Author: melissajadex
Rating: M
Parings: MD, with some initial Addek.
Summary: If Derek had met Meredith before he married Addison, and before he was even engaged to her, it would have changed everything.
Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's Anatomy, all rights belong to ABC and Shonda Rhimes.

AN - Back with a new story, I just couldn't get this idea out of my head.

Now I had a bit of trouble naming this story so I went through my itunes to find a song that fit, I was first going to call it "Calling Me" inspired by Alva Leigh's song. But I ended up falling onto Sia's "Day Too Soon" and it was just perfect, if you haven't heard it before you should listen to it, Sia is amazing.

I'd like to warn you all, I am not a nurse or a doctor so my medical knowledge is based on GA and when I do randomly look things up, so please don't be critical, I try to be as authentic as I possibly can be. I also stole the voice of this chapter from the show, I thought it did a few things: introduced Meredith for who she is, tied into some of the subject matter of the chapter and it plays a nice resonance to the theme of the story. I normally try to write the voiceoevers myself but I really loved this one so yes, I stole, all credit to the writers of GA for it, mwah excellent job.

Now, as you can see this AN is very extensive, feel free to skip past it, but it just shows how much I really thought this through and I think its interesting, so read it you may find it interesting too. But if you really just want to get into the story, I won't hold it against you. ;)

So this story started out of a pretty accurate musing: if Meredith had met Derek before he had married Addison, it definitely would have put a spanner in the works of Derek and Addison. Pretty accurate right, so naturally an idea hit me but before I pursued it I wanted to be sure if it was entirely possibly age wise for them to have met.

So the basis of this story has been born out of a series hypothesis that are of an "educated-guess" matter. So let's start with Derek:

I always got the impression that when Derek came to Seattle in Season One he was an up and coming Neuro Surgeon, meaning that he probably had only been an attending for no more than five years. This is slightly proved in two scenes. First scene is on the "Anatomy of a Pilot" which is a DVD extra where Richard and Derek have a conversation about the size of his office etc etc, Richard gives the distinct impression that Derek was someone who had a lot of potential but hadn't quite made it yet, so to speak. The second scene is in 1x09 when the chief asks Derek to remove his tumor, and he basically says, "Let's see what you're actually made of." So for my time line I base that when Derek meets Meredith in Grey's he has been an attending for five years, so count back 11 years (for how long he was married to Addison) and that roughly suggests that Derek married Addison in his first year as an intern. This was slightly cemented by something I read on a Grey's Anatomy Wiki that Derek had married his long-time Med School Girlfriend, which suggests that he married Addison just before they started their internship or during it or after it. For my timeline, if the marriage were to happen I am going for at the end of the intern year, much like Cristina and Burke.

Now onto Meredith:

I always got the distinct impression that Meredith was older than her fellow residents and more than likely took time off at some point. This coincides with Meredith's history. We know that Ellis got diagnosed with Alzheimer's between College and Med School and I assume just based off Meredith's character and interaction with Ellis in the past that Ellis's negative opinion of Meredith ultimately made Meredith really doubt herself and contributed to her lack of decisiveness when trying to figure out what she wanted out of life and would have caused the gaps between school. I also believe that Ellis ultimately influenced where Meredith went to college and Med School, it really seems that Meredith just always gave into her mother. So I have determined that Meredith would have taken at least three years off at some point in order for it to coincide with the GA timeline.

So, after working out that it truly is theoretically possible I then asked myself this question: "If Meredith tended to give into her mother and her opinions and decisions, how on earth would she plausibly end up in New York?"

Good question, and then I thought this: "If Meredith had became determined to not let her mother's negative opinion of her rule her life, how would that change things?" And we now have a driving force of plausibility. I ultimately believe that if Meredith had not let her mother get to her she never would have taken time off and she'd probably be in her fourth year of residency when she first meets Derek in the current GA timeline. Nothing would have shaken her resolve; she would have still looked after Ellis, but without taking time off.

So, based upon my calculations Meredith is 18 and Derek is 27, which is all you need to know for now. So, now that I have the timeline of plausibility down, and possibly bored you all in the process, I can have my way with the characters…so to speak!

