A/N- So we all know the proposal is coming soon, and there's a ring at last, but it's not happening just yet, but it's coming trust me. The next few chapters are a little slow, and nothing is moving quite as fast as I'd like, but I'm hoping it'll speed up once the ring is on her finger. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer- Grey's Anatomy isn't mine.

The early wake up the next day was far from welcomed after three days of not having to wake up for anything but Carolyn's cooked breakfasts, but Derek was energised, he had a proposal plan in his head, and not long to complete it in. He had to talk to the jeweller, as well as Mark, Cristina, Bailey and the chief. Then he had to organise the entire day, all whilst keeping Meredith completely in the dark. He'd been thinking about it for weeks, he knew exactly how he was going to propose, he had the ring, he had a day, now he just had to set everything else in motion. He bounded to the shower and around the house, whipping up breakfast for the two of them as well as Alex and Izzie while Meredith dragged herself out of bed and slumped towards the shower in an effort to wake herself up. She made her way tiredly down the stairs, tripping on the last stair and grabbing the bannister before she fell flat on her face, cursing the wood as well as her clumsy feet. Derek walked through after hearing her trip, and handed her a huge mug of coffee which she accepted gratefully, inhaling the scent before taking a long sip from the mug. Her sleepiness began to lift slightly and she finally made the effort to talk to a very perky Derek.

"Why are you so happy this morning?" She asked groggily. She was the polar opposite of Derek when it came to mornings. She'd grudgingly get up early if she had to, but Derek would happily get up at 5am for no reason whatsoever. "Your day is filled with meetings and paperwork and whatever else the head of neuro does when he's not cutting." Derek laughed before kissing her hard. He could so easily ask her here and now, but he wanted it to be perfect, and he wanted every little detail sorted out, including talking to Meredith's hospital family. He had braved Addison's father to ask for her hand, so he had to gain Meredith's hand too. Meredith grinned as they came up for air, in utter disbelief at his excitement over such a boring day. His happiness was almost contagious though, and she found herself feeling much more ready to face the day than when she woke up.

"I just really love paperwork." he laughed, grabbing his briefcase from the table, heading to his office to put the papers and case notes inside along with everything he needed for his day. Meredith laughed at his goofiness, looking at Izzie who was trying not to choke on her tea.

"Should I grab extra earplugs?" Alex joked, "A lie like that has to end in some pretty mind-blowing sex." Meredith and Izzie laughed, and tried to control themselves before Derek came back, snorting when he came back into the room, coat on, a grin plastered on his face.

"You ready to go?" He asked Meredith, raising his eyebrows expectantly. Meredith picked up her travel mug, filling it with coffee and followed him towards the door, picking up her scarf and coat from the hook.

"Sap," Alex murmured as they walked towards the front door.

"Did Karev just call me a sap?" Derek asked Meredith, a look of genuine upset on his face.

"Aw, it's okay, you're my sap." Meredith assured him, matching his pouty face with her own before kissing him. Little did she know that he'd soon be hers forever. She had it in one, he was hers, and he intended to be hers for all of eternity, starting in just under two weeks. Derek smiled against Meredith's lips, pulling away to look into her gorgeous green eyes before wrapping his arm around her waist and leading her towards the car, ready to face the day together.

Derek and Meredith grabbed a cup of coffee together from the cart as they got to the hospital. They stood in the lobby chatting to the vendor before heading inside and parting ways. Meredith was heading to the tunnels so that Cristina could hear all about the weekend, and it gave Derek a chance to talk to Bailey before rounds began. He spotted her near the nurses station and ran towards her.

"Bailey!" he called "Bailey do you have a sec? It's about Meredith." Miranda Bailey looked up at him, a look of concern flickering on her face, before being replaced with an air of 'what did you do?'. "it's not bad I promise," he gestured to an empty conference room away from prying ears. The pair sat down and he took a deep breath and came out with it. "I'm going to propose."

"What? Are you serious?" Bailey questioned loudly, her mouth agape. "You're asking my resident, one of my babies to marry your navy scrubbed ass?." Derek nodded, a schoolboy grin on his face. "Wait, what does this have to do with me? What did you do?"

