Title: Secret Garden

Rating: T

Characters: Meredith/Derek

Genre: Romance/Drama

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy isn't mine and neither are the characters… Unless of course, Shonda would like to give them to me? In which case, I promise to take good care of them!

Chapter 1

Her dark blonde hair tangled in the wind as she swayed to the music. With a bottle of tequila in her hand, she shut her eyes. She loved this song. Bringing the bottle to her lips she took a sip, relishing the familiar burn as it stung down her throat. She loved this song and she certainly loved her tequila.

She heard someone call her name and she hurried over to her best friend. The wind was howling tonight and she shivered as the cool air hit her exposed midriff. Maybe wearing such a skimpy top had been a bad idea, she thought. Brushing that idea out her head immediately, she smiled to herself. She looked hot tonight and that was all that really mattered.

"We got a bet, Mer," her best friend Cristina slurred. "I told these stupid boys you could down that entire bottle in under thirty seconds. They think I'm joking."

Meredith laughed, "She never jokes, I'm telling you," she said drunkenly.

"Prove us wrong babe," an athletic looking guy responded.

Meredith thought about it for a second, her hair blowing around her face.

"What do I get outta it?" she mumbled.

"Another bottle of tequila, of course!" said one of the guys she recognized from the school's ever so popular football team.

Pushing her messy hair from her face, she spoke. "You're on," the tiny blonde assured them before bringing the bottle up to her lips once more.

The loud music blared from across campus making it virtually impossible to concentrate on anything else. In the library, he sat alone. He looked at the pile of books and sighed, knowing very well he would be unable to get through them tonight with such an incessant distraction.

He'd been reading about magnetic resonance spectroscopy of neurotransmitters in the human brain and he was sure he was taking in none of it as the repetitive beats from outside bounced throughout the walls of the lonely room. Undoubtedly someone had probably just completed a very successful keg stand as loud cheering was heard

"Congratulations," he muttered sarcastically under his breath. He had an exam tomorrow, a very important exam. Derek was guessing half the people at school had exams and yet it seemed they were still out there drinking the night away. It was only a couple of days till they got a week off for Thanksgiving. You'd think people would be able to wait a couple of days until exams were over before drinking their brain cells away, but no. Derek was only further reminded of this when the chanting of the word "skull, skull, skull," echoed across the campus.

He slammed his book shut. He'd been reading the same sentence for the past five minutes; he was that distracted. It was pointless trying to get anything done now so with frustration Derek quickly packed his books into his backpack and left, hoping that maybe it would be quieter back in his room.

There was a special place in hell for professors who thought it necessary to give exams right before Thanksgiving break. That was what Meredith was thinking as she woke up the next morning. She'd had a mere three hours sleep and had still woken up late. She initially couldn't quite remember how she even made it to bed, but she was at least glad to have woken up in her own. After a few moments she could hazily recall Cristina and herself stumbling back to their room. Despite needing to be at her exam in exactly twenty-two minutes, Meredith was determined not to go to class smelling like tequila and stale beer, so she quickly jumped in the shower.

"Eleven minutes," she heard Cristina call over the running water. Cristina's last exam had been yesterday and Meredith hated her just a little bit for that.

Grabbing the first articles of clothing she could find, she ended up looking a mess in her ratty, little Dartmouth shirt and shorts that some would possibly deem too distracting for a learning environment.

"Fantastic," she mumbled under her breath, hopping on one leg as she tried to get her shoes on without falling over. She was perhaps, still a little drunk.

"Seven minutes," Cristina informed with somewhat amusement, knowing very well that she could stay in bed all day. "You see this is why neuroscience sucks."

Meredith quickly threw her bag over her shoulder and bolted for the door, not before promptly telling her roommate to 'shut up.' Meredith was lucky that she lived in such a central location on campus; she was close to all her classes. However today, today she wasn't quite lucky enough. Upon reaching her class, the door was locked shut.

"Shit," she mumbled quietly to herself as she pushed on the door. "Shit!" she said louder as the seriousness of the situation sunk in. She was locked out of her exam. She was going to miss her exam and fail. "This isn't happening." Bashing her fists in anger against the door once more, it remained closed. "Shit, shit, shit," she repeated to herself. She had to shut her eyes in an attempt to stop her from crying and Meredith Grey was never one to cry.

Derek had walked out of his exam with a smile on his face. Despite not getting as much study as he'd hoped the night before, he knew he'd aced his in-class essay on Neurotransmitters and Their Receptors. He'd left the building and was on his way to the coffee stand when someone caught his eye. Out the front of a lecture hall where he'd had classes in his first year, was a girl slamming her fists on the door. Her hair was dripping wet, leaving a wet patch down the back of her old shirt. He wondered if she was aware that she was also wearing two different shoes? He wasn't sure what it was about the obviously entirely disorganized, unfortunate student that drew him towards her, but before he knew it he had approached her.

