Sharing is Caring

Sharing is Caring

Meredith Grey adopts another dog. She names him Kelsey.

Addison Montgomery adopts another dog. She names him Charlie.

It's the same dog. (They don't know that part yet. But they will soon).

"No way. I swear I will actually move out this time," George puts his foot down.

"Ooh, you'll move in with Callie," Izzie teases him.

If Izzie's in a good enough mood to be teasing George at this point, she'll take it.

"What do you think Izzie?" Meredith asks her. "I miss Doc, and it was fun having a dog around. Wasn't it?"

"As long as the new dog stays out of my stuff then it's fine," Izzie sighs.

"It's settled then. I'm adopting a dog," says Meredith.

And that ends up being that.

They pick him up at the shelter later that evening, this time choosing a well-behaved dog rather than a mischievous one.

"Alright..." The shelter worker says to her, handing her a form and a pen. "And what's the address this dog will be going to?"

"613 Harper Lane," says Meredith. "And I'm calling him Kelsey," Meredith decides.

"I like it," says Izzie.

"You better behave," George scowls at Kelsey.

At least this time, Kelsey seems to agree with him.

As it turns out, Kelsey is a more well-managed dog than Doc was. He's housebroken already, for starters. And he enjoys sitting still, which, in Izzie's opinion, is a very good trait in a dog.

"You haven't been feeding him muffin scraps have you?" Meredith squints at her.

"Nope," says Izzie.

She doesn't sound like she's lying about it, so Meredith smiles, and she takes Kelsey for a walk. And when she comes back, Kelsey just sits next to George while he plays video games, and that seems to win him over, too.

"Good dog," Meredith catches George saying.

They're all sold on him, and Meredith couldn't be happier.

That is, until the day comes when she can't find a sitter for him, so she has to come to the hospital to be hidden from Bailey all day.

And that's the last time she sees him for the rest of the week.

Truthfully, Addison never considered herself a dog person.

She never had dogs growing up (because her mother was allergic to them), and she never would have taken the initiative to adopt one on her own.

But once she experienced what it was like to live with Doc... She got lonely without him.

Addison loved that dog. Meredith Grey's dog be damned.

Doc would keep her company while Derek was in surgery. He would always stay on her side at night. And she even got poison ivy over him.

So when a dog with no home shows up at the hospital and is seen wandering around the outpatient floor, Addison can't help herself.

She takes him home with her.

For a while, Addison was staying in a hotel after she'd left the trailer. But now that she has the dog, she decides she should rent a short-term apartment with yard space, and that way she'll be able to keep him.

So she selects one about halfway through Harper Lane, and calls it a day, and begins moving in her things.

No more Derek, but one more dog.

It's a good life.

She wants the dog to have a good life too, so she invests in one of those doggie-doors so that the dog can roam around at will. She lays a bowl of water out for him, lays out some food, and she names him "Charlie."

He stays put in the house, wandering around with her as she cooks and cleans, and settles in, and he curls up next to her pillow just like Doc used to do.

It makes Addison cry nostalgic and happy tears, and cling to the dog until the dog nuzzles her, and she falls asleep next to him.

Things stay the same until the weekend, when Addison wakes up and sees that Charlie is nowhere to be found.

"KELSEY!" Meredith grins when she finally sees her dog again, after several days of missing him.

Kelsey wags his tail at her, and jumps into her arms.

"I missed you," Meredith pets him, and lets him back into the house.

If she'd been paying attention, she might have noticed the voice of a certain familiar redhead calling for "Charlie," at the end of the street.

But she isn't, and she doesn't, so Meredith closes the door behind her, and goes to tell her roommates the good news.

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***** END OF CHAPTER 1