A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading the first chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Grey's Anatomy.

Enjoy!

Derek smiled at the familiar jingle of the bell that played above his head as he walked through the door. He spotted the rowdy bunch he called his friends almost immediately and walked towards them with a grin on his face.

"Shepherd! You're late, you buy the next round," one of his teammates shouted, followed by cheers from the rest of them.

"Nice to see you too guys," Derek chuckled, "What's everyone having?"

As soon as he'd managed to get an answer out of them, he walked over to the bar. But before he could even catch Joe's attention, the most endearing sound he'd ever heard reached his ears. He looked around to find the source and didn't have to look further than a few feet to find a beautiful blond giggling with her friends. She turned towards him and he made the mistake of looking into her eyes before quickly looking away. They were beautiful. She was beautiful. He stole another glance at her and found that she had a light blush on her cheeks and it made him smile slightly. He could add adorable to his list of attributes for the stranger.

"Derek," Joe greeted him.

"Joe," he grinned, thankful for the distraction before his thoughts could run away with him.

"Another round?"

"That would be great thanks."

He paid with his card and walked around the bar, sitting at the place that had just been vacated by the people surrounding the petite blond.

"Hi," he smiled, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Hi," she replied quietly, twirling her empty glass round with her fingers.

"I'm Derek," he replied, offering a hand.

"Meredith," she replied, taking it, in what was surely a Boston accent.

He grinned at the thought of finding a fellow American. Not that he was really American anymore, but still.

"Fellow American I take it," he chuckled.

"You're from the States? You don't have that much of an accent," she replied, intrigued by him.

"When I was little I lived in New York but I moved to Ireland when I was barely out of middle school. I basically live here now. What about you? What's a girl from Boston doing in a small Surrey pub?" he grinned.

She smiled at his question.

"I moved here a year or two ago, reconcile with my father blah blah blah. I work at the hospital across the street, I'm a surgeon. Second year," she replied.

Before he could reply Joe came up to him, over a dozen glasses filling the tray.

"Here you go Shep."

"Thanks Joe."

"Don't tell me you're an alcoholic," she giggled. His heart skipped a beat at the sound as he stood up from the barstool.

"Not quite," he chuckled, "I'm with that crazy bunch of guys over there."

He pointed over to the loud group of men.

"You might wanna get the drinks over there, they might get angry at you," she giggled again.

"Maybe," he replied distractedly, staring into her eyes.

"It was nice meeting you."

"You too," she replied, biting on her lower lip.

Just as he was about to leave, he spotted a pen lying on the bar top. Without a second thought, not wanting to miss out on the chance of seeing her again, he snatched it up and pulled a napkin towards him, scribbling down his number before sliding it over to her.

"I shouldn't," she said, almost regretfully, staring up to look at him.

"Think about it," he said gently, before taking the drinks back to the table, sparing one last look behind him at the beautiful blond.

xxxxx

Meredith looked at the napkin in her hands, a few scribbled digits written in black biro stared back at her, the simple initial 'D' telling her who it belonged to. Not that she was likely to forget. The second she'd laid eyes on him she'd felt her breath physically falter, she'd never seen anything like those beautiful blue eyes of his, and that smile could kill most likely. But those thoughts soon morphed into the one of her boyfriend, a blond with green eyes, often found wearing a suit, totally not her type at all. But then again, she wasn't entirely sure she had a type, her past boyfriends hadn't really fallen in to one category. Charlie was kind, intelligent, and she was happy with him. She didn't love him, or at least she didn't think she did, and she'd never felt that spark that sappy rom-com characters always talked about, but she had never believed in true love in the first place, so it didn't make a difference. She was happy with Charlie, and that should be enough to tell her that the stranger would never be nothing more than a stranger, but a voice niggling at the back of her head told her that that wouldn't happen.

"Ooh phone number, was he hot?" Cristina asked, sitting next to her having returned from the bathroom.

"Make your own mind up," she replied, pointing discreetly behind her at where Derek was sat.

"So he is hot," her friend smirked, "you should sleep with him, he looks like he'd be good."

"Cristina! I'm with Charlie remember," Meredith replied quickly.

Cristina shrugged non-commitedly.

"Whatever. You just don't like him because he doesn't think cardio is hardcore," Meredith giggled.

"Well it is hardcore. Any dumbass knows that," she replied.

Meredith merely smiled and looked back at the napkin.

"If you're not gonna use it why aren't you getting rid of it?" Cristina asked.

"I will. When I get home," she replied, still staring at the digits.

"Oh my god you like him."

"I do not. I spoke to him for like two minutes. I don't like him," Meredith denied.

"Sounds like denial to me," Cristina smirked.

"What sounds like denial?" Alex asked, returning to his seat.

"Some guy gave Meredith her number and she's not getting rid of it. She likes him, but she says she doesn't."

"Sounds a bit like denial Mer," Alex shrugged, sipping his beer.

"I don't like him and what is with you guys? Do you not remember that I have a boyfriend? Who could very easily have been sat here right now," she retorted.

"Well yeah. But he's not is he," Cristina supplied.

"Why are we even still talking about this? Alex got rejected by a girl, let's talk about that," Meredith said, desperate to change the subject.

