Chapter 3.

A/N: Here is the next chapter. I want to thank everybody who has been reading and reviewing. It really gives me the motivation to keep writing.

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything

The next day, Meredith was still feeing the impact of what Derek said. She just couldn't get it out of her head. He never actually used the word whore, but he may as well have. Luckily, she ended up in cardio after the pile up, and Alex was in general. Even though he had a teasing tone, Meredith thought he was serious about doing something to Derek.

She had been avoiding him all day, hanging around with Alex whenever she had the chance to. He was acting as a sort of barrier between them. If he saw Shepard coming down the hallway, he would direct Meredith around the corner. If he wasn't with Meredith and saw Derek roaming the hallway, he would follow him to make sure he wasn't going off to find her. And if he found them together, he would tell Meredith that Bailey was looking for her. Which of course was not true.

By the end of their shift, Meredith had managed to avoid Derek all day. By now, all the interns had heard about their little chat in the stairwell and she was getting even more judgmental glances than ever. People were whispering about her, how she should have known better than to sleep with an attending, and how she got what was coming to her. Alex of course told them all to go screw themselves and then they would shut up and leave Meredith alone.

Meredith thanked Alex for everything he had done that day, and then took off for her car, ready to go home and wash off this day. She was almost out the main entrance doors when she caught sight of someone in her peripheral vision. Someone who appeared to be waiting for her. She turned to face them, and saw Derek striding towards her.

"Leave me alone. " she told him, the continued out the door. When she stepped out into the cool Seattle air, she felt someone grab her arm. She whipped around and it took everything she had not to scream at him.

"Let go of me" she demanded.

"I just want to talk." He said in an overly sweet voice considering everything that had happened, everything he'd said the day before.

Meredith shook her head. "No. Now let go of me, and leave me alone." She told him, her voice quivering slightly as well as raising in volume.

Derek let go of her, but did not leave. "Will you please talk to me?" he asked desperately. To this, Meredith shook her head. "I don't think so. Go away, and don't try to talk to me tomorrow, or any other day unless it is case related." She said coldly.

Derek took a step closer to her and opened his mouth to say something, but didn't get the chance.

"I believe she asked you to leave her alone."

Derek turned his head and Meredith copied the action. They were both surprised by the words that came out of Alex's mouth, and Meredith was also grateful for them. Derek however, did not look impressed.

"Karev, this has nothing to do with you." He said, the bitterness returning to his voice.

Approaching them, Alex came to a stop beside Meredith. "That's not the point. The point is that she asked you multiple times to leave her alone and you haven't. Now, do I need to make you leave her alone or are you going to walk away willingly?" Alex asked in a sarcastically polite voice.

Derek cocked an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?" he asked.

"That depends. Are you going to leave her alone?"

Derek looked back and forth between Alex and Meredith, who had currently felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. Not wanting to meet his gaze, she looked at the ground. It was sweet of Alex to do this, but now Derek probably hated them both and was going to make tomorrow hell for them. The last thing she wanted was to drag Alex in to this, but it appears he had brought himself into it whether Meredith wanted him involved or not.

Without saying anything, Derek walked off, clearly angry. Though he didn't say anything else, he shot Alex one last glance that indicated he was incredibly pissed off with the young surgeon.

Waiting for him to be gone, Meredith and Alex turned to face each other. She spoke first. "You didn't have to do that." She told him, but her tone of voice showed how grateful she was that he did. He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a sweet smile. "Do you really think he would have left you alone if I hadn't?"

Not answering his question, Meredith simply hugged him and mumbled a thank you. He hugged her tightly and didn't let go until people around them started to cast them odd glances.

"Come on, I'll walk you to your car." He said. And then he did just that.

A/N: Chapter three complete! Thank you to those who have kept reading this story. If you have decided you'd like to continue with it, there should be a new chapter up soon. -S