Chapter 12

"Meredith, will you just eat something?" Derek said as he put a plate of eggs in front of her.

"No, I'm not hungry," Meredith snapped, pushing her chair out and standing up.

"Meredith, sit!" Derek moved to stand next to her and pushed her back down. Keeping his hands on her shoulders, he crouched down so that he was eye level with her. "Please eat, you'll feel better. I promise that med school is not that bad. It's hard, but you're brilliant, so you'll breeze through it. Plus, you have me to help you study." He offered her a reassuring smile and squeezed her shoulders. They had been living together for two months, and though Derek had been overwhelmed with the Chief Resident work for the first few weeks, he had managed to find a balance. Over the past week, however, Meredith became convinced that she was going to fail out of Columbia, making her more and more of a nervous wreck as the first day of classes approached quickly.

"How do you know?" Meredith said softly, not looking him in the eye. "You haven't been in Med School for five years; they might have changed a lot."

"Mer, please stop freaking out. Columbia will not have changed all that much. Plus, you only have two classes today, so you won't be completely overwhelmed. And since it is the first day of class, they won't bombard you with work. Trust me, okay?"

Meredith looked him in the eye, smiling softly. "Okay," she answered before leaning in to kiss him. Moving to sit down next to her, Derek watched as Meredith began to eat her breakfast. He focused on the food on his plate before looking back up at her, studying her intently. Something was off.

"Mer?"

"Yes?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Where's your ring?"

"What? Oh," Meredith said, looking down at her left hand. "I'm working at the hospital after I get out of class today, and you know they don't like it when I wear jewelry, so I'm leaving it at home like I always do."

"Yeah, but I want you to wear it to school," Derek responded, trying to be casual.

"Don't be such a caveman," Meredith rolled her eyes. "Listen, I get out of class at twelve thirty, and I'm working at the hospital from one thirty until six. Now, Columbia and the hospital are pretty far away from each other, so I can either wear the ring to class, go home, go to the hospital and immediately start working, or I could not wear my ring, get out of class, go right to the hospital and eat lunch with you before work. Which do you prefer?"

"Is this a trick question?" Derek joked.

"Derek!"

"Fine," he sighed. "Don't wear the ring. But I don't want anyone hitting on you."

"Don't worry," she said, getting up to put her plate in the sink before sitting in his lap. "I'm not into med students. But I definitely have a thing for Chief Residents."

"Hmm, good," Derek said as he captured her lips.

XXXXXX

Two and a half hours later, Meredith was wandering the hallway, frantically looking from her schedule to the classroom numbers, hoping that she finds her anatomy lab soon. She got to school a half hour early, just to be on the safe side, and was able to find her first class easily. But that class let out early, so she figured she would just go straight to her lab in order so she could be early again. It was a good idea that she did; she spent ten minutes lost before she finally found the building she was looking for.

Meredith didn't know anyone here, and she was scared. This was the first time that she had to go to school without knowing anyone; she and Cristina had gone to school together for as long as she could remember. And now she was all alone, without her best friend or her boyfriend telling her she would be fine.

"Are you lost?" Meredith whipped around, and found herself staring at a tall blonde girl, maybe a year older than her.

"Um, yes," Meredith stuttered. "I'm looking for Dr. Barker's Anatomy Lab. Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, I do," the blonde answered. "I'm in that lab too, I can walk with you."

"Great," Meredith said, relieved.

The two walked in silence for a few seconds before the girl decided to speak. "I'm Sadie. Second year med student," the girl said, sticking out her hand.

"Meredith," Meredith replied, shaking Sadie's hand. "Today's my first day of med school."

"Really?" Sadie said, clearly surprised. "Then how are you in this class? Almost everyone in Anatomy is going to be a second or third year student."

"Yeah," Meredith said uncomfortably. "I took a couple of classes at NYU Med School last summer; one of my Professors said it would be a good idea. So, I placed out of the first year anatomy class and get to take this one."

"Impressive," Sadie said. "Do you live close by?"

"Kind of, my fiancé and I live on East 86th. He works at NYU Medical Center, so we needed to find a place halfway between the two."

"Wait, you're engaged? You look like you're eighteen!"

"I'm twenty-two," Meredith rolled her eyes haughtily. "And Derek and I will have been together four years next week, and we're ready."

"I'm not judging," Sadie said quickly. "I was just curious. I'm not even close to being ready to get married. "

"It's alright. It's just that, he's…Derek's older than I am. Like a lot older. And I'm always worried that people are going to judge me, or him, or both of us together."

"How much older? He's not like fifty is her?"

"No," Meredith laughed. "He just turned thirty, and I've been with him since I was eighteen and he was twenty-six."

"I see," Sadie thought. "I like you Meredith. I think I'm going to call you Death, as long as you don't mind."

"Only if I can call you 'Die'" Meredith replied.

"Deal," Sadie answered. "Alright, here we are. First class of the day. Good luck."

"Thanks," Meredith replied meekly." I think I'm going to need it."