June 1994
After being violently shaken awake, Meredith opened her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light, finally taking in the sight of her roommate and close friend, Lauren. She yawned, "What in god's name? Lauren, what time is it? Today is my first day off in like, god knows how long."
"Meredith, shut up." The tone in her voice and the look in her eyes cause the last remnants of sleep to escape Meredith's now wide awake body, "There's been an accident."
Fear shot through Meredith's body like a bolt of lightening. "Oh my god. Please tell me it isn't Derek?" She searched her best friend's eyes. Lauren took a deep breath, cast her gaze downward and took her hand, "No! Please no. NO no no no no no no no." She felt tears begin to sting her eyes.
"Mer, listen to me," Lauren pulled her close, "he's at the hospital right now, they just called a few minutes ago. They said he told them to call his fiancé."
Meredith's head shot up, "he told them to call?"
"Yeah…look, let's get dressed and I'll head over there with you okay?" She said reassuringly.
Meredith nodded, "yeah, okay." The next two hours were a bit of a daze. She had gone about getting her things together, following Lauren's lead. Before she knew it, they were no longer in Cambridge, but at Mass. General, a hospital Meredith had known all too well as a young child.
As luck would have it, Meredith was entering at the same time that Miriam had gone looking for one of her daughters, she spotted her and lead her to Derek's room.
Walking in, Meredith took a deep breath. There sat Derek in a hospital bed, his leg in a cast, scrapes on his legs and arms, a rather large cut on his forehead, but very much awake and alive. She exhaled.
"Dammit!" She wanted to slap him across the face. "You scared the shit out of me! Do you know that? Lauren woke me up this morning and told me you were in an accident and in the hospital!" She exclaimed, not caring that his mother, father, and two of his sisters, one of whom she had never met, were in the room.
He looked at her, bemused. "Meredith--"
She looked at him, raging, "What!"
"I'd like you to meet my sister, Emily." He said pleasantly.
She looked at him, unable to speak for a minute. "Seriously?! Seriously. You think this is funny? In the cab ride over here I was imagining what I would say during your eulogy Derek. I thought you were dead, or dying." She turned, "It's nice to meet you, Emily!" She said the last part in the same tone with which she had been yelling at Derek.
"You too, Meredith."
The Shepherd family just looked on in amusement at the scene that transpired between the two. It was clear to them that Meredith was absolutely livid at Derek, and that Derek was finding some sort sick humor in the whole thing.
"Meredith." She looked at him, "you're very cute when you're angry and rambling. You get all fidgety and gesticulative."
She sighed, "promise me you won't ever do this to me again." She expressed, walking toward the bed, caressing his cheek, placing a light kiss on his lips.
He grinned, knowing he had won, "Promise." He put his arms around her. "Besides…my bike was totaled in the crash. It'll be a while before I can afford another one." Meredith whipped out of his embrace, while the Shepherd family worked hard at stifling their laughter.
"Oh no you don't. You're never riding a motor-cycle again. That Harley was the biggest death trap on the road. If you expect me to still marry you, your biker days are over." At this a sharp intake of breath could be heard from all the Shepherds in the room, besides Derek, that is.
Derek winced. "First of all, it's a Ducati. Second of all," he pushed Meredith back so that he could see the rest of his family, "Hey, Mom, Dad, Em, Lynn, Meredith and I are engaged!"
August 1994
"Mmm," Meredith moaned, "I can almost taste that Pizzaria Regina pizza right now. I'm so hungry." She said, emphasizing the word 'so.'
"You're the one who insisted we skip lunch in order to finish unpacking boxes." Derek reminded her, as they walked through the crowded streets.
"Yes, that's because I wanted to be able to eat an exuberant amount of that delicious pizza, you're buying it after all." She elbowed him.
"The pizza is good, but you don't know good pizza until you've had New York pizza." He informed her.
"Blah blah blah, This coming from a Yankees fan."
"Oh don't you start down that road again." He stated, only half serious. "You know how hard it was for my family to let you in after finding out you liked the Red Sox."
"Might I remind you're the one who chose to go to school and live in Boston, the city of your arch nemesis baseball team? Don't go dissing my boys."
"Technically, I chose to go to school in Somerville. You're the one who made me move directly into the city…snob."
"Okay, okay." Lauren cut in, "as much as I love you guys, and I really mean that," she rolled her eyes, "can we please just make it to the pizza place and back? I, after all, was kind enough to offer to help you move. I didn't sign up for an episode of the dating game."
Derek and Meredith just looked at one another and laughed. Meredith was about to say something when she thought she saw a face she recognized. She did a double take.
"Meredith?! Meredith Grey?!" The familiar man exclaimed.
She stopped, it was him. "Oh my god! Finn! Finn Dandridge! I haven't seen you since senior year of high school! How are you?!" They hugged and kissed eachother on the cheek.
"I'm good, I'm good. Just on my way to catch the train." He said, noticing for the first time that she wasn't alone, but was with a very attractive blonde, and a dark haired man.
"Oh," she turned, "This is my fiancé, Derek, and this," She grabbed Lauren by the shoulders and pushed her towards him, "is my best friend in the whole world Lauren."
"It's nice to meet you both." Finn smiled.
"Likewise." Derek said, evenly.
"The pleasure is all mine." Lauren stated flirtatiously.
"So," Derek began, "How do you and Meredith know eachother?"
"Oh god," he sighed, thinking nostalgically, "Meredith was my first kiss, back in 9th grade"
"Oh," Derek looked at Meredith.
She smiled at him, knowingly, "Yeah, we 'went out' for what, like a week Finn? Then he started dating one of my friends."
"Oh…" Lauren felt the situation was about to get awkward.
"But we were really good friends all throughout high school. It's really a shame we lost touch." He looked at his watch, "Shit, if I don't book it I'm gonna be late, but here lets exchange numbers and we'll meet up soon."
Meredith smiled, "Yes, we'll have to get some lunch or something, talk about the old days." They swaped numbers.
As Finn was about to walk away, he gave Meredith another hug and whispered in her ear, "Seriously, I mean it, you're not getting out of my life for another few years, and pass my number along to your cute friend!" He pulled away, "It was nice to meet you both!" With that he was off.
Meredith smiled, "So, who's ready for some pizza?"
Lauren looked at her, "He hugged you pretty tight."
"He wanted me to give you his number."
"You know, I really am famished!"
Derek put his arm around Meredith, "how about we sit there and eat, get a few pitchers? We can always finish unpacking when we get back. The boxes aren't going anywhere."