CHAPTER FOUR

Meredith awoke late the next morning to the sound of the birds whistling, feeling calm and at ease. Before she opened her eyes she could feel the sun's rays beating down on her, in a stark contrast to the freezing cold air that had enveloped them the night before. Meredith kept her eyes closed and smiled to herself, feeling Derek's head resting against her chest. She gently ran her fingers through his thick hair and breathed in deeply as she felt how soft it was. Suddenly she felt teeth gnaw at her hand.

"Ow, Derek!" Meredith yelled, shocked. She opened her eyes and looked down at her chest to see the biggest squirrel that she had ever seen in her life attached to her fingers. She screamed and tried to swat it away but it was latched on firmly. Meredith jumped to her feet, forgetting that she was in her sleeping bag. She managed to stand for a second in the thick material sack, with the squirrel still attached to her hand, before losing her balance and tumbling forward in the opposite direction and landing flat on her stomach on the dirty ground, the impact sending dirt into the air and onto her face and the squirrel running for cover.

"Ugh…" Meredith moaned. She spat dirt out of her mouth and looked through the haze to see Derek standing by a rock, holding a fishing rod and laughing. "Help me!" Meredith hissed angrily.

"Oh, sorry," Derek said, still laughing. He unzipped the sleeping bag and helped Meredith to her feet. He brushed the dirt off her body, led her to the river and splashed some water on her face to get rid of the remaining dirt.

"Stop laughing!" Meredith said angrily as Derek chuckled to himself.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just wish I'd brought my video camera."

"It's not funny!" Meredith said, looking into the river. "I guess I should count myself lucky that a piranha didn't jump out of the water and eat my face just then."

"They don't get piranha here," Derek said, matter of factly.

"That's not my point!" Meredith said, frustrated. "Why the hell was a squirrel biting my hand anyway?"

"It could probably smell last night's dinner on you," Derek replied. "I thought it was cute how you were petting it so lovingly when you woke up."

"I thought it was you!" Meredith said through clenched teeth.

"You thought I was a squirrel?" Derek asked in deadpan voice.

"You just have very soft hair," Meredith argued. She locked eyes with Derek and they started laughing. "Stop laughing!" she said, playfully hitting him.

"You're laughing too!" Derek protested. They laughed more until they were exhausted. Derek went over to his backpack, pulled out some band aids and applied them to Meredith's hand which had temporary teeth marks embedded in it.

"So you're fishing," Meredith observed when the band aids had been applied.

"I was but I have a better idea," Derek said with a mysterious grin. He took his shirt off.

"Hmmm," Meredith said, smiling. "I like the look of this."

"Skinny dipping!" Derek said with a big grin. "Surely you've been skinny dipping before."

"Can't say I have," Meredith replied.

"You're kidding?" Derek replied. "Oh it's the best. And out here you can be at one with nature." He took his jeans off and pointed to the fire. "I've started cooking us fish for breakfast. It'll be done in ten minutes."

"What about the neighbors?" Meredith asked self consciously.

"They're walking the Nixon trail," Derek replied. "It's twelve miles. They just left. They'll be gone for hours."

"Well in that case…" Meredith said with a seductive smile, taking her clothes off and allowing Derek to lead her to the water.

The temperature was just right. They allowed themselves to be immersed in the water and wrapped their arms around each other, kissing softly.

"Mmm this is nice," Meredith said.

"It is," Derek replied.

"I could just stay he- ARRRGH! WHAT WAS THAT?!" Meredith screamed.

"It was my leg! Which you just kicked, hard!" Derek replied.

"Sorry," Meredith said apologetically. "I think I'm still jumpy from the squirrel incident." They burst out laughing again at the thought of that morning's events. "Sorry," Meredith said again. "Where were we?"

"Right about here," Derek said, taking her face in his hands and kissing her passionately.

"Ah yes, I remember now," Meredith said seductively, returning the favour. They stayed like this, kissing and caressing, enjoying each other's company in the solitude of the wilderness until they heard a familiar voice.

"You're fish is startin' to burn!" Hank yelled out. "Ya'll wanna get to it soon or ya'll be eatin' ashes for breakfast."

"I thought you said they were hiking!" Meredith whispered, annoyed. "Way to kill a mood!"

"Thanks, Hank," Derek said with a pretend smile and a wave. He and Meredith had swum out into the river so it wasn't obvious that they were skinny dipping. "Weren't you hiking?"

"We sure were," Hank said. "And what a beautiful hike it was. I highly recommend the Nixon trail. Two miles of the most beautiful scenery imaginable."

"Two miles?" Meredith whispered angrily to Derek.

"Isn't the Nixon trail twelve miles?" Derek asked, trying to sound relaxed.

"Oh no, doctor. That's the Johnson trail. I don't think this body could hold up over that distance."

"Crap," Derek whispered to himself. "Hey Hank, why don't you have our fish? We're enjoying our swim out here."

"Why that's mighty nice of you," Hank replied. "I'll do that right now. We're just gonna stay outside our tent all day. You won't even know we're here."

"Sounds great," Derek said continuing his pretend smile.

"Well this is just wonderful," Meredith said sarcastically to Derek. "Not only are we stuck in a river, naked, but they're eating our breakfast."

"Well you can go and get it," Derek teased. Meredith glared at him as he started to laugh. "Oh come on, you've gotta admit that this is kinda funny," he said. Meredith looked over at Hank and Rita who were perched outside their tent, overlooking the river. There was no possible way that they could escape the river without being seen.

"Not really," Meredith replied.
"We could go and have sex behind that big rock over there?" Derek suggested. Meredith glared at him.

"For some reason I'm not in the mood," Meredith said, starting to swim away.

"Where are you gonna go?" Derek asked jokingly. Meredith started laughing at the whole situation.

"If I don't laugh I'll cry," she explained.

"I know," Derek replied, also laughing.

"This," Meredith said, gesturing to the wilderness sounding them, is why we should stick to surgery. That's all we know how to do. We spend so much time in the hospital and spend so much time studying that we are socially inept and don't have the basic life skills to set up a tent, remember to bring a torch, read an instruction manual or keep our damn clothes on!"

"This is true," Derek replied as they both laughed.