Authors: Starfisher & CocoaJuju
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: MerDer
Timeline: Post Season Three Finale (3.25) + 5 yrs.
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: All characters and quotes belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 7
(written by Starfisher)
"Cristina."
She continued to talk. "He's creepy. Because unlike you, Mere, I don't have sex with guys the first time I meet them, no matter how drunk I happen to be. No offense, of course-"
"-none taken-"
"-and he kicks me while he's sleeping, so then I don't get any sleep. He's not a surgeon. We need our sleep. Hell, why am I dating a guy who's not a surgeon?"
"Cristina."
Cristina gave her the Look, the patented Cristina Look, the one that told her that yes, she thought Meredith was completely pathetic and no, she wasn't going to be getting sympathy. "Yes?"
"I have a situation."
Cristina turned away from the coffee machine. "A situation? So I'm still your Person? Because last time I looked you were dishing everything to Satan."
Meredith sighed. She was tired of explaining it. "She's not Satan. She's a good person, if only under-sympathetic, cold, and distant. She's helped me out more than I can repay her."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Cristina waved her hand with a pen vaguely as if it was something she wished to forget – which it probably was. "So what's up with you and McDreamy?"
"I don't know."
The two women sat down at a table, Meredith still clutching a cold cup of tea from her visit to the Chief's office and Cristina taking a sip of her vanilla latte before answering. "Sure you do. Seriously?"
"Seriously," Meredith subconsciously echoed. "He told me he loved me."
"Mmm. Really?" Cristina's eyebrows rose from behind her cup of caffeine. "Well?"
"Well, what?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you?! Did you say it back?" Cristina looked so intent, so focused, so serious (and so frustrated) that Meredith burst out laughing. She was silenced, however, all too quickly by a glare.
"I was sleeping."
Cristina let out a frustrated growl. "Augh. Why does everything that happens to me, happen to you?" She emphasized her point by pointing at Meredith and herself with the ballpoint pen as she talked.
"I don't know," Meredith shrugged. "Are you going to help me or not?"
"Fine. What were you thinking of?"
"I don't know." Meredith hissed. "I don't think I want to try again with him, but he's McDreamy and he's so damn irresistible, yet he's such a-"
Meredith cut herself off and stared intently to the other side of the courtyard to the coffee machine and a cartful of baked goods.
"What?" Cristina's voice sounded louder than before as she lost her patience. "Who is it?"
"Is that Alex and Erin?" Meredith answered without moving her head, peering at the adult and child as they sat down at a table.
"Let's go spy on them," Cristina said excitedly, sounding like a ten-year-old, but Meredith was already three steps ahead of her. She sleuthed around the courtyard, being careful to let neither Alex nor Erin see her, and sat down a few tables away, scooting her chair just so to position herself behind a tall man with a hat.
"So," Alex said in a casual tone that indicated more than said on the surface, unwrapping the cookie he had bought (Bribed, Meredith thought incredulously) for the four-year-old, "does your Mommy talk to you about stuff?"
Meredith felt bolts of anger shoot throughout her veins. Damn asshole had no right snooping in her business, much less cross-examining her four-year-old daughter over it.
"What?" Erin asked.
"Oh, like stuff she says not to tell anyone," Alex said off-handedly.
"Then I wouldn't tell anyone," Erin said sweetly, and a warm, fuzzy feeling spread throughout her mother. She had always told herself little Erin was anything but ordinary, but to see it in person made her feel like she'd finally done something right.
She chose that moment to stride over to the table. "Good girl, Er," Meredith said, tugging on one of the ends of her braids. Erin beamed.
"What the heck?" Alex glared at her, like it was her fault.
"Well excuse me, you're the one interrogating my daughter!"
"I have every right to! You've been so damn secretive lately; I like to know what's going on in my house!"
"That's my house, and you don't have a right to know! She is not your daughter!"
A new voice sounded from behind Meredith. "She's not your daughter, Karev."
Meredith wheeled around as Alex stormed away, muttering about "women" and "stalkers."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Meredith hissed, trying to keep down her voice for Erin's sake.
"Checking up on you," Derek merely replied. "You okay, Erin?"
Erin nodded. "Will Uncle Alex be okay?"
Meredith and Derek exchanged glances. Their eyes locked. Meredith looked into his blue eyes and found her being sucked in. His eyes had a grip so powerful over her that she couldn't possibly be the one to break it.
He was telling the truth. He was trying to help her, and Erin and Josh. He wasn't out to hurt her. And he loved her. And she loved him. Maybe.
She wasn't ready to fall in love.
"He'll be fine," Derek finally replied, still not breaking eye contact with Meredith. She soaked in the warmth of his blue eyes.
"You sure?" Erin persisted.
"I'm sure," Derek assured the little girl and broke away from Meredith's blue-green eyes. He grinned at her and she returned the grin, except it was his grin and his dimples, and every time Erin smiled it hurt.
Meredith glared at him. "What?" Derek said in surprise.
Meredith sneered, barely able to hold in her first reaction – slap him. "And I suppose you think you can rescue me anytime you damn well want to?"
Derek nodded and Meredith took him seriously, a bit. The sun glinted on something in the corner of his eyes, but Derek quickly reached up to brush it away. With a jolt, Meredith realized it was a tear. But she didn't have the time to feel guilty or be sympathetic. That could come later.
"Mama?" Erin asked quietly from her perch in a chair. Meredith looked around and saw Cristina, vanilla latte in hand, looking at her with one eyebrow raised.
"Sorry, Cupcake," Meredith apologized. "You go with Cristina, okay?"
Erin nodded and slipped out of her seat, trailing behind Cristina miserably as they walked away from the cafeteria, gazing at her mother as if to say, Help me, Mommy!
"You're horrible," Meredith said, turning back to Derek before the latter could possibly open his mouth. "I hate you. You left me once and didn't follow me once. But you're so damn irresistible. And I think that I'm in love with you."
Meredith's tongue caught in her mouth, which was suddenly dry and clammy. She barely registered collapsing into Erin's former seat and Derek sitting in the one Alex had been sitting in what seemed like an eternity ago.
Derek's eyes looked at her, and they seemed to know what she was thinking but wondering what she was going to say next.
"You think?" he said hesitantly, quietly, in a whisper.
She thought. What had she said? I think I'm in love with you. That sounded vaguely familiar.
"I think," Meredith repeated, more sure of herself this time. "Take it or leave it, Derek."
She knew he would take it. It was the first time she took a chance. The first time she put herself out there since she had returned. It was dangerous, sure, but what else could she possibly do wrong?
"I'll take it," he said instantly.
No turning back.