Chapter One
Life Happens

"In the eighth grade, my English class had to read Romeo and Juliet. Then, for extra credit, Mrs Snyder made us act out all the parts. Sal Scafarillo was Romeo. As fate would have it, I was Juliet. All the other girls were jealous. But I had a slightly different take."

"I told Mrs Snyder that Juliet was an idiot. For starters, she falls for the one guy she knows she can't have. Then she blames fate for her own bad decision. Mrs Snyder explained to me that when fate comes into play, choice sometimes goes out the window."

"At the ripe old age of thirteen, I was very clear, that love, like life, is about making choices. and fate has nothing to do with it. Everyone thinks it's so romantic. Romeo and Juliet. True love. How sad. If Juliet was stupid enough to fall for the enemy, drink a bottle of poison, and go to sleep in a mausoleum… she deserved whatever she got."

Meredith meekly stared up at the cemented walls of the tall hospital building. People bustled by her, either heading into the hospital or out. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't intimidated by the large building before her. She was eighteen, in a new city, alone.

Alone was a concept she was familiar with, her life has been all about alone. This however, was a new level of alone, but she wasn't afraid of it, she was excited. She was only intimidated by the life before her, because she was just waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

She took a deep breath and moved forward, reaching out to open the glass door of the hospital's front entrance. She entered the building, her eyes searching out the help desk and, upon spotting it, she quickly moved forward toward it, finding herself anxious to get started. She approached the nurse behind the desk, who looked up at her and smiled briefly, her face showing evident tiredness from a long shift. It's true what they say, that behind every physician is a tired and frantic nurse.

"Hi, welcome to New York Presbyterian Hospital, is there anything I can help you with?" The tired blonde-haired nurse greeted her kindly.

"Ah, yes. I'm looking for Nurse Lauren Wells, I'm the new LPN and I start today," Meredith replied, as she adjusted the bag on her shoulder. The nurse nodded, as she walked out from behind the counter and held her hand out to Meredith for her to shake.

"It's nice to meet you Meredith, I've been expecting you. I'm Lauren," she said, smiling good-naturedly, but Meredith could tell she was scrutinizing her, obviously thinking that she was awfully young.

"Oh, hi," Meredith replied, shaking her hand.

"So, the Chief mentioned you were young, but he didn't mention how young. You can't be any older than twenty," Lauren stated casually as she gestured for Meredith to follow her.

"Actually, I'm eighteen," Meredith offered, a little awkwardly, hoping that people wouldn't judge her as incompetent just based on her age.

"Eighteen? You must be close to nineteen then, it takes a year to get an LPN," Lauren replied, a frown crossing her face.

"My high school had a LPN program so I did it during my senior year and took the test as soon as I was eighteen," Meredith explained, her voice slightly defensive.

"Oh, I've heard of that, you must be keen to become an RN then," Lauren chuckled.

"Actually, no," Meredith replied, as Lauren led them into what appeared to be the nurses' locker room.

"No?" Lauren asked, now confused as she turned around to face her.

"I'm studying to be a doctor, and I just thought…you know it would be beneficial to work in the same field…for experience and such," Meredith explained, finding herself rambling a little.

"Oh, well a lot of nurses do the same thing while they are studying for their RN, so it makes sense. What field are you thinking of specializing in?" Lauren replied, nodding in understanding.

"Surgery," Meredith answered automatically.

"Nice," Lauren offered. "Ok, so this is the locker room, yours is the one on the far right, and this is your combination. There are scrubs in your locker, get dressed and I will take you for a tour and show you the ropes."

Meredith nodded and moved to her locker. She quickly opened it and grabbed her light green scrubs, then went to the bathroom to change. She stripped quickly, and pulled the scrubs on, she exited and threw her clothes and belongings in her new locker. She tied her golden hair into a ponytail and turned to face Lauren, waiting for further instruction. "Ok, so I am the Charge Nurse, which means that, for all intents and purposes, I am your immediate boss, since I'm in charge of all the nurses within the surgery department of this hospital. I basically have one rule, if you do your job quickly, efficiently and at a high standard, we will get on fabulously. However do the opposite and you will get to meet my nasty side, and believe me, I actually have one, and let's just say, she's no ray of sunshine," Lauren quickly explained, her southern accent accentuating the more she spoke, as she picked up a clipboard from the nurses station and nodded to several of the nurses, doctors and orderlies.

