A/N- I wanted to stick sort of to the events in the actual show, not exactly on the same timeline, but there are aspects of the show that I wanted to hang onto, and that means it can't be totally smooth sailing for Meredith and Derek, I'm just hoping that I'm slightly nicer to the pair of them than Shonda!

On Friday night, they were all home by eight, so she took the opportunity to tell her friends that she was moving Derek into the house. She buttered them up by ordering in, getting pizza and Chinese food to suit their tastes. She even let them eat in the lounge, so they knew that Meredith was doing more than just being kind.

"What's with the food Mer?" Alex asked her with a mouth full of noodles.

"Yeah," Izzie agreed "are you trying to bribe us with junk food?"

"Well, you know how Derek and I have been dating again?" Meredith began, playing with her hands and trying to make some kind of eye contact.

"It's rather more than dating but yeah." Alex sneered reaching for pizza.

"I kinda sorta asked him to move in." she waited for the anger and protests but they didn't come.

"Are you expecting us to move out?" Izzie questioned her

"No." Meredith was quick to add. "We'll stay in my room, and probably convert my mother's den into an office for him but that's it, everything else is the same."

"Well that's fine then, when's moving day?" Izzie said as she bit into her own slice of pizza.

"Wait you're not mad, I expected arguing and rage." Meredith said, her pepperoni falling onto her plate with a splat as she lost grip on the slice she'd picked up.

"He practically lives here anyway Mer. I don't think I've had a breakfast in a month where the two of you weren't fondling each other at the table. Now we have a guy I can watch the game with who actually gets the rules." Alex joked, earning himself an evil look from O'Malley.

"So you're okay with it? I can tell him to start packing up his stuff?" Alex and Izzie both nodded, Meredith looked over at George. "George, are you okay with Derek moving in?" George shuffled in his seat a little and looked over at lexie who was joining them for dinner.

"Well, it doesn't really have much of an impact on me; I'm not going to be here anymore to know." he mumbled the last bit in the hope that the others wouldn't hear him, stuffing a large forkful of rice into his mouth in the hope Meredith wouldn't make him talk again.

"What?" Meredith spat, sounding unintentionally angry at George's suggestion. "You're leaving? When? Why?"

"Well, Derek is always here, and you can probably do with the extra space. Plus I'm an intern again, so I spend all my time with other interns or at the hospital, so when Lexie said she was looking to move out of her, your dad's house, I thought why not. I'll still see you guys at work, I'm still gonna be your intern Meredith. It just made sense to get a place with other interns."

"So you don't want to live here because I'm your boss now? George, we said we wouldn't make it awkward. You're repeating your intern test soon. I thought…" she hadn't expected the tears to well in her eyes, but they did. This was George; they'd been together since day one. He'd encouraged her to forgive Derek, chatted with him over beers, and made him feel welcome when he was here without her. She didn't want George to leave.

"Meredith, it was my idea." Lexie said in George's defence. "I've wanted to get away from dad's house for months now, and be closer to the hospital. I knew how hard it's been for George to live here with all of you when he should be doing his residency with you all, so I asked him if he wanted to find a place." Meredith sniffed, willing the tears in her eyes to go away.

"Fine." She said her tone a little short. "Just let me know when you're going and I'll take your name off of everything." She put down her dinner and made for the door, picking up her bag and sliding her feet into a pair of converse. She knew the tears weren't going to stay away for long. She got in the car, driving instinctively towards the hospital, knowing Derek would be finished soon. She headed inside, making her way towards the elevator to find him. She got off and looked up, spotting him walking down the corridor towards her. He saw her leave the elevator, grinning at the surprise but when he saw the tears in her eyes his expression changed to one of concern, worried about what could have upset her so much that she needed to come and find him.

"Mer." He called out to her. "Mer, what's wrong? What happened?"

"George." She uttered, the tears beginning to fall. "He's moving out." She rested her head on his chest as he held her, shushing her as he kissed her hair. He guided her back towards the elevator and up to his office. "He's moving out and he didn't even tell me Derek. He was just gonna leave and go live with Lexie and just not tell me." Lexie. Derek knew that she was still struggling a little to accept Lexie into her life long term and this wasn't going to help at all.

