I don't know what to say about this chapter. So right now we have Meredith and Derek together, but they have to keep it secret until the end of the semester at least. They can't acknowledge that they know each other in class (well more than casual acquaintances), can't go out on dates, etc. I think that would get pretty old pretty fast. And there's some lingering trust issues. So this is what I see happening. I think there's about four more chapters along with two epilogues. Do people like getting them once or twice a day or should I just put them all up?
A week later, Meredith and Derek lie in bed together not an hour before class is supposed to begin. Derek had woken her up extra early to get in a vigorous bout of love-making. He had said otherwise he wouldn't be able to stop thinking about making love to her all the while that he was supposed to be teaching bright young minds. She had argued that she was one of those bright young minds, and lack of sleep would keep her from paying attention in class, but she hadn't really meant it. So now she lay curled up along his side, her head laying on his chest in a relaxing repose. His chest still moves with his labors, the sweat on their bodies still lingering.
Plus, she doesn't know when she will get to see him again. They usually give him Monday and Wednesday afternoons off to do class things, but a couple of times he had gotten paged in for an emergency patient. Sometimes he even had to go into his office and meet with students. Their first mid-term was coming up and some of the students were starting to get a little antsy. That reminded her: find time to study for that exam. She had been keeping up with homework and reading assignments for her other classes, but somehow all of that extra time she had set aside for exam studying just seemed to fly out the window when he was around. She wondered when exactly he had time to actually prepare materials for class. He had shown up here late last night after his shift at the hospital and fallen straight asleep. Until this morning, that is.
"What are you thinking about?" He asks in the peaceful silence.
It doesn't seem right to tell him about her lack of studying for his class, so she says instead, "I'm thinking if you don't get your ass up, you're going to be late for your own class."
She giggles when he tickles her with his scruff and says, "But I don't want to go! You can't make me." Where he proceeds to roll her over onto her back and snuggle into her chest.
"You're the teacher, you have to go." She giggles, laughing at his little boy antics.
"But I don't want to." He says in the voice of a petulant child. "I'm just going to stay right here all day."
She looks over at the clock and knows if she doesn't get going, there's not going to be time for both of them to shower and grab a quick coffee. She reluctantly slides out from under the covers, saying, "Well, these babies are moving to the shower."
When she slides out from under him, his head just slides down to the mattress. He does reluctantly raise himself up, and mutters, "You're mean. Just mean mean mean."
"You're the one that woke me up early." She responds, emphasizing the 'me' part. She can't help smiling at the way his hair sticks up in all directions though, and the glimpse she gets of his virile body before he wraps a sheet around his waist.
"You didn't tell me to stop." He says with a kiss to her temple as they both blearily head to the bathroom. No she didn't. She most certainly had not. Why would she want to?
That thought keeps her smiling all through their morning shower and toiletries. Well, that and various kisses in between. In fact, she's still smiling as she comes down the stairs fully dressed and ready for class. Derek had hopped out a quart of an hour before so that he could grab coffee and be at class before her. No use doing all of this sneaking around if they were going to be caught snuggling at the local Starbuck's. Only three more months, only three more months, she repeats to herself.
"Could you please stop smiling? I haven't had my morning coffee yet." Christina quips as she meets her in the front hallway.
"What? I have a lot to be smiley about." She answers with a smile as she locks the front door, and they make their way down the few blocks it takes to fill their morning quota of java.
"I know. I'm just jealous." Christina deadpans with a sigh.
"You? Jealous?" Meredith says disbelievingly.
"Okay, not jealous, just horny by association."
If Meredith had had coffee at that moment, she would have spit it out. Instead, she just laughs.
"Okay, that is a new one, even for you."
"It's just not fair! You guys give off pheromones or something."
"We do?" Meredith asks in distress. If Christina can see it, then anyone else can. She really doesn't want Derek to get fired, but she can't make herself give up the tiny piece of him she does have. It's not like they can actually go on real dates or anything. Hanover is just too small of a town.
"Meredith, he only has to look at you and you combust. You practically have eye sex in class every day." Christina points out with a small amount of disgust.
"No we don't!" She protests. "At least, I don't."
Christina only rolls her eyes at that. "Just deal with it. He stares, you crumble. End of story."
"But this is bad. I mean, he could lose his job if anyone found out."
"Oh yeah, and what about you?" Christina suddenly asks angrily.
Meredith stops to face her when she hears the vehemence in her friend's voice. "What do you mean, what about me?"
"What about YOU, Meredith? He's not the only one who could suffer if this got out. He's a Duke, Meredith. He doesn't need this job. He might want this job, but he doesn't NEED it. But this is your career. What do you really know about him, anyway?"
