"Ah!" Mark exclaimed. "There's my girl!"
Derek spun around to see who the man was referring to, only to find a very familiar woman. "Addie?"
"Long time no see." She greeted with a smile before being embraced by an excited Mark. He kissed both of her cheeks.
"I didn't know you were coming back." Derek said once they were done.
"A surprise." She replied. "Also, obviously, the Chief wanted me on the case."
"Mmm." He sighed. He knew Richard was extremely stressed.
"How's your dog?" Addison asked. She'd been the one who had been to Derek's house every morning and evening to feed and walk it when Derek was in hospital, letting Mark take on the responsibilities there.
"She's good. We named her Lucky because...well, she's lucky. Lucky to be alive. Oh, and, of course, lucky to have gotten such a good dog dad."
She smirked. "Sure she is."
Derek ignored that. "Anyway, how are you? How are Sam and Nay?"
"They're good, and I'm really enjoying it."
"Nice to know you're enjoying your total abandonment of me and Mark." Derek said, only a tinge of passive aggressiveness in his voice.
"You two have each other." She dismissed as Derek joined the pair.
"Derek has a little more than that." Mark muttered.
"Mmm?" Addison pushed, only hearing half of the sentence.
"Oh-" Mark smirked. "Nothing."
"So how are you doing, medically, Derek?" Addison asked as she passed Mark an alcoholic drink, then Derek a non-alcoholic drink, seeing as he didn't drink.
"I'm fine." He confirmed with a smile. "Started work three days ago, and finally got my driving license back which is great considering-"
"Considering?" She pushed when he stopped.
Considering Meredith's broken toes, but he wasn't going to say that. "Considering that I'm working again and stuff."
"Your kidney function? And your liver? And your lungs? Do you still have fatigue? Did it make your headaches and migraines worse?"
"What are you going to ask next, how many CCs I'm putting out per hour?" He joked, only to falter at the look on her face. "Oh, really?"
"Yes, really."
"A normal amount of a normal..." He paused. This was stupid. "It's normal, okay? Everything is normal."
"Mark." Addison named with an intention in her voice that was asking the man to verify what Derek was saying.
"From what I've heard and from his tests, he is medically fine."
"And, psychologically, how are you doing?"
Nothing.
"Derek?"
Nothing.
Mark shoved Derek's shoulder. "Ello? Earth to Derek."
"Mmm? What?" Derek asked as he finally acknowledged his friends.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah I-" He paused when his phone vibrated. He took that out instead of replying to his friends, seeing as that was easier.
"Stop looking at me, you perv, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark-" Mark read aloud. He breathed in dramatically. "-exclamation mark, exclamation mark, excl-"
"Yeah, I get it, there's a lot of exclamation marks." Derek interrupted with a smile.
"Who's calling you a perv?" Addison asked, stepping round to his other side to look at his phone too. The name didn't give her any clues, considering it was 'DFILWHYI'.
Mark smiled. "His girlfriend."
"Hold up. Girlfriend?" Addison asked.
"Yeah, apparently he gave up on his-"
"Dying alone because I'm a cripple, cue Addie telling me not to say that word-" Derek filled in for both of them. "I know what both of you are going to say."
"Okay- but, seriously- why didn't anyone tell me you had a girlfriend?"
"Because it's a secret." Mark chimed in.
"And if she's texting you now, that means she's here, which means she's a doctor or a nurse or- something." Addison concluded.
"That's the bigger secret." Mark muttered.
"So who is it?"
"That's the biggest secret." Mark explained.
"Who knows?" Addison pressed. "Don't tell me I'm being left out here."
"Mark and Mom. Maybe Bailey because of her third eye." Derek answered, just as his phone buzzed again.
"PS. Looking very handsome. Aww, so cute." Mark muttered as he read the next text. "And it even has kisses on the end!"
"Shut up." Derek sighed, shaking his head.
"Why is she called D-F-I-L-W-H-Y-I?" Addison asked.
"Don't fall in love with her you idiot." Derek explained.
She smiled. "You failed at that then."
"Considering the fact that this dude-" Mark clamped his hand over his shoulder. "-has a girlfriend- well, that is definitely not a fail."
"I thought you said I could get a girlfriend if I wanted."
Mark sighed. "What did you want me to say: 'No, Derek, don't even try, no one would ever love you because chairs are generally at the bottom of a girl's list'?"
"Well where's your girlfriend tonight then Mark?" He asked cockily.
He faltered. Damn.
Derek smiled. "Exactly."
"Looking very dapper, Dr Shepherd."
He looked round from the bar to see Bailey's interns in a group. He smiled as he moved just a little closer to them. "Thank you, Dr Stevens. I believe I'm allowed to say you look pretty in your dress."
Her eyebrows creased. "Why would you not be allowed to say that?"
"I'm not sure how much my girlfriend would like me complimenting other women."
"Oh- you have a girlfriend?" She asked, restricting her shock.
"Yes. A girlfriend who is so extremely beautiful that no words could express how beautiful she really is. I mean...she's an angel." Derek said, not daring to look at Meredith. That was partially because he knew his eyes would turn to hearts when he looked at her and he didn't want that, but partially because he was a little shy about saying so much while looking her in the eye.
