Who would have thought

39

There were certain things a nearly forty year old man should never do. Well, one thing in particular a nearly forty year old man should never do, which explained why Derek Shepherd was fighting the urge to do it. Giggle. He wanted to giggle. He had no idea why. Or he did. Meredith was giggly. She had been giggly for the past two days, and he was pretty sure giggling was contagious. Or maybe it was just her giggle.

He loved her giggle. He had always loved her giggle. Even when all he could think about was how much he hated her years ago, even when he spent far too much time screaming at her, he loved her giggle. It was light and airy and just girlish enough to fit her. And it was cute, but she definitely would roll her eyes if he used that word. Her giggle made him want to giggle.

Which was what he was fighting off the urge to do. Giggle. He couldn't giggle. Giggling would be...bad. He was the next head of neurosurgery, he was nearly forty years old, and the rumor mill was already bad enough without him giggling like a maniac all over the hospital. But he desperately wanted to giggle. Giggle over the perfect first date in thirteen years, giggle over her giggling, giggle over her giggling.

He couldn't believe how happy he was. He had been happy over the last decade, or at least he thought he had been happy. He had even thought he was in love. But none of that was comparing to how perfect all of this felt. The lips brushing against each other, her hand in his hair, his hand searching for hers, listening to her giggle, it all felt perfect.

He hadn't been sure this was going to work. He had wanted it to work, desperately wanted it to work, but he hadn't been sure it would. There was a lot of water under the bridge, a lot of hurt feelings, a lot of trust issues. He hadn't been sure they'd be able to be this happy. And now they were. And he wanted to giggle. "I'm officially disowning you as my brother."

"What?"

"I'm disowning you as a brother," Mark said as he threw a chart down. "Maybe my sister, but you're sure as hell not my brother."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Mark waved his hand. "The smile. God, you look like you're going to giggle or something. It's pathetic, man."

"I'm not going to giggle," Derek denied quickly.

"Well you sure as hell look like it."

"It's called happiness, Mark."

"It's called being a chick."

"Because men can't be happy?"

"Because men don't giggle. Or go on and on about one fucking date."

"I'm not giggling."

"Not today."

"I haven't been giggling any day."

"I'm not going to fight you on this since you clearly don't see that you have a huge problem, Derekina."

"You're such an idiot," Derek groaned. "And if you call me Derekina again, I'll kick your ass."

"Like to see you try," Mark smirked. "Derekina."

"Shut up," Derek groaned, shoving Mark slightly.

"Hey, be careful there, don't want to mess up your manicure," Mark laughed.

"I'm seriously going to kick your ass."

"Yeah, yeah. Remember that time in college when you caught me with...what the hell was her name?"

"Hell if I know," Derek shrugged. "There was a lot of girls in college."

"Yeah, right," Mark laughed. "There were a lot of girls for me in college. Anyway, you caught me with that girl and you said you were going to kick my ass. Chickened out five minutes later."