It's been a while, but it's summer in some parts of the world- so that means, long break! Hopefully more updates too. Just a cute filler for now. I hope you enjoy it!

"You all seem stressed." Mark commented as he wandered into the study room at their college.

"Mark. We have an exam in 46 hours that's worth 70% of our grade." Lexie barked, frowning, "I don't get how you're not stressed."

Missing Mark's entry to the room, Meredith looked up and stated her most recent realisation, "Chapter 4, section 12. It's LPAC."

"What on earth is LPAC?" Cristina asked, looking up from her book, the green highlighter still poised in her grip.

"The order of steps. L- P- A- C."

"Good one!" Lexie agreed, quickly scribbling it down in her book.

"Lexie Pashed A…. Corpse." Meredith rambled, trying to suggest of an appropriate mnemonic device.

"Or Pashed A Cutie? Or Patted A Cat? Did you really have to go with 'Corpse'?" She shuddered.

"Sorry. I'm mind has gone a little dark…" Meredith apologised.

"Dark and twisty." Lexie smirked.

"You all need to take a break." Mark told them, spinning around a chair at the table and sitting on it.

"No breaks." Meredith denied, not looking up from her work. "No breaks for 49 hours. Too much to learn. Excellence takes hard work."

"No, excellence takes breaks." Mark tried to remind them, but noone replied, too engrossed in their books. The door creeked open as Derek entered, book bag hanging from his shoulder.

"Wow. They haven't moved since I left an hour ago." He observed.

"And they don't plan on moving for 46 hours apparently." Mark dobbed.

"That's just not healthy… Plan A?" Derek suggested.

"Plan A, it is. I'll ring Hunt." Mark nodded eagerly, standing to leave the room. Derek pulled his phone from his pocket and they both stood by the door and exchanged information in no louder than a whisper.

"What ever 'Plan A' means," Cristina called out to them, not making eye contact, "We're not interested."

"Too busy." Lexie added.

"Come back in 49 hours." Meredith told him.

"Lexie looks like she's about to explode!" Derek rebutted, trying to prove his point.

"She's fine." Meredith reassured Derek, flicking back over the previous pages in her notebook, "and she'd be even more fine if she could keep studying without you annoying us…"

"Ha. You can't get rid of me that easily," He laughed.

Meredith looked up and gave him a sarcastic smile. "Fine. Stay. We love having you here."

Derek gave her a smug smile, and walked back to the table confidently. "I will." He sat down across her, and stared at her smiling. "Nah… I'm bored." He shrugged after sitting for less than a minute, "I'll be back in three hours and you will be taking a break. No buts."

Silence fell upon the room again as they each fell back into their world of study,, when Derek entered the room again four hours later, he was shocked that they had barely moved

"You girls realise that the dining hall closes in 10 minutes, right? Unless you're hiding secret stashes of food, this may pose a problem…"

"Is it already 7?" Lexie gasped.

"Okay, eat then back here." Cristina agreed, slamming shut her textbook. "Come on Mer," She ordered, dragging Meredith by her arm of the room. Derek just laughed and rolled his eyes. He had been mulling over ideas of how to get the girls out of the room and into his car but he hadn't thought of anything. He looked around the room, and then realised. He ran to their floor warden's room, devising a plan.

XOX

"You've obviously not pushing the door hard enough, or it'd open!" Cristina scolded Lexie, pushing past her. "Move."

Cristina groaned as the banged the door handle down a few times and tried pushing the door. "It's locked."

"Mmm. Yeah." Lexie agreed, frowning at Cristina, "I could have told you that."

"I didn't even know you could lock these doors…" Meredith sighed. She leant back onto the wall. She just wanted to sleep.

"I thought you three would be studying!" Derek called down the hall as he wandered towards them with his hands in his pockets.

"Doors locked." Meredith yawned, leaning into Derek's chest. In a moment of weakness, she closed her eyes. Instantly regretting her decision, she felt herself starting to slip away as exhaustion had started to take over her body. He pulled her into a hug and looked at the other two. "I think I can help. Grab your coats and come with me." "Why would you helping involve my coat?" Cristina asked bluntly.

"Derek, please…" Meredith asked. "We've got a lot to get through, and we're exhausted… We don't need you to be distracting us."

"I am the voice of reason here. Look at yourselves. You three need to take a break. Mer, you're basically falling asleep on me. Get your jackets and come with me."

"187 people sat this exam last year, and 82 failed. 82, Derek. 10 of those 82 admitted to not having studied. 47, however, said that they did not do enough of the course readings through out the semester. A further 30 suggested that it was the lack of journal references they had memorised. Those aren't good odds." Lexie rambelled. "I will not be one of those 43.8% that fails. The pass rate for this course has steadily decreased over the past 4 years, you know? It peaked back in 2003 at 82%, but it's been decreasing ever since… Well, except for 2007, where it increased by 3%, but the IQ average was 6.7 points higher… There's a trend. I don't want to follow the trend." She was tying herself up in her words.

"Lexie is rambelling statistics," Derek warned Meredith and Cristina, "When Lexie rambles statistics, it means that she's exhausted and she needs to take a break."

"This entire subject is based on statistical analysis. Lexipaedia and statistics is a good thing." Cristina replied, trying to shoot Derek's reasoning down. "We just need to get it unlocked!"

