Beep, beep, beep

The sound of her alarm clock stirred her from her reoccurring nightmare. She rolled over and stretched, the stress from the memory taking its toll on her body. She looked around her room, the suns bright beams revealing the dusts motes hiding place.

She lay in bed staring at the ceiling waiting for her heart to slow down. The steady thud, thud, thud showing the affect the memory still had on her. The fan blades circled at a steady pace, stirring the restless motes into new positions, her mind swirling with the air.

How could it be that she still remembered the exact way his warm, musky breath smelt? The way his hands felt as they slowly slid up her thigh? When would she forget?

It had been nearly five years since that night, and still it was hanging in the air swirling similar to the dust motes.

Meredith sighed and rolled over on her side. Her body was finally accepting the fact that all of this was just a memory. Her eyes caught the pictures on her night stand. Her graduation day photo was the first one she saw. The next framed picture being her diploma its self, and the last breaking through her bad mood and making her smile. She looked into the picture, a perfect face smiling back at her.

Meredith picked the picture up and wiped it off, so she could get a better view, her heart growing just a bit more from the sheer memory of this picture. As she went to set the picture back on the nightstand, she heard the floor boards squeak.

Meredith sat up and leaned against the headboard preparing herself for who she knew was coming, she herself getting a little excited.

She saw as the door to her bedroom creaked open ever so gentle, and then heard a soft voice whisper "Mommy..?"

A grin pulled up at the corners of her mouth. Green eyes clashed with a pair of soft blue one, and Meredith felt all of her worries fade for a second.

The tiny boy shuffled forward as Meredith reached her arms out.

She lifted him onto the bed and held him in an embrace, "Good morning baby."

"Mornin' momma," the blonde haired little boy yawned and smiled at his mother, relaxing into her touch.

"How did you sleep?" she ran her fingers through his ruffled hair, a faint sent of her shampoo coming from his head. She wondered how his hair managed to stay so soft, with all of his rambunctious acts throughout his days.

"Good," the toddler looked up at his mother "what's for breakfast?"

Meredith thought about. She wasn't in the mood to cook, seeing as she only knew how to cook pancakes, and she really needed to get out.

She looked at her son, grinning "How about we go out for breakfast."

He nodded his head eagerly, his smile widening. Meredith picked him up and helped him off her bed.

"Well go get dressed, and we will leave." She smiled as she watched his stumble his way to his room a little ways down the hall. She loved her son more than anything in the world. He had the ability to brighten her mood without even trying. Even under the circumstances she received him, she couldn't imagine her life without him.

Meredith stepped back into her room and quickly slipped some clothes on, leaving her hair down, just combing through some of the morning time kinks in it. She grabbed her keys and called out to her son.

"You ready to go?"

"Almost!" he replied in an occupied voice.

She closed the door to her room, walking towards his door. As she walked she caught glimpses of the many pictures she hung of them, each reminding her of how much she loved him.

When she reached his door she slowly peeked into his room asking quietly, "Need help?"

The sight in front of Meredith was enough to make her giggle. Standing in front of her was the boy wearing jeans, a Superman shirt, the cap off of his Spiderman costume, and his shoes on the opposite feet. If she wasn't in such a rush she would have taken a picture of him.

She quickly walked towards him, her hands already reaching for the Spiderman cap.

"Dean," she said with a sigh, "you can wear Spiderman and Superman. And since its way too hot outside to be wearing this mask were going to with Superman."

Dean face immediately became pouty and he opened his mouth to protest, "But mommy!"

Meredith cut him off, "No buts." She said firmly though she felt a little bad. "I will make a trade with you though. If I can have this cap you can wear your superman shoes."

The little boy sat and thought about it, biting his lip in a way so similar to what she did when she was deep in thought. "Can I bring Ted?" he asked referring to his favorite teddy bear with the most contemplative face on.

"Yes of course you can," Meredith agreed quickly knowing this would be the best offer she got. She reached for the mask and pulled it off his face, grabbing a brush and attempting to tame his unruly hair. She slipped the shoes off his feet and replacing them with his promised shoes. Meredith stood and examined her son smiling. "Alright, let's go kid."

