Meredith awoke the next morning to a ringing. She slowly sat up, feeling the hangover kicking in from the night before. She was a tangled mess in the sheets of her bed. Her elbow brushed against something soft and warm. She looked over to see Derek fast asleep, laying next to her. Ringing. What is that ringing? She looked around and found it was coming from Derek's pants on the floor. She reached down and slid the phone out of the pocket of his jeans. The phone's caller ID read: Addison.
Derek stirred beside her. He opened his eyes and smiled that he was lying next to his love, "Good morning," he whispered, planting small kisses from her shoulder to her neck. She could feel the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
She handed his phone to him, the screen showed five missed calls. "She's been calling you all morning, I think." Meredith, wrapped herself in the blanket she was tangled in and walked over to her bathroom.
"Don't be mad," he tried, searching her face for any kind of emotion.
"I'm not mad."
"You don't look happy," he tried.
She stood and looked back and forth into his eyes. "What am I supposed to say? I'm not happy about the fact your wife is calling, looking for you. I love you, Derek, but I know this is hurting her. You need to talk to her."
He sat up, "I am. Tonight. I'll talk to her tonight."
He sounded convincing. "Ok." She turned and continued to walk into the bathroom.
"Where are you going?"
"To shower. I have rounds in an hour," she said, motioning to the clock next to him. He laid back down, and decided he would try to get a little more sleep before they had to leave.
Once they were both showered and ready, they headed downstairs into the kitchen. Derek poured himself a bowl of cereal, as always, while Meredith picked up a piece of left-over pizza from the day before. "Are you really going to eat that?" He looked at her. She gave him a smile and bit into it. They both laughed. "I don't know how you can handle pizza in the morning."
"Hurry up, we're going to be late," she grabbed her thermos and filled it with coffee that Izzy must have made earlier that morning. She walked over and stood next to him, so he pulled her down onto his lap.
"I'm going to take my time and enjoy waking up in the morning with the woman I love. I took advantage of those days before."
"Well, as long as all goes well today with Addison, you'll get to spend every morning you want here," she looked at him, trying to figure out what he was thinking.
"I will. She's probably going to stay in the trailer until she can get a flight back to New York."
"You can stay here," she offered. He smiled and kissed her cheek. "Let's go, I can't afford to be late. I'm going to get enough crap from everyone that heard what happened last night, I don't need my friends to have any other reason to be mad at me."
They left and went to the hospital for what they knew was going to be a long day.