"What's going on?" Alex asked knowingly when he found Meredith hiding in the tunnels the next day.
"Nothing."
"Come on spill," said Alex. "People say you feel better when you tell someone, and I promise no advice or judgment…hell I doubt I'll even care."
"It's nothing," she shrugged.
"Offer expires in ten seconds."
"Derek said he loved me, he kissed me," Meredith blurted out.
"I should have guessed," groaned Alex.
"What happened to no judgment?"
"There is no judgment!"
"I told him it didn't matter," said Meredith. "That we were over and we would never be more than friends."
"Good girl," he muttered.
"Now he's not speaking to me," said Meredith. "He can barely look at me."
"Selfish bastard," said Alex letting Meredith rest her head on his shoulder. "He doesn't get what he wants and he throws a tantrum."
"That's one way to look at it," said Meredith wryly.
"That's the only way to look at it."
"I know," said Meredith. "It just makes everything so awkward."
"Want me to kick his ass?"
"Tempting but no," said Meredith. "He's too pretty to look at."
"Be careful with him," said Alex.
"I will be," said Meredith.
"Good," said Alex kissing the top of her head. "Just say the word and I'll kick his ass."
"Thanks."
----------------------------------------
"Are you going to ignore me all day?" said Meredith when she found Derek doing charts at the nurses station.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Derek barely glancing up.
"You're ignoring me," said Meredith. "This morning in surgery you didn't say a word to me."
"I was operating on a mans brain."
"Fine, you really want to be like that. Fine," said Meredith angrily storming away.
"What an ass!" exclaimed Meredith as she all but threw herself down on a chair next to Cristina.
"What did McDreamy do now?" asked Cristina dully.
"Nothing!"
"Right," scoffed Cristina. "Did you finally tell him you're dating McMajor?"
"No…I haven't told him and I'm not dating him I went on one date with him," said Meredith.
"On a date with who?" said Derek.
Meredith groaned and turned on her seat and found Derek standing behind her looking non too happy. He had been coming over to apologise when he had over heard Cristina.
"How much did you hear?" asked Meredith while Cristina discreetly slipped away.
"On a date with who?" Derek repeated his eyes blazing in anger.
"Derek I really…"
"Who?"
"Okay," sighed Meredith dreading how he was going to react. "Do you remember the guy in the ER last week, he had been in a car accident?"
"Could you narrow it down a bit?"
"There was a group of them…they were in the marines."
"Yeah I heard about that one, no' one was seriously hurt," said Derek. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well I was stitching up one of them, Dylan, and he…asked me out," said Meredith.
"You went out with him?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Last Saturday," she sighed.
"So everything you said last night…"
"I meant what I said last night…I didn't lie about any of that," said Meredith heatedly.
"First Finn and now a patient," said Derek. "Ella's barely four months old."
"What's your point?" snapped Meredith.
"Ella doesn't need a bunch of strange men coming in and out of her life."
"How dare you? Ella has not been around a bunch of strange men," said Meredith losing her temper.
"Where was she when you were on your date?"
"With Izzie," snapped Meredith. "I put her to bed before I left, I had one glass of wine and was back before she had a night time feed. I will date Derek and you have to get used to it because I will not explain myself to you!"