He had to get to Meredith.

That was all Derek could think as he raced out of the exam room, practically bouncing in excitement. The exam was over, the exam from hell was completely over and behind him, and all he wanted was to hug Meredith, telling her how easily the exam had gone for him.

"Dr. Shepherd," a sharp voice said from behind him and he closed his eyes briefly before he turned to smile slightly at the woman in front of him.

"Dr. Grey," he said, a tight smile playing over his lips.

"I was wondering if you would consider taking one last shift before your time off," Ellis said. "Dr. McCarthy has a standstill tomorrow afternoon."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Grey," Derek said. "But I can't take that shift, as interesting as that surgery would be."

Ellis raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What could possibly be more interesting than a standstill?" she asked.

"My wedding," Derek replied evenly.

Ellis blinked in surprise, not reacting to his news for a moment before she asked, "Your wedding?"

"Yes," Derek nodded. "And if you don't have any further questions, I'm already late for my rehearsal dinner."

"Of course," Ellis nodded. "I…good luck in your wedding."

Derek nodded his thanks, but before he could say anything else, a familiar voice called his name and he turned to smile, opening his arms widely for his fiancé. "Mer," he laughed, hugging her tightly. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I wanted to surprise you," she giggled, running a hand over his hair. "How was the test?"

"It went fine," Derek smiled. "And I'm glad it's over, just because that means you're going to be my wife." He stepped back to look at her briefly, taking in the deep purple cocktail dress she was wearing. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks," she smiled. "And we'll be married. In less than twenty four hours," she breathed. "You have to come back to Mom's. Your sisters are….oh."

Derek tightened his arm around her as she set eyes on her mother. "I was just explaining why I couldn't take an extra shift tomorrow," he said softly.

"Right," Meredith said, smiling slightly before she turned to look at him. "I um…I kind of snuck out. So we should hurry because I'm already in trouble."

Derek nodded. "Right," he said. "Um…I just have to grab some stuff from my locker."

"I'll go with you," Meredith said quickly.

"Congratulations on your wedding," Ellis said without any emotion.

"Thanks, Dr. Grey," Derek murmured, tugging on Meredith's hand to pull her towards the locker room.

"Um…" she said, glancing at him quickly, biting her lower lip before she turned back to her mother. "Dr. Grey," she said.

Ellis turned, raising her eyebrows as she looked at Meredith. "Yes?"

"I um…I know you probably won't want to come," Meredith whispered. "But if you want…you can come to our wedding tomorrow."

Ellis stared at her daughter for a moment before she nodded. "I would like that," she said.

"Oh," Meredith blinked in surprise. "I'll have some directions forwarded to you."

"Thank you, Meredith," Ellis said softly.

"You're welcome, Dr. Grey," Meredith nodded.

"Good luck," Ellis repeated as she turned to walk towards her office. Meredith stared after her for a moment with wide eyes before she turned back to Derek and smiled softly. "Let's go," she said.

"Mer," Derek breathed, following her down the hall. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she smiled, turning to face him. "Really, Derek. If she wants to come, she can come. If not, it doesn't matter. Tomorrow we're getting married. That's all that matters, and I'm not going to let anything ruin that."

Derek smiled softly, pulling her in to kiss her gently. "I love you," he murmured. "So much."

"I love you too," Meredith smiled. Before either one of them could say anything, her cell phone rang loudly from her bag and she frowned. "Crap," she sighed, looking down at it. "It's Izzie. She's going to kill me."

"I'll change fast," Derek laughed as Meredith ignored the call. She shoved him into the locker room, giggling as his phone vibrated in his pocket. "It's Izzie," he said, offering the phone out to her.

"Izzie has your phone number?" Meredith frowned, snapping the phone out of his hands.

"I wanted her to have it," he shrugged. "Emergencies or whatever."

Meredith stared at him for a moment before she held the phone up to her ear. "What?"

