Greys anatomy (& Private Practice) women x reader oneshots

Nervous Flyer (Meredith Grey)

Possible triggers - panic attack symptoms, very brief mention of feeling sick

Tue 3rd May 14:27

You held your breath as you climbed the steps onto the plane. You checked your ticket again for the 900th time. You knew you were seat E4 but when you're nervous you have this habit of second guessing yourself. You read the ticket once more and shakily crammed the piece of paper into your jacket pocket. You could not stop shaking. Who could blame you? This was your first time on a plane since the accident. But you promised your parents you'd visit them for Christmas, you couldn't let them down after the year you'd all had.

You stumble towards your seat and smile politely at the woman in the seat next to you. You were hoping that seat would be empty so that if you broke down at least you could do it privately. You didn't want to engage in polite conversation so you pretended to be doing something on your phone - in all honesty you were just opening the same app over and over again. Your leg was bouncing at a rapid pace as your attempts to distract yourself from your surroundings failed. You look up to see if the woman next to you had noticed. She had. Of course she had. She seemed like she would. She had those piercing, all-knowing, bluey-greyish eyes that made you unnerved and put you at ease at the same time.

"Sorry" you said. You knew you were probably shaking the seat with your relentless vibrating.
"When I'm nervous I become like a human drill I just can't stop shaking" you try to laugh it off with her. When you're nervous you also develop a serious case of word vomit. Its awful.

She smiles at you. "Don't worry about it", something about her presence was calming.

You felt like a smile from her could end all your worries.

"You're a nervous flyer?" She asks. You were not prepared to spill your life story to this random stranger so you just nod then turn away again.

The captain starts speaking telling everyone to prepare for take off and you suddenly feel the urge to vomit. You were so focused on trying not to spew everywhere that you didn't even notice that you were sobbing. You felt the hand of the lady next to you rest on your own hand. You look over to her and start laughing.

"I'm pathetic" you chuckle.

"Not at all", she reassured you, "I'm a nervous flyer too."

"Y/n." You tell her your name.

"Meredith." She squeezed your hand.

It was at this point you felt the plane jolt forward. It was out of your control now. It felt like all the air was being squeezed out of your lungs. You didn't even care if Meredith thought you were dumb at this point - all you cared about was getting air. You leaned forward and rested your head on your knees. You felt a hand start rubbing circles on your back. It was so soothing.

"It's ok, you can breathe. I've got you and we're here together ok?" She comforts you.

You thank her weakly. Screw it. You might as well tell her your story. It might help. She's comforted you so far.

"I don't actually know why this is getting to me so much" you start " I wasn't even on the plane" you feel your lip start to quiver again. You're a bit of a mess. You really do hate flying.

You realised you weren't making much sense so you continued as Meredith listened intently.
"It was my brother", you needed to take a deep breath for this next part, "he took a flight with his friends to meet this famous football player...", you were choking on your sobs at this point so you took another breath.
"He didn't come home, none of them did", by this time, Meredith had wrapped her arms around you and was running her fingers through your hair - it was a bit ratty and wind-blown but you didn't mind her touching it because it helped. Although, you probably looked crazy.

You did not expect to hear what she had to say next.

"I had a sister", was all she said at first. But you could guess where this was going. 'Had'.

It was your turn to wrap an arm around her.

"Lexie", she smiled sadly as though lost in a long ago happy memory.
"We were in a plane crash a couple of years ago", she bowed her head and stared at her shoes. She hit her left foot against her right foot. Then her right against her left.

"I'm sorry- ", you started. She put her hand up to stop you there.

You broke the awkwardness by grabbing a pack of tissues from your bag and handing her them. She takes one then hands them back. Then you take one. She folds her tissue gently then turns to you and starts dabbing at your tear-stained face with it. You chuckle at this sweet gesture. You fold your tissue and return the favour and start dabbing at her face which makes her chuckle too.

You then moved on to talking about your favourite colours after you had remarked that the blue on the tissue packaging was your favourite. And from that point onwards, the conversation didn't die out until you were both safely on land.

"Hope to see you around y/n!" She calls after you as you get up to leave the plane. You had to say, even though the flight went smoothly, you were so glad to be on land - you were practically sprinting off the plane.

"Goodbye Meredith!" You call back.

You knew you'd see her again one day. The universe wouldn't introduce you to a person like that if they weren't meant to stay a part of your life.

- - - - - - - - - -

1038 words

Hope you guys enjoyed because I have no clue if what I've written was cute or just complete BS!!

I was going to wait to post this until I'd written other parts but I'll just post this one for now but rest assured - more parts are coming!!