Chapter 5: Secret Admirer or Creeper?

"I heard they're bringing in a new head of neurology?" Alex asked with a mouthful of scrambled eggs, as he searched through the paper.

Derek nodded, not looking up from his stack of paperwork. He took a bite of his cereal then jotted down something on a chart, before turning to Alex.

"Ya, Dr. Zeta joins us today. The interview was last week, and we took care of the paperwork yesterday. I have a feeling the doctor will be a huge asset to our program."

Izzie quickly stole a glance at Meredith who was nibbling on a leftover piece of pizza from a few nights ago. She then turned back and scooped a pile of scrambled eggs on Carwyn's plate, who sat patiently next to her dad at the table.

"Daddy, are you going to be home tonight to tuck me in?" Carwyn looked up at her daddy, hope filling her blue innocent eyes.

"I don't know princess." Derek sighed and affectionately patted his daughter on the top of her head. "Daddy still has a lot to learn about his new job."

Carwyn looked down disappointed at her eggs and slowly put a bite of the yellow fluff in her mouth. Derek went on, defending himself to the room of on lookers.

"I promise, it's not going to be like this forever. Burke just needs to show me a few more things and I'll be able to get into a better routine." Derek turned from his daughter and met Meredith's eyes.

Her expression was unreadable, so he closed the folder he was working on, stood and crossed the kitchen.

"That's not a very good way to start the day Mer." He shook his head and looked down disapprovingly at her cold pizza.

Meredith didn't say a word and narrowed her eyes at him. He worked late for the past two weeks, and they hadn't spent more than five minutes alone. He promised to duck out early last night, so Meredith had asked Izzie to help her bake a chicken casserole she knew Derek enjoyed. It ended up that Izzie wouldn't let Meredith touch anything. Meredith watched Izzie make the casserole, but still, the thought had been there, and when Derek showed up five hours later, Meredith had already given up and gone to bed.

She didn't speak to him when he had tried waking her in the middle of the night to apologize and was keeping up the quiet act this morning as well. Meredith knew she was behaving extremely immature, but she didn't care. She thought it'd be good for him to sweat it a little.

"Come on Mer. I said I'm sorry. I tried to get out of the meeting, but Mr. Luckabee was there and I… I just couldn't…. Please don't be mad. I promise it's not going to stay like this."

Meredith opened her mouth as if she was going to respond, but instead of saying anything, she took an overly large bite of her cold breakfast and chewed exaggeratedly, staring back at Derek challengingly.

Instead of giving up and going back to his own breakfast that grew soggy at the table, Derek grabbed what was left of the slice of pizza Meredith still held in her hand, and tossed it in the garbage can. Meredith's eyes went wide with shock. Derek grabbed a hand in each of his and pushed her up against the closed refrigerator.

"You leave me no choice Mer." Derek's eyes danced with amusement as anger flashed in Meredith's green eyes.

He pressed his body hard against hers and lowered his face for a kiss. Meredith tried to protest but her mouth full of half chewed pizza was muffled by Derek's own demanding one. He forced her lips apart and thrust his tongue deep inside her. Meredith struggled to free herself from his grip, but he was too strong, so she fought him back with her tongue.

She managed to swallow half of her pizza before Derek pulled away triumphantly, chewing the rest of her pizza before swallowing himself, and throwing her a cocky smile.

"Now that your mouth isn't full, you can talk to me."

Meredith grasped for control before giving in to her giggles. She started laughing and Derek quickly joined suit, soon followed by Carwyn at the kitchen table.

"Dude, I think I'm going to be sick." Alex spoke from the table. Izzie nodded her agreement.

"I don't think Carwyn needs to see that ever again. Ever." Izzie stood and helped Carwyn down from her chair at the table. "I'll go help her brush her teeth and hopefully erase that from her memory." Izzie shook her head in disgust, but not before letting out a little chuckle.

Alex scooted his chair back and followed Izzie and Carwyn up the stairs, leaving Meredith and Derek alone in the kitchen.

Meredith quickly recovered from the laughter and sighed in submission. She leaned her head against Derek's chest and let him rub his hands soothingly over her back.

"I'm sorry Mer."

"I know. I'm sorry too."

"Just help me get through the next couple of weeks, and things will go back to normal. Okay?"