"Nothing, yet, but I'd like to, and I'd like to do it all properly," Derek hesitated, wondering how best to ask Dr. Bailey what he'd been meaning to. "but she doesn't really have a mother or a father, so I thought maybe I could ask you and Richard permission for her hand. I'm gonna talk to Richard later, but she's like your hospital daughter as such so I hoped that maybe the pair of you might give me her hand?"

"Derek Shepherd." She beamed at him. "I am honored. I really appreciate that sentiment, and if Grey knew, I know she'd feel the same way. I'm all for you marrying her, my blessing is entirely yours. It's nice to see one of my babies getting married the old fashioned traditional way, where they know the guy, and he doesn't leave her at the altar. But if you hurt so much as one hair on that girl's head, I'm gonna kick your ass, shepherd."

"Understood." Derek nodded emphatically.

"Let me see the ring." Miranda demanded. Derek pulled out the box his mother had given him.

"It's my mother's, I'm having it changed a bit though, Meredith drew a picture of one with a patient and I thought it might be nice to make it real." He smoothed out the paper drawing that he'd been keeping with the ring since his mother gave it to him.

"Wow, that ring is stunning on its own, it's going to be beautiful with the changes. You're right, it screams Grey. I wouldn't have taken her for the ring type, but this. This is perfect. Good job Shepherd. So how you gonna propose?" Bailey had gotten over the initial shock, and was practically giddy at the thought of a little bit of romance at Seattle Grace.

"Well…" Derek reeled off the details to her, her smile widening as he went on. Their pagers alerted them to the fact that rounds were about to begin and they went their separate ways. Miranda patted his arm as she left him, a silent gesture of gratitude for bringing a little bit of happiness and a little bit of hope back into all of their lives. Derek breathed a sigh as he headed off towards his post-op patient's down, three to go.

Derek had deliberately chosen against doing elective surgeries that day in case he and Meredith needed an extra day or his mother's flight details changed. He had caught up on a lot of the paperwork that had been building on his desk, and tidied up an article on an inoperable tumor he'd removed a few weeks previously. As he searched his briefcase for some notes his neuro fellow had made, he spotted the ring box. He sat back in his chair, looking at it sparkling in the light of the small window and picked up the phone, dialling the number of the jewellers that his mother had given him.

"Hi, my name's Dr. Shepherd," He began, forgetting that outside of the medical world, few people knew who he actually was. "I was told you would be able to adjust an engagement ring for me, and change the setting a little." He paused as the jeweller spoke of his work. "How long does the average average adjustment take? Great, great." A grin spread across his face as the jeweller continued. "I have a rough sketch of the changes I'd like, I can have it to you by this afternoon. That's great, thank you. Bye." Mark knocked and entered just as he was putting down the phone.

"So, did she hate her, did the claws come out, d'you need a place to stay now?" he asked making Derek laugh.

"No, but I am proposing." He grinned, loving the way it sounded coming from his mouth.

"To Grey? That's great." Mark wrapped his arms around his friend, slapping him on the back. "Did you get the ring?"

"That's the thing, I need someone to drop it off for me, it needs a few changes, mom suggested a place downtown, but I need to get it there this afternoon so that they can get it ready in for me in time." Derek explained about the picture and how he wanted to recreate it for Meredith before passing Mark the address. Mark promised to have it there by the end of his lunch, a lunch that Derek now owed him apparently. Derek's pager sounded alerting him to a trauma coming into the pit, with a requested neuro consult. Derek made his way there, Thanking Mark again on the way out. He'd spoken to two of the people he needed to talk to, but talking to the chief would have to wait a while.

