What Should Have Been From The Beginning

'Tell Her'

DEREK'S POV
I genuinely had never slept so good in my entire life. I was warm in the bedsheets and I was comforted by the touch and love of my fiancé and everything was so settling as we both gradually woke up in no rush, since we both didn't start work until later on in the day.

'Good morning.' I heard softly spoken through a yawn and then a small, welcoming kiss on my cheek. I turned over only to be put in a daze of pure love and affection. I lay there for a second, wandering through her eyes and noticing every slight detail of her. The way her eyes blinked and when they opened again how she had a glistening glaze over her memorable olive eyes. They way her eyelashes had a natural curl to them and the fact that she only had freckles over the bridge of her nose. Each and every morning, as the sun would blare through the window and cast a beam into the ensuite, I would memorise the finer details so that when we weren't together, I would never fail to remember them. After what seemed like forever but was really only a few seconds, I leant up and kissed her lips, tenderly and with somewhat passionately.

'Good morning Sweet.' She smiled a little and her eyes lit up as I replied.

'Coffee?' I asked.

She answered my question through a stretch and another yawn. 'Coffee would be amazing. Thank you.'

I climbed out of bed even though I could have stayed in there with her until the very last minute, and walked downstairs in a pair of blue and black checked pyjama pants and no shirt. I flicked the coffee machine on and put some bread in the toaster.  I put some butter in a frying pan and cracked two eggs into it. As I turned around to place the eggs on top of the freshly toasted bread, in she walked. She was wearing her pyjamas still too and kept herself warm with a white dressing gown, her hair was bouncy and messy from sleeping and she had a youthful, morning glow to a skin. I stood there with the frying pan in one hand and the spatula in the other, looking at her with a beaming smile across my face.

'What?' Meredith asked in concerned tone but with a small smile.

'I'm just thinking about the fact that I'm a neurosurgeon and even I don't who how it's humanly possible to fall more and more in love with someone every time they see them.'

'Oh stop it.' We both chuckled and I gave her a plate of eggs on toast and a cup of coffee. I sat down beside her, with the same meal and we talked about what the day had in store.

'So what's the plan of action?' She asked whilst putting a piece of toast into her mouth.

'Well I need to unbox my things and there's no food in the house, so we should probably go grocery shopping and then we have to be in work at 6pm so we can do what we want for the rest of the day.' I was about to suggest that I would unpack our luggage and my things whilst she went shopping, killing two birds with one stone as they would say, but then I rethought my proposition remembering that she didn't even feel comfortable walking up the path to her own house by herself and even though I had reassured her, that no one was going to harm her, I decided against asking and instead said we could both go for now.

It was just past 9am and the birds were chirping outside and the morning sun was glaring through the windows, the house smelt of a mixture of coffee and Thai takeaway from last night and thankfully and surprisingly there was no mess in the house, that was until you walked into the upstairs hallway and Meredith's bedroom.

After cleaning up our dishes, I followed Meredith upstairs to get ready for the day. Nobody knew about the engagement still and it was still our 'not so little' secret. I didn't know what the outcome of the shift at work was going to be for either of us but I was extremely excited to be back cutting again. I had already phoned in with the chief, this morning to see what surgeries were planned and I had a Posterior Fossa Decompression scheduled and right away I asked for Meredith Grey to be on my service. I thought that the first day back after the wedding mayhem, with people bound to be judging us both, she would probably want to be in an OR with an attending who didn't adore Dr. Mei.

'Oh my God, Derek!' I heard a yell from the bathroom. I immediately ran to her tripping over boxes and hangers on the floor and stubbing my toe on the door frame. My heart instantly sunk as I heard the panic in her voice and I couldn't help but think something had happened to her. I reached the door and Meredith was casually brushing her teeth with foam all around her mouth. She spat what was in her mouth into the sink and turned back to me with a look of fear on her face.

'I forgot about him.'

'About who?'

'Marcus. I told him that I was going to Florida and not coming back.'

I let out a sigh of relief and thanked God that this was all it was. I put my hand on my chest to feel my heart rate which was still frantic but was slowly but surely slowing down. I stood in the doorway for the rest of the conversation and she continued to brush her teeth in between sentences.

'Please don't do that to me again.'

'I'm sorry but what do I say to him.'

'Well, just say...'  I actually didn't know what she should say to him but still I tried to offer an option. 'I don't know, just say, just tell him the truth. Not that we are engaged but that you're working back at the hospital now. Wait, wasn't he at the wedding?'

'Oh yeah. I mean he was invited so he probably was there. I didn't really pay attention and you clearly didn't either.'

'Well then if he asks tell him the truth and if he doesn't, you're all good.' She nodded and turned back around to finishing brushing her teeth.

'By the way, are you actually not gonna tell Cristina about us? She's your person. You tell each other everything.' She walked past me, out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, taking a shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans from the wardrobe.

'Well, I was and I want to but then Izzie will realise there's something we know that she doesn't and then she will find out somehow and judge us. And I just can't be bothered with another person judging me right now.'

I walked up to Meredith and sat her down on the end  bed. I stood in front of her and put her face in my hands, holding her cheeks in my thumbs and lifting her head so that I was in her eyesight and feeling a small sigh come from her.

'Meredith. Tell your person. It's okay. You need to tell her and I know how much you want to. Tell her.'