Where You Belong

43

"Snorkelling."

"What?" Meredith asked, sending Derek a questioning glance.

He smiled and sidled closer to her, his hand moving from hers to hook around her waist. "You told me to think about things to add to the list," he explained. "And I want to try snorkelling."

"Like, with a mask and a snorkel, in the water?"

"Mmhmm," he murmured, pulling her close as they stared out at the water before them, both leaning on the ferry railing.

"We can do that," she responded. "Well, you can do that. I'll buy you a mask and a snorkel and watch..."

"Hey, I went trail riding with you."

She giggled at the memory of his initial fear. "Yes, you did. But snorkelling involves swimming."

"Then we'll just have to do the swimming thing first," he replied. "I don't want to go by myself."

"How long does it take to learn how to swim?"

"Not long," he said softly as he thought back to helping teach his nephew how to swim. Caleb, Kathleen's oldest, had been four. An hour in the pool with water wings had been enough for the boy to get the hang of it. "It's mostly about coordination." He had to bite back a smirk at the thought of buying her a set of water wings as a joke. She'd probably kill him; but it would be worth it.

"That's good. You can teach me, and then we can go snorkelling in your pond."

He scoffed. "You can't snorkel there."

"Why not?"

"Because the point is to go somewhere you don't live to snorkel."

She shot him a look. "You don't live at the trailer. You live with me, remember?"

He laughed at her tone and pressed his lips against the side of her head. "Of course I remember. How could I ever forget?"

She grumbled something unintelligible under her breath.

"And I meant that you need to go away to go snorkelling. Like, go somewhere tropical and look at all the colourful fish," he clarified.

"Oh, now I get it. Somewhere tropical, huh?"

He nodded. "We could go somewhere."

"Like, a vacation?"

"Exactly."

"For how long?"

"As long as we wanted... Or really, as long as we could get off work."

She giggled at that, but didn't respond right away.

Derek leaned his head against hers and sighed, not wanting to push her. Things had been wonderful between them for a while now. Ever since she had admitted her fears about going to New York and he had realized how deep they lay, he had gained a better understanding not of who she was but why she was who she was. She was in this, he knew, but she sometimes needed some time to warm up to new ideas. And although they had rescheduled their trip to New York (for the second time now), a future vacation could mean something completely different in her head.

"I have time off after my test," she mumbled suddenly, taking him by surprise.

"What?"

She pulled away from him far enough to meet his gaze. Her eyes didn't convey fear or uncertainty. He smiled when he realized she had been silent because she had been thinking, and not because she had been avoiding.

"After my intern test, at the end of the year," she clarified. "I have two weeks off. It's still a couple months away; you could still apply for time off."