Derek Shepherd was not a camp person. Not anymore, that is. His dad used to take him and Amy camping in the Catskills when they were kids. After his father died, his mother had opened a summer camp for kids with dead or absent parents. At age 15 Derek had thought the idea was pretty morbid, but he'd ended up enjoying his three years at camp, made some great friends, and even worked there for two summers in college.
It had been twelve years since Derek had set foot on the camp property. Since then he'd finished undergrad and received his MBA degree. He'd spent the better part of those twelve years traveling - sleeping his way through the fifty states as a student and then as a management consultant for the hospitality industry, bouncing from job to job and corporate party to corporate party.
His mother had started calling five months ago, asking him to come and work for the summer. For four of those months, Derek said no. She insisted he wouldn't have to live with children or take on any activities unless he wanted to, but that she just wanted to spend a summer with her son who never visited anymore. Between his most recent commitment conveniently wrapping up at the end of May and a less than amicable split with his wife of three years, something had possessed Derek to say yes to his mother's crazy request for him to spend one more summer at camp.
Derek's silver Audi sped into the parking lot of the lodge and he saw his mother sitting out front in a rocking chair, pouring over something on her clipboard. He grimaced as he made the walk up the dirt path. He definitely regretted wearing his nice black shoes to the rustic camp.
"Hey, Mom." he spoke with a smile.
"Derek!" Carolyn exclaimed. She rose from her seat and greeted her son with a hug. "I'm so glad you decided to join us! Come, let's go get dinner and then you should certainly change before the campfire."
Derek sighed. "Let's start with dinner, mom. I don't know about a campfire tonight. It's been a long weekend."
"Oh, Derek. I think a campfire is exactly what you need with your busy life. Besides, I brought some of your old friends back this summer, too! Owen Hunt and Nathan Riggs had a couple months free and they're both so excited to see you."
Derek tried not to roll his eyes at his mother and offered her a small smile. Owen and Nathan were great, but Derek hadn't really put in the effort to keep in touch with either one. He hadn't seen Nathan in a decade and the last time he'd seen Owen was on a trip to Seattle about six years ago.
As they ventured past the lodge and onto the main grounds of the camp, Derek looked around and saw that not much had changed. The paths to the cabins were a bit more grown over with trees and the painted names on the exterior walls of the arts and crafts cabin had started to fade. Otherwise it was the same old Camp Grace he'd known as a young man. He could hear laughter wafting through the screen windows of the dining hall as they approached. Derek took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair before following his mother through the door.
The sounds of chatter and laughter became quieter after they entered and Derek kept his attention focused on his mother who was reminiscing about Derek's first year as a camp counselor with Owen, Nathan, and their friend Mark, or the troublemaker, as Carolyn tended to call him. While he had no strong desire to reminisce about his camp days, Derek wasn't ready to look around and acknowledge that he was the reason that the camp staff's voices had quieted. He knew for a fact that he had committed a faux-pas with his attire when he heard someone ask a bit too loudly who 'the suit' was.
"Derek!" Nathan exclaimed as he and Owen walked up. "Carolyn told us you were coming, but we didn't believe her!"
Derek laughed and offered them a smile.
"What can I say? My mother's a persistent woman." Derek grinned at his mother before turning back to his friends.
"How's Beth?" he asked Owen.
"Didn't work out." Owen replied with a smile and a shrug that made it clear he wasn't too torn up about his failed engagement. "How's Addison?"
"Didn't work out." Derek echoed and the two laughed again, causing Nathan to roll his eyes.
"Good. They were no good for either of you." Nathan quipped. "Go get some food and join us, Derek. I'm sure there's far too much for us to catch up on and there's a great new bar the next town over that we can steal off to after we make an appearance at this campfire."
Derek laughed and shot his mother an 'I told you so' look about skipping the campfire before watching Owen and Nathan retreat to a table towards the back corner of the room that they were sharing with four younger men.
As Derek's eyes scanned the room they stopped on a pair of blue-green eyes that locked onto his. He felt his breath catch in his throat and forced a deep breath as he realized that the woman sitting in the back of the Camp Grace dining hall was the girl he'd picked up at a bar the night before he left Boston. Meredith. His thoughts drifted back to that night at the bar. She had sat down on a barstool a few feet away with another man and a few minutes later went out of her way to come and introduce herself, only to rush out of his hotel room the next morning. He hadn't been too torn up when she disappeared so quickly, but there had been something about Meredith, the girl in the bar, that drew him to her and caused him to throw any decent sense he may have possessed out the window. He wasn't sure if it was her confidence or those stunning eyes, but whatever it was made him very glad to see her again.
