#four weeks?

With an amused smile, Meredith replied, “I know, Sienna.”

“Oh my god, he’s totally in love with you,” she went on. “He’d never have shown up at a party if any of us had invited him, but you ask him and—”

“Okay, okay, I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” Meredith interrupted, cheeks reddening as she glanced over her shoulder to be sure Ethan hadn’t heard. He was still hovering near the door, and upon seeing the rare look of discomfort and uncertainty on his face, Meredith struggled to bite back a laugh.

“Yes, stop embarrassing yourself, Sienna,” Sienna’s self-righteous boyfriend, Wayne, piped up beside them. “And stop embarrassing me.”

“That’s not—” Meredith interjected, glaring at Wayne as she watched Sienna’s smile deflate.

But her friend’s face quickly morphed into anger. “I’m having fun with my friends, Wayne, and if you’re embarrassed by that, then maybe you should leave.”

As Wayne opened his mouth to shoot back a response, Meredith decided it was best she left them to it, instead making her way across the room to rescue Ethan.

“Dr. Ramsey,” she greeted him.

He nodded at her. “Rookie.”

“I thought you weren’t able to come.”

“I—needed a change of pace,” he answered equivocally.

Meredith raised her eyebrows. “You’ve certainly found it.”

“Yes.” He winced. “I should leave, shouldn’t I?”

“No, please stay.” Meredith put a hand on his arm, and Ethan’s eyes flicked briefly to it before returning to her face. She glanced towards the kitchen. “Just give me one second.”

Without waiting for a response, she darted into the other room and filled two plastic cups with beer from the keg in the middle of the floor. Returning, she offered one to Dr. Ramsey, tapping her cup against his and taking a swig.

“There, now you fit in,” she said. Ethan eyed his cup with a disdain he didn’t bother to mask, and Meredith rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry it’s not a Glenlivet fifteen-year – we’re throwing a party on a bunch of interns’ salaries, you know.”

“I prefer Lagavulin anyway,” Ethan said with a smirk.

Meredith shook her head, resting her free hand on her hip. “This is why none of the interns like you.”

Ethan seemed unfazed by this. “Do you like me?” he asked, something of a challenge in his eyes.

She blinked, caught off-guard by the question. Did it matter if she liked him? Deciding an evasive answer was best, she replied, “Still deciding.”

He nodded, appearing satisfied with her response. Taking a sip of beer, he made a face, shrugged as though resigning himself to the lack of other options, and took another drink.

“I think it’s because I don’t really know you,” Meredith continued. “I mean, I do know about your childhood and your most embarrassing moment now, so that’s something,” she said with a grin, still unsure why he’d asked her to assist him with testing the new fMRI machine that afternoon. “But not much else about your life outside of the hospital. What does Ethan Ramsey like to do when he’s not blowing minds with his exceptional and unmatched knowledge of medicine?”

Ethan frowned at her. “Fawning doesn’t suite you, Dr. Grey.”

“Just answer the question.”

A smirk pulled at his lips again. “Fine. When I have the time, I do enjoy taking in a performance at the Boston Opera House.”

Meredith snorted into her cup, coughing as beer almost went up her nose. “Opera? What century are you from?”

“Careful, Rookie,” Ethan warned, “I’m still your boss, even at a party.”

Meredith raised an eyebrow doubtfully. “Are you evaluating me as a doctor based on my ability to throw a good party?”

“Luckily for you, no,” he returned without missing a beat, gesturing at the space around them. “I’m appalled you live here.”

“Intern’s salary, remember?”

Ethan waved this away impatiently. “I have to believe there were better options than a below-ground apartment. You know these types of places are ripe for break-ins.”

Meredith shrugged. “There are bars on our windows so I’m not too concerned. But thanks for worrying about me,” she teased, and was briefly taken aback when Ethan actually blushed. “Plus, I live here with four other people who are all in massive debt—any thief who broke in would be sorely disappointed.”

“And is the very loud young man who so kindly announced my arrival one of your roommates?” Ethan asked.

Meredith laughed. “Bryce? No, but we know him from work—he’s one of the new surgical interns.”

“I should have guessed,” Ethan muttered, lifting his cup to take another drink.

“Yes, he can be a little full of himself, but I know he really cares about his patients. I think he gets away with the rest of it because he’s so good-looking,” Meredith mused.

Ethan coughed, spluttering for a moment until he was able to speak again. “Hmm. So, who do you share this hellhole with then?”

Shooting him a glare, Meredith turned to scan the apartment. “Elijah and Landry,” she pointed to the two, who looked to be having some sort of debate near the abandoned beer pong table, “Jackie . . . who I don’t see at the moment, and . . . ah, there’s Sienna.” She gestured at the brunette, glad to find she was free of Wayne for the moment and talking with Danny instead.

“Yes, Dr. Trinh,” Ethan said thoughtfully. “Seems too timid to be a doctor on first impression, but is actually quite sharp and explains procedures to her patients in a way that’s easy for them to understand, at least when she thinks there are no attendings around.”

Meredith smiled happily at this. “Oh, she’ll be so thrilled when I tell her you said that.” Then, with alcohol-fueled courage and because she was curious to see his reaction, Meredith went on, “Actually, she’s convinced you only showed up tonight because I was the one who invited you.”

