A.N. Hi, thanks a lot for all the feedback, it really helps me to see what I should improve in my story! I'll try harder to make Cristina more like her usual self. As for Markie, he'll have a little part to play :) somewhere in later chapters.

Now, the gift, it was really… innocent, I swear! :) One of you guessed correctly, kudos! As for some naughtiness, it's definitely on its way…

Anyway, on with the story! R&R!

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On her way back to the hospital, Meredith pondered how to most efficiently cut Derek's oxygen supply. She hadn't seen him until the lunch break when she went out to see Bessie.

The disadvantage of her recently started routine was that she didn't have much time for actual lunch. Once in the hospital, she paused in front of the vending machine to buy a sandwich.

"Hey," Cristina came over.

"Dr. Yang," replied drily Meredith.

"You're still pissed," stated Cris inserting coins into the machine.

"Oh, no, why should I be?" fired Mer. "I just ran the whole day around the hospital wondering who McFoxy was."

Cristina snorted.

"I thought she was some Derek's sweetheart!"

"And you were right!"

"Watch it! Now I know how it is that Spaulding's so witty. Like resident like intern!"

"Have you just compared me to an intern?" her friend's face screwed in disgust.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Hunt, "Dr. Yang, you mind checking on some of my post-ops? The E.R. is swamped with traumas."

Cristina nodded and Owen continued, "Also, would you like to go on a date with me?"

"I'm sorry?" Cristina was baffled.

"A date," repeated Owen. "You said not to play hot and cold with you, so, um, I'll pick you up around 8 o'clock?" he said at the top speed. "Oh, and make sure that Mr. Kenner in room 2272 gets that enema. He's been holding on to it for days."

"That was…" Meredith searched for an appropriate word once Owen disappeared from sight, "weird…"

Cristina was still wearing the look of utmost bewilderment.

"I think I can let you off the hook," said Mer compassionately.

"I… I… You think… I should go?"

Mer carefully watched her friend, "Yeah, you deserve a little fun, I guess. Besides, he's… sweet," finished Meredith, grinning.

"That's just sickening. Trust me; no one's sweeter than your McDreamy."

"Speaking of the devil, have you seen Derek?" asked Mer.

"Yeah, I believe he's had some problems with his patients. Why? You're dating him again?"

Mer rolled her eyes, "Nope. I just need to kill him." She looked around to ascertain no one was watching and inconspicuously pulled the Derek's gift from her bag. It was a surgical cap covered with several smiling foxes holding upwards their fluffy tails.

Cristina was laughing her head off, "Nice pattern, where did you get that?"

"Shut up," silenced her Meredith. "McJackass brought it for me."

"Wow, when I thought he was boring, he rises."

"I wish I could throw it away but I don't have the heart to do it. Besides, Bess saw it in my bag and she was elated."

"Like father-"

"Don't finish that sentence," hissed Mer.

There was a beeping sound.

"That's… my patient," frowned Mer, checking her pager. "I don't understand. There were no complications, he was stable," she said thinking about Mr. Robinson, the trauma case from a motorbike accident. "I'll see you later."

Cristina grinned appreciatively at the thought of the McFoxy cap. It looked like Shepherd was using his brain for once, trying to get into Mer's heart before her pants. Only that he was already there, in her heart and her head, he had been for a long time. Meredith and Derek were so into each other. Everyone saw that; the only people who didn't were… Meredith and Derek.

Cristina wasn't always supportive of their relationship; it sent Meredith on the verge of tears to many times. However, it was undeniable that they had something; something powerful, unique, and undying… And they had a child together; that linked them forever.

Sometimes, Cristina envied her best friend. She felt like an empty shell; her relation with Burke seemed to have been a pathetic joke. Unlike Meredith who still loved her McDreamy to bits, she was sure Preston wouldn't mean anything if he turned up at Seattle Grace. Maybe his ghost was being replaced by the so solid and rugged form of Owen Hunt. Cristina was willing to give it a try.

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Still in her jacket, Meredith hurried to the ward and soon found herself in the middle of a curious scene. Mr. Robinson, her patient who went through a brain surgery only the previous day, was pacing outside his fiancée's room, screaming at the top of his lungs. Derek and two nurses were dancing around him, trying to calm him down.

"Jenny! Please, talk to me! Honey, you've got to listen to me! We're in love; we can't just throw away all this time together!"

