Bright and Shiny

Chapter 34

Meredith decided she'd just hang out in Derek's office watching him do paper work while she waited for her page from Dr. Martin. She sunk herself down on his comfy couch to relax. After their talk about Mark, Derek was trying to not get his hopes up Mark would be coming, he was kind of anxiously waiting for her page as much as she was.

"You know since you're supposed to be working, the least you could do is help your husband out here, and take some of this paperwork off my hands." Derek said looking up from his current file over to her, just relaxing on the couch.

"You want me, the intern to do the head of Neurosurgery's paperwork?" She asked with a disbelieving smile.

"Yes, it will be like me helping do your homework for you back in college. You can help, take this stack and I'll be done half as fast."

"Excuse me? You didn't do my homework, you assisted. There's a difference there." She exclaimed, while still not moving from her comfy spot on his couch.

"Well, now assist with these." He said while picking up a stack and holding it out for her.

"Ugh, fine. But I'm doing them from here." She relented while getting up, she grabbed the files and then sinking herself back down into his couch. She opened the first file to see what exactly she had to do. Realizing it was office head stuff that needed him to read over and sign.

"Ah, honey how exactly do you expect me to help with these? All these papers require your signature." she asked.

"We have the same name, sign them." He gruffed without looking up from his stack.

"Derek!" she exclaimed again.

"Fine, fine, read them over. Make two piles. Piles that you agree with the proposals and think I should sign and other pile for rejection that you think I shouldn't sign."

"Seriously? You trust me with all your head of Neurosurgery stuff, what if I do the wrong thing?" She asked biting her lip.

"Mer, I trust you with everything. You are an intern yes, but you will be great one day. Probably better than me. You won't do the wrong thing, now get started."

"Yes, Dr. Shepherd." She replied with a tone that a student would use with a teacher. Derek laughed and continued back on with his stack.

After 30 minutes had passed with both of them in deep reading, Meredith had started to get restless and bored. She remembered Dr. Martin's reaction to her suggestion that they bring Mark into consult.

"So what do you know about Mark and Dr. Martin?" she asked out of the blue while still reading her papers.

"What?" he asked in surprise looking up.

"Mark and Dr. Martin." she repeated. "And don't you dare try to deny nothing happened between them Derek Shepherd, I know there's some story there."

"All I know is that he hates the woman after he met her in Chicago. Why what do you know?"

"All I know is that he hates the woman, and she's petrified of him coming here. She's also called him 'Mark' and not ." she added as she tried to piece the facts together.

"You know Mark, he could have came onto her in Chicago, she rebuffed him and now he's pissed." He figured.

"But if she turned him down, then why would she have such a reaction to him coming here? It was like she didn't want to see him at all. Why would she care?"

"I don't know Mer, may be it was Kernel Mustard in the kitchen with the rope." He laughed at her trying to figure out the secret connection of her attending for the day and his best friend.

"You know I love that game!" she huffed. "Speaking of which, we should buy one for your office. We can play when we have free time."

"Mer, how would I explain the board game 'Clue' being in my office to my colleagues?

"Tell them it's your wifes." She laughed.

He moaned at that, "yeah Mer, they already probably think I'm robbing the cradle being married to an intern for 7 years. Now you want me to tell them the children's board game in my office belongs to my wife? For when she wants to play" he started laughing at the mental images.

Their banter was interrupted by the beeping sound coming from Meredith's pager. She glanced down and silenced it, reading the code.

"It's Plastics. They must have a decision." Derek nodded with apprehension creeping back in his features, while Meredith grabbed her two stacks of his files and placed the 'to sign' ones near him and the rejection ones further away.

She leaned down pressing her mouth against his, sliding her tongue to softly caress his. She kissed him full and soft, expressing all her feelings and emotions to him. Letting him know that no matter what, he would always have her. As she pulled away slowly, he looked up at her with a soft smile and whispered. "You're my real best friend Mer."