Some things do not take ages to think over. Some things are so obvious, there needs no explanation. To Meredith, this was one of those things. Today, she was five minutes late to rounds. She didn't care. She saw Derek again. He was even more jerk-ish today. She didn't care. She only cared about one thing.
She waited for the right moment. She saw him walking down the hall, and she shoved him into the on-call room.
"Okay. Listen. I came to this conclusion after you left last night. Derek…well, he was a big jerk to me, and I let him be. I let him bulldoze me over numerous times. That stops today. You…well, Mark, you have been nothing but supportive. I still remember that first day that I had met you. You were trying to flirt with me, and Derek came and punched you. Then, you did your own stitches. Even on that day, you were nice to me."
"Well, how could I resist? And here you thought I was just a visitor in the hospital!"
"Seriously? I'm trying to spill my heart here and you make a smirky comment like that? But anyways, you were always nice to me. We were the 'dirty mistresses'. We were 'dark and twisty' together. Instead of falling back on the people who were most like me, I ran to Derek and tried to be 'bright and shiny Meredith.' Obviously, it didn't work."
"Grey…you're babbling again. I love it."
"Yeah. Yeah. Anyways….you were there… all along…and I was so focused on Derek, I was blind to you. Like that old song goes that my grandpa used to sing when I was very little 'I overlooked an orchid. I was searching for a rose'. Well anyways….for once, screw words. This is what I'm trying to say…"
She wraps her arms around him, pulls him as close as possible, and gently brushes her lips to his. He starts to pull away.
"Meredith…I know this might sound shocking, but I don't want to be 'just the rebound guy'…."
"Oh, shut up."
She pulls him back close and this time gives him a more passionate kiss. He can't help but reciprocate. A strange feeling fell over Mark. He realized at that moment he didn't want Meredith just for the sake of having her…he wanted her more than he ever wanted anything else…because he truly cared for her and wanted to be close to her. She could sense it and kissed him again. It wasn't too much longer before they both gave in.
Afterwards, he held her close…not daring to let her go quite yet. Eventually, though, he had to get ready to scrub in for the surgery he had planned. He gives her one last kiss, and they exit back out into the hallway. The hallway appeared deserted to them, but they missed one person lurking in the background…the one person whom neither of them wanted to see.