"Poetry." She sighed happily before abruptly jabbing Alex with her elbow. "Why did I never got poetry?"
Derek smirked at the pair.
"You know, your suit-" Izzie started.
"Mmm?" He asked, looking down at his dark blue suit.
"It's the same colour as Mer's dress." She said as she gestured to her friend.
He looked at Meredith along with the rest of the group, as if she hadn't picked out that specific suit for him just so they could match. "Yes. I supposed it is."
Meredith smiled. "What a funny coincidence."
Yes...coincidence.
"Yeah." He agreed with a smile. "So- anyway, uh, how's your prom going?"
"Good. Except no one wants to dance except me." Izzie answered before her eyes lit up, "Would you like to?"
He smiled. "I think I'm okay."
"Isn't it a thing though?" She pondered. "I think it's ballroom that I've seen them doing, and this is basically ballroom."
"Well, one, I wouldn't know how. And, two, I personally just don't dance."
Meredith smiled. She'd seen him dance just that one time, and she definitely understood why he didn't want to try.
"Ah." Izzie sighed. "I guess that means you guys are going to have to do it then."
"Broken toes." Meredith said.
She rolled her eyes, and grabbed Meredith's wrist. "You can dance with your arms then." She said as she dragged her onto the dancefloor, forcing the rest of the group to join too.
Derek would be lying if he didn't spend the next five minutes staring at Meredith and her rather horrendous dance moves. Still, he loved her.
"Cris, I'm gonna go. Tell Izzie my toes were hurting if she asks." Meredith said as she noted that her dancing-obsessed friend was distracted.
"Meredith, if I have to do this, you have to do this too."
"My toes are in pain." She stated her voice completely flat. "Ow, pain. Excreta, excreta."
She rolled her eyes, but didn't stop Meredith as she walked away from the dance floor.
"Dr Shepherd." Meredith stated, purposefully amplifying her voice.
He pretended to only just notice her, as if he hadn't been watching only her among the two dozen odd other dancers. "Dr Grey."
"I need to fix my boot. Can I lean on you a second?" She asked as she made a purposeful gesture to the back of his chair.
"Oh. Of course. Are you okay?" He asked, with only a little bit of concern.
"Fine. Just a little uncomfortable." She said as she grasped the back of his chair so she could stand on one leg without falling. She lifted the foot, pulled one line of velcro off and adjusted it.
"Hi." Derek whispered.
"You've got to stop looking at me." She asked, keeping her voice quiet despite its harshness.
He smiled. "I wasn't looking at you."
"People are going to notice."
"I wasn't looking at you." He repeated, a wider smile appearing in his face. That meant it was a lie. He couldn't stop looking at her.
"You were looking at me. And I can't breathe when you're looking at me like..." She swallowed. "-like that. I just can't breathe."
"I would give anything not to be looking at you but- God, Meredith, you're just so beautiful."
"I'll find a potato sac to wear. Then you can stop." She suggested with a smirk, her voice still consistently quiet. There was no way anyone else could hear her.
"But you're beautiful on the inside too."
Her smirk morphed to a simple smile as she blushed. "I'm going to go back now. But stop looking!" She said as she pretended to finish adjusting her boot, put her foot back on the floor and let go of the back of his chair.
"Did you have sex on prom night?"
"Did I what?" She asked, not expecting that question.
"Have sex." He repeated.
"I didn't go to prom. I was a...goth or something- even I don't think I knew what I was doing. I wouldn't be caught dead at prom back then." She explained.
Derek didn't speak.
"Why do you ask?"
He still didn't speak, but that didn't mean he was communicating with her. His eyes told her something, and the next second she was speed-walking out of the furthest door to exit the prom.
"What I can feel?" Derek suggested as she struggled to complete her sentence. "My injury is incomplete."
"So you feel-" She prompted. Incomplete injuries covered an extremely broad spectrum, including I-could-just-about-feel-it-if-you-stabbed-me-with-a-knife all the way to an ASIA E injury where the person had basically no sensory or motor deficits, and no one would ever be able to guess that anything had happened to them.
"Pain. Pressure when you push hard enough. No temperature really. Oh- and I can feel pleasure too." He winked.
She giggled. He wasn't allowed to be saying that. But she was glad to know of that information, if she was honest. "Inappropriate, Dr Shepherd!"
"Why are we in here?" Meredith asked as she stepped into the examination room and shut the door behind her. No lock. They'd just have to risk it.
"There's a couple in our on-call room having sex." Derek explained. He'd reached the room before Meredith, having taken the short route out of prom, and received a shouted 'occupied' when he tried to open the door.
"Sex? Now? On fake prom night?" She asked as she paused directly opposite him with a tilted head. He'd moved to sit on the bed, legs dangling over the side. "Disgusting."
He smiled as he raised his hands and settled them on her hips. "Absolutely disgusting."
She shivered. God. Why could just his hands do that to her?
"So...absolutely-"
He let go of her hip, and moved his hand up her back. He grasped the zip at the back of her dress and pulled it down.
