Hello!
This is the last chapter before Merder are heading off to California for Jen's wedding.
There's uh...even more sex. But also some small little hints about Meredith and her past, as there was in last chapter.
Enjoy! :)
"People."
"Yes, Derek."
"People." He repeated.
"Yes, people. People are the main inhabitants of Earth, and the ones you communicate with as a fellow human. So, yes, people, Derek."
"Your friends. Who now know who I am. Who...who always knew who I was, actually, as the strange, statical anomoly neurosurgeon. Who very, very likely have judged me from the day they met me for said differences." He corrected. "They're not just people. But they are people. And I already-"
"-hate people, yes, I know." She finished for him. "People don't understand you. They don't see you for who you are. They don't see you like I see you. And I hate people too, perhaps more than you, because I know that you are the best, kindest, funniest, caring person ever, and that you are a hundred other things before the p word."
He smirked. "The p word?"
"That's...I mean, p for paraplegic."
"Tell me-"
"Yeah?" She prompted.
"Can you actually think of one hundred adjectives to describe me, before you get to the p word?"
"You're the dictionary- thesaurus-thingmabob man. I was a maths-and-science gal, I barely scraped an A in my high-school English exams." She sighed. "But-"
"But?" He repeated.
"I can try for you." She muttered with a devious grin.
"Mmm-"
"I'm gonna start off with adorable. Because I think you are so very cute. Also, that counts as two."
He smirked. He'd give it to her.
"Next I'm going with intelligent, because my god you are such a nerd."
"Well, I can't disagree with that. Didn't skip third grade for fun."
"Then funny because you know you make me laugh for freaking days."
"That's what got you to fall for me, right?" He teased.
She kissed him. "Supposedly. Anyway, now I'm going with handsome."
He smiled. "You are?"
"Mmm." She muttered, as she slid her hands up his scrub shirt, pulling it off. She kissed the skin she had exposed. "And next good looking."
"I think that's just a synonym of handsome." He pointed out through a mutter.
She ignored that completely as her hands delved down his pants. "Now: hot."
He smiled as he let her. "Yeah?"
"Mmm-" She muttered. She kissed him again. Slowly this time. "Now...you have a choice: sex, or compliments."
He smirked cheekily with sparkling, McDreamy eyes before asking, "Why not both?"
"You know-"
"Mmm?" He hummed.
"If we told everyone we were together sooner we could have had sex in on-call rooms for months."
"True."
"Oh my god." She muttered, an expression of pure despair settling across her face.
"What?" He asked instantly, worried.
"If we told everyone we were together sooner we could have had sex in on-call rooms for months!" She repeated. "We missed out on. So. Much. Sex!"
He chuckled. Of course. Her distraught expression came from sadness over a lack of sex.
"Don't laugh at me! This is serious."
"I'm not laughing." He said...before laughing again.
"God. If I wasn't so in love with you I'd probably be pretty angry."
His laughter stopped, but he didn't stop grinning. She was just so sweet.
She smiled too, before it faded as their laughter did and she pondered, "Are you regretting it? Telling people, I mean."
"No. Because I can't regret a decision I didn't make." He said pointedly.
She smiled. "You're far too technical, Derek."
"Fine. I-" He sighed. He was good at avoiding questions. "I guess I'm glad it wasn't a decision. Means I can't regret it. I just have to...take on the conquenses of people knowing."
"Bad consequences?"
"No. But then again I've only been back at work for a few days." He replied. "How about you?"
"Me?"
"You've been working for...like two months with people knowing. How do you feel? Are you okay? Are you regretting it?"
She smiled, and kissed him. "I'm just upset that people had to find out when you weren't here. If people are gonna look at me weird, I'd rather they do it when I'm kissing you...so, you know, I get to kiss you."
"You can kiss me now. You can make up for the lack of kissing now."
She giggled. "Well, I'm not gonna say no to that."
"Quick fire...mast cells."
"Involved in inflammation. Causes the release of histamines for vasodilation- causing heat and redness, and makes blood vessels leaky to allow for leukocytes like neutrophils to enter and to make more tissue fluid-causing swelling and pain. And cytokines to attract macrophages and neutrophils." She listed off. "But c'mon, I learnt that in high school, give me something harder."
"Are you sure?"
She sighed. "Sure."
He grinned. He'd tested her enough to know which ones she liked and which ones she didn't. "Great. How about histology? Wanna do that next?"
"Crap." She muttered. "Too confident."
"Well the point of a test is to learn, you know? You can't just not learn the stuff you don't like."
She sighed. "Mmm. Probably."
He read her stress. "If you're too tired, we can take a break. I'm surprised you asked me so soon after we got in, surely you're shattered from work?"
"More so all that sex we had."
Derek snorted. "Right. I guess people don't really get lunch breaks when they are in relationships. Or at least lunch for eating food."
"Mmm. Suppose so. Not that I'm complaining."
"Me neither." He kissed her, smiling briefly, before moving on, "Are you still okay to go to Jen's wedding? It was great for her to put their wedding after they did their exam, but she didn't consider that yours was a week later."
"I'm sure. I need to relax."
"Are you sure you're going to relax at the wedding though? Are you sure you're not going to be stressed?"
"Well, I'll have you 24/7, and you're great at handling me and my explosions of stress." She replied. "And then I don't have to be here, working and...thinking about the people who know. They're not that bad, but I just feel like I'm being watching and it's rather difficult to focus."
He sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault." She squeezed his hand. "You know that."
"Mmm." He hummed in agreement. "Do you feel like you're going to pass? Do you feel confident?"
"Currently...not that confident, I'm afraid."
"You'll pass." He kissed her cheek. "You're really good, Mer."
"Good enough though?"
"I'm an attending, so I've had all interns on my service at one time or another. Some of them...you know, they kinda suck."
She snorted. "Dr Shepherd, I don't think you're allowed to say that."
"They do though!" He exclaimed through a chuckle.
She rolled her eyes. "And you're definitely not biased in any way?"
He sighed. "I'm not saying this because I'm biased. I'm serious. You are a really, really good intern."
"Whatever you say."
"But...if you do fail - which I know you're not going to, but I also know you're going to worry about it anyway because I know how that brain of yours works - I promise I will be here to support you through another year and another test if that's what it comes down to. I promise I will hold you if you want to cry. I promise I will buy you all the strawberry ice-cream and orange chocolate in the world for you to stress-eat, and you know I won't judge how much of it you eat a day. I will do anything to help, anything for you to feel better, and there will be no judging, no anger, no sadness."
She stared at him, stunned. She could fail. She could fail and he'd be okay with that. She could fail and he wouldn't be mad. She could fail and he'd be...nice to her?
"So, yeah. Just...don't stress about me if it doesn't go your way, okay?"
Surely this man wasn't real. Surely he was lying.
"You okay?" He asked, noting that she'd fallen pretty deep into her mind. He rubbed her shoulder lightly. "Mer?"
"You-" She gulped as she finally looked up at him. "You don't know how much that means to me. Thank you. So much."