Who would have thought

40

"Are you sure you're okay with this as a date?" Derek asked for the billionth time.

"Derek," Meredith groaned, "if you ask again, I'm leaving. I don't want to leave, but if you ask again, I am leaving."

"You can't leave," he laughed softly.

"Fine, then I'll just walk away and get lost and starve to death and then you'll be responsible for my death," she giggled, squeezing his hand as she sipped at her coffee. "It's perfect, Der."

"Good," he smiled. "Most girls would think this was a horrible date."

"Most girls want to get all dressed up and sit in five star hotels," she reminded him.

"And unless you've changed more than I'd want you to, you hate that kind of thing."

"Completely," she sighed. "Even more so than I did when I was in my twenties. It's just so..."

"Boring?"

"Yeah," Meredith smiled. "And...after this week, I don't want to sit in a coffee shop around people and...this is good. This is perfect."

"Long week?" he asked, squeezing her hand.

"With the chart and Roberts and interns..." she shook her head. "I should have been something easy. Like a kindergarten teacher or a chef."

"You...chef?" he laughed.

"Okay, maybe not a chef," she giggled. "Just...it was a crazy week. I love being a doctor. I do. Everything's just crazy right now."

"Need to talk about it?" he offered.

"It's the usual doctor's stuff," she shrugged. "I'm going to be an attending soon, my surgeries are getting more complex, Roberts is...Roberts, everything is just...I can handle it. I can. I know they make it hard for a reason. In five months, I'll be an attending and there won't be other attendings with me in surgery to make sure I don't screw it up. It's just...crazy."

"Has Roberts been giving you a hard time?"

"He's just the attending I scrub in with most," Meredith shrugged.

"I've offered to steal you but you always say no," he pointed out.

"Because the entire hospital thinks I'm sleeping with you to get good surgeries."

"But you're not. You can take the surgeries."

"I'm not feeding rumors. Not when you're a month away from being head of neuro."

"You're allowed to scrub in with me sometimes," he shrugged.
"And I will, Der," she said softly. "But Roberts is a good teacher too."

"I know he is."

"And I'm okay," she whispered. "I'm better than okay."

"You're better than okay?" he smiled softly.

"Work is crazy but...I'm good...I'm great," she squeezed his hand tightly.

"Good," he nodded, squeezing her hand back. "Work will calm down."

"I know. When I'm an attending, I'll be free. Have my own hours...I know."

"And an amazing boss," he smirked.

"I guess," she sighed dramatically. "How was your week?"

"Busy," he sighed. "They're getting me ready for next month so I've been doing more paperwork than I'd like."

"Heads of department do a lot of paperwork," she reminded him gently.

"I know," he nodded. "I'll never like that part of the job."