It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

74.

"Hi." A perky blonde woman said as she walked up to Derek, reading his name tag. "Doctor Shepherd." She said happily. "I'm Izzie Stevens..." She said with a happy grin. "I'm one of the new surgical interns... you're the... Neuro attending, right?"

"That's right." Derek said, smiling softly as he tried to be polite, his mind drifting as he watched Mark smirk at him across the table.

"It's so very nice to meet you, Dr. Shepherd. I'm very excited about the internship... I've been studying so hard... I've never been to Boston before, this is like... my second day and I've been feeling so overwhelmed... I'm actually from a small town near Seattle, and this is like, my first time in the big city, you know? I've never been to the big city before."

"Uh huh..." Derek nodded, pretending to be interested as he noticed Meredith and Cristina walking into the building. Meredith was chattering on and as soon as Cristina caught Derek's eye, her eyes widened and she mouthed the word 'help'. "Um..." Derek said as he started to stand up. "Please excuse me, Izzie... I have to go check... on something... This is Doctor Sloan... he's one of the plastics attendings..." Derek said with a grin as Mark shot him a wide eyed glare across the table. "I'm sure he has some interesting stories to tell..." Derek said as he walked away, glancing over his shoulder at a frustrated Mark as he shrugged and walked directly towards Meredith.

"Doctor Shepherd." The voice physically and emotionally pulled him from his target, making him recoil slightly as he turned around quickly.

"Doctor Grey." He smiled as he noticed her standing beside him. "How are... you doing this evening?" He asked with a smile as he tilted his head and smiled.

"I'm doing fine, Doctor Shepherd. I hope you're finding this mixer to be helpful to meet your new interns."

"Oh yes... I already met Doctor Stevens over there..." He said, nodding towards the young woman talking Mark's ear off with an animated giggle as Derek watched Ellis turn back to Derek and sigh.

"Just... have a good evening, Doctor Shepherd... and don't forget the rules..." She said as she shook her head, walking away from him.

"You have a good evening too, Doctor Grey." Derek said as he grinned sheepishly. His gaze moved and he immediately noticed when Meredith's eyes met with his. Instantly he could feel the temperature of his body rise several degrees, his mouth go dry as he tried to muster a smile. "How does she do this to me...?" He whispered to himself.

🎄🎄🎄

"How does he do this to me?" She whispered to Cristina as she stood beside her as Cristina ordered a drink.

"Who?" Cristina asked as she looked up, watching Derek as he not so subtly watched her from across the room. "Oh..." She rolled her eyes. "I say the hell with it... you want to be with him, go be with him." Cristina shrugged.

"That would not bode well for us, Cristina... for our careers..."

"Oh come on, it's not going to get any worse than being the chief's daughter." Cristina muttered.

"You're the chief's daughter?" A nervous male voice came from beside them and they turned to see a nervous looking curly haired man standing wide eyed at the two of them. He became even more nervous with their attention on him. "George... George O'Malley.... First year intern." He said with a smile.

"Meredith Grey." Meredith said, shaking his hand with a smile. "This is Cristina Yang..." Meredith said politely, pushing the glass of liquor from in front of her with a glare to Cristina as Cristina pushed it closer to her.

"Grey?" George replied. "You are the chief's daughter..." He said with a smile. "You're... you're... very... very beautiful." George stammered.

"Yes, yes... and you're a suck up..." Cristina muttered as George took a step back.

"Don't mind her... she growls a lot, but she doesn't bite..." Meredith said, poking Cristina as she pretended to snarl at George.

"So... you pretty much know all of the doctors here, huh?"

"Some of them, yes." Meredith said politely.

"Some better than others..." Cristina muttered, promptly getting an elbow in her side.

"Maybe we could... um... maybe we'll be on a case sometime together, that would be cool." George stumbled as he spoke, his eyes on Meredith's as she nodded with a smile.

"Yeah... maybe..." She nodded, hearing Cristina snicker from beside her, she sent another elbow her way.

"Well... I'm... going to go and kind of meet some people... it was nice to meet you... Meredith."

"It was nice to meet you, George." She said with a smile as she watched him turn around and make his way across the floor. She turned around to a giggling Cristina and pushed her shoulder into her. "Stop laughing..." She said with an amused smirk as Cristina continued to giggle.

"Someone has a crush on you..." Cristina teased as Meredith growled.

"I'm going to go call Marion..." Meredith said as she turned around, nearly running directly into someone. "Oh!" She said, her eyes shooting up directly into his eyes, the smell of his cologne taking over her senses as she tried to control herself. "Excuse me." She whispered, her eyes sparkling as he smiled softly down at her.

"I'm Doctor Shepherd." He said with an amused smirk, taking a step back, he reached his hand out to her.

She looked at his hand with a bemused expression, her head tilting as she smiled at him. "Doctor Shepherd..." She said, shaking her head, hearing gagging noises from Cristina behind her. "I'm... Meredith." She said with a smile. "Meredith Grey." She said as she tenderly placed her hand in his, feeling the warmth of his body on hers made her instantly relax. He shook her hand tenderly as he very softly ran his thumb over her hand, his eyes never leaving hers. "It's nice to meet you, Doctor Shepherd." She whispered, a smile suddenly taking over her face as she forgot what she was doing.

"The pleasure is all mine..." Derek whispered as he watched her hand slip slowly from his as she began to blush.

"I...have to go... call about my son." She whispered as her eyes reflected a slight sign of panic as she pushed past him lightly and made her way through the room.

Derek sighed as he watched her disappear and he walked over to the bar, sitting beside Cristina. "Hey." Derek said as he gave her a sad smile.

"Hey..." Cristina said as she sipped her drink. "I thought we were supposed that we don't know you..."

"It doesn't work when you just say it out loud..." Derek rolled his eyes.

"Whatever... how's Markie doing?" She asked as she turned her head, watching him laugh with Izzie at the table, she rolled her eyes and turned back around, ordering another drink.

"He's keeping himself amused... this just sucks... she doesn't want to be here... I don't want to be here... You don't want to be here... Mark... well, Mark doesn't care where he is as long as there is liquor present... why the hell are we even here?"

"Networking, my friend." Cristina said as she slammed the drink down beside him. "Network this down your gullet and get nice and fuzzy... and it all won't matter."

"I can't." Derek sighed.

"Why not?"

"Because I have to be here for Meri..."

"Derek... she'll be fine... one little drink isn't going to kill you..."

Derek looked at the glass in front of him, swirling it in the glass, he looked at the consistency and color as he held it up to the light. "Are you sure about that?" He said, giving her a grossed out look as he set the glass down on the bar, watching as Cristina shrugged and drank it down.