Chapter 36: She Loves You

Derek's Point-of-View

"I don't get it." I said as I caught up with a beautiful blonde in the hallway, she glanced over at me with a perplexed and annoyed expression but kept mum, signaling for me to continue with my rant "For the last week, I've done nothing but kiss your ass and you're still ignoring me."

"I'm not ignoring you." She rolled her eyes "People who ignore people usually don't talk to them, and I'm obviously talking to you."

"You talk to me at work." I sighed with frustration "You're acting like you're nothing more than a coworker, not a wife."

"I'm sorry I'm not the Suzy Homemaker type." She scoffed.

"That's not what I meant." I mumbled "I mean, you see me at work, we chat, and then you go your way and don't even look my way."

"Maybe I don't want to go your way."

"You are being very stubborn and uncooperative."

"And?" she stopped walking to turn to me and raise her brow.

"I've been working very hard to impress you." I sighed as I rested my hands on my hips "I've sent flowers, chocolates, let you scrub in on surgeries I could very easily do without a resident, and still you act like it's just another day."

"It is just another day." She shrugged, I felt my anger boil but I knew letting that explode would be detrimental.

"What do I need to do, what am I missing?"

"You're missing the fact that you were married to me and engaged to another woman." She muttered "You're missing the fact that you philandered around with two very fine women and maybe I'm just not ready to jump in and act like the perfect little married couple yet! Maybe I'm waiting for a grand gesture! And you're missing the fact that maybe I hate chocolate! Maybe I don't like brain surgery! If you're out of ideas, then you're obviously not thinking hard enough!"

"Ok." I gulped as I sunk back, she glared at me and turned around storming off "Sorry."

I let out a sigh of frustration and confusion as I went to return my patient's chart to the nurses station.

"It's not you man." I heard behind me and looked to see Dr. Avery walking up to the counter "She's been taking bitter pills or something the past few days. I keep telling her she needs to get laid."

I choked a little on the information, I didn't know Jackson very well and wasn't exactly comfortable sharing detailed private information with him... but he knew Meredith, probably better than I did, maybe I could use this to my advantage.

"Not like I haven't offered." I forced myself to say, "I just don't know what else to do."

"She wants effort." He smirked.

"Effort." I snorted "I've been giving nothing but effort. I've sent her flowers, that apparently, she's allergic to, chocolate that she hates, brain surgery that apparently bores her. I just don't know what else to do to show her that I'm sorry, that I care, that I…love her."

I heard Jackson snicker and looked up to see him holding back a fitful of laughter "Is that funny?"

"Meredith isn't allergic to flowers." He continued to snicker "She's always been overly obsessed with brain surgery, and… she's a girl dude, she loves chocolate."

"But." I felt my brown furrow deeply into my skull "But she told me…"

"She's giving you shit man." He laughed "She's probably just trying to see if you're in it for the long haul, if you're serious, she wants to see if you're going to chase her no matter what."

"Of course I'm in it for the long haul." I scoffed "I'm married to her, I could've ended it and married someone else, but I didn't… she's the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."

"Show her that." Jackson sighed and slapped my shoulder, "Hang in there man. Believe it or not, she's head over heels for you."

I nodded and took that as encouragement as I tried to rack my brain for a new plan, a grand gesture, a way to make Meredith Grey know without a doubt that she was the one and only for me.