Meredith was fuming as she pulled Derek to the far corner where she knew they would be out of Finn's earshot.

"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Who's Finn?" he asked, barely able to contain his anger.

"It's none of your business."

"None of my business? You're my wife! I deserve to know." Derek felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

"You lost the right to ask me questions about my life when you chose to ignore the note!" Meredith regretted saying those words as soon as they came out. She had decided never to think or talk about the note. Ever. It was too painful.

What note? Derek wasn't sure he knew what she was talking about.

With a resigned sigh, she lowered her voice and said "We both know this was a mistake. Let's try to make the best of a not-so-good situation and be civil with each other."

"You're right. I'm sorry," he said, smiling at her.

"Finn is someone I've been seeing on and off. That's it." She volunteered the information.

"Was that before or after we were married?" Derek didn't want to ask the question, but he needed to know.

"Before," she responded.

"Good. Are you going to break things off with him?" he asked, giving her a teasing smile.

"No," she said, smiling back. There was something about him that makes it hard to hate him, even earlier when he was being an ass.

"Look, we slept together once," she said.

"And we kissed in an elevator," he said, giving her a devilish grin.

"And we kissed in an elevator," she repeated, returning his smile. "But I'm not breaking things off with Finn."

Derek didn't like what she said, but he kept quiet. At this point, he would rather have her in his life than not at all. He was going to have to think hard for ways to get rid of the boyfriend.

"Fine. What time should I pick you up for our date?" he asked.

"Actually, I was thinking--,"

"You can't cancel," he interrupted, before she had a chance to finish her sentence. "Seattle is a big city and how would you feel if I got lost because you didn't show me around?" he teased her.

"You're a big boy, you can handle it," she said, laughing at the face he made. "Fine. We meet in front of Joe's at 7pm. In case you don't know, Joe's is also known as the Emerald City bar across the street. Joe is the name of the owner." She gave him a big smile and walked away.

"I'll see you tonight at 7 for our date!" he called after her.

Meredith stopped in her tracks and turned to give him a warning look. She knew he did it intentionally so that Finn heard. Giving her a wink, he started whistling and walked away.

"Are you two going on a date?" he asked as soon as she walked back.

"What? No!" she denied.

"Well, what did he mean by "see you at 7 for our date"?" he asked, not completely convinced she was telling the truth.

"It's not really a date…date," she said, trying to explain. "Derek's new here and the Chief asked me to take him around Seattle. He knows my mother and is good friends with the Chief so I'm only doing this as a favor. It's nothing."

"Are you sure there isn't something more?"

"No! I barely know him. Can we not talk about this?" she pleaded.

"It's just that you two seem pretty friendly to be on a first name basis already."

"There is nothing going on with Dr. Shepherd and I. He's my new boss and I'm doing the Chief a favor. That's all."

"Maybe I should come with you tonight," he suggested.

"Don't be silly. You need to be available when your patient delivers. Besides, it's only going to be an hour or so." Looking at her watch, she said "I have a surgery I need to prepare for in thirty minutes. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, she leaned in, gave him a quick kiss on the lips and walked away. Meredith was lying. Her surgery wasn't for a few more hours, but she needed to get out of there.

Meredith was sitting at a table on the patio, playing with her lunch when Cristina walked up and deposited her tray onto the table and took a seat opposite Meredith.

"So, how's your day going Mer?" she asked, not even trying to hide her amusement.

"You know exactly how it's going. Finn's back and I have the date…I mean the non-date with Derek tonight," she said, looking at her.

"You're dating two men?" Cristina asked, smiling at the possibility.

"I'm not dating two men. I'm seeing Finn and I'm married to Derek," she tried explaining.

"Uh, yeah!" Cristina gave her a look like she'd just said the stupidest thing.

"It's complicated."

"So un-complicate it," said Cristina. "Either get rid of McDreamy or McVet."

"I can't get rid of Derek. I work with him and I see him everyday."

"You're making excuses."

"I am not!" said Meredith, raising her voice. She hates it when Cristina's right. "I'm seeing Finn. Derek means nothing to me," she lied.

