Secret smile

43

Meredith Grey was quite possibly the most adorable person Derek Shepherd had ever seen over the age of seven. He couldn't get over how much of a change there was after yesterday, after that terrible day he had wanted to pretend never happened. But here his formerly sad best friend was, standing in front of him and begging him to do something other than watch movies, something fun. He wasn't exactly sure what they could do for fun but he was definitely racking his brain, because it was hard to say no to the adorable face she was making, the big puppy eyes she was giving him. They talked but that wasn't fun. They watched movies but apparently that didn't count. It was the day so Joe's was out. And it looked like it was about to rain so hiking would probably be bad.

But she was apparently bored with the movies. She wanted to do something...exciting and new. He wasn't sure what that meant, and he could only assume the visit with her mother was actually driving his adorable best friend insane. He had been worried about this when he had dropped her off at her place the night before, when she had gently kissed his cheek and said she was just going to bed. He had really wanted her to spend the night. It wasn't that he didn't trust her roommates to take care of her, but if she had needed someone, they wouldn't have known what to do, they wouldn't have even known what was wrong. It would have just been easier if she had stayed at his place but she had insisted that she was fine. And he had let her and apparently it had worked out okay.

Now, she was sitting in front of him on the bed, her eyes wide as she hugged her jacket close to her body. "Derek...please...come on."

"I'm thinking, Mer," he laughed.

"What do you do when I have to work and you're off?"

"Hang out with Mark. Sit and stare into space. Fish."

"Fish!" she gasped.

"Yes, I go fishing," he nodded slowly, frowning at his best friend.

"We should go fishing," she jumped off the bed.

"What?"

"We should go fishing."

"You want to go fishing?"

"We can go fishing and catch dinner and be...fishing people."

"You want to go fishing?" he repeated.

"Where is your fishing...stuff?"

"It's in the closet," he sighed, sitting up. "Mer..."

"Yeah?" she asked as she opened his closet and began digging through it.

"I'm..." he shook his head. "I'm not trying to discourage you but I'm not sure you'd like fishing."

"Why not?"

"It's...you have to sit still, it takes patience and sitting still."

"I can sit still."

"You can?"

"Of course I can," Meredith said firmly, reaching back into the closet and nearly losing her balance.

"Mer..." he laughed, moving to go help her. "I adore you, you know I do. But I'm not sure I've ever seen you sit still."

"I can sit still. Where's your...I mean...stuff? I need fishing stuff."

"It's right here," he smiled, reaching around her to grab two poles. "Grab the tackle box right there."

"Tackle box?"

"The box right there."

"Oh," Meredith nodded, grabbing the box.