Where You Belong

8

"More wine?" Derek asked, and tilted his head towards the bottle sitting off to the side of the small, round dining table.

Meredith smiled across the table at him as she swallowed her bite of steak and shook her head. "I'm good, thanks." She sighed happily as Derek smiled warmly at her just for the sake of doing so. It may be several weeks later than originally planned, but they were finally having their rule making dinner.

"What time are you on tomorrow?"

"Uh, nine, I think," she told him. "You?"

"I have a surgery at eight." He laughed; it was very rare that he was scheduled to be in before her. "I need to head in around seven. And, if you let me stay with you tonight, I promise I'll be super quiet when I leave..." He smiled sweetly at her, his eyes sparkling as he tilted his head to the side.

She giggled at his behaviour. "Like you've ever asked to stay at my place," she muttered.

He pretended to be hurt. "I always ask."

"You do not."

"Fine," he conceded. "Then I'm turning over a new leaf."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"Well?" He prompted.

"Well, what?"

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"You never asked a question." She countered.

"I asked if I could stay over tonight, remember, the whole turning over a new leaf thing?"

She laughed. "You told me you were turning over a new leaf, Derek. You never actually asked the question."

He narrowed his eyes as he regarded her, obviously realizing he had been caught, but also debating whether or not to argue. He sighed. "Meredith, if I promise to be very, very quiet when I leave in the morning, can I stay at your place tonight?"

She rolled her eyes again at his antics. "Of course, but don't worry about being quiet. I'll go in with you."

His joking expression suddenly turned more serious. "We're talking an extra two hours of sleep here, Meredith."

"I know, but..." She trailed off. It had been two weeks since she and Derek had stepped off their metaphorical cliff together and she had never been happier. Other than mornings where she had been on-call the night before, they commuted together almost every day. And she loved it. She absolutely loved it. "I just want to. Plus, you come in early with me all the time."

He smirked at her. "Okay. Just don't try to kill me in the morning."

"I promise I won't."

"Good, cause I don't want to be pummelled by those tiny, ineffectual fists."

She laughed despite herself, even as she reached across the table to take a swipe at his much larger hands.

He didn't respond quickly enough to avoid the initial impact, but did manage to grab her hand in his before she could return it safely to her side of the table. She only fought his grip for a moment before relaxing her fingers as he threaded them with his own. She couldn't fight him when he was smiling his McDreamy smile across the table at her.

"So," she began. "How do we go about the whole rules thing?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, do we actually make rules? Or are there like universal rules that we just have to agree to go by? Are there other rules than the whole exclusivity thing? Because that was the whole issue that started this rules thing in the first place. Or is it just supposed to be silently accepted and I'm ruining it by asking?" She took in his amused expression as she spoke. "Hey! Don't mock me. Let me remind you for the hundredth time that I'm horrible at this. And I've never done it before. And unless you want to buy me a manual or something, you need to give me a little more guidance for a while."