A/N: Hello again!

Here is my take on 13x20 aka the plane episode.

I skipped a couple of great Merthan scenes and Maggie's drama with her mother's death: you can either pretend it did happened or not.

I figured it was enough back and forth for this story :)

NB: This chapter's rated M.

Outside Over There

Meredith walked down the aisle screening seats numbers until she found her own and made herself comfortable. She took the last peek at her phone where she noticed a message from Alex informing her that her younger kids went both nicely to day care and Zola made it in time to school, as well.

She set the phone into plane mode and put it away, then took a folded paper from inside her bag and opened it. It showed a picture of a lion family: a lioness with her three cubs, all a bit different in colors and sizes. Up, behind a cloud, a blurred figure of a lion could be spotted, an evident, personal interpretation of The Lion King which Zola lately liked to draw as an artistic family portrait. She smiled, then folded the paper again and put it safely back in the internal pocket of her bag, before set everything away.

She was headed to the National Conference on Operative Advances. Three whole days of medicine, surgical research, damaged organs, pioneering procedures, bad-ass surgeons, and every intent to spent them at fullest. No more annoying sisters whining about their miseries, nor needy children to take care of, and especially no more stress on the topic 'Nathan Riggs' or wondering about his sad and disappointed looks.
This was going to be her me time, a well earned and needed few days far away from everything and it was going to be amazing.

At some point along her motherhood road she had stopped feeling guilty about her decision to take time for herself. She knew this made her nothing like her mother, it was in fact just the opposite. A few days away from home, focusing on solely her were a simple recipe to recharge and come back stronger, to be an even better parent, a mom who was not afraid to prioritize herself when needed, knowing that her kids had plenty of people who took excellent care of them and with whom they would have tons of fun during her absence.

What she knew about being a working, kick-ass mom was enough to make her notice the family struggle happening next to her. She felt radiant and positive, eager to travel alone for the first time in months, and she didn't hesitate one bit to offer those parents a switch of seats in order to reunite them with their boy.
Her treat for acted like a good Samaritan that day was going to be unexpected and definitely not as pleasant as one would want it to be.

Seat 9-C, in the next compartment, revealed a hideous vision she had wished to never find out. Same row, two seats apart from her sat Nathan Riggs, one of the reasons she longed this little getaway travel so much.

She couldn't believe this was actually happening. She had to sit a few feet from him and from the moment they realized they were on the same plane, heading to the same medical conference, he hadn't shut up one second.
Claiming the universe was sending them signs, absolutely positively convinced that she should rethink her decision and give them a real chance, bla-bla-bla, non-stop chatting.
A nightmare. Trapped with the one person she wanted to elope the most, she closed her eyes in the vain hope he would cut her some slack. But no, she wasn't believable enough, apparently. He wasn't going to drop it. He even engaged the poor girl who was sitting in between them into the conversation, too. He was shameless and absolutely relentless. They were exchanging barbs, and it was idiotic.
In the end, she thought her only chance at survival was to stand up and leave for a while. So, as soon as the fasten seat belt sign went off, she stood up promptly.

"I'm going to stretch my legs," she announced.

Meredith sighed and walked towards the lavatory with an immediate sense of relief. The green light that signaled a free go was on and she didn't hesitate to walk in. As soon as she turned to lock the door though, she realized Nathan had followed her there and was now entering the tiny restroom, too.

What the hell was he doing, she questioned him and argued, asking him to leave.
He really was unbelievable and annoyingly adamant about not letting her be, although she explicitly told him to about a week prior. But Nathan started claiming she did something with her eyes that could mistakenly be intended as a silent request to follow her, that's the reason he went after her.
Then, he repeated that there was something between them and he couldn't keep ignoring it, that he couldn't be convinced that her feelings weren't mutual.
He insisted on the fact that they weren't in Seattle, so every argument she could have about pretending they weren't attracted to each other shouldn't play a role at that precise moment, because they were alone, out of everyone's sight.

He gave her so many unasked reasons, examining, sharp minded, every angle of the situation.

