7. Rest

The fog surrounding Derek's mind slowly dissipated as he became aware of his external world for the first time in hours. He was warm. It was light out. He smelled something flowery. And most importantly, there was a warm body wrapped tightly in his arms. He smiled, burying his nose in her hair, breathing in her scent before tilting his head forward in a weak attempt to block the sunlight from filtering into his eyes. Anything to make the moment stretch as long as he could; anything to pretend it wasn't actually morning and they didn't have to get up and face the day yet. This was definitely not a moment he wanted to end.

Meredith's naked back was pressed into his bare chest, her hands resting gently atop his over her abdomen, as if she had fallen asleep clutching him, but had slowly lost grip over the night. Their legs and feet were intertwined; he couldn't begin to discern how and where they crossed each other. They were scrunched together, sharing his side of the bed, her head sharing a pillow with his. The air outside the trailer was cool, but wrapped together underneath the warm comforter; Derek had never been more comfortable.

He lay quietly for many minutes; happy just to feel the slight expansion within his arms with every breath she took, smiling at how every seventh breath was a little deeper than the others. He'd never noticed that before. Before. It seemed like a lifetime since the last time he had woken with her in the same bed, in his arms. But in reality, it had only been a few weeks.

It had only been a few weeks since he had planned to take her to dinner and tell her everything. Only a few weeks since they had promised to sit down and make rules. Only a few weeks since she had approached him in the lobby and he had smiled and helped her with her coat. And it had only been a few weeks since he had looked over her shoulder to spot her approaching them. His blood had run cold as he realized exactly what was about to happen. And with barely enough time to send Meredith a short a priori apology, his new world had come crashing down around him.

The past week few weeks had wreaked havoc on his life, on his sense of self, and on his determination to start over and do what made him happy in his new life in Seattle. He had continually grasped at Meredith, his new life, only to have it slip away every time. And his old life kept push, push, pushing its way to the forefront of his thoughts. He had been racked with uncertainty, second guessing, dilemmas between right and wrong, and an ongoing battle between his heart and his head. He felt like he hadn't had a single moment in the whole time where anything felt quite right, not a single moment of peace and quiet.

But right now, Derek was calm. He was happy and content and comfortable. His heart was celebrating its victory and his head was accepting defeat and conceding that it may actually have been wrong. Because right now, Derek Shepherd felt at peace. There wasn't a single doubt in his mind that this was exactly where he wanted to be. This was the person he wanted to be with. And this was the path he needed to follow in his life. He had no regrets, only hope for the future. It was as if he had been wearing blinders for years, only to have them suddenly removed and he could see all the possibilities around him. It was liberating.

He sighed happily, the excess of air against the back of her neck creating goose bumps as she tensed and stirred briefly in his arms before falling back into a regular pattern of breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Derek smiled, his fingers reaching out blindly, and yet knowingly, for her fingers, capturing them and holding them intimately within his. She stirred once again, her body shifting against his as she adjusted, her hands unconsciously gripping his. Her breathing returned to normal again.

As much as he wanted this moment to last forever, Derek knew they had to get up if she wanted to be on time for her shift. He manoeuvred his head and placed several kisses on the back of her neck, causing her breathing to become less regular. He pulled his left arm out from under her, despite her unconscious protests as she grasped at his hand. Shifting up onto his elbow, he peered over her towards the alarm clock. He was right, they definitely needed to get up soon.

"Meredith," he whispered into her shoulder between kisses. She moaned and her shoulder twitched as she pushed her body closer to him, both hands pulling his arm tighter around her waist as she burrowed her head into the pillow. He leaned further over her, his lips placing gentle kisses on every surface they came to; her clavicle, her neck, up and across her jaw line, over her chin towards her lips.

Stretched as far as he could, he hovered, his lips millimetres from hers. "Meredith," he whispered again, placing a quick kiss down. "We need," kiss, "to get," kiss, "up." Longer kiss. Apparently unable to continue slumbering against his onslaught of affection, she finally gave in and responded to his last kiss, rolling onto her back as she deepened it, her hands releasing his to travel upwards into his hair.

