35. Right Next to Me

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Last night, after their outdoor sex, Meredith and Derek finally made their way back into the hotel room to shower and go to bed. Between all of the sex, activity of the day, and the plane ride, they were exhausted. As soon as their heads hit the pillows, they were asleep within minutes. The next morning, they decided to sleep in. That was something they rarely got the chance to do, and they wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity.

The sun was shining in through the window and pouring over them. Meredith rolled over and curled up into Derek's side. Though he was still sleeping, he instinctively wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. Whether he was dreaming or not, he whispered a barely audible "I love you."

Meredith smiled sleepily and kissed his chest. "Love you too."

Around 11:00, Derek decided he'd been sleeping long enough. He hadn't slept that late in a long time, but it was definitely refreshing. He gently got out of bed and closed the curtains before brushing his teeth. When he came out, Meredith was still sound asleep, sprawled out on her stomach. She was snoring softly and her hair was a mess of wild waves spread out over the pillow. Derek leaned over and kissed the back of her head softly, and then called down for breakfast for them. Breakfast in bed was something she liked, though he knew she would label such a thing as "couply."

He ordered a variety of breakfast foods, knowing that she wasn't very picky and could probably out-eat him if she wanted to. When Meredith heard the knock on the door, she opened her eyes and looked to Derek.

Derek smiled back at her. "Breakfast."

Meredith sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then glanced over to the clock. It was almost noon and all she had done was sleep. She simply shrugged it off. Her body needed the rest, especially after spending three consecutive nights on call this week. She quickly went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth before rejoining Derek in bed. He had opened the curtains slightly so some light could shine into the room and flipped on the television.

"What did you order?", Meredith asked sleepily as she rejoined him in bed.

Derek kissed her cheek and handed her a cup of coffee. "A lot."

"I can see that", she giggled. She took as sip of her coffee and placed it on the nightstand. "You really know how to make me happy, don't you?"

"I like to think so", Derek smiled with a nod, handing her a fork.

Meredith took it from him and immediately grabbed a forkful of eggs off the plate. "So what do you want to do today?"

"Doesn't matter to me", he replied. "Our flight home isn't until eleven tonight, so we have time."

"It feels like we just got here. I don't want to leave", Meredith frowned, picking up a piece of bacon.

Derek thought for a moment. "I could call Richard…see if we could get tomorrow off."

"No that's okay. I don't want to take advantage. And I already owe Cristina a weekend shift. Being in shift debt—not good", she sighed.

"What time do you have to be in tomorrow?", Derek asked.

"Seven", she informed him, biting into a piece of toast. "What about you?"

"I have a surgery at nine. I'll just go in with you—catch up on paperwork" Derek shrugged.

Meredith smiled. "If I get trapped in the clinic doing nothing, will you let me scrub in?"

"I might…", he replied nonchalantly. Obviously he would let her scrub in, he just enjoying joking around with her.

"I gave you hot outdoor sex on a lounge chair last night. You better let me scrub in", she demanded, giggling slightly.

"That was pretty good, wasn't it?", he smiled, kissing her cheek. "Best birthday ever."

"I brought a gift with me. Do you want it now?", she asked with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah", Derek responded.

Meredith swung her legs over the side of her bed and walked over to her suitcase. After rummaging through for several moments, she eventually found the item in question and walked back over with the neatly wrapped present. "Here you go", she smiled softly. "I um…it's not much, but—anyway, happy birthday."

Derek gave her an assuring smile before accepting the gift from her hands. He slowly opened the small gift and a grin spread over his face as he realized what it was. "Where did you find this?", he asked happily, holding his new black scrub cap, with "The Clash" logo written all over it.

Meredith laughed. "I had it made for you."

"You did?", he asked in shock.

"Yeah. I wanted it to be something special", she admitted, smiling at his happiness.

"You're the coolest", he laughed, kissing her cheek. "It's my new favorite."

"You like it?", she asked with a smile.

"I love it", he said softly. He tilted her chin up with his finger and kissed her sweetly.

"Hmm…", Meredith murmured against his lips. "Really?"

"Really", Derek breathed. "Thank you."

Meredith smiled. "You're welcome."

"I can't believe you actually had this made. That's just—the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me", Derek replied genuinely.

"You can make everyone jealous…even though The Clash sort of sucks…", she mocked lightly, the humor evident in her voice.

"People will be jealous of this", he agreed. "And they don't suck. You just have bad taste in music."

Meredith feigned hurt. "I do not."

"Duran Duran sucks, Mer", he laughed.

"They do not", she argued amusedly.

"Fine", he conceded. "One day, I'll get you your own Duran Duran scrub cap."

