A/N- at last we have the start of the proposal! This chapter doesn't cover much, but you can see the start of Derek's plan come into fruition. I decided that the whole thing needed to be split up a bit, because it's a lot to read in one go, but I'll try and have it all up fairly soon. I have gone with a really cheesy idea, but hopefully one that has quite a lot of meaning for them as a couple as well. As ever thank you for your reviews and alerts, they make me incredibly happy. Enjoy!

Disclaimer- I don't own Grey's!

When the alarm sounded on Friday morning, Derek jumped out of bed, a huge grin on his face. Todays the day he thought, watching as Meredith struggled to pull herself out of her slumber. He walked over to her and peppered tiny kisses along her neck and jaw, before settling a kiss on her lips, his tongue snaking between them, making her moan. He pulled away and she opened her eyes, unhappy at the speed of the kiss, her body aching for more.

"Why are you so happy?" she grumbled easing herself up and stretching "it's too early to be that happy."

"I just love waking up next to you." He told her, "and I can't wait to spend our weekend alone together."

"So sex?" she said bluntly "the possibility of getting laid has made you become like a child on Christmas morning?"

"Guaranteed sex." He teased

"Right, just don't wake me when you're doing it then." She shot back slinking off to the bathroom, wiggling a little so that he watches her leave, turning her head and sticking her tongue out as she entered the bathroom. He watched the door even after she closed it, picked up his phone and sent a text: green light, we'll be there by 7.

Meredith dozed for much of the ride to the hospital, she was a little worried that the weekend away was covering for something worse; she was still terrified he was going to confess something else, a secret child, another wife and she knew she couldn't cope if she lost him again. Carolyn had eased her mind a little, but still her sleep was interrupted by nightmares where Derek left her in a million different ways, taking their house plans, and their fictitious children and her best friend with him as he goes. He'd promised her he had nothing to hide, and she'd tried desperately to believe him, but part of her just couldn't let go of the niggly feeling that something was going on. She felt Derek's eyes on her as she watched out of the window. He didn't say anything though, simply put a hand on her thigh, his way of reassuring her that everything was alright. She put her hand into his, intertwining their fingers as she turned and looked at him. He looked the same, he looked like the Derek she loved and trusted, but something, something was different, and she was both determined and terrified to find out what it was.

He walked her to the resident's lounge, giving her a quick peck on the lips before heading towards his office. He'd gotten tenser and tenser the closer they got to the nurses station, and not a single member of staff had made eye contact with her. Meredith felt it in her stomach, something big was going to happen today, and she was right in the middle of it.

"I have to run, but I'll see you later, I love you." He told her as he left the lounge, practically running away from her.

"I love you too." She uttered, knowing she was the only one to hear it. She huffed towards her cubby, throwing her bag into the back and pulling out her scrubs, ready to change for the day.

"What's wrong with you?" Cristina frowned "aren't you supposed to be all happy about your sexy weekend away with Mcdreamy?"

"He's still being weird." She told her friend, needing her person's guidance despite her worries from the previous day. "Something's definitely going on with him but he won't say anything. He just gets all giddy about this weekend, I keep thinking he's gonna bring out some teenage daughter or ex-wife and he's just gonna take off." She pouted as she slipped on her lab coat, pinning her ID to the pocket.

"Meredith, I really don't think that'd happen twice. But you know if it does, you could always kill him and bury him in the woods, noone'd ever find him." She joked, invoking a disapproving frown from Meredith. "I'm kidding. Just talk to him this weekend, tell him how you feel, then have loads of hot Mcdreamy sex and it'll all figure itself out. Trust me I'm your person."

"It's not you I don't trust." She murmured as Bailey entered the lounge.

"Karev, you're with Torres, Yang, you're on neuro, Stevens, there's a spot for you in paeds, and O'Malley you're in the pit."

"What about me?" Meredith asked

"You're on a special case today, chief's orders." Bailey informed her. "This is all you need to know." She handed Meredith an envelope with '1' written on the front in a familiar script. "Don't open it here." She instructed leaving the five residents to go to their destinations.