Then, the turbulence, the freakin' turbulence the plane kept hitting sent them to collide on and off each other into the restricted space of the restroom, making her hard to think so that, when he finally gave up, asking her to step aside in order for him to leave, Meredith found herself unable to take a step.
She couldn't move. From the resolute and collected figure she was, everything switched: her heartbeat accelerated, her eyes looked alternatively his own and his lips with a longing she struggled to recognize.
Every fiber of her pitched forward, longed to be touched again by this stubborn human being who had the ability of making her want to yell at him and combust with him with equal intensity.
She could smell the crisp and strangely familiar scent of his aftershave and she swore she could feel the warmness of his body under the tip of her fingers. The feel of his lips was a distant but factual memory still, and she suddenly ached to refresh it.

"Why aren't you moving?" She heard him say. She didn't know. She could gave in. She would.

"Whatever happens, this never happened. Got it?" she pointed out.

An imperceptible smirk and a quick nod from his part sealed off the deal for good and Meredith immediately leaned in to catch his lips with hers and kiss him thoroughly with a certain insistence.

She might have initiated the kiss, but they both were just as eager to explore each other.
He went to grab her thighs and lifted her, turning them and settling her on the little sink. She entwined her fingers in his curls, pulling at his hair, angling his mouth so that she could feel the stroke of their tongues the way she wanted.
He moaned, fighting the need to keep it quiet and slid one of his hands down her spine and into the waistband of her jeans, where he took a squeeze of her ass making her gasp and loose contact with his mouth for the briefest of moments.

Months had gone by since the one time she had jumped him, and never in a million years she would have thought her three-day break would result in her joining the mile high club with Nathan Riggs. Flustered and impatient, it was incredible how quickly they could go from bantering and bickering to wanting each other. She would recall it later and not being able to explain it.
Her body talked a language she just had to follow, a pull impossibly strong, keened by the plane's sudden movements, which told her she had to hurry.
Meredith's hands left his face to fumble with his belt and zipper. In no time she was stroking him, making him hard to breathe and he buried his face in her neck, panting, stranded. When he perked up, a second or a lifetime later, he reached the opening of her jeans, undid them and tugged at the fabric, silently asking for help to slip them down, together with her panties, while his mouth covered hers again.
Then they were free, their sexes equally bare and dying to be touched.

Nathan stroked her clit, not surprised to find her wet, and if he had one wish was to have more time, time to slow down and savor it, but time was the one thing they never had at hand. His fingers joined hers on his shaft, steadying her rhythm, while he kept circling his thumb hard on her, sending jolts of pure pleasure to her every nerve. Their foreheads met, she snaked one arm around his neck for balance and he slowly coaxed her hand to a halt, coming near her opening, teasing her slightly. He kissed her lips fiercely one more time and breathed, "We're safe?"

Meredith lifted her eyes to him, her look adrift for a millisecond in which she seemed to wonder what he could want to ask her about in a moment like that. She glanced down at their hands and at him again. "Yeah-yeah, safe," she stammered.

His thumb abandoned her clit, clinging to her hip instead, while he buried himself in her. They stalled, suffocating a moan, their eyes locked on each other. There was no time, no space, he should move, but he just wanted to stay put, to enjoy that feeling and make it last, make her remember. He swallowed and started pushing, watching her and making sure she was okay. She tightened his shoulders with both her arms, hiding her face in his neck and he clutched strong at her hips. Their rhythm rose and the clock was ticking, it was amazing and frustrating, for he wanted way more than a rough quickie on the plane's restroom and there was never gonna be room for it.

"I want to see you," he whispered, slowing down, unable to hide how badly he wanted her and how deeply he ached for something different.

She lifted her head from his shoulder catching her breath and nodding at him frantically. "Let me turn," she murmured.