"Derek? Come get some food." his mother's voice broke him from his thoughts.
Derek smiled at Meredith and noticed that her companions, who included the man she had been with the other night, were all looking at him as well. The curly-haired one was leaning towards Meredith and talking animatedly. His smile grew into a smirk and he managed to make eye contact with her once more before following his mother into the kitchen.
He couldn't help but chuckle at the bowl he was handed. "Is this Dad's turkey chili?"
Carolyn smiled at her son. "Only the best for my favorite son."
"I'm your only son." Derek rolled his eyes but was secretly thrilled to have a bowl full of the familiar comfort food after four straight months of traveling. It had been his and Amy's favorite and if he'd had to guess, it was still a regular item on the camp menu for that exact reason.
Derek watched as, upon exiting the kitchen, his mother did a five second scan of the room and started moving towards Meredith's table. He stayed a few steps behind her and when Carolyn sat down he bent down next to her.
"I promised Nate I'd catch up with him, but we can chat after dinner and I promise to meet you for an early breakfast?" Derek offered his mother, who was now seated next to Meredith's chatty curly-haired friend.
Carolyn smiled warmly at her son. "Go have fun with your friends, Derek." Derek smiled at his mother and stood back up. As he walked behind the table to join his friends, he allowed his hand to brush against Meredith's back, so lightly it was as if it never happened at all.
After dinner, Derek dragged Owen and Nathan back to the guest cabin with him to escape from the younger crowd they'd dined with that had been very kind but very peppy. It was one of three four-bedroom cabins that sat on the edge of camp and his residing there alone instead of in his mother's identical cabin or one of the cabins with kids had been part of the deal to get him there. He smiled when he noticed the bottle of top shelf single malt scotch that was sitting next to a pile of carefully folded Camp Grace polos.
"Dude! You know what the polo means, right?" the New Zealander asked while Derek focused on finding glasses in the kitchen to break open the liquor. "It means she's puttin' you in charge of something."
"No she's not." Derek stated simply. "My mother told me if I came to camp with her this year I wouldn't be expected to do a damn thing. Besides, I was only a counselor for two years over a decade ago. I don't know enough to be in charge of anything."
Derek brushed past Nathan's comment and proceeded to pour the scotch into three water glasses, the only drinking receptacles he'd been able to find in the cabin's minimal kitchen.
"How'd she rope you two into this, anyways?" Derek asked as he handed them each a glass and made himself comfortable in the armchair by the fire.
"It didn't take as much convincing as it did for you, apparently." Owen explained. "We're both getting shipped off to Germany after Labor Day, so when Carolyn called we figured why not go out with one last summer at camp?"
"And you're going to live with children? And teach them things?" Derek asked skeptically.
Nathan laughed. "It'll be fun! Just you wait. I did make her promise me the older ones though. Because you're right, I'm a shit role model for the young ones."
Derek and Owen laughed and Derek raised his glass.
"To a summer of pretending we know what we're doing." Derek offered by way of a toast.
"I'll drink to that!" Owen echoed.
The trio sat around reminiscing about all of the crazy shenanigans they'd gotten up to in their earlier years as camp counselors, Nathan and Owen had stayed for one more year after Derek decided to focus on internships and had even more stories to share with him. Eventually the conversation wound down, and Nathan rose from his seat.
"C'mon Shep! We're going to the damn campfire and you're coming with us." he said, pouring back the last of his scotch.
Derek sighed but resigned himself to throw on something more casual and follow his friends down to the campfire. He closed his eyes as they neared the larger group and breathed in the nostalgic scent of oak, pine, and ash. It felt strange to be back out in the woods, but in a good way. One of the young men he'd met at dinner was sitting a few feet away from the fire playing some song he didn't know on the guitar, a few people were roasting marshmallows and laughing. Most of the staff were mingling and getting to know each other, but Derek's attention was captured by the same young woman he'd locked eyes with in the dining hall.
Meredith was sitting under a tree with the same people she'd been with at dinner, drinking something out of a water bottle that he had a gut feeling wasn't just water. Still, the captivating woman sitting under the tree rolling her eyes at the man next to her was a far cry from the woman he'd met a few days earlier in heels and a leather jacket. She was a picture perfect camp counselor, probably one of his mother's favorites if he had to guess from their interactions at dinner.
Her hair was half braided into a wavy ponytail and she seemed right at home in her plain white t-shirt and torn jean shorts. Derek's eyes trailed down Meredith's long tan legs which stuck out straight in front of her and ended at a pair of classic Birkenstock sandals and a braided blue and white friendship bracelet on her ankle. She looked younger than she had the other night, but was even more beautiful like this than she had been in the tight dress he'd taken off her in his hotel room.
