A/N- Another Derek chapter, but it didn't feel right putting it with the previous one. Things will start to pick up the pace a little soon, but there's still a few things I want to get through before the big day. Thanks to those that review and have added it to their alerts, it means a lot!

Disclaimer- I don't own any of it!

Meredith was on call again on Tuesday night, and she didn't have to be at the hospital until 12, so Derek kissed her gently on the forehead before he left for his early surgery, leaving her to sleep an extra couple of hours. He made his way to work and strode through the glass doors, almost immediately bumping into the chief, quickly pulling him into a conference room, sitting him down ready to tell him his plans.

"I want to ask Meredith to marry me." He said, gaining him a surprised and confused look from the chief. "you're her key to her mother, you knew her better than anyone, and I know Meredith looks to you as a sort of a father figure sometimes when we're at the hospital, so I wanted to ask you, seeings as her mother and Thatcher aren't really options here, if you'd give your blessing, that is can I please have Meredith's hand in marriage?" He looked pleadingly at the cheif, waiting for the right second to ask for his help in proposing to the woman that he loved. "I spoke to Dr. Bailey as her pseudo mother, and I have plans to talk to Yang, but in the spirit of trying to be traditional and do this properly, I figured I had to ask her father, which for all intents and purposes I figure is you. She'd kill me if she knew I'd called you her father, but you were there the day she was born, you saw her as a kid..."

"I changed her first diaper," The cheif grinned, before sitting back in his chair and thinking fr a moment. "Well Derek, I don't really know what to say. Obviously, I think you'll be a fine husband for Meredith, and I'm honoured that you asked me. My blessing is all yours, but I'm getting the feeling there's rather more to this than just asking my approval, especially when I think you knew you already had it." The cheif looked at Derek waiting for him to ask whatever it was he was holding back on.

"That's the thing. I have a big proposal planned, it's incredibly cheesy, but I know she's gonna lap it up anyway. I need your help as chief to make it happen." Derek relayed the details of his plan, and the chief nodded his head in approval. Derek handed him a list, pointing out several features that were relevant to him. The chief smiled. Derek had a good plan. And he was a good man, really looking out for Meredith and doing a lot to make her happy. He knew Derek had come to him as cheif, as a mentor, but also as a friend, a pseudo father in law, and maybe to a lesser extent even a father figure of his own. Derek had obviously sought his mother's approval, and now he needed him to approve it. As much as he needed approval for Meredith, he needed it for himself. He needed to know what he already knew that Meredith was the one and he was making the right choice by marrying her. And as both cheif, father and friend, Dr. Webber was more than happy to tell him he was making the right decision.

"If you can get me a good estimate of timings, then I'll be happy to try and help. You have to remember, it is a busy hospital so some things are even out of my hands, but Derek, I will try. Meredith deserves a little bit of happiness, something to get her through, help her move past all of the bad things. We both know that if anyone can give her that it's you. If you need me for anything else, you know where I am. I assume Meredith has no idea?" Derek shook his head. "Then let's keep it that way, if anyone gives you trouble you send them to me. No one ruins my little girl's engagement."

"Thanks Richard," Derek said extending his hand to shake the chief's. Just one final roadblock, and operation proposal would be a reality. He breathed a sigh of relief as he rose up from his chair, smiling to himself at how soon he would be down on one knee asking Meredith to spend the rest of her life with him.

"Derek," The cheif said as he got up to leave the room for rounds. "To be honest, at first I couldn't understand why she continued in a relationship that could have been detrimental to her career, one that caused her friends to turn on her and her superiors to question her ability, but I see it now, right there when you were telling me what you wanted for her, going over the big events in your relationship, right then I knew she'd made the right choice. Good luck Shepherd. Just whatever you do, don't hurt her again." Derek smiled. He knew it was the right thing, but hearing it from the cheif, that just made him all the more certain.

"I promise," Derek said sincerely, never more determined to keep a promise than right then. He loved Meredith, more than he even thought possible, and he would do his very best to sheild her from harm for as long as they both lived. He'd promised her forever, because he knew that that was how long he'd love her for, She was it for him, there would be no hurting Meredith, not anymore. They'd both grown up in the last year, especially in the last few months. They were ready to take the next step, admittedly a big one but they both wanted this, and so far, the most important people in her life wanted it for them too. He just had to talk to Cristina, and he'd be that little bit closer to giving her happily ever after.

"Please tell me I get to scrub in on something interesting." Cristina pleaded as she joined Shepherd after rounds. "If I'm forced to stare at brains all day at least let it be something that won't have me falling asleep at the table."

"Well we have two procedures today, an aneurysm clip and a craniotomy this afternoon. I know they're both routine and dull for you, but I actually need you for something else too. I have to talk to you about Meredith, and its sort of a surprise so I'd like your input." Cristina gave him a disgusted look. She'd known Meredith long enough to know that surprises, for the two of them often meant something considerably porny. "It's nothing sexual, it's more of a gift, and I'd like your opinion." She sneered at him, and sighed. "It's one day Cristina then you can go back to whatever it is you do all day."

"Fine," she gave in "I'll go prep the patient."

