Merder are back in Seattle!
Enjoy! :)
"Home at last!" Meredith sighed. She made her way to the sofa, and the four bags that she had been holding all hit the floor by the time she reached it. She flopped onto it instantly.
He smiled. "My home."
"Same thing." She muttered.
He swallowed at that, but decided to not say anything in response. "Tired?"
"What do you think?" She asked with a giggle as she snuggled into one of his pillows.
"Mmm. I think I might say yes. Yes, you do seem at least a little bit tired." He replied with a grin.
"What you doing?" She muttered, watching him as he grabbed the bottom of the sofa.
He pulled, and she jumped a little as the sofa made an awful lot of abrupt noise. "It's a pull-out bed."
"No way-" She breathed. She'd sat on it hundreds of times, and he'd never mentioned it.
"Mark got it to sleep on when I came back from rehab. I don't pull it out often because it means there is no space between it and the table, but-" He paused at the end of the bed, and placed his palm on the cushions. "I can just transfer here instead."
She smiled as she wrapped her arms around him before he even had a chance to settle beside her. "Snuggles."
"Mmm." He muttered, relaxing in her arms.
"But with no memory foam this time."
"No. But we can cope with that."
"Yeah?" She asked with a creased brow.
He smiled. "I could sleep on a bed of nails and be comfortable if you had your arms around me, Meredith."
"So, varsity hockey, eh?"
"What?"
"In your confession after the wedding, you said you did all sorts...including hockey."
"Oh, right. Yeah." He agreed. "Think that ship might have sailed though. Unless I'm going the paralympic route."
She smiled, but didn't look up at him. However, she was doing something related to what he had just said; pulling on the velcro of his KAFOs. "Were you good?"
"I like to think so. I...certaintly thought so at the time. Obviously, that was pre-accident me by an awful lot of years so I was definitely a different person. But, yeah, today...well, I mean-" He smiled. "-I could say whatever I want in this moment because you can't test me now."
She snorted. "Fair enough. Now..."
"Standing time." He muttered quietly for her.
"You okay?"
He nodded slowly and almost absentmindedly. "Think so."
She saw straight through that lie. He was most definitely not okay. "Why are we stressed? What's going on in that brain of yours?"
"I...I don't know. Just...worried."
"You know the full recovery time from your surgery is 10 to 12 weeks."
"Which is why I'm more terrified now. Because the longer it has been since it happened..."
She sighed. "...the better you expect yourself to be."
"Mmm."
She hated the way Derek's mind worked. She could never tell him something that he didn't already know because he had already thought of basically every thought there was to be thought, it was just that he didn't believe many of the things that his mind came up with. "You've got this, Derek. But if you don't, it doesn't matter, okay? The aim of the surgery was not to get you walking, so there's no expectation for you to do well."
"I know." He sighed. That's part of the reason he felt so stupid. His only desire was to not be in so much pain, it was just that this was the first time he was standing since his surgery, and he supposed a little part of him hoped that he was going to improve mobility-wise.
She didn't want to stay on that topic any longer; she knew what he was thinking already, so took a different route. She stood up from where she had been crouched in front of him, and put a walker in her place.
He still didn't move, but looked up at her with an intrigued look.
"Stand, and I'll give you a kiss." She proclaimed with a grin.
"Really?"
"My lips are right here-" She pointed to her mouth as she smiled again. "All you've got to do is get up, and you can have them."
"No way are you threatening a paraplegic." He said. Her confidence was hilariously bold.
"I'm not threatening you." She shrugged. "It's an offer."
"Stand, or no kisses. That sounds like a threat to me. I can't live without your kisses, so it's a threat."
She smirked at how serious he was. "Derek, you can live without my kisses. You're not going to die."
"Really? Because last time I checked, I did almost die after I broke up with you...water inhalation and hypothermia, remember?"
She rolled her eyes. "Stop being smart with me, Mister. Focus."
"Fine, fine." He grumbled in a huff. He took a second to compose himself, before placing his feet on the floor and-
"Hi." She breathed with a smile as she looked at him, standing.
