Hi guys! Thank you for reading and to those who reviewed! I promise it isn't long now until Derek proposes, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Ps, pls dont hate me because realistically... Ellis was going to rear her ugly head at some point wasn't she?!

'Derek!' his tiny girlfriend called from the bathroom of their hostel room.

'Yeah?' he called back.

'Come here!'

'Okay,' he sighed, standing up from the bed and walking to see his girlfriend stood in the bathroom, her robe on the floor and pale pink lingerie on as she bit her lip slightly. 'Oh.' He breathed, as his breath hitched in his throat.

'Hi,' she giggled.

'Hi,' he grinned, stepping closer to rest his hands on her hips, her arms immediately going around his neck.

'Hi,' she whispered, leaning forward to kiss him, nibbling on his bottom lip.

'Hmmmm,' he breathed, pulling her closer. There was nothing better than holding Meredith close, despite being together for three years he still couldn't get enough of her.

'Der…' she breathed into his mouth as he kissed her harder, backing her up against the wall, his hands moving from her hips to her ass, pushing her against him.

'You look hot.' He whispered, his lips roaming to her neck as she leant back against the wall.

'I wanted to… surprise… you.' She stuttered as he sucked harder at her neck, her hands moving to his hair, holding his head close to her.

'I like this surprise,' he murmured, reaching to press his lips against hers as Meredith's cell began to ring out loudly.

'Crap.' She breathed. 'Ignore it.'

'Ignore.' He nodded, kissing her harder as the ringtone continued to blast.

'Urgh.' She sighed as it carried on, her hands coming to rest on his chest. 'Let me check it.'

'Okay.' He whispered as she kissed him quickly.

He followed her into the bedroom and lay next to where she was sat on the bed, scrambling through her purse to find her cell. As she answered, he pulled her to him from behind, resting his hands on her stomach and kissing her neck softly.

'Mom?' Meredith froze, making Derek do the same. 'Hi.'

'Meredith where are you and why did I get the international ringtone?' he heard Ellis practically frown down the phone.

'Oh…' his girlfriend turned to him slightly. 'I'm in Poland, mom.'

'Poland?' her mother repeated, as Derek opened his arm for Meredith to cuddle into and lay them down on the bed. Talking with Ellis was never pleasant and he knew how nervous it always made Meredith, especially when she knew her mom wouldn't approve of something.

'Yeah, mom. I… I told you I was going to Europe with Derek.'

'I know but I never thought you'd be stupid enough to actually do it.'

'Oh…' Meredith breathed, reaching to wrap her other arm around Derek's waist. 'I… it's really nice.'

'So you're not in the country?'

'No,' she shook her head. 'I told you we'd be away until August.'

'Hmmmm.'

'Is everything okay?'

'What wouldn't be okay?'

'Nothing. Nothing.' His girlfriend said quickly. 'Just checking.'

'And so I'm assuming if you're in the middle of nowhere with him, you're not over this silly phase.'

'Derek's not a phase, mom.' Meredith groaned, and Derek tried his best not to be hurt, and kissed the top of Meredith's head.

'You just wait.' Said Ellis, and Derek could practically hear the eyeroll.

'Is there something particular you called about? Because I'm not about this same conversation with you where you try to tell me I don't love my boyfriend.'

'I got a call yesterday,' Ellis continued.

'A call.' Meredith echoed, looking at Derek confused.

'From professor Robert Dawson, I'm sure you know him.'

'Erm… no…' Meredith said quietly, her head nestled on Derek's chest.

'Robert Dawson?' Ellis repeated, as if that would somehow make Meredith know.

'I don't… should I know him? I swear he wasn't my professor.'

'He's the head of Harvard University Medical school, Meredith.'

'Oh.' His girlfriend breathed.

'He was unaware that you hadn't taken you place at Dartmouth yet and assumed you were already there. He called me with interest of having you on their programme.'

'Oh,' Meredith repeated.

'He was impressed with your grades at pre-medical level and is interested with meeting with you to potentially discuss you transferring before the start of the semester.'

'Oh…oh…' she breathed. I'm not interested, mom.'

'Meredith don't be ridiculous. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, the head of the best Medical school in America is practically offering you a place with no interview or application process. I told him you would meet with him on August eleventh at their office.'

'Mom,' Meredith groaned.

'No discussion, Meredith. You will be there and you will talk to him.'

'I don't want to talk to him, mom.' She shook her head, sitting up out of Derek's arms. 'You can tell him I'm really grateful for the opportunity but I'm happy at Dartmouth and I don't want to change.'

