Meredith stared at the wall in front of her, her eyes blank as she thought about what she had done. Derek had been gone for two days now, and no one had heard from him, even his mother. As soon as she had explained to their situation to Addison, her best friend had been sympathetic, but too excited about the accidentally discovered diamond ring to be too supportive. At the moment, Addison and Mark were out to dinner, probably getting engaged as she sat in her room, surrounded by tissues and an empty ice cream pint, wondering whether she even still had a boyfriend.

Suddenly, she heard the apartment door slam shut, and she frowned as she looked at the clock. Seven on the dot. Addison and Mark had only left a half hour earlier, there was no way they were back yet. Which meant….

"Derek," she breathed as his form appeared in the doorway. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Seattle," Derek replied. "And Stanford. And I'm going to make an appointment at Dartmouth."

"You…what?" Meredith asked.

Derek sighed as he moved closer to the bed, sitting down in front of her and taking her hand gently. "I'm sorry, Mer," he said softly. "For yelling, for leaving without telling you where I was going. I just…I wasn't expecting you to be applying to any other schools that I wasn't, and the thought of being away from you…that scared me to death."

"Oh," Meredith said.

"Are you going to say anything else?" Derek asked, tilting his head to the side and smiling softly.

"I'm still mad at you," Meredith murmured. "You can't just take off like that, Derek. Even your mother didn't know where you were. So you can't do that. Ever."

"I won't," Derek shook his head.

"You said that last time," Meredith whispered. "When you got in your motorcycle accident. But now you did it again."

Derek sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I know, Mer, I'm sorry."

She sighed as she examined him closely. "It was very sweet," she finally consented. "And I appreciate it."

"I'm sorry, Mer," Derek whispered. "I just…I have plans and I was thrown off. But I'm not leaving this, I'm not leaving you. I could never do that."

"Okay," Meredith whispered.

"You're being far too understanding about this," Derek said. "I was expecting to come home and have pots and pans and various other household objects thrown at my head."

Meredith shook her head. "It's fine, Derek," she said. "I hate that you disappeared without telling me, but I love that you did that. We'll apply to schools, and see which ones we both get into. We'll just have to go from there."

"Good," Derek leaned forward, pressing his lips against hers gently.

"Hmm," Meredith sighed, running her fingers through his hair and pulling him down to rest against her chest as she leaned against the headboard. "You want to hear something exciting?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied.

"I'm ninety nine percent sure that Mark's proposing to Addie right now."

"What?" Derek sat up quickly, looking into her eyes with panic in his own. "Are you sure?"

"Well…no, not positive," Meredith replied, flustered by his reaction. "But she found a ring in his nightstand, and they went out to a fancy dinner…"

"No," Derek breathed, jumping off the bed and running out of the room.

"Derek?" Meredith asked, climbing off of the bed and following him into Mark's room. "What are you…."

Her voice trailed off when she saw him standing in front of Mark's night table, clutching a ring box in his hands. When he saw her standing in the doorway with wide eyes, he froze for a moment before he dropped to his knees in front of her.

"Marry me, Mer," he breathed.

"You…what?" Meredith asked.

"I want to marry you," Derek said softly. "I know we're young and we still have med school, and internships, but we can do this. I love you so much, and that's all that matters. So, Meredith Grey…will you marry me?"

"Yes," Meredith breathed, tears filling her eyes. "Of course I'll marry you."

Derek let out a sigh of relief as he gently slid the ring onto her left hand and stood to pull her tightly into his arms. "Thank God," he breathed.

Meredith kissed him deeply, and he smiled as he felt the unfamiliar cool steel of her ring touch against his cheek as she gently cupped his face in her hands. "Seriously?" she murmured against his lips.

Derek pulled back and looked at her with concern in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"You just proposed to me in Mark's room," Meredith giggled. "And I'm in sweats, and I just ate two pints of ice cream because you disappeared for two days."

"You found me with the ring, what was I supposed to do?" Derek defended himself.

"Nothing," Meredith shook her head as she looked down at her ring. "It was perfect. For us. I thought you would have done some big fancy thing with flowers and violins and corniness. This was perfect."

"Good," Derek nodded firmly, leaning forward to press his lips against hers.

"I love it," Meredith whispered as she pulled back to stare at the ring on her finger.

"It's my mom's," Derek murmured. "It looks good on you."

"Your mom's?" Meredith asked with wide eyes. "Derek, I can't take your mom's ring, your dad gave it to her, and she…"

"Mer," Derek laughed softly, placing a hand on her lips to interrupt her. "Dad wanted you to have it. Mom says the first time I brought you home he told her to enjoy the ring while she could because pretty soon it would be yours."

