"I'm just saying, maybe it's a good thing we don't have any classes together," Meredith sighed from her perch on the kitchen counter.

"How is that a good thing?" Derek asked from the stove, stirring the pasta as it boiled softly.

"Med school's competitive," Meredith replied as she held up both of their class schedules, which had come in the mail earlier that day. "We're taking the same classes, just with different professors. And this way we can both be the top of all our classes without having to compete for it."

"Good point," Derek laughed. "I can't believe we start med school in two weeks."

"I know," Meredith sighed, reaching out to wrap her arms around his neck. "But remember we have to make time for each other once it starts."

"We will," Derek nodded. "Every Friday."

Meredith giggled. "I still can't believe that you set up a date night every week," she said.

"Only because you asked me to," Derek replied.

"I know," Meredith smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "And I love you for it."

"You better," Derek laughed.

"Do you think we'll be able to do it?" Meredith asked. "Be med school students and have time for each other? Because as much as I love the date night idea, I want to see you more than once a week."

"I know we can," Derek said, kissing her firmly. "We'll just have to coordinate schedules, and make the time. But we can do it, because we want to."

"Good," Meredith nodded, leaning forward to kiss him again before pushing him towards the stove. "Now make me some food."

Derek muttered something under his breath, and as he continued to stir the alfredo sauce on the stove the doorbell rang. "Did anyone buzz up?" he asked Meredith.

"Nope," she said, hopping off the counter. "Maybe it's a neighbor."

Derek smiled, hoping for Meredith's sake that it was. He knew that she loved him and that she loved being married, but he also knew she was missing Addison and her female companionship quite a lot. He checked the sauce and the pasta one more time before he walked out of the kitchen curiously.

"Oh, Derek," Meredith smiled reaching out to him. "This is Beth. She and her husband Nathan live down the hall."

"Hi Beth," Derek smiled, reaching out to shake her hand.

"Hi," she replied. "I'm sorry to interrupt your evening, but I was just wondering if you had the phone number for any local pizza places. We just moved in today and we're starving, but the last thing we feel like doing is cooking after unpacking all those boxes."

"Believe me, we know how you feel," Meredith said with a smile. "We just moved in a couple weeks ago."

"Why don't you and your husband come over here for dinner?" Derek suggested. "We have plenty of pasta."

"Oh, I don't want to interrupt…" Beth started.

"It's okay," Meredith shook her head. "We were just saying how we should get to know more people around here anyways."

"Well…thanks," Beth said with a smile. "I'll get Nathan and we'll be back in a few minutes."

"Wonderful," Derek nodded. When Beth closed the door behind her, Meredith turned to him and smiled.

"We're making friends," she giggled.

Derek laughed as he walked back into the kitchen to check on dinner. "We are," he nodded.

"It's good to know that there's actually people our age in this building," Meredith sighed. "I love the apartment and everything, but constantly being around adults is a little weird."

"I've got news for you," Derek said, a sparkle in his eye. "We are adults."

Meredith rolled her eyes as she slapped his arm. "You know what I mean," she sighed. "And I still don't feel like an adult."

"Are we just playing house?" Derek teased. "Because I'm pretty sure you did some very adult things last night…"

"Shut up," Meredith rolled her eyes, moving back out of the kitchen to set two more places at the table.

"Hello?" Beth called as she opened the door slightly.

"Come in," Meredith smiled as she turned to greet them.

"Meredith, this is Nathan," Beth said, gesturing to the man beside her. "Nate, this is Meredith. She and Derek are amazing and are making us dinner."

"Derek's the amazing one," Meredith giggled. "I can't cook. Except for grilled cheese and spaghetti. And that's only if the sauce comes from a jar."

"You must be Nathan," Derek smiled as he came out of the kitchen. "Derek Shepherd."

"Nice to meet you," Nathan nodded. "I can't tell you how much we appreciate this."

"It's our pleasure," Derek nodded. "It's just about ready, so have a seat. Mer, do you want to help me in the kitchen?"

"Sure," Meredith smiled as she followed him into the kitchen to bring the food to the table.

"So, what do you two do?" Nathan asked after the wine had been poured and the food had been served.

"We're both starting at Columbia med school," Meredith said proudly. "We just moved down here from college in the Boston area."

"Wow," Beth smiled. "I guess it's good to know that we live near two doctors."

"Well, we're not doctors yet," Derek laughed. "What do you two do?"

"I'm going to NYU for my graduate degree in English," Beth replied. "And Nathan here is training with the Knicks."

Derek nearly choked on his wine. "The Knicks?" he repeated. "As in…the New York Knicks?"

"That would be them," Nathan smiled. "I got drafted right after college. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep up, but we'll see."

"That's amazing," Derek breathed.

"I can get you tickets if you want," Nathan offered, obviously amused by Derek's reaction."

"Yeah, that would be great," Derek said. "The Knicks, Mer."

"No offense, Nathan, but I still say the Celtics are better," Meredith giggled.

Derek rolled his eyes as he turned back to Nathan. "She's convinced that Boston is better than New York," he explained. "She even dragged me to a Sox game."

"You had fun," Meredith protested.

"Yeah, because they lost," Derek laughed.

"Shut up."