He scrubbed in on an emergent depressed skull fracture. A nine year old girl involved in a hit and run. He would never understand how someone could leave a little girl dying in the street while people looked on, leaving them to clear up his mess. It had been tricky, and there had been a lot of bleeding, far more than he would've liked, but he managed the repair, and was about to begin closing when she coded. The entire OR held their breath as the appropriate drugs were given along with jolts of electricity to restart her heart. He'd fought hard to save her, he had done his job, his team had done their jobs. He called for one more round of eppy and one more shock and as he was about to call it, and let her go, she stabilised. The team breathed a collective sigh of relief as Derek began to close, taking care to avoid another code. Cases like this made his job worthwhile, a life snatched from the very jaws of death, a life that would continue because of him. Parents would have their child again, classmates would be told bad news instead of the worst news, in a month or so, everyone who knew that girl would be thankful for him, for returning their little girl, almost as good as new. Cases like this made being a surgeon totally worth it. His phone buzzed as he left the OR, a picture message from Mark of the jewellers downtown, and to let him know the price and date the ring would be ready. He texted back his thanks and waited for Mark's reply. The jeweller apparently had resketched Meredith's drawing. She wasn't hugely gifted in the arts and crafts department, so he couldn't but laugh at the fact her drawing was suggested to be rather childlike by the jeweller. Derek went back to his office, and lay back in his chair, hands behind his head, the way he often did when he felt he had triumphed in some way. He had just two people left to tell, the chief, and Cristina. The easy part was over, if anyone was going to throw a wrench into his plans, it was them. It was soon time to be getting home anyway, Meredith's shift finished at 8 and he'd had no word of her being any later than that. He gathered his things and went over to the nurses station to see if he could request Cristina on his service tomorrow. It was a two surgery day, but they were routine, for Cristina, boring, but it gave him the chance to sit with her and get her honest opinion on how Meredith would react, and hopefully, get her on board with the proposal.

As he walked down the stairs to the lobby he spotted Meredith waiting for him, George was with her, a coffee in his hand, it seemed he'd got the short straw and was spending even more time at the hospital. Mondays were often the worst day of the week, when many of the non-emergent cases from the weekend were slotted into the ORs, leaving mountains of post-ops to look after in addition to the emergent cases that came through the doors. George had been on ortho that day, and Derek had eyed the scans on Callie's patient before leaving. There was no neurological issues, but Callie and George had a long night ahead of them if they were going to enable the young man to walk again. Meredith was smiling, which had to be a good thing. Derek was just grateful that they were talking. The last of George's things had been gone for a few days, and gradually the relationship between Meredith and George and Lexie had improved, more than once resulting in the pair of them at the house, making full use of the coffee facilities.

"Hey," Meredith said as she saw him approach, before turning to George "enjoy your surgery George." She said as he got up to leave, a goofy grin on his face.

"Ready to go?" Derek questioned her as he pushed her gently towards the door, his hand on the small of her back. She leant into him, her arm behind his back, resting on his hip. They walked to the car, and he began to recall the details of his surgery, her awe inspired expression boosting his ego even further.

After a simple dinner of spaghetti, and Meredith's signature bagged salad on the side. They settled for an early night, just snuggling together rewatching the Lion King, which was rapidly becoming Meredith's new favourite film.

"I still can't believe that is who Izzie agreed I looked like." Meredith frowned when Timon appeared on the screen, her expression almost mirroring the character's.

"It's actually quite uncanny." he joked as Meredith hit him with a pillow before yawning widely. Meredith was terrible for getting back in a routine after days off, and Bailey, it seemed hadn't gone easy on her, especially when she knew the weekend had gone well, and she didn't need to tiptoe around Meredith. She was exhausted, and she'd lost a patient that she'd been working with for a while, so she just wanted to be kissed and held and to fall asleep in his arms. Derek didn't mind, if everything went to plan, he'd have forever to do more than that, for now he'd stick to reminding her that he was never ever letting go, that he'd be there whenever she needed him for the rest of their lives. He kissed her hair as she snuggled into his chest forcing her eyes to stay open and watch the rest of the film, and failing as her eyes slipped shut and her gentle snores filled the room. Derek stopped the film, and picked her up in his strong arms, gently carrying the love of his life to their bed, laying her so that they were facing. A position he wanted to wake up in every morning, and to be the last thing he saw at night. He couldn't wait to slide the ring onto her slender surgeons finger and start another chapter of their happily ever after.

A/N- I thought he'd be traditional about it! He's gonna ask the others in the next chapter, he's happy for the time being. It's a fair bit of Derek in these chapters, because this is him growing up a little, which he needed to do. Meredith will flit in and out as will the others but for a little while it's just Derek.