Okay, so this is chapter 2! Thanks to everyone who read and / or reviewed the first chapter. I hope you keep enjoying!

This chapter is still in between the episodes "Flowers Grow Out of My Grave" and "Blowin' in the Wind."

Chapter 2

Andrew slid off his motorcycle. The entire ride home from the hospital, he had fantasized that Meredith was riding behind him. She would have held him tight, cupping his hips with her thighs. Her laughter rumbling in his ear would be intoxicating.

He loved her laugh. It was genuine and warm, like a child's giggle. But Meredith Grey definitely wasn't a girl. She was a woman. All woman. He had never met someone so intelligent and strong and beautiful. He also couldn't believe that it had taken him so long to notice.

He had worked alongside her for three years. He had slept on her couch for a week. But all he had seen in the past was his superior, his teacher. He hadn't seen the woman.

But now he had tasted her. He had been drunk. He had apologized. He had thought it was a non-issue. But then one day in a patient's room, she had laughed. It had tore through his body and froze him where he stood. In that instant, he relived the kiss like an acid trip.

He had hoped that it was a momentary attraction. But as days progressed to weeks, he caught himself watching her. He could feel her presence in a room, even if he couldn't see her. It had surprised him how quickly she began to consume his thoughts.

It didn't surprise him, though, that the deeper his admiration, the more focused his life had become. He was developing into a leader at work. He had finally found his own apartment, without a roommate and Formica furniture. She was an amazing woman and doctor and she inspired him to push himself.

As he walked through the front door of his new apartment, he set his keys down on the table in the foyer. It still felt strange coming home to an empty, quiet set of rooms. He had always lived with someone his entire life. He had grown up in a loud, Italian home. He missed being part of a big, loud family. He wondered if that was part of his attraction to Meredith. When he had stayed at her home, it was vibrant, chaotic, loving. It reminded him of the good summers he had shared with his father and Carina in Italy.

Carina. She was the stereotypically annoying big sister but she knew him better than anyone. And she had so far been the only one to notice his feelings to Meredith. He knew it wasn't going to be long, though, until it was noticeable to everyone.

When they had been in the scrub room alone together, prepping for Flora's surgery, Meredith's presence in the small room had been overwhelming.

Then she went into the OR to soothe the nervous little girl.

"Hey, sweet pea. How are you doing? See your guy out there?"

And then she looked at him, in a way that she had never looked at him in three years. It was warm, almost loving. And possessive. In that instant, he knew unequivocally what we wanted. He wanted to hear Meredith call him her guy.

The thought of her going on a date with another man that night had driven him nearly mad. He was flooded with relief when he saw her afterwards back in the hospital, even moreso when she had told him the date had been a disaster.

But it was the marigold in her hair that threw him over the edge. Had Linc not been there, he would have swept her into that elevator, backed her to the wall, and inhaled the scent of that flower and her hair. He wanted to take her into his arms and show her what a sober kiss from Andrew DeLuca felt like. He wanted to experience all of her.

But what he wanted and what he needed were right now two different things. What he needed was a cold shower and a hot meal.

If he were being really honest with himself, though, he knew as soon as he got into the shower, the flashbacks would start again. That blue dress. Those big blue eyes. Soft hair. That she smelled like daisies.

This was Andrew DeLuca. He would be honest with himself, even though it killed him. And it killed him every time he dreamed of touching her when he knew couldn't.

Bracing his hand against the shower wall, he let the hot water pour through his wild curls and down his wide neck and strong shoulders. When he closed his eyes, listening to the rhythm of the water, he saw her eyes again. He recalled every little interaction that they had in the last three months. Carina would tell him he was being stupid or crazy, or both, but a nagging voice kept whispering to him that Meredith just might not think he was stupid or crazy.

When he had kissed her before, she had told him that she was flattered. Everything in his body hoped that someday, if he ever told her how he felt, she would be more than flattered.

He wasn't ready to be that brave yet. Right now, he was content just being in her orbit, witness to how amazing she was.

He stared at the shower wall. He knew that wouldn't be enough forever.

TBC