Where You Belong

64

Derek jolted awake to the sound of the bedroom door swinging open roughly, it's hinges squeaking in protest before crashing loudly into the wall behind it.

"Alex is moving in?!"

Derek groaned and buried his face into the back of Meredith's head. "I take it you didn't tell her about Alex..."

Meredith shook her head, her eyes remaining shut as she ignored her roommate.

"Meredith!" Izzy whined, stepping into the room, unheeded by the fact that Meredith and Derek were curled up together in the bed, or by the fact that she was only wearing a towel. "Alex is moving in?" She repeated. "To this house?"

Derek grumbled to himself. Normally he didn't mind the roommates. No one was home often enough to make it a big deal, and it had originally been a novel situation, having roommates. He had never lived with anyone other than his family, Mark or Addison. But today, in this moment, he minded the roommates. He minded a great deal. "We were asleep a minute ago," he pointed out.

"Yeah, and I was naked, in the bathroom, when Alex just walked in. I'm lucky I didn't come out of the shower to find him peeing all over the seat!"

Meredith giggled, effectively ending her facade of pretending to still be asleep. "He knows about the bathroom rules, Iz."

"But why is he here?" She whined, collapsing onto the bed, the towel only loosely held up around her.

"And we're up," Derek muttered, rolling away from his girlfriend and heading into their bathroom. He had already inadvertently seen Callie Torres naked; he definitely didn't need to add Izzy to the list.

Meredith rolled onto her back before responding to her roommate. "He's here because I asked him to move in. He's taking George's room."

"I don't understand. What's wrong with where he was living before?"

"I don't know where he was living before."

Izzy leaned over, burying her face in her hands. "Probably a whore house," she muttered.

Meredith giggled again, sitting up against her pillows.

"I can't have him living in the room next door, Meredith. It's weird."

"People are what matters, Iz. And Alex is one of our people. We can't just leave him out in the cold when we have a room for him."

Izzy paused, turning her head slightly to the side as she stared at Meredith in a way that could only be described as suspicious. "People are what matters? You don't like people. Is this about your mother?"

"No," she said quickly, trying to think how to explain this to her angry roommate. "I had a near death...whatever. I've got a second chance. And I'm determined to be better than the old Meredith, and that means being more positive. So...people are what matters," she repeated, and then off of Izzy's still suspicious stare, "Paint with all the colours of the wind..."

"Oh, I get it," Izzy whispered, shifting to get up. "You're crazy now." She slowly backed out of the room.

"I'm alive!"

"Yeah, okay..."

Meredith laughed as Izzy closed the door behind her.

It only took a few seconds for Derek to re-emerge from the bathroom. "You know that rule you had to implement after Callie was naked in the hallway?" He asked, cocking his head. "You know, the one that stipulated people could only be naked in bedrooms and bathrooms?"

Meredith felt her lips curl upwards at the tone in his voice. "Yeah..."

He sidled up to the bed, carefully lowering himself on top of her. "I think you need to revise it to state that people can only be naked in their own bedrooms..."