A/N: So we only have two more chapters to go. This story will end with Meredith's first day at the hospital and the sequel will pick up not long after that. For those of you, wanting the appearance of Addie, yes she will be in the sequel and she will be there to cause drama, but have no fear. By the time I bring Addison in, she'll be no big threat. She may even get a few surprises of her own.

Pain. There was lots of pain going on in Meredith's head. It was almost like the Disney World Parade was being held in her head. And there were drums. Lots and lots of drums. Groaning miserably, Meredith buried her head under her pillow. Flashes of last night came back to her. Having lunch with Cristina and then going over to Joe's, where she consumed an ungodly amount of tequila. There was a fuzzy picture of Derek in there, which she didn't understand until she thought about it for a minute.

Derek had been there. He had been how she had gotten home last night. He had been irritated with her after coming in to find her with two boys. Bleh. The boys were Cristina's doing. Meredith had McDreamy and she didn't need boys. What more could a girl want than a really hot neurosurgeon who was not only an amazing person, but could give her toe curling orgasms?

Except he wasn't in the bed with her at this current moment. She groped around blindly, grabbing the first piece of clothing she could find. Derek's shirt.

With more energy than she had, she slipped it over her shoulders and began to work on the buttons as she made her way down the stairs. She could smell coffee. Coffee was good. She just needed coffee and lots of aspirin. Not necessarily in that order. She stumbled into the kitchen murmuring a half hearted good morning to Derek, who was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal.

Aspirin. She needed aspirin. The light was hurting her as due to the fact the sun was up. Duh, Meredith. That's what happened during the daytime. The sun was out. Successful in her search, she eagerly popped open the bottle and nearly sighed with pleasure. Relief was on it's way. No more Disney World Parade. She grabbed a glass from the dishwasher and filled it with water, very quickly downing the medicine. Next, she went in search of her mug and filled it to the brim with coffee, before finally taking a seat across from her boyfriend.

" I'm a bad girlfriend, " Meredith announced.

" You're not a bad girlfriend, " Derek glanced at her before picking up the newspaper.

" I am. I'm a horrible girlfriend. Not only did I go to a bar with a friend and have way too much to drink, there was flirting going on. Flirting in which I did not stop, " She declared.

" Meredith-, " He started to say, but she apparently wasn't done.

" Did I mention the part that not only was there flirting and drinking going on, but that my boyfriend happened to walk in on said flirting and drinking. Except we couldn't say anything because he's my boss and he was having a drink with another guy whose going to be my boss. "

" You're cute when you ramble. Seriously. It was a bad situation that was probably bound to happen sooner or later anyways. The important part is that we got through it, " He reasoned.

" But Derek, you're good at sneaky. I suck at sneaky. I'm afraid I'm going to screw up one time and then the whole world is going to know that I'm the intern screwing her attending. I'll never have any credibility as a doctor because people will just assume I slept my way to the top. You don't have anything to prove, but I do."

" Worrying causes wrinkles, " Derek stated as he grinned across the table at her.

She shot him a dirty look across the table. He sighed and put the paper down, reaching across to take her hand.

" No one said this is going to be easy. It's going to be hard sometimes, but I don't want to not try just because you're afraid. "

" I just hate lying, " Meredith sulked.

" Look at it this way, once you've been in the program for a while and everyone sees how brilliant you are, we won't have to hide it anymore. Chief already knows and he's not thrilled about it, but he's not trying to kill us either. We'll make it through this just fine, " Derek reassured her.

" Okay, but can we not talk about this anymore? I have a hangover which really isn't conducive to deep serious thought processes, " She looked at him pitifully and he rolled his eyes good naturedly.

" You're so not off the hook, Meri," He promised as he went back to reading his newspaper.

" I can hardly wait," Meredith dryly answered, eyeing him skeptically.

Good as his word, he waited until she was feeling better before he brought it up again. Of course, he had the advantage because they had just had some really great sex and her brain was practically mush. Meredith was sprawled across his chest with his hand resting lightly on her back and she was still fighting to catch her breath.

" So are you still freaked out over the whole keeping it a secret thing, " Derek himself sounded slightly out of breath.

" You're not serious. You expect me to have this conversation after that?"

Derek looked at her wide eyes and innocent, as if he had no idea what she was talking about. She propped herself up and looked down at him, half amused and half shocked. He really wanted to talk about this now?

" You're annoyingly persistent, " She stated.

" And you're trying to change the subject. "

" Okay fine. It's just that I'm a horrible liar, "

"It's not lying. It's preventing others from finding out information that they couldn't digest properly, " Derek realized how stupid that sounded even as he said it.

" Digest properly? Okay, even I can admit how bad that analogy sucked , " Meredith smirked.

" Well my brain isn't exactly functioning on the higher levels either, here , " He pouted , as he rolled her over and pinned her beneath him.

" You're the one who wanted to talk about it! "

" Okay, well that's enough talking for now. We can talk later , " There was that smirk again. Meredith raised an eyebrow at him.

" You can't possibly be ready to go again. There's no way. "

Except there was a way because his mouth found her neck and began to nibble on the skin there. Forming a thought that didn't amount to 'don't stop' became impossible and she finally gave up trying.

Hours later, she would wake up to see him sleeping deeply beside her. His leg was slung over hers and his arm draped arm around her middle. Not really all that tired, she simply watched him. One hand barely skimmed the profile of his face while the other made lazy circles on his arm. He being Derek slept right through it because she was pretty certain he could sleep through most anything anyways. She had determined there was really only one sure fire way to wake him up, but she was too tired to even attempt it. So instead, Meredith just scooted closer to him and closed her eyes.

She said a silent prayer to whatever god that was listening, thanking them for Derek.