"Trust you to get the special case." Karev taunted "what I wouldn't give to be inbred." Meredith walked out of the lounge, heading towards the nearest on call room. 'Closed for maintenance' the door read. There was a bathroom nearby, so she ducked in locked herself in a stall and opened the envelope. A half sheet of paper fell out. Meredith checked the envelope, there was nothing else inside. She picked up the slip of paper and read the words printed on it:

Don't try and hide it, everyone knows what you were really up to last time you were on call. It appears that you use the rooms intended for sleeping for rather more than just that. (FYI Your room's not really closed, not for maintenance anyway.)

Meredith felt her cheeks redden, realising that the message referred to her late night rendezvous with Derek the week before, it was a particularly slow night in the ER, and there were relatively few patients to monitor, so they slipped away to their regular on call room for half an hour. She crept out of the bathroom and sped back to the door of the on call room. She looked around ensuring that no one was watching her before quickly entering the room. Thankfully no one was in there, everyone clearly believing the sign to be real. Most of the doctors would be beginning their shifts by now anyway, so she had no reason to believe she'd be interrupted. She looked around the room for any sign of what she was supposed to be doing that day, seeing only a single sprig of lavender, and another envelope laying on the pillow of the bottom bunk. This time with '2' written on the front. She sat down on the bed sliding her finger under the seal of the envelope and looking at the contents. Another slip of paper was all it contained, yet another cryptic message written on it.

The tiny scar on your arm is a reminder of a life you saved. Find him and he'll tell you what to do next. (Pull the sign off the door on your way out. You're finished in there for today.)

She rubbed the tiny raised scar on her arm, she'd cut it on some glass when she'd climbed into the upturned ambulance rig to save the paramedic Ray. She didn't realise he was back at work yet, but in all likelihood if he was back he'd be waiting near the doors to the pit. She put the two envelopes in the pocket of her lab coat and made her way down and surely enough, there he sat in an off duty ambulance, a grin spreading across his face as he saw her coming.

"Good morning dr. grey." he called out to her as she walked over to him, holding the stem of lavender between two fingers.

"Hi, how's the recovery going? Are you back at work already?"

"Things are going well, but I have no intention of returning to Seattle Grace or the EMT lifestyle. I'm thinking about teaching actually, It's a little safer. I was called in especially for today." Meredith smiled up at him expectantly. He grinned back cheekily, following the instructions that Derek had given him earlier that morning. Meredith had to ask him if she wanted her next envelope. And after a moment or two, she opened her mouth.

"Can you tell me what I'm supposed to be doing today?" she asked him, smiling hopefully in case he'd enlighten her.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." He said, her smile dying down a little bit. "But I can give you this." He said passing her a white rose. "And this." He passed her an envelope. '3'.

"Who gave these to you?" she questioned him. Hoping that a name would give her a clue to who was to blame for her running around the hospital.

"Afraid that's top secret, Dr. Grey. But I am informed that you will find out later today though. I'd be excited if I were you. The day has a very nice reward at the end of all this." Meredith looked at him, puzzled by his words. A reward at the end of the day. She was more than capable of several surgical procedures, perhaps she'd finally get to show off in the OR. She smiled up at Ray, deciding that if she wanted to get to that surgery, she'd better be on her way.

"Thanks Ray," she told him "best get on with my next mission. Good luck with the rest of your recovery." She waved at him as she went to find a place to sit down and open her envelope. Pulling the other two slips from her pocket to see if there was any link. The third slip was printed with:

You kept her in your locker, dropped her on the floor at least once, but you found her a perfect final resting place. She'd be proud of you, Meredith because you are extraordinary.

Her breath caught in her throat a little bit as she thought about what the clue implied. The chief had been the one to help her with her mother's ashes, putting her to rest in the OR, the one place she loved the most. She hated to admit it, but Meredith always felt a little more confident in the OR when she'd scrubbed in at the sink she'd washed her mother down. She walked inside, heading to the elevator taking her to the surgical floor. She couldn't imagine why the chief was reminding her of so many random events and making her return to the places they happened. She was a surgeon; she should be cutting people open, not chasing down clues like a child. There was nothing medical about chasing down clues. And she had no intention of becoming a pirate, so the treasure hunt illusion was not at all pleasing to her unless it meant surgery. She entered the scrub room where she'd scattered her mother's ashes, to find Chief Webber there, seemingly waiting for her to arrive. He smiled at her knowingly, just as Ray had done.

