It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

78.

The tour was long and boring as they walked the halls of the hospital. Ellis led the pack of interns as she explained the ins and outs of the hospital and some of the rules. She was stern and rigid as she explained everything, and now and again, her gaze would fall on Meredith, who most of the time was watching intently, though now and again would turn to whisper to Cristina.

When the tour was through, the interns were split up into groups for their respective residents and Cristina and Meredith were very happy to find that they were with the same resident. Izzie Stevens and George O'Malley were also a part of their group along with Alex Karev.

Cristina and Meredith were walking down the hallway to look for their resident as Izzie tagged along, talking to them the entire way. They were ignoring her completely as she babbled on.

"You know, I met a lot of the attendings at the mixer the other night and they all seemed very nice. There are quite a lot of good looking attendings here, I wonder if there is a policy of interns dating them, I wonder if they're all married or something..." She babbled. Meredith and Cristina exchanged a look and stopped at the end of the hallway as they waited for their resident.

"You know... there were a couple unattached attendings... at least ones that weren't wearing wedding rings. That Neuro attending, Doctor Shepherd... he's hot." Izzie said.

Suddenly, Meredith started to cough, her hand going to her mouth and Cristina stood beside her laughing. "Get... me... water, or something..." She grunted through her coughing fit as her face started to turn red.

"Oh cut it out." Cristina said, giving her a whack on the back. "You're going to be fine." She laughed as Meredith straightened out, her face bright red from her coughing fit as she glared at Cristina. "Feel better?" Cristina laughed.

"Shut up." Meredith grumbled as she glared at Cristina.

"Are you alright?" Izzie asked politely, glancing to Meredith.

"I'll be fine...thanks..." Meredith said as she took a deep breath. "I'll be just fine."

Just as she spoke those words, she saw him. He had his lab coat on, and was talking to one of the nurses, showing her something in the chart he was holding. He had to have been at the hospital for a little while, probably doing rounds and she watched his every movement as he talked to the nurse.

"Meredith?" Cristina said as she tried to get her attention. "Meredith!" Cristina whispered loudly, watching as Meredith continued to stare at Derek down the hallway.

Meredith turned her head quickly to see that the resident had arrived, along with the other interns. She smiled politely as the resident introduced herself, giving them their pagers as she explained her style of answering emergencies and such. They all listened intently as she explained it all, and looked up to see Derek walking down the hallway towards them.

"Oh crap." Meredith whispered as she nudged Cristina, who only grinned at her friend's nervousness.

"This is so fun." Cristina laughed as she smiled at Derek coming down the hallway as Meredith looked down and avoided eye contact.

"Hey... here comes that dreamy Doctor Shepherd..." Izzie whispered to Cristina.

"Did you hear that, Meri? Here comes that dreamy Doctor... Ow!" She exclaimed as Meredith stomped on her foot. "You're so going to get it later." She grumbled as Meredith smirked happily, though it faded as Derek approached them.

"Doctor Patil." Derek said as he approached the resident. "How are you doing this morning?" He asked politely as he smiled at all of the interns, noticing that Meredith's eyes were downcast. He chuckled to himself as he watched her nudge Cristina.