"What did he say?" Derek prodded, hoping there was something he could say to make her feel better about the whole situation.

"I didn't give him much of a chance to say anything. I asked him if he was ok with you moving in and he told me he was leaving to go with Lexie." Her breaths had steadied somewhat and she'd pulled herself out of his embrace so that she could look at him properly. "He said he wanted to give us all space and live with the interns. And Lexie said he was finding it really hard living with us after he failed the exam and... Derek, I don't want George to leave. He's like my brother; it would be weird without him."

"I know." Derek soothed. "But I'll be there to make you feel better. And that's one less person to listen in on our late night rendez vous."

"I didn't think of that." She purred as he began to kiss her neck, bending her over his desk and sliding his hands inside her shirt.

"Plus, we'd want them all out eventually so maybe this is a good thing." He went back to kissing her, but she pushed him away and sat up on the desk.

"What? Why?" she jumped down from the desk and straightened her sweater over her shirt.

"Do you really want to still be living with your roommates when we're married or have a baby? Come on Meredith. Be realistic." Meredith growled, her face suddenly becoming furious.

"What are you talking about Derek. We're nowhere near having a baby or getting married. We're not even moved in yet, I'm not even thinking about that stuff. I'm a second year resident Derek, I don't have time for any of that at the moment."

"When will you have time Meredith?" he shouted back, furious at Meredith's fickleness. "When you're a fourth year, taking on extra surgeries so you can announce your specialty. Or when you're studying for your boards as a fifth year, or picking fellowships. Or when you're a board certified surgeon and responsible for an entire department, needing to stay to look after patients or babysit your interns. There's never going to be a good time Meredith. Not for you. I don't know why you even agreed to move in with me. It's obvious that you don't even have the time for a partner or a love life. God Meredith, no wonder George wanted out." He immediately regretted his words as they left his mouth. "Meredith I didn't mean that." He called out to her as she picked up her bag and began to storm out of the room.

"No, you said it Derek, it's my fault George is leaving. It's my fault that it terrifies me that I'm doing this huge thing by letting you move in. It's my fault for being so goddam ordinary." She stormed out hot fat tears falling down her cheeks as she ran straight into mark. He steadied her in his arms but she just pushed her way out of them running down the stairs. Derek ran after her shouting her name.

"Meredith come back." Mark held out a hand stopping him.

"Leave her man. Whatever it is, just give her some time to cool off, talk to her when you're both a little calmer. Going in mad isn't doing anyone any favours."

"You're right. She just, she says she's not ready for marriage or a family, but she so is. It's all these little things she does. They just. Come with me." He ushered mark towards his office, opening a draw and pulling out his diary.

"What's that?" said mark sitting in the chair opposite Derek.

"When I was trying to decide between Meredith and Addison, I used to make a note of all the days when I knew that either of them wanted the same things as me." Mark frowned, but let Derek continue. He flipped back to a date over a year ago. "Look here's when we were dating, when she came to the trailer for the first time and the prom."

"So you gave her a tick every time she gave you sex?"

"No not just for sex, like telling me things. Telling me about her mom when it was bad for her. Silly things that she didn't do before. Now look at now." He flipped to the last month of his diary; ticks adorn every page getting bigger and brighter as they get to today.

"Wow, that's a lot of good things, you guys really do go at it like rabbits, don't you?"

"Only one of those was sex." Derek boasted, looking for particular days. "This one, she had this little baby up in the NICU, and she actually said that she could see us with one, and be married and all of that. That was the night we agreed to move in together. Well before I went and ruined it. Even today, when she was screaming that she didn't have time, she never said she wasn't totally ready. And I just undid it all." he rested his face against his palms. Mark looked at him with concern.

"You didn't do anything, look lets go to Joe's, have a couple of beers, and when you're calmed down maybe you can call her and just talk to her. Or sex, whatever it is you two do when you're mad."

"Yeah, okay." Derek said grabbing his coat, "but if you use me as your wingman, I'm telling the girl you're gay."

"You're no fun." Mark jibed as the pair left for the bar. A depressed Derek and a lack of action with the ladies, this was gonna be a long night.

A/N- Don't worry, it's just a fight, they just need to cool off. They'll get there happily ever after I promise :)