"Wake up Mer. We're going to be late." Izzy said to her friend who was still lying in bed half asleep.

"I'm calling in sick." Meredith mumbled into her pillow.

"No, you're not. I don't want to go either but we have to. Rumour is there's a major surgery today and they're letting four interns scrub in." Izzy said trying to coax her out of bed.

"Who's heading it?" she asked her, face still in her pillow.

"Uh, it doesn't matter. It's going to be huge." Izzy said hesitated, knowing Meredith wouldn't come if she knew.

"It's Derek, isn't it?"

"I don't know for sure. Why don't you come and find out?" Izzy asked hopefully.

"Nice try. You are the worst liar I have ever met, Isabelle Stevens."

"Come on, Mer. You refused to take the day off after the accident, why take one off for something so menial as this?"

"It isn't menial to me, Izzy. Frankly, I'd rather face another crash then turn up today."

"Don't say that Mer. Anyway, you'll probably only see Derek. That was obviously just an unlucky coincidence that Jason happened to be in the hospital."

"It wasn't a coincidence. He's doing some work for the Chief. Trying to expand his knowledge." she said grudgingly.

"Damn...oh well, you're still coming." and she ripped the blankets off Meredith's bed.

"Urgh! I hate you, Izzie." she grumbled.

"I know." she smiled.

"Is George still here?" Meredith asked getting up.

"No, he left an hour ago. Said he had to check on one of his patients early."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Meredith, Izzy, you're late." Bailey said as they caught up with the rest of the interns.

"We're really sorry, Dr Bailey. We'll try not to do it again." Izzy apologized.

"It's not me you should apologizing too. Your patient, Mr Barnes, just had another seizure and you weren't there."

"Oh my god. Is he all right?"

"If I were you I'd go check on him now." Izzy ran off to her patients room.

"I know you all would've heard about the emergency craniotomy and that only four interns will be chosen to scrub in. Dr Shepherd is going to be in charge and Dr Burke will be assisting him. They have both come up with a list of names. Cristina, George and Meredith, you'll be scrubbing in and, seeing as Izzy cannot make it, Alex, you're the fourth." the rest of the interns all groaned. "Hey, hey. Lose the attitude." she barked at them. "And you four, go!"

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"That was awesome." Cristina grinned as they sat outside at their usual table eating lunch. I mean did you see the size of that blood clot? It was huge. Meredith's was like a quarter that size."

"Hey, I'm sitting right here." Meredith said incredulously.

"I'm sorry but that was so cool. Intracranial hematomas are my new favourite."

"You sound like you're talking about candy." Izzy said. She was still annoyed that she'd missed out on the surgery.

"This is candy for me, but with blood. Which is way cooler."

"Ew!" Izzy squirmed..

"I'm sorry to inform you that our dear friend, Cristina Yang has turned into a vampire." Meredith mocked in a formal tone. Everyone started laughing.

"I'm not a vampire, vampires are renowned for killing people and that's 007's job over here." Cristina laughed pointing at George.

"Hey, I haven't killed someone in like ages!" George retorted.

"Do you tell that to all your patient?." Alex laughed which started everyone up again.

"No." George muttered under his breath.

"Meredith, can I have a word?" Meredith turned around to see Derek standing behind her. Meredith looked to Cristina and Izzy asking them with her eyes what she should do. They both barely nodded so she got up and left with him. As they walked inside they bumped into the chief.

"Derek, Meredith, is everything okay?" he asked suspiciously. He'd heard the rumour about them in the lift but wasn't too sure what to make of it. The gossip mainly came from nurses who have nothing better to do with their time than start trouble.

"I'm just discussing the intracranial hematoma patient, Mr Fox, with Dr Grey." Derek made up.

"How is Mr Fox.?" Richard asked concerned.

"He's in a stable condition which is more than we can ask for at the moment."

"Good. I'll leave you to it then." and he walked away towards the lifts.

"Come in here for a second." Derek said, leading her into an on call room.

"Do we have to do this now?" she asked as he closed the door.

"Yes, because otherwise you'll blow me off again like usual."

"Hey, you were the one who ran off the other day when Jason saw us in the lift."

"It was my floor!" he argued.

"You could've pretended it wasn't and stayed there instead of leaving me to handle it on my own."

"I had a surgery to get to."

"You didn't seem too worried about it when you pulled the emergency button."

"You provoked me."

"What? I can't believe you!"

"Okay, okay, this wasn't what I had in mind when I said I wanted to talk." Derek said, trying to settle her down.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Do you want the realistic version or the unrealistic version. Frankly, I rather the latter of the two." He said smiling.

"You think this is funny? You're seriously enjoying this?" Meredith asked feeling herself start to heat up again.

"No. I don't. I'm sorry. About yesterday..."

"Please Derek, I can't do this anymore." Meredith interrupted.

"Do what?"

"This. I can't keep living like this."

"Then don't." he said looking into her eyes.

"It's not that easy Derek."

"Meredith, I love you."

"What?" she gasped caught of guard.

"I love you, so much."

"If you do, why didn't you tell me about her?"

"Because I thought you'd run away. I didn't want to lose you."

"You're right, I would have. But it would've saved me an awful lot of grief." she said through tears. "You hurt me Derek. Ever since Jason, I swore I'd never love anyone again, but there you were, and I stupidly made myself believe you might have been the one. But that's not the worst of it. Even after I found out about her I still wanted you back. I laid my heart on the line for you and you tore it into tiny pieces when you chose her. So if you really did love me, then why did you go back to her?"

"Because I did what I thought was best at the time. I loved Addison too, remember. It's hard to erase the memories of ten years of marriage."

"And now you think you made a mistake?" she asked still trying to choke back tears.

"I know I made a mistake, Meredith."

"You're too late Derek." Meredith said turning around and walking out of the room. Tears were now uncontrollably spilling down her cheeks. She didn't care. She wanted to cry. It didn't matter what everyone would say, she deserved to have a cry.