"I knew it!" Izzie shouted. "Meredith Grey, you can't just sneak out of your own rehearsal dinner!"

"Yes I can," Meredith nodded. "Because I was going to see my fiancé. And since you're all crazy and making him sleep at the stupid trailer tonight, I have the right to sneak out to see him now."

"But it's your rehearsal dinner."

"Okay, calling it that? That's just stupid," Meredith argued. "Because there was no rehearsal. So it's just dinner. At Emma's. With our family. Which we both love doing, but we've done it a thousand times before and we'll do it a million more. It's really not that big a deal."

"Can you just come back?" Izzie asked. "We've got to discuss the flower arrangements and make sure there's…."

Meredith rolled her eyes as she hung up the phone, handing it back to Derek. "We have to go," she sighed. "We have to discuss flower arrangements and be at the stupid rehearsal-less rehearsal dinner."

Derek looked at her closely for a moment. "You really don't want to have this wedding," he said.

"I do," Meredith smiled. "I want to have this wedding, because that's the only way we'll end up married. So…even though your sisters are driving me crazy and I would really just prefer a backyard wedding with the family and grilling at the reception…it's what we're getting."

"We don't have to do this," Derek said softly. "Let's just go."

"Go?" Meredith frowned.

"To the Bahamas."

"The honeymoon is after the wedding," Meredith rolled her eyes, reaching for his hand. "So we have to go to your mom's so we can have the stupid rehearsal dinner and then have the stupid wedding and then go on the honeymoon."

"No, let's go tonight," Derek insisted, reaching for her hands and pulling her closer. "We can still get married tomorrow. We can do it on the beach, drink cocktails during the wedding. Come on, Mer, doesn't that sound perfect?"

"It does," she sighed, unable to deny the deep desire to do that. "But…what about the family?"

"We'll go tell them now," Derek said. "They can come if they want."

"It's not that easy," Meredith whispered. "We've spent money on this wedding, they have jobs they can't just leave, Lexie's all excited to be maid of honor, and Meg's apparently refusing to take off her flower girl dress. And we can't disappoint your mom."

"Please, Mer," Derek whispered, a sudden urgency in his voice. "I don't want this wedding, not at all. I know you tried to make it special for us, and I love you for that, I do. But it's not our wedding. It's Izzie's and Kath's and Liz's, even a little of Mom's. So let's just go and have the perfect Derek and Meredith wedding. On the beach. In the Bahamas. Sex on the beach."

"I'm not drinking sex on the beach during my wedding."

"Who said anything about drinks?" Derek frowned.

"Idiot," Meredith rolled her eyes before she reached up to run a hand through his hair. "We can really do this?"

"We can," Derek nodded, leaning into her touch. "Please."

"Okay," Meredith whispered.

"Really?"

"Really," Meredith nodded. "But…I want my dress. And your mom's veil. I have to get married in that."

"You do," Derek nodded. "We need the rings and the marriage certificate too."

"All of which are at…Mom's," Meredith sighed. "If we go back there we're never coming out."

Derek thought for a moment before he nodded. "I think I have a plan," he said.

XXXXX

"Derek, are you sure this is a good idea?" Meredith bit her lower lip as she looked up at the trellis leading up to his window.

"Relax, I used to sneak out all the time," Derek nodded. "No one ever knew."

"Yeah right," Meredith rolled her eyes. "Your dad told me he used to watch you try to sneak out and laugh."

"What?" Derek frowned.

"You weren't exactly stealth."

Derek shook his head. "Whatever," he said. "I can do this."

"Just be careful," she said, looking up at the house. "I don't want to be a widow before I'm a bride."

"It'll be fine," Derek nodded, pulling himself up onto the trellis. As Meredith watched worriedly, the lights on the porch turned on and Emma's voice rang clearly through the night.

"Derek Christopher Shepherd, what in the world do you think you're doing?"