"Derek?" Owen's voice pulled his focus away from the mental montage of all the ways he'd seen Meredith in Boston. "You alright?"
"Yeah, fine." Derek confirmed. "Do you know who that is over there?" he asked, using his eyes to point over to the small group just outside of the area that was well-lit by the fire's glow.
"Mhm. That's Alex and Jackson. They were campers of mine my last summer here. C'mon, I'll introduce you."
Meredith had spent the better part of her evening being mocked mercilessly once her friends discovered that her most recent one night stand was Carolyn's cherished son. They'd since retreated to the edge of the campfire area with a thermos full of tequila and limeade. Tomorrow was for getting to know the people they'd be working with for the rest of the summer. Tonight was for getting buzzed enough to not care that Derek freaking Shepherd and his feather-light touch still made her feel like a horny sixteen year old.
"He's coming over here." Meredith groaned, leaning her head on Alex's shoulder. "Pretend we're together or something so he'll leave me alone."
"I can do that." Alex said, wrapping an arm around Meredith and leaning in for a kiss.
"Ew. Not like that." Meredith snarked and slapped him away.
Jackson and Cristina laughed at the short-lasting fake couple and Alex shrugged his shoulders and stood up, pulling himself up to sit next to Cristina on a nearby fallen tree.
"Your loss, Mer." he teased.
"McDreamy!" Cristina stated gleefully as Derek approached with a couple friends in tow. Meredith winced at her friend's cavalier use of the nickname she'd decided on within minutes of Derek walking into the dining hall. "Want a hobo margarita?" she asked innocently, lifting up the thermos.
Derek laughed and Meredith closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree in an attempt to avoid being drawn to the sparkle in his stupidly beautiful deep blue eyes.
"It's been a while since I've been to camp, but I don't remember tequila being part of the menu."
Meredith listened to the teasing tone in Derek's voice and bit her lip to keep herself chiming in with a retort before someone else did. She had just enough of a buzz to feel like she would be comfortable denying any future responsibility for her actions, but not enough to have lost her filter completely.
"Please. Your mom doesn't give a crap about what we do. If she did we would have been kicked out on our asses four years ago." Alex's voice contributed.
"Speak for yourself!" added Jackson. "Carolyn thinks I walk on water, which, y'know, is sort of true." he laughed.
Meredith heard one of the other men laugh and speak up. She assumed it was Owen, the one that Jackson and Alex had identified as their old counselor from however many years ago.
"Derek, this is Jackson and this is Alex. He's the reason I quit being a camp counselor the first time."
Meredith heard Derek's laugh, a laugh that had wrapped her around his little finger, and eventually other parts of his anatomy, the first time she'd heard it. She took a deep breath and brought her water bottle to her lips, letting the cold beverage pour down her throat before leaning her head back against the tree again. Her mind raced back to the moment his fingers had grazed her back in the dining hall and even further back to the much less lazy touches he'd inflicted upon her in his hotel room. Her memory of that night was somewhat blurry, but in that moment she could feel his hands on every inch of her bare skin all over again.
"Mer?" she heard Jackson address her and pasted her best fake smile on her face before opening her eyes and looking up to see Jackson standing right next to Derek with a smirky grin on his face.
"Hm?" she asked innocently, as if she had actually been bored enough with the exchange to doze off instead of vividly remembering what it had been like to feel Derek Shepherd's fingers inside her body.
"I don't know if you remember Owen and Nathan," Jackson began and Meredith nodded her regards to them. "Derek, this is Meredith." Jackson said, his smirk growing as he looked at Derek, making it quite obvious that he had been one hundred percent sober when the two had ditched him at the bar earlier that week and knew exactly who this newcomer was in his best friend's story.
I hated to cut it off there, but these chapters just keep getting longer and longer! This one would have doubled in length if I didn't end it where I did. Because I'm just as eager as you all to get to the MerDer conversation, the next chapter, which is almost exclusively Meredith and Derek, will be posted within the week. I just have to sit down and do the final revisions. I don't know about everyone else, but I think if Derek and Nathan had met, and Nathan wasn't sleeping with Meredith obviously, they would have made great friends. We'll definitely be seeing more of the boys' club in future chapters. I'm having a lot of fun with them, but very much looking forward to posting the big MerDer confrontation! I hope you like snarky, horny, 22 year-old Meredith, because she's about to take center stage and probably won't go away for a while.
Thanks to Allison, MerderAlways2, MerDer2015, and Jasmine for your reviews, as well as to everyone who's faved or followed! I'm blown away by the response to this unorthodox idea and excited that you've decided to join me on this campy journey!
xx Lissa