"I'd wear it with pride", she said with a nod and a smile.

Derek kissed her cheek. "I know you would."

Meredith wrapped her arms around his torso and hugged him. "I love you."

Every time she said that, he smiled. There was no greater feeling in the world than being in love with Meredith. And he would never take a moment of it for granted. "I love you too." He kissed the top of her head and breathed in the lavender scent he couldn't live without.

"So we need to make plans today…", Meredith insisted, pulling back slightly from the hug and eating a bite of her syrup covered pancake. "We still need to get you a birthday cake too. I wanted to do that last night, but we kind of got sidetracked…"

Derek took a sip of his coffee. "I liked the sidetracking."

"Me too", she giggled. "I'm not sure the room service people will make us a birthday cake though."

"I really don't need a birthday cake", he laughed. "I'm an old man now, remember?"

Meredith smirked. "True. But everybody deserves birthday cake."

"We can just order a lot of desserts…have them delivered", Derek suggested.

"Do you think they have candles?", she asked.

"Are you going to sing to me?", he questioned amusedly.

Meredith laughed. "No. But you need to make a wish and blow out the candles. That's what people do on birthdays, right?"

"Generally, yeah", he agreed. "I'm sure they could get some candles for us."

"Okay", Meredith smiled. "Then what?"

"Horseback riding?", he suggested, smirking slightly.

Meredith looked at him incredulously. "Do you seriously think I'd do that?"

"No", Derek laughed. "Well, how about a carriage ride through the vineyard?"

"They do that?", she asked, spreading cream cheese on her bagel.

Derek laughed at her hearty appetite but said nothing. "Yeah."

"That sounds like fun then. We could bring some wine…", she said as she bit into the bagel.

"We could", he agreed, taking a bite off the eggs. "Maybe we could even have sex in the vineyard…"

"And how would we pull that off?", she questioned.

"We're creative. I'm sure we could find a way", he pointed out with a grin.

"Maybe if we offered the carriage driver a threesome", she joked.

Derek laughed heartily at her remark. "As much as I'd like that…", he teased. "I sort of enjoy when it's just the two of us."

"You just want me all to yourself", she corrected, giggling slightly.

"True", Derek shrugged. "And you still owe me plane sex."

"You'll get your plane sex tonight", Meredith informed him as she finished off her toast.

"That's one good thing about late night flights—less passengers", Derek grinned.

Meredith looked at him and smirked. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"I wish I could take credit for that, but no. I was running late for surgery, so I just picked whatever was available", Derek explained.

"I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow morning", Meredith said, taking another sip of her coffee.

"When we get home, we can just relax…save the unpacking for tomorrow night", Derek smiled.

Meredith nodded and smiled slightly. "Okay."

Derek kissed her cheek before hopping off the bed. "I'm going to go call and make a reservation for the carriage ride."

"Okay", Meredith replied, licking some syrup off her finger.

"Want me to ask if it costs more to have sex in one?", he kidded.

"No, I don't want you to ask that", she scolded, finishing off her breakfast. "We are not having sex in a carriage. Or in a vineyard. That's just…people are going to eat those grapes. Would you want to eat sex grapes?"

"What are sex grapes?", he asked amusedly.

Meredith scowled at him, but it was quickly replaced with a smirk. "Would you just shut up and call?"

--

Later on that day, after relaxing and getting in another round of sex, they finally left the hotel room and made their way to the vineyard. It was located right next to the hotel, so they decided to take the short walk instead of taking the car over.

"Is this going to be cheesy?", Meredith asked as she and Derek walked hand in hand across the property.

Derek laughed. "Yeah, probably."

"Crap. We forgot wine", Meredith frowned.

"It's all taken care of…", Derek stated simply, a smile on his face.

"Uh huh…", she giggled. "And what does that mean?"

"What do you mean?", he asked.

Meredith looked at him and rolled her eyes. She knew that however much she prodded, he wasn't going to reveal anything. "Nothing", she smiled.

When they came in sight of the carriage, Meredith gasped. "Derek."

"Hmm?", he asked quietly.

"It's…I just didn't think it'd be this…fancy", she explained.

The excitement in her voice made Derek smile. "Of course it is."

In front of them was a white carriage drawn by a horse. It was very Cinderella-esque to say the least, but Meredith still couldn't tear the smile off her face. There was nowhere else she'd rather be than right here with Derek, the love of her life. "Thank you", she whispered, standing on tiptoes to kiss his cheek softly.

"For what?", he asked curiously.

"Uh…this", she said, pointing to the general direction of the carriage.

