It's been a month and Derek still didn't talk to Meredith – well not in the way that they used to. They live in the same roof, sleep on the same bed, but, they didn't do as much as touching each other, much more a kiss. Meredith knows that he needs space and that's what she was giving him. And there are times that she thought if any of these will get any better. If there's still a chance that they could go back to the way they were. She misses him terribly – the talking, the touching, the spooning during sleeping, THE SEX! They've been civil to each other and talk works related when needed. They never heard anything from the social worker about Zola that makes the air between them thicker, if that's even possible. Meredith used to being Derek cannot keep his hand off of her. But now, so much as talking to her with eye contact is impossible for him to do.

He woke up before the alarms goes off and went right out from bed. The shift of the bed caused by him makes Meredith awake, too. She shifted and turned to her right and saw Derek's side of the bed empty and the only evidence left the he was there is the crumpled sheets and the scent of his masculinity – amongst the things that she misses so much. The shower goes off signaled that he was taking a bath. He was an hour earlier than his usual morning routine, which she doesn't know why and will never know why unless she arrived in the hospital and found out why. She doesn't ask things to him anymore. The no-eye contact talking makes her feel bad so sometimes she just didn't ask.

Half an hour later, Derek ejected from the bathroom all wet with a towel draped from his waist to his knees. He looks at her looking at him while she still on the bed snuggled in the sheets she was hoping it was his warm body that is next to him. She noticed his almost nakedness and she couldn't help herself but to feel tingly and warm. It's been month since they last do couple-ly things. "Y-you're early today?", she couldn't help but asked. Her body is on fire and she needs to divert her attention to something else or she might jumps at him and consume him alive.

"Yeah, I have this thing that I need to do.", he answered in a monotone that was the usual tone of voice he was using for the past days.

"Ow.", was her only replied. She knows well that that kind of answers that Derek is giving means that he doesn't want to be bothered.

He finished dressing up and was on his way to the door when he says "Bye. See you at work".

She shifted back to her left and looks at him. "Okay.", she said.

She heard the door closing and he was out of sight. She released a sigh that she was holding for minutes and massages her frontal lobe with both hands. She does not know when is this cold war going to end. She understands his frustrations and she know the extent of the mistake she made, messing up with his clinical trial. It was all he dreams about since he met her and knows about her mother and her disease. The fact that Meredith could be having the Alzheimer's genes from Ellis is what driving him to learn more from this disease and finding the impossible cure. He was doing all of these for her because the thought of having her not remembering him is causing him unfathomable fear. So, she couldn't really blame him for the cold treatment. She just hope it'll be over soon because not having to do things she usually do to him is driving her to the brink of her insanity.

The alarms goes off and she turns it off. This means that she, too, will need to start her day. She goes right off from the bed and goes to the closet and gets the clothes she planned to wear today. She put it on the bed and starts stripping her clothes off before going to the bathroom. She was naked and was walking towards the bathroom when the door banged open that gives her a startle. She panicked and covers her breast and her girl parts on an impulse of what could her little hands do and turn around to give a scold to her intruder. She saw that it's just Derek and said, "Oh, you give me a scare."

Seeing his naked wife, Derek closed the door in a jiffy, afraid that someone else in the house might walk pass through in the hallway and could see her wife in her birthday suit. She is a sight to behold and the lights that came out from the bathroom door do so much as make her skin glow in a way that makes every inch of his body hard and tense. The up and down movement of his adam's apple was enough evidence of what his body went through upon seeing her. He must be swallowing all of his saliva. "Ahm, you could at least lock the door before doing that. Someone might see you … ", from the movement of his eyes from her face to her feet, she knows what he meant.

"I'm sorry. I- I thought you already left and I need to take a shower.", since all of her hands are busy covering the body parts that he had been memorized forever, she used her head to point the bathroom.

"Not from me. From the other frat guys in the house.", he paused for a moment then he remembers why he went back, "I forgot my car keys." He gets the keys from the lamp table beside their bed and headed back to the door. He opened it and before going out, he looks at her and said, "And don't you ever cover yourself in front of me." He presses the lock button of the door and closed it on his way out.

…

The day in the hospital went out normal. It was 4:00 in the afternoon when Bailey approached her. "Hey".

"Hey!", she said back. She was confused because Bailey was not speaking to her since the clinical trial incident.

"I'll be to this conference in LA tomorrow. "

"Yeah, I heard of that."

"I mean I supposed to be at the conference… It just that Dad is sick and will have an emergency operation scheduled tomorrow and I really want to be by his side. So, I'm gonna flew home tonight and won't be back 'til Monday."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"No, not yet. I want you to take over me to the conference. I still hate you but there's no other person I am confident enough to take over me other than you and Webber, so… "

There's a long pause between them, it's as if each other is afraid to start saying words .