She wasn’t prepared for the intensity of Ethan’s gaze as his blue eyes locked on hers. Her heart began to race with the nervous energy that often thrummed through her veins when he was grilling her about a patient. Except this time, it wasn’t a reaction to the unwelcome fear that she might be wrong . . . but instead the unbelievable suspicion that she might be right.

Before either of them could speak, the sound of Meredith’s name ringing out from across the room drew her attention.

“Get over here!” Jackie insisted from the couch, where Elijah and Landry had joined her. “We’re playing drunk rounds.”

Meredith swung back to Ethan, feeling strangely desperate, as though she was letting a consequential moment slip away.

But Jackie interrupted them yet again. “Do not make me get Meathead’s scalpel and force you to move, Meredith,” she threatened.

“Good lord,” Ethan murmured, and Meredith grimaced.

“That’s Jackie,” she said apologetically. “I should . . .” She used her cup to gesture towards the main living area.

“If you value your life, yes, it seems you should,” Ethan agreed with a quirk of his eyebrow.

The lingering sense of desperation drove her to add, “You could join us.”

“To do what, exactly?”

“Play drunk rounds.”

Ethan huffed out a short breath. “You repeating the words doesn’t make them any easier to comprehend.”

“You know, someone lists a set of symptoms or asks a question about a treatment and if you get it wrong, you have to take a shot. A drinking game?” she added when Ethan continued to watch her with increasing skepticism. “Or are you too old to remember those?”

This time, she could have sworn he had to fight back a laugh. “Your disrespect continues to astound me, Rookie. But even if I were to join you in this . . . drinking game, it would hardly be a fair match.”

Meredith took a step closer, grinning up at him impishly. “I like a challenge.”

With a long-suffering sigh that Meredith deeply suspected was all for show, Dr. Ramsey motioned for her to lead the way.

“Finally,” Jackie groaned dramatically as they reached the group.

“Excellent,” Landry said, rubbing his hands together gleefully. “Let’s begin with—” He broke off with an unnaturally high squeak as his eyes landed on Dr. Ramsey.

“Dr. Ramsey’s joining us too,” Meredith explained.

Jackie waved him into a chair. “Great. We’ll kick his ass,” she said confidently.

Knowing Ethan must be poised to make yet another comment about impertinent interns, Meredith jumped in quickly, “Okay, you’re up first then, Jackie. Name the five warning signs of a stroke.”

Sitting up straighter, the dark-haired woman rattled them off with no trouble. “Numbness or weakness, difficulty speaking, vision problems, dizziness or loss of balance, and sudden severe headache.”

Ethan cleared his throat as Meredith nodded and Jackie grinned triumphantly. “So does this mean you have to take a drink, Rookie, because you didn’t stump her?”

“Oh, hey,” Elijah said, as Jackie let out a wicked cackle and Landry continued to look as though he’d been shocked with a defibrillator, “Dr. Ramsey came to play!”

“I think we have ourselves a new rule.” Jackie smirked at Meredith as she handed her a shot glass brimming with liquid.

“Thank you,” Meredith said sarcastically, sticking her tongue out at Ethan before she could rethink the childish move. Downing the shot with practiced ease, she smacked the glass back onto the coffee table. “Landry, what’ve you got for me?”

There was a pause as they waited for Landry to respond, but he only managed to mouth soundlessly.

Elijah grinned. “I don’t think he’s going to be speaking for a while. So—”

“I’ve got one,” Ethan said, and Meredith almost laughed at how the other three snapped instantly to attention. “Patient initially presents with relatively mild symptoms—cough, fever, occasional minor confusion, though the latter could be explained away by age. But the symptoms quickly progress into a more severe range, plus the patient begins developing signs of sepsis—organ dysfunction, trouble breathing. What’s the diagnosis?”

There was the briefest pause, and then they all began speaking at once, voices rising over one another in an effort to be heard. Even Landry came out of his trance and declared that he was going to grab one of his textbooks, to which Jackie and Elijah immediately began to protest that cheating wasn’t allowed. Meredith started to turn to Dr. Ramsey to chide him for deliberately working her friends into such a frenzy, only to find his chair empty.

Scrambling to her feet, she left the other three to their argument and made a beeline for the apartment door, her progress somewhat impeded by the groups of partygoers drifting aimlessly across her path.

“Hey! Dr. Ramsey!” she called down the hall as she flung open the door, and Ethan stopped. Running up to him, she added with a breathless smile, “We were just getting started, you can’t leave now!”

“I have to get back to—well, I have to go.”

He seemed appropriately apologetic, but Meredith flushed as she realized he must be trying to make a polite escape. Of course an attending wouldn’t want to stick around at a party full of interns.

“Oh right, sure,” she said, flustered, mortified about sprinting after him. “Sorry.”

He gave her a quizzical look. “For what?”

There were so many things she wanted to say, all running through her brain at once, so it was a surprise even to her when the one that burst out was, “Why did you rank me so low?” She’d wanted to ask him earlier that day, but hadn’t had the courage to face the possibility that it reflected his true opinion of her potential as a doctor.

Ethan’s inscrutable expression was infuriating, and for a moment Meredith was sure he’d turn away without answering. But then, astonishing her for the countless time that evening, he smiled.

“I thought you liked a challenge.”

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