Meredith simply nodded as she continued to follow Lauren as she made her rounds around the surgery wing.

"Basically, as an LPN you can do pretty much everything an RN does but under the direct supervision of either myself, another RN or a doctor. By direct supervision I don't mean we need to be standing in the room with you, except for when you are administering medications, you just need to report to us. Are we clear?" Lauren turned to regard her, eyeing the young nurse before her in scrutiny, wondering if Meredith had what it took. Meredith straightened up and her expression hardened in determination. Lauren was taken aback. 'Hmmm, tough little thing.' She thought.

"All I need to know is where everything is. I am ready, I've been ready since I was eight years old," Meredith answered confidently. She was rising to the challenge, all previous reservations gone. She was born for this after all.

"Well alright then, supplies are over there." Lauren responded nodding and raising an eyebrow at the determined young girl before her as she pointed to the supply closet. "Charts are at the nurses station we just passed, I want you to do rounds on all rooms on this floor. Monitor the patient's vitals, take blood pressure and all the other routine procedures. Any inconsistencies that show up that are emergent, page the surgeon on the case. Once you are done report back to me, ok?" Lauren ordered, putting her hand on her hip casually. "Let's see what you are made of Grey," she grinned, before turning and walking away.

Meredith moved to the nurses' station and gathered up the charts for the floor and got straight to work. She was determined to do her best and soak up the experience as if a sponge as she knew her time as a nurse would only further her experience and knowledge as a doctor in the future.

/ / /

Richard led the newest group of bright-faced, surgery hungry interns into the OR. He turned around and faced them, regarding each and every face of the men and women before him, trying to ascertain the standouts, the underdogs, and the inbred.

"Each of you comes here 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."

Richard gave his well-rehearsed speech to yet another group of interns. For four years he had given this same speech to every group of new interns. This was supposed to be the Chief's job, but Ginsberg always palmed it off to him. She would say to him that You have better people skills Richard, you inspire them. But the truth is, and you would never catch Nora Ginsberg admitting this, she thought interns were beneath her. Irony is, they have all been interns at some point.

Dr. Nora Ginsberg – a filthy hypocrite, not exactly news to him.

/ / /

Derek, Addison, Mark, Naomi and Sam stared around the OR they were in, each excited, and yet equally terrified. All their hard work in college and med school had led them here today. This is where it all began; Derek could feel it in every fibre of his being. He followed his friends as Dr. Webber led them out of the OR and back down to the intern locker room.

Richard nodded at the raven-haired Latina resident who was tapping her foot and waiting impatiently for her new bunch of idiotic interns. Dr. Gabriella Rodriguez was a force to be reckoned with, she was beautiful but petite and to the outsider she didn't pose much of a challenge, but as they say, looks can be very deceiving; and not to mention, it's the tiny ones you should watch closely..

"Alright, let's get this show on the road I don't have all day, so listen up!" she called over the inane chatter of the interns. Her voice, her stance, and her aura commanded respect, and immediately silenced them all.

"Hopkins, Gregory, Bennett - the male one - Montgomery. You are with Dr. Morrison," she called, reading their names from her clipboard and pointing them to their resident. "Mostow, the other Bennett, Feldman, Steiner. You are with Dr. Nalder," she called over the noise of the scuffling residents.

Dr. Nalder raised her hand so her interns could find her. Addison shot an apologetic look at Naomi; who just shrugged as if to say it's not the end of the world, since Addison and Naomi had hoped to be assigned in the same group as one another.

"Sloan, Shepherd, Morgansen, Hayes. You are with Dr. Manning." Dr. Rodriquez called and pointed them to a burly third year resident.

"Damn it, I was hoping he'd be a chick," Mark cursed as they made their way over toward Dr. Manning.

"Why does the gender of our resident matter, exactly?" Derek quipped at him.

"I was hoping I could show her the…you know….'Sloan Method,' and get a surgery or two," he responded smoothly, wiggling his eyebrows. Derek groaned.

