Chapter Text
“Listen up, everybody!” Owen raised his voice slightly to catch the attention of everyone inside the Attending’s lounge. “As you all know, the new interns start today. This means that, like every year, we are going to play Disguise.”
He motioned to the white board that hung on the wall behind him. Drawn on it were two columns, labelled “In” and “Out”. The first one held the names of every surgeon in the room, who currently is in a relationship. The second one was empty. For now.
“The same rules as always apply. Don’t give hints on purpose, help each other out when it gets complicated and no cheating! If you’re out, then you’re out no matter if you try to bribe your intern’s or not.” Owen gave everyone a once over.
“Last chance, does anyone not want to play this year?” Not a single hand was raised into the air.
“Alright, let the game begin!”
“Oh, this is going to be so fun.” Meredith said as she exited the break room with Amelia. Her sister in law raised an eyebrow at her.
“You think you’ll win? You and Derek can barely stop from making out right in the hallways, every time you see each other.” Meredith bumped her with her elbow.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not good at pretending to be just colleagues.”
“I somehow doubt that.” Amelia chuckled.
“Hey, don’t forget, we’ve already been through this. It’s not the first time that we have to hide our relationship.”
“And you failed, miserably. As far as I know, Arizona and Callie won last year.”
“Mh, fair point. But we’re ambitious.” Meredith said. “And I don’t think I have to tell you how... exciting it can be to sneak around.”
Amelia snorted. “You are so going to lose.”
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
“Please listen up, I’m Doctor Wilson! Who’s with me?” Jo asked from where she stood at the entrance of the intern’s locker room.
Four hands went up. She gave her newbie’s a quick once over and then nodded to herself. “Come here and tell me your names and pronouns, quick.”
“Josh Wright, he/him.” The boy closest to her said. Blonde hair, pretty face and probably a bit too much ego. He’ll manage to fit in eventually.
“Maleeha akhtar she/her.” The girl on his right said. She wore a hijab, had a good posture and was quite literally vibrating with energy.
“Helios Coleman, they/them.” A bit smaller than the rest, but impossible to miss with their blue hair, currently tied up in a braid.
“Elijah Bosley, he/him.” The last of them said. He had short hair and dark skin. He seemed a bit insecure. First year may be a bit tough for him, but Jo wouldn’t let her first impression dictate her actions in their first few days.
“Alright, follow me.” Jo smiled to herself as she showed her four interns around the hospital. They were, quite literally following her like chicks and dugs.
After telling them the basics, Jo took them with her to do the rounds. Their first patient of the day was Tony Rogers. She had just finished checking his labs, when Meredith entered the room.
“Good morning, Doctor Grey.”
“Morning.” She greeted them. “Doctor Wilson, report please.”
“Tony Rogers, male, age 53. He came in yesterday with abdominal pain, fever and regurgitation. Tests have shown that he has multiple gallstones in his gallbladder.”
“How do we treat that?” Meredith looked over at the four interns. She was met with a few seconds of silence, before Elijah answered.
“The common treatment would be a Cholecystectomy.“ Meredith nodded. „And do we go in laparoscopically or not?”
“Since that is the least invasive technique, I’d say yes.” Jo had to admit that she was surprised. She had expected Josh to answer first. Her intuition to not judge the newbie’s too fast had been right.
Meredith nodded satisfied. She let Jo explain the procedure and tested the intern’s knowledge in between, letting them name risks and advantages.
“Alright, Doctor Wilson will prepare you for the surgery once we finished the rounds. You,” she pointed at Elijah. “What’s your name?”
“Uhm it's Elijah Bosley.” “You can join us in the OR, Bosley. You get to watch.” The boy had a hard time concealing his excitement.
“Really?!”
“Yes, now don’t get too happy before I change my mind.”
Meredith had just finished checking on her last patient and was about to head to the OR, when she saw Derek coming around the corner. A smile tugged on her lips as he made her way to her.
“Hello, Doctor Shepherd.” She greeted him.
“If you smile at me like that, they’re going to know before the day is over, Doctor Grey.” He chuckled.
“Well, then I better try my best not to look at you.” She said, mischief twinkling in her eyes as she turned back to her tablet.
10 feet away from them, Maleeha, Helios and Josh had put their heads together and spoke in hushed voices.
“Is that Derek Shepherd?” Helios asked.
“With that hair? Definitely.” Maleeha answered. Josh rolled his eyes.
“Dear god, he really is gorgeous.” The young girl said. “One of my friends, who’s a few years above me told me about him. She said that they call him McDreamy.”
Josh snorted. “McDreamy? Really? Who came up with that?” Helios shrugged.
“I think it fits. He has those dreamy puppy eyes.” Maleeha hummed in agreement.
“Do they have a name for Doctor Grey too?” Josh asked, curiosity visible in his voice.
“I think they call her Medusa.” Maleeha said. “I’m not quite sure why tho.”
“I do need to talk to you though.” Derek said, lowering his voice. “Can you get the kids today? I just got a new patient and I think it’s going to be a long and complicated surgery.”
“Of course.” Meredith smiled. “I’ll see you later then?”
“Yeah, see you later.” Derek nodded and caught himself just as he was about to kiss his wife, nearly blowing their cover.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
“Now that I have identified the gallbladder, what do I do next?”Meredith asked, looking up from where she was operating. “Bosley?”
“Ehm... first you identify and clip the cystic duct?”
“Is that a question or an answer?”
“An answer.” Meredith made a disappointed noise. “Your answer is wrong. I have to clip the cystic artery first. Didn’t you listen when we went through the procedure earlier?”
“I-I’m sorry, Doctor Grey.” She shook her head and focused back on the patient.
After a while Meredith spoke up again. “I finished clipping the cystic artery. Doctor Wilson, can you identify the cystic duct?” Jo did as she was told and soon enough Meredith was ready to remove the gallbladder.
“Alright, I’m now going to cut the clipped ends, place the gallbladder in a bag and remove it.” Bosely watched closely on the screen, not wanting to miss a single detail.
“And here we go.” Meredith said as she pulled the filled bag out through the largest incision.
“Sent this up for a biopsy, Wilson you can close the incisions and take care of his post-op management. And you should pay more attention, Bosley.” The surgeon said before removing her gloves, gown and mask. “I’ll see you when he wakes up.” Then she left the room.
The rest of the day wasn’t much different than any other. Meredith looked after her patients, had two more surgeries and soon enough her shift was over and she was heading up to the kindergarten to get her kids.
Only seconds after she came in, Zola was already running up to her and greeted her with a tight hug. Meredith kissed her head and smiled softly.
“Hey ZoZo, do you know where your brother is?” Her daughter tugged her along and Meredith picked up her son from where he was playing in a corner.
“Hi Bailey, ready to go home?” The small boy answered with excited noises. His mother couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Minutes later they were dressed and on their way to the front entrance of the hospital.
“Do you want to tell me how your day was?” She asked Zola, squeezing the girl’s small hand. She immediately went off into a rant about the games she had played, how she and Sophia had built a huge Lego house and gushed over the cookies she had after lunch.
Meredith could feel her chest filling with love and adoration. Bless children for their seemingly never ending excitement and wonder of the world.
What she missed while listening to her daughter, were Elijah and Maleeha who had sat down near the entrance for a small break. What she also missed was how they shared a surprised look and started talking in hushed voices.
“How is she even able to smile like that? She was so mean in the OR today! I felt like a total idiot.” Elijah whined. The girl next to him patted his shoulder.
“I would’ve said the wrong thing too, if I’d been down there. Doctor Grey is terrifying!”
“Medusa indeed.” Elijah grumbled.