(no subject)
Title: Keep These Cheeks Dry Today
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Characters/Pairings: Rose
Word Count: 1,230
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: #36 - Rose for writing_rainbow
Author's Note: Before the writers decide to totally destroy her character (we all know they will) I've decided to do something a little more sympathetic with her.
Summary: Post S4 finale. She knew she should be intimidated. She knew it wasn't all in her own mind.
She knew she should be intimidated.
Rose is the kind of person who sees the good in people. Or she tries to. It’s why she became a nurse, to do good, to help people.
Usually, she considers this, this caring aspect, as one of her strong suits.
Today, today as Meredith Grey runs off to celebrate with Derek, with her boyfriend (she can still call him that, she will still call him that, until she can’t anymore - see, she already knows she’s losing him), because their trials worked, finally, lucky number thirteen, and Rose is kind of torn between being happy for them and wishing they’d failed, she sees it as a flaw.
Because that thing they always say, about nice guys finishing last?
It’s not exactly gender restrictive.
---
As soon as he walks in she fights the urge to run away. This doesn’t end if he can’t find her. Not really.
But her feet are rooted to the ground as he strides towards and his features are twisted up in that way that tells her he’s nervous - she knows his expressions, she learned them because he lies a lot, through his teeth, for her benefit maybe, weaves stories she wants to hear, says things he doesn’t really mean - and she just wishes she had trusted her gut and stopped it at a first kiss.
But she didn’t. And now she loves him. She let herself love a man who will never love her and so the part that doesn’t want to scream at Meredith Grey and fight for him, that part, the good part, it wants to say this is sort of her fault too.
Because she knew.
“Rose, I -“ He starts, and it’s awkward, it’s too awkward, too much, and you know, she doesn’t really want to hear it, because they’re all grown-ups here, she’s a grown-up, and she doesn’t need sugarcoating.
“You know what Derek,” and she puts a hand to his chest, to stop him in his tracks, stop him from coming any closer, while the other hand holds the chart she was working on to her body, like some shield, some pathetic plastic shield, “don’t worry about it. Don’t do the whole it’s not you it’s me thing. I’m fine, I can take it. Just...don’t.”
It hurts but she gets such a high from saying it, from feeling like she ended it, from feeling his eyes on her back as she walks down the hallway and out of his life.
---
It’s awkward afterwards. Watching the two of them work together, assisting in his surgeries. They touch through rubber gloves and she’s grateful for the barrier.
She showers after his surgeries. Always. As soon as she can.
Derek doesn’t see her pass by them as he links hands with Meredith, kisses her right there and then in the lobby.
Then again maybe he never really did see her.
---
She stops going to Joe’s. It never really was her scene; too many people from work when all she wanted to do was relax and remove herself from the hospital.
Now she just doesn’t want to hear them talk about her. Or Meredith and Derek. She never realized how gossip-y that hospital really was until she became one of their subjects. The poor girl who never had a chance.
The bar she finds, not that far out of her way, is full of people she’s never met and she’s perfectly fine with that. All she wants is a quick drink to help her unwind.
Rose eyes the lone unoccupied seat at the bar and slides into it, not giving either person next to her a second glance before ordering her drink. The man to her right, however, takes notice of her almost as soon as she gets the words out.
“You know there’s a bar closer to the hospital,” the man tells her, with the kind of smile that she might call charming if the comment hadn’t made her so wary.
“How do you know I work at the hospital?” She briefly wonders if he was a patient she’d taken care of, one she didn’t remember. It’s not like she could remember all of them.
“Used to spend a lot of time there. I recognize you.” He replies, looking away at the ‘used to’ part.
She’s still searching the recesses of her mind for his face, for a name, anything. She’s grasping at straws but finally gives up, “I’m sorry, were you a patient? I’m just really bad with names -- ”
“No, nothing like that.” And it makes her breathe a sigh of relief about the same time as she begins to regret the fact that she admitted any of that in the first place. “Old girlfriend.”