Dean ran to grab his teddy bear, and followed Meredith out the front door. He reached out and grabbed her hand not really thinking about it. She smiled down at him and lifted him into his car seat, buckling him in safely. She hopped into the driver's side of the car and began the short drive to the breakfast café, Dean talking the whole way there.

When they finally arrive to the Outside Café, Meredith had heard her sons rambling become more and more animated. He even explained the different characters of his favorite tv show.

"… and then Sandy played the guitar on top of her house and sang 'I wanna go hoooommmeee hoooomme' and everybody cried" he explained excitedly.

"uh huh," She said in a half listen. She got out of the car and went to unbuckle him out of his car seat. She set him down on his feet and grabbed his hand. They walked towards the door, and as reached for the door she saw another hand reaching for the door too. She pause, her hand still in mid air, but so did the other person. Stuck in an awkward moment she turned her head to meet his.

"Excuse me," she began to say.

At that moment her eyes met his and this tingling went down her spine. He smiled at her and the feeling got a little stronger.

"No, excuse me" he smiled again and opened the door holding it open for her "you first."

Meredith blushed and looked down at Dean, who was hiding behind her leg. She squeezed his hand "Let's go eat."

She walked up to the counter, a girl not much younger than her looked up and smiled at her.

"Hello welcome to the Outside Café, a table for three?"

She looked at the man with the strong blue eyes from earlier and blushed yet again. For some reason she wished that he was there with them, but why? Why did she feel this way about a stranger, somebody she didn't even know?

"No, just two." She reached down and picked Dean up, noticing he had been unusually quiet. The waitress smiled at her and picked up two menus, leading her towards the door to the tables outside. She pulled a chair out and set Dean down. She looked at the tables around her. There was a family of three sitting to her right, a couple which looked enthralled with each other, was sitting behind Dean, and a man sitting alone was behind her.

She sat down and looked over her menu, deciding what she wanted to eat.

"You know what you want to eat?" Meredith asked Dean, seeing the contemplative look on his face again.

"I can't choose between sausage and bacon," he said.

She smiled at him seeing his little problems as a sign of his youth. Being five years old must be really hard, she thought with sarcasm. "How about we get both and we can share."

"Okay," He replied.

When the waitress came back over she ordered both of their meals. Meredith sat at the table silently, listening to her son began again his ramble again.

When their food arrived they began to eat in a comfortable semi silence, Dean speaking every now and then, but mostly enjoying the food. She heard the man behind her was now in conversation with somebody, but she didn't bother to turn around to see who the other man was.

After they finished their food and Meredith paid the bill, they stood to leave. At that same moment the man behind her also stood up causing them to bump into each other. She felt herself stumble, a watch as the ground became closer to her. She closed her eyes waiting for the impact, but it didn't come. The warmth of a strong pair of arms began to seep into her skin. She opened her eyes, and green clashed with deep blue.

Meredith closed her eyes again trying to make the embarrassing moment go away, but no matter how hard she tried she could still feel the tingle of his skin on hers. He set her upright, but let his hands linger on his arms to make sure her balance was okay again. She found herself blushing yet again, wondering when that would stop happening.

"I'm sorry," she said "I really don't mean to keep running into you, but it seems God wants my to humiliate myself today. Crap! I just said God maybe your atheist, which I wouldn't know cause you're a complete stranger so not God, maybe fate wants it to happen, and it has a weird sense of humor because fate wants me to humiliate myself in front of the hot guy I met at the breakfast café." She watched as a small smirk grew on his face, then she realized what she said."Crap now you think I'm a stalker because I noticed you were cute and you are but I'm not stalking you and I'm gonna shut up now before I make a complete and total idiot of myself." Meredith stopped talking the lack of air during her ramble causing her to breathe fast.

"Okay," he said his smirk becoming a grin, "I didn't understand most of that, so how bout we start off with names, after all I did save your life." His grin became a full blown smile.

Meredith felt her heart speed up as she reached her hand out to meet his.

"Meredith," she said grasping onto his hand. She felt a small hand grab onto her leg, and looked down at Dean a sleepy expression on his face.

She looked back up to the strangers face and connected eyes with him again as he said his name with smile still on his face.

"Derek."