"Crap," Meredith breathed, her eyes widening as she saw Derek jump back to the ground, stumbling slightly at the impact.

"Oh, Mom," Derek smiled. "I was just going up to my room. To change. Because these clearly aren't appropriate party clothes, so I didn't want to ruin your party by walking through with inappropriate clothes."

Emma eyed him suspiciously. "When you were twelve, you and Mark decided to make mud pies at your grandfather's very formal ninetieth birthday party," she said. "You weren't so concerned about appearances then."

"I've grown a lot in the past fifteen years."

"At Nancy's wedding you changed out of your tuxedo for the reception."

"Well…it was uncomfortable."

"What in the world is going on?" Emma asked, turning to Meredith.

"Mom," she breathed. "We uh…I need my dress. And the veil and the rings."

"It's all upstairs," Emma nodded. "Ready for tomorrow."

"Right," Derek nodded. "But there's been a minor location change to the wedding."

"You're not still worried about rain, are you?" Emma frowned. "There's nothing forecast, so I don't see any problems holding the wedding outside."

"Well…we were think something a little more…tropical," Derek said.

"This is Seattle, Derek Christopher."

"Right," Derek nodded. "But…we're leaving for our honeymoon. Tonight. And we're getting married tomorrow at sunset. On the beach."

Emma stared at the two of them for a moment before her eyes began to flash with anger. "Were you even going to tell me that you were planning on eloping?" she asked.

"Yes," Derek said quickly. "Well…maybe after we got back."

"I cannot believe you," Emma said. "We have a wonderful wedding planned…"

"We don't want that wedding," Meredith interrupted.

"Excuse me?" Emma asked.

"Oh," Meredith swallowed hard, not used to having parental anger directed towards her. "The sisters and Izzie…they promised that they would let me have the wedding I wanted. But they didn't. They kept telling me to choose different stuff, add in things I didn't want, invite people I don't even know. So this wedding isn't mine. It's not ours, and we just want to be married."

Emma stared at the couple for a moment before she sighed. "You're right," she said softly.

"You should come," Derek said quietly.

"Derek, I can't just get up and go on vacation," Emma sighed.

"Why not?" Derek asked. "The girls are on their own, you don't work. Just take some time off from volunteering, a couple of days in the Bahamas won't hurt."

"You deserve it," Meredith whispered.

"We want you there," Derek smiled, reaching for Meredith's hand.

"Your sisters aren't going to be happy."

"Well, they can still have their party tomorrow," Derek shrugged.

"A wedding without the bride and groom," Meredith giggled.

"Exactly," Derek laughed.

"Alright," Emma sighed. "I'll need a few minutes."

"Of course," Derek said. "We're going to wait out here."

"Don't be ridiculous," Emma rolled her eyes. "You're going to come in here and tell your sisters yourself."

Derek sighed. "Fine," he said. "We'll be in in a minute."

"Okay," Emma sighed, squeezing Derek's arm before stepping back into the house.

With a broad smile, Derek turned to Meredith and pulled her into his arms. "We're getting married tomorrow," he whispered.

"We are," Meredith giggled looping her arms around his neck. "On the beach."

"Perfect wedding," he sighed.

"Thank you," Meredith whispered. "For understanding why I can't get married the way they want me to."

"I don't want to either, Mer," he laughed. "I want to be able to kiss you passionately as soon as we're declared husband and wife. I want to take you back to our private suite and make love to you with the balcony doors open so we can hear the ocean. I want to drag you all through the island and brag about you being my wife."

"Oh," Meredith smiled, feeling her face flush. "I want all of that too."

"Good," Derek nodded, leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers. "Are you ready to go face the army of bridezillas?"

"If you are," she sighed, pressing her lips against his softly. "Derek?"

"Hmm?"

"We can sleep together tonight, right?"

"Oh definitely," Derek laughed, pulling her into the house. "Never sleeping apart again. It's part of my vows."