"Where's my kiss?" He asked, ignoring her greeting. He'd initiate it himself, but she was a little far away and he knew him moving was a bad idea.
"It's-" She took a step backwards. "-over here now."
"Hey. That's not fair!"
"Life isn't fair."
"Meredith Grey. You are a mean, mean woman."
"Come and get it!" She taunted again.
"That's not funny, Mer." He said with a shake of his head.
She giggled. "You want it or not? I thought you couldn't live without my kisses!"
"You know I can't walk without your help."
"You have my help. I'm encouraging you...through threats." Meredith argued. "Also, you know that's a lie; I help you but I know you can do at least a little bit of walking without me."
He swallowed as he looked away from her, to his feet. He managed one small, timid step.
"You're going to have to do more than that."
He sighed through a grin. "Yeah, I'm trying here. Believe it or not, my half-severed spinal cord and dozen ex-broken bones in my legs make walking kinda difficult, you know?"
"Well, you learn something new everyday."
He didn't smile at her sarcasm as he took another step closer to her.
"Oh, yeah, and I forget to say the rule is I move back every thirty seconds."
"Now I'm never going to get a kiss from you!"
"Better hurry up then."
"You know-"
His feet shuffled again.
"-you'd make-"
Another step.
"-a terrible-"
Another.
"-physiotherapist."
Another.
"No I wouldn't."
Another.
"Yes. You would. I hate to say it, but you would."
She didn't reply for a moment before softly calling, "Derek?"
"Mmm-" He muttered through another painful step.
"What is your record number of steps?"
Another shuffle. "My record number of steps?"
"You know, how far have you gone in one go before having to sit down and restart?"
He paused through a wince. "What?"
"Derek, stop looking at your feet."
He followed her instruction, and looked up at her, and the room. "Oh-"
"You've just walked me into the wall."
"Oh-" He repeated. He didn't know what else to say, in all honesty. He pressed his weight into his hands a little more, and managed a brief glance behind him. His chair was a long, long way away.
"Derek. You just walked me into the wall."
"Oh. Oh, god-"
"You like that?" Meredith asked with a devious grin.
"Like it? I freaking love i-" His voice trailed off into a breathy hiss as he felt his whole body drop a world of tension.
How the hell could she do that to him?
What kind of powers did this woman possess?
Never had he had a woman touch him quite like this.
"Quicker?"
"Mmm-" He agreed through a satisfied groan.
"Harder too?"
"You can do that?"
"I can do anything." Meredith offered with another grin.
"God, yes please then." He muttered, breath hitching when she followed those two instructions.
"Derek?"
He swallowed, "Mmm."
"Do you think it sounds like we're having sex?"
He chuckled. "God. Yeah. Probably. Good job I don't live in a flat with thin walls."
She pressed her thumb into his hamstring again, pushing harder through the muscle, and in a quicker movement than before. "Jeez, you're so right. I bet we'd sound well weird."
"Definitely." He agree before moving on, "Can you massage the other one now?"
"The other what?" She asked through a giggle. "That's the question."
"God, Meredith." He said, although he was chuckling too. "Don't go there. I want you to massage my other leg, not...not my other- I don't have more than-"
She giggled again. "Sorry, sorry."
"It's okay. You're right, and it's absolutely hilarious."
"But you know what isn't a joke?"
"Mmm?" He prompted.
"You walked today. Properly."
"Well, if we're being technical here, I walked with KAFOs, with a walker, for about five metres, and now my legs hurt so much I've asked you for a massage, which I would say takes me out of the running for the 'walking properly' category." He said quickly. "But, yes, I did manage to stay on my feet for the longest amount of time since my accident. Because of you. Because you're just..."
"Just?"
"You're just the most perfect human to ever exist."
"Well, if we're being technical here-" She argued back, in an odd, near-Derek-like tone.
He smiled. God, she was so goofy.
"I leave mess everywhere I go, eat far too much ice-cream, almost burn down homes whenever I even walk into the kitchen, fall over literally every single thing ever, and can't figure out the histology of the liver for the freaking life of me-"
"But I still think you're perfect."
"And I'm still proud of you for walking today."