"That's time, people. Please place your pencil down on the table in front of you and stay seated. I will collect the tests before you are allowed to leave."

A series of groans erupted from various parts of the room. Meredith looked up; she had just started the second review of her answers. Dutifully placing her pencil down on the table, she sighed, grateful the test was finished. Overall she was confident with her answers, but only time would tell. She passed her test papers to the proctor as he walked by. After he passed by, she met eyes with George, who offered her a shrug and a wry smile. She returned the smile, revelling in the feeling of being done. No more studying and stress, she couldn't change what had happened now. A sudden swell of gratitude towards Derek hit her. That he knew her enough to stop her from studying in order to calm her down...

"Okay, people, you can go."

Meredith filed out of the room, only to be pulled out of the line as she tried to walk by.

"How did it go? Did it go okay? Did you know the answer to thirty-three, cause I wasn't sure. First I thought A for sure, but then when I went back, I thought maybe C. I'm not sure. Do you know?"

Meredith had to laugh at her best friend's antics. "Cristina, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Christa gave her an incredulous stare as they made they're way out of the testing room, bumping into their three fellow interns. "How could you not know?"

"Know what?" Izzy asked.

Cristina rolled her eyes. "The answer to thirty-three."

Izzy nodded. "The nephrology question? I wasn't sure either. I chose A."

"Damn," Cristina muttered. "I was thinking A, but then I changed to C."

Izzy thought for a moment, and then she nodded. "You may be right, Cristina. It definitely could have been C." George and Alex nodded their agreement. They turned to Meredith.

She shook her head. "I still don't know which question you're talking about. There was more than one neph question."

"She didn't have trouble with thirty-three?" Alex asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Evidently not," Cristina replied.

"Oh, well then," Izzy said. "We shouldn't be seen speaking to her."

"Exactly what I was thinking," said Alex with a smirk towards Meredith that told her he, along with her, had no idea what question they were talking about, but he was going along with it anyway. She shook her head at him and he quirked his eyebrows in response.

They turned to go.

"Hey, this so isn't fair," Meredith called. "Come on guys. Seriously? Cristina!"

Cristina turned to her person, a glint in her eyes. "I'm sorry Mer, but I have a wedding to prepare for."

"And I suppose that in preparation you still expect me to throw your bachelorette party?"

Cristina only nodded. "Of course. I'll see you at seven. Come on, guys," she added to the rest of the group, who turned to follow her down the hall.

"Cristina!" She called, but to no response. "Izzy! Alex!" Izzy glanced at her with a laughing smile and Alex simply raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "George!"

George paused and turned to face her. "Apparently we're not talking to you, Mer." He shrugged. "Sorry." And with that he turned and hurried to catch up.

Meredith laughed. "You guys suck!" She called after them. Her friends definitely had their quirks, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She glanced at her watch, wondering if Derek was still in surgery. It had only been scheduled to start two hours ago, so he must still be there. She headed towards the gallery.

OOOOO

Derek closed his eyes and took a breath, stretching upwards in an attempt to work some of the tension out of his back. He rolled his neck side to side a few times before resuming his work. He glanced at the time, and in doing so, caught one of the scrub nurses giving him a look of concern. It was not unusual for a surgeon to take a momentary break to stretch his body, but it was unusual for him to have done so as often as he had in the past three hours. He was unsure as to be surprised by how quick or how slow this operation was progressing. In one way it seemed as if he had just begun, in another he felt like he had been standing over that table forever. Meredith should have been out of her exam for a little over an hour by now and he wondered if it had gone okay. He hoped it had more than anything. Derek shook his head free of all external thoughts and refocused on his patient.

It was close to an hour later, well past the critical phase of the surgery that he looked up again, this time, his gaze climbing higher than the wall clock and meeting the eyes of the lone woman sitting in the gallery. He was not performing a ground breaking operation, so it was no surprise to him that the gallery was empty upon his commencement of the surgery. But he had not even noticed her entrance. If she had now been out of her exam for two hours, he wondered how long she had been sitting there. Surely not the whole time. But he couldn't recall glancing up at the gallery before, so he couldn't be sure one way or another.

Meredith smiled when she saw Derek look up at her. He had been so intent on his work that she was pretty sure he had not previously been aware of her presence. She offered him a bright smile. He returned it, but even behind his cap and mask, she knew it did not nearly reach his eyes. He seemed off. She smiled again, nodding her head, trying to communicate that her test had gone well, that she was thankful to him for saving her, that she loved him. She hoped she could convey that much to him with a smile and a nod.

