Chapter Twelve

Floaty Boats

Seattle, Washington - November 2022

"Our first cheese." Owen said, proudly lifting the plate over their heads. The guys had laid a table in the middle of the square for the momentous occasion. Wanting to be helpful Owen had taken a couple books out of the library about dairy farming, and was now an expert on all things milk, butter and cheese. The churning stage was when Cristina decided she'd spent far too long watching milk curdle over that weekend.

"First cheese! Cheers everybody." Mark said, the group had kind of forgiven him, Arizona still gave him the side eye when the opportunity presented itself. Derek and Meredith had left for their road trip a couple of weeks earlier and were on the road in his RV and Arizona was busy trying to furnish an apartment that she wasn't even sure they were going to use. She wasn't sure where her and Callie were going, they'd had these amazing two years alone where they thought they were the only two people in the world. Then people appeared back in their lives and suddenly she wasn't sure if they were exclusive anymore. Like Callie had assumed they weren't together anymore. She'd seen the way her supposed girlfriend was looking at Mark, the way she almost pined over him. A stab of jealousy stung her like an angry wasp when she looked at them sitting beside each other at the table. She was laughing at one of his 'definitely not funny' jokes, but then she looked over at Owen and all the work he'd put into this breakfast and she sucked herself in.

Everybody raised a glass in celebration: Cristina smiled and clutched Owen's hand despite her not wanting to commit just yet, she was happy for him. Callie and Mark's knees were touching underneath the table and Owen was blindly unaware of everyone else's feelings. It was a morning to celebrate, a morning to try and move on from the past.

The night came quickly. Callie lay in his bed because she'd wanted him, this had been a time to take what she wanted because it was now or never. She didn't think about Arizona's face or what she was going to say - how she was going to explain it, because she couldn't. Mark came and laid down beside her, his hand came up to caress her neck, to look her in the pooly brown eyes and kissed her.

And then they had sex. Good sex with all sorts of different configurations and positions, sex that made them forget everything else. But not sex that made them fall in love. When something is so good that you can't think of anything else for days, how can you avoid it? So they had sex. They gave in to their bodily desires and began screwing because it was the end of the world and Mark thought she was hot. A hot firefighter lady that he realised he knew nothing about. So they spent the next few days just talking.

"Your worst fear?" Mark asked, waiting for some girly response like 'oh I don't know spiders.'

"Speaking to people, well you know a lot of people." Callie replied, then Mark pulled a face so she continued, "I can walk into a burning building a save a little kid from dying, but I can't talk to the press afterwards, it's a thing. It's my thing."

"Well, you know there are no people no so you basically don't have a fear now right?" Mark replied, landing his a slap on the shoulder and a quick grip of the knee that Callie knew would send a shot of pain through him.

"Oh ok then smart-ass, what's yours? Something really manly I'll bet, or is it just that little Mark stops working?" She replied, giving him a smirk.

Mark looked down at his hands and confirmed it. "What's wrong with trying to project the family jewels?"

"We can't just keep listening to the same song over and over again." Meredith said, reaching out for the radio to change over the channel. Derek reached out and stopped, and she giggled. "Stop, get off." She said swatting him on the hand as he tried to drive the RV at the same time. He swerved a little and they chuckled for a few more miles.

"Busy traffic today." Derek said, pointing out in front of them at the empty road, there were just a flat expanse of tarmac out in front of them. He laughed loudly for far too long and far too hard for the joke to be funny. Then Meredith began to laugh too, and the whole thing turned into a big chuckle fest until they decided that Derek couldn't drive properly with his eyes screwed up. There was something about the two of them together, and alone, that changed the air around them. Every other factor had been taken away in a brief moment of craziness.

"I wrote you song Mer," Derek said out of the blue about an hour later. They'd just stopped to get gas when Derek pulled a guitar out of the back of RV, "I've been teaching myself," he said, pulling the strap around his shoulders and resting it as he began to pluck at the strings. Meredith smiled and stood out of the way by the gas stand as he started to sing.

"They say that boats sail on water

Make you feel all floaty

They say it rocks the waves

That make our whole hearts glowy

They're for hopers and dreamers

And sailors who sail

Well screw the boats

What good's ferryboats?

If Mer's not here with me."

When he was done Mer gave him a round of applause and leapt forward into his arms. Then she kissed him because he was her husband and she was his wife, no matter what the apocalypse had to say about it.

~ End of Season 1 ~