Where You Belong

5

Meredith turned her head to yawn into the hand that was currently holding up her head, her elbow resting on the cafeteria table. She stifled a second yawn and returned her cheek to its previous resting position. The weekend hadn't been any less busy than the previous week, and Meredith was pretty sure she had worked more hours in the past week than in any previous week. And she was tired. She aimlessly slid her fork around the plate of what the hospital cafeteria like to call food, with no desire to actually eat anything. Christina had been sitting with her until she was paged to the ER, so now Meredith found herself alone, which wasn't actually so bad in that she got to rest. Lunch was a good excuse for a break.

Not being able to hold it in any longer, she yawned again, and then sighed softly to herself. A glance at her watch told her she only had a single digit number of hours left for the day, and she had tomorrow off. She smiled at that thought. Derek's meeting with the lawyer was the following morning, and he had promised to come over when he was done and they'd spend the day together. She couldn't wait. She missed him; she missed spending time with him. In the weeks since Addison had shown up, Meredith had pulled away from him, wanting to keep her distance, but it hadn't meant she hadn't missed him. And then the past week had almost killed her. Emotionally she didn't have to keep her distance anymore. He picked her. But she still couldn't touch him, couldn't spend any amount of time with him.

It didn't fail to amaze her, just how quickly she had grown attached to the man in her thoughts right now. Growing up had taught her anything but how to trust and rely on another human being, but here she was, standing at the precipice, prepared to take that leap with him. And it was terrifying. But in a good way. She just didn't want to wait any longer. Because the longer she waited, the steeper the cliff.

But tomorrow he was going to meet with his lawyers, and was going to come to her house after, a free man. And they were going to celebrate, and then they were going to get back on track; make those rules they had never gotten around to making. She was determined. Because she had found him. The guy she was going to spend the rest of her life with. She was done.

A tray appeared beside hers and she looked up and smiled.

"Hey," she said softly.

He smiled back at her. "Hello, Dr. Grey."

She rolled her eyes and leaned over to nudge him with her shoulder. "Dr. Shepherd," she muttered and he laughed.

He picked up his fork and got started on his salad. "Any good surgeries today?" He questioned.

She shook her head, glancing suspiciously at the other tables in the cafeteria for indication of starers. No matter the lack of evidence, she always felt eyes on her back. "No, nothing good," she answered, going back to running her food around her plate. "I scrubbed in with Bailey this morning. An appy. Nothing else."

"That's too bad. I would offer you a surgery this afternoon if I could, but I don't have anything on the board. I'll page you if anything comes up."

Meredith sighed. "Derek, you can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because, you can't play favourites. It's not fair."

He smirked at her. "It's fair to you."

"No. No, it's not," her eyes darted from table to table once more. She didn't want anyone listening in on this conversation. "You have to treat me like any other intern, Derek."

He sighed, dropping his fork. "Meredith, look at me," he commanded gently, waiting until her darting eyes had come to rest in his gaze. "I'm not trying to favour you. I favour the five of you, because you're Bailey's interns and everyone knows you're the best. All of the attendings favour you guys. Other than that, it is my job to teach and if you have nothing scheduled and I do, then it is my job to offer."