Who Would Have Thought

Chapter 28

Derek whistled to himself as he pocketed his cell phone and headed down the hallway. He had lost Meredith. She had been his office earlier but had been paged away and he hadn't seen her since. He couldn't even find her. So he texted her. Because it had been too long since he had last seen her. Which was sad and pathetic but he didn't care that much.

She had spent the night at his trailer the night before and they had spent half the morning giggling before she had finally gotten out of bed, kissing him before leaving for work. He couldn't believe how well everything was going. He couldn't believe how much he needed to be around her, how much he wanted to be around her. He didn't even think it had been this good thirteen years earlier.

It had been good but it had been a lot of sex and not much of anything else. Which at the time had been a good thing but this was better. He just wanted to be around her, hear her giggle and watch her smile and hold her close. It was amazing. He had never expected their second chance to be this good but it was, it was so damn perfect he couldn't help but smile.

And now nothing mattered more than finding her so he could hear her giggle, see her smile, or just look at her. Which sounded a little sad and vaguely stalker-like, but he was missing her. Which made him wonder how he was going to get through the next few days when Izzie was here. Thankfully, that torture didn't start for a while yet and as soon as he found her, he could kiss Meredith.

And they'd get through this Izzie thing, they had to. He could take on Izzie. Meredith had gone to Mark's and talked to him one on one and it had gotten better. And if Meredith could take on Mark, he could definitely face Izzie. He would be fine. He just had to hope that Meredith would get through this, that Izzie wasn't going to make her change her mind about them. Because he was ready for more.

He was working on getting the nerve up to ask her, which was easier said than done. Because as much as he knew he wanted more, he still had no idea where she stood. He had a pretty vague idea. He knew she was happy, he knew she always came to him when things were getting complicated, but he still didn't know if she was any closer to trusting him, to making this official.

It seemed to be getting easier. He had been about half an hour late the other night and she seemed okay with his simple explanation and apology which was good, really good. There hadn't been a major fight. And recently she had been starting a lot of sentences and not finishing them. Which with Meredith definitely meant something. And she was always smiling.

Things were good. Things were extremely good, though they would most certainly be better if she would answer her phone. Or her texts. His Meredith had disappeared somewhere in the hospital, and he definitely wanted to find her before his surgery in an hour and a half. He figured she could be napping in an on call room somewhere, they had definitely had a long night.

They had spent the entire time kissing. And touching each other. Which kind of made him giggle because it felt like high school all over again. He hadn't spent nearly that much time making out with a girl since high school and it was kind of amazing. It was kind of amazing that he could just spend the entire night kissing her without wanting it to go further. He just wanted to kiss her.

Which made him want to find her immediately and kiss her even more, feel her respond in his arms when he brushed his hand lazily across her nipple. He cleared his throat as he looked down at his phone, wondering where exactly she had run off to. And then he heard her. Or actually, her giggle. He heard her giggle and his head snapped up, frowning when he saw a dark-haired, tall man hugging his Meredith tightly, almost lifting her off the ground as he kissed her cheek.

A man he didn't know was hugging his Meredith and kissing his Meredith and she seemed to be enjoying it. She was definitely enjoying it. He knew that smile, he loved that smile and hugging another guy was not supposed to bring that smile to her face. She looked happy and beautiful but another man wasn't supposed to make her look like that. It was wrong, completely wrong.