"Do you ever think about anything other than sex?" Derek teased him, shaking his head.

"No," Mark answered automatically. Derek rolled his eyes. "What?" Mark asked, not understanding what could possibly be wrong with always having sex on the brain.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if all that anonymous vagina has somehow inflicted you with permanent brain damage." he mocked Mark, mercilessly.

"Well, at least I'm not pussy whipped by one woman," Mark retorted.

"I am not pussy whipped! And even if I was, at least I'm not a potential walking STD," Derek retorted back.

"I may sleep with a lot of women Derek, but I ain't stupid. No glove, no love, so to speak. Speaking of pussy whipping, though, Addison asked me to encourage you to hurry up and propose. She wants a ring on her finger, man," Mark told him, cringing slightly. Marriage and commitment were like two very foul words for him.

"We're not there yet," Derek said matter-of-factly as their resident gestured them to follow him.

"She seems to think you are," Mark deadpanned.

"Fine, I'm not there yet," Derek conceded, defensively.

"You have been dating her for almost four years, how are you not there yet?" Mark whispered to Derek. Derek simply ignored him and paid attention to his resident.

"You are interns, you have no authority, you don't whine and you work every single hour of your shift until you drop. I expect you to perform the task I assign you diligently, because your failures become mine and I don't like to fail. Do your job right the first time and don't piss me off." Manning growled at his residents.

The group all nodded or murmured that they understood.

"Sloan, you are on sutures. Morgansen, I want you writing discharges," Manning ordered, Mark threw one knowing look at Derek before hurrying off. "Hayes, charts," Manning growled as he thrust a stack of charts into Natalie's flustered hands. "Shepherd, you are with me."

Derek knew of this guy, Kathleen and Nancy had mentioned him a few times and not in the politest of terms either; both of his sisters thought he was a first-class jackass.

"This is Katherine Wagner, involved in a head on collision, she presented with massive internal bleeding from a trauma to the abdomen. I operated on her late last night, I spent eight hours in the OR saving her life, and I want her to stay alive, you will vigilantly monitor her and you will page me if there are any issues, got it?" Manning challenged him as he thrust the patient's chart into Derek's hands.

"Yes, sir," Derek responded, being careful to not allow the disdain for his resident creep into his voice.

Manning took one last scrutinizing look and turned and walked away.

"Moron." Derek cursed under his breath.

"Calling your resident a moron, probably not the smartest move." He heard a teasing voice from behind him and turned to see an attractive, young, honey-haired nurse raising an amused eyebrow at him. "You are lucky he didn't hear you." She smirked wryly as she entered Mrs Wagner's room. She pulled her stethoscope from around her neck and listened to her heartbeat.

Derek found her enchanting. He entered the room and watched the nurse work, since technically she was already doing the job that Manning had assigned him.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch?" She asked as she noted down the patient's heart rate on the clipboard.

"Dr. Manning assigned me to monitor her vitals, and you are already doing that," Derek offered as he held his hand out for the clipboard so he could take a look at what she had written.

"Huh," she shrugged, taken aback, then she chuckled. "Your resident assigned you a nurse's' job, you must be some intern, eh?" she giggled, shaking her head as she checked the patient's IV.

"Hey, I resent that, I am good," Derek retorted back at her, grinning.

"Oh, ok…sure," She teased him.

"Manning is a moron," Derek defended. She rolled her eyes at him and placed a hand on her hip.

"I thought we just established it wasn't a good idea to call your resident a moron," She joked sarcastically. "You know, pissing off your resident is right up there with pissing off the nurses. Both are a bad move," She said knowingly.

"True, and I like nurses, without you us doctors would be screwed. But it just so happens that I really do know that Manning is a moron. My two older sisters work here."

"Oh, I'm not debating he isn't a moron, that much is clear, I'm just saying, don't let him hear you say that," She replied. She had heard Manning bark at them earlier, and being the daughter of Ellis Grey meant that Meredith had spent a good amount of time in the hospital to be able to tell which doctors are actually morons, and Manning was definitely one of them.

