Hey people! Hope you are all safe during these hard times. Not sure if anyone is still interested in this. So sorry for the lack of updates, I had this bit written for a while but never published it so I will post it now and work on more. Hopefully so that I can finalize this story. My apologies for being absent for this long, I tried to regain my interest in Greys but it's nothing what it used to be. But one thing is certain, the MerDer part won't never be taken from us and even though the new seasons aren't what we wished they would be, we can always watch the first seasons and revive the great MerDer era. Well, this chapter isn't much but I will definitely try to get back on writing again. Stay safe and thank you for taking your time to read this!

"Hello Derek!" Martin said calmly to Derek while sitting down in the chair between him and Mer. He didn't wait for Derek's response though. "This looks cozy, hope I am not interrupting anything special."

Martin looked at Meredith with pained blue eyes and added with sarcasm.

"So you do seem especially busy to have lunch with me Mer! Glad it's not work related, like with victims of a car accident nor anything medical at least. It's good to know that the citizens from Seattle are healthy and doing good."

"Martin, this is just lunch between co-parenting ex-spouses. We are in public, nothing is going on here." Meredith said trying to avoid getting her in trouble waters. She thought she knew Martin well, she didn't look at him as one to lose his temper easily but she didn't want to push her luck.

"I can see that Mer! Thank you for comforting my girlfriend in my place Derek!" Martin said to Derek. "What's up with you? I haven't heard of you in a while?"

"Look Martin, I don't know what you are thinking but…" Derek's pager right on cue started blaring noisily. "911. I have to go. Look Martin, nothing is going on."

Derek could sense that the next conversation between Martin and Mer would be bitter and he was preoccupied with her. He was reticent of leaving, he wanted to be there and protect her. Meredith looked at him with a reassuring smile, giving him the green light he was seeking before leaving.

Derek had left and Martin was quiet, simply looking to the surface of the table as if there was a map there that would tell him where to go.

"Why are you here with him Meredith?" He asked with a broken voice, he had calmed down and he just looked like a wounded boy now. He was 26, Meredith thought, a grown man, he would have to handle the end of their relationship.

"Martin, seriously… This is not about Derek. We should go to my office. This is not the place to have this conversation." Mer said, eyeing her still boyfriend cautiously.

"Lead the way!" Martin said standing up.

The walk to her office was quiet, they rode the elevator and he just stood behind her looking thoughtful. He could sense what was about to happen.

Mer unlocked the door to her office and invited him to come in before her, she turned on the lights and closed the blinds. He sat down heavily on her sofa and exclaimed.

"This gives me fond memories! If it was 2 years ago, in exactly 10 seconds, you would be straddling me and…"

Mer stopped him from continuing.

"That was 2 years ago Martin! We had such a special relationship, you were so important to me. You helped me in such a dark period of my life."

"I am not dead Mer, neither are you. Why are you speaking in the past?" Martin asked.

"It seems like that happened a long time ago between two different people that are no longer us. Martin, this is not doing any good for us. It's best if we both go our way."

"You are saying this is the end? We can revive our relationship." Martin said with some hope in his eyes as if he had just suggested the most miraculous solution. "You used to love me."

Meredith then remembered her father's words about Adele, his ex-wife, she was friendship, she was comfort, she was affection to him but this was something you would seek in a sibling, in a best friend, for a lover a lot more was required. The passion she once felt in the beginning was in the end just her loneliness combined with the need to feel again. Maybe just maybe also a way of trying to forget about Derek, it was easy when she was in Boston, she was alone, having Martin parenting Michael with her, him playing the husband part was so lovely. All she wanted was the family she had before her daughter's coma, she had still been so hurt at the time that she almost didn't care of who was playing the father part. But even if her life would never return to the same, she couldn't be so unfair to Martin and drag him along and ruin his life also.

"Martin I do love you." When Meredith said that, Martin neared her with a glint in his eye but Meredith halted him with a raised open hand. "I care for you immensely, I only have good memories of these two great years we had. How you helped me evolve and cared for me and my son. You and your family made Boston become home for us, I will never forget you and how you helped ease my pain. You made me feel like a woman again."

