Where You Belong

70

Meredith groaned and buried her face in her pillow, trying to ignore the sounds of someone knocking at her door. Derek's arm tightened around her waist as he too groaned at the unwelcome intrusion.

Meredith wasn't scheduled to be at work until late morning, and she had planned on taking full advantage of the rare opportunity to sleep in with her boyfriend. After everything they had been through recently, she felt they deserved a morning away from the world around them; only the world around them didn't seem to share in the sentiment.

The intruder knocked again, and Meredith sighed, hoping whoever it was would just disappear.

Derek made a grumbling noise and buried his face into the back of her head. "Make it stop."

She couldn't help but giggle at his morning grumpiness. He was usually such an annoyingly upbeat morning person, but he had to wake up on his own terms. It was always amusing for her when he was like this. "I'm trying."

He grumbled again. "You're not doing anything."

Meredith rolled towards him so she was on her back, the arm that had been wrapped over her side now slung across her stomach. "I'm wiling it to stop."

Without opening his eyes, Derek closed his arm around her and pulled her in close, his chin finding purchase above her shoulder as he pressed his face into the side of her head.

The knock echoed through the room again.

"You're obviously not good at willing things away," he mumbled.

"Maybe its Cristina," she whispered. "It'll save me killing her at work."

"Why are you killing her again?" He mumbled through a yawn.

"Because she told on me."

"Mmm," he mumbled into the side of her head, a noise she took to be an acknowledgment on his part that he remembered Cristina going to him the previous day after Meredith has spilled her secret fears to her best friend.

Meredith closed her eyes, hoping that whichever friend was at the door had taken the hint. If it was Cristina, she could kill her later at work. Though, if she were honest with herself, she would admit that she was grateful Cristina had gone to Derek. Meredith's emotions had been all over the place for the past three weeks; ever since she had woken up in pain on the hard gurney in the ER, with Derek's worried face hovering over her. Despite the fact that he had continued to be right there beside her after she had talked him out of proposing, there had been a slight – almost unconscious – worry in the back of her mind that he would change his mind. And after she had gotten her hopes up two days prior, only to be crushed to discover that proposing wasn't anywhere on the agenda for the night, she had allowed the uncertainty and fear in. Three decades of disappointment had made very efficient pathways in her brain, allowing the chest crushing doubt to enter and find a home before she had even realized what had happened.

And she had been too afraid to bring it up, scared that Derek's beautiful blue eyes would flicker away from hers, and that he would sigh and shake his head and admit that he had changed his mind about her; about them. About the forever she so desperately wanted.

But Cristina had been able to be far more objective that her person, and she had gone to Derek.

And Derek had been perfect. His eyes had met hers so evenly that she couldn't not trust every word that came out of his mouth. And he had smiled in that way that made it seem like everything was going to be okay. And he had been able to joke about the whole thing, to mock her with over-the-top ideas like sky writing that he knew she'd hate.

He had pushed all of her doubts away with ease. He knew her.

She didn't need a big proposal. She didn't need a fancy wedding.