"Dr. Derek Shepherd," he introduced himself, holding out his hand. She took his hand with a good-natured smile and shook it.

"Meredith Grey." She introduced herself back.

"Grey, huh. Are you-" he began before she cut him off.

"Related to Ellis Grey. Yes, she is my mother," she finished his question with a roll of the eyes and a bored tone.

"Ah, you get asked that a lot, sorry."

Meredith just shrugged it off and began changing Mrs Wagner's IV, since there seemed to be some irritation.

"So question is, what is the child of a surgical great doing as a nurse? You'd think you'd follow in your mom's footsteps," Derek asked her as he shut the chart and placed his pen into his lab coat front pocket.

"Oh…I am becoming a doctor…a surgeon to be exact…it's just, I wanted to work at the hospital while I went to college and my ah, my high school offered a LPN program…so, you know I did it," Meredith rambled as she explained.

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense," Derek agreed, but he still couldn't quite understand why someone like Meredith would need to work while she was in college. Surely her mother would pay for everything, why would she need to work? Then it dawned on him that she must be really passionate about medicine and he found that quite admirable. "So what year of college are you in?" He asked, quite interested in the beautiful blonde.

"It will be my first year. I start in a couple of weeks at Columbia," Meredith answered as she focused on inserting a new IV into Mrs Wagner.

"Columbia, huh, I went there for med school; great college. So you're eighteen? Nineteen?" he quizzed further, feeling this urge to know as much as he could about her.

"You're awfully curious," she smirked wryly. "I'm eighteen," she finally answered as she reconnected the IV fluids.

She was just about to leave when the alarms on the monitors went off. Derek noticed that the patient's heart rate was going through the roof then it bottomed out.

"V-Fib." Meredith recognized immediately what was happening and she pushed the blue button on the wall behind the patient and she heard the PA system kick in straight away.

'Code blue, fourth floor; code blue, fourth floor.'

Derek rolled Mrs. Wagner to her side, waiting for Meredith to position the backboard, before he began the compressions. Meredith put an ambu bag over the patient's mouth and began pressing the bag in even pulses to give her oxygen. The code team burst into the room with the crash cart. Derek continued compressions. Lauren manned the crash cart, she put gel on the paddles and handed them to Derek, who rubbed them together before placing them on Mrs Wagner's chest.

"Charge to 200," he ordered. "Clear."

Meredith pulled the ambu bag away as Derek sent a jolt of electricity through. Meredith glanced up at the monitor as she continued to give oxygen to the patient with the ambu-bag.

"No change." Meredith acknowledged.

"Page Dr. Manning," Derek called over his shoulder. "Let's push a round of Epi and charge to 260."

Meredith motioned for another nurse beside her to take over the ambu-bag and then she grabbed the Epi and pushed it.

"Clear!" Derek called.

"Still no change," Lauren stated.

"Up to 360," Derek called. Lauren charged immediately. "Clear!"

"Nothing." Meredith shook her head.

"Damn it, Mrs Wagner! Charge again!" Derek ordered. Lauren charged. "Clear!" he shouted, agitated and angry, not wanting to lose a patient on his first day as an intern.

"No change," Meredith said again as Derek continued compressions. Manning finally burst into the room.

"What the hell happened?" he growled to Derek.

"She just flat-lined. Her stats were fine; she was stable and then she wasn't," Derek explained in a flurry.

"I've got it, just go!" Manning dismissed him.

Derek shuffled out of the room dejectedly. He knew what was going to happen next and heard it over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

"Time of death: 8:42 AM."

Derek felt helpless, a death on his very first day as an intern.

Meredith watched Derek's dejected form and felt the urge to follow him, but she was stopped by Lauren.

"You did good in there, Grey," she smiled.

"The patient is dead," Meredith responded, sighing.

"Yes, but you handled the situation very well; you were calm, you had it together. Look, I don't know a lot about being a doctor because I'm a nurse, but if you were becoming a RN, you'd make a good one, so I think that says a lot about how good of a surgeon you will be," she nodded, smiling.

"Thanks," Meredith smiled, feeling humbled by her boss' kind words.

