Work Text:
Dr Miranda Bailey is walking into the ER at her hospital, overseeing her junior staff, the interns, residents and fellows. Most of her department heads and senior staff were on call, but at home or at various parties. Jackson, Harriett, Catherine and Richard had headed to Hawaii for a few days so they were away but they had covered over Christmas so that she could take Ben, Joey and Tuck to Mount Baker skiing for three days.
Meredith is hosting a small New Years Eve party with non-alcoholic punch and hor d'oeuvres just for her household members and Cormac. She and Cormac haven't told everyone at work that they are dating, so the idea of the small party with her family let them cuddle on the couch while they play games, chat and enjoy one another's company. Zola, Bailey and Ellis are playing quietly and hoping to spend a quiet night at home while Scout is already in bed. Their emergency bags are by the door ready if the adults are called into the hospital.
Cormac's kids, Austin and Liam are partying at the Bailey-Warren house. Ben's crew at Station 19 was off so he decided to host a safe New Years Eve party for the teens. Joey and Tuck invited a few close friends over and had insisted they include Cormac's kids. Ben arranged pop, pizza, chips, and snacks and set up both games systems so they could all play.
The group of department heads (Ortho, Neuro, Cardio, General and Paeds) at Meredith's would only go in if something large came in. As head of paediatrics Cormac was probably the least likely to be paged and she hoped they didn't have to leave him alone with the four kids. The wagers are placed as to who would be paged first, thinking it is probably neuro or ortho, although they had spent many a past New Years Eve all being paged into the hospital. Meredith hopes that they aren't all paged into the hospital so they wouldn't need to move sleeping kids.
The pagers are all left on the kitchen table and they could hear the beeping start.
"Mom! More than one of these is beeping," Zola yells.
Link gets up and heads into the kitchen and sees three beeping pagers, silences them and calls, "Amelia, Maggie, let's go. It's the three of us."
"Mer, are you OK with Scout?"
"No problem. I have his carseat in my car if needed," Meredith replies.
"Thanks! His bag is by the door if you get called in you can drop him at daycare," Amelia replies.
It wasn't long before Ellis yelled, "Mommy, your pager is going off."
"Sorry, is it OK if I head in?" she says to Cormac.
"Let me call Ben, he offered to let me bring the kids over if needed," Cormac replies before calling Ben. Ben quickly suggests that Cormac bring the four Grey-Shepherd & Shepherd-Lincoln kids over to his house, knowing that his group of teens would easily babysit if Cormac is later called into the hospital.
"Zola, Bailey and Ellis, can you please get your shoes and coat on? We are going to head over to Dr Warren's house," Cormac says.
"With Liam and Austin?" Ellis asks.
"Yes Ellie. Liam and Austin are there. Zola, do you want to grab a game or two that you can play?" Cormac replies as he heads to find Meredith getting Scout ready.
"Are you OK driving the four of them over to Ben's?" she asks.
"Just help me get them all strapped in and I'll be fine. I have Ben and ten teenagers over there." It only took them ten minutes to all load up in the two cars, Meredith heading to the hospital in Cormac's car and Cormac driving the family vehicle with four kids in it.
At 11pm Cormac's pager rings and Liam says, "Don't worry Dad, we have the kids. You go."
"Ben, are you sure?" he asks, turning to the only adult with a house full of teenagers and kids.
"We are good. We have 4 sleeping kids in my room, and a house full of teenagers. Go! Some kid at the hospital needs you."
"OK. Thanks."
"Don't worry. We have it covered," Ben says while Joey and Liam both nod.
"I owe you," Cormac says.
He arrives and heads directly to Trauma 1 and is greeted by Amelia with details of the kid he needs to take into surgery. "Patient is cleared by neuro for surgery, monitor 24 hours, page me if her status changes. By the way, where's Scout?" she asks.
"With Ben and 13 other kids!"
"Is he OK?"
"Scout is good, I gave him a bottle at 10 and he was back sleeping when I left. Ben's good, but we might owe him a night without teens," Cormac jokes before heading off with his patient to the OR.
Meredith came out of surgery just before midnight and checked the OR board wondering where her family was. Link and Amelia were in OR2, Cormac in OR3 and Maggie in OR4. Meredith wanders into the observation areas and wishes everyone a Happy New Years to all the OR staff before heading back down to the ER to check on the patients in the trauma rooms. "Dr Hayes, where are the kids?"
"Dr Warren has a houseful," he replies.
"Are they OK?"
"Don't worry, go find another patient. There were a few that needed General checks when I came up here," he says.
"Thanks, Happy New Years Eve everyone," she says as she leaves the room.
About 6am Meredith finds Cormac dozing on the couch in his office, but he wakes as she enters. She closes the door and blinds before heading to his couch to kiss him. "How did you get out of surgery so quickly?" she asks.
"You, Bailey and Jo all took the last of the general cases. I can't do craniotomies. Nor set compound fractures."
"From the looks of it, Link will be calling in all his staff today to get ahead on the backlog of broken bones."
"Yes, and he still has many hip replacements waiting from the silver flood a few days ago. Guess they'll go to the back of the line."
"There's only so many hours Ortho can work in a day and be safe. Why don't you come here and cuddle before we pick up the kids from Ben's?" he says.
"Oh, I like that idea," Meredith says sliding into his arms on the couch.
At 8am both their pagers went off sending them back to the ER. Bailey looks at them as they walk towards the ER and catches Meredith still holding Cormac's hand as they walk the empty halls. Shaking her head as she notices their hands quickly separating, she says, "Grey, Hayes, your kids are at my house! And guess the rumours are true so don't forget to go to HR and fill out the paperwork."
"Yes Chief," Meredith says knowing they have been caught.
"Yes, Ben said he'd watch them," Cormac says.
"Grey, your kids are in MY bed. I got a message to sleep here," she says.
"Sorry, but aren't you on shift?" Meredith says.
"Oh, guess you got me there. We have another 2 ambulances coming in. Let's finish up these and go rescue Ben," Bailey says.
"There were ten teenaged boys sleeping over there last night, you would rather be here," Cormac says.
"Definitely! Rather yell at interns and residents!"
"Do we have to get out your original nickname?" Meredith teases her.
"I much prefer Chief!" The look on Bailey's face ends the conversation. Walking into the ER she says "Happy New Year everyone! We have 2 ambulances on their way in. Let's get this done so those of us that have been in surgery all night can get some sleep!"