Most of the time it's wind, splinting or pneumonia. Pneumonia is easy to assume. Especially if your too busy to do the tests."

Richard looks back at Alex who looks down before smiling at Meredith, "What do you think is wrong with 4B?"

"The 4th W. Walking. I think she's a prime candidate for a pulmonary embolism. I would diagnose her with a Spiral CT. VQ scan. Provide O2. Dose with heparin and consult for an IVC filter." Chief Webber told Alex to do exactly as she says and then tell his resident that he wants him off this case.

Meredith entered the OR for Katie's surgery. It had been a week since she picked up a scalpel. She missed the OR, she missed working with Jackson and her mum. But most of all she missed surgeries. It was weird to step into an OR without her favorite scrub cap.

Dr Shepherd glanced the room, "All right everybody. It's a beautiful night to save lives. Let's have some fun."

Meredith felt a chill down her spine. Those words. No wonder he looked familiar. Dr. Derek Shepherd, one of the best Neurosurgeons there is. She finally remembered, two years ago Shepherd had joined in a Conjoined Twin Separation collaboration surgery with Jackson and herself at Mass Gen. She was doomed, it was only a matter of time before he would realise who she was too, she glanced up to the observation deck that was filled with interns and residents before catching Jackson's gaze. Jackson had realised it too.

Putting aside her fears, Meredith concentrated in helping out with the surgery and she suddenly felt giddy with the prospect of learning from such a renown and established Neurosurgeon so as to get her second board certification.

"We don't have to do that thing you know where I say something and then you say something and then somebody cries and there's like a moment …" Cristina said as she caught up with Meredith who had walked out of the OR. Meredith decided she liked her. Meredith nodded and laughed, Cristina would definitely be a great ally and friend in the years to come.

Ending the first week of work, Meredith and Jackson were gathered into Chief Webber's office and noticed two other people there too.

"Thank you for gathering here today, this will be the confidential surgery team. Scrub Nurse, Bokhee and Anaesthesiologist, Dr Ben Warren," Chief Webber introduced.

"Dr Warren and Bokhee, under no circumstances are you allowed to reveal their identity or any information of the surgeries other than to me or the both of them. This is Dr. Jackson Avery and Dr. Meredith Grey."

Ben Warren and Bokhee turned stared in shock at the two renowned figures before them. Ben shook their hands, "It's an honour to be able to work with you both. Why all the secrecy? With their names shouldn't you be flaunting them. That'd be great PR for the hospital," Ben asked.

"They had expressed their wishes to start fresh. They go by Dr Black and Dr Fox here. So the first surgery will be tomorrow at 23 00 hours, I will be there to observe in the surgery," Chief Webber distribute the files around, "Patients name is Mr Alan, you'll be performing a pancreaticoduodenectomy."