Nathan broke their contact immediately and she wasted no time in jumping off the washbasin and turning around, placing her hands on the edge of it. Their eyes met in the mirror. She took off her pullover and unbuttoned some of her shirt, shoving her hair out of the way to free her skin. He followed her lead discarding himself of his sweater, too and diving down to kiss her neck while simultaneously joining her core from the new position, holding on her sides. She pushed back straightaway with her hips, making the contact deliciously intense and twisted her arm to caress his hair roughly, scraping his scalp and angling her head to the side in search of his lips.

They kissed and stifled their groans, he still wasn't able to watch her the way he wanted, but the mirror reflected an image he was sure he easily wouldn't be able to erase from his memory. Nathan pushed and Meredith met his thrusts, which became more and more excited and desperate, especially when one of his hand left its spot and wandered through her body, caressing her breasts, and diving down to find her clit again. The sudden glare of pleasure on her face was priceless, her head fell back for a moment and he hugged her even closer, pressing his body hard against her, supporting himself on the mirror and watching her every expression until the glorious moment when she let go, embracing the full power of pleasure. He pushed once more and followed her with his own climax.

They kept still for an instant, breathing hard.

It felt surreal. They had no idea how much time it had passed and how loud they might had been. They were on a plane full of people, and probably a bunch of them were already in line, waiting to pee in the same exact poky little room they'd just had sex.

It was crazy, out of body. It was like Meredith was only now realizing what they'd done and went to survival mode.

"We have to move. Here, put your sweater on," she said offering the piece of garment. She grabbed a generous amount of toilet paper to clean herself, while he was doing the same with some tissues. She flushed the toilet, washed her hands and quickly dressed up again. Before he even had the time to speak, she already was out of the door.

Both Nathan and Meredith weren't the most laid back people when it came to fly. That day wasn't the exception.
From the moment they returned to their seats, finally sitting next to each other, the plane hit turbulence more than once, an occurrence that led them to share their more and less catastrophic flying experiences. Nathan felt like an idiot for having mentioned his stupid little incident, which was nothing less that a spoiled stunt, especially if compared to the serious, deadly, plane crash Meredith experienced.

But the emergency that was going to follow, with the traumas, the unsteadiness, the not-knowing, the sense of powerlessness, will instead easily be remembered as one of the scariest and craziest days of his life. Fear, concentration and pure sense of awe were fused in every second of those those hectic, frightful moments.

Fear of falling, of dying, of failing, the requirement to be focused on the injured patients, the familiar feeling of being in the zone and this absorbing sensation of awe. Awe for Meredith, for how bravely and unflinchingly she was operating a bloke's brain with little to no surgical instruments.
She was intoxicating. Her voice reached his ears every once in a while, her tone completely unafraid and confident, focused.
When he lifted his face, with every sigh of relief for averting a crisis after another, he couldn't avoid to take in a glimpse of her. First she was cutting, then on the phone demanding to talk with the she-captain, finally intent on astonishingly drain a brain bleed with a cocktail straw, her long fingers drenched in blood.

Before her patient lost conscience and the situation dropped drastically, they'd shared a moment together in the back of the plane. Meredith was having a brief break and he was temporarily hiding from all the calls he was receiving from panicked but thankfully unharmed passengers. They found themselves sat on the floor and Nathan once again asked her about her plane crash.

He wasn't trying to push her or be intrusive, he rather felt utterly intimidated by her life, sensing there was so much more than Meredith usually allowed people to see and he was genuinely captivated by what she must have gone through. He had no idea he was asking her to reminisce one of the worst time of her life, the incident which had caused the death of her little sister. He cursed himself for having insisted and, at the same time, he was amazed and grateful to be able to see her walls down, uncovered in a much more personal way, to listen to a bit of the story that pervaded the mystery of her.

One of her sisters died out there, while Meredith was waiting in the cold to be rescued, a lot of people died around her. What was it like to be Meredith Grey? To feel cursed? Suddenly her will to put Maggie's happiness before her own wasn't that crazy at his eyes, at least until his stream of thoughts had lapped his personal interpretation of her tentative behavior.