'I will do no such thing.' Ellis snapped.

'Do you have any idea how bad that will make me look? Do you, Meredith?'

'This isn't about you, mom.' His girlfriend sighed. 'It's about me, and I'm happy at Dartmouth.'

'And you can be happy at Harvard. And come out with a degree from the best medical school in the country, I don't understand what the problem is?'

'The problem is that I want to stay at Dartmouth, mom. I have friends there, I have Derek there, it's nice and quiet and it feels like home.'

'How did I know,' Ellis practically smirked down the phone. 'You want to stay for your friends and some silly relationship, you're weak, Meredith. Like your father always was.'

'Mom…' Meredith breathed, shaking her head. It seemed wrong that his girlfriend was sat on the end of the bed, stressed on the phone to her mom, when she was sat in new lingerie she had bought for him.

'You honestly believe a boy will be there for you in ten years when you will be looking at becoming an attending surgeon? Huh, do you?'

'Mom…' she breathed again, and he could tell she was holding back tears.

'When you look back at yourself once you've grown up a bit you'll realise giving up the best opportunity you're ever going to have, for a boy, was the biggest mistake of your life.'

'Mom!' Meredith snapped, standing up, tears spilling onto her cheeks. 'Please,' she breathed. 'Please just stop! I don't want to go to Harvard because I want to stay in Hanover. I can be myself there and I'm happy there and I…. this isn't for Derek, mom. It's for me. I want to stay there. We looked at Harvard when we were applying and we still wanted to go to Dartmouth, mom. I'm happy there.'

'You need to learn the sacrifices of being a surgeon, Meredith. Work must come first.'

'No, it shouldn't.' His amazing, perfect girlfriend said, totally exasperated with her mother. 'You think it does and I respect that but- actually, no I don't respect that. If I wanted to go to Harvard then I would have gone, staying at Dartmouth was both an academic and personal choice, mom. There has to be a balance.'

'I can't be dealing with any more of this, Meredith. Robert will be in touch with details regarding the eleventh in the next few days.'

'Mom,' Meredith sighed as Ellis hung up the phone.

'Hey,' Derek breathed, immediately standing up and moving to wrap his arms around his girlfriend who had thrown her cell on the bed and began pacing, tears streaking down her face. 'Hey, baby come here.' He murmured, holing her close as she began to cry in his arms, her shoulders shaking slightly. 'It's okay,' he kissed the top of her head. 'You're okay.'

'I hate her,' she sobbed into his chest, her arms tightening around his waist. 'I hate her.'

'I know,' he murmured, just holding her as she let her anger out. There was no doubt in his mind that Ellis didn't like him, and didn't take him seriously, and it was frustrating to think that this was the kind of thing she would constantly be saying to Meredith.

To make her not want to be with him, and make her feel bad for having a boyfriend. Meredith was twenty one years old and could think for herself, but Ellis seemed to take absolutely no notice of that.

'Why can't she just listen to me?' Meredith whimpered.

'I don't know.' He sighed, running a hand over her hair lightly. 'Do you want to lay down?'

'Kay,' she breathed, hiccupping slightly as she grasped his hand tightly.

'There we go.' He smiled as he pulled the covers up around them and wrapped his arms around her.

'I hate her.' Meredith said again, burying her face in his chest.

'She isn't very nice.' He agreed.

'Nice?' she said harshly. 'She's fucking horrible.'

'Okay, I wasn't going to put it like that.' He sighed. 'But you're not wrong.'

'She just said that work has to come before anything else, Derek. She actually admitted that work comes before anything else, before family, before me. I… I mean I've known forever that I came second to her job and always would…. But deep down I tried to convince myself over and over again that it wasn't true. That she was doing her best. That she just didn't show affection well. But I was right this whole time…. She doesn't even care.'

'Hmmmm,' he breathed, running his fingers through her hair.

'She doesn't even want me to go to Harvard to be happy or have a good experience, she wants me to go there so she doesn't look bad! What kind of a mother says that, Derek?'

'I don't know.' He said quietly.

'I hate her.'

'You don't.'

'I do, Derek!'

'Mer, you're mad. And I know she hurts you, I know that, and nobody is more mad at her for that than me. But you don't hate her.'

'I do.'

'Okay.' He sighed, knowing he wasn't going to win this one while she was so upset.

'When is she ever going to take me seriously?' Meredith groaned.

'I don't know.' He admitted. It had been three years and Ellis still didn't take them seriously, he didn't think she ever would.

'She… she… urugh I hate her.'

'I know.' He sighed.

'I mean… it's a great opportunity and everything but… I don't want it. I don't want it.'

