Meredith sat in her car and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She sighed, she was tired, not exhausted, two weeks of relaxation and a relatively easy 10 hour shift, meant just tired. Normal tired. Not intern exhausted

Where to now was the question? Not figuratively. Literally.

Did she chase Derek down to his trailer demanding they talk? But that would probably lead to the finalisation of the fact that they were over, and she wasn't ready to face that yet.

Or head to Joe's and join her friends, drowning her sorrows in Tequila? But that would be a regression back to fixing things with alcohol. That had never gone really well for her. And it would mean admitting to everyone that her and Derek were broken, most likely irreparable, and she wasn't ready to face that yet.

So that left home, which some may call avoiding, but she could always try and pass it off as mature. Getting a good nights sleep in before her next 12 hour shift.

She put the car into gear and turned the wheel homewards.

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As the hot water sluiced over her face and down her hair Meredith let her mind wander over the decidedly non-McDreamyness of the day. Despite dull ache in her heart she had managed to push dwelling on her and Derek's state to the back of her mind for most of the day. Part of the resolve she had determined on holiday was to be the best surgeon she could be this year and to try and make sure her dramatic personal life didn't put that at risk as it almost had at the end of her internship. She sighed as she reached for the shampoo and began to lather her hair.

She stepped from the shower fifteen minutes later, felling refreshed and relaxed physically, thought still a little emotionally bruised. She wrapped a towell around her head and dried off, rubbing moisturiser into her lightly tanned limbs. She pulled on a pair of black yoga pants and one of Derek's t-shirts he had left lying beside the bed. Sad really, she thought, but she would allow herself at least one last night of wallowing in his scent before she had to determine whether it was time to pack up his belongings and return them.

She entered her bedroom from the en-suite towel drying her hair as she went.

"Crap" she said clutching the towel to her chest "you scared me" she said to the man leaning in her doorway.

He smiled. "The racoons got really bad" he said

"Racoons" she squeaked, she couldn't determine whether the speed of her beating heart was from the scare, or the fact that we was leaning in the frame of her bedroom door, and smiling not glaring at her.

"Racoons" he replied, "and the boiler finally gave up the ghost completely"

"Boiler?" she asked the lift her heart had taken at the sight of him here, started to fall a little, was he having a go at her? Was this his repeat of her 'I'm getting on the elevator' attempt at communication?

"Yeah the repair guy said I'd need a replacement and it would take a while"

"Oh" she breathed. Seriously? she thought, is he asking to stay here? After that reaction this morning? Was he going the whole Meredith Grey approach to relationships and just ignoring the parts he didn't like?

They stood there for a few minutes staring at each other, him smiling, her frowning, eyes locked. Meredith waged an internal battle, did she just smile back and cave in and they go back to, whatever it was they were and ignore the murky waters they had recently tread? Opting to push a bit further before she made those decisions she asked "Racoons, Boilers?"

As if snapping out of a spell she had cast he replied "Yeah, so I've been staying at the Archerfield"

"Oh?"

Derek returned to the staring and smiling, a slight smug look crossing his face.

Meredith wracked her brain. Had she missed a conversation they'd had today? He seemed to be on a different page to her, racoon's, boiler's, hotels "OH!" she exclaimed

"Hmmmn" he smugly replied

"Oh so you haven't.."

"..been to the trailer? No not in the last two weeks" he finished for her.

"Oh" she offered again, her brain racing around with this information

"Well until today, I realised I should, you know, go make sure everything was ok, check my mail, sort of stuff"

Meredith's face turned red and she buried her face in her hands, she looked up from between her fingers to see him still smiling at her "Oh My God, you read them all at once?" she squeaked

"Hmmmn" he smiled "I did"

"You read them and you're here" Meredith asked, hope entering her voice as she removed her hands from her face

"I'm here" Derek agreed, "and I think you may have been looking for these" with this statement he pulled a roll of documents from under his arm that was leaning against the doorjamb. He took a few steps into the room and offered it to Meredith.

She looked at him quizically, and then back down again at the roll in her hands, noticing for the first time the wide bright yellow ribbon tied in a bow holding the papers together. A smile reached the corners of her eyes as she looked back at him, beaming at her "a sign?" she asked tentatively.

"Signs" he shrugged, smiling. He took her other hand and tugged her over to the bed and pulled her to sit with him, a small expanse of bedspread between them. "Open it" he prompted.

Meredith smiled softly and laid the roll on the bed between them, she let out a soft giggle as she opened the bow with a flourish. The papers sprang out from their confines, the contents bringing a small look of confusion to her face. She looked up at Derek quizzically.