"Meredith." He greeted cheerfully. "I see you've already solved three of your clues. Which means I must award you with this." He handed her a purple flower that she didn't know the name of. She added it to her tiny bunch and looked back at Richard.

"Why am I doing this?" she asked him. "Why are you sending me all around the hospital when I should be working, saving lives?"

"Meredith is it true that you accused Derek shepherd of having an affair with Yang yesterday?" she looked at the floor and nodded. "You're not thinking straight, you are exhausted, because you're working too hard. Fatigue leads to impaired judgement, which leads to mistakes which leads to unnecessary deaths and unwanted lawsuits. This is a way of helping you relax, remembering what really matters to you. Get to the end of this and we'll see if your judgement is as it should be." He looked at her sternly, but she'd known him long enough to know that her puppy dog eyes got him every time, when she was little it scored her candy, maybe at 29 years old it would get her back in the OR.

"But I'm a doctor." She reminded him.

"And I am chief, so you have to do as I say." He informed her, immune to the look that had cost him a fortune in red vines when Meredith was small. "Here is your next envelope, number four. You've got a way to go so I suggest you get a move on." he folded his arms across his chest and motioned for her to leave.

"Thank you Dr. Webber." She said to him as she left the scrub room, leaving him grinning at the door. She sat down in the waiting area and opened the fourth envelope, deciding that if she wasn't going to see the inside of an OR today, she should at least be grateful she wasn't stuck with the interns or in the clinic. The slip of paper was much the same as the others:

A neurosurgeon publicly declared that he wanted a lifetime with you, rather than just one weekend. Go to that place, remember what he said, and remember how far you've already come.

She looked across the way from where she was sitting. There it was in front of the elevator. A white envelope and a chrysanthemum ready and waiting for her. The scene played through her head again. "I want to marry you. I want to have kids with you. I want to build us a house. I want to settle down and grow old with you. I want to die when I'm 110 years old, in your arms. I don't want 48 uninterrupted hours. I want a lifetime. Mm. Do you see what happens? I say things like that and you fight the urge to run in the opposite direction. It's okay, I understand. I didn't, but now I do, I do. You're just getting started and I've been doing this for a long time now. Deep down, you're still an intern, and you're not ready." It had stung that day, and it seemed like an impossible task to suddenly be ready for the things that Derek wanted, and she was convinced that she'd end up losing him when he found someone who was ready. But she'd done the impossible, she had gotten ready and she'd grown, she was letting him build a house for them. She'd let him in even though he'd hurt her. She'd let him breathe for her, she'd begun telling him when she was struggling. She loved him. She was ready for that lifetime to begin. The thought had terrified her, with any other guy she'd be running for the hills right about now. But this was Derek, her knight in shining whatever, if she was gonna get any semblance of a happily ever after, it was gonna be with him. She'd tell him that, she decided, tonight. Take him somewhere nice to dinner and tell him she was ready for forever. Whatever it was he was hiding, they'd work through it. She'd been dead for hours, and they'd gotten past that, they'd gotten past his drop dead gorgeous ex-wife appearing from nowhere. This would just be one more fence to scale. They'd get through it, she was certain. She almost forgot her mission until the envelope slipped onto the floor. She picked it up and read the contents.

S&M is frowned upon in this hospital Dr. Grey. You engaged in rather a lot of it at the beginning of this year. You met your S&M partner in your next location at 8pm the day Dr. Yang traded off her wedding presents.

