Derek went to his office to do some paperwork while waiting for Meredith to page him. Meredith, he finally knew her name. When he was not with her, all he could think about was her and how important it was for him to stay away from her. but once she was nearby, all he could do was stare at her and what scared him the most was that some time he wasn't just thinking about having sex with her. She seemed different and he really wanted to get to know her but if he continued thinking like that, he would be screwed.

His pager beeped, it was time to face Meredith again. She had her back to him and the hallway was empty, he couldn't resist teasing her. He would take his distance later, later sounded good or at least better than now. He approached jer carefully without her noticing and stayed like that for a moment just enjoying her scent, her hair smelled some flower he couldn't recognise. He softly placed his head at the crook of her neck and her reaction was immediate.

"What the fuck do you thing you are doing?" she cried while quickly turning around.

"You hair smells nice" he answered innocently

"Thanks" she was clearly taken aback by his answer, "But don't touch me again"

"Soon you'll be begging me to touch you"

"In your dreams" she rolled her eyes

"I've already done that, now I want the real think" his eyes travelled down her body

She blushed "The results are back" she handed him them.

He took them and she noticed how his whole demeanour changed, right now he was not Derek anymore, he was currently Dr Shepherd who was examining results.

"That's exactly what I thought. Book an OR and be ready to scrub in"

Meredith's face lit up "I'm really going to scrub in?"

"On one condition"

Meredith eyed him suspiciously "I'm not going to have sex with you"

"You really do think a lot about having sex with me for someone who is not interested. I was actually thinking about dinner"

"I really do want to scrub in but we can't have dinner"

"Why not?"

"You're my boss, it's inappropriate. I don't want people thinking I'm trying to…"

"Who cares about what people think?" he cut in

"I'm not interested anyway"

"That's a lie"

"You're a man whore" she blurted out "I'm done with one night stands. I'm looking for someone I could spend the rest of my life with and no offence, but you can't be that someone. You're incapable of committing to one woman."

"Okay, page me when the OR is ready, you'll scrub in" he said while looking at the chart. He wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation, if only she knew that the worst mistake he had ever made in his life was committing himself to a woman. He didn't even know why he wanted her so much, but he just thought if they had sex, the feeling would go away and that was getting less and less probable. He sighed.

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm sure you're a nice guy, it's just that… I'm sorry" she bit her bottom lip.

She thought she had hurt him and he could only noticed how cute she looked, damn he shouldn't think like that. "Sorry because you said the truth?" he smiled at her before going back to his office.

He was paged to OR2. Once arrived, he saw Meredith who was already washing her hands, she looked excited. He remembered his first surgery as an intern and he was glad they would share that together.

She turned to him "It's an honour for me to scrub in with you on my first surgery"

He nodded at her with a slight smile and went into the OR, that's where he felt at home. It had been three weeks since he had performed a surgery. "It's a beautiful day to save lives. Let's have some fun"

The surgery was uneventful just as he had predicted. He had had the occasion to quiz Meredith and to be surprised at how good she already was. He felt even more elated to be there since he could experience Meredith's emotion.

In the afternoon, he had had another surgery with Dr Stevens who he found nice and caring, a little bit too cheerful but he hadn't minded. He would have of course preferred to spend his afternoon with Meredith. Every time he realized what he was thinking, he wished he could take it back.

He was now in his office, finishing his paperwork in order to go home. Little did he know that Meredith was standing on the other side of his door, debating if she should knock or not. She wanted to apologize but at the same time she told herself that she shouldn't worry about him being offended. She remembered him telling her that he had no friends and she felt bad for him. They way he lived proved he was a jerk or someone in pain and she remembered him telling her he was just hiding his pain. It that was the case, he was like she had been and he needed friends to go through that. She finally knocked on the door.

"Come in" she heard him say but she didn't move. What was she going to tell him?

Derek waited a little but then no one came in and he thought it was a mistake so he kept on working. But then the door opened and revealed who he had last expected to be here.

"I… Maybeweshouldhavedinner" she blurted out.

"Excuse me?" he asked amused by her discomfort.

"Maybe we should have dinner" she repeated but when she saw the light in his eyes she added "Just as friends, you told me you had no friends"

"You want to be my friend?"

"If you want to" he kept looking at her frowning "I'm an idiot you just wanted to have sex with me, it's okay, I'll just go" she turned around blushing.

"We can be friends" he finally said ignoring the voice inside of his head who was telling him to refuse, to not get too close to her before it was too late "and you'll see I'm a good friend"

"How do you know? You don't have friends."

"I'm a good listener, I'm funny, I'm smart and I could go on and on so I'm a good friend"

"Is there anything you're not good at?" she mocked him

"Not that I know of" he shook his head

"Of course" she rolled her eyes "Meet me in the lobby in fifteen minutes, okay?" he nodded.

Fifteen minutes later, Derek was gracefully sitting in the lobby, waiting for Meredith. He wondered what he wanted from her. When he accepted being friends, did he really mean it or was he just trying to spend time with her?

"I'm ready" he hadn't even noticed she had arrived. She was a simple woman and he found her beautiful for that.

"Would you mind if we had dinner at your place?" She looked perplexed, she bit her lower lip. He smiled at her "You could cook for me"

"Too bad, I don't know how to cook and even if I did, I wouldn't cook for you"

"I will cook for you then"

"You want to cook for me?" He nodded, no one had ever cooked for her before.

"Are you trying to seduce me?" she giggled.

"Do you want me to?"

"No, and I'm not sure about dinner at my place"

"Come on, it'll be fun and I'll behave" he pleaded her with his eyes, how could she say no to that?

"All right, plus I want to taste your food"

"Only my food?" he inquired suggestively.

"How do you always bring everything back to sex?"

"It's a talent"

"Whatever. Let's go" she rolled her eyes.