Disclaimer: My parents have already ruined any surprise and told me they didn't get me Grey's Anatomy for Christmas this year. Neither did my friends. So unless some other lovely person is giving me the show for Christmas...I still don't own it.

Sorry for the delay guys! You know how it is with Christmas and all that, I have been kept rather busy but I finally got some time to sit and update, with a house to myself and everything. So yes, sorry it took a bit but it's here now and I really do hope that this update and all it's cuteness makes the wait worth it.

Enjoy!

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"Hello…I mean…Grey…crap, Grey's residence, yeah, Grey residence."

I didn't even try not to smile. I figured it was okay to smile, I was alone. No one was here to see me smile, so it was okay to smile at the voice on the other end of the phone, the voice that sounded overwhelmed and thrown off and more than a little breathless. I called looking for the idiot that I called my brother but I was pretty sure I was hoping to find her, the tiny blonde her that had been on my mind since I had met her the week before. I hadn't actually spoken to her since I had dropped her off and I was definitely looking for her. "Meredith?"

"You…oh…Derek, right?"

"Derek," I nodded even though she couldn't see me, my smile growing wider at the fact she remembered my name. Yes, I know that's lame, I do know that.

"Oh…umm…hi, I…hi," she breathed.

"Hi," I grinned. "I'm looking for Mark. The idiot's not answering his cell and I need to talk to him. Is he there?"

"Oh. He was. He was here and then him and Lexie went somewhere. They went…there was whispering and giggling and then they were gone."

"And now he's not answering his cell. I can imagine what they're doing."

"That's…I'm her big sister, you can't say thing like that to her big sister. I'm not…I'm not an idiot or anything, I know they do things like that because my sister is…she's a grown up but I'm still a big sister and awkward, that's awkward, Derek," she rambled, giggling slightly at the end.

My breath caught in my throat. Which sounded insane because she hadn't really done anything special, she had just rambled and giggled and technically speaking, that should probably be a turn off. I was training to be a surgeon, I should be looking for a woman who spoke in clear sentences. And only little girls were supposed to giggle and actually sound cute doing it, so my breath catching in my throat was insane and I wasn't even sure what did it, if it was the rambling or the giggling because I loved both and all of this was probably a little crazy but I really wanted her to giggle again, because somehow my breath catching in my throat was a really nice, slightly addictive feeling.

"Sorry," I laughed into the phone. "Forget I even suggested it. They're…in a park playing on the swings."

"Swings…swings are kind of dirty, Derek."

"Oh. I didn't…I was…you have a dirty mind. I was making a completely clean suggestion about being around kids, and you…you have a very dirty mind, Meredith Grey."

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Flirting, we were actually flirting. Me and the blonde I couldn't get out of my head were flirting. "Maybe I would."

"Oh…," she giggled. "Well you were the one that brought up swings so maybe it's you."

"With the dirty mind?"

"With the dirty mind," she giggled again and I was pretty sure that was what made my breath catch.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Maybe I would."

"So…" I breathed, or tried to breathe. I probably had failed, which was a horrible thing because breathing was supposed to be easy. "How are you enjoying Seattle?"

"I…" she sighed on the other end of the phone. "Does it always rain like this? I mean…I know Seattle is known for rain, rain and coffee but this is kind of crazy because it's rained every day since I got here and my point is, does it always rain this much?"

"It does," I laughed. "Didn't you spend time in England?"

"I did. And it rained but this…I don't think I like the rain."

"Already backing out of Seattle?"

"I didn't say that," she giggled. "I just don't like the rain. Or sometimes I don't like the rain, not this much rain or something."

"You get used to it. I moved here a couple of years ago to do my residency, you get used to it."

"Oh…you're not from Seattle?"

"Manhattan."

"I should have known," she giggled again. She giggled a lot. I definitely didn't remember her giggling this much when I had driven her home from the airport and I would have probably remembered this much giggling because I couldn't quite manage to get it out of my head. "I'm from Boston. Well from here but I moved to Boston when I was young so…from Boston."

"Another East coaster," I smiled. "What made you pick Seattle?"

"That's…my sister and she's here so I…and other things, other big long complicated things that you don't want to hear about but things, and now I'm here and…here."

"Now you're here."

"I am," she murmured.

"Mark says you don't talk."

"What?"

"I asked Mark about you…"

"You asked Mark about me?" she cut me off.

"Oh…" I cleared my throat. Smooth move, Shep. Of all the things to admit to her that was probably somewhere along the bottom list, somewhere around the fact Kathleen and Nancy used to dress me up as a girl. "I asked about you and he…he said you didn't talk so he didn't actually know all that much."

"I…when he comes over I kind of…third wheel…huge obvious third wheels so I just kind of…try to disappear."

"That makes sense," I nodded into the phone even though she couldn't see me. "There's a solution to that you know."

"There is?"

"Hmmm…" I nodded. "You know me. I live with Mark. When he goes over, I could go with him, be a fourth wheel."

"A fourth wheel?" she giggled.

"Yes. You'd still be the third but at least you'd have a fourth."

"That…" she breathed. "That…okay. Okay, you should…come. Come over with Mark and be the fourth wheel or whatever."

"Okay," I smiled widely. "I'll tell Mark I'm tagging along next time."

"Good."

"Good."

Silence fell over us and for some crazy reason it wasn't awkward. This was only me second conversation with her and yet, the silence already wasn't awkward.

"So what are you up to?" she asked, sounding a little unsure of herself.

Hours later I hung up the phone. Hours. We had talked for hours…actually two hours and forty three minutes. The only reason we had even hung up was because Lexie had gotten home. We had talked for hours and I wasn't even sure if I could remember all of it except I couldn't stop smiling. I had called to hear her voice, I had called to remind myself that I hadn't created her in my own mind, just wanting to hear her giggle. And now it had been hours and we hadn't actually talked about anything real, not really. We had small talked, we had small talked for nearly three hours and hanging up had been hell. Which was stupid because Lexie being home meant Mark was on his way home, and I had a surgery the next day that I was supposed to be studying up on except I just wanted to keep talking to her, I wanted to keep talking to Meredith.

They didn't have you where I come from

Never knew the best was yet to come

Life began when I saw your face

And I hear your laugh like a serenade

I don't honestly know what there is to say about this update, besides Derek can't get her out of his head so he's making up lame reasons just to call her. And when he called he just wanted to hear her voice and because they're them...well they talked for hours because that's what they do. Honestly, besides that, don't think there's anything to say.

I MAY update this later today...it depends on how other things go...if not, definitely going to shoot for tomorrow.

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