The Luckiest

63

Meredith slammed her car door shut and stared at the trailer in front of her. She was home. She was finally home. She hadn't seen Derek since her and Mark had gotten paged away from the wedding, after a ferry boat has crashed. It had been three days and she hadn't even seen his face. She had gotten to talk to him on the phone briefly but she wanted to see him. She wanted to talk to him.

At first, she had been worried about the things he had wanted to talk about. He said they were good things, he kept saying they were good things, but she had started to run through all of the possibilities of what things could be. But now, now it was something else entirely. Somehow, she had ended up treating a girl who was getting married in a few weeks, and it had got her thinking.

She wanted to get married. She wanted to get married to Derek. She wasn't aching for it, she wasn't going to start leaving hints or start dreaming of white dresses but she wanted to marry him. Or something. She at least wanted to know if that was going to be her one day...going on about flowers and dresses and what kind of icing would be best for the cake. Derek wanted forever, she just wasn't sure what that meant.

She wasn't begging for it. She wasn't going to leave him if he didn't want it. Because she wanted to be with him forever. And if that meant that they would just have to be one of those couples who never married, she'd be good with that. But she just wanted to know. She wanted to know if forever in Derek's mind meant her getting what Sophie had had.

He wanted kids. There was definitely kids in the plans for the future. They were building a house that definitely involved family growth in the future. And there was definitely a very huge forever about the house. They shared everything about it. They were even sharing a bank account. She had no question that this was forever in a really big way. But there were different kinds of forever.

They didn't talk about this. They never talked about where they were going to be or what they were going to do. The kids thing was unspoken. But she had to know this time. She couldn't just sit around and wonder for the next twenty or thirty years if he was ever going to turn around and propose. She just needed to know what kind of forever she was getting. Because she was good with any kind.

"You're home!" Derek exclaimed the second she swung the door open, surprise and excitement evident in her tone.

"I'm home," she nodded, smiling briefly at him. "Derek-"

"God I missed you," he breathed, pulling her into his arms.

"I missed you too," she murmured, kissing him quickly. "But, Derek..."

"Talk later," he grinned, kissing her again. "I have wanted you naked for three days."

"Seriously?" she gasped as he lifted her up, kissing her deeply as he carried her to the bed.

"Seriously," he groaned. "I want you. I need you."

"Der," she murmured as he quickly took her sweater off, his mouth immediately going to trail kisses down her chest, gently nipping at the line of her bra.

"Three days without you is hell," he whispered, his hands travelling around her to remove her bra.

"I know," she sighed, moaning when he took a nipple into his mouth and sucked gently, his hands moving to her jeans.

"And last time I saw you you had that dress on," he breathed against her nipple, easing her jeans over her hips.

"And you had a tux," she whispered, her own hands moving to take off his t-shirt and jeans.

"Which reminds me why I hate your job," he laughed breathlessly as she ran her nails along his now bare chest.

"I hate it too," she giggled slightly, biting down on his shoulder, slipping his boxers off in the process.