it's a green christmas in this town (5/?) {ensemble}
Title: It's A Green Christmas In This Town (5/?)
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Characters/Pairings: Ensemble. Meredith/Derek, Alex/Izzie, Mark/Lexie, Cristina/Owen, Sadie. Other characters in other parts.
Word Count: 2,153
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: This thing is wrapping up soon, believe it or not.
(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Meredith has better luck calling Cristina the second time around, in that she actually answers.
“Hey,” she says, when it finally picks up.
“You’re missing a hell of a lot of surgeries.” Cristina tells her, instead of a greeting. “So I hope you’re having fun there.”
“Right. Fun. Of course.” Meredith’s fairly sure there’s a number of things she could call this but fun doesn’t rank very high on the list. Not that Cristina knows that. “You called earlier?”
“You didn’t answer earlier.” Cristina retorts.
“Sorry, I was in the shower.” Her cheeks might color a little, in remembrance of what got interrupted, but there’s no one there to call her on it. “Is everything okay?”
“Besides the fact that we’re swamped and short on doctors, no.” Everything up to this point has been very casual, formal, nothing like the conversations they normally have. Just like every day since they’ve had that fight. At least they’re speaking. But then Cristina kind of sighs into the phone and some barrier seems to fall down. “And this thing with Owen.”
“What thing with Owen? There’s a thing with Owen now?” Apparently, she’s missed a lot while they were off spending time in their separate corners.
“Sort of.” It’s not like Cristina’s ever been very good about talking about relationships, or figuring them out for that matter, so Meredith almost expects the vagueness. “Mostly he just won’t leave me alone today. He keeps…showing up around every corner.”
“Is that why you called?” She asks, digging a little.
There’s another sigh. “Avoiding him is easier than avoiding you.”
She doesn’t know exactly what that means, or whether she should take that as a compliment or an insult, so she just says “okay”.
“So, I heard Sloan is there? And sleeping with your sister?” Cristina says, a not so subtle segway onto another topic, taking the heat off of her.
Meredith groans. She had hoped to get away from that for awhile. “I…it’s complicated. Where’d you hear that anyway?”
“The first part from Callie. The second part isn’t that hard to figure out.” So that’s who Mark was talking to when she’d heard him in the bedroom earlier. Figures. There’s a shuffling sound and then Cristina says, “Shit, I got to go.”
“Alright.” And then, thinking better of it, asks, “Wait…we’re okay right? We’re okay now?” It’s a lot to hope for but it might put her mind at ease just a little.
Cristina waits a little longer than Meredith would’ve wanted but the end result is, “Yeah, we’re okay.”
Well, at least this little stay in hotel hell has fixed one relationship. Can’t say the same for the others, she thinks solemnly.
---
Derek all but collars him downstairs, at least that’s what Mark’s fairly sure he wants to do. Instead, he grabs a hold of Mark’s arm, out of sight of anyone else, on the stairs, and locks eyes with him in that way that he knows means serious business, before heading upstairs, confident that Mark will follow.
He does without a second thought. Time to grovel. He knows this routine. Mark’s screwed up enough times to understand how this is going to work.
Mark closes the door behind him when he follows Derek into his and Meredith’s bedroom, standing off to the side of it, back against the wall, facing Derek just like they were in the living room. Opposite sides. But he doesn’t say anything - he waits for Derek to do that. The best thing he can do right now is sit there and take it and not argue and they’ll be just fine after that, at least he hopes so.
Derek stares, for a long moment, then, “Want to tell me what’s going on?” His voice is calm, so much calmer than Mark expected.
Stupidly, he says the first thing that comes to mind. “She seduced me.” Great. Great start. Fantastic.
The other man makes a face, frowning. “I didn’t ask who started it, I asked what’s going on. Although now that I think about Meredith said she thought she was sneaking around a lot, so I think I know. So how long has this been going on?”
“A little over two weeks.” He still manages to keep his eyes level. Derek only nods. It’s that, the way he feels like he’s sixteen and got caught in bed with some socialite or something, that makes him throw caution, and his plan, to the wind. “She’s not a kid Derek. She’s capable of making her own decisions. This isn’t like what it was with Addison - “
“I didn’t say it was,” Derek cuts him off, “Why are you bringing it up?”
“Because that’s what it always comes back to with you. Ever since that I’ve been trying to get you back, to…do the right things. But this has nothing to do with us.” He fights to not raise his voice, but it’s a battle he’s losing with every word.
