Never Expect The Unexpected: MERDER AU

Chapter 27: Framed Photo

"I'll see you then mother." Meredith tried to keep her composure as she hung up the phone. She'd just gotten news that Ellis Grey was coming into town to visit her. Most people would be thrilled to see their parents; but considering the last time Meredith saw her mother she was calling her a slut and claiming the only reason she got the job of chief resident was because she must've been sleeping with an attending, she wasn't thrilled to see her. Although it was true now, Meredith was screwing an attending, but she'd never use her fraternizations to get ahead and it hurt her that her mother would think that.

"Ugh..." Derek groaned and rolled his body resting his head next to her stomach and wrapping his arm around her waist.

She looked down at how cozy he looked nestled into her side. That comfort vanished when she pulled at the waistband of his pajama pants and let them snap at his skin repeatedly until he woke up.

"Ow!" He exaggerated.

"Come on we have to clean up." She pushed at his motionless body until he hit the floor. The loud thud followed by his cry of pain made Meredith toss her head back and her laughter distracted her from realizing what was happening.

Before she knew it he was pulling at her arm and her body flew from the bed to the ground on top of him. He joined in on the laughter as Derek blocked the punches that she threw at him.

"You're not funny." Meredith pouted and tried not to smile when he mimicked her face.

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Does it look like I'm laughing?" Meredith asked just before the only thing she could let out of her mouth were giggles and pleads for him to stop tickling her stomach. It took him a few attempts in the past to learn that she was only ticklish in one area, but now that he'd memorized it she tossed herself around like a mad woman and her laughter was uncontrollable.

Meredith sighed as she caught her breath with her legs straddling his waist while Derek laid flat on his back.

"Yes," He answered.

"What?"

"It looks like you were laughing to me." Meredith rolled her eyes and pushed off his chest to lift herself up to her feet. She held out her hand to help him up and they ventured to the living room to clean the disgustingness left from their party.

***

Time moved faster than they'd thought and now the only thing to be put away in the living room was a brown cardboard box.

"Is this yours?" Meredith pointed at it.

"I'm pretty sure, I probably forgot to unpack it."

Meredith ripped the clear packaging tape from the top of it and lifted the flaps. It looked like the only things inside of it were extra scrub caps and baseball tees.

"Find somewhere to put these because you're not using anymore of my closet space." Meredith tossed the handful of folded clothes to him one by one.

"That closet is humongous," Derek retorted, "and you hardly have any clothes."

"I have plenty of clothes, thank you." She tossed the next shirt at him harder than she did the others.

"I've seen you wear that shirt so many times that I could close my eyes and point directly to the hole on the back." Derek set his now unfolded shirts on the counter and crossed his arms, nodding his head as she tried to look at the back of her neck in search of the hole.

"Is there really a hole?" She asked him.

Derek walked closer to her and pointed at her chest. "Look." As soon as Meredith's head dropped he slid his finger up across her face and chuckled when she gave him a deadly glare.

"Seriously?"

"Yes." Derek answered simply and picked up his shirts to take them to the closet that she claimed he couldn't use.

"Did you even go to Dartmouth? I thought you had to be smart to get into colleges like that." He shouted through the room.

"Very funny Mr. UCLA. Lemme guess, you played baseball?"

"Football." Derek spoke with pride as he remembered the popularity that came with the title. "I was the quarterback actually."

"That explains everything." Meredith rolled her eyes at him as he took his last load of shirts to their room.

Her hand held down one of the four flaps that closed the cardboard box and she reached inside of it, pulling out a picture frame. Meredith's eyes had to have been deceiving her because there was no way what she was seeing was actually there.

"Derek!"

"What now? Do you want to know what I was like in high school? Because I was scrawny and awkward-" he stopped talking when he walked into the living room to see her holding the picture frame and staring at it like it was a bomb.

"What is this?" Meredith turned it around so that he could see what the glass frame held. A printed picture of Meredith nuzzling into his chest with his arm squeezing her tightly against him as they hit the drop on their ride caught his eyes. The picture that he swore he'd deleted from his phone that night. Clearly he lied and decided to take it a step further by getting it printed out and framed

"Oh, that?" The sides of his mouth lifted into a smile that he tried his damndest to contain.

"I'm going to kill you!" Meredith attacked him with her fists. Her hands grasped his neck and she jumped up to wrap her legs around his waist to level out their height.

"What is wrong with you!" Derek half yelled and half laughed as her knuckles crashed into his chest and they were prancing around the living room with her attached to his neck.

"You're- You're just so...ugh!" Meredith muffled when they came crashing into the couch with his weight on top of her and his hand covering her mouth.

"I'm what? Huh? Sorry couldn't hear you." Derek teased as she screamed into his palm. He pulled his hand away when her tongue left her mouth and licked at his skin.

"You're disgusting." Derek chuckled and Meredith did the same with her head resting against the arm of the couch.

Derek laid on top of her with his arms under her head, tangling in her blonde strands and Meredith's arms remained looped around his neck with her legs on either side of his body. They continued to make each other laugh until their 'fight' was interrupted by the ring of a doorbell.

"It's probably Sadie." Meredith pushed him off of her and got up to open the door as he followed behind her.

*Ding Dong*

"I'm coming!" Meredith's hand reached for the doorknob and she turned it enough for the lock to pop and the door to push open. The two of them stood there in confusion and disbelief at their unexpected visitor. Visitors.

"Well aren't you going to let us in?"

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Cliffhanger so sorry!

Reminder: Ellis does not Alzheimer's in this story and she did not have a relationship with Richard. They do have a history that's an important part of this story but it will be explained later.