"This might surprise you but in some cultures people actually try using the handle to open doors," he began jokingly. "You know, before slamming their tiny, ineffectual fists against metal."

Meredith looked up, pressing her lips together in anger. "Are you kidding me?" her angry voice was only slightly louder than she intended it to be. "Are you freaking kidding me?"

Taken aback, the stranger's eyes widened. Even in Meredith's state of anger she couldn't help but notice that they were quite a mesmerizing shade of blue.

"Look, I'm sorry… I was just kidding," he said hesitantly. That really hadn't gone over how he had intended it to.

However mesmerizing his eyes were it didn't stop Meredith from continuing her previous freak out. "I've missed my exam. I've missed the one freaking exam I actually wanted to pass and now I'm going to fail. Mom was right, I really can't do this! I'm stupid, I really am," she began to ramble as she shook her head.

At this point Derek wasn't sure whether she was talking to him or herself, but either way he was going to stick around to find out.

"I'm seriously going to fail, all because I missed this one exam. Can you believe that? It doesn't really matter if you can or you can't because it's the truth and all because I listened to Cristina and went to the party and now…" her voice trailed off as she looked to the ground. "And now, I'm wearing mismatched shoes. Fantastic, fucking fantastic."

Derek couldn't take his eyes off the rambling blonde. He'd never heard so many words come out of someone's mouth in such few seconds and he had grown up with four sisters, so that certainly said a lot.

Meredith looked up to the man in front of her and let out a sigh. He was staring at her with a look of utter bewilderment and Meredith suddenly felt really embarrassed. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?" She asked when he continued to stare at her in silence.

"No, I was just making sure you were finished," he said as a slight smirk cornered on his lips.

Meredith nodded slightly; suddenly very aware that she was standing in front of this good-looking guy while her hair was probably causing a puddle to form at her feet and a shirt that had a noticeable hole in it. "I am, I'm finished," she confirmed with a nod.

Derek smiled and Meredith now just felt embarrassed. He had a really nice smile and she'd just stood in front of him for God knows how long and rambled on about her failure. They both stood there for a moment, neither making any attempt to move until someone broke their gaze.

"Shepherd," a deep familiar voice exclaimed. They both turned to see the professor walking up the stairs. Meredith's eyes grew wide as she noticed that he was carrying a stack of what looked to be exam papers.

"Doctor Price," Derek returned with a smile. He'd been his neuroscience professor back in first year and still remained as his favorite teacher.

"You're nice and early, Grey," the elderly man commented as he walked past them and fumbled with his keys.

Meredith stood there shocked. Early? She was early?

The door opened with a click and Price walked in.

"You're early," Derek stated unable to hide the look of amusement that spread across his features.

"I'm early," the blonde repeated letting out an audible sigh of relief.

"Well, I guess you probably feel a little embarrassed now," he said with a smirk.

Meredith couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, I do actually."

Derek's smirk immediately turned into a grin upon hearing the giggle that passed from the rambling blonde's lips. It was probably the cutest sound he'd ever heard.

"I could have sworn my exam was at nine… I'm blaming tequila," she spoke and again he was unsure if she was actually talking to him or just herself again.

"Tequila, hey? So I'm guessing you were a part of the rambunctious group of individuals that kept me up half the night. I had an exam this morning, you know?" he spoke in serious tone, though the grin on his face was very contradictory.

There she went with that infectious giggle again and Derek didn't want to walk away.

"Sorry about that," she replied with a smile.

They both stood there for a few moments, neither saying a word. It wasn't until people started pushing past them to get into class that Meredith spoke, "I should go before I actually miss this exam."

"You definitely should do that," he said with a nod, unable to wipe the smile from his face.

"So umm… Goodbye…" Had he mentioned his name somewhere in between her incoherent rambling?

"Derek," he finished for her.

"Derek, right," she repeated and instantly, he liked the way his name sounded coming from her lips. "Meredith," she told him as she accepted the hand he extended in front of himself.

"Meredith," he said again, noticing that she was blushing slightly. "Nice meeting you."

"Bye Derek," she said letting out the faintest of giggles before turning and entering the now busy exam room.

Meredith hurried to find a seat, trying to get the red that had flushed her cheeks to subside. She never blushed and she usually wasn't as tongue-tied as she'd found herself out there. Maybe it had been because she was freaking out about her "missed" exam or maybe it was because he had one of the most gorgeous smiles she had ever seen? Whatever the reason, she had to stop thinking about him because she had an exam to pass.

Derek stood there for a moment, replaying the conversation he had just had with Meredith over in his head. He instantly liked her. She'd looked like she was about to rip his head off when he'd made that smart-ass remark and then all of a sudden she'd been rambling about exams and mismatched shoes. She was awkward in a way that made her cute and intriguing and Derek couldn't help but want to get to know her.