bright and shiny continued

Chapter 1

Crap.

Derek glanced over at the clock on his nightstand – 7:00 am.

He then focused his attention on the beautiful woman curled up against him and knew this was going to be bad. Very very bad.

It wasn't like waking up to this beautiful woman was bad because it definitely wasn't bad. It was wonderful, actually. She was the one, the love of his life, and he's loved her since the moment he laid eyes on her almost 8 years ago. But today was not the day for them to be late. It was not the day the alarm clock should have failed to work. Now, he was going to have to wake up his sleeping wife and listen to her complain that she was going to be late. Late for her first day at a job she was already nervous about starting.

"Honey," Derek gently said while brushing the hair from her eyes, "It's time to get up. You're going to be late."

"5 more minutes, Der," she signed while curling further against him. Her arm started snaking its way across his waist as she used him as her own personal human pillow.

"I would love nothing more than to give you 5 more minutes... Or better yet, not even leave this bed at all. But I have a feeling you'd kill me if I let you sleep in and miss your first day. You've got to wake up, Mer."

"Mean, mean man. First, you keep me up all night playing games, and now you're not letting me sleep. No more role playing today for you. On second thought, no more role playing for the week," she scowled, as she slowly started opening her eyes.

Derek couldn't help but smile and bit back the laughter. His wife was adorable, blaming him on last night's games when they both knew it was her idea. Wanting to relive last night sounded like a great idea to him, but he knew it was a bad one since they were both due in for work very soon.

"It's 7 am, Mer. You only have an hour to make it in." Derek braced himself for her manic reaction. Right on cue, she immediately broke away from his embrace and jumped out of bed like a crazy woman.

"What? 7? Shit! I'm going to be late. This is so not the way first days are supposed to go, especially my first day. Of course, my first day would start off like this. It's not like I don't have enough strikes against me already. Now I'm going to be late on the first day no less, and everyone who is going to hate me is going to hate me even more," Meredith ranted while trying to change, brush her teeth, and make coffee all at the same time.

Living in a trailer out in the middle of nowhere worked very well for times like these when you didn't have time to walk to your bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen and needed all three at the same time. Derek was still lying in bed waiting for her to blame him for sleeping in, but it still hadn't come yet.

"You know what? This is your fault Mr. Let's Go to the Bar Near the Hospital and Get Drunk and Play Games! You make the coffee, hurry up, and change! I'm going to be late for my first day!" She had just pulled off her pajamas ready to jump into the shower when she suddenly stopped and stared daggers at him.

"Don't even think about joining me in the shower. You're banned for the day," she said seriously.

"Banned from what?" Derek questioned.

"Banned from touching. No touching, no kissing, no sex, no none of the things you did last night. No matter how wonderful those things were, none of it. Not until the end of the working day."

"But..."

"No buts. Coffee, change, hurry, go."