Meredith couldn't stop yawning. She spent the night trying to convince herself the man from her past returning wouldn't be the cause of her death. As much as she wanted to believe it, nothing was impossible when it came to Derek.

"God do you ever look up from that damn thing!" Meredith scolded when his body collided into hers for the second time that week.

"If you must know, I was confirming my plans for this afternoon," Derek snapped his blackberry shut and dropped into the pocket of his lab coat.

"I don't care about your plans," she yawned again, hating herself for letting out the gasp of air in front of him.

"Someone's tired. Late night? Let me guess, Cruella, you stayed up scrolling through the web looking at pictures of Dalmatians to turn into coats?"

"I'm running on the leftover sip of coffee that was in my kettle and three hours of sleep. I don't have the time nor energy to stand here and listen to you compare me to a Disney Villain," Meredith exhaled and glanced back and forth between his face and the fresh cup of coffee in his hands.

"Do you want some?" he offered.

"Thank you," Meredith reached for the cup excitedly.

"Well that sucks," before she could fully grasp it Derek pulled the cup away and brought it to his own lips. He didn't even attempt to disguise his amusement.

"You're a dick!" Meredith spat. When she turned around to get away from her arrogant ex boyfriend she was greeted with someone she needed more than a sip of coffee to face.

"Dr. Fox!" she adjusted her attitude and smoothed out her scrub top.

"I heard the mention of penises and I couldn't help but join in on the conversation," the studious surgeon intimidated both of them to lengths they would never admit.

"We weren't- that's not...it's not like that we're just," Meredith stuttered and shook her head defensively.

"Relax dear, I wasn't assuming anything of that sort," Catherine assured her but Meredith's reaction made it clear there was something out of the ordinary going on between her two most experienced candidates.

Derek only shook his head in embarrassment. Not for himself, but for the woman standing next to him who was thirty seconds into a conversation with the woman who would determine if she got the promotion and she was already making a fool of herself.

"I was just looking for both of you to let you know that I need you to work together on this case. They've been to several doctors before they came here and I want to be certain everything runs smoothly."

"Dr. Fox, I'd be happy to take over and let Dr. Grey here get some rest," Derek blocked Meredith's view of his mouth with his hand and whispered: "she looks a little tired, doesn't she?"

"I'm not tired!" Meredith refuted. "I'm...sorry I just- you can't, Der- Dr. Shepherd isn't. I'm excited to work on this case, Dr. Fox." Meredith rambled as she struggled to speak. Derek took it as his chance to step in and make himself seem like a better choice for the position.

"You're excited that a patient is dying?" he inquired. "That's a little tone deaf, don't you think Dr. Fox?"

"That's not what I meant. I would never say such a thing."

"But you did. Or, am I hearing things? Dr. Fox are you also hearing things or did Dr. Grey just say that she was excited that this poor patient is experiencing so much pain that they've been admitted to multiple hospitals that have failed to bring them any type of relief?" Derek's focus on her clenched jaw made him blind to the realization that Dr. Fox had already fled the scene, allowing them to bicker on their own time.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Meredith scolded.

"What? That you care more about cutting than you do about a patient's comfortability?"

"You know that's not true. What you're doing isn't competing, it's just...plain rude. Being an ass to me privately is one thing, but in front of my boss? That's just... messed up," Meredith crossed her arms and the arch of her eyebrow was increasing by the second.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I have to go, can't keep my patient waiting!" Derek shouted with his back turned to her.

"Our patient!" she corrected and hurried behind him into the exam room.

"Hey, Mr..."

"You can just call me Becket. Mr. Smith is my father and that son of a bitch is the last thing I want to be known as," the ill man with IVs attached to one arm and a phone in the other hand responded to Derek.

"Alright then Becket. How are you feeling?" Derek made his way to the patient's bed and pulled a ballpoint pen out of his lab coat.

"How does it look like I'm feeling?" his irritation was obvious.

"Well then, let's brief..." Derek cleared his throat and looked up from his clipboard, turning the attention to Meredith.

"Mr- Becket we're assuming you have a stage four intracranial tumor that's progressing at an exponential rate and if we-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there blondie," he interrupted her. "I don't need a nurse telling me something I already know. Dr. Shepherd, you were saying?"

"She's not a nurse," Derek's defense took them both by surprise.

"Oh so you mean to tell me this airhead went to four years of medical school and earned enough credits to get a job at a hospital like this. Yeah right, who'd she sleep with?" he scoffed. Meredith was taken aback by his accusation.

"Dr. Grey isn't a...she's a very talented surgeon. One of the best there is and you'd be lucky to have your life in her hands."

"Ahh," Becket bent his free arm behind his head and leaned back. "So you're the one she fucked to get to the top. How was she? She looks like she'd be good in bed."

"Mr. Smith!" Derek's belligerence got the best of him and he looked at the man with nothing but disgust.

"It's okay," Meredith brushed it off. "Let's just continue going over the procedure."

The awkward tension between the three of them made a five minute debriefing feel like an eternity until finally, it was over. The two surgeons stepped into the hall, leaning the belligerent man in the room by himself.

"Seriously!" Meredith shouted. She yanked him by the loose fabric of his lab coat and pulled him into a dark room.

