It was now Wednesday and ever since their fight on Friday, if you could even call it that, he had been distant towards her. He wasn't ignoring her, he just made sure they didn't saw each other too often during working hours. And when they did have to work together, he was nice, polite even but no where near the friend he had always been to her. They would laugh and joke, have fun and mock each other, but not now. Their conversations didn't hold much more than a -hey how are you?-, and that was nothing like them. Even outside working hours he wasn't his usual self, there were no texts or calls. There even weren't any lunch dates, no matter how busy they were they always made time for lunch, even if it was just quick sandwich in the hallways.

He had put it off due to stress around Archie's brain tumor, but she highly doubted that. Derek had always been of a relaxed nature, not one to be easily stressed, it took a lot more than a challenging tumor to make him this off balanced. She was now officially introduced to Archer and Addison Montgomery; she had been assigned by Bailey to Derek's service. As if Bailey had known the moment Meredith had walked in on Monday and decided to taunt her a bit more.

And then there was the thing that every time she came close to Archie's room, she could hear them laughing inside, they were definitely having fun. She wouldn't even have minded it, were it not that every time she entered the room, Derek fell completely silent. He would stop laughing or talking and got out of room as quickly as possible, excusing himself with a lame ass excuse.

It also sucked that Addie was drop-dead gorgeous, she was all leg, had perfectly styled red hair and even though she was spending all her time at here brother's bedside she still managed to look polished. Meredith could try all she wanted but she never would look this classy and sophisticated. She could understand why Derek was attracted to her; she could also understand that he would have wanted more with her. And if it couldn't have been any worse, Addie was a renowned gynaecologist, funny and smart. Derek and Addison would be a perfect pair; they matched perfectly together, in both looks and brains.

Meredith knew she didn't have any claim on Derek, they were just friends who had sex. Nothing more than Derek and Addison had been actually. But she couldn't help to feel agitated and angry every time she saw Addison close to Derek. And it felt like she was doing things on purpose, like touching him on his arm or back every time Meredith got in the room. Or she would laugh just a little bit louder then necessary at some stupid remark or joke Derek made. Meredith wasn't a violent person but Addison made it really hard for her, she wanted to slap the smile of her face every time she got in to the room. And that was bad, like truly really bad, because Addison hadn't been anything but nice to her, even though her brother was in this shitty situation and she was stressed out. Meredith hated herself for her thoughts and feelings.

She also couldn't understand where her feelings were coming from, she had never felt this way about a man before. Even with Finn she was perfectly fine with another woman flirting with him, she knew he wouldn't do anything with another woman. And even if he would have done something, she didn't know if she would have really minded. She couldn't actually be jealous; Meredith wasn't a jealous person.

She had taken Archie up for another CT and was now walking to the light room so Derek could take a look at the newest scans. The surgery was planned for later this afternoon, so he wanted to make sure there weren't any big differences.

'Doctor Shepherd, I have Archer's scans for you.' she said walking in to the room.

'Doctor Shepherd? When did we became so formal?' he questioned her raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'We aren't formal, but we aren't exactly friends at the moment too.' answering him honestly. 'What's wrong?'

He frowned. 'Nothing's wrong. What-'

'Nothing's wrong?' she interrupted, scowling at him. 'You have been ignoring me, and-'

'Ignoring you?' he interrupted back with a growl. He pulled her hard against his chest and looked down at her. 'I can't ignore you. I have tried.. I think about you every minute of every day, Mer. It is completely impossible for me to ignore you.'

She looked back at him; she had expected a lot but this wasn't on her list of expectations.

Derek let go of her, bit his bottom lip, and then ran a hand over his face. He sighed heavily, hanging his head. It was obvious he hadn't meant to say that, which confused her even more. 'Meredith, I am sorry. I am just busy and distracted by Archer's case, talking stupid. Just ignore it okay, I will be back to myself once Archie's operation is done.'

'Let me know if there is anything I can do to help with the surgery.' she turned around and walked away quickly.

Derek had been caught of guard when Meredith had asked him what was going on. He had tried so hard to keep his distance from her. He didn't want to scare her away; she was the one who had requested some time to cool off. And he couldn't just be friends anymore, every time he saw her, he wanted to hold her or kiss her, god that were just the appropriate thoughts, he wanted to fuck her like crazy. He had never been so turned on in his life, her whole body and soul were turning him on constantly. He didn't mean to be harsh or cold towards her, but if he didn't, he knew he couldn't withhold. He didn't want to hover over her constantly, he wanted to give her some space and time but now even that wasn't good.

'So, are you going to tell me what is going on between you and that hot blonde intern?' She is practically skinning me alive every time she sees us talking.' Addie spat laughing at him.

'I don't know what you mean. And she is not skinning you, she is sweet and kind. The best intern there is.' Derek replied to her.

'Ah, come on man, only an intern to you? Even with my brain tumor I can see something is going on between you two.' Archie brought in, which made Derek and Addie laugh.

'She is special.' Derek brought out dreamy. 'She is just so funny and smart, and she gets me. She needs half a word and knows exactly what I am talking about.'

'Then why are you acting like you don't care about her? When she walks in you scurry out of the room and act like she doesn't exist at all.' Addie gave him a disapproving look.

'I didn't...' then Derek thought about it, he had been a total dick towards Meredith the past few days. Yes, she had asked for them to only be together during the weekends. But that wasn't because she didn't want to be his friend during the weeks. Or because she was mad at him, she just had a lot of other things going on. She was still an intern, she made many, many hours to get the good surgeries and then she also had a big test coming up. And he had made a complete ass out of himself, again. 'Fuck.'

'You have to make it up to her, Derek.' Addie gave him a gentle squeeze on his arm.

Archer was shaking his head. 'That is going to be an expensive mistake, mate.'

'I will manage something, right!' he said, more to convince himself than Archie and Addie.