"Okay."

"I love you Mer."

"I love you too. Don't ever do that again… or we might lose our friends."

"Deal."

Meredith walked to the locker room to shower and change. She had been assisting George on a bowel reconstructive surgery when the colon burst, spewing the contents all over her scrubs. George had bit back his laughter long enough to excuse her to go clean up. She chuckled to herself, thinking about the last time something like this happened to her and how different things were now.

She turned the corner and came to an abrupt halt, stopping a few feet away from the nurse's station outside of the locker room. Derek stood with a beautiful dark-haired woman. Her wavy brown hair cascaded halfway down her white lab coat and when she turned, Meredith noticed from halfway down the hall that her light brown eyes sparkled.

Derek was introducing her to a few of the nurses who sat at the station and Meredith groaned. She quickly debated if she had been seen yet, and if she could turn around and run.

"Ah! Dr. Grey!"

It was too late; Derek spotted her, and she had no time for an escape. She couldn't believe her luck. She had stinky stomach contents all over her clothes and she could only imagine how her hair stuck to her head after sweating in the OR under a scrub cap. She forced her hands to remain at her side instead of frantically fixing her appearance like they itched to do.

"Um… hello… Dr. Shepherd." Meredith forced a calm smile and reminded herself she'd been in far worse circumstances.

"Dr. Grey, I'd like you to meet our new Chief of Neurology, Dr. Zeta. Dr. Zeta this is….um one of our very promising interns, Dr. Grey." Derek winked at Meredith when Dr. Zeta turned to offer her hand to her new acquaintance.

"Hello Dr. Grey. Very nice to meet you." Even her voice sounded exotic, and Meredith decided she didn't like this vivacious doctor who kept making eyes at an oblivious Derek.

Dr. Zeta tilted her head and studied the disheveled intern for a moment before turning her attention back to her host for the day.

Meredith knew right away she was taking in her messy appearance and knew Dr. Zeta had made up her mind about her immediately. It took every ounce of willpower Meredith processed to not roll her eyes.

Dr. Zeta put a perfectly manicured hand on Derek's arm and looked up at him through thick eyelashes. "Now Derek, you promised me a cup of coffee. Enough introductions, I won't even remember all these names later anyways." She started leading Derek away but turned around to Meredith once more. "It was nice meeting you honey; I look forward to having you on my service." She continued walking, moving her hips a tad too much for Meredith's like. Derek turned to mouth the word, sorry, before following his newest surgeon down the hall.

Meredith watched their retreating forms, speechless. This was Dr. Zeta? This was 'the doctor who would be a huge asset to the program'? It never occurred to Derek that he should possibly mention the fact that the new doctor was a female, and a very attractive one?

Meredith was now fuming as she slammed the locker room door open, eager to scrub the foul matter off her skin, change into a clean pair of scrubs so she could find Cristina, and tell her everything.

"You didn't see the way she was looking at him all flirty and I'm so pretty. It was disgusting." Meredith kept her voice low as she and Cristina huddled over a patient's chart, pretending to discuss it.

"Oh please Mer. I don't know what you're so worried about. McDreamy is so whipped over you it's not even funny. The way he looks at you, actually, physically, makes me nauseous." Cristina retorted, keeping her voice low as well.

"I'm serious. It was like she was undressing him with her eyes. Oh! And I think she wears colored contacts… no way was her eye color natural."

Cristina snorted and opened her mouth to utter something sarcastic when she noticed two interns standing behind her. "Why yes Dr. Grey, you can do all my post op notes. Thank you for offering. If you need me, I'll be laying down in the on-call room."

Meredith opened her mouth to protest but noticed the audience and forced her mouth shut. Cristina tossed a smug grin at Meredith's death glare and laughed to herself as she turned and hurried away.

Meredith muttered a few swear words under her breath as she collected the large pile of charts that waited to be completed. She purposely avoided the stares of the on looking interns as she headed in the opposite direction, in search of a quiet spot to get started on Cristina's notes.

Hours later, after Meredith finished the tedious paperwork and checked on her few patients, she found herself back in the locker room. She was tired, and eager to change and pick up Carwyn to go home. The other interns slowly started coming in, equally tired and exhausted. The room was unusually quiet as Meredith opened her locker.