“The hell it doesn’t. I asked you to do one thing - “
“Why is it any of your business if I sleep with her?”
“She’s Meredith’s sister.”
“Half the time Meredith doesn’t even care if she’s even exists - “
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Derek shakes his head. The important thing here is that Derek breaks eye contact first, to look at the floor, run a hand through his hair.
“Oh come on, this doesn’t have anything to do with Meredith or Lexie does it. This is about you still not getting over the fact that I slept with Addison. Because if I hadn’t done that somehow you think the two of you would’ve been just fine - “
“There you go, bringing her up again. This doesn’t have a single thing to do with Addison.”
“No, you’re right.” Mark’s full on yelling now, “It just has everything to do with her.”
There’s more he’s about to say, but there’s a soft knock on the door, right before it’s pushed open to reveal Sadie standing in the doorway. They both fall silent, and Sadie looks between the both of them like a tennis match, before frowning and observing, “You two really are always together aren’t you?”
Mark wonders how long that’ll last after all of this is over.
Derek clears his throat, fights for an even tone as he asks, “Do you need something?”
“Mer says she needs you downstairs.” Sadie replies, simply, perhaps sensing the tension in the room wasn’t necessarily one that welcomed her normal sarcasm and innuendo filled jokes. Wisely, she turns on her heel and heads back downstairs without much pause.
Mark stays against the wall, waiting to see what Derek was going to do now. He just nods his head to nothing in particular, walking forward, and stopping in the doorway, looking at Mark once more to say, “This isn’t over,” before following Sadie on out.
He figured as much.
---
“Why is it that I’m the one doing all of this?” Alex asks, to everyone and no one, from his spot on the floor, strands of Christmas lights strewn all over the floor. He’s been unscrewing bulbs, trying to figure out what’s busted and therefore preventing the lights from working, for what feels like his entire life. It’s not exactly the most entertaining job in the world.
“Because you’re the one who fixes things.” Meredith replies, glancing over her shoulder at him, before returning her attention to fixing the hook to one of the ornaments. “And also because we’re doing girlie things like decorating, in your words.”
“This is decorating.”
“No, it’s mechanical.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Keep complaining and you’ll be begging to come inside once I kick your ass outside in the snow.” It’s a half-hearted threat, once she doesn’t mean at all. At the moment Alex is fairly sure he’s pretty far down on the list of people she wants to toss outside, and, well, that’s a comfort.
Thus he only replies, “You can try.”
“Alex,” Izzie’s voice catches him off guard, as she comes in from the kitchen, looking at him with raised eyebrows. “Stop being a grinch.”
He tries very hard to keep his voice completely neutral, and keep from asking her what the hell is going on right then and there, as he replies, “I’m not being a grinch. But I’ve been over this strand already. I don’t know what the problem is.”
“You’ll figure it out.” Izzie says, not just to pacify him if her voice is any indication, and her hand brushes his shoulder just for a second.
“Apparently if I don’t Meredith’s decided she’s kicking me out.” He lets himself fall back into their normal banter, pushing off everything else for later.
“You’re not kicking him out.” Izzie says, just for the sake of it this time. “He’s a pain but what if something else breaks.” There’s a pause, then, “Where are the other two manly men anyway?” He groans, audibly, at that phrase, and she only says, “Oh be quiet.”
“They’re coming,” Sadie says, from the bottom of the stairs, wandering in and flopping down on the couch. “Are they always together? And are they always this volatile.”
“No.” Meredith replies. He doesn’t need to see her to see the sudden frown on her face. “And no.”
His fingers go through the motions of changing bulbs pretty much with his brain on auto-pilot, so he’s looking away to say something when all the interconnected strands light up underneath his fingertips, painting patterns along the floor. Finally.
“Hallelujah,” Meredith replies, sarcastically, but there’s a smile on her face.
“You know the weather forecast says more snow until Christmas Eve.” Sadie pipes up again, randomly, the remote in her hand, television on mute but tuned to the weather channel.
There’s a collective set of groans and moans through the living room. More quality time to spend together. Wonderful. He eyes Meredith, raising the end of the Christmas lights, asking, “Are you going to help?”
“Why me?” She asks, probably about to come up with some excuse for why she can’t, but Izzie cuts in before she can, coming over to help.
“I’ll do it.” Izzie volunteers.
