Hello!
I have yet another story for you all! This idea just wouldn't leave me alone so I had to write it down.
This takes place right where the season 4 finale ends and fills in the missing conversations I assume may have taken place during the time we didn't see before the start of season 5.
Please let me know what you think and if you're interested in more!
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The cool, fall air whipped around her again as Meredith wondered for the umpteenth time how much longer it would take Derek to get back.
She had been standing alone among the few hundreds of candles that she had outlined their future home in for about an hour now and, to be honest, she was starting to lose all feeling in her toes.
The beautiful land around her was cast in a soft glow from the candles and she couldn't help but look on in awe. If someone had told her a week ago she'd be building Derek a house of candles (complete with a room where their kids could play), she would have had them committed to psych. In fact, if someone had told her that this morning, she still would have told them they were crazy.
As the chief's tail lights disappeared into the distance, Meredith plopped dejectedly into one the lawn chairs Derek has set up on his deck. In her frantic search to find him in the hospital, she had run in to Mark who informed her that she has just missed him.
She had been hoping beyond hope that he had headed home to the trailer, but she was at a complete loss on where to look next.
An unsettling realization suddenly occurred to her, causing her stomach to roll unpleasantly.
Rose.
He must be with Rose.
It was fair. They were together after all. And when one has a major medical breakthrough, it wouldn't be unrealistic to want to celebrate with one's girlfriend.
Not wanting to be here should Derek decide to move his 'celebration' to the trailer, Meredith stood and jumped off the porch. Due to the darkness, she didn't notice the small recycling bin and happened to knock it over in her haste to leave. After sending a 'why me?' sigh to the heavens, she leant down to pick up the beer cans and newspapers that had fallen out along with a roll of papers she couldn't identify until she neared them.
She knew what she was holding before the dark blue papers were even unrolled but she found herself unable to stop herself. The moon and the dim shine of the porch light provided just enough light to make out the thin white lines that made up her and Derek's could-have-been home.
While the sight of these plans used to make her chest tighten in fear, now they only made heartrending tears prick at the back of Meredith's eyes.
'He's selling his land because of you.' Rose's words from earlier that morning were suddenly ringing in her ears. 'He was planning to build a house while the two of you were together and now…'
And now there would be no house. No home. No lifetime. He had planned out a lifetime with marriage and kids and a house, all for them. But now Derek was with his nurse and selling his land.
And where was she?
She was alone and ordinary. Just like her mother warned her not to become.
A few tears tumbled over her eyelids, causing her to look up and wipe them away in frustration.
No. This was not how this was going to end for her. She refused to repeat her mother's mistakes.
If Derek was going to ride off into the sunset with Rose, he was going to do it with all the facts. She was getting ready for him, damn it. She didn't get all whole and healed just to have Derek end up with a random scrub nurse.
After rolling up the blueprints, Meredith strode purposefully to her Jeep. She wasn't sure how yet, but somehow she was going to show Derek she was ready.
Her rambling usually killed the effectiveness of the big speeches Derek seemed so fond at doling out.
But maybe she could take a crack at a grand gesture.
The wind started to pick up in the last few minutes, causing various candles to burn out and wispy, grey smoke to hover above the tiny glass containers. Still tightly grasping the neck of the champagne bottle, she used her free hand to pull her coat tighter around her body and shifted her weight back and forth on her feet.
The ominous turn the weather was taking was just about enough to make her call it quits and head to the trailer when she noticed the unmistakable flicker of headlights through the trees.
Her heart started hammering in her chest and she could feel her cheeks flush at the mere thought of Derek finally rounding the corner into the clearing. After weeks and weeks of only seeing each other in a professional setting, stolen glances, and constantly reminding herself that he was taken, Meredith couldn't believe that this was all really happening now. That she'd finally taken control of her life and was able to do something to show Derek how much she wanted that lifetime he promised her.
The sight of Derek finally entering through the break in the trees caused her train of thought to come to a screeching halt.