Derek wasted no time in manoeuvring closer to her, revelling in the feeling of his naked chest against hers. He straddled one of her legs, resting most of his weight off of her, one strong arm holding up his upper body, the other running aimlessly up and down her side over the trail of goose bumps it was creating. As her hands left his hair to trail along his back, he reluctantly left her soft lips behind to backtrack down the trail that had led him to her lips.

"I wish I could wake up like this every morning," Meredith whispered happily, her vocals chords vibrating under his lips as he kissed his down her neck.

"Mmm-hmm," he agreed against her clavicle. One hand had returned to his hair, subtly directing his movements.

He felt her head and neck shift slightly towards the alarm clock before returning. "Derek," she groaned. "Derek, we don't have much time."

He shifted his leg up a little higher between hers, laying more weight on her small frame. "I can work with that." He told her, panting, as he took a momentary break between onslaughts of kisses.

She smiled, pulling his head upwards to meet her lips once more. "Are you sure," she questioned when she pulled away.

He smirked down at her. "I'm very efficient. I make full use of my time."

She giggled up at him. "Are you, now?"

"Let me prove it to you," he practically growled into her lips.

"M'kay," was all she managed to utter in response.

000

True to his word, Derek had been very efficient, making full use of their time that morning, even suggesting they share a shower afterwards to save time. She had laughed at his confident grin, and nodded her head, allowing him to gently drag her into the bathroom. She could still feel his hands roaming over her still tingling body as he ran the bar of soap across her skin.

It wasn't until they had dried and turned to get dressed that she had realized her dilemma. The dilemma that had led to where she was now, rushing to get changed and out of the locker room before her resident realized she was late. Meredith had refused to show up to work in yesterdays clothing, knowing she would take too many hits from her friends. She had rolled her eyes at Derek's joking attempt to offer her his clothes to wear to work. Like that would solve her problem.

So, she had demanded he take her home before the hospital, where she had rushed to her bedroom to throw a fresh outfit on. Okay, well maybe not a fresh outfit, but at least a pair of pants and a top that hadn't been worn more than once and weren't being picked up off her floor. Less than three months in and she already couldn't wait for the year to be over. She could barely remember what free time felt like.

After their brief detour to her house, they had rushed to the hospital and he had dropped her off at the door. He was an attending and had no surgeries scheduled for the day, so was in no hurry to get himself in at any particular time.

The elevator had taken forever to pick her up and drop her off at the surgical floor, and then her locker wouldn't open, and then she couldn't get the knot out of her lace to tie up her left sneaker...

She slammed her door shut and pushed through the locker room door, haphazardly throwing her stethoscope around her neck as she did so. And white coat billowing out behind her, she rushed towards the nurse's station, jumping in behind George and Alex. Bailey was discussing a patient, her eyes downward, focussed on the chart in her hands as she spouted a brief history and presentation. When she looked up, her eyes narrowed as she realized her two interns had become three.

"Grey." She stated.

Meredith forced herself to keep a neutral expression. "What? I was here." Beside her Alex scoffed, and George, true to his heart, tried to make it seem he agreed with her, but in truth, he had a horrible poker face.

Dr. Bailey glared at her. "Repeat the patient's history," she demanded.

"Fifty-six year old male, family history of high blood pressure, was in for bypass surgery with Dr. Burke two weeks ago. He was discharged last week, but was re-admitted when a follow up showed redness around the incision, fever and high white count. Post op infection," she concluded.

"Treatment?"

"Start with broad spectrum antibiotics."

Bailey examined her closely, not trying to hide the calculating expression on her face. She didn't like being wrong. "Patient's name?"

Meredith flinched. If only she'd been a few seconds sooner. "Okay, maybe I wasn't here for that part..."