Looking quite pleased that she didn’t have to aid in that, Meredith looks over at Sadie and asks, “Where’s Lexie?”
Sadie shrugs. “Not having sex with Mark, that’s for sure.”
“So that is what’s going on?” Izzie asks, weaving around the tree with lights, trying both to help and not getting in his way of getting them on the tree. “Because there’s a whole lot of tension and not a lot of talking today.”
“Apparently,” Meredith replies, nonchalantly. “It’s more of a…Derek and Mark thing than a Lexie and Mark thing.”
“Wait, they’re sleeping together? What?” Sadie sits ramrod straight on the couch now, her attention definitely caught now.
“No,” Meredith is much louder than she was just a few seconds ago. “There is no sleeping together with them.” Izzie starts laughing, nearly stumbling over part of the Christmas tree, getting it off center for a second long enough for some of the branches to almost smack him in the face. He ducks that, but remains silent, listening in instead. “I mean they’re fighting. This is…a them thing and everyone else is just getting caught in the crossfire.”
“I thought they were friends.”
”They are. Friends who fight.” Sadie frowns a bit, doubtfully. “Friends fight. All the time. It’s normal.”
“Not this much,” Sadie replies.
“Done?” Izzie asks him, as he gets the lights all the way up to the top of the tree, dropping down the extra in the back, so that the plug can hang near the extension cord.
“Done.” He confirms. “Just got to get them plugged in.”
“Finally.” Meredith says, and at first he thinks it’s directed at him so he’s about to glare, but instead it’s directed toward Derek who’s just walked into the room, Mark a few steps behind him, lingering as far away from Derek as possible while still being in the same room with him. “We’re just about to light the tree.”
“Yeah, we, right.” Alex replies, sarcastically, unplugging the one end from across the room, so as to get them all on the same extension cord and therefore give people walking room. He says a very quiet, “here goes nothing,” right before he plugs everything in.
The tree lights up brilliantly, if he does say so himself, and he takes a few steps back to get a better look at it, pleased.
That feeling lasts exactly ten seconds.
Then the tree, and the lights in the rest of the house, flicker, and then die.
He watches the lights in the house across the street do the same, and at least there’s the consolation that he didn’t do it.
“I swear,” he says, shaking his head, letting it linger in the dead silent, incredibly dark room.
---
TBC
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Characters/Pairings: Ensemble. Meredith/Derek, Alex/Izzie, Mark/Lexie, Cristina/Owen, Sadie. Other characters in other parts.
Word Count: 2,153
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: This thing is wrapping up soon, believe it or not.
(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Meredith has better luck calling Cristina the second time around, in that she actually answers.
“Hey,” she says, when it finally picks up.
“You’re missing a hell of a lot of surgeries.” Cristina tells her, instead of a greeting. “So I hope you’re having fun there.”
“Right. Fun. Of course.” Meredith’s fairly sure there’s a number of things she could call this but fun doesn’t rank very high on the list. Not that Cristina knows that. “You called earlier?”
“You didn’t answer earlier.” Cristina retorts.
“Sorry, I was in the shower.” Her cheeks might color a little, in remembrance of what got interrupted, but there’s no one there to call her on it. “Is everything okay?”
“Besides the fact that we’re swamped and short on doctors, no.” Everything up to this point has been very casual, formal, nothing like the conversations they normally have. Just like every day since they’ve had that fight. At least they’re speaking. But then Cristina kind of sighs into the phone and some barrier seems to fall down. “And this thing with Owen.”
“What thing with Owen? There’s a thing with Owen now?” Apparently, she’s missed a lot while they were off spending time in their separate corners.
“Sort of.” It’s not like Cristina’s ever been very good about talking about relationships, or figuring them out for that matter, so Meredith almost expects the vagueness. “Mostly he just won’t leave me alone today. He keeps…showing up around every corner.”
“Is that why you called?” She asks, digging a little.
There’s another sigh. “Avoiding him is easier than avoiding you.”
She doesn’t know exactly what that means, or whether she should take that as a compliment or an insult, so she just says “okay”.
“So, I heard Sloan is there? And sleeping with your sister?” Cristina says, a not so subtle segway onto another topic, taking the heat off of her.
Meredith groans. She had hoped to get away from that for awhile. “I…it’s complicated. Where’d you hear that anyway?”
“The first part from Callie. The second part isn’t that hard to figure out.” So that’s who Mark was talking to when she’d heard him in the bedroom earlier. Figures. There’s a shuffling sound and then Cristina says, “Shit, I got to go.”
