A/N - Aha...okay, so I know it's been forever since the last time I updated, but I'm sure you guys can understand the craziness of school and friend drama, right? I just had to be there for some friends and it definitely took a lot out of me. But now that it's almost Thanksgiving, I think it's about time I wrote a new chapter. I hope you like it, and I added loads of MerDer action just for you guys!
Chapter 11
"You look like hell," Izzie told her best friend as she peeked at her over the rim of her coffee cup. "Did you sneak someone in after I went to bed last night?"
"No," rasped Meredith as she reached out graspingly for a mug. "I just couldn't get to sleep."
Which was completely true. She couldn't fall asleep because thoughts of Derek were running through her mind all night. She couldn't leave the fact that the two of them almost kissed alone. What annoyed her the most though, was the little voice in the back of her head that told her that she wanted to kiss him. The moment Joe interrupted the two of them, every nerve in her body screamed in disappointment.
The question was: why? For crying out loud, he was Derek freaking Shepherd! For the longest time, those two words were synonymous with hell in her book and all of a sudden she wanted to kiss him?
"I think I'm losing my mind," she declared before taking a long drag of coffee.
Twenty minutes later, the two of them were pulling into the Seattle Grace parking lot. Meredith felt the anticipatory tingles crawl over her skin at the fact that soon she would be in Derek's presence, and that fact irritated her to no end.
"Meredith, are you seriously okay?" Izzie asked again. "You look like you did right before Lisa Kaletski's wedding."
The dark blonde turned to her best friend, a half-crazed look in her eye. "Okay, Izzie. Here's the thing: I almost kissed Derek last night, and I think that I wanted to. I think I wanted to kiss him. And then I dreamt that I was engaged to him and we did things that I'm so not comfortable to admit even to myself, things that I'm pretty sure I've never done in my life. And now I'm about to walk in there and spend the next forty-eight hours with a man that I almost-kissed and was dream-engaged to. A man, I might add, that I have hated since I was old enough to walk. A man who also happens to be my boss. What in the world am I going to do?"
Izzie stared at her best friend. "Okay, hold on. I did not catch all of that, so we're going to have to go through that all again very slowly. You say that you almost kissed Derek and you actually wanted him to kiss you, right?"
Meredith nodded.
"And you dreamt that the two of you were engaged and also engaged in…not…so…savory actions together last night as well."
She nodded again.
"And now you don't want to spend the next forty-eight hours with the man that you almost-kissed and was dream-engaged with because you've 'hated'," (she encased the word with hand quotes), "since you were old enough to talk. A man that is also your boss."
Meredith nodded very frantically.
Izzie let out a whoosh of breath. "Wow, Mer. Of all the things you've done in your life, I'm pretty sure this tops all."
She smacked her best friend on the shoulder. "Not helping!"
"Well I--"
The two of them yelped as they were both shocked and interrupted by a tap on the window. Derek Shepherd stood outside the car as his muffled voice permeated the thick glass. "Come on. We have rounds in twenty minutes."
The distressed intern whipped her head around to stare pleadingly at her best friend. "What do I do?" she mouthed.
"I don't know!" Izzie mouthed back.
Meredith shot her friend a withering glare before pulling the handle and climbing out of the car. She could feel her heart pounding in her throat and the blood rushing to her face when she looked into the deep blue eyes of her resident. "Good morning, Dr. Shepherd," she managed to greet, albeit a shakily.
"Good morning," he replied briskly before offering her the second cup of coffee he was holding. "Shall we?" and before waiting for a reply, he headed towards the hospital.
Thrown off by his brusque manner, Meredith followed suit and took a sip of the coffee. Two creamers, and no sugar…just like she liked it.
They reached the locker room and Derek fixed her with a stern look. "I need you changed and finished in five minutes. Understood?" And before she could reply again, he walked off to change himself.
She felt a sense of indignation. What in the world was his problem? She wasn't late, she hadn't said anything wrong, and she hadn't killed anyone yet. Why was he acting so distant, especially since last night? He went from hot to cold in twelve hours and she couldn't keep up with his mood swings at all.
