Where You Belong

46

Meredith giggled as Alex's fourth marshmallow went up in flames; following in the footsteps of his first three. It appeared her fellow intern didn't have the same patience for toasting marshmallows over campfires as he did for surgery.

"Shit," Alex swore, followed by a series of other obscenities as he struggled to get the flame out.

"Karerv, we're camping," Richard spoke up. "Try and relax."

Derek's arm tightened around her waist as he leaned down to whisper, "I wonder if he realizes he's not in charge out here?"

Meredith shrugged. "I doubt it." They had already watched the older surgeon try to design their camp site, try to decide when they would do things, and try to make plans for the following day. Joe and Walter had no qualms with ignoring his orders. And Derek and Preston were quite happy deciding against their boss in this environment. This left Richard with only one subset of individuals he could attempt to control; the interns. George and Alex had been arguing all day, drawing the most amount of attention from the man who was their boss at work.

He sighed, his voice still so quiet only she could hear when he spoke again. "I'm tempted to tell him off for them."

She turned towards him and gently shook her head. "But you won't," she murmured. "He's not being that bad."

Derek grumbled something inaudible and leaned into her, pressing his lips against her temple.

Meredith smiled and leaned into his warmth, knowing he was doing his best with Richard. Ever since Meredith's revelations regarding her Chief of Surgery and his relationship with her mother, and her subsequent confrontation with the man, Richard had remained at a professional distance with her. Her anger had died down, leaving only a lingering sense of disdain for the man. Derek, however, was still carrying more of a grudge. He had unfairly been treated differently then Burke for months, had missed a chance to prove his skills as Chief, and had the stories of her childhood in his mind. He was behaving himself, but the anger was still their, and it certainly didn't help that Richard had hired his ex-best friend so recently.

"Burke invited him," Meredith reminded. "He didn't demand to come along."

"Yeah, well, he's made an ass of himself."

She giggled. It had been entertaining watching Richard drag his upright suitcase across the bumpy ground. And eat out of his picnic basket. And have his face go white when Derek explained why his picnic basket needed to be hung from a tree overnight instead of staying in the tent with him; that had been especially entertaining.

"You having fun?" He whispered into her ear, moving on to a better topic.

"Mmm, I am," she assured, leaning into his shoulder and sighing at his warmth. "Camping is fun. And s'mores are awesome."

He chuckled. "I still can't believe you'd never had a s'more before."

She giggled. "When would I ever have had one? My mother could barely be convinced to buy birthday cake let alone junk food you needed to combine to make something out of."

He clicked his tongue. "You never had a birthday cake?"

"I had one a few times. Always one of those ready made ones at the grocery store, but still; it was something."

His arm snaked tightly around her. "I'm sorry."

She rested her head against his shoulder and sighed. "It's okay. Things like this are making up for it. She just...didn't get it. It kind of makes me wonder if she ever experienced this stuff herself."

"Do you think she did?"

Meredith sighed as she closed her eyes for a moment, revelling in the light still hitting her eye lids from the fire, the warmth from the man next to her, and the friendly conversation happening around the campfire. "I hope so," she finally whispered, opening her eyes. "I hope she got to experience something like this. Because I can't imagine not being here right now."