Meredith Grey is a surgeon. She was born to be one. It wasn't an option. Her mother is a world class surgeon who practically forced Meredith into the practice. Meredith was sent to Dartmouth College, on the opposite side of the country. She knew no one there and was ready for a new life.

Derek just graduated Med School. He was off to be an intern at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. He had a long term girlfriend, Addison, whom he broke up with recently since she was starting her internship in New York. his best friend, Mark, had also started his internship with Addison. Derek was all alone but ready to start fresh.

Derek was really nervous for his first day as a surgical resident. The night before the big day, Mark took him out to a bar to celebrate. Mark had full intentions of meeting a girl and bringing her back to his hotel room. Derek just ended things with Addison, so he wasn't in the mood for meeting the next "one".

"Come on Derek, live a little. I know for a fact Addison is over you. She brought a few guys back to the apartment in the past week." Mark said to him as they walked into the bar.

"I don't care if she's moved on. I haven't." Derek said to Mark, who had his eye already on a table of what it looked like sorority girls. Derek walked over to the bar and sat down. He ordered his usual, double scotch, single malt, and noticed the girl he sat down next to. She had beautiful green eyes and blonde hair. She was downing her third shot of tequila when she noticed him looking at her.

"Hi," she said to him, "I promise I'm not fifteen, even though I look it."

He laughed, "You had me worried for a second, I about asked you where your babysitter went."

"I'm too old for a babysitter mom, I'm fifteen." she said with a laugh. Derek loved the sound of her laugh, it made him smile.

"Hi, I should probably introduce myself, I'm Derek, Derek Shepherd." he sa ik d as he extended his hand out for her to shake.

She shook his hand and it felt like a million fireworks exploded inside her. "Hi I'm Meredith Grey."

He looked at her, his eyebrows squinted, "You're Ellis Grey's daughter, right?"

"So you know the famous Ellis Grey?" She said, "Yes, she's my mother, but how did you get that so fast?"

He pointed to her student ID, "Dartmouth College of Medicine, you must be going into the medical field. You're the spitting image of Ellis, and the last name gave it away."

"Wow, you sure are observant. What else do you know?" she said.

"I know that I'm just a guy in a bar."

"I'm just a girl in a bar." She said to him, a smile in her face.

Derek looked behind Meredith and saw a drunk Mark standing on a table about to take his shirt off. "I'm sorry, my friend needs to get home." He said, "Here," he started writing on a napkin, "call me sometime." He slid the napkin over to Meredith and walked over to retreve Mark. As he was leaving, he looked back at Meredith, and smiled at her as he walked out of the bar.

Meredith walked into her apartment and shut the door. She sat down on the couch and stared at the phone. She debated whether she should call him this soon. She decided to text him instead, it was more subtle and not as needy. She took out the napkin from her pocket and texted him.

Hey, this is Meredith from the bar. I had fun tonight :).

She waited a while until her phone buzzed. She opened up the text and read:

I had fun too. I hope to see you again soon ;).

She looked at the text and her heart skipped a beat. Little did she know that that text would be the start of the rest of her life.