The closer Derek got, the wider his smile stretched across his face. By the time he crossed the outer threshold of candles, he looked as though he could burst with joy and his eyes seemed to sparkle and dance in the candlelight. They were so wrapped up in the other that neither noticed the first couple raindrops begin to fall.
Derek was now only a few steps away from her so Meredith opened her mouth to speak. However, the words caught in her throat and nothing came out. She took a breath to try again.
"I…" She needed to tell him.
She wanted to tell him.
But right as she opened her mouth a third time, the sky opened up and released a torrential downpour.
Meredith squeaked in surprise and they both stared at one another in shock, getting completely drenched in the process.
When her brain finally registered that they were standing in the rain like idiots, Meredith broke out in a run and headed straight for the trailer. It didn't take more than a few seconds for her to hear the squishy footsteps that signaled Derek was running close behind her.
They made it to the porch and Derek wordlessly let them into the small trailer. His small chuckle made her turn around to face where he was standing in his makeshift living room. Derek looked her over and chuckled again.
She couldn't blame him. She could feel her hair plastered to the sides of her face and the back of her neck. Her coat felt about fifteen pounds heavier thanks to all the rain it had soaked up and she was sure the small amount of mascara she applied earlier that night was smudged on her cheeks by now.
Looking over Derek in a similar fashion, she couldn't help but shake her head. Derek's coat and clothes had to be in the same condition as Meredith's, but that was where the similarities ended. Here she felt like a drowned rat and he looked as if he had just finished shooting a shampoo commercial. If she didn't love him so much, she'd hate him.
Oh yeah!
While she was internally rambling, Derek crossed the small space that separated them and now stood directly in front of her. Pushing aside a few strands of wet hair, he began to lean down to kiss to kiss her when Meredith finally blurted out the words she had been dying to tell him all night.
"I love you," she professed in one breath. Derek immediately pulled back to look at her in surprise.
"I meant to start with that," she stumbled, "before you were late and I started kind of yelling at you. I'm sorry about that, by the way. The yelling, I mean. Not loving you, because I do. In case the house of candles and ranting about playrooms didn't make that clear, I love you."
She gazed expectantly at him, feeling lighter than she had in months. Even if the past couple of months completely crushed any trust Derek had had in her, even if he didn't say it back, she had done it.
She did exactly what her mother hadn't been strong enough to do. She laid out her heart for him and told him how she felt even when she wasn't one hundred percent sure that it wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass later.
However, the adrenaline she had been feeling was wearing off quickly and Derek's silence was starting to cause her some concern.
"Dammit, Derek, at least say something!" she demanded, unable to mask the small quiver of worry in her tone.
"You're very, very bossy," Derek finally hummed with a smile. And Meredith smiled too.
Because that smile, the one Derek was sporting right at that moment, was the same smile he was wearing the morning he reintroduced himself after waking up naked on her living room floor. It was the same smile he wore the night he stood in the middle of her kitchen and told her he loved her for the first time. It was the same smile he wore just an hour ago as he asked her to wait for him.
"Keeps you in line," she murmured in response, remembering the conversation they had a lifetime ago in the interns' locker room.
Pulling her closely against him for the second time that night, Derek kissed her deeply. He poured every ounce of emotion he could muster into that one kiss.
"I love you too, Meredith Grey," he whispered against her lips as she caught her breath. "In case the kissing and the corny flirting didn't make that clear, I love you too." Derek chuckled and captured her lips with his own once more.
"Are you mocking me?" Meredith pouted in feigned annoyance.
"Only a little," he confessed, moving his lips to the side of her neck. "But only because I love you so much."
"Good," she sighed, running her hand through his wet curls and let herself enjoy the attention his lips were giving her.
They still had a long way to go and they both knew it. A major medical breakthrough and a house of candles didn't just fix all of their issues.
But beyond all of their mistakes, they could take solace in Meredith's words from earlier that night.
They could be extraordinary together, rather than ordinary apart.
And that was exactly what they planned to do.
Let me know what you think!
