Hello!

Here we go guys! Inspiration finally struck and I'm here to present you with the next chapter :)
Italicized text is a flashback.

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Heaven.

With his arms wrapped around her, Meredith was sure this was as close to heaven as she had ever been.

For a fleeting moment, she couldn't help but note how sad that was considering her 4 year long relationship with Alex. Had he really never made her feel this way?

They were together for practically the entirety of their residency. They had been engaged for God's sake. Was it really possible that a man she had only really started to get to know the night before could make her feel more than the man she had once thought she'd marry?

She didn't give herself more than a second to ponder it though because Derek had just nuzzled his nose deeper into her neck and tightened his arms around her body. The actions produced a fluttering in her chest that was enough to banish all thoughts not related to the man enveloped in her arms.

But then, with the simple opening of a door, their private heaven was shattered.

"Meredith, I've been trying to find you all day. We really need to-"

The last person Meredith had wanted to see today had finally found her.

"What the hell is this?" Alex demanded, pointing accusingly at the separating couple.

"Dr. Karev," Derek acknowledged dryly.

"Meredith, what the hell is this?" he commanded again.

'No,' Meredith thought. 'No way HE gets to be mad.'

"This is none of your business. I am none of your business," Meredith seethed. "You lost all right to concern yourself with anything about me the moment you decided to start screwing my best friend behind my back."

"Mer, please let me explain," Alex pleaded.

"Don't you 'Mer' me! And what the hell is there to explain? You cheated on me, Alex! You betrayed everything we ever had."

"I was wrong, Meredith. I was so, so wrong. Please," Alex whispered. "Please, what can do?" He took a step forward and tentatively reached for her hand.

Meredith immediately recoiled the instant his finger tips grazed her skin.

"No," her voice trembled low with anger and unshed tears. "No. There's nothing you can do. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to see you. I want absolutely nothing to do with you."

She didn't wait for Alex to respond or even spare glance back at Derek, who had remained standing quietly behind her while the scene had unfolded.

Meredith flung open the scrub room door and propelled herself out of the room as fast as she possibly could.

There was an empty supply closet down the hall with her name on it and she was determined to get there before she allowed the tears welling behind her eyes to fall.

Derek had to physically fight himself not to go after her.

He couldn't see her face, but it was impossible not to notice how her voice had become thick from choking back tears. The thought of her crying made him caused his chest to ache painfully.

They hadn't been… whatever it was they were… for very long at all. The protocol for this type of situation for them was lost on him.

He'd give her some time, he decided. He'd give her time to herself for as long as he could stand, but he knew eventually his need to know how she was would take over.

Alex was still facing away from him and staring dejectedly at the door Meredith had just escaped through. Derek began to exit as well, but was stopped just before his hand could grasp the door handle.

"Leave her alone, Shepherd."

Derek turned around in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"Eventually we're going to work this out. I made a mistake, but eventually she's going to forgive me and we'll get past this."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"Look dude, I know you're an attending or whatever, but I'm telling you to leave Meredith alone. I don't know what exactly I just walked in on, but end it now. Don't you have a wife?"

Derek's eyes narrowed. "I think Meredith made it quite clear that this is none of your concern. And you're one to talk about fidelity," he shot back, exiting the small room before Alex could come up with a response.

Katie was stable, sleeping, and had someone there to monitor her for the rest of the night. Derek finally allowed himself a moment to relax as he collapsed on a vacant bench outside the hospital. It was dark, save for the dim light emitted by the strategically placed light posts. And, in true Seattle fashion, a slow, steady rain was falling beyond the canopy he was seated under.

He hadn't seen Meredith since she stormed out of the scrub room about two hours ago and it was starting to make him anxious. He had been hoping to see her when he went to check on Katie, but no such luck.

He wished he could take her away. Take them both far away from pregnant spouses and cheating fiancés.

'This just seems to be the day for difficult exes,' Derek internally moaned. 'Well, almost-ex on my part,' he corrected himself bitterly.

For all intents and purposes, his and Addison's marriage was over.

If he thought about it, they had been done for a long time now. But the moment Addison revealed that she had been lying to him for the past eight months about the baby? That had been the last straw. The fact that the actual father was his so called best friend was just an added slap in the face.

Running a frustrated hand over his tired face, his earlier conversation with Addison started playing over again in his head.

"Derek!"

'Fuck.'

As if the medical enigma that was Katie Bryce wasn't giving him enough to stress about, Addison had finally managed to track him down.

"Derek Shepherd, I know you heard me, now stop walking away from me!" Addison yelled down the corridor.

Derek finally turned to face his approaching, adulterous wife. Even thinking the word 'wife' anymore made him feel physically ill.

"I have somewhere I need to be, Addison, so unless you have a patient that has something neurologically wrong with them, we have nothing to say to each other." Derek turned back away on his heel as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Hey! No! You can't just walk away from me!" Derek's brief pause had been enough to allow her to catch up to him, but his fast pace made it hard for her to keep up.

"This is just cruel," she grumbled. "You can't just run away from a pregnant woman. That's just mean."

"So is adultery."

"Derek, we need to talk."

"I have nothing left to say to you. I called my lawyer this morning and he'll be in touch."

"Oh, for God's sake," Addison moaned exasperatedly. As they passed an open to an open on-call room, she seized the opportunity and grabbed his elbow to haul him into the empty room.

"What the hell, Addison! Did it ever occur to you that I have patients and a job to right now?"

"Well when else are you ever around anymore? You can't just walk away, Derek. We have things to figure out."

"I told you. I have nothing more to say to you and our lawyers can handle everything else."

"How can you say that? How can you just give up like this? Why won't you fight for us!"

"What the fuck is there to fight for, Addison!" Derek yelled, finally losing his temper. "You are pregnant with another man's child. You had an affair."

"Sometimes people do desperate things to get someone's attention," Addison challenged angrily. "There are two sides to every story."

"And you thought the best way to get my attention was to screw my best friend? That was your resolution for our marital problems? Yes. Brilliant solution! It seems to have really helped!" he spat, sarcastically.

"You're right!" Addison yelled back. "You didn't even notice! What does that say to you?"

"It says our marriage is over."

The two stared angrily at each other through the darkness. Addison thought about speaking again, but was interrupted by the beeping pager attached to Derek's waist.

Cursing under his breath after reading the page, Derek re-clipped the device back to his scrub pants. "We're done here," he said looking back up towards Addison. "Like I said, my lawyer will be in touch."

The door slammed behind him as Addison sank to the nearest bed in defeat.

"Hey."

A soft voice interrupted his thoughts and caused Derek to suddenly raise his head from his hands.

"Hey," he answered back in surprise.

He had been fully prepared to track her down, but, lo and behold, Meredith Webber was standing right in front of him instead. "How are you?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But, uhmm…I was thinking…"

She was suddenly very nervous and opted to look down at her fidgeting fingers instead of meeting his intense gaze.

"What?" Derek urged, trying to decipher Meredith's intentions as he stood from the bench.

"I was thinking," she began again." I, uhmm, know this place where's there's an amazing view of sunrise over the ferry boats," she trailed off with a hint of a smile as she look up at him through her lashes.

A wide grin broke out across Derek's face. "I have a thing for ferry boats," he teased softly, taking a small step closer to her body.

"So do I," Meredith whispered back as her smile widened in response.

Without another word, Derek wrapped a strong arm around her waist and led her through the drizzling rain to her waiting car.

Agonizing thoughts of Addison may have plagued him all day, but now, all he could think about was that sunrise.

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