"A supply closet? This is a change of scenery. I like it. Very dark, very mysterious. If you're trying to get me to sleep with you agai-."

"Are you finished?" she snapped, cutting him off as she crossed her arms.

"No. Actually, I'm not finished. I won't be finished until I make you upset," Derek leaned his back against the door. "Is it working?"

"That's not what I'm talking about!"

"Then what are you talking about? It's impossible to keep up with you. One minute you're mad at me for leaving the toilet seat up and the next you're ignoring me because I supposedly did something wrong in one of your dreams." Derek recounted her of one of their arguments that he was never able to process.

"It isn't that hard to put the seat down after you piss, you just don't care about the well-being of anyone but yourself. But that's besides the point. I'm talking about what happened in there."

"What, me defending you? I don't see why you're upset," Derek mimicked her body language and crossed his arms.

"I'm not upset."

"Really? Because two years of dating you made it pretty easy to sense when you're upset about something."

"Twenty-two months. We were not together for two years. It was only twenty-two months."

"But I was the crazy one in the relationship."

"Stay on topic!" Meredith raised her voice and tried to appear intimidating but it didn't seem to be working and his mouth was beginning to curl into a grin.

"You're the one that keeps veering off track."

"Because you keep bringing up unimportant details from our past as if I care about the time that I fell ass first into the toilet because you couldn't take an extra second to put the seat down!"

"Sure it would've only taken me a second to put it down but it would take you the same amount of time to look down at the toilet before you sit and fall in."

"Do you hear yourself? Why can't you ever just take accountability for your actions? You always find a way to turn things around on everyone else instead of dealing with your own problems!" they both knew Meredith was talking about more than just the toilet seat incident. Their relationship was a constant battle of him screwing up and her finding reasons to forgive him.

"About five minutes ago I was defending you to some jackass and now I never take accountability. Which one is it?"

"That's my point! I don't need you to defend me! It's not going to win me back Derek. You've ruined any chance you ever had at that happening."

"Win you back?" Derek stood up straight. "Why the hell would I want that? All you did was push me around and make me feel like crap because I wasn't good enough for you. It took me getting away from you completely to see that nobody is ever gonna live up to your standards. But maybe that's intentional, you purposely sabotage any chance you have at someone loving you because you're afraid that they're gonna hurt you. Meredith Grey; too good for a relationship. More like Meredith Grey too fucked in the head to let someone in and see the real side of her-"

His rant was cut short by her palm striking against his cheek. Derek's eyes watered from the impact and he held his head in the position her slap had left it, slowly turning it to face her.

"You don't get to do that. Not after everything that you put me through. All of the lies and, and other women when I was committed. Do you know how many offers I'd get a day that I turned down without a second thought because I wanted nothing other than to work things out with you? I tried so hard Derek. I could've been happy with one of the dozens of men who probably would've treated me ten times better than you had!"

"Maybe you should've said yes!"

"Maybe I will!"

"Good!" Derek spat.

"Good!" Meredith repeated in the same bitter tone and couldn't help but stare at his quivering lips.

"What!" Derek questioned when she lost the internal battle and her eyes fixated on his lips without looking away.

Before either of them could process what was happening her legs were around his waist and Derek's back was being pressed against the door. Their lips connected for the first time in years and the untamed spark ignited as Meredith reached for the lock. Her moans were almost identical to the sounds he'd heard in the past when they were in similar situations; most likely having anger sex after an argument that was never, and would never be resolved. Her long fingers ran through his dark locks with ease as a result of the expensive products he never went a day without using. Derek groaned when she rocked her hips against him, eliciting an even louder yelp when he turned them around, slamming her back into the door in place of his.

"Fuck!" Derek cursed when his pager vibrated in his pocket. "The jackass is crashing."

Meredith's beeped simultaneously and she searched her discarded coat for the pager as Derek ran his hands through his curls and exited the room without saying a word.

"You're avoiding me!" he followed behind her out of the scrub room with soaking hands.

"Trying to!" she hurried frantically through the halls with him on her tail.

"What's wrong, you can't handle a little friendly competition?"

"There was nothing friendly about that Derek. It doesn't matter, I'm not speaking to you," Meredith unintentionally allowed him to catch up to her when she stopped at the coffee cart. She partook in a friendly conversation with Frank and handed him two dollars.

"I got it," Derek intercepted their exchange and handed Frank a twenty. "Keep the change."

"What are you- hey!" Meredith didn't have the energy nor patience to deal with his childish tactics. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest as he chugged her mocha latte in one gulp.

"That was amazing, what is it called so I can get it next time?" he asked her.

"You…" Meredith contemplated using the last of her strength to argue with him. "Forget it," she stormed off.

Derek observed her backside and praised as he watched her walk away, leaning against the coffee cart and receiving odd glances from Frank; who shouldn't be complaining with the generous tip Derek gifted him.

She couldn't catch a break. Every time she took a sigh of relief and made her way to an on-call room to sleep her pager went off. Her brain was consumed with the thoughts that she cursed herself for having. Her entire career she'd been working to get into a position of power, live up to the potential that every professor was certain she had. And now that she had a chance at getting a job that would certify her abilities as a surgeon, all that she could think about was her ex-boyfriend's tongue down her throat.