So, this is me being insane and deciding to start my new story and all. Whatever. Thanks to alexandizzie4eva for coming up with the title.
A Hell Of A Reunion
Chapter 1: Decisions
Some Days, Meredith hated her life. Of course recently, there had been a lot of those days, and a lot of nights were tequila filled.
But this, this wasn't one of those things that involved being Derek's dirty mistress or hiding the fact that her mother had Alzheimer's. Nope. It invlolved something a lot worse.
She sat silently, clenching and unclenching her fists staring at the phone in front of her. "It's your choice…" Richards's voice trailed off softly.
"I know that he's angry Meredith, but think about this woman. About her family. She'll die."
"You could call him."
"He hates me."
"He hates me too. Besides, you're Chief; I'm just the lowly intern. And it's not even my department; this girl has nothing to do with surgery, never did in the first place. You should have to do all the corresponding between hospitals. Call Lisa, she'll talk to him."
Meredith couldn't help the fact that she was feeling bitchy. She didn't want to talk to him.
"I can't Meredith; you're the only one who can get through to them."
Meredith caught herself before she could ask him whose fault that was. Richard was only partially to blame for their dislike of him. Plus it wouldn't be a good thing to go mouthing off to the man who could fire her (her boss' boss' boss?).
"I'll call." She grumbled. "But I can't guarantee anything."
Richard nodded gratefully. "I'll leave you alone to make the call then." He stood up to leave, but Meredith stopped him.
"If this – if he comes here, no one needs to know that he's my Uncle. Everyone already thinks that I only got here because of my mom, with him as my Uncle too -" Meredith let her voice trail off and Richard nodded.
"I'll keep quiet. I can't speak for him though, you know how he is."
"I'll deal with that hurdle when I have to."
Richard walked out, and Meredith took a deep breath and stared at the phone for a moment. She finally dialed.
It rang twice before an irritated female voice answered sharply.
"Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, Lisa Cuddy speaking, how may I help you?"
"Aunt Lisa?" Meredith felt like she was eight again. The familiarity of her voice almost brought tears to Meredith's eyes.
"Meri?"
"Yeah, it's me. Is your secretary off again?"
"Sick leave; I'm answering all my own phones right now. You okay sweetheart?"
The lump in Meredith's throat was getting bigger, but she swallowed it down.
Aunt Lisa was the one she had gone to with all of her problems, she had been more of a sister then an aunt. They had always been close. When Meredith had had girl problems, she had gone to Lisa, not wanting to discuss what was happening to her body with her Uncle, even if he was a doctor.
I should've listened to him. Just taken the job there. Then there wouldn't be any McWives or McDreamies or anything like that. But then again, there would be no Izzie, or George or Cristina. Or even Evil Spawn and Bailey. No Joe's or tequila.
"I'm fine, actually I need his help."
Meredith didn't need to elaborate on who he was, and she could imagine Lisa sitting in her office, shoes off and a thoughtful expression on her face, nodding and reaching for her secret stash of chocolate.
"I'll send him down to Seattle, on one condition Mags. You have to talk to him."
The lump in her throat got bigger. Mags. A nickname that no one else used, except for those three. Meredith Anne Grey, Mag, Mags, or Mag-Pie as Jimmy had called her.
"No."
"Meredith…" Lisa sighed.
Out of all the things that Meredith had gotten from House his insane stubbornness had been part of the package; it was something that Lisa wished she didn't have. Mostly Meri was a sweet girl, but when she didn't want to do something and was with one of them, she had no problem saying no.
One thing that Meredith hadn't gotten was his ability to hide emotion. She had always been vulnerable to feelings, mostly the bad ones, and couldn't lie to save her life. Meredith Grey hadn't had a terrible childhood, but when they had left New Jersey, life hadn't exactly been easy.
"I don't think that I can face him, Aunt Lisa. Everything he said to me that night – he told me I would regret going to Seattle, and he was right. And all those things that I said to him too, they were terrible."
"He misses you Meri, more then he ever lets on. That first night when you called Wilson and me – when we were talking to you in my office, he was right outside the door. And after one of us talks to you, we pass on the information to him. He pretends he doesn't care but he really does. After you told us about Derek – I thought he was going to go out there and kill him. He'll come if you ask him."
"I could make a really inappropriate comment right now, but I'm going to refrain."
"One House is enough" was Cuddy's dry reply. "When you used to run around here, the two of you were like Thing 1 and Thing 2, and when Wilson was with you it was the three stooges."
"You used to go with us before you became Super Boss Woman. It's a wonder nobody got fired. Half the time no one even noticed."
"You were so tiny Mer, pretty hard to see unless you got pissed off and started to yell. Plus, no one really cared or they didn't say anything."
It was true. Meredith had grown up in the hospital, easily fitting in. She would see cancer patients with Wilson, sit through boring conference calls with Cuddy – where endless games of doctor word hangman were played – and diagnose people with House. They were family to her.
"I kinda miss that. It was fun. We don't get to play jokes here we're all too busy running around." The two of them chatted for a few more minutes and finally Cuddy had to go.
"Meri, you have all the time in the world to talk to him. I'm not talking to him for you, and neither is Wilson. If you don't talk to him today, he'll still be here tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after that too. And I hate to guilty you into this Meri, but your patient could possibly be getting worse tomorrow. You know that House is the best diagnostic in the country."
"I'll call him right now, before I change my mind then I guess."
"Good. Meri? Don't forget that he loves you, no matter what he says."
There was silence and then Meredith's quiet voice on the other end. "I know he does. I'll talk to you later Aunt Lisa."
