Two fillers, and a Happy Easter to you! :) Thanks for the love!

Meredith was grinning as she sat cross legged in the dim light on her bed. Not only was she beaming, but she was fidgeting with excitement. It was 6am, and she couldn't sleep anymore. Today was the day she was off of bed rest, and she was excited. Meredith had tried to subtly wake Cristina up by dropping a textbook or sending her a text message, but her friend was not intending to waking up anytime soon.

"Stop staring at me and go back to sleep." Cristina scolded, sleepily, her face pushed into the pillow. Her eyes remained shut as she spoke, and she quickly pulled the covers over her head.

"I'm excited and bored and I want to get up!" Meredith replied.
"Then go. I'm not stopping you. You're off probation. No more monitoring. No more babysitting."

"Ahh! Good! I'll go find other people to share my fantastic morning with."

"Mmm. Come back in an hour and I'll be happy for you." Cristina yawned.

Meredith smirked at her response, somehow she knew that Cristina was happy for her, but she really wanted to get out of the room now. She was sick of waiting. Climbing from her bed, Meredith padded out to the hallway, looking both ways before she wandered towards the stairs. It was still dark outside, and the chances of anyone being awake were slim. Anyone except people that went to the gym! She thought. Pleased with her realisation, she quickly walked back to her room, grabbed her shoes, key and hoodie and headed for the gym.

She was almost skipping, jumping from paver to paver until it became sore, but she didn't care. She was free. She was in the fresh air, and she was loving it.

When she reached the glass doors to the gym, she eyed Derek, Mark and Jackson engaging in male banter. As Mark sweated and tried to hide his pain while bench pressing his weight, Jackson was going all out on a rowing machine, and Derek's usually composed self was hunched over the handle bars of a bike, as his legs pushed him on. Meredith stoof outside for a moment, watching the way they interacted with each other. She pressed her room key to the sensor on the door and quietly slipped in to the room, avoiding a large tower of gym balls, adjacent to weights. The click of the door casued Mark to look over from his weights.

"Ha!" Mark laughed, placing the weight back on the rest, "Look who's here!" Derek continued to pedal, ignoring Mark's comment.
"Get back down, Mark. You're not putting me through hell, and then whimping out on your last set!" Derek yelled after him, still pedalling like mad. Mark gestured for Meredith to come over, as he replied to Derek,

"Ahh, you got me. Fine. One more set." He pretended to concede, while subtly urging Meredith to creep around to the handle bars of Derek's bike. As the intensity of his ride increased, he shut his eyes, letting his head drop to his chest, panting. His legs continued to cycle, but he lost concentration on the room, giving Mark the perfect opportunity to pull Meredith around. Jackson laughed quietly as he watched the situation unfold. Meredith smiled, but wasn't sure why Mark was pushing for her to stand there so hard, but she did as she was told. She leant forward to lean on the handle bars, and as soon as Derek looked up, she understood. Derek was drenched in sweat and looked like he was in serious pain. The surprise of seeing Meredith gave him a heart attack, but his shoe got stuck in the pedal and he nearly fell of sideways. He was luckily able to rectify the situation quickly, pulling his foot out. He was panting both from shock and the cardio work out, when he pushed himself back onto the bike seat.

"Mer! You're," he coughed, "Out of," coughed again, "bed!"

"I am out of bed." She replied, proudly. "It's Sunday and I am no longer on bed rest." She was grinning like a little girl. "Cristina wouldn't get up and told me to come back in an hour because I was staring at her whilst she slept, so… I decided I'd come find you and I knew I'd find you three here."

"I've got 2km left on here, I'll be done in no time." Derek grinned, "Then I'll shower and breakfast?"

"Oh! I'll join you!" Meredith beamed.

"… In the shower?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow, grinning mischievously.

Jackson laughed and punched Mark's shoulder.

"You know what I mean." she rolled her eyes at them, "MWWWWWA!" She kissed Derek's salty forehead as a joke, then turned around and sat on the stack of yoga mats by the mirrored wall, "Now, come on boys, you're acting like a bunch of girls. Do another set, or 50 push ups, or… something." She instructed with her most gruff and authoritarian voice.

"Bossy. I like it." Mark smirked, glancing at Derek.

"Did you finish your readings?" Jackson asked, as he confidently rowed. Every draw on the machine, his muscles tightening.

"One to go." Mark replied.

"They were boring…" Meredith agreed, "But anything has got to be better than bedrest at the moment. I'm just ready to get back into work, and lectures and tutorials and stairs and people and walking!"

"Slow and steady." Derek reminded her, looking up from the bike.

"Pfft. I'm bright and shiny. Today is going to be awesome." Meredith grinned.

And it was. Meredith for the first time in a long time, enjoyed attending her lectures. She enjoyed walking between the buildings, and she really loved hanging out with her friends. She felt included and happy. It was good to be back.

XXXXOXXOXXXX

A week into February and Meredith went to the local hospital for her scheduled check up. Unlike last time, she didn't have to go through the ER. She had given a clean bill of health and was more than overjoyed to go back to a normal life. Derek had driven her and they decided to go out for a celebratory icecream.

Sitting in the back of the store, they both sat sucking on the small, exotically coloured translucent plastic spoons they had been given, scraping away at their flavoured desserts. His dark sunglasses he wore while driving were pushed up to the top of his head, sitting nestled in his hair.

They left the shop, fingers intertwined. While waiting at a traffic light, he pulled her in closer for a hug, resting his head on the top of hers. He loved how she was shorter than him. It made it easier for the flowerly scent of her hair to reach his nose, and he planted several short kisses on the top of her head.

As the lights turned green to walk, he let go of all but her hand, as they stepped out onto the road. They heard a roar on the right, and Derek turned his head to catch a glimpse of speeding towards them. Unphased by the red light, the car continued on, speeding closer by the second. Time stopped. Their paths were about to cross. Derek closed his eyes, swinging back, pushing Meredith out of the way. He felt the breeze pass his face, only centimentres away from his body. He felt the reverbirations of the spoiler through his body. As the car sped down the street, Derek spun to see Meredith lying on the road behind him.

"MEREDITH!" he shouted, spinning around, crouching down by her side, "MEREDITH!"

"What on earth just happened?" She asked, rubbing her stomach with one hand and holding the back of her head with the other as he helped her up.

"We just escaped death. Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah, fine. Are you?" She was just as concerned for his wellbeing as he was for hers.

"I am." He nodded, grasping her hand tigher, leading her from the road. When they arrived back to his car, his heart was still going at a million miles an hour.

"We've got to stop almost getting seriously injured." He joked.

"Sounds like a good plan." She laughed. "Enough hospital visits for the year."

"Agreed."

"Now, drive us home safely, please Derek."

He turned and smiled at her, before reversing from the park and heading off towards college. "I can't go losing you now." Even though her tone was a lot quieter than the first sentence, he still heard every word. He placed his hand on the side of her face, before reaching her her hand, squeezing and and returning it to the gear stick.

Under his touch, she felt her body soften, and she hoped this would be the last time she'd nearly die for the year.

XXXXOXXOXXXX