After four hours of surgery, Derek went to give his mom and sister the good news: Nancy had made it through surgery. She was alive, and stable.

He hugged his family, and led them into her recovery room. "She hasn't woken up yet, it might be a while," Derek informed them. He was amazed at how well Meredith had done on the surgery. She really had learned a lot from him. "We should take turns going home and sleeping. At least one of us should be here when she wakes up."

"You two can go, I'm going to stay the night here," Carolyn whispered, holding tightly to her daughter's hand.

"I'll come back in the morning so you can get some rest," he said, rubbing his mother's shoulder. His sister agreed to come in later the next night.

Derek's other sister left, but Derek waited around for Meredith. He heard her voice from around the corner, "I'm headed home. I need you to monitor her tonight," she must have been talking to one of her residents, "If there are any changes in her conditions, at all, I want you to page me."

She rounded the corner and almost ran into him, "Hey."

"Hey," he said back. Meredith shifted uncomfortably for a moment, so he started talking, "Want to go get something to eat?"

"I actually can't think of anything other than going home and showering right now, do you want to just come over and eat?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, we can go." They made their way to the parking lot. "I don't live very far, are you going to just follow me?"

"Well, if you have an early shift tomorrow, I can just drive. I'm coming back to stay with Nancy in the morning," he offered. "Plus, I could use a couch to crash on. I don't live that close."

"Alright," she started to relax a little. The ride home only took a few minutes, but it was comfortable and spent catching up small things in their lives that have changed over their time apart. Her apartment was only a short walk from the hospital on a nice day. As she opened the door she said, "I'm warning you: I live with Christina. Things could be messy."

He laughed, "I'll prepare myself." Surprisingly the house was pretty clean when they walked in.

They walked quietly to the kitchen, trying to avoid waking her sleeping roommate. Meredith reached into the refrigerator while Derek found a seat at the kitchen table, "I hope you like frozen pizza."

"I'm willing to eat anything that's not hospital food," he joked.

"Good," she threw the pizza in the oven and sat in the chair across from him. "So you wanted to talk," she reminded him.

He didn't know where to start. "I do," he hesitated.

"Alright. Give me a few minutes to go shower really fast, then we can talk." Derek nodded and watched her walk away.

FLASHBACK

He was begging. He would do anything for her. Suddenly, his world had come to a complete halt. The thickness in the air along with the news was making it hard for air to reach his lungs. He felt short of breathe. "What?"

"I have to go, Derek." There were tears there, in her eyes. Her voice was shaking and slightly higher than normal. She wasn't yelling, she was falling apart.

"You…you can't leave. Meredith! After everything, please, don't go. Don't do this," his voice was low. It came out softer than he wanted it to be.

He watched as she rested one of her hands on his face. Nothing had ever been this hard for either one of them. She leaned forward, giving him a quick, but hard kiss. A kiss goodbye.

Panic started rushing through his body, "Mer! Please! Where are you going? At least tell me where I can find you."

"Goodbye, Derek," she cried, picking up the rest of her belongings. "I love you."

"Mer!" he yelled. "Meredith!" he screamed, watching her walk away, knowing that there was a good chance he would never see her again…

END OF FLASHBACK

She came back downstairs with wet hair, wearing the ratty, old Dartmouth t-shirt that he loved so much. As soon as she walked into the kitchen the over timer went off. "Perfect timing," he said with a smile to which she giggled softly. He got a sent of her flowery smell as she walked past him. He closed his eyes and inhaled it in, getting shivers from head to toe. He had missed small things like the smell of lavender and the soft laugh Meredith had.

Meredith grabbed a few plates and put two pieces on each. She set on in front of Derek and one at the seat across from him, as she ran back to find something to drink. "What would you like? We have…um…water, beer, vodka, and some expired milk."

It shocked him at how unhealthy she ate, "I'll take a beer." She grabbed two beers, than sat down to eat with him.

He didn't want to be too straight forward, but he didn't want to wait anymore, "I just…I need to know, Mer, is there any hope for us?"

Her heart sank in her chest. She honestly didn't know. "You know I left Seattle to get away from you," she admitted.

"I did the same, but apparently we both ran away to the same place," he smirked at her.

"I just worked so hard to build the life I have now, here, with Christina. It took a lot…" Food had sounded so great a few seconds ago, but now all she could do was stare at her plate.

Derek reached across the table, placing his hand on top of hers, "I'm not here to ruin anything. I'm willing to give myself to you, completely. I want to be here. I want to put everything I have into us because I feel like what we have we won't find anywhere else. I've felt this way since you left, Meredith, and just like that day, I would do anything to make you stay with me." He waited, trying to read her face, "Can you honestly say that you feel what we have with Trevor?"

Meredith looked up at him, not answering. "Exactly," he told her. "What he have is special. I think that this kind of love only comes around once. We can't throw this away, Mer."