A/N: I know it's been a really long time since I updated so I'll just apologize profusely and go on with the story…

Chapter 59: Been In Love Ever Since

The next few months passed pretty quickly. Since Meredith didn't have school, she spent most of her time working on wedding plans. Izzie helped when she wasn't at the hospital and even Cristina was of some assistance, considering she had done a little bit of the work for her own wedding. The only person who didn't help much was Derek, because Meredith wouldn't let him. She joked that they would end up with footballs as centerpieces and tuna fish sandwiches as the main course.

One night Meredith was sitting at the kitchen table looking through a book with pictures of places for the ceremony and reception. Derek was sitting across the table paying bills and working on some paper work for the hospital.

"Hey Der?"

"Hmm?" he answered, not even looking up.

"When's your next day off?"

"Derek put his pen down and looked up at Meredith, "Thursday. Why?"

"I've picked out a couple of places to choose from for the wedding and I was wondering if you wanted to go look at them with me."

"I thought I wasn't allowed to help," Derek said in a fake mocking tone.

"There are some things you can help with and some you can't. And this is one you can because it's your wedding too and I want you to at least like the place where we get married."

"I'm just kidding Mer. Of course I'll come with you."

"Thursday?"

"It's a date," he said, "So where are we looking?"

"Um, a couple places. I think that it'd be easier to have the ceremony and reception at the same place. It would be easier for us and the guests wouldn't have to drive all of the place."

"Whatever you want is fine with me," Derek said, with a smile.

The next Thursday they left the house and headed to the first possible spot, one of Seattle's ritziest hotels. Meredith had made an appointment for a tour. She gave her name to the receptionist to let them know that they were there and then went and sat down to wait.

"So what do you think?" Meredith asked sitting down next to Derek on a couch in the lobby.

"It's really nice, but you can't judge a hotel by its lobby."

"Meredith laughed and stuck her tongue out at Derek just as the hotel's wedding planner walked up.

"You must be the bride-to-be," she said reaching out to shake Meredith's hand, "I'm Laura Roberts, my assistance spoke to you on the phone."

"Meredith Grey," she answered, untangling herself from Derek and standing up and shaking Laura's hand, "This is my fiancé Derek Shepherd."

Derek stood up to shake her hand and Laura couldn't take her eyes off of the man standing in front of her. She couldn't help but be jealous of the woman he was marrying and whose wedding she may be responsible for planning.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Grey, Mr. Shepherd," she said, coming out of her stupor.

"Actually, it's Dr. Shepherd," Derek corrected.

"Pardon me, Dr. Shepherd" she said flirtatiously, swooning even more now that she knew he was a doctor.

Meredith realized what was happening but decided not to make a big deal about it, figuring that the woman was just trying to be nice and make a good impression so that she would get their business.

"So the first place I'm going to show is the bridal suite. If you'll follow me, we'll go upstairs."

Derek took Meredith's hand and they followed Laura into an elevator and headed up to the 8th floor.

"So how did you two meet?" Laura asked as the elevator door closed.

"Actually, we met at our friends wedding. Meredith stepped on my foot and then I asked her to dance with me and I've been with love with her ever since," Derek explained, looking at Meredith with a huge smile on his face.

Laura was envious of their romantic meeting and the looks that Derek was giving Meredith. For all of her life, she had dreamed of having someone look at her that way and even though he was engaged, the man standing in front of her seemed to be the perfect candidate.

"So when did you get engaged?" she asked.

"June. And we want to have the wedding in February" Meredith answered.

"That's a long engagement. Why are you waiting so long?"

"I'm a neurosurgeon and the holidays tend to be the craziest, busiest times and I have a few conferences coming up so we didn't want to be rushed with the planning," Derek explained as they got off the elevator and followed Laura to the bridal suite.

"A neurosurgeon?" Laura said, raising her eyebrows, "Impressive."

Her actions didn't go unnoticed by Meredith who was beginning to dislike the woman more and more each time she spoke.

"So this is the bridal suite," Laura said, closing the door, "It has a living room, bedroom with a king size bed, and a very large bathroom with a tub with jets."

"It's amazing," Derek said, taking Meredith's hand and walking around the suite.

Despite disliking the woman who was giving the tour, Derek was right. The suite was beautiful and she could imagine getting ready and then spending her wedding night in that room.

"Shall we go downstairs to the ballroom?"

"Yea, sure," Meredith answered, still in awe.

They all got back into the elevator and headed to the bottom floor. The hallway where the ballrooms were was elegantly decorated, and there wasn't even an event planned for that day. They went into the largest room of all of them, and Derek took Meredith's hand and led her to the center of the room. Laura just watched. She realized how in love he was with her, but people's feelings changed, and she was intent on changing Derek's feelings so that they were aimed towards her instead.

They finished up the tour, looking at the room where the ceremony would take place and the bride's room. They got Laura's card and headed back out to the car.

"So what do you think?" Derek asked, starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot.

"I loved it. It's amazing."

"I agree. Do you even want to look at the other place?"

"No…No, I want to take this place. But, we need a different wedding planner," Meredith said, adamantly.

"Why? Laura seemed really nice."

"Derek, she was flirting with you. So clearly flirting with you, and right in front of me. The woman who's wedding we were talking about."

"She was just trying to be nice Mer. I think she'd do a really good job. Let's just give her a chance okay?"

"Fine," Meredith said, unable to resist Derek's charm.

They headed back to the house for dinner, and to tell Izzie and George all about the place they had found for the wedding.

A/N: I hope you guys liked it!!! I wrote it during school because I felt really bad about not having posted anything. I hope you all haven't deserted me!!!!!!!!! If you haven't, you know what to do…click that little purple button and…REVIEW!!!