Where You Belong

42

Meredith sighed loudly from her seat in the passenger side of Derek's car, and when all the exasperated escape of air did was bring the faintest wisp of a smile to his face, she sighed again, even louder.

He still made no move to respond to her, his eyes carefully tracking the world in front of, beside and behind the car.

She rolled her eyes and huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you seriously not going to tell me where we're going?"

After a lingering glance at the road before them, he turned his head for a few short seconds to meet her eyes, his sparkling with barely concealed laughter. "You know, you're cute when you're sulking."

Meredith scoffed. "You say I'm cute regardless of what I'm doing, now quit avoiding the freaking issue at hand."

He turned his attention back to the road, but his lips curled into a casual smirk. "You are cute regardless of what you're doing. You're a cute person." He reached blindly for her hand, his fingers landing directly on hers without incidence. He always seemed to know exactly where every part of her was.

She allowed the contact for a moment before snatching her hand away. "I said to stop avoiding the issue. That means not doing flirty thing to distract me."

He raised an eyebrow and shot a glance at her. "Flirty thing?"

"Yeah, the flirty, smirky, happy thing that you've been doing since prom. You know, the thing you're not allowed to do at the hospital?"

"I'm not allowed to be happy at work?"

"Derek!" She hissed, trying to sound serious, even though she was fighting to avoid a telling smile. He knew exactly what she meant. And he knew exactly what to say to get exactly the reaction he wanted out of her.

"Meredith!" He echoed.

With a strangled moan she buried her face in her hands. "Sometimes I don't know why I put up with you," she muttered.

"Because you love me," he quipped, completely undeterred from his mission of keeping her completely in the dark about their destination.

"Unfortunately," she replied wryly.

They had arrived at a stop sign, and Derek dutifully came to a complete halt, but didn't move on right away. Instead he turned to her, his eyes shining wildly as he smiled his trademark McDreamy smile. He made it perfectly clear he was in no hurry to continue their drive. Which was fine, really, since they seemed to be in the middle of freaking nowhere. Meredith rarely ventured outside of the city, other than heading to the trailer, of course. When Derek had told her that morning that he had a surprise planned for her, she hadn't known what to expect. When he had 'strongly suggested' she wear comfortable jeans, a long sleeved top and boots, she had been even more lost. Even so, she had dutifully donned an old pair of jeans, a long sleeved tee and a light jacket, and had obediently gotten into the car with him.

That had been a half hour ago.

Now she was bored and dying to know where they were going. Their outfits didn't scream romantic plans to her, and he hadn't packed anything extra into his car, so they wouldn't be doing whatever it was that they were doing for any extended length of time. She wanted to know where he was taking her.

She needed to know where he was taking her.

But her annoyingly upbeat, flirty, dreamy boyfriend wasn't fessing up.

"Derek..." She moaned, finally giving in and begging. "Please tell me where we're going?"

He shook his head just a bit; not in a way that says no, but in a way that says I love you so much I can't believe it sometimes. In the way that made her heart constrict. "But then it won't be a surprise."