Bright and Shiny

Chapter 17

All morning long on her way here Meredith was thinking of herself, how she'd be treated and the attack she knew was going to come from her fellow interns. It never dawned on her that Derek was not going to have an easy time of it either. En route using the stairs to meet her attending Dr. Burke in the cardiothoracic surgery she heard a very familiar voice and a strange one talking below walking down the steps.

"So married to an intern huh Dr. Shepherd. I guess you just paved my way right to the Chief's office with that bombshell." The strange voice said.

"I didn't realize the Chief's office was vacant." Derek added in coyly.

"Just because you're the Chief's pet he brought down from NYC doesn't mean you're a shoe in for the job when he retires. I've been here longer, I've made a name for myself here. I have seniority." The strange voice continued on, Meredith stood frozen in her spot contemplating throwing the chart she was holding on this guys head for talking to her husband like that.

"As I said, the job isn't open. Richard isn't ready to retire and when he is, he'll make the choice he feels is best for the hospital. I won't be some vulture waiting to feed on him when he chooses to retire, I respect him too much for that. Also, my wife and my marriage has nothing to do with who becomes Chief one day. Do you really think Richard didn't know I was married to Meredith before I was offered this position or before she applied for her intern position." Derek responded to his colleague. "Here's a tidbit for you. The Chief was at my wedding to Meredith 7 years ago. Good day Dr. Burke." Derek bid before he smugly walked through the doors onto the floor, leaving Dr. Burke there staring at the door and pondering Derek's words.

Dr. Burke, Meredith thought to herself. This ass is the man she had to work with all day? He'd be lucky if she doesn't stab him with a 10 blade before the day was done. She guessed her day wasn't going to be any better than Derek's.

She waited until Dr. Burke left the stairwell before following to meet up with her attending for the day.

" , I'm your intern for the day." He looked her up and down and basically sizing her up as the enemy considering she was Derek's wife before grunting a hello and telling her that he needed her to check on all his post-op patients from yesterday. Then leaving her standing there while he left without another word.

Before starting the tedious task of going through all the post op notes and patients for Dr. Burke, Meredith made a quick check on her husband and how he was fairing today. She saw him consulting with Dr. Webber over a patient while Izzy looked on like she was a teenybopper fan and he was Justin Timberlake. He saw her and waved her over, to Izzy's dismay.

She walked up to the group, leaning up to kiss her husband on the cheek hello. The Chief smiled at them while Izzy gave her this annoyed look with eyes.

"I thought you were with today?" She voiced, trying to make her sound sweet, but Derek noticed something in that tone which caused him to raise his eyes from the scans he was holding. He turned to Meredith, ignoring Izzy and her question

"We were just consulting on this case of a 10 year old boy bleeding into his brain after a fall from his tree house." Derek said as he showed her the scans.

"It's a small intracerebral hemorrhage" Meredith said as she looked closely to the scans.

"Exactly right, ." The Chief added in. Meredith assumed from the instant praise given by the Chief just by reading an obvious scan and the frozen look on Izzy's face, that Izzy hadn't added anything to their conversation other than making eyes at her husband.

"Well this little boy is lucky, he's got the best in the country on his case" she said as she looked up at Derek with a proud smile on her face. "And I'd love to feed his ego more but as Dr. Stevens pointed out, I am on Dr. Burke's service today." Before she continued down the hall, she turned to Derek and said "lunch?"

"Sure Dr. Shepherd, meet me in my office." she smiled at them all and continued down her way to the hall towards her boring tasks today.