Meredith is taken aback by her friend's anger. "I know lots of things about him." She harrumphs.
"Oh yeah, then tell me where he lives." Christina counters while crossing her arms and glaring at her.
She's got her there. She doesn't know where he lives. It just hadn't seemed that important. Her apartment is only a few blocks from campus, so naturally they just ended up there. "It just never came up." She glares back.
"It just never came up." Christina grumbles to herself as she starts walking forward again.
Meredith can't let it go though. Something that Christina said has struck a chord. She grabs on to Christina's arm to make her turn around, and asks, "Christina, what is this really about?"
Christina stares sulkily at her for a second, but then very warmly says, "Meredith, this is the man that turned you into a walking zombie. You didn't see what you looked like when I found you that day. And now he comes walking back into your life, and you're all puppies and rainbows."
"But he explained about that. It was all just a big misunderstanding. He was going to ask me to stay." Meredith counters, the defense, even to her ears, not as strong as she would like it to be.
Christina gives her a long look. "All I am saying is that you are taking a big risk for someone that hasn't even told you where he lives."
Christina is right. Why hadn't he offered to have her over? It wasn't like she couldn't go over there after he got off of work. But that's stupid. It had just never come up.
"It just never came up." Meredith responds in a tiny voice.
"I know." Christina answers just as softly, putting her arm around Meredith in a comforting manner.
Thursday morning…very very early Thursday morning…
Man, he was tired. The day had started out good enough. He smiles at the memory of Meredith and him getting ready for "school" together: she was so serious about her morning toiletries that he couldn't help placing a kiss here and there to ruffle her up. She was so cute when she grumbled at him to not be so cheerful first thing in the morning. He just couldn't help it. He WAS cheerful. The last month of his life had just been wonderful. He was at the front-line of saving patients lives that he would have never seen at his private practice. Car crashes, falls from roofs, inoperable tumors, and creeping paralysis to just name a few. He had very long hours, as attested to him stumbling into Meredith's apartment at 3 o'clock in the morning.
This morning really felt like yesterday with everything that he had been through since then. He wasn't supposed to have even been working today. This time he had been paged right in the middle of a lecture! The students had been happy. He had not. He had been hoping for just one afternoon where he could actually catch up with his lectures. Right now he didn't have a clue as to what he was going to talk about on Monday. He thought he would have some time over the weekend, in the dead time between patients and surgeries, but a quick text message from Mark reminding him of their mother's birthday (Mark being pretty much her adopted son) had shattered that allusion.
How could he have forgotten? His own mother's birthday. Not that he hadn't had a lot on his plate, but still. He knew she would want to see him before the actual party, but he didn't know how he was actually supposed to make it to The Russian Tea Room by mid-afternoon with the 4-5 hour drive. Maybe if he left right after work Friday night, he could get in a couple of hours of sleep at a hotel before he had to be the prodigal son returneth. His family had gotten over the entire Italian non-wedding debacle, but moving to the middle of nowhere, and away from them, they were having a harder time with. Especially his mother. He hated doing it to her with dad not even being gone but a year, but sometimes you have to do things for yourself. And besides, she had all of his other siblings scattered around the New York metropolitan area. He guess he was her only son (Mark withstanding).
All of these thoughts jumble around in his head as he stumbles into the hall bleary-eyed and exhausted. After his first late night at the hospital, she had started leaving a key on top of the porch light for him. For which he was eternally grateful. Right now all he wants to do is just curl up around Meredith and go to sleep. He has to be back at the hospital in the morning to check on his post-op patients. Someone had fallen asleep at the wheel and caused a five-car pile-up. Right now he had a disturbing affinity with the perpetrator of that accident.
But instead of finding a dark and silent house, he sees the light from the kitchen on. He walks in to investigate, only to find Meredith sitting at the kitchen table with a plethora of books and notebooks spread around her. She's in her pajamas with her hair pulled back in a pony tail, but the circles under her eyes and a very large coffee cup next to her tells him that this isn't the first occurrence.
"Hey." He says softly, not wanting to shock her with his sudden appearance.
She looks up quickly, obviously not having heard him come in. The reason becomes apparent when she reaches up and removes ipod earphones from her ears. "Hey." She calls back to him with a soft smile.
"What's all this?" He asks with a gesture at the book-covered table.
"Midterms, Derek. You know, like the one we have in your class in a couple of weeks?" Meredith reminds him with a little laugh.
He had completely forgotten about that. Crap, when was he supposed to find the time to do that? She must see the look that comes over his face, because she leans back and asks smugly, "You haven't written it yet, have you?"