She forces her lips to curve into a sympathetic smile. “Nurse or doctor?”
“Doctor.”
“Let me guess: always working, never had enough time to spend with you?”
He laughs, a real laugh, against the edge of his glass. “Hung up on another guy.”
Well. She gets that. Wow, does she ever get that. “I wish I could say I didn’t know what you mean.” His look is full of questions and so she adds, “The doctor I was dating was just using me as a way to bide his time I think.”
“Sucks doesn’t it?”
Their conversation is easy. He seems like a nice guy (so did Derek, and that’s what keeps her from leaning any closer or smiling too much), available (not that she’s looking), easygoing. And he’s not a doctor.
Close.
“Veterinarian.” He replies, after she asks what he does for a living, and she can see that. He has an air of calm to him, something that sets you at ease, and she can see where that would come in handy.
“Animals are good judges of character,” she says, offhandedly, “of who to trust. Of people in general.”
“I’ve heard that.” And he looks, oddly, very serious, in a quiet way, like he’s about to ask her a question that maybe he shouldn’t, or better yet maybe she doesn’t want to hear. She may not have meant all that much to Derek - she might just be a fling for him - but that wasn’t mutual, and there’s a part of her that thinks innocent flirtation in a bar with a cute stranger just isn’t what she needs.
Not today. Not while she’s ready to jump into something because she’s down or drunk or rebounding or whatever. That hasn’t ever been her thing and she isn’t going to change now.
She’s sick of changing her ideals, her personality, herself, for people (because the kind of relationship Derek wanted - that wasn’t what she wanted, not at all, and she should’ve just told him that and walked out the door by herself).
“You know what, I’ve got to go.” She braces her hands against the bar, as she gets up, but she hasn’t had nearly enough to drink to need that.
The man frowns. “You just got here.”
“I know.” Rose says, stalling, because she can’t think of a good excuse, something, anything to avoid making this about him or something he said. It’s really not. “I’ve got an early shift tomorrow though, and I really should get some sleep.”
He won’t believe her. She doesn’t care.
This time she does walk out the door by herself.
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Characters/Pairings: Rose
Word Count: 1,230
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: #36 - Rose for writing_rainbow
Author's Note: Before the writers decide to totally destroy her character (we all know they will) I've decided to do something a little more sympathetic with her.
Summary: Post S4 finale. She knew she should be intimidated. She knew it wasn't all in her own mind.
She knew she should be intimidated.
Rose is the kind of person who sees the good in people. Or she tries to. It’s why she became a nurse, to do good, to help people.
Usually, she considers this, this caring aspect, as one of her strong suits.
Today, today as Meredith Grey runs off to celebrate with Derek, with her boyfriend (she can still call him that, she will still call him that, until she can’t anymore - see, she already knows she’s losing him), because their trials worked, finally, lucky number thirteen, and Rose is kind of torn between being happy for them and wishing they’d failed, she sees it as a flaw.
Because that thing they always say, about nice guys finishing last?
It’s not exactly gender restrictive.
---
As soon as he walks in she fights the urge to run away. This doesn’t end if he can’t find her. Not really.
But her feet are rooted to the ground as he strides towards and his features are twisted up in that way that tells her he’s nervous - she knows his expressions, she learned them because he lies a lot, through his teeth, for her benefit maybe, weaves stories she wants to hear, says things he doesn’t really mean - and she just wishes she had trusted her gut and stopped it at a first kiss.
But she didn’t. And now she loves him. She let herself love a man who will never love her and so the part that doesn’t want to scream at Meredith Grey and fight for him, that part, the good part, it wants to say this is sort of her fault too.
Because she knew.
“Rose, I -“ He starts, and it’s awkward, it’s too awkward, too much, and you know, she doesn’t really want to hear it, because they’re all grown-ups here, she’s a grown-up, and she doesn’t need sugarcoating.
“You know what Derek,” and she puts a hand to his chest, to stop him in his tracks, stop him from coming any closer, while the other hand holds the chart she was working on to her body, like some shield, some pathetic plastic shield, “don’t worry about it. Don’t do the whole it’s not you it’s me thing. I’m fine, I can take it. Just...don’t.”
