Thinking Over

In addition

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.

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"Happy birthday," Derek smiled as he leaned over the bed and kissed his wife, who was still half asleep under the blanket. Meredith murmured something inaudible in response, making no attempt to sit up, so he simply set her coffee on the nightstand and crawled back into bed with her. It was still early, so he figured a few quiet minutes in bed together were okay.

Derek kissed the back of her head and wrapped his arm around her waist. Meredith sighed softly, taking his hand in her own and scooting her body closer to his. "Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome." He rubbed her arm softly for a few minutes, and eventually, she rolled around in his arms to face him.

"Hey," she said with a small smile; her voice still crackly and full of sleep.

Derek smiled back at her. "Morning."

"I'm thirty two," she frowned, pouting her lips slightly.

"Already?" he asked.

Meredith brushed her hair from her face and nodded. "I was born at four in the morning. I bet that pissed my mom off..." she giggled.

"Probably did," Derek chuckled.

As some of the sleepiness wore off, she stretched out a bit and smiled at him. "You're still letting me cut today, right?"

"Of course," he agreed. "It's a corpus callosotomy, so you're in luck."

Meredith's eyes brightened and she gasped. "Are you serious?"

"I am," Derek nodded. "I'm going to let you do the whole thing. You're ready. I'll be there to watch and help you if you need it, but this is your day. You can do it," he said assuringly.

One of the things she loved most about Derek was his confidence in her. Sometimes, she wasn't so sure in herself, but Derek's belief in her never wavered. "I love you," Meredith murmured, leaning in to kiss him.

"I love you too," he smiled as he rolled her on top of him.

Meredith looked to her husband and gave him a small smirk after breaking the kiss. "Remember how we had sex like...twenty times on your birthday? Well, I want that too," she giggled.

"Bed or shower?" Derek asked, easing his fingers under her shirt to rub her back with his fingertips.

"Shower," she replied, rolling off of him. "We can save the bed sex for work. And then more bed and shower when we get home..."

"You're the boss," he chuckled as Meredith took his hand and led him into their attached bathroom.

She kicked the door shut with her foot before eagerly pressing her lips against his. "Yep. I am."

--

When Meredith walked into the residents' lounge to prepare for her shift that morning, she was taken by surprise by the decorations she found there. Izzie, she thought to herself. Above her cubby was a birthday banner, as well as balloons attached to her coat hook. "Happy birthday!" Izzie said excitedly.

Meredith smiled at her friends. "Thanks, you guys."

"I baked you a cake, but we can't eat it until lunch," she explained, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "I did make you a birthday muffin though, which you would have gotten this morning, but you just had to go and move out..." Izzie said jokingly.

"Thanks, Iz," she said graciously, putting the blueberry pastry in her cubby so she could quickly change into her scrubs.

Cristina sat up from her reclined position on the bench and gave her friend a tired smile. "Happy birthday."