A/N: Ahh, you guys were amazing with the reviews! You seem to really like the story so far, which puts a ton of pressure on me to make it good, so I hope I live up to your expectations! Just an FYI, I'm almost positive that you cannot do your residency in another country, because countries like the US don't accept medical degrees from other countries, but it's my fic and I'm going to bend the rules a little. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Tonight, We Are Young

And you feel like falling down
I'll carry you home
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun

Two days. I had given my number to that Derek guy two days ago, and he had yet to call me back. I'm not a hundred percent sure why I care so much, but I do. Maybe it was because I have never given my phone number out to random guys in clubs. Or maybe it was because he was really hot, or maybe because for the first time, I felt this really strong attraction to this guy and couldn't get him out of my head.

"Two days! Two freaking days!" I exclaimed with exasperation as I wandered into the living room, where Cristina was living me. We rented a two bedroom, two floor townhouse right in the middle of London, so Izzie and Sadie were out sightseeing for the day.

"I know," Cristina placated.

"Two days, seriously? Who waits two days to call someone if they supposedly like them?" I saw Cristina roll her eyes as I spoke. I know I had been obsessing over this whole thing, but it isn't that difficult to do when I can't get those gorgeous eyes out of my head, or the way his body felt pressed against mine when we were dancing…

"Well, there is a three day rule in America," Cristina replied, shaking me out of my potentially porny reveries.

"Yeah, but we aren't in America!" I responded.

"But the guy is an American, and therefore just as stupid," Cristina shot back. "Seriously Mer, why are you so hung up on this guy? We're in England, a country full of hot guys with hot accents, and you want to go after the one American? Forget about him and look for a British hottie."

"Yeah, you're right," I agreed, nodding vigorously with new determination to forget all about Derek. "Derek who?"

Then, as if on cue, my phone started ringing. I jumped in surprise, dropping my phone on the floor. Cristina looked up at me, raising her eyebrows and giving me a weird look. I ignored her, looking down at my phone, my heart racing as I looked at the name on the display, the name of the guy I exchanged numbers with two days ago.

Quieting the thoughts racing through my head, I answered the phone slowly.

"Hello?" I said hesitantly.

"Uh, hi," a male voice said into the phone, sounding nervous. It was a voice I knew, Derek's voice, and I felt myself blush at the thought. "Is this Meredith?"

"Yeah, I mean yes. Derek?" I found myself answering.

"Yes, hi," I heard a sigh as relief filled his voice. "How are you?"

"Hi," I answered unable to keep from smiling. "I'm good. Though, I was about to give up on you ever calling."

"I'm sorry," Derek said; his remorse evident, even over the phone. "I was working."

"For forty eight hours straight?" I scoffed.

"Actually yes," Derek responded. "I'm a doctor."

"Oh," I stuttered, feeling myself blush again. Good job Meredith, I thought. Smooth move. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."

"It's alright Meredith," Derek laughed. "I would be pissed off too if I was stood up by a guy as good looking as me."

"You are not that good looking," I teased, though I knew I was lying; I found him incredibly hot.

"Maybe not right now because I just got off a forty eight hour shift. The other night, the other night I was very good looking. I had my red shirt on, my good looking shirt and-"

"Alright, I get it," I laughed, interrupting him.

"So," he began. "I was thinking, since you gave me your number and all, you would like to go out with me later this evening."

"Hmm," I hummed, pretending to think about it. "And what would this evening involve exactly."

"You know, dinner, a movie. Nothing too serious. What do you say?" Though he tried to hide it, he couldn't hide the hopeful tone of his voice, which caused me to smile.

"Yeah sure, why not?" I said casually, but equally excited.

"Great!" Derek exclaimed. "How about I pick you up around 6:30. Where are you staying?"

I gave him the address, which for some reason caused him to start laughing. "What?" I demanded.

"Nothing, it's just that I live like ten minutes from there, and I work at the hospital a block away. Had I known that, I at least would have used a lunch break to come see you," he said.

"Yeah, well that might have freaked me out because I didn't give you my address," I joked.