He picked up the first few items in the pile, three glossy holiday brochures "for future planning, you know for that beach holiday you suggested we take together? his eyebrows wiggled a little "you mentioned something about Jacuzzi's and four poster beds".

Meredith lets out another soft giggle as Derek hands her the brochures, he then continues with a wry "mind you as you just used two weeks of your scarce annual leave running off with another woman, it might have to wait a while". Meredith looks at him slightly guiltily, but before she can answer, he shushes her and picks up the next thing, a small cardboard envelope, he hands it to her.

Meredith slides the paper tickets out of the envelope "New York?" she asks

"Yeah, we'll drive from there to my Mum's place" he replies

"Mum? As in Mother, as in yours?" she gasps

"Relax Meredith, the booking is for March, it's Mum's Birthday then, and I figure it gives you six months to get used to the idea, and if you don't, well, I made sure that the tickets are transferable" he offers with another McDreamy smile.

"Ok" she offers smiling back "ok, I can do that"

Derek beams at her as he hands the last sheaf of papers. They appear to be print out's from his computer, Meredith turns them to read the pages, another smile creeps across her face as she reads the page "apartment listings" she says.

"Yeah, two bedroom apartments, within a 5 mile radius of the hospital" Derek offers.

Meredith's head flies up from perusing the pages "two bedrooms?" she asks.

"Yeah, two bedrooms" he replies "I'd rather that I still got to sleep beside you on the nights Yang decides to crash over"

"Ok" she beams at him.

Once again silence falls on the room as they sit eyes locked on each other. For the first time today, and maybe in a while, the emotions that shine from their eyes are in synch.

"I love you" Meredith offers, directly too him, in what seems like forever.

Derek closes the space between them, his hands grasps the sides of her chin as he gently caresses her face as he lowers his lips to hers. After a kiss full of love, passion and promise, they pull slightly apart and smile into each other's eyes. Derek's fingers continue to stroke the soft skin of her face. His forehead rests on hers. "I love you too" he replies.

Meredith's smile widens and her hands move to the curls at the back of his neck, she gently tugs his mouth back to her and resumes their kiss.

Derek pulls back from the kiss and drops his hands to her shoulders, his fingers gently caressing small circles through the t-shirt.

"So we're not over?" he asks.

"No" she replies with a small shake of her head "I'm in this"

"Me too" Derek offers "I am so in this, I have been for ages, I just needed something from you to show you were too, the postcards were great.."

"Even the first ones?" Meredith interjects an amused look on her face.

Derek mock grimaces "Even the first ones, at least you were telling me how you felt, and what you had to say, well most of that I deserved" Derek moves a finger to Meredith's lips as she starts to interject "and I just want to say Sorry"

"Me too" she adds kissing the finger on her lips. Derek caresses her soft plump lips with his finger.

Derek sighs a little and says "So we have some stuff to work through, but we love each other, we're both in, we both want it.. but yeah there is more talking and working stuff out to do"

"I know, but not all now, can we talk as we go, as we work this out" Meredith gestures between them.

"Yeah, that sounds good" Derek replies "But I got something else for you" he hands her a small package from his jeans pocket. Meredith's laughter fills the room as she opens it to find a hello kitty pen and a pile of space needle postcards "Just in case you forget how to talk to me, you can always write me a postcard, maybe hand deliver it though" he suggests.

"Ok, but I might stick to talking" Meredith laughed, "the suspense of waiting for a reply can be a killer"

Derek returns her smile, then a serious look passes his face "The thing is though, it's not just you, I know I hide, I become absent" Meredith offers him a wry shrug in agreement at this, he fishes into his front jean pocket and pulls out a keyring "So here, these are the keys to the trailer, you keep them, if I'm tempted to run and hide, I have to come and ask for them".

Meredith laughs again as she takes the keys "Ok".

They lean in for another long passionate kiss. Once again Derek is the first to pull away. Meredith looks at him quizzically.

Derek sighs "So, slow?" he asks.

"Slow?"

"Yeah, slow like last time, no sex, take it slow" he reminds her

"No"

"No?"

"No, just sex didn't work, no sex didn't work…. how about we just do what feels right?" Meredith smiles at him.

"Ok" Derek nods, beaming, "I like the sound of that"

They lean in to kiss again, passion burning in their eyes. Derek pauses and raises his eyebrows at Meredith. "Want to show me your tan lines?" he asks, as his fingers tug at the hem of her t-shirt.

THE END

AN – Firstly THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the reviews.. I never expected this response. I'm happy cause even though some (well most) of the writing is rough, it's the first time I've followed through a story plan from the start to the end.

There was more to this chapter, but it was already so long.. so I have started a small sequel to this that should be up in the next few days.

Hope you enjoyed.