“Alright.” And then, thinking better of it, asks, “Wait…we’re okay right? We’re okay now?” It’s a lot to hope for but it might put her mind at ease just a little.
Cristina waits a little longer than Meredith would’ve wanted but the end result is, “Yeah, we’re okay.”
Well, at least this little stay in hotel hell has fixed one relationship. Can’t say the same for the others, she thinks solemnly.
---
Derek all but collars him downstairs, at least that’s what Mark’s fairly sure he wants to do. Instead, he grabs a hold of Mark’s arm, out of sight of anyone else, on the stairs, and locks eyes with him in that way that he knows means serious business, before heading upstairs, confident that Mark will follow.
He does without a second thought. Time to grovel. He knows this routine. Mark’s screwed up enough times to understand how this is going to work.
Mark closes the door behind him when he follows Derek into his and Meredith’s bedroom, standing off to the side of it, back against the wall, facing Derek just like they were in the living room. Opposite sides. But he doesn’t say anything - he waits for Derek to do that. The best thing he can do right now is sit there and take it and not argue and they’ll be just fine after that, at least he hopes so.
Derek stares, for a long moment, then, “Want to tell me what’s going on?” His voice is calm, so much calmer than Mark expected.
Stupidly, he says the first thing that comes to mind. “She seduced me.” Great. Great start. Fantastic.
The other man makes a face, frowning. “I didn’t ask who started it, I asked what’s going on. Although now that I think about Meredith said she thought she was sneaking around a lot, so I think I know. So how long has this been going on?”
“A little over two weeks.” He still manages to keep his eyes level. Derek only nods. It’s that, the way he feels like he’s sixteen and got caught in bed with some socialite or something, that makes him throw caution, and his plan, to the wind. “She’s not a kid Derek. She’s capable of making her own decisions. This isn’t like what it was with Addison - “
“I didn’t say it was,” Derek cuts him off, “Why are you bringing it up?”
“Because that’s what it always comes back to with you. Ever since that I’ve been trying to get you back, to…do the right things. But this has nothing to do with us.” He fights to not raise his voice, but it’s a battle he’s losing with every word.
“The hell it doesn’t. I asked you to do one thing - “
“Why is it any of your business if I sleep with her?”
“She’s Meredith’s sister.”
“Half the time Meredith doesn’t even care if she’s even exists - “
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Derek shakes his head. The important thing here is that Derek breaks eye contact first, to look at the floor, run a hand through his hair.
“Oh come on, this doesn’t have anything to do with Meredith or Lexie does it. This is about you still not getting over the fact that I slept with Addison. Because if I hadn’t done that somehow you think the two of you would’ve been just fine - “
“There you go, bringing her up again. This doesn’t have a single thing to do with Addison.”
“No, you’re right.” Mark’s full on yelling now, “It just has everything to do with her.”
There’s more he’s about to say, but there’s a soft knock on the door, right before it’s pushed open to reveal Sadie standing in the doorway. They both fall silent, and Sadie looks between the both of them like a tennis match, before frowning and observing, “You two really are always together aren’t you?”
Mark wonders how long that’ll last after all of this is over.
Derek clears his throat, fights for an even tone as he asks, “Do you need something?”
“Mer says she needs you downstairs.” Sadie replies, simply, perhaps sensing the tension in the room wasn’t necessarily one that welcomed her normal sarcasm and innuendo filled jokes. Wisely, she turns on her heel and heads back downstairs without much pause.
Mark stays against the wall, waiting to see what Derek was going to do now. He just nods his head to nothing in particular, walking forward, and stopping in the doorway, looking at Mark once more to say, “This isn’t over,” before following Sadie on out.
He figured as much.
---
“Why is it that I’m the one doing all of this?” Alex asks, to everyone and no one, from his spot on the floor, strands of Christmas lights strewn all over the floor. He’s been unscrewing bulbs, trying to figure out what’s busted and therefore preventing the lights from working, for what feels like his entire life. It’s not exactly the most entertaining job in the world.
“Because you’re the one who fixes things.” Meredith replies, glancing over her shoulder at him, before returning her attention to fixing the hook to one of the ornaments. “And also because we’re doing girlie things like decorating, in your words.”
“This is decorating.”
