A/N Thank you for still being here, my readers!

Meredith and Derek are already on the road back to each other…

Please read, enjoy, comment!

Em

He was back. In Seattle. In Seattle Grace. He looked like much at home too. He got a new shiny office. The door now proudly bore the name of Tom Evans. And from what she could see from her place on the catwalk, he was just signing the contract with Webber. What did it mean for her?

"Oh, I see one of your Romeos back in Seattle," quipped Cristina leaning against the railings beside her, her eyes narrowing to see more of what was happening behind the glass wall of the Chief's office. "You go, man-eater," she slapped her lightly on the shoulder. "I swear the whole hospital's in heat for you. Must be the hair… You think I should dye my hair pink? Nah, I should take a step ahead, go for blue.'

Meredith sent her a silent glare.

"Okay, this one doesn't want to munch your cookies," Cristina stated in a mock apology. "He's here for your intellect, quick thinking, incomparable surgical skills-"

"That's enough. You know, maybe he is. He looks like a decent guy," shrugged Meredith.

"Sure, a world renowned neurogod with several million dollars' worth of surgeon hands is enraptured with the skills of an intern who hasn't even passed her test yet. I wonder how are they both going to justify that interest in you if you screw up today."

Meredith turned to face her slowly, scowl on her face. "There's no such expression in my dictionary. Unless it pertains to my competition."

Cristina folded her arms defensively and let out a snort, "Baby, you better watch out for your fat ass!"

"Oh, puh-lease, your ass wouldn't fit in my jeans even if they were two sizes bigger!"

"Wow, there's my favorite bitch!" Cristina smiled approvingly. "You're getting better! Does this mean an imminent make-up sex with a certain brainless intern?" She was almost hopeful, both for her friend and her wallet. The stakes in the bet were high. And there was only a little more than a week left until the beginning of their vacation.

"No," frowned Meredith. "Why would you think so?"

"Because of all the secret smiles, silent sighs, eye-fucking…" she enumerated.

"There's been no…" she trailed off, biting her lip.

"I'm not judgy," assured quickly Cristina. "I'd say go for it. The real deal is even better."

Meredith sighed and stared at the snow covered mountain peaks.

"Have you forgiven him?" her friend asked delicately.

"Why-"

"Denial won't work, Mer," went on Cristina. "Regardless of what you have shared over the years, you were hurt. By him. He hurt you. You must stop looking at him and just seeing the teenage dork who, how did you put it, popped your cherry. You need to see the man he grew into. Have you forgiven that man?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "I don't know if I trust him… Or rather, I do but I don't know if I can trust his judgment."

"He seems reformed," admitted Cristina.

"Supposedly," sighed Meredith dejectedly. "What if we get together, enjoy the bliss of reunion and got sucked into that hell again? I don't think I could survive that."

"So you're still afraid that it's his own comfort he's after and not your love… What else does he have to do? He's at your beck and call already."

"I don't know," Meredith sighed tiredly. "I don't want anything more than find him and kiss the living daylights out of him but I… I can't. I can't live with this doubt."

"Okay, ugh, maybe let's worry about it some other day…"

Meredith laughed softly, "Don't worry, I'm still gonna score the highest result."

"You wish, bitch! And… you'd better run for it. Evans and Webber are walking out."

"Damn," cursed Meredith broke into a skip, Cristina at her heels.

Thankfully, she already had an assignment for the day.

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

FLASHBACK

"You okay?" Derek asked her with a small smile on his lips.

She nodded calmly.

That was the day. The first day of their finals. Their last exam session in med school. Hand in hand, they slowly walked towards the auditorium where they were going to sit their first test. Their fellow students were swirling nervously around them, nervously skimming through the notes and doing some very last minute revising.

Strangely enough, Derek and Meredith left their nervousness somewhere behind them; they only felt butterflies in their stomachs, not an overpowering stress. Maybe because they now felt a certain period in their lives was coming to a close. They spend eight years in Boston, busy, crazy, wonderful eight years. Incredible how fast the time flew by.

Next month they would receive their diplomas and send their applications to several internship programmes. Their main target was of course Seattle Grace but they had plan B in case they didn't get in together. Together, that was the primary condition.

They missed Seattle, they missed their family. Still, it would be difficult to part with their little spot in Boston. They spent a significant chunk of their lives on the East Coast. They made friends, Jen and Luke being the closest of them.

They halted several feet away from the entrance to the auditorium.