There was another brief moment of silence and then the dial tone. Cuddy sat there holding the phone wondering what had happened to the little blue eyed angel, a tiny slip of a girl with no family but House, Wilson, and herself.
The girl who had a beautiful smile, and who couldn't lie to her family to save her life, the baby girl that would go to Cuddy for girl talk and hated Stacey with all of her heart.
And what, had happened to her doting Uncle? The man who had taught her everything he knew. Multiple languages, how to play the piano (she had been almost as good as House himself), anything medical, and even how to break into Wilson's office or escape Cuddy and hide out from clinic duty.
Cuddy knew (could pinpoint even) the exact moment they had drifted away, and Cuddy hoped that they would fix their relationship before it was too late.
Meredith sat shifting slightly in the Richards chair. She had redialed about four times before finally gathering the courage to finish the number.
"House's House of Horrors how can I help you?" a familiar gruff voice greeted her.
"Actually, House's House of Horrors sounds like the perfect place to be right now." Meredith replied lightly. There was silence and she bit her lip nervously.
"Stop it." Meredith froze.
"Stop what?"
"Biting your lip, I can't stand when you do that, eventually your lips will start bleeding, and you'll end up bugging me for Chap Stick which I won't have."
Just like that the tension was broken.
"I have a case Uncle Greg. We need your help." There was silence and then a sigh.
"Depends."
"On what?"
There was never anything but blunt honesty between the two. It was the way that the two of them worked everything out. If you had something to say, you said it. That had also helped cause their problems, but that was another story.
"On what'll happen when I get there."
"What'll happen?"
"Now is not the time to get confused Dr. Grey keep up." House snapped playfully. "My team and Jimmy-Boy will go down there and cure your guy. But then Meri, we are going to talk everything out."
Meredith almost cried when she heard him call her Meri. It had been her nickname as a child, but now only the three family members at PPTH used it. When he was angry with her, he always called her Meredith.
Dr. Grey or Doc was when he was teasing her about medicine, or when she had been younger and he had been teacher her medical stuff or Midget when he was teasing her in general, or just laughing at how short she was compared to the three of them. But Meri or Meri Anne as he sometimes called her meant that everything was going to be okay between them.
"Everything Gimp?"
Gimp was her teasing nickname for him; it had started to get him out of his funk after the surgery. She had yelled it at him once when he was being an unreasonable ass, and it had stuck.
"Well, not everything. I don't want to hear how good the sex was. I just need to hear that I can beat the shit out of him."
"You can't."
"Can too. Just because I'm special doesn't mean that I can't play with the big kids."
"Dr. Webber has banned beating people up on the surgical floor. If you started beating up people on my behalf too… well, let's just say it could get ugly."
"Who else hit someone? Was it on your behalf? Do I need to hit two people? Or should I just beat them to death with my cane?" House paused for a moment. "This is more entertaining then the O.C. and General Hospital combined!"
"Thanks. Glad that my life is a source of entertainment" Meredith commented dryly. "The McBastard actually hit his ex-best friend slash man his wife slept with a.k.a. McSteamy when he saw him talking to me."
"Ohh, drama."
"Yeah drama." There was silence for a moment and then he heard Meredith shuffling around slightly. "I gotta go; they're paging me, no rest for the weary."
"Talk to you later Meri Anne. I'll call you with details."
"Okay. And, Uncle Greg, can we keep the fact that you're my Uncle between us?"
"We won't tell your people, but we have to tell my people. It's the only explanation why I suddenly have a heart. Plus, you know the slow motion, dramatic movie airport hug and everything when we see each other."
"And your immunologist might not like it." Meredith guessed.
"Yeah that too. She hits hard for a girl. But then again, so do you. Of course, you have me to thank for that."
Meredith had heard from Cuddy and Wilson that House's immunologist had had a crush on him, and House had been an ass and it had blown up in his face.
They had tentatively and somewhat secretly started dating. (The Ducklings knew and so did Wilson and Cuddy. They kept it out of the hospital.) She was thirty-three to Meredith twenty-seven and House's forty-eight.
The age difference didn't bother Meredith at all. If anyone could make House happy, then she would like them. Until she met them of course.
She had never liked Stacey which had always upset House. He had expected her to greet the woman with open arms as she had Cuddy and Wilson.
"Thanks, I think. I'll see you soon Uncle Greg."
"See you soon kiddo. Love you."
"Love you too." Meredith hung up the phone and sighed. This week was going to be interesting.
House sat in his chair and sighed. His niece was in pain, and there was really nothing he could do to stop it. He had known the moment she had told him. The moment that she had looked into his eyes. Seattle would kill her.
It was everything that was there. Her mother. His sister. She had never been a good roll model, or taken care of Meredith, but when she had come calling, Meredith had listened. Never mind the way the woman had treated her.
House thought of the countless nights he had spent with Meri. She was such a great kid growing up. Beautiful, smart, and innocent she had had the hospital wrapped around her finger. Around the time of his infraction, his sister had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
She had chosen her Uncle over her Mother. To Meri, at the time it had seemed like the best thing. Later, though, when she thought about, she felt insanely guilty. That's why when Ellis had asked (demanded) that she work in Seattle, Meredith had agreed.
It wasn't good for her, that town. He needed to take care of his niece while he was there. No one was probably making sure she was taking care of herself. That was nobody's fault but his own. He should've forced her to stay behind.
With a sigh, House launched himself from his chair. Time to gather the troops…
Gone for a week, so next chapter will be seven days from now at the earliest. Um yeah. Also, next chapter will be under Grey's, and then back at House, etc. Review!