A.N. Hi there, this chapter's a bit shorter as I decided to break one long into two. Third update in one week. You're happy with me, aren't you? Thanks for all your reviews and I'm begging for more! :) Enjoy!

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The following morning, Derek woke up with an optimistic feeling that life was good. Finally, him and Meredith were on the right track; they worked together, they communicated, they bonded and even flirted. Derek was determined to see the world through rose-tinted glasses and chose to ignore the uneasy musings in his head. Because, deep down, he was worried he wouldn't manage to keep up with the Meredith that came back to Seattle after almost three years away.

That petite woman seemed lately to possess two personalities. One minute, she was the sweet undecided rambling girl he had known; the other, a confident and driven professional.

Right now, Derek could admire the latter of her dispositions. He leaned against the counter of the lobby, watching reverently as she was coming closer… and, oh, man, did she deserve her nickname… Derek felt his pulse quickening at the sight of her hips swaying gently and the look on her face, cunning and… foxy.

"Good morning," she greeted everyone in the lobby, her eyes lingering a little longer on Derek. He and Mark were taking the charts of their patients while a group of interns was waiting for their resident's instructions.

"It is a good morning," replied Derek softly.

Mark ordered one of the interns, "Spaulding, bring me coffee. Strong and black, as usual."

Spaulding's face fell; he was fed up with being Sloan's bitch.

"Oh, no, Dr. Sloan," interrupted Meredith. "Dr. Spaulding's on my service today."

Derek saw the intern's excitement rising; he was probably delighted at the prospect of working all day under Dr. McFoxy… lucky bastard.

"You're supposed to teach your interns, Dr. Sloan. Telling them to bring you strong coffee is shabby teaching. I'll show you how it should be done.

"Dr. Spaulding," she said with an angelical smirk. "Bring me a cup of triple grande, non-fat, extra hot, stirred milk como lafietta with whip cream and extra caramel, filled 70% of the way. I want it in the next five minutes."

Spaulding was rooted to the spot with the expression of utmost shock.

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Meredith's voice turned harsh. "What are you still doing here?"

The intern finally departed amongst the outbursts of hysterical laughter.

My bossy McFoxy… Derek stared at her with wonder. How he dreamed to pin her against the counter and kiss the living daylights out of her, to make her smirking lips swollen…

"Cool down, my friend," whispered Mark to his ear, snickering, "or you'll need to have a cold shower."

Derek looked quickly down his body but punched Mark, seeing his friend making fun of him.

Mark roared with laughter, "Busted!"

"Who's busted?" asked Meredith curiously.

"No one," was Derek hasty reply.

Mark was relentless, "You certainly will be when she sees your gift. She'll flatten you out."

Derek laughed; he was all for Meredith flattening him over the coach in his office, or the desk, or against the wall, wherever, really… As for his gift, it was really lucky he found what he was looking for overnight. And he was willing to risk being beaten to a pulp with Mer's tiny ineffectual fists.

"Morning, everyone," came Bailey's greetings. "Grey, not yet regretting ditching the big world for Seattle?"

Meredith laughed joyfully, "Not at all, Dr. Bailey."

Miranda looked sharply at her former intern. She had a sense of déjà vu as her mind went back to a woman with a child she saw in the park the previous day.

"Dr. Bailey, DR. Bailey," Cristina Yang's insistent calling drilled through her skull. "I hoped you would let me scrub in with you on the appendectomy."

"That's fine," Bailey continued to scrutinize Meredith as though she had roentgen in her eyes.

"Fine?" Cristina was surprised that Bailey conceded without much persuasion on her part.

George O'Malley came to the lobby with Cristina to look for Meredith. At last, he had some other news on Ms. Rodriguez than "no change".

"Mer- Er, Dr. Grey," he remembered her stormy mood. "Ms. Rodriguez consented to the operation."

Meredith turned immediately to face him, "She did?"

"Has her-"

"Yes, he has," finished for her George.

"I knew it!" Mer's face lightened up; she felt bright and shiny that day.

"Book an OR, George," she ordered. "You're scrubbing in; you can take one of your interns."

"Dr. Grey," Spaulding put a cup of coffee on the counter next to her.

Meredith carefully inspected the contents of the paper container. Derek felt almost sorry for the intern seeing Mer frowning in attempt to cover up her devilish grin.