He thought she was acting on self-sacrifice, on respect towards Maggie, protecting the ones she loved and not wanting to loose them, but it was more than that. The moment he alluded to the fact she hadn't been exactly backing away from him, that she was trying, maybe even wanting to stay away, but in the end she never did, Meredith blurted unexpectedly.

She was married. She was still tied with the love of her life, even if he was long gone. Long. How long is a long time? Nathan was still grieving what was with Megan and it'd been ten years since her disappearance. Of course she wasn't letting go on her husband, of course she was still grieving and pretty much still dancing with his ghost. Some time he wondered if it was even possible to get over the death of a lover, if one could ever stop grieving the past, and so, struck dumb, he asked himself what kind of an idiot he'd been.

Inside the hard shell Meredith had built around her, beyond the firm appearance of world class surgeon, collected and confident woman, the real thing that was holding her back, that was making her hard to decide what she truly wanted was her past. The man she once loved, the father of her children, the one she bent her rules for and agreed to marry. Everything made sense now. Meredith made sense.

On that plane, only a few feet away from each other, they were sharing the same rush, desperately trying to save two lives in extreme circumstances. Her patient, Max, incredibly opened his eyes, the arrogant guy with the pulmonary hypertension regained his pulse and finally they heard the plane's wheels touch the ground with a dull, comforting clunk.

They did it. They were alive, everyone was. The catastrophe had been thwarted this time. Nathan and Meredith were outside, Candace – the flight assistant – was checking her chances with him, but he was distracted, he kept glancing urgently in the direction where he knew Meredith was standing. Her dentist friend, who helped with the operation on the plane, tried to talk to her – with high probability to flirt or ask her out. The captain stopped talking to her right now. He took leave from Candace as politely as he could and walked towards Meredith.

"We did it," he exclaimed with a giant grin as soon as she was left alone.

"We did," she confirmed, returning an incredulous, radiant look.

They were in Sioux Falls apparently, Nathan shared his comfort drink with her, which he nicked from plane. He was feeling bold, a bit revved up from the tension release and, most importantly, mindful that he was falling for her, maybe he had already fallen, and she was too scared to admit she was affected, too.

He wished they had time, more time alone and he checked his lucky star starting to talk about nice hotels.

Of course Meredith make him a face, why wouldn't she.

"We're not sleeping together," she stated shocking her head.

"You know, technically we never slept together. But fine, we still gotta sleep," he ventured, but she clearly wasn't one bit inclined to give in.

"Oh, Meredith, you've just treated a brain bleed on a nearly crashing plane! You're so fearless about so many things, how the hell are you still scared?"

"I'm not scared. My sister-"

"No, don't pretend this is still about Pierce, it's not. You're scared. You're afraid of letting him go..."

"I- I don't really wanna talk about this," she looked down, sighing.

"I don't wanna talk about it either, I just wanted to say that we're still here and I wish we could move forward, we deserve to move forward… Don't look at me like that, like I don't know what I'm talking about, because you know I do."

"It could've been you in that seat, with no seat belt," she argued.
"Yeah, but it wasn't, okay. I'm just fine. And so do you," he murmured hoping to be reassuring.

"Come on! They're waiting for us," she eyed to the shuttle parked on the landing area which was about to leave. "We'll find a place to sleep," she conceded, giving him once more just a little something to hang on to, while she dwell about it.

A/N: Apparently, nothing motivates me more to write about these two, than being in deep shit with some real, work-related writing deadlines. I put down the most and best part of this chapter while procrastinating and deserting the role of the responsible adult.

In Meredith Grey's words, there's no such thing as a grown-up.

The title comes from the famous picturebook by Maurice Sendak.

I'm utterly in love with episode 13x20, the dialogue right after the plane's landing is one of the very few – if not the only – of Greys'-after-Derek that I know by heart. It's pure perfection. Those MerDer flashbacks… I changed it, but I hope I still gave it justice.

I find so hard retelling scenes that are already great! Thankfully these might be the last ones :)

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing this little thingy. Your words really keep me going. Once again, it's surreal that someone actually reads it!

The next chapter has been almost ready for years, I just need to tune the right atmosphere out of it.