Hey guys! Happy Monday! This chapter has some of the scenes from the show again that I know you'll all recognize. Enjoy!


Meredith could not, for the life of her, explain why she had allowed Izzie and George to move into her house. If she weren't constantly exhausted from work, she may have been able to think logically, or at all, and realize that it would be a bad idea to live with her coworkers. And now, because of her poor life choices, Meredith was stuck cohosting a party with that night.

She stood at the counter outside of her patient's room, reading over the file yet again. She stiffened a bit when she heard the now familiar timbre of Derek's voice beside her.

"Are you okay?" Derek asked.

She hesitated to answer. Meredith had been avoiding Derek since that one night outside the hospital a week and a half before. He had tried to make plans to take her out on a date, but she always made excuses as to why she couldn't go out. It wasn't that she lost interest in him or that actually couldn't go out, but her not-so-stellar past romantic interactions with men.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good," she responded.

"Are you sure? You don't seem okay."

"I'm fine. My surgery from this morning was long."

"Well, let me take you out to dinner tonight. You can tell me all about it. Real food, waiters, big chunks of carbs in a basket," Derek offered.

"I can't," Meredith said, and this time, she wasn't lying. The party was going to be at her house, so it wouldn't look good if she didn't show up. She thought about elaborating, telling Derek about her plans for the night so he didn't think she was just going to keep blowing him off, but then she thought better of it; this was a party for interns and residents. Derek was an attending, so no one would have invited him since it would make the environment more uncomfortable than it already was going to be.

"Forget about the party." That got her attention. She immediately turned to look at him, stunned.

"You know about the party?"

"Your friends will be at the party. You and I can be alone somewhere else."

"How do you know about the party?" Meredith asked, still caught up in the fact that they were now discussing something she was trying to escape talking about.

"Thanks for not inviting me, by the way. That felt good," Derek said with an almost playfully sarcastic tone.

"Derek—" Meredith tried.

Dinner. Think about dinner, perfect opportunity. We can talk about what happened in the time since you agreed to go out with me."

Derek walked away as Meredith's pager beeped. She wanted to follow after him, but she knew her ass would be on the line if she ignored a 911 page.


The rest of Meredith's day went by as smoothly as she could expect…except when she arrived home that night and found a party raging in her mother's house.

"Izzie, I'm going to kill you," Meredith muttered as her phone buzzed in her bag. She dug around for it and found it quickly enough to see it was Abbey and get the phone to her ear before it went to voicemail.

"Abbey, you have no idea how great it is that you called right now because you can talk me out of killing one of my roommates now."

"That's not why I called, but we'll get to that in a second. First, don't kill your roommate, Mer. There is nothing she could have done that is so bad it merits death," Abbey said.

"She has a huge house party going on in my house when I was told it was going to be a small gathering."

"Meredith, you have bigger problems then an unwanted house party. Brian knows. He knows about the police report." Meredith felt her blood freeze. All the breath left her body and she felt her heart pounding in her ears.

"How? How could he know about it unless—"

"No. Not that. He has a friend at the police station who tipped him off to the fact that they were getting a warrant. Brian was talking to James, and I overheard."

"What does that mean?" Meredith practically whispered.

"He's left Boston, Mer. He's coming to Seattle to find you."

"When? How soon do I have to leave Seattle?" Her stomach flipped as she thought about it.

"You are not leaving Seattle, Meredith. Do not let him run you out of two cities in two different states. You have a new life out there now. You have Derek. You told me how much Derek likes you. If he really likes you like you say he does, which I'm sure he does, he'll protect you from all of this. I mean, he's still into you after everything you've told him, so of course he'll be there for you."

Meredith was silent. She didn't want to tell Abbey that she was wrong, but she also didn't want to lie. After a moment of dead air between them, Abbey spoke up.

"Derek doesn't know yet…does he?"

"No. How could I tell him? I haven't even known him two weeks yet!"

"He needs to know, especially with Brian coming your way. He was talking about taking a friend's car and driving across the country so it would be more difficult to find him quickly, so you only have a couple days to tell Derek."

"Abbey, I'm not ready for any of this. I need your help," Meredith begged.

"There's nothing more I can do. I can't take off from Mass Gen to come to Seattle and get your head screwed on straight. You can handle this. Don't let all of this fear stop you!"

Meredith finished her call with Abbey, put her phone away, and looked at the party scene in front of her. She knew she was going to regret going inside in this state of mind, but…

"Screw it," Meredith said, marching into her house and going straight for the tequila and drinking it straight from the bottle.


Meredith found herself drunk and giddy, playing cards with Cristina and Geroge some amount of time later. She didn't bother looking at the clock because it really didn't matter to her; it was her house and she could party as long as she wanted.

"Why did we want to be surgeons anyway?" Meredith drunkenly asked.

