A/N: Here's the promised drama…this isn't even close to what's going to happen though!

Chapter 32: Let Me Explain

Meredith went back to work at school and Derek went back to work at the hospital meaning that even though they lived together, they had less time to see each other. Things were a little tense between them because it seemed that every time they had a moment by themselves Derek's pager would go off and he would have to go into the hospital.

The next Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Meredith had the day off from school but Derek still had to work. Surgeries didn't stop just for a holiday. Meredith decided that she would go to the hospital around lunchtime and surprise Derek. She was hoping that he would have at least a half an hour to stop and eat with her.

Meredith got dressed, grabbed her purse and drove to the hospital. She went up to the receptionist.

"May I help you?" the woman said sweetly.

"I'm looking for Derek Shepherd."

"Would you like me to page him for you?"

"That would be great. Thank you."

Meredith sat down in the waiting area as the receptionist paged Derek. She sat there and waited and about 5 minutes later got up and told the receptionist that if Derek responded to the page she would be in the cafeteria. Meredith was disappointed that she wasn't able to find him because she wanted to surprise him with her visit. She definitely wasn't prepared for what she was going to see when she went into the cafeteria.

Derek was sitting at a table with another women laughing and flirting. Every so often they reach over and touch each other's arms. Meredith wanted to leave before Derek even saw that she was there but was unsuccessful. When he saw her running out the cafeteria he went after her.

"Meredith! Meredith, wait!" he said urgently.

She continued walking and he had to run to keep up with her. When he finally caught up with her, he stopped her and turned her around to face him.

"Please listen to me and let me explain."

"Explain? I don't think there's anything to explain Derek. You were having lunch and flirting with another woman. I had you paged and you didn't answer. I came to surprise you and have lunch with you but clearly you're busy, so I'm leaving. Goodbye." she said angrily and started to walk away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't walk away."

"Don't walk away? Leave me the hell alone Derek."

"Meredith, please listen to me."

She turned to face him with an extremely pissed off look on her face.

"You have 1 minute," she said putting her hands on her hips.

Derek took a deep breath. "That woman is the sister of one my patients. That patient has an aneurysm the size of a golf ball that is going to be extremely difficult to operate on. She's worried sick and I thought the least I could do to help was to have lunch with her."

"She likes you Derek. You're McDreamy. Are you that stupid?" Meredith said.

"Don't call me stupid. I'm being a good doctor and I'm trying to keep the relative of my patient calm because in turn that will keep the patient calm and their prognosis is better if they have a positive attitude."

"You're keeping her calm by flirting with her?" she responded in a smart tone of voice.

"I'm not flirting with her. I'm having lunch with a woman whose brother is going to die if I don't perform surgery in the next 24 hours. But you're not a doctor so maybe you can't understand that."

"I can't believe you just said that to me. I'll be at my house tonight," Meredith said and walked away from him.

The moment the words had escaped Derek's lips he regretted saying them. He knew that he had to rectify the situation but had no idea how. He started by going back to the cafeteria and telling the woman that he couldn't continue their lunch. She seemed disappointed but at that point Derek didn't care. All he cared about was fixing the problem with Meredith. They had never had a fight like this so it made it harder to deal with.

Meredith ran out of the hospital in tears. She got in her car and sat there crying for 15 minutes. When she had finally calmed down enough to drive she went back to the house where she lived with Izzie and George before she moved in with Derek.

"Meredith? What are you doing here?" Izzie asked.

"Derek's an asshole," she answered, her mouth already full of one of Izzie's cupcakes.

"Tell me what happened," Izzie said sitting down next to Meredith.

"I have the day off from school today so I decided to go to the hospital and surprise Derek and have lunch with him. I had him paged and he didn't answer so I decided to go into the cafeteria and wait. When I got in there I saw him eating lunch with another woman, and they were so clearly flirting. So freaking clearly. I started to leave and he saw me. He said that she was a patient's sister and he was trying to keep her calm because it would be better for the patient. But he was being all flirty and touching her arm. I wanted to throw up."

"I hate to break it to you Mer, but he's right. If the person who's taking care of the patient is calm and relaxed the patient will be more positive and is more likely of surviving."

"I don't know Iz. The way they were looking at each other…it was like Derek didn't even think about me. And then he said maybe I didn't understand because I'm not a doctor. That was the icing on the cake"

"He loves you Meredith. I see the way that he looks at you. He's not a mean person. He was just caught up in the heat of the moment. Give him a chance okay?"

Meredith shook her head, "I'm not apologizing."

"I didn't say you had to apologize. Just give him a chance to explain."

"Fine," she said reluctantly.

Meredith got up and went into the living room to watch TV. It was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and all that was on were soaps. She and Izzie sat there watching and screaming at the TV like they were involved in the characters lives, when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Meredith said getting up off of the couch.

She walked to the door and saw Derek standing on the other side of the door holding a bouquet of red roses like he had brought her on their first date.

"Damn glass door," she said, opening it and letting him into the house.

"We need to talk," Derek said.

"That's for sure," Meredith said, taking the flowers.

They went into the kitchen to talk and Meredith put the flowers into a vase.

"I'm sorry about what I said to you Mer. It was way out of line and I wish I could take it back but I can't."

"That really hurt me Derek. I didn't think you were capable of saying something like that."

"I know, and again, I'm really sorry. I love you Meredith."

"I love you too," she said giving Derek a hug.

Meredith was still a little annoyed about what had happened in the afternoon but she decided that it would be best for her to go home with Derek and not avoid the problem. Plus, they would probably end up having really hot make-up sex.

A/N: Alrighty! This is going to be it until Tuesday night, so I hope you enjoy it!