“No, it’s mechanical.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Keep complaining and you’ll be begging to come inside once I kick your ass outside in the snow.” It’s a half-hearted threat, once she doesn’t mean at all. At the moment Alex is fairly sure he’s pretty far down on the list of people she wants to toss outside, and, well, that’s a comfort.
Thus he only replies, “You can try.”
“Alex,” Izzie’s voice catches him off guard, as she comes in from the kitchen, looking at him with raised eyebrows. “Stop being a grinch.”
He tries very hard to keep his voice completely neutral, and keep from asking her what the hell is going on right then and there, as he replies, “I’m not being a grinch. But I’ve been over this strand already. I don’t know what the problem is.”
“You’ll figure it out.” Izzie says, not just to pacify him if her voice is any indication, and her hand brushes his shoulder just for a second.
“Apparently if I don’t Meredith’s decided she’s kicking me out.” He lets himself fall back into their normal banter, pushing off everything else for later.
“You’re not kicking him out.” Izzie says, just for the sake of it this time. “He’s a pain but what if something else breaks.” There’s a pause, then, “Where are the other two manly men anyway?” He groans, audibly, at that phrase, and she only says, “Oh be quiet.”
“They’re coming,” Sadie says, from the bottom of the stairs, wandering in and flopping down on the couch. “Are they always together? And are they always this volatile.”
“No.” Meredith replies. He doesn’t need to see her to see the sudden frown on her face. “And no.”
His fingers go through the motions of changing bulbs pretty much with his brain on auto-pilot, so he’s looking away to say something when all the interconnected strands light up underneath his fingertips, painting patterns along the floor. Finally.
“Hallelujah,” Meredith replies, sarcastically, but there’s a smile on her face.
“You know the weather forecast says more snow until Christmas Eve.” Sadie pipes up again, randomly, the remote in her hand, television on mute but tuned to the weather channel.
There’s a collective set of groans and moans through the living room. More quality time to spend together. Wonderful. He eyes Meredith, raising the end of the Christmas lights, asking, “Are you going to help?”
“Why me?” She asks, probably about to come up with some excuse for why she can’t, but Izzie cuts in before she can, coming over to help.
“I’ll do it.” Izzie volunteers.
Looking quite pleased that she didn’t have to aid in that, Meredith looks over at Sadie and asks, “Where’s Lexie?”
Sadie shrugs. “Not having sex with Mark, that’s for sure.”
“So that is what’s going on?” Izzie asks, weaving around the tree with lights, trying both to help and not getting in his way of getting them on the tree. “Because there’s a whole lot of tension and not a lot of talking today.”
“Apparently,” Meredith replies, nonchalantly. “It’s more of a…Derek and Mark thing than a Lexie and Mark thing.”
“Wait, they’re sleeping together? What?” Sadie sits ramrod straight on the couch now, her attention definitely caught now.
“No,” Meredith is much louder than she was just a few seconds ago. “There is no sleeping together with them.” Izzie starts laughing, nearly stumbling over part of the Christmas tree, getting it off center for a second long enough for some of the branches to almost smack him in the face. He ducks that, but remains silent, listening in instead. “I mean they’re fighting. This is…a them thing and everyone else is just getting caught in the crossfire.”
“I thought they were friends.”
”They are. Friends who fight.” Sadie frowns a bit, doubtfully. “Friends fight. All the time. It’s normal.”
“Not this much,” Sadie replies.
“Done?” Izzie asks him, as he gets the lights all the way up to the top of the tree, dropping down the extra in the back, so that the plug can hang near the extension cord.
“Done.” He confirms. “Just got to get them plugged in.”
“Finally.” Meredith says, and at first he thinks it’s directed at him so he’s about to glare, but instead it’s directed toward Derek who’s just walked into the room, Mark a few steps behind him, lingering as far away from Derek as possible while still being in the same room with him. “We’re just about to light the tree.”
“Yeah, we, right.” Alex replies, sarcastically, unplugging the one end from across the room, so as to get them all on the same extension cord and therefore give people walking room. He says a very quiet, “here goes nothing,” right before he plugs everything in.
The tree lights up brilliantly, if he does say so himself, and he takes a few steps back to get a better look at it, pleased.
That feeling lasts exactly ten seconds.
Then the tree, and the lights in the rest of the house, flicker, and then die.
He watches the lights in the house across the street do the same, and at least there’s the consolation that he didn’t do it.
“I swear,” he says, shaking his head, letting it linger in the dead silent, incredibly dark room.
---
TBC