A/N: Sorry that I couldn't update earlier. I had a doctor's appointment right after school.

Chapter 35: Exhausted and Distracted

The next morning, as expected, Meredith was completely exhausted. After spending a few hours trying to help her brother, and being with Derek before that, she hadn't gotten to bed until after midnight and she had to deal with 15 parents with tons of questions about curriculum and their student's progress.

Meredith eventually rolled out and bed and got up and took a quick shower. She got dressed and went downstairs where there was hot coffee and a fresh muffin, baked by Izzie, waiting for her. She put the coffee in a travel mug, wrapped the muffin up in a paper towel and left for school.

As Meredith arrived to school, Derek was also arriving to the hospital. He had a few patients to check on before the seminar on Alzheimer's began. He made sure that all of his patients who he had performed surgery on were stable and went to get something to eat before he had to spend the whole day listening to lectures.

When he got to the cafeteria he saw Burke and decided to sit with him until he had to go. Burke realized that Derek seemed distracted and not all there.

"Derek, is something wrong? You seem distracted."

"I'm okay I guess. Things with Meredith are a little bit rocky. We had a big fight yesterday and then made up, but something's just not right," Derek responded, shaking his head.

"That's hard to believe. You two seem so…perfect. Why did you fight, if you don't mind me asking?"

"She had the day off yesterday and came to the hospital to have lunch with me and say me eating lunch with the sister of a patient and assumed I was cheating on her. Then later in the night, she got angry that I wouldn't be able to spend time with her this afternoon because of the seminar."

"I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do let me know. I have to go into surgery but page me if you need me."

"Thanks," Derek answered as Burke got up and left the table.

Derek finished eating, threw his trash away and went upstairs to the conference rooms. He decided to call Meredith before it started just to say good morning.

At school, Meredith was preparing all the paperwork and information that she needed for her first conference, when her cell phone rang. She didn't even take the time to look at who was calling because she was in such a hurry.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mer. It's me."

"Oh. Hi Derek."

"Don't sound so happy to hear from me," he said a bit annoyed.

He knew that she was going to have a busy day but so was he and at least he took the time out to call her and say good morning and to wish her a good day.

"It's not that I'm not happy to talk to you. I'm just really busy and a little stressed out. I'm sorry."

"You don't sound that sorry. You sound like you have more important things to do then say hello to your boyfriend who loves you and misses you."

"You know that's not true Derek."

"Well it seems like it from the sound of your voice."

"I don't have time to fight with you right now and I don't want to have another fight with you. I have a set of parents coming in 10 minutes and I need to get ready. I'll call you later okay?"

"I'm busy later. I told you I have a seminar."

"Okay, fine. I'm done with my meetings at 3:00 so you can call me whenever you have time after that."

"Love you Meredith."

"I love you too."

This conversation was not the way that either of them had wanted to start the morning. Meredith knew that she was being pissy and Derek knew that he was being confrontational but things were tense at the time and it seemed like that was how everything came out.

Derek shut his phone and went into the meeting that had already started. He slipped in unnoticed and sat there not paying attention to what the speaker was saying but thinking of what to do about the problem with Meredith.

Meredith let out a sigh of frustration and decided to put those issues out of her mind for the time being because she couldn't be distracted during her conferences. Parents noticed everything and boy problems were definitely not a reasonable excuse to them as to why she wasn't doing the best she could in talking about her students. The receptionist came in to tell her that Jack Harris parents were waiting. She turned her cell phone off and went to the office to begin her day.

At lunch time, Derek was feeling bad that he hadn't paid much attention to the seminar. He had taken a great interest in Alzheimer's research and now he wasn't contributing anything. He decided to go to the ferryboats during his lunch break to try and clear his head.

When he got there, he was surprised to see Addison standing at the front of the boat. Derek tried to sneak away before she saw him, but she saw him out of the corner of her eye.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is."

"Addison," Derek said, acknowledging her.

"Where's your little girlfriend?" she said rudely.

"Work."

From Derek's distractedness and his stark one word answers, Addison sensed that something was wrong.

"Uh oh. Trouble in paradise?"

"That's none of your business."

"Why are you so hostile Derek?"

"Hostile? You cheated on me, insult my girlfriend and now you expect me to be nice to you? Are you delusional?"

"Derek…"

He cut her off before she could continue.

"I don't want to hear it," Derek said walking away.

He needed to head back to the hospital for the end of the seminar. He looked at his watch and noticed that it was only 1:30 meaning it was too early to call Meredith. Derek wanted to meet up with her and talk because he wanted nothing more than to work out the issues they were currently having. He decided that no matter what point they were at, at 3:00 he would leave and go to Meredith's. He just hoped that she would be there and was willing to talk to him.

Meredith finished her last conference for the day. Despite the day's distractions and her late night, all of the meetings went very well. She didn't have much to complain about because her students were very well behaved and their parents were also very nice people.

Her students left at 2:30 and she sat at her desk trying to think of what do. She finally decided and called Derek to leave him a message.

"Hi Derek. It's Meredith. I know you're at your seminar thing but I just wanted to call you and leave a message. We really need to talk so call me back when you get this."

When Derek heard this message, he got very worried. "We need to talk" are the worst words that you can hear from your girlfriend. He then noticed that she didn't say I love you at the end of the message and he had a really bad feeling about what was going to come when they talked later that night.

A/N: Drama drama drama. How do you all like it? Things are going to get bad, but I promise they will get better. REVIEW!