"Mr. Robinson, please, calm down," Derek tugged gently at his arm. "Sir, can you just sit on the wheelchair?" His voice was drowned with Mr. Robinson's shouts.

He was getting desperate, "You're acting irrational, Jenny! You're being silly! That talking about signs and fate, it's all bullshit! You hear me?"

Meredith decided it was high time to act. "Mr. Robinson, what are you doing out of bed? You're supposed to be recovering from a brain surgery!"

"Dr. Grey," he turned to her with tears in his eyes. "Dr. Grey, I need to talk to Jenny! I need to make her understand and that pretty boy," he pushed Derek's hand away, "won't let me!"

"And I don't let you either," said softly Meredith. "Because Jenny is in no shape for such a conversation. Her condition was much more serious than yours and she's still weak."

"Strong enough to break up with me!"

"Do you care about your fiancé? I think you do," Mer's tranquil voice finally started to have effect on her patient. "Here, sit down on the wheelchair, Mr. Robinson. The nurse will take you to your room. I'll be with you shortly."

The stubborn man finally let himself be seated on the wheelchair. "Will you talk to her, Dr. Grey?" he pleaded, "talk some sense into her?"

"I'll see what I can do," she patted his shoulder.

Derek was standing with his hands on his hips shaking his head, "Thanks, if you hadn't come, we would have had to sedate him."

"I've got paged," explained Mer. "They cause a lot of trouble, these two. I think the whole hospital knows about their love drama." Sounding a lot like us. Thank God, I haven't ever gone into hysterics in front of everyone.

Derek smiled leniently as though reading her thoughts, "It's just a lovers' quarrel."

"Is he gone yet," Jenny's question was stifled by the closed door of her room. Derek and Meredith came inside.

"Yes, he's calmed down," reassured her Derek. "He's back in his room."

Ms. Lewis was sobbing silently, "I don't know what to do anymore. I love him but… I don't know if it's ever going to work…"

Meredith took the advantage of the moment to act on the promise she made to her patient.

"Jenny," she sat on her bed. "Most of the time, men are pathetic suckers."

Derek frowned his forehead and opened his mouth, ready to object but Meredith totally ignored him. "But, you know, it's really difficult to find this one looser that would actually care about you, be ready to force the door to see you and not run away if there are some bumps on the road."

Meredith's diatribe left the young woman bemused and speechless. Derek cleared his throat, "I… I think what Dr. Grey meant to say," he said slowly, his eyes boring intensely into Meredith's, "that it's a bit of a miracle for two people to be at the same place, at the same time, and deeply in love. And that you can't… simply throw it away… something that special."

Jenny appeared to be lost in thought.

Derek sighed, "We'll give you a moment alone. Try to rest your head."

"Don't think that your smooth talking will get your ass out of trouble," shot Mer as soon as they were out."

"And what do you want to do with my ass?"

"Seriously, you're digging yourself a deeper hole!"

"Meredith, Derek," they heard Chief Webber's voice coming closer.

The man is officially my hero today, thought Derek with relief.

"I heard there was some kind of commotion on this floor?" Richard demanded information. He was troubled with any irregularities in workings of the hospital these days.

"We've just had a lovers' quarrel," said Mer without much thinking.

Shit! Why is this always happening to me?

Richard stood with his arms crossed over his chest, looking between them severely. Damn it! They were in the earshot of the nurses. Meredith could already hear the lively buzzing… She didn't even have to look at Derek to know that he was having the time of his life. Indeed, he was fighting hard not to burst out laughing seeing Meredith's face contorted in mortification.

"Our… patients had a lovers' quarrel," Derek put an end to her torture. "But we've got it under control."

Meredith nodded quickly, to embarrassed to look anywhere else than the floor.

"Your patients," said Webber, his tone dangerously annoyed. "Then keep your patients' tangled love life on leash," he strode away. These two will be the death of me. And he told Derek explicitly not to cross the line…

"Meredith," started Derek.

"If you want to stay alive, it is a good moment to shut up," warned him Mer and made to leave.

"Mer?" he tried again. He just realized she was wearing a jacket. "Have you been out for lunch again?"

"Um, yes," replied Mer. "I can't get used to the crappy hospital food here, again."

Derek frowned but didn't pursue the subject. After all, he did want to stay alive.

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"So, you should think over what you're going to ask him. Like… what was his coolest surgery," advised Izzie enthusiastically. Cristina's date with Owen became the topic number one.