Sheepishly, he answers, "Well, it hasn't exactly been on my priority list." He says as he tosses down his brief-case on the floor and rubs his face vigorously.
"What exactly is on your priority list?" Meredith asks with kind of a funny tone to her voice, almost teasing, but almost not.
He opens his face to see something he didn't quite expect: wariness. "What's going on?" He asks in confusion.
She looks at him, then down at her book, as if she's deciding what she's going to say. "This may sound funny." She starts hesitantly. "But, where you live?"
That's what this is about? "But….I thought you knew." He says as he searches his memory. "I didn't tell you?
Her only answer is to shake her head.
"Well, I don't really live anywhere." He starts to explain.
She looks even more confused, so he continues with, "I'm staying at 'The Inn'. I decided on this job at pretty much the last minutes, and I didn't know if it would work out, so I decided to stay in a hotel."
"The one that looks over the Green?" She queries.
"Yeah. It was the closest thing I could find to campus. Why?"
"It's just that…you're always over here. And before it was because you were getting married. And now..." She rambles a little bit, not really making much sense, but he gets the drift of what she is trying to say. She won't look him in the eye.
He immediately gets up and picks her up from her chair, to take her seat and place her on his lap. He takes her chin in his hand so that she has to look at him when he says, "Hey, this is not like last time. I honestly thought I had told you. There's all sorts of people from campus coming and going there, I just thought you understood."
It's her turn to look a little sheepish, but her face does soften. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been worried. I guess it's just all of the sneaking around. It's just getting to me. I really don't know anything about you. I've never met any of your friends, or your family, or seen where you live. I trust you, it's just that…" She can't quite finish, just throwing up her hands.
And suddenly it all comes clear. She's perfectly right. He's met her mother. He's probably spent more time with her best friend than he ever wants to. He practically lives at her house. He hadn't really thought about it that way. He really doesn't know anyone here, so he can't introduce her to anyone. He had just been trying to spend as much time with her as possible. Which had to be in her apartment, or not at all. He could totally see how it might seem from her point of view as if he was hiding her away somewhere. And then he suddenly has a great idea.
"Hey, how would you like to go to a party?"
Saturday: New York City
"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I have to meet his mother. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." Meredith whispers to herself as she throws things around in her suitcase looking for make-up bag.
She has her dress on already, a black sleeveless cocktail dress that meets at her neck to form an elegant turtleneck. Her shoes are around her somewhere. She has no idea. She's tossed things around and out of her suitcase so many times in the last hour that she has no idea where anything is anymore. The shoes can come later. Right now she has to put on her make-up. Yes, make-up.
"Derek? Have you seen my make-up bag?" She calls into the bathroom, not giving a second notice to the elegance of their surroundings on a topish floor at the Hotel Parker Meridien.
"Um." She hears him call back as if he's looking around. "Oh yeah, its right hear. You put it in here last night so you wouldn't have to go looking for it, remember?"
"So much for that theory." She mumbles to herself as she makes her way into the bathroom. Where she is greeted with Derek shaving in only his dress pants. He looks kind of harried and tired, but happy. He should be happy, it's his family. I'm the homewrecker extraodinaire that broke up her only son's wedding. Although he does look good with no shirt on.
He catches her standing in the doorway through the reflection in the mirror and winks at her before drawing the razor up the side of his face. She can't help smiling back and walks forward to hug him from behind. She lays her cheek against his back and asks again, "You're sure she knows I'm coming."
"I promise. I called Kathleen Thursday night and told her I was bringing you. The party is supposed to be a surprise, so I couldn't call her directly. But mom knows everything somehow, so I'm sure she knows by now." Derek explains again as he finishes shaving and wipes the residual shaving cream off with a washcloth.
He hadn't explained Kathleen's initial reaction: complete and utter silence followed by patent disbelief. Kathleen had been the only one he had told about what Meredith had really meant to him. She knew the whole harrowing story of how he had searched for Meredith from afar. She knew about the unanswered phone calls and the trips to Boston. What she didn't know was what he had found there. He didn't know if it was his pride or what it was, but he just hadn't been able to tell her what he had found. For all she knew, he just hadn't been able to find her. So imagine her surprise when he had called up to say that he was bringing Meredith to Mom's birthday party.
Thursday at work, he waits until a decent hour, and calls her up at her office. "Hey Sis, what's up?"
"What's up? What's up with me? What's up with you? I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever!" Kathleen answers back in the only way older sisters can. "So what time are you getting here Saturday?"
"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." He hedges.