Five minutes later, she was changed and waiting outside the locker room with her notepad and a pen. She didn't have to wait long for Derek to come out looking sexily disheveled in a way that reminded her of her hot dream all over again. "Let's go Dr. Grey. And try to keep up."
Slightly insulted, she followed him to the elevator. "Dr. Hamilton wants me on his tumor removal this morning and because of the Chief's stupid order, I have to take you with me. Try not to make me look stupid, okay?"
That's it, she thought angrily to herself. She reached forward and pulled the emergency stop before whipping her head around to her resident. "Okay, what the hell is your problem?"
He sighed impatiently. "Dr. Grey, we do not have time for--"
"No, don't give me that. Yesterday you were trying to bury the hatchet and now you're taking a billion steps back. What the hell is your problem?"
"You want to know what my problem is?" Derek asked, finally fed up with the whole situation. "My problem is you. My problem is the fact that you're everywhere. You're with me, even when you're not and it drives me crazy. I can't get away from you and all I can think about is the fact that last night, we were engaged and now you're looking at me like I'm the scum of the universe."
That was when they both lost it. The tension in that tiny elevator was too much for them to handle and before they knew it, Meredith was pushed up against the control panel by Derek's strong hands and within nanoseconds, their lips were pressed frantically together in a furious lock that refused to let go. Derek's hands traveled to Meredith's hair and frantically grasped at her silky blonde locks. This kiss…this kiss was so much more than anything he could imagine. It blew every other kiss, every other memory out of the water. He relished the feel of her tiny hands against the thin cloth of his scrubs, the way her lips moved and worked with his. He loved the way her golden locks slipped in between his fingers and the way the two of them seemed to steal each other's breaths, almost as if they had been doing this forever.
And it was quite clear that the two of them were thinking the same thing: the dream was nothing compared to this.
Unfortunately, neither of them realized that Meredith's back had been pushed the emergency stop and the elevator had started up again. They hadn't noticed until the elevator dinged and the doors opened. They jumped apart in a startled frenzy and tried to straighten their appearance.
Mark stepped in through the doorway, but stopped when he saw his best friend and his intern look away guiltily. "Okay," the surgeon said slowly when he registered the tangible tension between the two of them. "Why do I get the feeling that I just interrupted something that shouldn't have happened?"
Meredith and Derek fleetingly glanced at each other before replying hastily, "Nothing happened."
He glanced between them skeptically. "Uh-huh. Well, you won't mind then if I just," he stepped inside the elevator and pushed his floor number, "ride this elevator for a while, do you?"
"Um, no," Derek said quickly. "In fact, Dr. Grey was just going to get, um, those Mr. Carlson's EEG scans. Weren't you, Dr. Grey?"
"Uh, yeah," Meredith said hurriedly. She pushed the closing elevator doors open and rushed out. "Right away sir. Goodbye, uh…doc--doctor Sloane."
"Bye," Mark said skeptically. When the doors closed, he rounded on his best friend like a woman would and stared at him avidly. "What happened when I left last night? And what the hell was that just now?"
Derek didn't hear a word he just said. Without even thinking, he reached up and touched his still tingling lips. His fingers were shaking and his knees were weak; he couldn't even breathe.
"Hey, Derek," Mark called. "Woo hoo, earth to Derek. Derek…" He waved his hands in front of his best friend but nothing seemed to get through to the dazed surgeon.
Still dazed, it was then that Derek realized that he and Meredith had passed the point of no return. They couldn't blame their volatile relationship on dislike or hatred any longer. And that scared him like nothing else.
Meanwhile, Meredith was pressed against the wall in a supply closet, breathing deeply in and out. She kissed Derek Shepherd.
She kissed Derek Shepherd.
She traced her lips with her tongue, trying desperately to remember the way he tasted. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to remember the way he felt against her, the way he held her and the way he ran his rough fingers through her hair.
It was, without a doubt, the most sensational and most amazing kiss she had ever experienced before in her life.