Bailey sighs and continue, "Look, Webber is not with himself lately with stepping down as a chief and with Adele being all Alzheirmer-y, so I am begging you to take over me. This conference is important for the General Surgery department and I know that you're into OB-GYN lately but I really want you to try general surgery so..." She looks at her with as big as her eyes could muster. "So, what can you say? Don't make me beg you. I will but both of us won't like it."

"I-I still need to ask Derek about this and …"

Bailey cut her off and said, "Please?! Please, please. I rarely say please, much more to a person whom I'm still angry at. And this is good for you. I could send someone else but I really want you to go. I don't trust anybody here. I don't trust you that much either but one could only hope."

Long pause.

"Okay, I trust you more than anybody. Is that enough?", Bailey said in hope to make Meredith succumb to the idea.

"Okay fine. But wait, is the air between us clear now or are you still angry with me?"

"A little."

"Hmm.", Meredith said while her hands were on her hips.

Bailey turns to the direction she's going at and started walking, leaving Meredith in the spot. Then she stopped on her fifth step and turns back to her and said, "I know you don't understand me. I'm upset with you and I know you think it's none of my business.."

"Dr. Bailey, I …."

"Shh… It's just that you are one of the brightest and I see so much of a promise with your talents as a surgeon and I'm walking heads up thinking all of that and I was having big hopes for you. So, I'm angry.. To you. To myself."

"What?"

"Coz I think I'm not a good teacher as I thought I was."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay and I'm sorry, too. So, you're going? It's for General Surgery and I hope you're interested coz Webber said that maybe that's the path you're taking…"

"Ahm, I'm still not sure for that path but..."

"But you're going, right? My flight is in an hour and I really need to go to the airport now. Say yes. Please." There it goes, the big eyes again, only now its pleading.

"Okay fine, yes!"

"Oh thank God! You don't need to worry about anything. Travel and accommodation has been taking care of. Papers and documents are ready. I will give it to you later as well as the USB that has the power point pesentations in it. All you need to do is to study and to spread the words to the people in the conference like a messiah."

Now it's Meredith's eyes that couldn't grow any bigger. "Whoa, whoa! Power point what? Do I need to speak in front?"

"Yes, of course. You need to present what we have and what we still don't have to those people. Didn't I tell you?"

"No, you didn't"

"Oh now I did. Thanks Grey, I owe you one. Everything you need is in the nurse's station. I gotta go, I have a flight to catch on. And it's a week-long conference so you should know. You can do this."

"Grrr.."

…

That night, she packed a week's worth of clothes when Derek arrived. "What are you doing?", he said. He looked at her while she arranged her clothes in a luggage on the bed.

"I have this conference in LA, so…"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's emergency. Bailey just told me this afternoon and I didn't see you in the hospital. It's only a week long."

"A week long?!", he's voice raised an octave or two.

She didn't know what he thinks at the moment. He just look at her intently. "I cannot not go. It's Bailey and I really wanna be in her good side. And I think it's good for me."

"So when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning."

He sighs. "Couldn't they get another representative?"

"Bailey said she can't. Look, it's really an emergency. I think you've heard about what had happened to Bailey's father."

He nodded. "Okay, you need a ride to the airport?"

"No. The hospital will be sending a service to pick me up."

"Okay. I'm ah…", he obviously want to say something but was holding it up to himself. He lies down on her side of the bed because she was occupying his side with all the packing.

"I'm sorry, you wanna sleep?", she started gathering some of her clothes that wasn't packed yet. It was obvious that she planned to move her packing to somewhere other than the bed.

"No, no. I will just lie here. Continue with what you're doing."

"Okay. Thanks."

She finished all the packing while Derek was on the other side of the bed, sometimes he looked at her and seemed like he wanna say something but most of the time, he just stared at the ceiling. He was deep in thought and was so concentrate as if there was a big screen on it and a movie was being played on. She will be gone for a week and the thought of not seeing him makes her sad. It would be fine if they're talking to each because they could talk over the phone or skyping.

"I'm all set."

"I see."

"Ahm, look, I-I need to go back to the hospital because…", he didn't let her finish her sentences.

"What? Why?", it was obvious by the tone of his voice that he was upset. He won't be seeing her for a week and he really wanna be with her as long as possible before the morning comes. He wanted to get lucky tonight. It's been a month and it's been driving him crazy to be with her on the bed and not doing anything with her. He's just angry and he has every reasons to be. It's just that it's been a month and all he could do was looked at her when she sleeps – every night.

"I need to have a last visit with my patients before I go. I need to re-assign them to other doctors and I need to see their availability over the week so I could fit my patients in their schedule. It could take a while so don't wait up.", as if he will.

He sigh and then said in very low voice that she almost couldn't hear it, " 'Kay."