Disclaimer: Borrowing some lines or scenes or whatever, doesn't make me own Grey's. I wish I did, but I don't.

Who's excited about American Idol? I am!! On a more serious note, I feel like less people are reading this story than before. Are you not liking it anymore? Let me know and I'll do what I have to do so that you enjoy it. Or I'll end it if you think it's gone as far as it can go. Let me know. Until somebody says stop, I'll continue. Until it comes to an end.

"Can't we stay longer?" Meredith complained.

"If you didn't have to work and I didn't have to work than yes. But we both have to work."

"I hate work," she pouted.

"I do too. But we'll come back."

"Promise?"

"Promise. Now come on, we're going to miss our flight."

Leaving sucked. Sonoma was amazing. It was beautiful and it was everything they had needed. It was relaxing and calm and perfect. And now they had to go back to Seattle Grace, the gossip capital of the country. And actually do work.

"How was it?" Izzie pulled her scrub top over her head.

"It was amazing. And romantic and beautiful and I wish we could have stayed longer."

"How was the sex?" Cristina asked.

"I told you. We aren't doing that."

"You didn't have sex with him?" Izzie asked with a shocked look on her face.

"No."

"I'm like a proud mama."

"That doesn't mean we didn't do other things."

"Okay. Way too much information."

"You asked."

"And you over shared."

"Over shared about what?" Alex interrupted.

"Meredith's sex life," Cristina laughed.

"I'll listen," Alex smirked.

"Shut up. There's nothing to talk about."

"Oh. That means there's so much to talk about," Cristina mocked.

"Derek and I aren't having sex. The end."

"I don't want to hear about anybody having sex with anyone," Bailey groaned, "What I do want is you guys to take your assignments and not complain. And not get reports from the attending that you're slacking off. You hear? Grey, you're with me. Karev, Sloan, Izzie, go with Burke, Cristina, Montgomery-Shepherd, and O'Malley, you get the pit."

They should have stayed in Sonoma. Instead of lying in front of the fire, taking baths with Derek and tasting, she would be following Bailey around for the day. Taking orders, filling out charts and running labs. The life of an intern. An intern sleeping with an attending.

"Good morning, Dr. Grey," Mark smirked, approaching Meredith as she filled out charts.

"Dr. Sloan."

"You're ignoring me."

"I'm working."

"With Dr. Bailey. When you could be working with me. Making people pretty."

"Too bad Bailey doesn't change her assignments." Meredith smiled slightly.

"You've got an attitude. I like it." Mark smirked, "We'd make a good team."

"Oh really?"

"Really. You're hot. I'm hot. Together, we can make people even hotter,"

Keep your hands off of her," Meredith heard Derek yell.

Before he knew what he had done, Derek had punched Mark in the face. He hadn't even touched her. Derek had seen that. But that didn't matter. His hand was throbbing and Mark wasn't in great shape either. It was like high school all over again and everybody had gathered around to see what was happening. Mark had his hand over his eye where he had gotten hit, and Derek continued to steam with anger.

"You want to try that again?" Mark approached him, recovering from the pain.

"I would love to," Derek brought his fist back again.

"Derek! Stop it!" Meredith got in between them.

"Just get away from my girlfriend!"

"Derek, calm down."

"What is going on here?" Chief Webber asked.

"He attacked me," Mark said.

"And you slept with my wife. Now you're screwing with my girlfriend."

"Derek. Go to your office. Now." Chief ordered, "Grey, make sure he's calm down before he comes back out here."

When Derek saw Mark with Meredith he snapped. He had already taken one woman away from him. And that had ended up being a blessing. Because he met Meredith. But he wasn't going to do it again. Meredith was his. Mark had no business being around her. And now he was the one in trouble. The one getting yelled at by the chief and sent to his office like a child.

"We were just talking," she whispered, closing his office door.

"I don't want him anywhere near you."

"We work together. I can't not be around him."

