A/N: Sorry I didn't update earlier this morning. I went to the mall and then I had to work on my college essay. I was at NY and Company admiring the pictures of Ellen and Patrick on the walls. I was trying to find the stuff that Ellen is wearing, but I'm really short and petite so nothing fit me.

Chapter 47: Dating

Ellis was released from the hospital the next day and Meredith went back to work. Her co-workers were surprised to see her so upbeat and happy and she had Derek to thank for that. Meredith hadn't told anybody at the school that she had gotten back together with Derek. They had known that she had broken up with him because for the few days after she was very upset and wasn't acting like herself. Meredith was glad to let everybody know that she and Derek were back together and taking things slow.

Meredith was sitting in her classroom, waiting for the students to arrive, when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Good morning Meredith."

Meredith smiled, "Good morning Derek."

"How are you?"

"I'm doing really well. My mom was released this morning."

"Yeah, I know. She's doing really well. She just has to come back in a couple weeks for an MRI to make sure that everything is okay."

"Thank you. You've been so much help through all of this."

"Your very welcome, Mer."

"Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"I'm going into surgery in about a half hour but I wanted to call and ask you if you wanted to have dinner with me tonight because we're dating."

"Yes we are dating."

"Pick you up at 8?"

"See you then."

"Have a good day Meredith."

"You too, Derek."

Meredith hung up the phone. Hearing Derek's voice that morning made her very happy and made her believe that today was going to be a very good. The day went by pretty quickly and her students were very well behaved considering she hadn't been there for a week.

After school, she went home to get ready for her date. Derek hadn't told her where they were going so she figured it was going to be another one of his surprises. The only difficult thing about his surprises was trying to find something to wear. The only thing she could thing to do was call him and ask.

"Hello?"

"It's me."

"Hi you. Shouldn't you be getting ready for our date?"

"I should but you never tell me where we're going so I never know what to wear. Could you help me out?"

"Well I'm not telling you where we're going but I can tell you that there is no need to dress up. I just have some paperwork to finish up and I'll be there to pick you up.

"See you soon."

"Looking forward to it."

Meredith hung up and then went and got dressed in nice jeans, heels and a sweater. She put on a little bit of makeup and fixed her hair and then went downstairs to wait for Derek to come.

"You look nice. Going out?" Izzie asked, as she ate a plate of the leftover lasagna from the night before.

"Yeah I am. I have a date with Derek."

"A date? Aren't you two past dating?"

"No. We're taking things slow. We're dating. No sex…"

"No sex? Wow. I'm proud Mer. But that's not going to happen."

"Why does everybody say that to me?"

"Because Mer. Anytime you two look at each other, it looks like you just want to do it right then and there."

"I can have self control."

"Okay…Whatever you say Mer." Izzie said, getting up from the table and putting her plate in the sink.

Just as Meredith was about to defend herself, the doorbell rang.

"That's Derek."

Meredith went and opened the door.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you. You're not too hard on the eyes yourself."

Derek always looked great. He had an amazing body and beautiful, piercing blue eyes. When she saw him standing outside, she just wanted to grab him and go upstairs to her bedroom. Meredith realized how hard it was going to be to resist having sex with him and she knew that he wasn't going to accept what she said, but he wasn't going to push her into doing anything she wasn't ready for.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yup. I just need to grab my coat."

Meredith went to closet and got her jacket and then left the house with Derek. As usual, she had no idea where he was taking her but she never worried because she trusted him more than anyone.

After awhile, Meredith figured out where they were going – the ferryboats.

"We're going to the ferryboats?" she asked with a smile.

"I guess the secret's out. I just thought that since its our place, it was the best place for our second first date."

"I definitely agree."

Derek parked the car and then came around and opened the door for her. He had always been a perfect gentleman to her. He took her hand and helped her out of the car. They bought their tickets and then got onto the boat. Meredith went to the front of the boat while Derek went and bought them each a cup of hot chocolate

He came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around Meredith, handing her the cup of hot chocolate.

"Thank you."

"Anything for you."

They just stood there, drinking their coffee and looking out at the water, keeping each other warm with their body heat. The boat docked and they headed to the restaurant next door for some dinner. They each ordered and just sat there talking, eating, and catching up on what had happened while they were apart.

After dinner, Derek took Meredith back to her house. He was trying to make her want him more and more and was pretty sure that she wouldn't want their date to end that soon. Once they got home, Derek walked her up to the door.

"Dinner was really good. Thank you."

"Like I said before, anything for you."

"It's still a little early, so, you could come in…"

"I could?" he said, moving towards her.

"For coffee. You could come in for coffee."

"Coffee sounds good," he said, moving a little bit closer.

"Yea…coffee is good…" Meredith said, her lips only inches from Derek's.

She had never said anything about no kissing. But Meredith knew that once she got started she wouldn't be able to stop.

"Coffee is very good," Derek said and then leaned in and kiss Meredith softly on the lips.

Derek cupped Meredith's face with his hand and she put her hands on his shoulders. The kiss began to get heated and Derek opened the door and led them inside. George and Izzie were in the kitchen when the two of them came stumbling in the door. They were quietly laughing, because they knew that Meredith wasn't going to be able to resist him. When they got to the base of the stairs, Derek picked Meredith up and carried her up to her room. He closed the door to her room with his foot and lay her down on the bed and slowly crawled on top of her. He was about to start kissing her again when she put her hand on his chest and stopped him.

"Derek, we can't do this. Remember, the taking it slow thing?"

"I do remember. Does that mean we can't kiss? Because you know how much I like kissing."

"No, I didn't say anything about no kissing. But if we get started Derek, I don't think I'll be able to stop myself and…"

"What's wrong with that? It's not like we haven't slept together before. I vaguely remember being in this bed oh…3 nights ago?"

"Yeah, we were," Meredith said, scooting to the end of the bed, "But it's not right right now."

Derek moved over next to her, "Meredith, you know that I'm just kidding with you right? I would never push you to do anything you didn't want to. So, whenever you're ready, it's alright with me. Just don't make it too long okay?"

She laughed, "Okay. I promise. But, um, you should go home right now because if you don't then…you know, so out of here," she said, pushing him off the bed.

They went downstairs and Meredith kissed Derek goodnight and closed the door. She went into the kitchen where Izzie and George were still eating dessert.

"That was fast," Izzie said.

"What do you mean?" Meredith said, grabbing a cookie.

"Usually when the two of you go upstairs together, you're not back down here for a very long time, and it's usually not that quiet."

"I already told you, we're not sleeping together."

"You two were going at it pretty heavy when you came into the house. You didn't sleep with him?"

"No," Meredith said laughing, "Like I said earlier, I do have some self control. He went home."

Izzie sighed and handed George a wad of money. They had been betting on whether Meredith good resist sleeping with Derek and George won. Meredith just glared at them and rolled her eyes.

A/N: I had a really hard time writing this chapter. I don't know why. I don't think it's that good. I'm sort of in a rut. I have no good ideas right now. So, let me know what you guys want to see. REVIEWS! Where are all my reviews?