Derek stared upwards as long as he felt he could without concerning his surgical team. Meredith smiled at him, and it didn't look false, didn't look like she was putting up a false front. He took that to be a good sign. She smiled again, nodding her head in the process, and he knew. Knew her test had gone well. Knew she wasn't upset about it. This put him at ease, at least for the time being. He nodded back up at her and got back to work, a weight off his shoulders as his pace picked up and his skilled fingers fixed the remainder of the damage.

After he passed his patient off to a resident to close for him, Derek glanced upwards towards the gallery, noting his girlfriend's absence; he hadn't even noticed her leave, nor had any idea how long she had been gone. He scrubbed out and made towards the waiting room to tell the patient's family to good news. The tumour had been removed successfully.

"Hey," a familiar voice called to him as he stepped out the door of the surgical area and into the main hallway.

He turned, smiling at her hurrying form. She must have just left the gallery. "Hey, yourself. How did it go?" He questioned as carefully as he could, his heart thudding.

"Great," she said as she lifted her arms up, around his neck, barely slowing her pace in the process.

Derek laughed lightly as her weight slammed against him. He returned the gesture, his arms wrapping tightly around her waist. Ducking his head, he buried his nose into the crook of her neck and breathed her in.

"At least I hope it went great. I think it did," she continued, still holding him tightly, her arms around his neck and one hand wrapped around the curls near the bottom of his head.

Derek pulled back far enough to see her. He nodded his head. "That's good."

Meredith nodded as well. "Yeah, it is. I got to check over the whole thing once, and was just starting a second review when I ran out of time, but that's okay, right?" She smiled up at him and breathed.

Derek nodded again. "That's okay, Meredith, that's good. If you review too much, you second guess yourself."

Meredith smiled and pulled him close again, closing her eyes as she took a moment to lay her head on his shoulder, momentarily happy to simply be close to him.

Derek glanced around warily as he rested his head against hers, taking a moment to simply revel in her nearness. The hallway was all-but deserted, but you could never be too careful in Seattle Grace and he knew she didn't like to make big shows of their relationship at work. But right now, he decided he just didn't care; he just needed to be close to her. He leaned his head onto hers, breathing in the lavender of her hair. She sighed, shifting slightly as she breathed and then relaxed into his grasp again as he gently rubbed her back.

When she finally pulled away, she rested a hand gently against his cheek. "Thank-you," she whispered.

He placed a hand over hers. "For what?"

She smiled. "For being you, for making me calm down, for knowing I could do it. Knowing that you had faith in me...well, it really helped. I think it was the only thing that got me through that test."

Derek swallowed, feeling a stinging behind his eyes. He didn't know what to say to that. Apparently Meredith understood and moved the conversation onwards as she gripped his hand gently and pulled it downwards, now holding it between both of her hands. She squeezed tight.

"So, anyway, I have to get going soon, got to go get drinks and food and things for Cristina's party. Izzy is supposed to help me...but I'm not sure if she's talking to me yet..." She shrugged.

"Why isn't she talking to you?"

"Oh, none of my friends are talking to me," Meredith responded. "Because I didn't have trouble with question thirty-three."

"What was question thirty-three?"

Meredith shook her head. "I have no idea." She laughed.

Derek had to laugh at the antics her friends got up to. He had never quite known friendship like theirs. When he was at her place in life, he had already been married, so the whole friends being family thing had just never happened. He didn't quite understand it, but he was glad she had it.

"So, anyway, I have to get going. I guess I won't see you till the wedding tomorrow, or are you planning on crashing my party?" She asked jokingly.

"Oh, right, I have to tell you. Apparently Preston's best man bailed, so he asked me to step in. I'm throwing my own party tonight."

Meredith laughed. "You're throwing a bachelor party?"

He nodded.

"Where? In the trailer?" She joked.

"Oh, ha ha," he said. "Make fun of the trailer. If you must know, I'm having it at Joe's."

"Joe's? Not very exclusive." She raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "Hey, give me a break. He asked me like five minutes before surgery. A little short notice."

Meredith laughed. "What's the guest list like?"

Derek shrugged. "I'm up to two."

"Who?"

He smiled. "Me, and Preston."

She laughed again. "Derek, you two don't count."

"Then I got nothing."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, then seeing as you'll be in town tonight, why not stop by when you're wild party is over."

He smiled, his hands finding her hips as he leaned close to her. "I may just take you up on that."

"Good, because the whole Best Man, Maid of Honour thing," she stated. "Too good to ignore." She leaned upwards and kissed him, pulling away after a few seconds before smiling and vacating the space in front of him. He watched her wander down the hall and sighed, sending an umpteenth silent prayer to whoever would listen that she had passed the test. Because if she hadn't... No, he couldn't think like that. Not unless he had to. His heart constricted at the thought. He pushed it from his mind, and focussed on the patient's family he had to inform, and then he had a party to throw.