How You Remind Me

34

Rain beat down my face as I pushed my feet along the mud driveway, the cold drops washed away my tears of frustration and I looked over my shoulder at my broken down car twenty feet behind me. I looked forward and knew I had to get through the thick of trees to the clearing the house was in before being eaten by a wild animal and I'd be good.

I wiped my face off as I climbed the porch steps and the door opened before I had a chance to knock...the porch was hollow underneath and noisy as hell. It was always a good thing, bad for intruders.

"Meredith." Derek gasped as he took in my soaking wet appearance "What are you doing here?"

"What, this isn't my home anymore?" I scoffed. His back straightened up like a board as if he realized what he implied.

"Sorry, that's not what I meant..."

"Me either." I sniffled and turned to him as he let me in the door "Sorry I'm just... having a bad night."

"Ok." He nodded and grabbed a blanket off the couch. "Want to talk about it?"

I took the blanket he handed me and wiped my face dry "No."

"Ok."

"For starters!" I continued "I get off a 38 hour shift tonight, and what do I want to do? The one thing most surgeons who've been running around on their feet for three days straight. Take a damn shower! So I get home to a dark empty house, and flip my lights on, they don't turn on. I go check the breaker and three fuses are blown! I jiggle a couple enough to get the lights to work. Then I go upstairs and start the shower, come to find out five minutes later my hot water heater went out. So I put my clothes back on and I go get in my car and come here and then the damn car breaks down on me halfway down the driveway! So here I am, dirty and soaking wet."

I took a breath and watched his amused expression take everything in, he smirked.

"Well I have always loved you dirty and wet." He sneered; I reached up and slapped my palm against his forehead, unamused. "Ouch."

"Seriously!" I scoffed "This isn't funny."

"I know," he smiled as he slid his hands up my jaw line and leaned in for a kiss "I wasn't trying to be funny, I was simply making a sexual comment in a suggestive nature."

"Well save your sexual comments for later, I need to shower."

"May I join you?" he asked. I gulped as the image of his hot naked body rubbing up against mine in the shower flashed through my mind, I trembled.

"You really think we're ready for that?"

He let out a sigh "I'm not sure."

"Then no," I mumbled "and I don't want our first shower sex since getting back together to be when I have to wash three days of work off me."

"Fair enough." He nodded "I'm sure you know where the towels are?"

"As long as you didn't move them." I said, he shook his head. I headed for the stairs but bit my lip and turned to look over my shoulder, catching him watch me with a smoldering expression in his eyes "So I guess I'm going to get all wet and naked in your bathroom and wash all the dirty off of me."

He groaned, I stifled a giggle and went straight for the shower.

I tried not to moan at how good the hot water felt, I knew if that happened he wouldn't hesitate joining me. We were focusing on the fundamentals of our relationship, and sex just confused things and distracted us. So it had been a while, for the both of us, absence just made us strong right? Right...

I got out of the shower and dried off, then went into his closet and grabbed one of his button up shirts, one that I knew he never wore. I put it on and started towel drying my hair while tip toeing down the stairs.

"Feel better?" he asked from the living room as I reached the foyer.

"A lot better." I replied.

"Good, I called a tow truck for your-" he stopped as he looked up and saw me standing in the doorway with just his shirt on, his jaw dropped a little, "Legs."

"You called a tow truck for my legs?" I giggled.

"Car." He rephrased "For your car...they came and got it twenty minutes ago."

"Thanks." I smiled "So I guess I'm stuck here for the night."

"This is your home too you know." He said with sincerity, my mouth tickled with a smile "You don't have to be stuck here, you can come as often as you like...or maybe even keep your stuff here?"

"Derek Shepherd." I mocked a scoff "Are you asking me to move in with you? We haven't even had sex yet."

He stood up from the couch and mumbled something that sounded like 'That can change'.

"Meredith this is your home, you and I built it together." He sighed as he stepped toward me "Your mother's house is obviously falling apart, I want you here. So yes, move back in."

I gulped "And how is it going to play in our non-sex life?"

"Eventually we will have sex and then we're going to be wanting each other all the time. So maybe I'm just thinking ahead of the game."

"Is that so." I smirked "Well game boy, I hope you sleep with some clothes on or we won't have a non-sex life soon."

"Oh uh..." he stuttered "I'll just keep sleeping on the couch, you can have the bed."

"Derek this is your-" he narrowed his eyes at me "Our...house. You can't sleep on the couch, at least not when you're not even in trouble."

"If it resists temptation, I'll do it."

"Surely you can sleep next to me with some control." I rolled my eyes "After all its been a while since we've slept in the same bed."

"Yes but my mother, sisters and nieces and nephews were all down the hall, it was easy to resist back then. This will have to be the plan until we make another one."

I sighed and turned to walk towards the stairs, then turned around...with a better idea.

"Derek." I said "I'm going to be lying in your bed, damp from my shower and wearing your shirt. You can either join me or lay down here thinking about me laying up there all alone." He wasn't budging "Just because we can't slide into home doesn't mean you can't steal a few bases."

I don't know who made it up the stairs faster, him or I. But I know he stripped down to his boxers and white undershirt, and then we fell into bed together. His hands groped my breasts through the shirt and his hips grinded against my body as we moaned into each other's lips. His hand rubbed down my curves until it hit my knee and then slid slowly back up my naked thigh.

"I wouldn't do that." I panted against his lips.

"Why not." He mumbled as he bit my lower lip.

"Because then you'll find out that I'm not wearing any panties."

I giggled into his groaning lips "You're going to be the death of me."

"I know." I replied "But you love me."

His urgent lips became suddenly soft and he pulled away, his hand caressed up my face and over the top of my head as he gazed deeply into my eyes.

"Yes...I do love you." He whispered, he kissed me softly against my lips and then sat up and grabbed a pillow "Which is why I won't mess this up, so I'm sleeping on the floor."

Now it was my turn to groan.