It hurts but she gets such a high from saying it, from feeling like she ended it, from feeling his eyes on her back as she walks down the hallway and out of his life.
---
It’s awkward afterwards. Watching the two of them work together, assisting in his surgeries. They touch through rubber gloves and she’s grateful for the barrier.
She showers after his surgeries. Always. As soon as she can.
Derek doesn’t see her pass by them as he links hands with Meredith, kisses her right there and then in the lobby.
Then again maybe he never really did see her.
---
She stops going to Joe’s. It never really was her scene; too many people from work when all she wanted to do was relax and remove herself from the hospital.
Now she just doesn’t want to hear them talk about her. Or Meredith and Derek. She never realized how gossip-y that hospital really was until she became one of their subjects. The poor girl who never had a chance.
The bar she finds, not that far out of her way, is full of people she’s never met and she’s perfectly fine with that. All she wants is a quick drink to help her unwind.
Rose eyes the lone unoccupied seat at the bar and slides into it, not giving either person next to her a second glance before ordering her drink. The man to her right, however, takes notice of her almost as soon as she gets the words out.
“You know there’s a bar closer to the hospital,” the man tells her, with the kind of smile that she might call charming if the comment hadn’t made her so wary.
“How do you know I work at the hospital?” She briefly wonders if he was a patient she’d taken care of, one she didn’t remember. It’s not like she could remember all of them.
“Used to spend a lot of time there. I recognize you.” He replies, looking away at the ‘used to’ part.
She’s still searching the recesses of her mind for his face, for a name, anything. She’s grasping at straws but finally gives up, “I’m sorry, were you a patient? I’m just really bad with names -- ”
“No, nothing like that.” And it makes her breathe a sigh of relief about the same time as she begins to regret the fact that she admitted any of that in the first place. “Old girlfriend.”
She forces her lips to curve into a sympathetic smile. “Nurse or doctor?”
“Doctor.”
“Let me guess: always working, never had enough time to spend with you?”
He laughs, a real laugh, against the edge of his glass. “Hung up on another guy.”
Well. She gets that. Wow, does she ever get that. “I wish I could say I didn’t know what you mean.” His look is full of questions and so she adds, “The doctor I was dating was just using me as a way to bide his time I think.”
“Sucks doesn’t it?”
Their conversation is easy. He seems like a nice guy (so did Derek, and that’s what keeps her from leaning any closer or smiling too much), available (not that she’s looking), easygoing. And he’s not a doctor.
Close.
“Veterinarian.” He replies, after she asks what he does for a living, and she can see that. He has an air of calm to him, something that sets you at ease, and she can see where that would come in handy.
“Animals are good judges of character,” she says, offhandedly, “of who to trust. Of people in general.”
“I’ve heard that.” And he looks, oddly, very serious, in a quiet way, like he’s about to ask her a question that maybe he shouldn’t, or better yet maybe she doesn’t want to hear. She may not have meant all that much to Derek - she might just be a fling for him - but that wasn’t mutual, and there’s a part of her that thinks innocent flirtation in a bar with a cute stranger just isn’t what she needs.
Not today. Not while she’s ready to jump into something because she’s down or drunk or rebounding or whatever. That hasn’t ever been her thing and she isn’t going to change now.
She’s sick of changing her ideals, her personality, herself, for people (because the kind of relationship Derek wanted - that wasn’t what she wanted, not at all, and she should’ve just told him that and walked out the door by herself).
“You know what, I’ve got to go.” She braces her hands against the bar, as she gets up, but she hasn’t had nearly enough to drink to need that.
The man frowns. “You just got here.”
“I know.” Rose says, stalling, because she can’t think of a good excuse, something, anything to avoid making this about him or something he said. It’s really not. “I’ve got an early shift tomorrow though, and I really should get some sleep.”
He won’t believe her. She doesn’t care.
This time she does walk out the door by herself.