Never Expect The Unexpected: MERDER AU

Chapter 37: Addison

"Did you miss me?" The woman he'd once known as the love of his life stood before him and the only thing saving him from the awkward impending conversation was the scattered blonde that ran into him.

"There you are! Amelia is going crazy she needs you." Meredith completely ignored the woman in front of him and yanked him by the arm to the back of the church.

"Addie!" Mark appeared out of nowhere and wrapped an arm around her neck, pulling her into a friendly side-hug.

"Who is that woman?" Addison asked him and the tone of her voice was less jealous and more curious.

"The mean one?" Mark pointed to Meredith as she was pushing guests out of the way to get where she needed to be, "that's Derek's...I don't exactly know what she is."

"Really? She's so..."

"Mean? Bossy? Ruler of all that is evil?"

"I was going to say young." Addison made a face and removed his arm from her shoulders, brushing off the spot that he'd infected and walked away before he could bother her any longer.

***

"Amy, look at me. It's me, would I lie to you?"

"Remember that time you told me my fish swam away to star in the Nemo movie, when in reality, you killed it! You're not exactly a reliable source." She spat and crossed her arms stubbornly.

"I was twelve! Amy, you can do this. All you have to do is stand in front of a few people, tell the woman you love the reason that you love her, and spend the rest of your life happily married." Derek was crouching down in front of her with a consoling hand on her shoulder as she buried her face in her hands.

"Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce,"Amelia's voice muffled through her hands.

"The other half is death so it looks like you have a fifty-fifty chance," Meredith blurted out, receiving disapproving stare from Derek.

"It's true," she shrugged her shoulders.

"Amelia, if mom and dad were here, if they could see the way you light up when Arizona comes around, they would want you to go through with this. Do it for them." He softened his voice and waited for her to remove her hands from her face and look up at him. Once they saw the smile that was on wore previous to all the doubt, Meredith wiped the dripping mascara from her cheeks and made her look presentable.

"Ready?" Richard opened the double doors and held out a hand for her. Amelia took a deep breath of relief and tried to convince herself that everything would be alright.

"When you two get married don't expect me to cheer you up like that, it's not happening," she told the two of them before taking Richard's arm and preparing herself for the crowd beneath the doors.

"I'm gonna kill her dead," Meredith chuckled.

"Me first," Derek added in before taking Meredith's hand and leading her down the walkway.

It was a short exchange of corny vows that if anyone recorded, Amelia promised she'd cremate them. Meredith tried to ignore the glances Derek was stealing as they stood next to the other bridesmaids.

***

"That was sweet."

"Sweet?" Meredith repeated him as her and Derek stood on their own, away from the thrilling celebration. People were dancing, singing, drinking; lots of drinking, while Amelia and Arizona were sharing stories about their relationship.

"What's wrong with sweet?" Derek questioned.

"Everything is wrong with sweet."

"Just because you're sour, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the word sweet."

"Sour? Really? that's the best you could come up with?" Meredith rested her back against the wall with his hand on the side of her head and Derek leaned toward her.

"Trust me, I have better."

"I'm not so sure, it's ridiculous how someone with your intelligence can be so terrible at insulting people."

"So you admit that I'm intelligent?" Derek opened his mouth when she failed to answer.

"You have to be in order to get into med school, so you're not that special."

"I think being one of the top ten world class surgeons in my field is pretty special."

"You also think a band consisting of four white guys with maybe one good song is special, I'm not sure your judgement is the most reliable."

"So you do know who the Goo Goo Dolls are?"

"I don't live under a rock," Meredith stammered, "I just choose not to listen to music that makes The Beatles sound decent."

"Decent? The Beatles are one of the greatest bands of all time!" Derek was baffled.

"Like I said brain man, your opinion isn't valued here."

"You know what?" Derek repositioned himself, supporting his body by holding her waist with both hands and leaning her against the wall. His head tilted further down the more he leaned towards her, all while maintaining eye contact.

"What?" Meredith's breathing slowed the closer he got. Her left hand tugged on his tie, bringing them close enough to kiss before-

"Derek! Oh my god it's been years! Get over here!"

"Naomi..." Derek acted like he was thrilled to see her. He was, she was one of his closest friends from Los Angeles, but her timing could've been better.

They met in a warm embrace, followed by her husband pulling Derek into an even tighter one.

"Sam, Nai what? I didn't think you'd make it?"

"We were running behind, that one over there boarded the plane without us." The dark woman with thick curly hair wearing a royal blue dress and black heels pointed to Addison who was sitting at a table being accompanied by Mark.

"That sounds like her." The three of them shared a laugh and Meredith stood behind him, unsure of what to do or say.

"Is this your girlfriend?" Naomi gave her a bright smile that would make anyone melt, moving Derek out of the way to bring her into the light.

"She's- we aren't...I'm her,"

"No!" Meredith cut in, "but if Richard asks, we couldn't be happier." She wrapped her arm around his back and squeezed him, faking a smile.

"Oh well that's...okay." Naomi tried to make the judgmental look on her face less obvious, but she wasn't the best at hiding her expressions.

"Come, let's catch up." Sam, the woman's husband and Derek's old friend motioned for the two of them to come join their table.

"Do we have to?" Meredith pulled him to the side when the couple turned around and headed to the table.

"They're not that bad Mer," he saw the look on her face and she didn't seem convinced, "I'll make it up to you later."

"Mmh." Meredith glared at him, warming up to the idea the longer he stared at her with hopeful eyes.

"You know the good thing about staying at a hotel inside of a casino?" Derek brought his mouth to ear and whispered low enough so that only she could hear him, "Nobody can file noise complaints."

____________________________

I actually don't know if that's true I just made that up.

If it gives you a notification that I republished this it's because I posted it without proofreading it first I had to go back and edit.