"Personally, I don't know what it is you see in McVet. He's boring and always wears green. I mean, doesn't that strike you as kind of weird?"

"So what if he likes green," she said, defending him.

"Who likes green?" asked Izzie, walking up to sit next to Meredith.

"McVet," said Cristina, before shoving a piece of watermelon into her mouth.

"Finn's back?" Izzie asked.

"He came by to visit earlier," explained Meredith.

"Now that you mention it, he does wear green a lot," said Izzie, confirming Cristina's observation.

"Okay, so we've established that he likes green. There's nothing wrong with that!" Meredith was getting tired of this conversation. "Let's talk about something else."

"Okay," said Izzie. Leaning in closer to Meredith and Cristina, she said "Did you know that Dr. Shepherd was married?" She smiled and sat back, taking a bite of her sandwich.

Oh my god! Does Izzie know?

"M-married? Did you say he is married?" she asked, feeling her throat tighten.

"Not is…was. He was married to an OB/GYN doctor and neonatal specialist back in New York."

"Well what do you know…McDreamy was married," said Cristina, looking straight at Meredith.

"McDreamy?" Izzie asked, confused.

"That's Cristina's nickname for him," said Meredith, trying to recover from the shock of learning that he was married.

"It fits," said Izzie, giving it some thought.

Meredith spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding Derek. Her mind was still reeling from the news of his marriage. It shouldn't bother her that he was once married, but it did and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Hundreds of questions were swirling around in her head. What did she look like? Why didn't their marriage work? And more importantly – Was she the "rebound" girl?

She was in the locker room changing when Cristina and Izzie walked in.

"Hey Mer. Cristina and I are going over to Joe's, do you want to come?"

"Sorry Iz, but I can't. I promised the Chief I would show Der…Dr. Shepherd around Seattle." She needs to remind herself to stop calling him by his first name. The last thing she wanted was to be the root of any hospital gossip. "I'm meeting him outside Joe's so I'll walk with you guys over there."

"You're lucky to be going on a date with him," said Izzie, pulling off her scrub top.

"It's not a date! It's just a thing I'm doing for the Chief and it's definitely not…a date" Meredith retorted.

Cristina gave her a curious look. She's never seen Meredith get so stirred up over a guy before. There's more to this than what Meredith's letting on.

"Okay, it's not a date. Geez, don't jump down my throat about it," Izzie said, giving her a strange look.

Because of daylight savings, the sun hadn't set even though it was 7pm. She could see Derek standing outside the door watching her as she walked across the street. Giving her a smile, he greeted the three of them as they arrived.

"Dr. Yang, Dr. Stevens…how are you two doing this evening?"

"We're doing great. We're going inside to unwind at Joe's for a little bit," said Izzie, giving him a friendly smile.

"Well, I hope you two have a wonderful evening," he said, opening the door for them.

Smiling broader at what a gentleman he was, Izzie looked at Meredith and said in a sing-song voice "Have fun, you two."

"Thanks," said Meredith, a little embarrassed. Walking up to Izzie, she handed her the car keys and lowering her voice, said "Drive carefully and don't wait up."

As soon as they left, Derek turned to her and asked "Are you ready for our date?" Smiling, he reached forward to hold onto her arm and gently guide her towards his parked car. Walking up to the passenger side, he opened the door and held it for her.

"I can't wait to see what you have to show me tonight," he said, giving her an outrageously flirtatious smile.

Stopping short of getting inside the car, she turned to look at him, their faces a few inches apart and said "Before we start, there are a few rules to this non-date thing."

Still smiling, he gave her a curious look and said "Rules? I can't imagine an old married couple like us needing any of them…rules."

"Number one: No flirting. Second: No talking about Finn and C: No giving me the face."

"The face?" he said, looking at her strangely.

"The McDreamy face. Doesn't work on me. I'm immune."

"If I was going to sit around waiting for a "patient" to deliver, I would've invited you to keep me company. Especially if I haven't seen you for two weeks." The dreamy smile he gave was infectious.

"Breaking rules one, two and three!" she said, pretending to be upset. She was having a hard time resisting his charm and tonight he was bringing it all out.

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