"So, I'll be waiting on the steps outside after it's over," she told him smoothing down his shirt on his shoulders.

"Who says you're going to finish first?" he quipped.

"Hm, only years' experience," she smirked and leaned for a kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too," he murmured into her lips.

The buzzing in the crowd grew louder as the great door finally opened letting everyone in to their assigned places.

"Good luck," she whispered giving him he last sweet peck on his cheek.

"I don't need luck when you're around," he smiled and squeezed her hand for the last time before they walked in. They soon had to part to find their seats in two distant parts of the room. G was certainly too fat in the alphabet from S. Their eyes kept finding each other as they walked. They glanced at smiled at each other reassuringly for the last time before receiving question sheets.

Meredith took a deep breath as her fingers toyed her heart-shaped pendant absent-mindedly. She could do this. They could do this. After all, it was just another step on their path together.

END OF FLASHBACK

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

A loud resigned sigh made Derek look up from his revision notes. He was babysitting a teenage girl, Beth, who collapsed and seized during a march band parade.

"Is everything okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah, sorry," she shrugged. "Don't mind me."

"What's wrong?" he insisted putting his materials away on the table.

"I wrecked my band's chances for the trophy," she complained. "It's like crapping my pants."

He probably should deny but well, she was right.

"Where are your friends?" he asked instead. "I know I saw them before in the ER..."

"They're not my friends," she cast her eyes down. "They're my seizure patrol. Whenever I have a seizure, they have to drop their instruments and roll me on my side so I don't choke on my tongue… Besides, I'm like a band nerd. Band nerds don't have friends but what would you know about it."

"Surprisingly much," he chuckled. "I used to be in the school band too."

Her eyes swept over him from head to toes. "Yeah, right. What would a guy like you do in the band?"

"Play the sax," he grinned.

"Well, you didn't have epileptic seizures during performance, right?"

"No," he admitted. "But I was skinnier than you, had acne and I didn't discover hair products yet so I had an afro on my head. Still… I had friends in the band. And a girlfriend."

"Did she weigh over 400 pounds, wore thick glasses and had a squint?"

"No," he laughed. "She was cool, gorgeous and pink-haired."

"Like that one?" Beth pointed with her head.

Derek turned over following her gaze to see Meredith standing in the doorway, a tiny smile on her lips.

"Yeah, exactly like that one," Derek breathed out and got to his feet. "I'll be right back, Beth."

"Hey," he smiled as he led her by the elbow a bit away from the room.

"Hey," she said and her voice carried a tone of wonder and surprise.

"I… what?" he asked, feeling a little self-conscious under her stare.

"Er, nothing," she shook her head, chuckling at herself. "I'm going into the OR with Bailey… It might take hours. I'm not sure whether I'll have a moment before the test… so… this is the day."

"It is," he sighed.

"You're okay?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Yep," she nodded, hesitated and climbed to her tiptoes to place a little kiss onto his cheek. "Good luck, Derek."

Half of his face was burning, the epicenter being the few inches of skin Meredith's lips made contact with. "I don't need luck when you're near me," he managed to murmur completing their little ritual. He tried to inch towards her mouth but she retreated.

"I'll see you later," she smiled and walked off in the direction of the stairs.

Derek let out a sigh and get back to take his place beside Beth.

"Why the long face, dude?" she asked with surprise. "You could think you'd be happier after a feel-up with your girlfriend."

"She had broken up with me," he confessed.

"She's clearly still into you."

"I know," sighed Derek.

"Then what's the problem?" frowned Beth.

"She doesn't believe I'm into her."

"Well, that might be a problem," she admitted pensively.

"Tell me about it."

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

The few hours she spent in the OR were so satisfying. She didn't feel weariness at all. That was just what she needed to gather her scattered thoughts together. Bailey initially tried to throw her out after just two hours, telling her to get some rest before the testing time but Meredith convinced her to let her stay. Until it was half an hour left only. Even then her resident had to kick her ass out, so was Meredith enraptured in the procedure.

When she arrived, a little breathless, to the examination room, all her colleagues were already seated. Her eyes fell immediately at Derek who seemed immediately relaxed at her sight. She shared the feeling. He was there for every test and exam since high school, he was her lucky charm to be honest.

The papers were distributed around. They were allowed to start. Meredith couldn't help a satisfied smirk appear on her face as she read the questions and her pen started to glide effortlessly on the answer sheet. Not single one of the questions caught her by surprise.