"Wait until Mark hears that I'm living next to a player for the Knicks," Derek said. "He's going to be so mad."

"Who's Mark?" Beth asked.

"Derek's best friend," Meredith rolled her eyes. "He's dating my best friend, but they went out to LA for med school. Addison and I sometimes wonder if we're just a cover up."

Derek frowned. "That is so not true," he said. "And that's not something you say in front of company."

"I'm just saying," Meredith giggled. "You and Mark are much closer than Addison and I."

"You can ignore my wife," Derek informed their guests. "She likes to make up stories to embarrass me."

Nathan laughed. "It must be a universal thing," he said as he wrapped an arm around Beth's shoulders.

"How long have you been married?" Meredith asked.

"Since May," Beth said. "We've dated for a year and a half before that, but getting married in college…not really something I wanted to do."

"I get that," Meredith nodded. "We were engaged for almost a year for that reason."

"Where'd you meet?" Beth asked.

"College," Meredith giggled. "He lived across the hall from me, and on the first day he offered to hang up my curtains, then realized he had no idea how to hang curtains."

"Nice," Nathan laughed.

"Hey, I was just enchanted by my beautiful floormate," Derek defended himself. "And it obviously worked."

"Hmm," Meredith sighed, leaning into his arms. "So how did you two meet?"

XXXXX

"So when are you going to break up with Mark and replace him with Nathan?" Meredith asked as she walked into their bedroom that night, applying lotion to her arms and shoulders.

"Shut up," Derek rolled his eyes.

"What, are you caught in a love triangle?" Meredith giggled. "You know, I'm sure Mark would be up for a threesome if you told him Nathan plays for the Knicks."

"Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you."

"Because you love me," Meredith said as she climbed on top of him, straddling his hips.

"Oh yeah," Derek laughed. "There is that."

"Seriously though," Meredith said as she leaned back to sit on his lap. "They were really nice."

"They were," Derek nodded. "It's nice to have some new faces around."

"I feel like such a grown up," Meredith sighed. "Living in a fancy apartment, having another couple over for dinner."

Derek laughed as he leaned up to kiss her. "What is with you today?" he asked. "We are grown ups, Mer, whether we want to be or not."

"I know," Meredith nodded as she slid off of his lap onto her own side of the bed.

"Where are you going?" Derek frowned.

"Do you ever have doubts, Derek?" she whispered, her eyes not meeting his.

"Doubts?" Derek repeated, feeling his blood run cold. "Mer, I told you I'm not ever leaving this. I love you, and you can't just…."

"No," Meredith smiled softly, shaking her head. "Not like that. I love you, and there's not a single moment that I regret marrying you or moving to New York. I don't have doubts about that at all."

"Oh," Derek sighed in relief, letting out a breath he hadn't even known he was holding. "Then what?"

"Med school," Meredith replied. "Being a doctor. Sometimes it just seems so…boring. Not me."

"Oh," Derek said, looking at her carefully. "Do you want to withdraw from Columbia?"

"I don't know," Meredith sighed. "I just…when I was younger, I always had these dreams. I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, and then I wanted to be a writer, and when I started disappointing my mom, I woke up one day and decided to be a doctor because then she might be proud of me. And I forgot all those other dreams, because all I wanted was for my mom to be proud of me. I convinced myself that I wanted to be a doctor, but now…now I'm scared, Derek. What if I hate it? What if I can't do it?"

Derek sighed as he pulled her into his arms. "First of all," he said. "I know that you can do it. That's not the issue, the issue is whether you want to do it."

"I don't know," Meredith whispered.

"I can't make that decision for you, Mer," Derek whispered. "You know I'll support you either way, but the decision…it's yours."

"I know," she whispered, curling into his chest as she ran her fingertips over his arm. "Are you…do you want to be a neurosurgeon because of your dad?"

"No," Derek laughed. "When I was in high school, being a doctor was the last thing I wanted to do."

"Really?" she asked. "What did you want to do?"

"I wanted to restore old cars," Derek said. "Buy them from junkyards, fix them up and sell them. But thankfully Dad knew enough to talk me out of that. It's a good hobby, one that I'll probably pick up when we get a house, but there's no way that I could make a living off of that. He told me I had to think more practically, so I told him I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. He tried to talk me out of that too, because he thought I was just saying that because that's what he did."

"But it wasn't?" Meredith whispered.

"No," Derek replied. "I did it because…when I watched my dad perform surgery, I could feel it, even from the gallery. The excitement, the adrenaline, the anticipation of what was going to happen next. I could feel it, and I wanted to have that feeling all the time, to be able to experience the thrill of saving a life firsthand."

Meredith nodded. "I don't feel that," she admitted softly. "I just feel…like I have to. Like I don't have a choice to be anything besides a surgeon."

"Listen to me," Derek whispered, cupping her face in his hands and forcing her to look at him. "I'll love you no matter what, okay? Take some time to think about this, I won't love you any less if you decided you don't want this."

"Okay," Meredith whispered, settling her head on his chest. "Thank you."

So I'm not going to completely write Mark and Addison out of this story, they'll still be around, so don't worry! I've got a couple different routes that I could take with this story (Mer opting out of med school, staying in, etc) and I'd love your opinions on where you'd like the story to go, so please let me know! I hope you're enjoying it still :)