Suddenly, the door opened and the moment the light hit her in the face, she jumped almost a mile high.
"Whoa," said the voice of Cristina Yang when she realized Meredith was there. "What in the world are you doing in the supply closet?"
"I'm hiding from McDreamy," she replied.
"Um, aren't you supposed two supposed to be glued together or something?"
"Yeah," she replied wearily while sliding to the floor and hugging her knees close against her. "We are."
"Then…" Cristina trailed off, waiting for a response.
"I just kissed him."
Cristina's jaw dropped the moment she heard those four words pour out of Meredith's mouth. "Y…you just kissed McDreamy? But--I--I thought you hated him!"
She heaved a sigh. "I do. I did. I don't know."
"How did you get away?"
"Mark got on the elevator and we freaked out."
"Wait, you kissed McDreamy on an elevator?" asked Cristina, seriously impressed. "Oh wow, Meredith. And here I am thinking you're boring."
Meredith leapt up and grabbed Cristina by the shoulders. "You have to do a favor for me."
"Oh, uh no. I don't do favors."
"Shepherd put you on sutures in the pit, didn't he?"
Cristina paused. "Yeah…" she said slowly. "What are you getting at?"
"I switch places with me. Please, please, please switch places with me. Shepherd's on an aneurism removal and he sent me to get Mr. Carlson's EEG. You haven't seen an aneurism removal yet, have you?"
"Okay, why in the world are you giving up this surgery for sutures? What's the catch?"
"There is no catch! I just kissed my boss and arch nemesis since grade school! I can't go back there! Please, just do this for me, I'm begging you!"
"And what if he asks for you? What are you going to do then? What if the Chief sees you're not there?"
"I need this, Cristina. I need to be away from him, I need some time by myself. Please?"
She sighed. "Fine. But if I better not get in trouble because of this, do you understand?"
Meredith nodded emphatically, grabbed some suture wire and ran out of the supply closet, ready to throw herself into a comparably mindless surgical task. She would suture better than she'd ever suture before because she needed to forget. She needed to forget that she had just moments ago experienced one of the most brain-bending, skin-tingling kisses in her life with a man she never would have kissed, no matter how smashed she was.
Two minutes later, Cristina finally found Dr. Shepherd and eagerly handed him the scans he asked for. "Hello, Dr. Shepherd. Dr. Grey asked me to be her replacement today."
He frowned. "Dr. Yang, I thought I told you to cover the pit today."
"Um, yes, but Dr. Grey said that she wasn't feeling well and she probably shouldn't be in the OR today, so she asked to switch with me."
The word bullshit flashed across Derek's brain. "If she's not feeling well, she probably shouldn't be treating patients at all."
"I, uh, I think she said something about dizziness."
"I am too, but you don't see me shirking an aneurism removal." The minute the words left his mouth, he could have smacked himself in the head. He pretty much just admitted to Meredith's colleague and friend that Meredith's kiss had affected more than he would have liked to admit, and now Cristina was going to tell her the moment she got the chance.
"Dr. Shepherd, I will be the best intern you have ever worked with," Cristina insisted quite emphatically. "I just want to get the chance to work with you and Dr. Hamilton. Please, just give me this chance and I will be the quietest, most efficient, most effective intern. Believe me."
Derek sighed and took the scans. "Fine."
The two of them stepped out into the hall and made their way to the patient's room. "Just out of curiosity, Dr. Yang," Derek began, as casually as he could, "what exactly did Dr. Grey tell you?"
"Uh…" Cristina was hesitant. She didn't want to rat out a friend, but at the same time, she didn't want to say no to a superior. "She, um, she said something about an elevator and sutures. To be honest, she was kind of incoherent."
Inwardly, Derek smirked. It was good to know that she wasn't the only one affected by all of this insanity.
A/N - So...I hope that was hot enough for you guys. BE SURE TO CHECK THE BLOG BECAUSE THERE ARE THINGS ON THERE THAT I WOULD LIKE ALL MY READERS TO SEE.
Thank you!