"Oh. No biggie", he shrugged, greeting the carriage driver with a small nod. He motioned for her to step inside before him. Meredith stepped up into the seat and moved to the far end so Derek could take his place next to her.

After he sat down, Meredith looked at him and smiled softly. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and the carriage driver began strolling through the vineyards. The sun was shining softly over the vast fields, casting everything in a warm glow.

"Too cheesy?", Derek asked, chuckling slightly.

Meredith rested her head on his shoulder and laced his fingers with her own. "Not so much."

"Okay. Good", he said with a small smile.

Several minutes of comfortable silence passed before either of them spoke. "Derek…", she said in a whisper.

"Hmm?", he responded softly.

Meredith squeezed his hand gently. "Thank you", she breathed.

"Thank you", he replied. He tipped up her chin and gave her a passionate but tender kiss.

"Think we'll be back here one day?", she asked honestly.

Derek nodded. "Yeah. Only we need to plan a longer trip next time. Two days isn't enough…"

"We'll be able to take vacations, right?", she asked. "Like, once we eventually have kids, we'll take vacations with them?"

"Of course. We're going to do all that stuff—family stuff. That's going to be our main priority. We'll have our jobs, but family is going to come first. Family is always going to come first", he assured her.

Meredith nodded and moved closer to him. "Okay…it's just that…growing up, family vacations weren't even an option. My mother refused to leave the hospital to tuck me in at night, let alone going to Disney World or something", she explained. "Sorry…I'm ruining the romantic mood here. I'll just shut up…"

"Mer", Derek interrupted, giving her a soft smile. "We're going to be home to tuck our kids in every night. If both of us can't be there, one of us always will be. That's something you don't even have to worry about."

Meredith smiled slightly. "Okay."

"Okay", Derek repeated, kissing her temple. "Want some wine."

"Yeah", she nodded. "Wine would be nice."

Derek reached across the seat and retrieved the bottle of wine and two wine glasses from the small ice bucket.

Meredith took the wine glasses from his hands so he could pour some into each of the glasses for them. When he was done, he put the bottle back into the ice bucket and took one of the glasses from Meredith's hand.

"This is good", Meredith said after taking a sip.

"When I called, I asked them for the best bottle they had", Derek replied. He took as sip, then smiled at her, noticing the pensive look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Meredith turned her head and looked at him. "Hmm?"

"You okay?", he asked softly.

"Yeah", Meredith whispered with a smile. "I just…I'm happy that I'm here with you."

Derek kissed her cheek. "I'm happy that I'm here with you too. We should come back next year."

"We should", Meredith agreed. "Maybe we can come back for the four days we have off for the conferences."

"I'd like that", Derek grinned. "Ninety-six uninterrupted hours is better than forty-eight."

"Think of all the sex we could have in ninety-six hours…", Meredith said quietly, so the driver couldn't hear them.

"Lots and lots", he mused. "Married sex."

"I heard that the sex slows down after marriage", Meredith said with a slight smirk.

"Not in our case. I guarantee you", he grinned.

"You sound pretty sure of yourself", Meredith teased as she inched closer to Derek's body.

Derek laughed. "I am sure."

"Hmm…", Meredith sighed contentedly. She kissed his cheek and rested her head on his shoulder.

Derek kissed the top of her head and smiled. They both enjoyed the comfortable silence of just being together as they strolled through the vineyard, taking in the surroundings and savoring the remaining hours of their peaceful getaway.

--

When they arrived back at the hotel, Meredith ordered two pieces of chocolate cake to the hotel room, along with a candle. While they waited for it to arrive, they packed up their things and made sure everything was ready to go for when they drove back to the airport for their flight that evening.

After the cake was delivered, they sat outback at the small table. The sun was just setting and the day was still warm. Meredith sat next to him and kissed his cheek. "If you want me to sing to you, I'll sing."

Derek laughed. "Really?"

"Okay, no. But it's the thought that counts, right?", she asked with a giggle.

"Yeah", he chuckled. "It's the thought that counts."

"I'll light it for you", she offered. She lit the match and held it to the wick of the small blue candle sticking out from the top of the cake.

Meredith looked at him confusedly as he stared at the lit candle. "What are you doing?"

"Thinking of a wish", he explained.

"That's easy", Meredith shrugged.

"Not as easy as you think", he chuckled.

"Why?", she asked.

Derek smiled. "Because. Who needs wishes when all I need in life is sitting right next to me?" Derek leaned in and kissed her softly before blowing out the candle.

The perfect way to end their forty-eight uninterrupted hours.

Fluffy enough? I can't help myself. :P

I promise the wedding is coming. I have a plan for it, and eventually I'll get it written down. It's just taking me a while because I want to make it perfect for them. :)

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