"I didn't get rejected, I just didn't like her," Alex replied, only slightly offended.

"Sure Evil Spawn, sure," Cristina smirked.

xxxxx

Derek returned to his apartment later that night, unable to keep Meredith off his mind. He'd known her for all of two minutes and he was infatuated with her; she was gorgeous and her green eyes seemed to flicker under the warm light, a flowery scent surrounded her, it was intoxicating, and her laugh was possibly the most amazing thing he'd heard in his life. Which was completely pathetic. He'd probably never see her again, she had seemed hesitant to take his number and had said enough, but he didn't want that to be the last time he ever saw her. He'd spared glances at her throughout the night until he'd gone home.

So now he was staring up at the ceiling, watching shadows crawl across it, wide awake. He groaned to himself and turned on his side, hitting the pillow trying to get a more comfortable position, he had cricket training tomorrow. That was the thing he should be focusing on.

xxxxx

He woke up tired the next morning, going through his routine on autopilot. He showered, ate, got ready and grabbed his bags before heading out the door. His cricket kit weighed a tonne and he was happy he wasn't a wicketkeeper; the extra kit would be enough to notice a difference, that was for sure. Slinging it in the back of his car, he raced back up the stairs for his spikes that he'd left at the bottom of his wardrobe and ran back down in record time, finally leaving the car park.

When he arrived, he stuffed the shoes into the cricket bag, hefted it onto his shoulders, and made his way into the training facility. He found his coach and half his teammates warming up in the nets already, some stretching in the corner. He dropped his stuff down next to everyone else's and walked onto the astroturf, a grin on his face.

"What's got you looking so happy Shep? Clearly you didn't drink enough last night," his teammate laughed.

"If that means I bowl you out for a golden duck today then I'll take it," Derek chuckled.

"I'm not the one who drank too much," he smirked, turning his head to another one of his teammates, who appeared to be doing just fine until you looked closer and realised his pallor wasn't a trick of the light.

Derek laughed, finding it utterly predictable of said teammate to be hungover but knowing full well he would recover by the time they hit a water break. Eventually he moved on to some bowling practice to get his eye in before the coach called them in.

They were rewarded with a motivating yet stern speech from him, telling them the talent was there to win their games (which there was, at least three of their team played for England, himself included), but it had to be paired with hard work and dedication, something Derek knew well. He'd worked hard, using blood, sweat and tears to get where he was; moving from Ireland had been a big step and getting into academies was harder than it looked. He knew what had got him to this point and he was just reaching the peak of his career; and this season should be good for him. Once Coach finished talking, their captain added on to what he had been saying and they launched into their first full day of training.

xxxxx

Meredith woke up the next morning before the break of dawn, the alarm on her phone alarm blaring at her relentlessly. Batting at it, she collapsed with the effort and looked back at the person still sleeping next to her. After what felt like a grilling from her friends last night, she had gone to Charlie's to see him, and totally not to prove a point. She finally got up and retreated into the bathroom to freshen up, when she returned, Charlie was looking at her with a smile, his hair tousled.

"Morning," he smiled.

"Good morning," she returned, a light smile on her face.

"I'm glad you came last night," he said sincerely.

"Me too," she replied, coming closer to the bed and kissing him quickly. She started to get changed before he said something.

"Will I see you tonight?" he asked.

"I have a late shift I'm sorry," Meredith said empathetically, pulling her socks onto her feet, "I have tomorrow night off though."

"Well I'll see you then," he said, "Do you want to meet at Diamond City Bar and then we can go out for a meal?"

"Sure, the hospital starves me, it better be good," Meredith warned.

"Don't worry about it, I've got it under control," Charlie chuckled, "Go to work. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Charlie," she smiled, and walked out the bedroom door.

She picked up her keys from the counter, closed the front door behind her and ran hurriedly down the stairs and out the apartment block. She powered through the traffic in her trusted Jeep and screeched to a halt, jumping out the door only to run into Lexie.

"Well hello Meredith," she grinned, "you didn't come home last night. And forgive me if I'm wrong but are you doing the walk of shame? I'm liking the design."

"Haha Lexie, you should be a comedian," Meredith said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"I'll see you later Mer, enjoy being sleep deprived," Lexie called as she started to turn right.

"I'm always sleep deprived," she called back, rushing towards the resident's lounge.

xxxxx

Meredith sat down to lunch later that day, locating a seat at the table Cristina, Alex and Lexie were sat at.

"Where did you disappear off to last night?" Cristina smirked.

"I went to Charlie's."

"Had to get your mind off McDreamy?"

"Who?" Meredith and Lexie said in unison.

"The guy who gave Mer his number, Meredith likes him," Alex informed them, biting into a fry.

"You got hit on? Was he hot?" Lexie asked.

"Yes I did, you don't need to sound so surprised. And yes he was hot," Meredith replied begrudgingly.

"Ooh what did he look like?" Lexie asked.

"He had black hair, gorgeous blue eyes and a killer smile," Meredith said, shaking her head, his face crystal clear in her mind's eye.

"He looked like he came straight out of modelling school," Cristina said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"What's his name?" Lexie asked, eager to know about this guy, for no other reason than it was gossip.

"Derek."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. :)