I Will Follow You Into the Dark

CHAPTER 96

After the soccer match was over, Meredith and Derek took the girls out for a late lunch. Derek enjoyed hanging out with them and glimpsing their everyday lives. Meredith's cell phone rang as they were finishing up, and she excused herself to take the call. Derek and the girls met up with her a few minutes later in the parking lot.

"Which one of you called her?" Meredith asked, eyeing her girls suspiciously.

The girls both looked clueless and shrugged. "Apparently," Meredith began, looking over to Derek, "someone has been traumatized by witnessing too much "adult" behavior. Carson called and told me she would call Family and Children's services if I don't let her rescue the girls and let them stay in her hotel room again tonight."

Derek chuckled and shrugged. "Carson's a persuasive woman. Stubborn, too. I don't think you should cross her."

"Fine. But I'm making her watch you two. No running around the hotel looking for boys. No watching dirty movies. No sneaking out to the pool at all hours."

"Gee, Mom," Jenna quipped sarcastically. "Next thing you know, you'll tell us we can't take our stash of cocaine with us."

"Yeah," Ariella whined, "party pooper."

Meredith just shook her head. She couldn't stand looking at the lot of them—all three of them were grinning as if they'd just won the lottery. And she was not surprised at all to see that Derek was grinning more broadly than her girls.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After enduring Carson's relentless teasing about the frantic phone call for rescue from Hot Sex Central, Meredith and Derek waved goodbye to the girls as they left for the evening with their cousin. Holding hands, the lovers walked back inside, happy and, at the same time, a bit overwhelmed at the thought of having the house to themselves.

"Mer," Derek began, pulling her to him. "I know we have so much to talk about. And I need to spend hours holding you and kissing you and telling you how happy you make me. I just don't want you to think my demands for sex were all I was thinking about. This is about so much more than just the sex. Although the sex has been particularly mind-blowing," he added, grinning and wiggling an eyebrow at her for emphasis.

Meredith sighed and reached up to kiss him gently. "The sex has been.......amazing. Running out of steam, big boy?" she asked with a sultry glare of her own. "For you? Never........," he said as he kissed her neck and shoulder. "I just wish we had more time....."

"Do you really have to go home tomorrow night?"

"Yeah. I really do."

"I'll miss you so much," she said, tears springing to her eyes.

"Me, too. Not yet. Let's don't start goodbying yet. It'll be hard enough tomorrow. Let's go upstairs and take a long hot bath and just relax together."

"Sounds wonderful," she said, smiling and taking his hand.


**********


Upstairs, Derek ran the bath while Meredith lit a few candles and turned on some soft music. When he left the room briefly, she couldn't resist crawling into the warm tub. The water was the perfect temperature, and the lavender bubble bath was already relaxing her. Not that in some ways she wasn't more relaxed than she'd been in......forever. She had everything she'd ever wanted. She and Derek were together and admitting how much they still loved each other. They had their future back. He looked so happy. Plus, they'd had so much unbelievably hot sex in such a short time.........she smiled just remembering. But then, at the same time, little stresses about the reality of this whole situation kept creeping into her mind and making it hard for her just to relax. And then when she'd remind herself that Derek had said they should just focus on being happy while they were together, she'd remember how soon he was leaving and be hit by another wave of stress-inducing thoughts.

Sighing and leaning her head back against the tub, she relaxed into the warmth and tried to free her mind. That didn't seem possible. But out of the blue, his lips were on hers and all ability to think about anything except drowning in him ended. Lifting her slightly and barely breaking the kiss, Derek climbed into the tub behind her, pulling her body back against his. They sat in blissful silence for quite a while, just relaxing in each other's arms and enjoying the warmth of the bath.

Derek opened his eyes and noticed that Meredith was biting her lower lip. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm fine," Meredith blurted out.

"You were thinking of Steve, weren't you? It's OK, Mer. We can talk about it if you want to. He has to be on your mind with the girls finding us today."

Meredith turned and kissed his cheek. Leaning back against him, she said, "I did have a flashback or two. Anytime I had a long day or something stressful happened, Steve always ran a bath for me."

Derek just sat there quietly listening and caressing her lightly. Meredith continued, "So I did think of him briefly. But then another thought occurred to me."

"What?" he asked softly.

"Steve just ran the bath for me......and left. You're here with me. This is so wonderful.........everything is just wonderful now because I'm sharing it with you."

Derek hugged her tightly and whispered into her ear, "I love you, Meredith."

"I love you, too."