"-disgusting." Meredith finished breathlessly. She pushed the straps off of her shoulders, and the dress fell down a little, then to the floor with a little help from his hands.
"I thought you said I wasn't allowed to look at you." He reminded her as she reached to her back and unclipped her bra.
"Oh." She breathed as she dropped her bra to the floor.
"Oh?" He repeated with wide eyes. He tried not to look at what she'd just exposed, but it was a little difficult. If anyone asked, it was because of his height and where his eyeline was, because that was the truth, but, at the same time...God, she was so beautiful. He couldn't look away if he tried. He thought she was beautiful in her dress, but she was equally, if not more, without it at all.
"It doesn't matter now, does it?" She finished. "No one is looking."
"I'm looking."
They were so...quiet. It wasn't awkward. It wasn't awkward at all. It wasn't like they were lacking passion or love or admiration either. It was just a soft, gentle, timid, intimate kind of affection.
She smiled. "And I'm glad you are."
Neither spoke. Again.
Her hands moved to his shirt, and started to undo the buttons. They still didn't speak. He just watched her, like he was watching the world's most intricate surgery. He shook the shirt off when she was done, and it fell onto the bed behind him.
"Derek." She breathed.
"Mmm?" He muttered back.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked. If she was honest with herself, she'd admit that she had no idea what she was doing. She'd had sex before, of course, and she'd had a boyfriend before, of course, but she'd never had this. She wasn't referring to the fact that this boyfriend actually seemed to care about her or the fact that he was a hotshot neurosurgeon or the fact that he was apparently a crotchet master, although those were still important things about him. No. She was thinking about the other extremely distinctive characteristic of him.
"I don't know what's going to happen, but I...I know I do want this. Okay?"
"Sure?"
"Sure." He confirmed.
Derek wasn't quite sure how the next few seconds moved so fast. In fact, he actually lost time sensation from how fast she moved.
One second he was sat on the side of the examination table, and the next he was lying on the bed with Meredith on top of him. Honestly, he was so confused. But that didn't mean he didn't like it.
"I don't want any insecurity from you, okay?"
He smiled, just so he wouldn't have to think about Meredith's instruction. "So bossy."
The edges of her lips lifted. "Here's the deal. You let me be the judge of you, so you can stop judging yourself."
"Okay." He breathed, not quite sure of himself.
"As you're judge, I'm saying that these scars-" Her eyes dropped. "-aren't ugly. They just signify that something terrible happened to you, and highlight the fact that you're really freaking damn strong and amazing to still be here despite them. And I'm imagining you're insecure about your legs too, but, I'm telling you, they're okay too. They aren't disgusting and they aren't weird and they aren't...they aren't anything that you're thinking. And this thing you have going on with the muscles that are definitely there but not overpowering when I look at you is really freaking hot. Your body is perfect, okay?"
He believed her this time. "Okay."
Her hands dropped, and attacked his belt. She pulled it, unzipped the top of his trousers, and pushed down. This was what she knew Derek hated. No matter what position he was in, trousers would always be one of his biggest hatreds. However, she still managed to get them down, and turned her head around so she could make sure she could push them all the way off of his legs before looking back to him.
Her eyes dipped before she looked at his face. Just to check everything was going fine. It had always been important that sex with her boyfriend was good, which generally meant who ever she was dating had to live up to certain physical standards. But she wasn't worried about that this time.
She was far too focused on making sure Derek was doing okay. And one thing she knew that would make Derek not okay was if she kissed him and said things and did whatever else she might try to get him in the mood, only for nothing to happen. He'd be embarrassed; she knew that. But he wasn't going to be, at least about that specific anxiety, considering what she could make out was going on past his boxers.
She kissed him. Again and again and again and again. She swore she could kiss him for three hours and it wouldn't get boring or tiresome. But, eventually, she pulled away; they weren't here for kissing.
"Can I take your boxers off?"
He smirked. "Think it'd be a little hard with them on."
"Derek." She warned.
He smiled. He knew what she was actually asking. "I promise you, Meredith, I want this. I...I want you."
"Derek?" Meredith called once she had recovered.
Nothing.
"Derek, are you alright?"
"Fink 'm actually having a stroke this time." He muttered, his eyes still unfocused in the direction of the ceiling and his mouth still opened. His heart was beating so fast and his chest was moving up and down so frequently; the whole slow, timid, intimate thing had disappeared pretty quickly after their clothes had.
She beamed. "But you're okay?"
Nothing.
"Derek?"
"You know when people say they have mind-blowing sex?"
"Yeah."
"Is that a hyperbole or a real thing?"
"I think it's an exaggeration."
He finally looked at her. "That um- I mean- you weren't- we-" He swallowed. "We-" He stated with confidence as he finally settled on something to say. "-weren't a hyperbole."
She smiled. She'd blown his mind. Literally. Although, she could tell by his daze. "So you enjoyed it? You're okay? I mean- discounting the sex-induced stroke you appear to be having."
He chuckled. "Oh, apart from the stroke I'm wonderful. When can we go again?"