"Dammit," he muttered, slamming his fist on the desk.

"He's a good guy, Derek."

"I can't believe you're defending him,"

"I'm not defending him. I think you owe it to you're friendship to give him a chance. Listen to him."

"Give him a chance? He had sex with my wife. And now he's flirting with you. I'm not going to give him a chance. If he so much as looks at you, he'll have two black eyes."

"We work together," she repeated.

"Not if I request you on my service every day."

"Derek, you can't do that."

"You want to be around him?"

"I'm an intern. I can't choose who I work with Derek!" she yelled.

"This…This is unbelievable," he muttered, storming out of his office and slamming the door.

This wasn't the Derek that Meredith knew. Derek didn't act like this. He wasn't angry. Or violent. But right now, he was being angry and violent. He had punched Mark and now he was screaming at her. Telling her that she couldn't be around Mark or even work with him. She had never seen him act like this. He hadn't been this upset when Mark had shown up and told him that Addison was pregnant with his baby. This time he was trying to protect her. When she didn't need protecting.

"I heard about the fight. Who won?" Cristina asked.

"Shepherd decked Sloan. And the chief sent him to time out." Alex explained.

"Shepherd's an ass," Meredith groaned.

"This morning you were telling me about your sex life and now he's an ass?" Izzie questioned.

"Yes. He's an ass. A big huge ass. Who's trying to tell me who I can and can't talk to. He has no right. He said he was going to request me on his service everyday to keep me away from Mark."

"That wouldn't be so bad. Sloan makes you get his coffee. And his dry cleaning. I'd much rather spend all my time with Shepherd."

"That's not the point. The point is…Okay. I don't know what the point is but he has no right to do that."

"He's punching people out for you. You should be proud," Alex laughed.

"I'm not proud. He's an attending not an 8 year old. He shouldn't be punching anybody."

He was protecting her. It was cute. Sweet, even. But he shouldn't be hitting people. And especially not other people in the hospital. And not when it was unclear when the chief of surgery was going to retire and the race for chief would heat up. Hitting another staff member probably didn't get you recommended to the board to be chief. And now she had to talk to him. Tell him he couldn't do that again.

But she wasn't exactly sure he was going to come. The last two weeks he had been at her house everything until she went to sleep. The rule had been no sleepovers but he had stayed until she as in bed. But now she didn't even know if he would come. Because he had screamed at her. He had accused her of taking Mark's side. And she had screamed back.

"You're here."

"I'm here."

"Yeah."

"I was a jerk. Sometimes boyfriends can be jerks. It doesn't mean you stop talking to them. You get that I'm saying I'm sorry, right?"

"You yelled at me for no reason, and you walked away. And now you show up here."

"Of course I showed up. Why wouldn't I? You don't trust me? When we were in Sonoma you said…"

"I do."

"Well this is how it works. You fight sometimes, and somebody apologizes."

"Well how am I supposed to know that?"

"You've never done this before."

"I've never done this before."

"Hmm. Okay, alright. Well this is…From now you on, you can expect that I'm gonna show up. Even if I yell, even if you yell. I'm always gonna show up. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Do you forgive me?" he kissed her forehead.

"I forgive you."

"I have no right to tell you who to see. Or who to talk to," he sat down next to her.

"You being that angry, Derek…It scared me."

"I don't know what happened. Just seeing you with him…I couldn't help it."

" Just promise me that you'll never do that again…Get that angry. I don't remember much but before my parents split up…My dad would yell…"

"I'm sorry, Mer."

"Just don't do it again. Okay?"

"Okay."

You know exactly what to do
So that I can't stay mad at you
For too long, that's wrong

I'm going to be completely conceited and say that this chapter is awesome. I love it. It's great. However, I regret to inform you that I won't have an update tomorrow. That's why I made this extra long. I have a doctor's appointment and then I have to work out and then I have this thing to go to that I really don't want to go to but I get paid for it. But definitely something on Thursday. Don't forget to review!!!