Looking at you side ways

77

The day before Meredith's birthday, Derek found her in a computer cubicle studying for a surgery that was scheduled later in the day.

"Hey."

"Hi yourself."

"There you are sweetie." Derek stood behind her back without touching her and breathed her in.

She sighed and said, "You're hovering."

"No. I am breathing you in."

"You're hovering!"

Derek admitted, "Fine. I am hovering. If we had the same damn shift I wouldn't have to hover at work. I would hover in bed."

She giggled a little.

He smirked and said, "A different type of hovering perhaps. How bad is it today on a scale of one to ten?"

"A six. Maybe a five? You know what's going to make it better? Dr. Bailey is letting me scrub in on a calverian bone harvest!"

Derek stroked her long silky hair and didn't give a shit who noticed. "Okay baby. I will let you study."

She whispered, "Derek. I do love you."

"I love you too Meredith."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cristina poked her head in the small room and Meredith waved her in.

"Studying?"

"Yeah. He's hovering again!"

Cristina asked seriously, "And the alternative is..........?"

Meredith replied, "Jeez. I hate it when you are right."

"Well. I am A little older and a little wiser. Do you need to talk about it?"

Meredith said softy, "Not yet."

"Okay."

Meredith looked up from the computer and asked, "Cris. How did you know to cover the blood?"

She replied not very convincingly "Instinct?"

Meredith shook her head and said, "Liar! Do you want to talk about it?"

Cris said, "Maybe later. After we pass. I can't deal with it now. I put it all in a tiny box a long time ago and it's staying there until we get the highest scores and celebrate at Joe's."

Meredith understood completely and said, "Thanks again for cleaning up and especially the floor. How's it going with Owen?"

Cristina admitted, "Slower than I am used to. But good. I'm jealous about the harvest, but I'll be watching."

Meredith watched Cristina leave and sighed.[i] She was right. The alternative was he walked away or pulled back. And he hadn't. She thought back to the morning after she had told him about her mother's suicide. She woke up early and it took awhile to extricate herself from him. He had a leg thrown over her effectively pining her to the bed and both arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She knew he hadn't slept well especially when he didn't wake up. He was usually a light sleeper. She had stared at him after getting up and saw the worry on his face, even in his sleep.[/i] She had showered quickly and gone downstairs. She saw that the dining room was clean and decided that she didn't need to go in the kitchen just yet. She went to a drive thru and got breakfast and coffee.

[i] And he made her promise that she would tell him whenever she went to see her mom. Last night he had gone with her and Ellis couldn't have been sweeter. She thought Derek was Meredith's teacher and turned on the charm while ignoring her.[/i] Meredith sighed and went back to studying.