"The floor warden is on leave tonight… Campus maintenance will have a key." Derek suggested. He had organised for the room to be locked, bribing their warden with a bottle of Mark's vodka. Derek knew full well that the warden was not on leave, but hoped that he would be able to get the girls out to the parking lot and into his car before they realised.

"Come on… Derek's offering to drive, and I'm too tired to walk." Meredith conceded, laying her hand flat on Derek's chest. Derek grinned at how easily he could make Meredith cave.
"Grab your jackets and I'll meet you in the parking lot." Derek nodded, trying to look serious. Mark and Owen had already begun with plan, and were waiting. He just had to hold up his end of the deal.

XOX

"Derek. Where are we going?" Meredith demanded as he turned the car in the opposite direction, heading out onto the main road. She twisted her body in the front seat to face him. "Derek." She said again, trying to coax the information from him.

"Just give me two hours of your time, and you'll thank me for it later." He replied.

"We don't have two hours." Cristina exasperatedly moaned from the backseat.

"You need to make time to have fun and let your hair down once in a while."
"We do."

"Something that doesn't always involve drinking." Derek frowned. "Exercise and fresh air. And socialising." Derek continued, "For three girls with boyfriends, you hardly seem to see them much."
"Study is more important," Cristina countered.
"I'll be sure to let Owen know that you said that." Derek laughed. His lighthearted mood was a strange juxtaposition to the dark cloud forming above the other three. Meredith let out a stressed sigh before flopping her head back on the head rest and closing her eyes.

"Lexie, you understand that sometimes you need to take a break," Derek offered, "Mark is there already and waiting. You know he's crazy about you…" He turned his head so he could see the road, and still look back at her. She suffered for a few moments, unsure of what to say, before she finally agreed.

"I know…"
"Good!" Derek grinned. "And Mer?" He called, turned to look over at her. She opened her eyes and met his eager expression, "I haven't seen you in two weeks because you've been studying the whole time. I miss you."

The hardened expression on her face melted away as he offered his hand away from the gear stick. "It'll be fun." He jollied, squeezing her hand, "and I'll have you back within two hours."

"Fine…" She caved in.

XOX

As Derek pulled the car into a small gravel carpark, Meredith looked around for a clue as to where he had taken them.

"Alright! Everybody out." Derek announced as he switched off the ignition and swung the door open. He walked to the boot of the car and pulled out a small dufflebag crammed full, its contents rattling around inside. "Follow me!" He called, heading off in the direction of a tall lamp post. As he walked past Meredith, he slid his hand around hers, urging her to walk with him. Lexie trailed behind, and Cristina continued to scowl.

They traipsed up a rocky path eroded by the rain of the past few weeks to a clearing, encasing a large green baseball pitch illuminated by flood lights. Mark and Owen were hanging around the home plate, Owen swinging the bat around in one hand, as Mark leant back on the fence with a beer in his hand. Hearing the noises in the distance, they both turned they attention to their new guests.

"It'll be fun." Derek reassured them again, standing back to let Lexie and Cristina through first, ensuring that they didn't make a run for it. Owen dropped the bat and walked over to meet the others. Cristina still looked displeased by the whole situation, but that didn't dampen Owen's spirits. He walked up next to her and tried to encourage a smile, but it never came. Mark did the same with Lexie, but at the very least, she had accepted what was about to come, so she let out a breath of air and turned to Mark,

"I love baseball." She smiled a forced smile.

"Me too." Mark agreed. He was glad that she was trying to enjoy herself.

"I don't have time for this, we should be studying." Cristina moaned again.

"We're not going to talk about studying. We're here to play baseball." Derek stated, pushing his worn mitt onto his hand, punching it in a few times.

"I'm sorry. I'm leaving." Cristina rolled her eyes and tried to walk away.

"Woah." Owen stood in front of her, blocking her path back to the car. "You need this." He pushed the helmet onto her head and handed her the bat. She continued to protest, but he managed to get her into position before she could make headways to leave again.

"Just hit the ball." Owen commanded, pointing the remote at the batting machine. Derek crouched down behind her, reading to play catcher. As a ball shot towards her, she screamed and yelled, causing Lexie to choke on the swig of Mark's beer she had just taken. He laughed at the sight and handed Meredith an unopened bottle. She smiled in appreciation and twisted off the cap, taking a swill as she watched Cristina getting unnecessarily angry at the whole situation.

"What are you trying…" Cristina yelled.

"You need to stop thinking about what's going to happen, and start focusing on what is right in front of you. Now. HIT THE BALL." Owen yelled. Cristina finally accepted her place, and when the next ball sped towards her, she met it with her bat, sending the ball soaring into the dark sky. She watched in shock for a second, before realising and she began cheering and yelling in happiness.

"I did it! I hit it!" She yelled, and was met with a hug from Meredith, she passed off the bat to Lexie, still screaming in celebration. Mark placed her helmet on Lexie's head, and she approached the plate, stretching out her arms, ready for the swing,

"Here we go, Little Grey." Derek urged, preparing for the hit. As she wound up and smacked the ball, it whistled through the air into the outfield, and Lexie beamed in happiness, jumping back and landing in Mark's arms.

Meredith just watched on and laughed, her eyes meeting Derek's. She mouthed 'thank you' before turning back to an excited Cristina who was still on a high from the perfect moment prior.

At that point, Derek knew that he had done the right thing, and caught eyes with Owen who had realised the same thing. They both nodded at each other, before bringing in the party to where the other four were standing via the cooler. It was a perfect success.