Addison stopped beside Derek as he waited for the lift, staring intently at the metal doors.

"Nice of you to wake me up this morning." She said, staring straight ahead. Derek sighed.

"Addie, I don't want to fight today, please. I had an early start I thought you'd appreciate the extra sleeping time." The lift doors opened with a bing and Derek stepped inside. "See you later Addison." He said as the doors closed. As soon as the lift started moving he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tough day?" Came a soft voice from behind him. He recognised the voice instantly and turned round to greet Meredith. "Hi."

"Hi." They smiled at each other for a moment. "So, how are you doing?"

"Better than you." Meredith replied.

"Touche." Derek replied, looking into her eyes. "But I still look good." Meredith smiled at this.

"Yeah, you're even wearing you're red shirt." Derek looked down, following her gaze.

"Oh, you know I didn't even notice. I just…..threw on anything." He chuckled and Meredith rolled her eyes. "Good impressions to be made…" He trailed off as he began to think just how much he wanted to kiss her. He wondered if she was thinking the same thing as him. The lift stopped suddenly and the doors opened to reveal a line of waiting people.

"My stop." Meredith said, and walked past him into the corridor, leaving him staring after her.

"Leave her alone." Cristina muttered beside him, he hadn't even seen her come in.

"I….I wasn't…." He tried to reply but she interrupted him.

"I know what you're doing and don't do it. She's finally started moving on, she's finally started to be happy again and you're going to ruin all that? You made your choice Dr Shepherd, live with it." The doors opened again and Cristina walked out leaving Derek staring after her, this time in disbelief. He looked down at his red shirt.

"Thanks for those notes Dr Yang." He called after her trying to make the conversation appears less personal. "God this shirt used to be so effective."

Cristina stood with Meredith in the intern's changing room as they both changed into their scrubs.

"So, how are you and Burke?" Meredith asked, tying a knot in the elastic on her trousers.

"Oh, you know……its me and Burke."

"Do you ever call him by his name?" Meredith asked, laughing slightly. Cristina looked at her with a deadpan expression on her face.

"His name is Burke. As soon as I start calling him Preston he'll want to get married or something. It's a no go area." Cristina replied. "Plus, Preston? I mean….I just don't even want to think about his family issues to give him a name like that."

"I kinda like it….Preston, Preston…it has a nice ring to it don't you think. It's kinda great." Meredith answered, testing the name out. Cristina sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Well then you go out with him."

"I don't want to go out with him."

"Then stop liking his name." Cristina said. Meredith smiled and nodded. "Come on there are surgeries to do, stop wasting time.

"I'm not wasting time. I'm thinking and taking my time, enjoying my life."

"Whatever, enjoy your life at home. Lets go." Cristina countered. Meredith admitted defeated and followed Cristina into the hall. "I have a good feeling today – its like I can sense the blood. There's gonna be some surgeries for me today."

"You're verging on twisted you realise that."

"Oh I'm just a good surgeon, stop clouding me with your jealously." Meredith snorted at this.
"Eww." Izzie appeared beside Meredith, directing her comment at her. "Who's jealous. Jealously is fun, it leads to arguments and those are also good entertainment."

"Talking about your love of porn again Stevens." Alex said, joining the group as they walked down the hallway.

"Why are you walking with us?" Cristina asked, staring at him incredulously.

"I got rounds just like you Yang." He replied. "But seriously, were you talking about porn?" The girls all chuckled and rolled their eyes.

"You're unbelievable Alex." Izzie stated. Both Cristina and Meredith gave each other looks at her choice of words and then looked up at Alex just as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Why thank you Izzie. I've been told that several times before." He grinned. The group stopped beside Bailey who was already with George going over the patient files from the night before.

"Yang and Karev you're in the pit today – Yang don't even try and argue with me on this one. Pit now." Cristina had been about to open her mouth but shut it again quickly. She gave one last pleading look at Meredith and then followed Alex. "Stevens you're wanted for a consult with Dr Shepherd, Addison. Why are you still here? GO!" Izzie rushed off in the direction they had just walked from. "Grey, uh….you're wanted by the other Dr Shepherd, he's got a PVS case needs looking at." At this Meredith nodded and rushed off. "That leaves you and me O'Malley. I want you to run labs on Mr Hartford, he's post-op 2 days complaining of a pain in his lower chest and his temp spiked last night to 102 so there's something wrong. After that write up my post-op notes from yesterday and then you'll find me and I'll tell you what to do. Scram." George ran off quickly, although he quickly realised he was running in the wrong direction. He ran back past Dr Bailey who stared at him as if he were mad.