"I said five minutes, Spaulding," she pointed at the huge clock on the wall. "You're two minutes late, meaning my extra hot coffee is only hot." She took one sip and grimaced shaking her head. "No, no, no. What happened to stirred milk and caramel, Spaulding? You're slow and you can't execute simple instructions."

She sighed, "I'm afraid I can't entrust you with the care of my patients. You'll be doing something less sophisticated, something that your abilities can encompass. There are some rectal exams to be done, fly."

This time, Spaulding didn't need to be told twice.

"Ouch," exclaimed Mark, clearly amused. "I appreciate your teaching methods, Dr. Grey."

Bailey raised her eyebrows and said to Cristina, "Yang, I think you've got competition to the title of the New Nazi."

Meredith couldn't possibly be happier. She grabbed her charts and made her way to the office through the group of interns, clearing frantically from her route. She passed a glance at Lexie and said, "Dr. Grey, I'd like a word, now."

Lexie followed her mutely with a terrified look on her face. Meredith opened her office and took off her coat but Lexie stayed warily outside.

"Come in," encouraged Meredith. "And close the door."

She took a deep breath and looked straight into her half-sister's eyes.

"Lexie, I can call you that, can't I?"

The brunette nodded slowly, not knowing where this conversation was heading.

"Lexie, I'm… truly sorry… about yesterday. I was mean to you. I know that because I'm not usually a mean person."

Lexie's astonishment was soon replaced with an insecure smile. Perhaps, her sister didn't hate her, after all?

"The thing is that I don't know you. And at this point, I don't know if I want to know you. You understand?"

Lexie nodded quickly, she would get Meredith to know her, she would.

"I'm… I'm sorry if you felt I was imposing on you," stuttered Lexie. "I've always wanted to meet you. And I want you to meet Molly-"

"Molly?" Meredith's mind was blank.

"That's my… um, our younger sister. She's married, you know, and she's pregnant." She smiled widely. "She's coming over for a checkup this week. You could meet her."

"I… I…" the information about the other sister was too much for a while. "I don't think it's such a good idea…"

"Oh," Lexie became anxious again. "Oh."

"Look, let's just keep our relationship on this level, on professional level. I'm sorry once again that I yelled at you and I promise that if I ever raise my voice at you it will be for professional reasons, not personal. But I hope I won't have to do that." She gave her a small smile.

After Lexie left, Meredith sat behind her desk. She was proud of herself. Bessie, she thought, you should be proud of your mama.

She snatched her handbag and pulled a wide framed photo. She really wanted to put a picture of her daughter in her workplace but she knew she couldn't. It really bugged her as she had hundreds of photos at home. Her friends from the program took tons of them while she was pregnant and afterwards she became a little obsessed with commemorating every moment of her daughter's life.

Instead of taking an image of her adorable little girl, she chose a group picture taken sometime during her first months in the program. She was surrounded by her new friends and Warren held an arm around her shoulders. Even of no one would tell, looking at the group of doctors, Meredith saw only Bessie. At the time, Mer was about four-months pregnant and had not yet popped. Her baby bump was securely hidden under her white lab coat. But Meredith knew she was there and it was enough.

Beep beep beep.

Meredith scooped up her pager to see that Ms Rodriguez was ready for the procedure.

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Four hours later, Meredith was sitting in the exact spot, clutching tightly the photograph and reliving ober and over again the conversation with Mr. Fuller, her patient's long awaited fiancé.

"Mr. Fuller," Meredith reluctantly approached the man pacing nervously the corridor.

"Dr. Grey," he ran up to her. "How did-" His face turned ashen at the sight of Meredith's grave expression, he understood, "Oh my God."

"I'm sorry," said silently Meredith. "We did everything we could but the tumor was too spread."

The man nodded slowly, "We knew that. We knew it was her best and only chance, our chance… I want to thank you, Dr. Grey," he said unexpectedly.

She looked at him curiously.

"I want to thank you that you let Hilda wait for me. We had time to say goodbye."

Meredith knew that Ms. Rodriguez's death touched her more than it should have. To tell the truth, she expected such an outcome. But then, the fiancé turned out to be real and she let herself hope. She tightened her grasp on the frame.

There was a soft knocking on the door. Through the window, she saw that it was Derek and she beckoned him with her head,

"Hey."

"Hey," she tried to smile at him.

"You look a little off. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She wouldn't tell Derek she was feeling down because of the patient she lost. It was pathetic; she broke the golden rule of not attaching herself to patients.

"What's this?" Derek pointed at the frame in her hands.

"A photo of… of my family."