"Well, now you did, so I'll be visiting soon."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," I shot back.

"Yeah, but I know it's true," Derek replied.

I blushed again, unsure how to respond. "Listen, I promised my friend we'd go to lunch, so I gotta go."

"Alright," Derek said, and I could feel the smile in his voice. "I'll see you tonight."

"See you," I said as I hung up.

"What was that about?" Cristina said, and I jumped, completely forgetting she was in the room.

"Nothing," I said, trying not to smile.

"Didn't sound like nothing," she shot back. "Now, spill."

I sighed. "I have a date with McDreamy."

XXXXXX

Six hours later, I was studying myself in the mirror. Derek said that the dress was casual, so I wore a loose black mini skirt with a white tank top rucked into it and a black cardigan, left unbuttoned. I was nervous, really, really nervous. I don't remember ever being nervous for a first date before. Then again, I've only ever been on one first date before, and that was with Finn.

When I was in high school, I didn't date, I slept around. A lot. I still worked hard and got good grades and all that jazz, but I wasn't the relationship type. I continued my ways through most of med school, until I got a little too close to a herpes outbreak for my comfort. I was clean. But I swore off one night stands, and men in general, after that, and threw myself even more into my schoolwork. Then, in my second year of med school, I met Finn.

We met at the end of my second year of Dartmouth Med School; finals had just ended, so Cristina and I went to a bar to celebrate, where I met Finn Dandridge, a third year Veterinary Medicine student. He was nice, and we flirted. He asked me out at the end of the night, and I said yes. He turned out to be a really nice guy. He was sweet and didn't push me into anything, and I loved him, or at least I thought I did. Looking back, it was more of a glorified friendship than a relationship. He was a great guy, but if I had to compare my feelings for Finn in the first six months of our relationship to what I've felt for Derek after knowing him only two days, there would be no comparison. I was instantly attracted to Derek, and I felt a connection, with Finn, it was slow building, it took time. Though Finn was great, we started to fall apart after I told him I wanted to do my residency in Seattle and kept refusing to sleep with him. Six months later, and here I am, going out on a date with a random stranger in a foreign country when I'm only here for two months.

Which reminds me…

I heard the doorbell ring as I ran a brush through my hair one last time before I heard Izzie call up the stairs. "Mer, someone's at the door for you!"

"Be right there," I shouted back, examining myself in the mirror a final time, not one hundred percent happy with my appearance. "I guess this will have to do," I muttered as I grabbed my purse and made my way downstairs.

When I reached the landing, I saw Derek. He was wearing khakis with a blue button up shirt, a bright shade of blue that brought out his eyes. He looked good, seriously good.

When his eyes met mine, he gave me the most gorgeous smile in the world, and I couldn't help but melt a little inside. His eyes wandered up and down my body, and I felt very insecure, knowing how closely he was taking in my appearance. But as I watched him stare at my outfit, his smile grew wider, and his eyes became wide, almost in awe of me. When his eyes finally reached mine again, he looked speechless for a moment.

"You look amazing," he said finally, his voice full of reverence.

"Thanks," I said shyly, feeling myself blush. "You clean up pretty well yourself."

He chuckled at that, stepping forward, and I had no idea what he was doing. Then, he placed his hands lightly on my shoulders, and kissed me softly on the cheek. Well, I assume it was softly, because all I could feel was the electric current running through the spot on my cheek where his lips had brushed and radiating throughout my body. I'm pretty sure he felt it too, or at least he looked like he felt it.

"Alright, we should get going," Derek said, offering me his arm as Izzie stared at me, making weird faces. I stuck my tongue out at her as I grabbed Derek's arm, letting him lead me from my house.

"Have fun tonight!" Izzie called to us as we reached Derek's car. Derek smiled at her as he helped me into the car, and I waved in response as he moved to the driver's side and got in.

"So, where to?" I asked.

"Just a place a couple miles away. Do you like pizza?" He asked, looking at me with worry as I snorted in response.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"No Derek," I said. "Trust me, I love pizza. I'm the kind of girl that will eat it the next day for breakfast."