"Go take a thirty minute break, get yourself a coffee, you've earned it," Lauren grinned, giving her a wink before walking away to attend to her other duties for the day.

Meredith grinned to herself and made her way down to the lobby coffee cart.

"Mocha Latte, please," she asked the barista.

"Coming right up." The barista smiled as she took Meredith's money.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Derek sitting on a bench outside the hospital.

"Here you go."

The barista jolted her out of her stare. Meredith turned and took the hot beverage from her.

"Thanks," she said gratefully and headed out of the hospital walking toward Derek.

He looked up at her as he noticed her presence and offered Meredith a weak smile and she offered one back while she sat down beside him. Neither spoke for a few minutes.

"Her heart arrested twice in surgery, there was a lot of damage. You did everything right, there was nothing you could have done more," Meredith tried to console him; she could tell he was beating himself up over it. The truth is, in the same situation Meredith would do the same.

"You know, I wish I wanted to be a postal worker, I'm reliable," Derek sighed.

Meredith chuckled, understanding completely. She knew the hard road ahead of her.

"You know, my mom goes around bragging that I am a surgeon, like it's this big, massive accomplishment or something - which is weird because my two older sisters are doctors, one of my younger sisters is in med school about to become a doctor and my little sister is in college for pre-med, maybe she'll become one too, - but she really brags about me. Maybe it's because I'm the only boy, but she brags like I'm some kind of superhero or something. If only she could see me now."

Meredith shifted her body so she was slightly facing him, envious. She wished she had his kind of mother.

"When I told my mother I wanted to be a surgeon, she tried to talk me out of it. She said I didn't have what it took, that I'd never make it. So, from where I stand, superhero sounds pretty damn good," Meredith offered with a smile.

"I'll survive this, right?" Derek asked her, as he turned his head so he was looking at her directly.

"Believing that we survive is what makes us survive Derek." Meredith answered with a silent promise, that yes, you'll be ok.

Derek's expression changed into an analytical one. Just when he feels he has Meredith worked out, she surprises him further.

"You are eighteen years old, you should be more concerned with…I don't know, the color of your nails. How did you get to be so wise?" he asked in wonderment.

"Life happened, and…uh…sometimes you find yourself growing up, I don't know, faster than you should ever have to," she explained in a ramble. Her ramble had quickly become his favorite thing about this girl.

"Yeah, yeah, that's something I understand too," Derek murmured. He remembered when his father had died, and suddenly he became the man of the house.

"It changes a person," Meredith murmured in agreement.

Derek noticed a sadness in her beautiful blue-green eyes, and he felt himself aching to take her into his arms and hold her. He could tell just by looking into her eyes that whatever had made her grow up so fast, was something dark and painful.

He felt something shift inside him, because he felt she understood him in a way no one outside his own family could, and somehow, without a shadow of a doubt, he knew that life as he knew it would never be the same.

"Maybe Romeo and Juliet were fated to be together, but just for a while. And then their time passed. If they could have known that beforehand, maybe it all would have been okay."

"I told Mrs Snyder that when I was grown up, I'd take fate into my own hands. I wouldn't let some guy drag me down. Mrs Snyder said I'd be lucky if I ever had that kind of passion with someone. And that if I did, we'd be together forever."

"Even now, I believe that for the most part, love is about choices. It's about putting down the poison and the dagger and making your own happy ending, most of the time. And that sometimes, despite all your best choices, and all your best intentions, fate wins anyway."

AN - This is the largest beginning chapter I have ever written. I really hope you all like it, hit the review button and let me know what you all think, I love comments especially those lovely people who take the time to really delve into the characters, I love analytical comments.

Again I want to reiterate, I'm not a medical professional, so don't be critical, I try to be as authentic as possible and I do look somethings up. Also, it is possible to get LPN in high school, I read this online that some high schools do offer it, they just can't take the actual exam until they turn 18. For those who don't know what an LPN is, it is a Licensed Practical Nurse in the US, they are limited to what they can do, mostly its patient care, but can do alot of the things that a RN can but have to be supervised, it differs from state to state when it comes to medication administering and other things, I couldn't find what the laws are in NY, so I'm just going with it that what Meredith did in the chapter, she can do.

Mel