Disclaimer: People keep telling me they wished I wrote for the show, and if anyone knows how to get me a job writing for the show, it would be more than welcome, because right now I definitely don't.

Sorry this took longer than it was supposed to to get up, life is crazy like that sometimes, lol. But it's here now…and I feel that I should warn you that Lexie appears in this chapter. No worries…Derek is good and behaves but she is in it.

Enjoy!

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She was flirting.

Okay, I couldn't actually hear what she was saying, so it was hard to say exactly if she was flirting. But she was looking at him, the other guy, with that look in her eyes that was usually reserved for me. That was pretty much flirting as far as I was concerned.

Not that she couldn't flirt.

We were on a break, for the past two week we had been on a break. She was allowed to flirt with other men. She couldn't go past that, but she could flirt. Flirting was fun, there was nothing wrong with flirting. Flirting was good. It was fine and he was fine and it was nothing. She was allowed to flirt.

And yet again I was starting to sound like Meredith in my head.

"Earth to Shep?" my best friend said. Or former best friend. Or something.

"Sorry…just…sorry…." I shook my head.

"Meredith," Mark sighed, looking across the bar at wear the man whore was now leaning into her, his body far too close to the woman that belonged to me.

"Yeah, Meredith," I nodded, trying to look anywhere but at Meredith. And finding it impossible.

"What the hell is up with you guys? For the last two weeks there's been some tension that's strange even for you two," Mark asked, laughing softly.

"We're on a break."

"A break?"

"Yes," I nodded. "As in not actually a couple, although also not sleep with other people so that guy better keep his hands to himself."

"I tell you to fight for her, and you break up with her?" Mark asked.

"I didn't break up with her, this is me fighting for her," I protested. "We were a mess so we're taking a step back, breathing and starting over again. From scratch and doing it right this time."

"That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard," he responded, disgust in his voice.

"No it's not," I shook my head.

"Yes it is," he nodded. "You've spent the last year of your life building this relationship up with her. You can't just turn around and start over, pretend none of that happened. You can't build something, only to burn it down and start over."

"We're not trying to," I sighed. "I know we have issues to work through, and we will. But right now, we're taking a breather."

"And you need a breather from her?" he asked.

"No," I frowned. "But we need it."

"Whatever, man, sounds stupid to me," he shook his head. "And that guy is pissing all over your property."

"No kidding," I groaned.

I was supposed to be talking to Mark, I was supposed to be fixing my own problems. Meredith had told me to fix this and I was trying to listen to her advice but she was making it damn hard draping herself all over some other guy across the bar. Sure, she wasn't actually even touching the other guy but that was definitely beside the point. I couldn't really concentrate on anything when she was looking at someone else with our look.

"Hi Derek…I mean, Dr. Shepherd," a voice came from my other side.

I turned and looked at Meredith's half sister beside me, smiling innocently, and obviously oblivious to her half sister across the bar. And I couldn't help but smile, because without even looking I knew Meredith had stopped flirting with that idiot who somehow thought he had a chance. "Hi Lexie," I nodded. I didn't want to call her by her first name but I couldn't call her Dr. Grey. That name belonged to Meredith and Meredith alone.

"You're here again," she giggled.

"I am," I nodded, gesturing to Mark. "Came out for drinks with my friend. This is Dr. Mark Sloan, head of plastics at the hospital. Mark, this is Dr. Lexie Grey, one of the new interns."

"Lexie Grey?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow in Derek's direction before recovering himself. "Nice to meet you, Lexie."

"You too," she nodded, reaching out and squeezing Derek's arm. "It looks like your drink ran out."

"It did," I sighed, looking at Mark. "But Mark owes me one, actually he owes me quite a few."

"Oh…" she frowned. "Well umm… some of the interns are having a party tomorrow night. I guess some did it last year so we're making it a yearly tradition or something…you should come, Derek. So should you, Dr. Sloan."

Take me for a ride, Derek.

I had fond fond memories of that party a year before. But it definitely wasn't something I was looking to make into a yearly tradition.

"I'm going to pass this time," I shrugged.

"This time?" she sighed. "You went last year?"

"Wouldn't have missed it," I smiled, looking over at where Meredith sat, the idiot still hanging all over her but she barely seemed to notice, as her eyes were locked on Lexie's hand resting on my arm.

"Oh…" she said, removing her hand from my arm finally. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Both of you."

Mark said something in response but I just gestured to Joe to refill my glass. Just because I was on a break with the other Grey didn't mean I wanted the new Grey draping herself all over me, or even flirting with me. I didn't want her calling me Derek and inviting me to a party that Meredith hadn't even thought to invite me too. I didn't want her to not be willing to give up on me. She was just the wrong Grey…I wanted the original Grey I had met in the bar.

The one that was looking at that other man with our look again.

"Was that Meredith's sister?" Mark asked.

"Half sister," I sighed. "Meredith knows about her but she doesn't know about Meredith. Which I'm not quite sure how it's working out that that Dr. Grey hasn't discovered my Dr. Grey, but well, yeah, it's her sister."

"And the party, Meredith's place last year?" Mark asked.

"Yeah," I nodded, smiling. "We had sex in my car, Bailey caught us."

"Nice, Shep," he laughed.

I glanced over at Meredith again, smiling widely as she shook her head no to the idiot and pulled back ever so slightly. The smile widened further as the idiot looked down with disappointment and slowly walked away. That was my Meredith. Actually it wasn't, my Meredith shot back tequila and took home random guys. But this was my new and improved Meredith, the one that was in and wanted to be with me. Eventually.

"Joe?" I asked.

"Yeah, Doc?"

"Can you give that beautiful blonde in the purple sweater a shot of tequila on me?" I smiled.

"Derek…that's Meredith," Joe said, looking confused.

"I'm aware of that Joe," I nodded, laughing. "And Meredith deserves a drink."

"Whatever you say, Shep," he sighed, turning around to serve Meredith the shot, gesturing towards me as Meredith looked at him, confusion on her face.

And then she looked at me, and time stopped. Because finally she wasn't looking at an idiot with our look, she was looking at me. She was looking at me with our look, in a way I hadn't seen in too long. I was brought back to that night over a year ago, and the way it felt when we had first looked at each other. Suddenly everything felt right again.

So I'm praying just to let it go

Watch from a distance just to see you glow.

So Derek went to Joe's with Mark, following Meredith's advice to fix things with him as it would help. But he can't talk to Mark about their issues because Meredith is there, and there's a guy. And then Lexie shows up. And both of them both turn down the other people, because well they're Derek and Meredith. So Derek buys her a drink. And yeah, I know I just summarized the chapter but there's not a lot of stuff to discuss here...Meredith and Derek are sticking to their plan to not try to find anyone else. And eventually they'll be okay.

Will hopefully update later tonight if all goes well.

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