The surgery was as he expected, routine. It even took a little less time than he'd anticipated. He passed the closure onto his fellow and scrubbed out with his girlfriend's twisted sister. He took Cristina up to his office, much to her disgust, and sat down opposite her.

"I'm going to propose to Meredith." He blurted out, his heart racing, much less calm with Cristina than he had been with anyone else. If he was being honest with himself, he was terrified of the woman, she was driven to an almost incomparable degree, and she and Meredith were so close that they may as well have been twins. She was the one Meredith would freak out to, the one that would talk her into doing what she was afraid to let herself do. He needed Cristina on board so that Meredith could allow herself to say yes. She needed Cristina to make her certain that there could be a happily ever after.

"You're proposing? That's your big thing. I could've told you that ages ago. The only one who doesnt know you're about five minutes away from proposing is Meredith, and she's so caught up in the hair and the smile and the nibbling her ear in the OR that she doesn't really see anything, even if it is right there in front of her face."

"It's that obvious?"He said, suddenly worried about Meredith figuring it out.

"Maybe not to you and Meredith, but yeah, its pretty obvious. The pair of you are going to ride off into the sunset and have like a dozen little mcdreamys, its gonna happen, everybody knows it." She rolled her eyes as if she were pointing out something seriously obvious. "But i don't get it. How does this affect me?"

"Well as Meredith's best friend, her person." He emphasised, "I thought you could help me out with the proposal. Bailey and the chief are on board, but its you i really need. I need you to keep her calm and throw her off scent, and make sure she gets to the finish line." He retold his plan for the final time. Cristina was unreadable. It was a skill he admired in her when it came to operating and exploring patient histories, but the rest of the time it was unnerving. She pursed her lips at his idea before she gave him a blunt reply.

"That's a terrible idea." She grimaced "but she's gonna love it, it's shameful." Derek looked at her pleadingly, knowing even Cristina couldn't resist his Mcdreamy charm when anything was Meredith related. "Fine I'll do it. Give me the details and I'll make sure it's all going to plan for you. God she had to fall for you." Cristina scoffed and rolled her eyes again. Derek chuckled, facing Cristina wasn't quite as bad as he thought. He should probably let her cut a little on his next surgery that way she might keep on his good side, at least until Meredith said yes.

As he scrubbed in for his next surgery, alongside Cristina, he let his mind wander. He was going to ask Meredith. Soon. All he had left to do was to get her to where he'd be waiting, down on one knee. He grinned as he imagined her reaction when she realised why she'd been asked to get there, how it would feel when everything fell into place for her, how it would feel for him if and when she said yes, which as the days went by seemed more and more likely. Cristina caught his expression and smirked.

"She's going to hate you when it's all over." she joked "good job you're proposing or you'd find yourself on the couch for a week." They laughed and fell silent, a moment passing between them, a quiet gratitude for the other. They rarely saw eye to eye, but at the end of the day they both wanted nothing more than to see Meredith happy, and in a few weeks, they knew that she would be happier than she had been in her entire life.

After the surgery, the three met in the cafeteria, each grabbing a coffee before they went their separate ways. Derek smiled at Meredith, totally in awe at how perfect she was to him, the tiny lines on her face when she laughed, or the way she gestured so hard that her coffee barely stayed on the table. Cristina, in any other situation would've mocked the pair of them, but she wasnt one to stand in the way of someone else's happiness, not when it was as special as it was with her best friend and the man that she was going to spend the rest of her life with. It brought back memories of Burke, and the love that they had shared, however breif and fleeting it had been. When it came to getting married, she had always had her doubts, she was never totally sure if it was right, looking at Meredith and Derek, she knew that if anyone was going to make it, it would be them. They had fought to be together, they had faced the worst together and were seeing each other at their best. They were Seattle Grace's golden couple for a reason, and they weren't losing that spot anytime soon. Derek soon left, kissing Meredith passionately before heading home to plan the proposal in even finer detail. She hugged him before he left, something they'd become accustomed to doing anytime one of them was on call without the other. He kissed her hair and rubbed her back before letting her go back to saving lives.

Meredith sat with Cristina at the nurses station charting in between checking up on the patients in their care.

"Was Derek weird with you today?" Meredith asked her friend. "He's been all happy and giddy since his mom left, it's exhausting. Yesterday, he practically ran out of the door because he had paperwork to do, I mean who does that?"

"Mcdreamy does. He was away from the hospital for almost four days, I'm surprised both of you survived." Meredith chuckled at her friends response, knowing that Derek was married to neuro, his compassion for his patients almost incomparable. She also knew that it took more than surgery to get him this excited, and it began to puzzle her rather a lot.

"So he wasn't weird?" She ventured, hoping her friend might enlighten her on her boyfriend's odd behaviour.

"No more than normal." Cristina joked looking at her pager when she heard a noise.

"It's mine," Meredith said, getting up out of her seat. "Mark's burn guy isn't in great shape. See you later." She ran off towards her patient room. Cristina breathed, sincerely hoping that it would be that easy to throw Meredith off the scent of Derek's odd behaviour over the next few days, if not, she was in for a long couple of weeks.