"Meredith, this does not have to be the end of our story." Martin said while touching her leg, desperately wishing she would re-think and give them a second chance.

"I needed someone Martin after all the pain I had suffered. I loved your family, you were familiar to me and I knew you were a good guy who would not hurt me." Meredith said with her eyes tearing up, she cared immensely for Martin. "I am so sorry! I should have never got in a relationship with you just because I needed comfort. You were young and in a different stage of your life."

"Mer, I want you so badly. I will give everything for you. Do you think Derek would give half as much as I give you? I would throw myself at your feet as long as you would let me love you and you would love me back." Martin impatiently rose up, turned his back to Mer, she heard him crying softly.

"Martin, please don't make this harder. You need some self respect. You deserve someone whose heart is 100% yours. I would never be able to be that person."

Martin turned himself rapidly and faced her.

"Derek! This is after all just about Derek. You want to get back with him." Martin said bitterly.

"You know my story with Derek, we had a family together."

"And with me, there are no strings attached. You can just walk away." Martin replied anxiously.

"This is not true, you know you were never just my boyfriend, you were my friend too." Mer reiterated. "I don't want you out of my life entirely! I think we should break up but I hope we will be able to become friends once again."

"Meredith, I wished you would want to fight for us."

"Martin, you are young, you live in Boston, you will get over me and you will find someone special. Someone intelligent, pretty and good, I can no longer be that person but please know this, I love you and you can always count on me for anything."

Neither one of them realized that Derek had come looking for Meredith and was just in the corridor next to the room they were at. He was preoccupied with Meredith, after doing his consult, he went to look for her. He could see the lights on inside her office but the blinds were shut down, he opened the door cautiously and soundlessly and heard the last part of Meredith's dialogue. Meredith was professing her love for Martin and it looked like she was reassuring him. A sting of disappointment stabbed his heart. It looked like they were reconciling, he was almost certain that things weren't working and she would be breaking up with him.

Derek stuck around for 20 more seconds at the entrance of her office, not caring if he was eavesdropping, hopeful that this was just his misunderstanding but soon Meredith was reclining to Martin and embracing him. Martin grabbed her face gently and started kissing her calmly. Derek thought that he should leave, he didn't want to stay for that. He left without closing the door, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

"Martin, please. You cannot do this." Meredith said moving away from Martin. She just wanted to comfort him with a hug, not give him false hope. When she moved, she noticed the door that was slightly opened. She was confused, she was certain she had closed that door. Had someone listened to their conversation? She questioned herself, she hoped she wouldn't become the hot topic on the nurse's station.

"Meredith, it was just a goodbye kiss. I won't force you to be with me. I just hope you won't regret it, I won't wait for you." Martin said resolutely, cleaning his tears with the sleeve of his sweater.

"I don't expect you to Martin! All I want is for you to get on with your life. Please try to be happy and give a real chance to the next serious girl after me."

"Please don't patronize me! I don't want your advice for anything!" Martin looked at Meredith sorrowfully and just turned to leave. "Goodbye Meredith!" He said just as he closed the door giving her one last glance and maybe hoping for a change of mind from Meredith.

"Take care Martin!" She answered back to no one as he had already closed the door.

Meredith sat down heavily in the couch. This had been awful for her, knowing the pain she was causing Martin and how quick and rushed their breakup seemed. Maybe the hospital shouldn't have been the place to do it but she felt she couldn't have him stick around for longer, she needed to let him go, otherwise things would just become uglier as she was certain that a relationship with another man was impossible when the love of her life was living so near her once again and just overloading her senses and her feelings with emotions she could only recall from her married life. Meredith wasn't sure if she was idealizing the life she once had with Derek and the man he used to be but one thing, she was certain, she couldn't be with Martin while feeling this way. The best for her now would be to be single and alone so that no more unnecessary grief would be caused.