"That's what I thought." Bailey handed the chart to Alex before turning her attention back to Meredith. "Pit. You go with her, O'Malley."

"Of course, Dr. Bailey," George spoke as their resident turned on her heel and was seemingly swept away down the hall.

"That could have gone a lot worse," Meredith spoke as she and George walked together to the elevator.

"You're lucky you showed up when you did, or it would have been a lot worse," George commented. "Why were you late, anyway?"

"Oh, I was just... running behind," she told him as the elevator opened up in front of them. "I slept late." She added, hoping it would explain to him why he hadn't seen her around the house that morning.

"Oh," he answered. "That's nice. I was up at seven-thirty," he rolled his eyes. "I ended up crashing at my parent's last night. My mom had this little break down about 'all her little babies growing up too fast.'" He spoke in a high-pitched, somewhat feminine sounding tone, obviously supposed to be his mother's.

Meredith laughed. "She sucked you in again, huh?" George hadn't returned the night of his last monthly dinner either.

"Don't even get me started," he muttered. "It's unbelievable. I'm twenty-seven years old and I cannot say no to my mother."

Meredith laughed again. "I don't know what to tell ya, George. Except, maybe keep the momma's boy stuff under-wrap when meeting any potential women."

He glared at her. "I am not a momma's boy."

"Suuuuurrrrre," she responded, stretching out the word.

"I'm not!" George exclaimed as the elevator doors opened into the main floor.

Meredith shook her head at him, turning to exit the elevator, only to come face to face with a certain dreamy neurosurgeon. And the face that he was carrying two cups of coffee made him even more dreamy.

"Hey," she greeted him happily. George chiming in his own, more professional, greeting.

"Hey," he smiled at her. "That was easier than I thought. Apparently we're good at finding each other lately," he said, referring to the previous night. He handed her a coffee. "This is for you."

"Thanks," she told him gratefully. She obviously hadn't had time during her dash for the locker room for necessities like coffee. She closed her hands over the warm cup happily.

"Not a problem," he said, smiling brightly at her. "Well, I have paperwork that won't do itself."

She giggled. "Have fun with that, I'm off to the pit."

"Have fun with that." And before she could protest, he ducked in, placed a warm kiss on her cheek and disappeared into the waiting elevator with barely a "see you later."

She smiled and shook her head, only glancing around once for watchful eyes. And the only ones she found belonged to her roommate. George, who had waited at a distance to give them some privacy, was staring at her, one eyebrow raised.

She clenched her fingers around her warm gift. "Shut up," she hissed at him as she turned towards the pit.

George fell into step beside her. "I didn't say anything!" He protested.

She rolled her eyes. "But you were thinking it."

"I was not- Okay, maybe I was," he admitted. "But only a little."

She turned her head for a step or two to roll her eyes at him.

"I only want to look out for you," he continued. "I don't want to see you hurt again."

She sighed, grateful for George's quiet protectiveness. "The divorce was finalized yesterday," she told him quietly.

He looked surprised. "Then why were you all mopey last week?"

"I was just... I freaked out and overreacted and... freaked out," she continued lamely. "The point is, he was stupid, I was stupid, but it doesn't matter anymore. Cause we're sorting everything out, we talked, and he's divorced."

George examined her for several seconds as they continued down the hall. "Maybe it's a good thing I didn't come home last night," he finally said, a smile playing across his boyish features. "At least I got some sleep at my parents."

She inadvertently felt her cheeks redden, but couldn't help the smile that came to her face at the mere thought of the night before. They had celebrated their reconciliation well into the night. And she wasn't even going to mention to George that they had stayed at the trailer. "George," she hissed.

He laughed. "What? I had to get you back somehow. You called me a mamma's boy!"

She rolled her eyes and laughed at his antics. "Fine. But no talking about either thing to anyone else, okay?"

They had reached the doors to the pit. He nodded. "It's a pact." He held out a fist.

"A pact," she repeated, knocking her knuckles against his.