I just want to check, guys, you're not finding this fic too repetitive, are you? I know it's very supervision-drunk-supervision-drunk, but I will try to make it more varied, I promise.
I'm also working on a plan for a brand new MerDer fic, a completely new concept that I don't think's been done before, it's very fantasy-based with a bit of horror weaved into it as well. I'm excited, so watch this space :D.
Thanks again for all of the lovely reviews; I'm enjoying making this fic very frustrating for all of the MerDer fans, because I think a fic without a bit of MerDer resistance wouldn't really be MerDer, it'd all be too easy :).
Chloe xoxo
ooooo
"Okay…" Mark grumbled, standing back up straight and cupping his throbbing cheek with his hand, his expression hurt, "That hurt, and was uncalled for."
"It was perfectly called for," came Derek's reply as he promptly turned his back on Mark and moved back into the living room, "You shouldn't be here."
"So you're not going to invite me in?" Mark's cheeky grin had reappeared, but Derek wouldn't look at him, instead resuming his slouch on the sofa and cracking open a can of beer. He shrugged.
"Do what you want." Hesitantly, Mark stepped inside and kicked the door shut behind him, before shuffling over towards the living room and pushing himself up onto the breakfast bar, reaching over to the counter and grabbing his own can of beer.
"I've missed you, Shep."
"Not the time for affection, Mark," Derek snapped in response, taking a long swig of his beer before finally turning to look at his former friend, "Where have you been, anyway?"
"You know, around. I went back to the Big Apple for a while. Saw Mom-"
"You spoke to Mom?" Derek suddenly sat up straight, his eyes widening. He had failed to tell his beloved but fussy mother that he'd left his fiancée after she'd slept with the man she'd raised as her second son in all of the drama that had happened since he'd found himself a single man.
"Don't worry, I told her everything. And she slapped me a few times, told me I was a dick and sent me straight back here to make up with you," Mark admitted, smiling sheepishly. He'd always had a soft spot for Derek's biological (and his makeshift) mother; to have her ashamed of him had made him feel worse than the heartbreak that he'd caused his own best friend had.
"We're not making up." Derek quickly drained the remains of his beer before screwing the empty can into a ball, tossing it into the bin in the corner of the room and opening another. "You screwed my fiancée. We're definitely not making up." Mark watched him in silence for a while, noting that he seemed unusually absent of emotion and that he was downing alcohol faster than an alcoholic at happy hour. Derek had always been the studious type – it was he who had been the party animal growing up, in fact, Derek's mom had always joked that Mark had done all of Derek's partying for him.
"There's something wrong," he observed, studying him closely as Derek merely kinked an eyebrow, "And it's something to do with a chick… Have you heard from Addie lately?"
"Don't even mention her name to me," Derek barked, anger suddenly clouding his face, "You have no right, Mark. We were happy. For Christ's sake, we were getting married, we were planning our wedding, you were going to be my best man because there was no one else in this world that I wanted up there with me other than you. But no, you're Mark Sloan, you can't keep it in your pants and don't care who you screw over in the process. The best man and the bride. You're a walking cliché." Derek drew in a deep breath, but he'd far from finished the rant that had built up inside him ever since he'd found his best friend writhing around under a duvet with the woman he'd planned to marry and had shared a bed with for three years. "No, I haven't heard from Addie. And I don't want to. It wouldn't bother me if I never heard from either of you again for the rest of my life, Mark, so why don't you take your goddamn, half-hearted apology and get the hell out of my apartment." With a sigh, Mark drained the remainder of his beer, set it on the breakfast bar, and quickly left the flat without uttering another word, leaving Derek consumed by his problems and emotions once again.
ooooo
The weekend passed. During which time, Meredith hadn't heard a peep from Derek like he'd promised; no phone call, no visit, not even a text, nothing. She'd tried to focus on catching up with college work, but had been unable to concentrate, continually worried that she would lose phone signal and miss his call. She sickened herself, this wasn't like her at all. She didn't care. She went out, slept with random and inappropriate men, but never allowed herself to get attached to them because attachment was always a problem. If her mother had taught her anything in life, it was that. Well, that and anything she'd ever learned about medicine. So throughout the entirety of her supervision on Monday morning with the One and Only, she stared at him, her eyes narrowed into venomous slits to show him that she was not going to be messed around like a stupid little plaything.
"Bastard," she hissed under her breath, causing Cristina to roll her her to one side and raise an eyebrow at her friend.
"I thought you didn't care?" she mocked, smiling knowingly.
"I'm not the one who doesn't care," she responded, without tearing her gaze from Derek, who, smartly, was refusing to meet her eyes, "He doesn't care. Even if the 'crap' he'd going through involves a wife, three kids and a dog, it would still be nice to keep me in the loop rather than leave me hanging like left out Christmas decorations in January."
"So what are you going to do, Mer, sit here glaring at him all day?"
"Yes. Maybe then he'll realise that you don't mess with us Grey women." As the bell rang shrill, Cristina sighed, scraping her chair back and gathering her textbook and notebook in her arms.
"Suit yourself. I'll see you in Burke's lecture." Meredith didn't budge as the rest of her supervision class quickly filed out of the room, eager to get to the canteen. After wiping his diagram of the human brain from the whiteboard, Derek turned around, letting out a sigh when he saw that she was still in her seat.
"Meredith-"
"No, shut up, I'm talking. You had your chance to put your story across, now it's my turn. I waited all weekend. You said you'd call me, and you never did. That's a really lame thing to do, Derek, that's the sort of thing you expect boys to do to you in high school, not grown men who are in their senior year of college. If you've got problems, I don't care, just tell me. Tell me about the wife, and the kids, and the dog – anything's better than letting me sit waiting like an idiot," Meredith gushed, her face strained in anger, her cheeks flushed. Her hair was scraped back from her face in a mid-height ponytail, yet she still looked adorable, which Derek had already noticed. He frowned.
"What wife?"
"Your wife. Or your kids, or whatever it was that meant that you couldn't even text me at any point over the last forty eight hours."
"Seriously, Meredith, do you really not understand what I meant when I said I was going through some crap at the moment? I meant real, serious, 'grown-up' crap, crap that you probably wouldn't understand, because at the end of the day, you're still just a kid. You left high school last year. You've only just moved out of home, you're probably not used to coping without Mommy making you breakfast and tying your shoelaces. When you've learnt what it's like to be a grown up, come and find me," Derek snapped, still highly on edge after his run-in with Mark, having spent the majority of his weekend drunk and alone. He couldn't even think straight, and the last thing he needed was to be bothered by a petulant child. Meredith paused for a moment, shocked by his outburst, before angrily pushing herself to her feet and folding her arms across her chest.
"You know, if you'd bothered to find out anything about me before or after you screwed me, you'd know how much that assumption makes you a jerk." Grabbing her textbook, she shot Derek a filthy, hurt look before storming from the room and slamming the door shut behind her. Full of regret, Derek furiously rubbed his eyes, wishing that all of the problems that had built up in his life over the past couple of weeks would just disappear so that he could be normal again.
