Let It Go

55.

Derek stood in the frame of Meredith's office door. He grinned as he watched her working, completely oblivious to him standing there. She frowned slightly as she wrote in a chart, pausing in though, tapping her pen against the pages before going back to writing. She flipped the page and furrowed her brow in concentration. Derek knocked on the doorframe. Meredith jumped.

"Derek!" she breathed, clutching her chest. He chuckled and stepped into her office. "Scare you?" he asked. "A little," Meredith admitted. Derek leaned over her desk and kissed her quickly. He felt her smile against his lips which made him smile. She was happy. He pulled away and sat down in a chair across from her while she continued working.

"You don't have to knock before you come in you know," Meredith stated. She put her pen down and moved to her computer. Derek's jaw dropped while she tapped away at her keyboard. "I don't have to knock?" he repeated. "No. I mean, if the door is shut completely you may want to tap on the door as a warning before you open it - just in case I'm meeting with a patient's family or something. But as long as the door isn't closed all the way, come on in." Derek stared. Several moments later, Meredith became aware of the fact that he was staring at her.

"What?" she asked. "Seriously?" he asked. "Seriously what?" Meredith pressed. "All that crap you put me through when you first started working here about knocking on your door and waiting for you to tell me to come in and now you're telling me not to knock? Meredith Grey, you are a confusing woman," Derek announced. Meredith giggled.

"You weren't my boyfriend when I first started here. Non-boyfriends have to knock," Meredith explained. "Oh, so now that I'm boyfriend material, I can just barge in whenever?" Meredith nodded. "I seem to remember a big speech about how you were the head of the department and didn't have to knock on doors," she reminded Derek. "Which is the case for every other doctor in this hospital. For you though, I made a special exception to my barging in policy." Meredith rolled her eyes.

"You're an idiot," she stated. "An idiot? Now you're calling me an idiot?" "If the shoe fits," Meredith replied. "That would make you the idiot's girlfriend," Derek reminded her. "Which totally boosts your social status," Meredith shot back. Derek chuckled and got out of his chair. He walked around Meredith's desk and turned her chair to face him. She looked up at him with a smile on her face.

"Yes?" she asked. "Nothing," Derek leaned down and kissed her. She reached up and pulled his face back to hers, kissing him deeply. Derek groaned. He wanted her but he had to resist. He had a board meeting in fifteen minutes and he still had to meet up with Mark to load up on snacks to get them through the meeting. Meredith kissed him again, this time teasing him lightly with her tongue. He forced himself to pull away - after kissing her one last time.

"Keep that up and I'm going to be late for my board meeting," he told her. "That would be bad," Meredith said with a smirk. Derek nodded. "That would be bad. The chief would be looking for me, Mark would barge in because I didn't meet him to load up on snacks before the meeting..." Meredith kissed him again. Derek pulled away again, shook his head in amusement and walked back around the desk, placing the piece of furniture between himself and Meredith to prevent things from going any farther.

"I really did have a work-related purpose for stopping by," Derek told her. "I'm listening...," Meredith replied, going back to her work on her computer. "Know how the Chief approved my research study?" Meredith nodded. "Well, I'm going out of town to do some research next week. I'll be gone for a couple of weeks and Shaffrey will be acting Head of Department until I get back." Meredith looked at Derek.

"Where are you going?" she asked. Derek smiled at her. "Your old stomping grounds actually." "Chicago?" Meredith asked. "No. Seattle Grace." Meredith snapped her head to look at him. She had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling.