Can't Help Falling in Love

55

"Mer," Derek breathed, following her down the hall. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she smiled, turning to face him. "Really, Derek. If she wants to come, she can come. If not, it doesn't matter. Tomorrow we're getting married. That's all that matters, and I'm not going to let anything ruin that."

Derek smiled softly, pulling her in to kiss her gently. "I love you," he murmured. "So much."

"I love you too," Meredith smiled. Before either one of them could say anything, her cell phone rang loudly from her bag and she frowned. "Crap," she sighed, looking down at it. "It's Izzie. She's going to kill me."

"I'll change fast," Derek laughed as Meredith ignored the call. She shoved him into the locker room, giggling as his phone vibrated in his pocket. "It's Izzie," he said, offering the phone out to her.

"Izzie has your phone number?" Meredith frowned, snapping the phone out of his hands.

"I wanted her to have it," he shrugged. "Emergencies or whatever."

Meredith stared at him for a moment before she held the phone up to her ear. "What?"

"I knew it!" Izzie shouted. "Meredith Grey, you can't just sneak out of your own rehearsal dinner!"

"Yes I can," Meredith nodded. "Because I was going to see my fiancé. And since you're all crazy and making him sleep at the stupid trailer tonight, I have the right to sneak out to see him now."

"But it's your rehearsal dinner."

"Okay, calling it that? That's just stupid," Meredith argued. "Because there was no rehearsal. So it's just dinner. At Emma's. With our family. Which we both love doing, but we've done it a thousand times before and we'll do it a million more. It's really not that big a deal."

"Can you just come back?" Izzie asked. "We've got to discuss the flower arrangements and make sure there's...."

Meredith rolled her eyes as she hung up the phone, handing it back to Derek. "We have to go," she sighed. "We have to discuss flower arrangements and be at the stupid rehearsal-less rehearsal dinner."

Derek looked at her closely for a moment. "You really don't want to have this wedding," he said.

"I do," Meredith smiled. "I want to have this wedding, because that's the only way we'll end up married. So...even though your sisters are driving me crazy and I would really just prefer a backyard wedding with the family and grilling at the reception...it's what we're getting."

"We don't have to do this," Derek said softly. "Let's just go."

"Go?" Meredith frowned.

"To the Bahamas."

"The honeymoon is after the wedding," Meredith rolled her eyes, reaching for his hand. "So we have to go to your mom's so we can have the stupid rehearsal dinner and then have the stupid wedding and then go on the honeymoon."

"No, let's go tonight," Derek insisted, reaching for her hands and pulling her closer. "We can still get married tomorrow. We can do it on the beach, drink cocktails during the wedding. Come on, Mer, doesn't that sound perfect?"

"It does," she sighed, unable to deny the deep desire to do that. "But...what about the family?"

"We'll go tell them now," Derek said. "They can come if they want."

"It's not that easy," Meredith whispered. "We've spent money on this wedding, they have jobs they can't just leave, Lexie's all excited to be maid of honor, and Meg's apparently refusing to take off her flower girl dress. And we can't disappoint your mom."