Meredith read it over twice, trying to think why she'd be meeting someone for S&M in the hospital when she was with Derek. Then it clicked. Sex and mockery were the only things on the agenda after the wedding. The two things that worked in their relationship. They'd been in on call rooms, closets, and once very nearly the research library. It didn't seem that any of those times were specific enough though. There was a lot of S&M in her bed at the old house, but she hadn't met Derek at the house, she'd met him in the lobby. She rushed down, certain that she had the right place. She checked the waiting area, the stairs, even trying to peek into the elevator when people got off. She began to think that maybe she'd gotten it wrong, and pulled it back out of the envelope looking for anything that might give her more of a clue, but she had nothing. She made her way back towards the OR board, to see if she could locate the chief, stopping when she heard her name.

"Dr. Grey." A nurse called her from her station. "This was left for you." She handed Meredith another sprig of lavender and envelope number 6.

"Thank you" she called over her shoulder as she hurried towards a chair, sitting down to open the envelope and staring at the contents.

You met both of your sisters in this hospital, and one has been lucky enough to begin to call you a friend. Find her; she'll be waiting in the same place she found you.

Meredith cringed at the memory of Lexie introducing herself in the ambulance bay on her first day as an intern. As if Meredith would welcome her with open arms, or they had a predetermined reason to be friends. Meredith had tried, and ultimately poisoned her sister, but she could see the possibility of the pair being friends, even if she wasn't quite ready to have a sister just yet. She was trying. She was rather lost in her own thoughts as she walked straight out of the doors to the ambulance bay and straight past Lexie.

"Meredith!" Lexie called "Meredith, aren't you supposed to be finding me?" Meredith jumped at the sound of her voice, turning round to face the intern.

"Hi, yeah, the chief keeps giving me these little messages and they're kind of making me think a little more than I'd like to, it's fine though. Do you have any idea what's going on?" she asked Lexie, trying her best not to ramble too much.

"I do actually." Lexie grinned, "But I'm not allowed to say anything. Not even who told me not to say anything, cause if I told you that would ruin it and this whole thing would be pointless an…"

"Lexie." Meredith cut her off "do you have to give me something?"

"Er. Yes." she stammered. Handing her a carnation. "This and this envelope and these." She said handing Meredith a bag with Jimmy Choo emblazoned on the side.

"Is that… are they what I think they are? Hold these please." She handed Lexie her flowers whilst she sat down on a bench and pulled out the box contained within the bag, she gasped as she lifted the lid, pulling out a black suede platform with a stiletto heel. "Those are gorgeous!" Lexie gushed "I knew you were getting shoes but I didn't realise they'd be this beautiful. I am so jealous of you right now."

"I know." Meredith replied, checking that they were as she thought her exact size. "Wait, you knew about the shoes? What else do you know Lexie? I'm your sister, you're supposed to tell me things like this. You know I'll break you eventually so you may as well tell me now."

"I… "She stammered. "I'm not allowed to…" she breathed as her pager sounded. Derek. "I have to go. I'll talk you later." She ran away, almost tripping over a gurney as she tried to get inside. Leaving Meredith to curse whoever had come up with this little mission.

Derek had watched the scene unfold from behind the blind in his office where he sat with Mark. "How's she doing?" Mark asked Derek. Looking out of the window beside him.

"She just saw Lexie. I had to page her before she gave it all away."

"That means I'm up!" Mark said, "See you later man."

"Good luck!" Derek told him "and don't give the game away!" Mark nodded as he ran towards his required destination, gift in hand ready to give to Meredith when she found him. After thirty two years of friendship, Derek was still the one Mark looked up to, even after a failed marriage and a relocation miles away from home. Mark was actually grateful that Derek wanted him to be a part of the biggest day in the Grey-Shepherd relationship, his role was small, but Derek wanted him to be a part of it and that meant a lot. In Mark's eyes, if the whole day worked out, it was proof that even dirty mistresses get a happy ever after. If Meredith said yes, then there could well be hope for him yet, and that was something that made him very happy indeed. He strode through the halls that had become his own, a grin on his face, telling all that knew what was going on that things were on track, it hadn't quite been two hours yet, but Meredith was playing along, and Mark could already see the end result coming towards them.

A/N- I know, the treasure hunt is so cheesy, but I like to hope that Meredith is going to realise how much she wants this even if she hadn't realised that she wants it now. I'll try and get part two up soon.