"Oh," Meredith breathed, tears filling her eyes as she looked down at the diamond. "It's perfect."

Derek smiled as he took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it gently. "It fits okay?" he asked. "Because we can get it resized. Or if you want a more modern setting…"

"It fits perfectly," Meredith nodded. "And I wouldn't dream of changing it."

"Good," Derek nodded. "I love you, Mer."

"I love you too," Meredith breathed against his lips. "Let's go…celebrate."

"Hmm…celebrating is good," Derek murmured as he slowly backed her out of Mark and Addison's room and into their own.

Before they could even get the door closed, however, the front door slammed open and they heard Addison's heels storm across the floor. "Seriously?" she shouted.

"Addison, I don't know why you're mad," Mark groaned. "All I know is that as soon as I ordered the wine you completely flipped out and stormed out of the restaurant."

"Because you ordered the cheapest wine on the menu!" Addison shouted.

"It's the same wine we always get!" Mark exclaimed. "What the hell is wrong with you? You love that wine."

"Yeah, well, I was hoping that when we got engaged you'd loosen the purse strings at least a little bit and be able to maybe upgrade to…I don't know a thirty dollar bottle!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mark exclaimed. "Who the hell said anything about getting engaged?"

There was silence for a moment before Addison whispered, "You don't want to get engaged?"

"Well, I wasn't planning on proposing anytime soon."

"Uh-oh," Meredith whispered to Derek. "This is about to get ugly."

"Mark's going to hate me for making him hide the ring," Derek whispered back, both of them leaning forward to press their ears against the door.

"You can stop pretending," Addison said. "I found the ring."

"What ring?" Mark asked. "Addison, have you gone completely mental?"

"I'll show you," Addison replied, followed by the sound of her heels clicking against the floor again. Silence followed and then she said, "Okay, maybe I am delusional."

Mark laughed loudly. "That was Shep's ring," he said. "Addie, do you think I was stupid enough to hide an engagement ring for you in my nightstand?"

"Derek proposed?" Addison replied.

"Apparently," Mark said. "Addie, listen…"

"No," Addison replied. "I get it, it's okay. I guess I was stupid to think that you wanted to get married anyways."

Neither one of them could hear Mark's reply as their friends' voices faded to faint murmurs on the other side of the wall. Meredith sighed as she made her way to their bed, collapsing on top of the covers as she looked up at him. "Are you sure you're ready?" she asked. "Because I know you weren't planning to propose right now, so…you can take it back. The proposal. If you're not ready."

Derek laughed slightly as he shook his head and moved closer to her. "I love you, Mer," he said softly. "But you're crazy. Of course I don't want to take it back."

"What about med school?" she whispered.

"I'll go wherever you want," Derek replied.

"But you want to go to Columbia."

"You mean more to me than Columbia."

"It's your dream," Meredith whispered. "Your dream is New York and mine is Seattle. It figures."

"Meredith," Derek said, taking her face in his hands. "Yes, I want to go to Columbia. Yes, I want to be one of the best neurosurgeons in this country. Yes, I want an established career. But none of that matters if you're not there with me. If you wanted me to go with you to Texas and join the rodeo, I'd do it. Cowboy hat, lasso and all."

Meredith giggled at the image of Derek in a rodeo. "Well, they do say everything's bigger in Texas…" she murmured seductively as she climbed on top of him.

Derek smiled as he ran his hands up and down her sides. "My point is, Mer, that you're the most important thing in my life. You always will be."

"I know," Meredith nodded. "And…I feel the same way. I didn't mean to keep those schools from you, Der, really, I wasn't even thinking of them until they contacted me. And then you completely went off on me and I got stubborn."

"I got scared because I was trying to propose and you were trying to move all the way across the country," Derek replied. "Not exactly the best confidence builder."

Meredith smiled as she laced her fingers through his hair. "I'm glad you proposed," she whispered. "When do you want to get married?"

"Hmmm…summer?" Derek suggested. "That way we can have a nice long honeymoon…" his voice trailed off as his lips moved to kiss her neck, his hands tugging at her shirt. "Which we can practice for now."

"Make up sex?" Meredith murmured. "Or engagement sex?"

"How about both?" Derek asked against her neck.

"I can do both," Meredith nodded, shimmying down his body and pinning his hands above his head, smiling as her ring sparkled in the soft light of the room. This was perfection.