"Surgery is very serious business," George answered, then exclaimed, "Full house!"

Cristina chortled and yelled, "Royal flush. Get naked, baby boy!" He started taking his shirt off as she threw down her cards.

"Surgery is stupid. It's stupid. It's really stupid. Like, if I didn't want to be a surgeon, my life would be so much better right now. I wouldn't be dodging the hot guy that I like if I wouldn't have wanted to be a surgeon because I wouldn't be so messed up. Derek isn't Brian! I know that and I still won't let myself be happy!" Meredith rambled.

"Who is Brian?" George asked.

"This scumbag who I used to go to school with and get this: he's coming to Seattle to find me now! He's not going to work and instead driving all the way across the country to find me."

"Give me that. You're drunk," Cristina reached for Meredith's bottle.

"I'm not driving. I'm not on call. I'm in my own house. My life is crap. Like it's really crap. And it's my party and I'll get drunk if I want to," she announced, grabbed her bottle of tequila and marching away. Lost somewhere in her own head, Meredith found herself swaying drunkenly to her own rhythm on the porch of her home. She put the bottle of tequila to her lips and chugged some back, savoring the burn of alcohol going down. The alcohol certainly wasn't making her feel too much better about her current life situation, but she was certainly too cloudy to focus on it.

"You know, in some states, you could get arrested for that," Meredith heard a man say from the end of her walkway. She looked up and saw Derek smiling adoringly at her. In her state of inebriation, she couldn't argue going to him. Meredith smiled at him and walked to him without grace.

"So you blew me off for a bottle of tequila," Derek chuckled.

"I never said yes," Meredith slurred.

"You should have," Derek smiled, "Tequila's no good for you. It doesn't call. It doesn't write. It isn't nearly as much fun to wake up to."

"Men aren't that fun to wake up to either," Meredith argued.

"Maybe men aren't, but I am."

Meredith smiled at his confidence and grabbed the lapels of his jacket and lightly tugged him towards her. She stood taller to reach his mouth and pressed her lips to his, kissing him lightly. When they broke apart, Derek looked longingly at her.

"Meredith…what happened?"

"What do you mean? I kissed you," she said like it was obvious.

"Not just now. You agreed to go out with me, and now every time I ask you out, you find a way to deny me. Why?"

"Boys are difficult," Meredith practically whined.

"Boys are simple, Meredith. I'm asking for exactly what I want."

"But you aren't really. You want more than just a date. I'll say yes to the date, we'll go out, and then at the end, you'll want more."

"Of course, I'll want more. I'll ask to have more dates with you, but that's all I'm going to ask for."

"That's what boys say! They say that they won't ask for more than that, and then you'll ask to sleep with me. I know how this works," Meredith explained.

"Meredith, please listen to me. Yes, I'll want to sleep with you at some point, but not right now. We agreed to take this slowly. I'm looking to spend time with you clothed," Derek said.

"I've been used before, Derek."

"So have I. It's the worst feeling in the world. Please don't make me feel like you're using me to feel wanted." Meredith looked up at him through her lashes and saw sincerity in his eyes.

"I'm not trying to use you. I just don't want to be hurt again," she whispered, or her version of a whisper in her inebriated state.

"The only one who can get hurt in this is me," Derek stated solemnly.

Meredith hesitated a second before kissing him softly again. She pulled away and whispered, "Ask me."

Derek studied her for a moment, "Will you come to dinner with me Sunday night?"

She nodded slowly.

"Thank you. It's late, so I'm going to head home to get some rest. I have an early surgery tomorrow. You would be smart to get some sleep, too, since you have a long shift ahead of you," Derek advised.

"How do you know what kind of shift I have?"

"You're an intern. I was an intern once so I know that you don't get short shifts. That and I snuck a peak at the intern schedule to see when I could expect to see you. This 30 hour shift you have tomorrow is not something to laugh at, especially with the possibility of a hangover. Please get some rest," Derek said, kissed her forehead, and walked back to his car. He waved goodbye as he drove off, leaving Meredith alone with her tequila again.


Derek found Dr. Bailey soon after he'd scrubbed out of his morning's procedure. He smiled brightly at her.

"Good morning, Dr. Bailey."

"Dr. Shepherd," she nodded uninterestedly.

"Dr. Bailey, could you please assign Dr. Grey to my service today?" he asked.

"Sorry, Dr. Shepherd, but Dr. Grey called out sick this morning. She may be back tomorrow morning for the last few hours of her shift if you'd like to work with her then," Dr. Bailey offered. She didn't wait for a response before walking away.

Derek pulled out his phone and sent 'Feel better, Mer. I'll see you tomorrow.'


I started classes today, so if I'm late on updates in the future, I hope you'll forgive me! Please follow/favorite/review/message me! Have a great week!