She didn't want to gloat but it was just… easy. She could answer this with full confidence if she was woken up in the middle of the middle night, no coffee allowed. She put away her pen, she checked what she had written and then double checked it. Spotless.

If only she was half as sure of other issues in her life as much as of these answers. Her eyes stopped at the level of Derek's back in the other corner of the room. She had thought they were broken forever. That he didn't reciprocate her love. She wasn't so sure of that any longer. It seemed like the proud egotistical oblivious-to-the-world Derek was just a phase from which he already moved on.

But was it? Could she be sure? Could she trust his declarations? Certainly, he believed them himself but unfortunately, it didn't mean they were true. She didn't want to jerk him around and she knew she was doing exactly that at the moment, giving him mixed signals. Once she was smiling, kissing his cheek; then there was a whole day she spent avoiding him. But her heart was telling her one thing, her mind another.

She smiled at the recollection of what she overheard this morning. She was looking for Derek to wish him good luck like they always did before an exam. She spotted him sitting with his patient, telling the young girl about his high school days, almost laughing at himself, admitting that it wasn't all that bad… Weeks ago he yelled at her it was the worst time in his life. What was she supposed to think now? And the awareness that her non-wedding day was in a week didn't help matters.

She was startled by a rustle in the room. It was ten minutes till the end time, people started to hand in their work and leave. Derek passed by her desk, a look of concern on his face caused by the fact that she was still sitting here.

She hastened to leave her paper with the supervisor and hurried out, straight into Derek's anxious arms.

"Mer? Is… everything okay?" he looked at her attentively.

"Yeah," she nodded quickly, prying gently away from his grasp. His hands were burning her.

"Meredith," his voice was slightly berating. "How did it really go? You never sit longer than I do."

"It was really good, Der," she chuckled trying to calm him down. "Look, I finished my work when it was still forty minutes to go. And I did check my answers."

"Then-"

"I got… lost in thought, okay?" she sighed. "You don't have to be worried about it. I'm still positive I scored higher than you."

He shook his head with a chuckle. "Of course."

"So, you don't need to worry."

"Okay, do you want to go to Joe's and celebrate?"

"Derek…" she hesitated, taking a little step away from him. "I… I know we're in this weird limbo or something… And I'm sorry for it but… I don't think I'm ready for this…"

"Mer," he sighed, trying not to sound dejected. "I'm not asking you on a date. I don't deserve that yet. And you've got nothing to be sorry about. It's only my own doing that led us where we're now. I'm asking because that's everyone's plan for the evening," he said pointing at the group of interns chatting further down the corridor, including Cristina and Izzie.

"Oh."

"I wasn't going but if you are…"

"You don't have to martyr yourself, Derek," she sighed. "If you want to go, you can go. Even without me. You-" she fell silent biting herself on her lip to stop the reproach that was about to involuntarily fell from her lips

"I've done this so many times before, you mean?"he said knowingly. "I have. And I wish I had stayed with you every evening that I spent in the company of Sloan or anyone else."

Another moment. Another moment she wanted nothing else to throw her arms around him happy that she was his number one. But her qualms held her firmly in her grip so she just smiled at him.

"I'll join you there."

He nodded. It was better than nothing. Small steps, baby steps. He couldn't lose hope… But he couldn't shake off the sudden fear either. What if he could never regain her trust?

THE GEEK AND THE REBEL

"Dr. Grey."

Meredith leaned back to look over from behind the locker door. She was just about to set out for Joe's bar. Everyone was already there, unwinding after the test.

"Dr. Evans," she nodded, her eyes moving back to her locker.

"As you surely know I was appointed the head of neurosurgery at Seattle Grace today," he began.

"Uh, congratulations," she said dryly.

"I'm not sure if Chief Webber discussed it with you already but I would like to-"

"Yes, he's mentioned what I think you're talking about," she interrupted, throwing her bag over shoulder.

"Then we should discuss right away how our work schedule will look like next year. I'm aware you've just sat your intern test but with what I've seen I'm confident we don't have to worry about that."

"Wait a minute, Dr. Evans," she finally faced him. "I said Chief Webber had mentioned your… offer. I never said I accepted."

"Why would you not?"

"I'm not an object, I am not a piece of hospital equipment and I certainly won't be one of your perks on the job," she stated clearly. "You can look for another impressionable doe-eyed intern to follow you around. There are plenty of them here."

"Dr. Grey," he sighed. "I do not-"

"Goodnight, Dr. Evans," she said wryly and walked out leaving him standing alone in the intern locker room.