Turned Upside Down - Grey's Anatomy

Chapter 11 - Washington State

Meredith pushed the heavy luggage cart through the glass sliding doors and stepped into the cold moist Seattle air. The noise of the morning airport traffic hit her overly tired body. She shivered and suppressed a yawn. It was five o'clock in the morning but for her body, it was two in the afternoon. She had spent the night in Portland at the airport like she had predicted before she had left Houston. She had decided against checking into a hotel. The two and a half hours she would be able to use the room was not worth the room rate they offered her. So she had spent the night in the terminal with some other lonesome travelers not getting any much sleep. She felt the exhaustion in every fiber of her body. She smelled like airport and hospital and she couldn't remember the last time she had seen a mirror. She was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Her old hospital ID was still clipped to the reddish-orange windbreaker that declared her an emergency physician. Usually, she would get curious looks when she would walk through a public place dressed like this but here in Seattle people barely noticed her.

It was Monday and in two hours she was scheduled to have a meeting at Seattle Grace. It was bordering on negligence that she would potentially be seeing patients today. Meredith had been awake for over twenty-four hours, had traveled 7389 miles, had flown through nine times zones, and had worked for 15 hours and had had one hour of accumulated sleep during that time. She would rather go home, shower, sleep, and have some time to unpack her bags than going straight to hospital to work for who knows how many hours. But the much-needed shower had to wait and her bed had to wait as well.

She had secretly hoped that by the time she would return to Seattle there would have been some progress in accepting her German certification but the mills of bureaucracy were grinding painfully slowly. She had hoped that she could walk into the meeting with the Chief and hand in her resignation. Instead, she would have to face the repercussions of her six-week absence. To the naked eye, she hadn't changed a lot, her hair was shorter and she had a new – still prominent – scar above her left eye. But the young physician would be returning with triple certification, leadership experience, and an astonishing surgery track record.

Meredith searched the crowded pickup area – it was surprisingly busy for being this early. Then she spotted him. Derek stood leaning against his dark SUV in the light Seattle drizzle waiting for her. A big stupid smile spread across her face. She couldn't help it, he made her smile and mushy inside. Meredith wasn't used to feeling so strongly about someone. These feelings were very new to her and over the last weeks, she came to like them – a lot.

Barely containing her excitement, she let go of her luggage cart and flew in his waiting arms. He wrapped his arms around her skinny body pulling her closer. She buried her face into his chest smelling in his unique scent before he gently pulled her face to his. His soft lips touched hers. Their kiss was slow, sweet, exploring and both put all the emotion in the kiss they had been waiting for for weeks.

"Hey."

"Hi," Meredith smiled against his lips.

"I missed you," Derek whispered.

"I missed you, too," Meredith echoed.

"I'm glad you're finally back," he told her. The drizzle had turned into rain. "Is this everything?" Derek asked as they heaved the third suitcase into the trunk of his car.

"Of my belongings?" Meredith replied with a question.

"You know what I mean," he rolled his eyes.

"For now it's everything. The rest is still back in Munich. My stuff took over half of Anna's attic. She wasn't that amused, but she offered. And then I left boxes with at least six friends," Meredith grinned innocently, as she climbed into his car. Their hands interlocked the second Derek had started the car. Meredith covered her yawn with her elbow.