Alright, I lied again. I updated before Christmas. Just a short chapter through. Not that good, I wrote it after my family's Christmas Eve party.

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"Shh…" he said, leaning down so his face was millimeters away from hers.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

And he kissed her.

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Meredith was surprised at first, but slowly she wrapped her good arm around his neck and kissed him back. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, they broke apart.

"That was—,"she said, her voice breathy, and a smile on her face, "I mean it was—,"

'Wow.'

"Amazing," Derek finished.

'I mean. WOW.'

"More than amazing."

He moved so he was laying down next to her, and took a bite of her eggs.

"Those were for me," she joked.

Before he could say anything, the door swung open and a doctor entered.

"Hello! I'm Dr. Fletcher, and you must be Meredith Grey. What a relief we know who you are now. We had to call you Jane Smith all during surgery."

"I had surgery?"

"Yes. You had a lacerated liver, and you shattered several of your ribs. You had skin grafts put on those burns, and you had a gash on your head that we had to sew up. Plus the stitches you've got on your face."

Meredith's eyes filled with tears.

"Mer… Mer don't cry," Derek said to her, taking her hand in his. "It's going to be okay. Look, you're through the worst of it. Now it's just recovering, and that'll be over soon."

"And you are?" the doctor asked brusquely.

"Derek. Derek Shepherd."

"Well Ms. Grey—"

"Please, call me Meredith."

"Meredith certainly does have a bit of recovery in her future. She could do with some peace and quiet," she said, eyeing the champagne glasses. "And certainly no alcohol."

Meredith lifted her glass, "Cider. Of all people Derek would know that there's no alcohol allowed for recovering patients." She giggled softly.

"Good. Well, you should be out of here at least in two weeks, if not sooner. You're healing nicely."

"I only have to stay two weeks even though I almost died?"

"Well yes, but you didn't die. We've got an excellent sur—"

"gical staff who were able to fix everything, with minimal scarring. We have skilled interns who learn from medical procedures such as your own," both Derek and Meredith recited along with the doctor.

Dr. Fletcher raised her eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"We used to work here. I was the head neurologist, and she was an intern…" he trailed off looking at Meredith to finish.

"I became chief resident, and then I transferred to California for a year. I took a leave of absence to take care of my mother—," she stopped herself, "you know, we don't need to go that far."

"So basically we know the speech by heart," Derek finished.

"Oh. Well, Dr. Stanley will be in here soon to check your stats and ask you some questions. I need to see to another patient."

The doctor left, and Meredith smiled at Derek.

"Oh God! The look on her face after she realized she had been so rude to the previous Head of Neurology!" she said.

Before he could say anything back to her, his cell phone began to ring again.

"Not again..."

"Who is it?" she asked as he stood up and pulled it out of his pocket.

"Addison," he said, looking at the display

"Oh."

It was obvious she had forgotten about Addison.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Derek, I'm on my way to Seattle."

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Oooh. Cliffhanger. Sorry the chapter's not all that good. I'm on my way out the door again…