She must hear the hesitation in his voice, because she immediately dives in with, "You are coming, aren't you? You know mom expects you to be there. We all expect you to be there. You're coming, right?"
"Yes, yes, I'm coming!" He says with exasperation.
"Alright, then what's this 'I want to talk to you about something crap'" She eagles in.
"I want to bring someone." He tells her and then almost thinks she's dropped the phone when he doesn't hear anything for a couple of seconds.
"Have I met this someone?" She asks with no small amount of suspicion. He hasn't told anyone in the family yet about him and Meredith. Everything is just so precious and new that he hasn't wanted to burst the bubble. It's just him and Meredith, and he kind of likes it that way. The fastest way to blow their covert relationship would be to tell a Shepherd. Tell one, and then another would be down here poking around. One sister tells another, who tells her husband, and the next thing you know, the entire world knows. Not exactly the best way to keep a secret.
"Um…kind of?" He answers with an uncertain tilt to his voice.
"Derek Michael Shepherd, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" She demands as only an older sister can.
Why did he call her again? How come she's the only one that can make him feel like a little boy with his hand caught in the cookie jar when he's in his 30's? "It's Meredith." He admits softly, and for the second time in the conversation, the phone goes silent.
"THE Meredith." She demands, but a little more softly.
"Yes, THE Meredith." He answers just as softly. And waits.
A few seconds go by, and then she hesitantly asks, "And you want to bring her to Mom's birthday party?"
"Yes." He answers simply.
"Oh."
"Oh? That's all I get is an 'oh'?" He asks, a little offended to tell you the truth. "She's a student here at Dartmouth. We somehow crazily found each other again. I don't know how it happened, but somehow fate intervened and…."
"And you're happy." She says with almost a tired sigh.
"Yeah, I am." He says, smiling into the phone as he says it.
"And you want to bring her to mom's birthday party." She answers even more self-pityingly.
"Kathleen." He warns, telling her with one word how much this means to him.
"Fine." She gives in. "Well, here's what we're going to do then…."
They had decided that Kathleen was going to tell everyone that he was bringing his new girlfriend. He wouldn't have time to tell his mom before the party, but before they left he was going to tell her how much Meredith meant to him. The rest of them could go hang.
After toweling off his face, he turns around in Meredith's arms and places a kiss a kiss on the top of her head. "You have nothing to worry about. She's going to love you. Because I love you. And that's all that matters, right?"
She looks into his hopeful eyes and doesn't have the heart to gainsay him. A little part of her wants his mom to love her too, but she would never admit that out loud. Her own mother doesn't like her. Why should his?
"Right." She answers with a smile, and then shoves him out of the bathroom to get ready. She starts to apply her make-up in the bathroom mirror and all of these thoughts jumble around in her head. She doesn't want to be late. She better hurry up. She still has to find those shoes. And her earrings. Where are those earrings? Dangit, where did everything go to? Or maybe they should be fashionably late? No, because then everyone would be staring at them. Or staring at her more likely. The international floozy who broke up their precious Derek's wedding and sent him off to the wilds of New Hampshire. Oh my God, there are so going to hate her.
She finishes putting on her make-up, and then flies out of the bathroom asking, "Derek, have you seen my…" when she unceremoniously bumps right into him.
"You mean these?" He says as he holds up her shoes with one hand and her earrings in the other with a big grin. She's so freaked out and scattered, that she hardly even notices how nice he looks in his form-fitted black suit, white shirt, and an incongruous black and dark green striped tie. It's only tea-time, but it is his mother's birthday and it is in The Russian Tea Room. Which is thankfully just down the block, or they would so be late right now.
She throws her shoes and earrings on, and then straightens up to look directly at Derek. He smiles back at her in a slightly amused, slightly supportive manner, and takes her arm. They walk out the door and into the hotel hallway, where he says again, "It's going to be okay, Meredith," as they stand and wait for the elevator to come.
The door pings open, and she follows him in, just a little too nervous at this point to answer him back. The door closes and suddenly she finds her back pressed up against the elevator with Derek kissing her wildly. Mmm, that feels good. Kissing in elevators. This is a great idea. We should do this more often. She leans in to kiss him back, but before she knows it, the elevator pings again and the door opens again.
Derek scoots back, but not before she catches the amused look in his eye. "And just was that for Mister?" She amusedly demands as they exit onto the lobby and out the front doors.
"I made you forget about my mom's party for a second, didn't I?" He answers with a little twinkle as he straightens his tie and fixes his hair. She must have mussed it a little bit in the elevator. She guesses she did need that. She laughs at his still slightly mussed hair and takes his hand. They share a secret smile as they walk out into the sunshine.