Meredith approached Derek in the corridor. He was flicking through a file in his hands and shaking his head as he read it.

"You wanted me for a consult?" She asked, standing beside. He looked up.

"Hi. Yeah I did. A guy came in complaining of head pains, says he had them for over a year now. MRI showed a huge tumour on his brain stem. It should have put him into a coma but he's still retaining all bodily functions. Its got to come out though, if this thing gets any bigger he's going to die, but he's going to lose all ability to think, move, do anything before that happens." He said.

"So we're just going to operate now? Have you talked to the family?"

"The family are happy to go ahead with the procedure. I'm going to do some more tests and make sure this won't damage his brain even more. I need you to get some labs done for me."

"Labs." Meredith nodded, disappointed that was all she was being made to do. Derek smirked at her.

"Don't worry, you'll scrub in on the surgery." He told her. Meredith perked up at this.

"Labs it is then." She grinned and walked away, leaving Derek staring after her yet again. He couldn't understand how she found this so easy. To be apart; it was killing Derek on the inside but he knew he should do the right thing, he'd been married to Addison for as long as he could remember, if he didn't try to work it out he'd be just as bad as her. He knew that at first it was hard for Meredith, but he didn't know when the transition to easy had come. He couldn't expect her to be miserable all the time but every time she spoke to him she seemed happy.

"Derek?" A voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw Addison standing over him looking concerned. She followed his gaze and saw an corridor bustling with activity. "Everything alright?"

"Oh..yeah I was just thinking about things." Addison looked down at this, she knew from his tone of voice that he was thinking about Meredith.

"So, I was wondering, there's this really nice restaurant that Preston told me about. I checked it out yesterday and…..you know there's probably nice food….so.."

"Addison are you asking me out on a date?" Derek chuckled.

"Uh….yeh?" She replied unsure about whether if she admitted it would be a date he would say no.

"I would love to." He said, kissing her on the cheek. "Pick you up at 7? You still live in that trailer in the middle of the field right?" He laughed and she joined in, glad that things seemed to be moving on with them finally.

"That's right. The one where some guy keeps bringing trout into, you can smell it for a mile so you won't miss it." They were both laughing as Meredith watched from the stairs. She couldn't believe it had been so easy for him to move on, especially to go back with a wife that cheated on him. The sight of them being happy together made her even more determined not to let Derek see that the situation was upsetting her. She skipped down the steps and made her way towards the couple who were still laughing with each other and making jokes. She stopped almost between them.

"Hi." She said cheerfully. Derek bowed his head and stopped laughing immediately. Addison merely raised her eyebrows. "Dr Shepherd, I was just wondering whether you wanted me to get an MRI done whilst I was at it."

"Oh right…uh yeah that would be good. Call down and let them know we're coming." Derek replied, his voice strained. He always felt uncomfortable when Meredith and Addison were around each other. He thought Meredith was going to leave but instead she moved further between the pair, and leant over the desk that they were standing near, grabbing the phone and dialling a number. Because she was leaning over, it meant that her bum was sticking out, right between Derek and Addison. Derek kept glancing down until Addison interrupted.

"Well, I've got somewhere to be. I'll see you tonight Derek." She was going to lean in for a kiss but Meredith's bum was in the way. She nodded and walked off.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked when he was sure Addison was out of earshot. Meredith hung up the phone and turned to face him.

"I'm sorry?" She replied, a confused expression on her face.

"Are you trying to be difficult or does it just come naturally?" His tone was mildly angry.

"I was calling MRI like you asked. I didn't…….what did I do?" She was genuinely confused about what she had done.

"You just……I mean…..do you want to punish me?" Meredith was silent at this, she didn't understand at all where this was coming.

"Derek I don't……I don't know what you mean?" She paused whilst Derek laughed in disbelief. "Punish you? How am I punishing you?" Derek was silent for a moment as he thought about whether or not he should say this. He shook his head.

"Never mind." He replied and walked away. Meredith stared after his in confusion and shock.

"Hang on, wait!" She ran after Derek and grabbed him by the arm. He turned to face her, his expression blank. "What is going on Derek?" She let go of his arm waiting for her to reply. He just shook his head refusing to speak. They stood there for a moment, staring into each other's eyes, both trying to work out what the other was feeling.

"Fine." Meredith said and walked off, not looking back, leaving Derek standing staring at the floor, cursing himself for being an idiot.

598325.doc17/03/07 06:20hrs Imo Wilson (L) L6