"You're more excited about this date than I am," commented Cristina making Izzie roll her eyes.

"Yeah, Izzie, don't assume they will have any time to talk," joked suggestively Meredith.

They were bantering while scrubbing in on a craniotomy.

"Why don't you wear your new cap?" asked Cristina in attempt to steer the conversation on some other subject. The first date with Owen was making her more nervous that she'd ever admit and dissecting it certainly wasn't helping.

"What cap?" asked Izzie.

"Don't you-"

"McDreamy gave her a cap with foxes on it."

"Wow, you have a McFoxy cap? So sweet of Derek," she commented. "What's exactly with you guys? Are you… back together? I heard something about a lovers' quarrel…"

"No, we're not together!" huffed Meredith. "It's just one huge misunderstanding! And I won't wear that cap. I would be… so unprofessional!"

"It wouldn't," countered Izzie. "It would just show you've got sense of humor."

"She just doesn't want to dismantle her New-Nazi reputation," jibed Cristina. "Hate to break it to you, Mer, but you've never had it in you to be a Nazi and you've gone even softer after-" Meredith sent her a warning look.

"After those years away," added Cristina.

"Mer, Cristina's right; the Nazi isn't your style," said Izzie going inside the OR.

Meredith was perfectly aware of that. She wasn't rough, callous or scary-looking, and frankly, she didn't want to be. It was too dangerously close to transforming into her mother. To tell the truth, she was sorely tempted to put it on; she was carrying it in her lab coat all day. Only… she could be a respected surgeon while staying McFoxy, right? Derek and Mark managed to be, despite their nicknames.

"Seriously," said Cristina. "You should wear it. Listen to McDreamy and McSpawn."

"McSpawn?" Mer repeated weakly.

"Yeah, sorry, Mer," Cristina's voice didn't indicate she was at all sorry. "Genetics is a bitch. And you're both carriers of McGenes."

Screw it!Meredith took out her cap and joined her surgical team seconds after Cristina, ignoring the stifled chuckles coming from the OR and the gallery.

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That evening, Meredith came into Derek's office in hope of finally cornering him. She was lo longer angry but couldn't deny herself the perfect occasion to tease him. The office was empty but Derek's coat hanging on the rack and his briefcase thrown carelessly on the couch told her he was still somewhere on the hospital premises.

She was right; Derek came several minutes after her but didn't seem to be too frightened with her presence. If anything, the fact that she was waiting for him made his heart soar.

"Do you have your last wish?" asked Meredith, pretending to be angry and severe, achieving somewhat opposite reaction…

Oh God, isn't she adorable…

"Yeah, actually," he replied casually. "I would like you to have a look at this." He handed her a sheet of paper he brought with him.

"And what's that? Another gift?"

"No," contradicted Derek. "The news about your baby."

Meredith's heart almost stopped. What? How could he possibly…? How does he…?

"The board has just delivered their agreement on your clinical trial," he explained.

Oh my God, oh my God! Meredith's felt the warm blood flowing once again through her numb limbs. He gave her a scare… She sniffed, trembling slightly.

"Meredith," Derek inquired concernedly. "Aren't you happy?"

"I am," she croaked, her eyes glistening. "It's just… such a relief…" She burst out laughing uncontrollably. The relief made her light-headed.

"It was only a formality," said Derek. "The Chief set the wheels in motion. Someone from the board was just to bring the consent form this evening. I didn't tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise."

"It is a surprise! It is-" she trailed off.

"Meredith?" he asked softly. Meredith didn't even notice him coming closer.

She smacked him across his chest, "So, you knew! You set this up!" she chuckled emotionally. "You knew you'd get away! You knew you'd be forgiven for these foxes!"

"Am I forgiven?" he whispered, leaning towards her, his face inches from hers. She felt his fingers subtly rubbing her arms through the thin material of her shirt. Their skins erupted in goose bumps at the simple contact.

"Am I forgiven?" he repeated, smile lightening up his features.

Meredith was hypnotized by his blue gaze. "You… are…" her voice went low and raspy. Derek's hot breath made her cheek tingling pleasantly.

Their eyelids fluttered to close as Derek angled his head for better access…

When their lips brushed, it was so gentle and weightless that Meredith no longer knew whether it was real or imagined…

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A.N. A little cliffie, heehee…

Next chapter: "Mind-reading" – coming soon.