Chapter 13:

January 14, 2007- New York City, New York

Meredith laid next to Derek, both breathless and panting. Derek turned his head and looked at Meredith. She turned hers to look at him. They easily became lost in each other's eyes. Meredith unexpectedly turned her head away from Derek, "Shit," she cursed as she got out of bed fast.

Derek sat up in bed and watched as Meredith wrapped a blanket around her and then ran out of the room. She came back seconds later with their clothes and threw Derek's at him. "What are you doing?" Derek asked.

"It's midnight," Meredith said as she put her pants on, "Jacob gets off at midnight, meaning he should be home in about ten minutes." She put her shirt on and noticed that Derek hadn't moved, "Get dressed!"

Derek obeyed and threw his clothes on as Meredith left the room. She came back still frustrated, "We never shut the door. My apartment is ruined."

Derek didn't care about her apartment. His mind was focused on something else, "Meredith? What does this mean?"

Meredith stopped running around for a moment and stood still. She looked at Derek, "If you ask me that one more time, I'll kill you." Derek was almost amused by her seriousness. She started running around again and left the room. Derek heard her shriek in the living room and he came running out. "We broke the vase! How could I have not heard that?" She said as she cleaned up the mess.

"Vase?"

"It was a housewarming gift from Jacob's Mother when we moved in together. I thought it was hideous, but it was from his Mom so we had to keep it," Meredith explained as she threw the broke glass in the garbage, "Jacob is going to want an explanation."

"He's a guy. He won't notice," Derek said as he picked up his still wet jacket.

Meredith finished cleaning up the vase and then looked at Derek, "Why are you still here?"

"What?"

"You have to leave before Jacob comes home. I can't deal with this right now. Maybe later, but not now," Meredith said as she pulled Derek over to the door. Before she opened it Derek looked at her again and pulled her into one more kiss. Meredith was about to get lost in it when she remembered that Jacob would be home soon. She pulled away from Derek, "You have to leave." Derek smiled at the similarities of this experience to the first night they spent together and he knew she was beginning to think the same thing. "Shut up." Derek opened the door and walked out, turning back to catch one more look of Meredith before she shut the door and he disappeared into the night's storm.

Minutes after Derek left the front door opened. Meredith unconsciously prayed that it was Derek coming back, but she knew it was Jacob. She was in the living room, still trying to clean everything up.

Jacob walked in and looked at her funny, "What the hell happened here?"

Meredith looked around the room for something, anything that would tell her what to say. No such luck. She looked down at the wet newspaper and then back up at Jacob, "I was asleep and I guess I didn't close the door all the way. It was open when I woke up and everything was wet," she lied.

Jacob looked around the apartment, "Are you sure you didn't close it all the way? Are you sure someone didn't try and break in?"

Meredith became a little concerned by his question, "No, it was me. I'm positive of it. No one would break in and leave a girl sleeping. Robbers don't do that," she said trying to cover her lies.

"We should just check around and make sure nothing is missing," Jacob said as he walked towards the back of the living room, "The vase. My Grandmother's vase is missing. They stole the vase."

"What?" Meredith asked. She didn't realize that the vase actually have sentimental value to it.

Jacob looked at Meredith with a worried look upon her vase, "That vase was my Grandmother's. It was worth money too. I'm calling the police," Jacob said as he headed towards the kitchen.

"No!" Meredith yelled.

Jacob turned around fast, surprised by Meredith's reaction, "What do you mean 'no'?" Meredith looked at Jacob and then sat down on the wet couch. Jacob walked over to her as she began to have flashbacks of the kissing that took place right in front of where she was sitting. Jacob sat down next to her. "Meredith? Why are you acting weird?"

"No one stole the vase. I accidentally broke it," Meredith said avoiding Jacob's eyes.

"What? How could you break that?" Jacob asked standing up, outraged.

"I didn't do it on purpose," Meredith said truthfully.

"But how? It was on the top shelf! How could you knock that down?" Jacob asked looking at Meredith for an explanation.

"I… I was dancing," Meredith said. She looked away for a moment gave herself a weird look wondering where in the world that came from.

"Dancing? How do you break a vase dancing? And since when do you randomly dance in our apartment?" Jacob asked obviously still mad.

"I just ran into the shelf and it fell. It was an accident, I promise," Meredith lied.

"Fine, it was just a vase," Jacob said calming down. "I'm just glad it wasn't someone coming into the house. They could have hurt you." Meredith was taken back by his sudden kindness. It was much easier to know that she had just had sex with Derek if Jacob was being an asshole, but it was really hard when Jacob was being sweet. "Come on, let's go to bed," Jacob said. Meredith got up and followed Jacob to their bedroom remembering the events that had just occurred there and that was all she thought about and dreamt about for the rest of the night.