She jumped back a little in surprise as a long-stemmed red rose fell to the floor. Meredith quickly picked it up and tried to hide it back in the locker before anyone noticed, but she wasn't quick enough.

"Oh wow! Who's that from?"

"Oh, how romantic!"

"Are you seeing someone Dr. Grey?!"

The girls huddled around her locker, smiling, and chatting excitedly. Meredith remembered exactly why she didn't like high school. She saw a small white envelope lying in her locker and quickly closed the metal door before the girls could further pry.

"Oh…um ….no…not exactly. I um… don't know who this is from. It probably ended up in my locker on accident…" Meredith let her voice fade, seeing that her audience was not buying it one bit.

"Uh huh, no it didn't. You have a secret admirer!" One of the blond girls spoke causing the other girls to break out in loud whispers of who it could be.

Meredith laughed out loud when she heard someone guess Dr. O'Malley. Meredith shook her head and reached for her rose back.

"You guys! Seriously. It's nothing. Probably just a practical joke." Meredith turned her back to the group, signaling she was done talking about it and they soon found something more interesting to talk about.

Meredith waited until the locker room had emptied out before she slowly opened her locker again. She retrieved the small envelope and quickly tore it opened. She couldn't help smiling. This had Derek written all over it. She pulled out the small pink cardstock and read the message.

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, do you see me staring at you?

Meredith furrowed her brows. What did that mean? Was Derek trying to be funny? She quickly looked around the locker room, half expecting him to be standing behind her. He wasn't there. Nobody was. She shrugged and stuck the card in her bag before quickly changing and hurrying out. She needed to tell Derek, as sweet as it was to receive flowers from him, he couldn't do it at work. It raised too many questions from the others, and she was already having a hard enough time as it was fitting in.

Meredith quickly exited the elevator on her way to the employee childcare, and practically bumped right into Derek.

"Hey where's the fire?" Derek teased.

Meredith rolled her eyes and swiftly looked up and down the hallway before leaning in and giving him a quick kiss on his mouth.

"What was that for?" Derek grinned, licking his lips slowly to savor it.

"That was thank you for the rose. Seriously Derek, you can't do that again. You should have seen the way everyone jumped on me in the locker room. They're already suspicious enough… we shouldn't be adding fuel to the fire. And that card, it was kind of creepy, are you trying to scare me…." Meredith rambled until Derek couldn't hold it back any longer and started laughing.

"Hold on Mer. I'm lost. What card? And adding fuel to what fire?"

Meredith groaned. "Derek! The rose. The card with the poem. I'm just saying it was sweet but…" Derek's pager went off, causing Meredith to stop mid-sentence as Derek retrieved the device to see where he was needed.

Derek sighed and looked up apologetically. "I'm sorry Mer. I gotta go." He kissed her briefly on her forehead before adding. "For the record, I still have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't send you a rose."

Meredith was confused. "You… you didn't leave a rose in my locker?" For some strange reason, fear began to creep inside Meredith.

"I wish I could take credit. Damn, that would have been a good idea to make up for last night, huh?" Derek chuckled and began backing down the hallway. "You alright Mer? Should I be jealous?"

Meredith shook her head and forced herself to smile. "I'm fine Derek. It's probably nothing. I'll see you later?"

Derek stared before nodding. "I'll be home as soon as I can." Derek quickly walked back towards Meredith and glanced around once again before pulling her close and kissing her deep.

Meredith let him kiss her longer than she usually did, enjoying the safety she felt in his arms. They both pulled away and Derek whispered "Love ya." Before turning and jogging down the hall, hurrying off to wherever he was paged to.

Meredith watched him until he disappeared around the corner, trying to shake the uneasy feeling the rose and card brought. Obviously, it had been left in the wrong locker. The poem was not meant for her. Meredith shifted her bag on her shoulder and started again for the daycare, eager to get home.

Little did Meredith and Derek know that their stolen kisses and hushed conversation hadn't been in complete privacy. An irrational anger seethed inside the man who watched from the shadows. These two doctors didn't know who they were dealing with. They would regret the day they thought they could pull a fast one on him. Meredith Grey wasn't a woman you came across every day. There was something about her that the man couldn't get out of his head. She would be his. He would be sure of it.