Secret smile

35

She wanted to see Derek. She really, really wanted to see Derek. It sounded stupid and silly and...but she was here, at the hospital, and she knew he was around her somewhere. But still, Meredith probably shouldn't be wishing she could see her best friend when she was with her other friends. Except she did want to see him, she wanted to hug him and listen to him and...she really needed to get over this. They were friends. She and Derek were friends, or best friends or something but that was it. And today she was definitely supposed to be hanging out with her other friends and she would see him tonight. She was going to the trailer to watch more movies so she could wait. She could definitely wait and see him later and it would be nice. Not that seeing him now wouldn't be nice but she was....she was stopping.

Right now, Meredith was going to listen to her friends and not think about seeing Derek. She wasn't going to think about Derek, or the insane amounts of work she had to do, or just everything else in general. She was going to listen to her friends talk about surgeries and their crazy days and just leave it at that. But she couldn't help but look around the cafeteria for Derek. He might be eating. Derek ate. It wasn't pathetic to just look around. She was people watching. She had never really people watched before but there was no time like the whatever. She could people watch and if she happened to see her best friend it would be kind of rude to not go over and say hi to him and ask him how his day was and maybe sneak a quick hug or something. She would just be polite.

"And since Mer is obviously paying so much attention," Cristina's groan cut into her thoughts.

"What? I...sorry," Meredith nodded quickly. "Attention, paying lots and lots of attention."

"If by attention, you mean staring at the cafeteria line," Cristina shrugged.

"I'm people watching."

"You're staring at the cafeteria line."

"I'm people watching the cafeteria line," Meredith sighed.

"Since when do you people watch?" Izzie asked, stabbing her fork into her chocolate cake.

"Since today."

"Whatever," Cristina rolled her eyes. "So anyone else have jackass of the day stories?"

"Nope," Izzie shook her head. "I've only dealt with interns and Bailey today."

"Evil Spawn?" Cristina asked, staring at Alex.

"Working with Sloan," Alex shrugged. "He's not any fun now since Lexipedia tamed him."

"Oh," Lexie blushed. "He's...he's still fun."

"In ways we don't need to hear about," Izzie shook her head.

"He's a great guy," Lexie breathed.

"He's a manwhore," Cristina shrugged. "Probably still sleeping with the nurses."

"He's not!" Lexie shook her head. "He's...he's not."

"You don't actually know that," Izzie sighed. "I mean...he used to sleep with everyone."

"He's not sleeping with anyone else," Lexie said firmly.

"I have to give Lex this one," Alex nodded. "He hit on a nurse earlier and when she actually took him up on the offer he said he was taken."

"He's still hitting on nurses," Izzie pointed out.

"He's Mark," Lexie shrugged. "It's just how he is. We've talked about it."

"They're happy," Meredith shrugged.

"We are," Lexie grinned.

"They're really..." Meredith paused when she saw the dark, curly head she knew so well walk into the cafeteria. "Derek!"