I watched with amusement as Derek grimaced at my answer. "Cold pizza for breakfast? That's just sad."

"Yeah, well I can't cook," I shrugged. "And if we order pizza the night before and I don't feel like cereal, I eat the leftovers."

"Someone needs to change your eating habits," he chuckled, and I laughed along with him, wondering if he would be the one to do so.

A couple of hours later, we were sitting at dinner. We decided to catch a movie first before we ate, which meant that we didn't have a lot of time to talk or get to know each other until we sat down at the restaurant. Though I was assuming it would be awkward, it really wasn't; we talked about random things for most of the night, commenting on people's hair and appearances.

"So," I began as I finished a slice of pizza. "Why exactly are you in London. I mean, you're American, but you said you were a doctor."

"Oh," Derek said, taking a sip of his drink before continuing. "When I applied for my residencies, I stumbled upon University College Hospital. It has a great teaching program, and I wanted to get away and do something different, and London sounded like a good idea. I wasn't able to make a clean break though, my friend Mark always has to do everything I do, so he applied and was accepted to the program as well. We live just a few blocks from the hospital, relatively close to you."

"I see, and what year are you in again? I know you already told me, but I couldn't remember."

"Fourth year," Derek replied simply, not at all offended that I forgot something he told me. "I'm twenty nine."

"Twenty five, but I'll be twenty-six in June," I replied. "And I get what you mean about the space thing. My friends and I went to med school on the east coast, and I wanted a change too, so I applied to a lot of west coast hospitals and decided to go to Seattle Grace Hospital. Of, course, only after I made it official did Cristina and Izzie inform me that they applied there as well and they were going," I laughed at the end, and Derek joined in. I was quickly learning that I really liked his laugh.

"So, you're only here on vacation?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, eight weeks," I answered. "I actually would have preferred to go to Italy, but I was outnumbered three to one, so maybe I'll try to get there for a weekend or something. Anyway, I'm here for eight weeks, then we fly back July 5, and then we move out to Seattle, where I start working on July fifteenth."

"Oh, I see," he said, and I saw disappointment flash through his eyes briefly. I couldn't help but feel the same sense of disappointment about the fact that in eight weeks, we will be six thousand miles apart.

However, the disappointment in his eyes quickly faded, only to be replaced by a small smile. "I guess I'll just have to take advantage of the short amount of time we have together."

I began choking on my wine, not expecting him to say that. "What?" I croaked out when I finally cleared my throat. "I mean, you want to spend time with me?"

"Of course I do," Derek said, as if I had said something ridiculous. "Do you not want to?"

"No, I do. It's just, I didn't realize, never mind," I stuttered out. "Forget I said anything, I do want to spend time with you."

He smiled at me, a really dreamy, make my knees melt smile. And I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Okay," he said softly as the waitress approached our table with the check.

We didn't talk very much for five minutes as he paid and waited for the receipt, but as we stood up, he took my hand and led me outside. I felt the warmth and energy seep from my hand through the rest of my body, and I didn't want to let go. And I realized that I really did want to spend the next six weeks with him, even if it just makes it harder when I have to leave.

"So, did you have a nice time?" Derek asked as he pulled up to the townhouse, getting out of the car and moving to my side so he could open the door for me.

"I did," I replied as he took my hand and walked me to my stoop.

"Do you want to do this again?" he asked as I turned to face him, suddenly caught off guard with how close his face was to mine.

"Yeah, I would," I said, giving him a small smile. He grinned down at me, slowly tilting his head lower. I angled my chin up a little so that I could meet my lips with his. He brushed his lips softly against mine. It was barely a kiss, but it was nice, and gentle, and had me going weak at the knees again, just like his smile. I don't think I had never been kissed like that before. It was innocent, but yet there was an intensity to it, and I couldn't help feel disappointed as Derek pulled a way, the smile on his face imitating my own.

"I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" Derek asked hopefully.

"Okay," I nodded. "Bye Derek."

"Goodnight Meredith," he answered, kissing me softly once more before he turned around and walked towards his car, leaving me to fumble with the lock on the door, my mind still swirling with all of the sudden feelings I felt for him.