Where You Belong

115

Meredith jolted awake as the alarm screeched through the silence of the bedroom like a siren. Beside her, Derek flinched as he woke as quickly as her.

"Wha-" He mumbled, sitting up and breathing hard at the shock of being woken up in such a way. The alarm continued to blare through the room, loud and inconsiderate.

"It's the alarm," Meredith said, pressing her face into her pillow. "I guess we should have tested the volume before we set it..."

"Volume?" He asked, blinking hard as he tried to wake up.

She rolled over and patted him on the thigh. "The alarm clock," she clarified. "Now turn it off. Please. Before it bursts both our ear drums."

Finally seeming to wake up and understand what was going on, Derek turned and swiped at the new alarm clock sitting on the new nightstand beside the new bed. In their new bedroom, in their new home.

This was their second night in their apartment and their first in the master bedroom.

When the room finally fell silent, Meredith sighed. "Well, that's one way to wake up..."

Derek lay back down with a heavy sigh and slung an arm across her abdomen. "Morning," he whispered against her bare shoulder.

"Morning," she echoed. "I don't want to go to work." They'd had four full days off work to move, but now had to go back. It was hard enough getting up so early after being able to sleep in all week, but compounding that with a shrieking alarm at full volume made it several times worse.

"Me neither."

She sighed. "It's just two days. And it's two regular days. No marathon shifts. No being on call overnight."

"Mmm," he agreed.

"Are you going to get up?"

"Thinking about it," he mumbled against her.

She ran her fingers through his dishevelled hair, smiling at how groggy he was. For someone who was normally such an annoyingly chipper morning person, she was always amused when he struggled to wake up.

"Do you know how we should start off our first work morning at our new home?"

"How?"

She ducked her head to whisper into his ear, "A quickie."

Derek lifted his head. "A quickie?"

"A quickie," she repeated.

He shifted so he was hovering over her. "We definitely need to have a quickie," he murmured, ducking his head to brush his lips against hers.

She smiled against his lips as he kissed her again. "Good way to start the day."

"When did you become a morning person?"

"I'm not. It's just nice to feel well rested for once. It's going to be a good day."

He kissed her again, but then pulled back and laid his hand across her forehead. "Are you feeling okay? You went from morning person to optimist in ten seconds."

Meredith giggled. "I'm not allowed to be optimistic?"

"Let's just say it gives me reason to be concerned."

"Shut up and kiss me."

"Yes, dear."

After arriving at work and standing in line at the coffee cart together, Meredith and Derek went their separate ways to ready for their day. Gripping tightly to her coffee cup, Meredith stepped onto the busy elevator and sighed when she noticed the buttons for every floor had been pressed. She should have taken the stairs.