Where You Belong

22

And she was overwhelmed with how much she wanted it. The lifetime. The life that included him, and a home, and maybe kids, and a sense of normalcy and belonging that had been lacking her entire life until now. She understood it now, the dreams and goals of all the bright and shiny kids she had gone to school with, who, as early as kindergarten, were already fantasizing about their wedding and their dress and their prince charming. She understood it now. She wanted it now. And smiling down at the peaceful man before her, she knew she wanted it with him.

He was her happily ever after. He was her future. He was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

Meredith pulled herself from her reverie and crouched down, carefully pulling his arm out from under the pillow, making room for herself.

"Wha...?" He mumbled when she was settling herself beside him on the small bed.

"Shhh," she whispered. "It's just me. Go back to sleep." She pulled his arm tightly around her middle as she pressed her back into his chest.

Derek mumbled something incomprehensible, likely a string of syllables as opposed to actual words, and shifted to better accommodate her. His grip tightened on its own. He sighed. "I love you," he breathed into the back of her neck.

Meredith smiled and closed her eyes. "I love you too," she told him. And then she slept.

She didn't know how long she had been asleep when she was awoken by the very familiar sound of a pager going off. She moaned and buried her face in the pillow, her body screaming out for another six or seven hours of sleep. The spot next to her was cold and empty. Derek had been gone for some time.

Meredith sighed and reached for her pager. It was from Derek. Thought you may need a wake up call. She smiled, but it quickly turned into a grimace when she glanced at her watch. She had about a minute to meet her resident for rounds. She jumped up and hurried out of the room and down the hall, infinitely glad she had opted to change into her scrubs before looking for Derek. Although she wished she had had the foresight to set the alarm on her watch.

Rounding the last corner, she caught sight of Bailey standing in the doorway of the intern locker room. Meredith quietly came up behind her and stopped, not daring to attempt to get in the room for any reason, only hoping she would not be put on scut; even if she was really only two minutes late.

Bailey yelled into the room for her interns to hurry up, and turned, giving Meredith a surprised look. "Grey," she stated. "Were you here early?"

Meredith stuttered. "I got here earlier, yes..." It wasn't a lie.

"Good for you," she told her as the rest of her interns joined them in the hall. "The rest of you could learn a thing or two in telling time from Grey, here."

Meredith bit back a laugh.

Her resident turned back to her. "Grey, I'm in a rewarding mood. I believe Shepherd has two surgeries on the board today..."

Meredith fought the urge to nod, knowing Bailey was testing how much effort she used to keep tract of Derek's days.

"You can go ahead and scrub in on them both if he let's you, not that I would expect him not to..."

"Thank-you, Dr. Bailey," she said quickly, ignoring her best friend's pointed looked.

"Okay people, rounds," Bailey demanded as she strode off, fully expecting her well trained interns to follow. And they did.

Meredith fell into step behind her, Izzy and Cristina appearing on both sides. "Why were you here early?" Cristina asked.

"I just was," she answered quietly, trying to keep her responses off her resident's radar. She often wondered how much the older woman was privy to during their walks through the hospital.