'It's okay if you do,' he murmured softly, kissing the top of his head. He wasn't going to be the reason Meredith didn't accept a chance to offer at Harvard Medical School.

'What?' she lifted her head off his chest to look him in the eye, her green meeting his blue.

'It's okay if you want to talk to this guy,' he nodded, stroking her cheek gently.

'No, Derek.' She shook her head. 'I don't want to.'

'If you don't want to that's perfectly fine. But don't think you cant just because of our plans.'

'But we promised we wouldn't put ourselves before our plans.' She frowned. 'We promised we'd always stick to our plans. We promised, Derek.'

'I know we did,' he laughed softly. 'But you getting a chance to study at Harvard kind of trumps any plans.'

'No it doesn't.' she replied, burying her head back in his chest. 'Nothing trumps our plans, Derek. Our plans are… our plans. And you promised we would stick to our plans.'

'And we will.' He reassured her. 'If that's what you want.'

'It is.' She said firmly.

'I don't want to go, Derek. I don't want to leave when I have you, and I have real friends.'

'You'll have me no matter where you are.' He breathed.

'I love you,' she leaned up to kiss him softly. 'But I don't want to go.'

'Okay,' he smiled. 'As long as you know I'm not stopping you, I only want the best for you.'

'I know you do and that's why I love you so much.' She whispered. 'For my mom… this isn't about what's best for me, Derek. To her its about making herself look good.'

'I know.' He sighed.

'I want to stay at Dartmouth, Derek.'

'Okay.' He nodded.

'And I don't get why she's making such a huge deal, Dartmouth is a really good school.'

'It is.'

'But not good enough for Ellis Grey.' She rolled her eyes.

'I'm surprised she didn't make you go to Harvard in the first place.' He said softly, running a hand up her arm gently.

'She tried.' Meredith groaned.

'I see.' He chuckled.

'But she wasn't too bothered for pre-med.'

'Hmmmm…'

'She really ruined our moment.' His girlfriend sighed from her place in his arms, her naked leg draped over his.

'She kinda did.' He laughed, moving his hands down her body. 'But it doesn't have to be ruined anymore if you don't want it to be?'

'Sorry,' she said quietly, looking up at him. 'I'm not really… in the mood.'

'That's okay.' He smiled, kissing her forehead.

'Sorry.' She whispered.

'I just said it was okay,' he smiled again, this time kissing her lips. 'I just want to cheer you up.'

'I know.' She sighed.

'I love you so much, Mer. I hate it when she upsets you.'

'Me too.'

'Is there anything I can do?' he offered.

'Just be hold me like this.' She squeezed her arms around him tighter. 'You being here… not saying anything…. It helps.'

'Okay.' He kissed the top of her head again, smiling at the scent of lavender that greeted him.

He held her, just for a while, he held her in complete silence. Just kissing her, and hugging her and letting her curl into him. Meredith very rarely let people see her vulnerable, and he loved that he was the only person she truly let her guard down around, who she truly trusted.

She grasped his hand in hers and kissed the back of it, and he couldn't help but look at her fingers. At one finger in particular. Their trip was three quarters of the way through now, with only four weeks left to go. They were due to go to Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland before flying back to New York, and somewhere in that time Meredith would become his finance. Well, that was if she said yes of course.

When he was with her, like this, alone, there was no doubt in his mind she would say yes. She loved him, and they had plans. Plans that she didn't want anything to ruin. But when her mother came into the picture it was a completely different story.

Ellis' lack of contact was a fifty fifty situation for Derek. He knew it impacted Meredith and so he obviously wished her mother made more of an effort with her, but simultaneously, he wasn't sure Meredith being in contact with her was such a good thing. She made Meredith doubt herself, she always, always, upset her, usually resulting in the position they were lay in now. And the obvious one, was that she didn't support their relationship.

Ellis finding out Meredith was engaged, at twenty one, to a soon to be twenty four year old, was probably going to start world war three. Well, not quite that, but he knew there'd be a lot of disapproval, resulting in a very upset Meredith in what was supposed to be an amazing celebration for her.

It had, initially put him off proposing. But the more he had thought about it, he knew Ellis would probably never like him and would never approve of Meredith getting married, due to her anti-male vendetta. And he couldn't let her make him put it off forever. He loved Meredith. And she was it. She was it in such a huge way that he knew after a few weeks of dating her that she was the one. Which was crazy because they had been freshmen in college; but she was the love of his life and he couldn't let Ellis and her schemes ruin his future with Meredith.

Thank you for reading, pls review X