Derek came closer and sat at the edge of her desk. "Can I see it?"

"Yeah, sure."

"You miss them?" he asked, inspecting the picture; his eyes immediately resting on Meredith's form.

"Yeah," she admitted. "I guess I do. I spent almost three years with some of them, the good and the bad times, mostly good, though."

"You seem really close with Warrens."

"They kinda adopted me," she chuckled.

"I'm glad you weren't alone."

"I weren't," she contemplated the true meaning of these words. She hadn't been alone since she left Seattle.

"So," said Derek, trying to cheer her up. "You owe me a story."

"What?"

"You said you'd tell me about the dance if I behaved. I behaved," he huffed.

Meredith eyed him, narrowing her eyelids but finally cracked.

"Fine. We were in Brazil; it was our first day… night in Brazil. We went there for a plastics program and it happened that it was carnival. You've ever seen the pictures of the carnival in Rio? It's amazing! Thousands of people dancing in the streets, dancers in those colorful costumes," her eyes glinted at the memory. "It's indescribable. And we went out to celebrate the new year, we danced all night long; and since then, in every new place, first one of us to perform a surgery danced before the procedure, for luck."

Derek grinned, "You're a really good dancer. Although, now I'd like to see you do that in a skimpy dancing costume."

"Shut up," she wore a matching grin.

"Anyway," sighed Derek. "I'm really happy you've come home after all the fascinating adventures, of which I would like to hear sometime. And… I have a welcome present. He dived his hand into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a little paper bag.

Meredith opened her smiling mouth, speechless. "Whoa, what's this?"

"A gift," Derek's smile was so prominent he was afraid his face would hurt or worst… he might burst out laughing and spoil the prank.

Meredith took the bag but Derek prevented her from peeping inside. "Don't open, wait until I go out."

She frowned in incomprehension. As soon as the door closed behind him, she opened the package impatiently and…

That stinky arrogant bastard! You think you're so smart, so amusing!

"You've got to be kidding me!" She let out her frustration verbally. Holding the gift in her hand, she yanked the door open.

"Derek Christopher Shepherd!" she yelled furiously, intending to storm into his office and kick his McDreamy ass. Unfortunately, she ran straight into Chief Webber.

"Oh, I'm…" Meredith stuttered, blushing awkwardly. "I'm so sorry, Chief. Are you okay?" she asked concernedly.

"I'm fine!" replied Chief with annoyance, massaging his nose.

Meredith looked over his shoulder to see Derek grinning at her from his office.

Ass! You're going to pay!

"Are you all right, Meredith?" asked Richard. "Do you have any problems? You look agitated."

"I'm… fine," she assured him, sending a death glare at Derek.

Webber followed her gaze and turned to look behind him. Seeing this, Derek busied himself with browsing files in his briefcase.

"Do you have any problems with Derek?" Webber lowered his voice and shot her a piercing look.

"What? No!"

"Then why did you just call him by his second name?"

"I… I need to write his name on… a document, a document… I need to fill in," rambled Mer, "and I needed to check his… his second name…"

Richard sighed heavily. He knew she was lying. The two of them… were the two of them. He knew both of them too much but there was probably nothing he could do about it.

"And what's that?" Richard pointed at a piece of clothing dangling inertly from Meredith's hand.

"That's… that's… nothing… uhm… important," she stammered and hid Derek's gift behind her back.

The door of Derek's office opened and he stepped out energetically.

"Morning, Chief," he said joyously. "Dr. Grey. Would love to stay and chat but I have to check up on my patient."

He flashed her the last triumphant McDreamy smile and departed.

You're so going to pay…

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Fortunately for Derek, he got stuck with his patient in the OR performing a complicated surgery and Meredith couldn't get her hands on him until it was time for lunch. Not aware that she was under watchful eye of Miranda Bailey, she buttoned her jacket and hurried out of the hospital door to meet Bessie in the nursery.

That day Miranda wasn't going to meet her son in the park. She was finishing early so she had all afternoon to enjoy with Tuck. Instead of going out, she let herself be intrigued with Meredith's behavior. There was really nothing rational and logic in Miranda's suspicions but she had a talent for picking small, apparently insignificant details and putting them together into a coherent picture.

Why was Meredith Grey going out of the hospital? Was that her in the park yesterday?

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P.S. Have you seen the latest crossover promo? I hope the Derek/Addison kiss is just Meredith's bad dream or something…

P.S.2 Any guesses on the gift? :)