64. Valentine's Day

Disclaimer: I wish I owned it, but I don't.

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If there was any holiday that a newlywed couple did not want to work on, it was Valentine's Day. But as luck would have it, Meredith and Derek just weren't given that luxury this year. So while other couples were off getting their romance on, theirs had to be put on hold until their shifts were over, which wasn't for another ten hours.

Cristina and Meredith sat in the OR gallery, watching Derek operate on a newborn with hydrocephalus that needed a brain shunt to drain the excess cerebral spinal fluid. Normally, Meredith would be down there in the OR assisting him, but because she got pulled into an emergency surgery earlier this morning, George stepped in and took her place instead, not that Meredith particularly minded. She'd helped Derek do the procedure before, so it wasn't like she was missing out on much anyway.

She leaned back in her chair, her feet propped up on the back of the chair in front of her. "I'm exhausted," she sighed. "Are you exhausted?"

Cristina shrugged as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Exhausted is the new normal," she joked. "When I feel awake, it's weird."

"Last night, I fell asleep on the couch. At eight thirty," Meredith said, embarrassed. "Derek worked late and carried me upstairs when he got home."

"You mean there was no pre-Valentine's Day sexing?" Cristina asked mockingly.

Meredith took a long sip of her coffee then shook her head. "Nope."

"Wow, you must have been really tired then," Cristina said. "You two have sex every night."

"We do not," Meredith corrected. "Most nights, but not every night."

"Okay, thinking of you and McDreamy doing it freaks me out a little," Cristina sighed, resting her head on the back of her chair. "So is he wining and dining you tonight?"

Meredith yawned. "Don't know. Last year, he took me to the Space Needle for lunch and then sexed me all night long, so he's capable of anything," she giggled. "What about you?"

"Owen wants to take me to some French restaurant, but I dunno yet..."

"Cristina," Meredith said, exasperated. "He loves you, and he wants to take you out for Valentine's Day. Every girl's dream. Go."

"Dark and twisty has been replaced with married gooeyness," Cristina teased. "I don't know which one's scarier."

Meredith swatted her friend playfully in the arm. "Shut up. I'm happy." And she really was. Even if Valentine's Day wasn't all that romantic yet didn't mean she woke up any less in love with her husband. Today was just a day to add a bit of cheesiness to it, something Derek was already very good at.

"Well, obviously," Cristina laughed.

"I kinda hope he doesn't have too much planned. Honestly, I'd be happy with a few screaming orgasms and a box of chocolates," Meredith admitted, taking a bite of her granola bar.

"Wow."

Meredith laughed. "What?"

"So much for romance, huh?" Cristina remarked sarcastically.

"Sex with Derek is always romantic. He does this thing where he--" Meredith began before Cristina interrupted, waving her hands in a halting motion.

"Oh God, please leave me in the dark about that one."

"Hey guys," Izzie greeted, dropping down in the seat next to Cristina, her coffee mug in one hand and a chart in the other. "What're we talking about?"

Cristina sighed audibly. "Oh, Meredith is just divulging sex secrets and I'm getting more creeped out by the second."

"Someone is just jealous," Meredith teased, signing her name to a patient chart and flinging it onto the empty chair next to her.

"Hey, I lived with them for a year. Don't think I don't know all of those secrets. Believe me, I know..." Izzie said as she stared ahead, eyes wide as some vivid memories of sleeping across the hall from the two of them crossed her mind.

Down in the OR, Derek was just removing his headset and thanking the OR team, signaling the end of his surgery. Meredith hopped up off her seat and grabbed her charts. "Well, I'm going to get laid. Have fun talking about my sex life," she giggled.

After Derek scrubbed out, Meredith met him in the hall, anxious to get a few minutes of alone time with her husband, whom she'd barely gotten to spend any time with yet today besides the drive into work. "Hey," she smiled, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

He and Meredith rarely did PDAs at work, but given the holiday, they both figured it was okay. "Hey," he grinned. Derek glanced around to make sure the hall was clear, then kissed her with all he had, showing her just how much he loved her.

"Hmm," Meredith giggled against his lips. "You're happy."

"It's Valentine's Day. Of course I'm happy," Derek chuckled, pulling off his scrub cap. They walked down the hall toward the nurses' station so they could deposit their collective charts, hoping they could skip away unnoticed for a while. "Aren't you happy?"

"Tired. Hungry. But yes, I'm happy." She smiled at her husband and gently squeezed his hand. "So are you gonna let me in on what you have planned for tonight?"

The two made their way for the elevator down to the cafeteria. Lunch really couldn't have come at a better time, seeing as Meredith's hunger pangs were starting to get annoying. Derek pushed the down arrow and smirked at her. "What do you want to do tonight?"

"Derek."

He laughed, resting his hand on the small of her back so she could enter the elevator before him. "What? Honestly, I didn't plan anything. I figured you would just want take-out on the couch, then sex all night," he explained.

Meredith had to give him credit. Derek knew her far too well. "See? That's why I married you," she said.

"But..." Derek added. "I owe you a dinner. Fancy restaurant this weekend, just the two of us."

"Okay," she said softly, running her fingers through his hair. "We can do that."

"I think if we went out tonight, we'd both fall asleep at the table," Derek joked as they walked off the elevator toward the cafeteria.

Meredith laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Wanna eat in my office?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, dropping a sandwich, iced tea, and a bag of chips down next to Derek's food on their shared tray. Just as she was about to suggest that they make the most out of their lunch break by having a quickie on the couch, Meredith thought better of it. Bringing up sex in the lunch line probably wasn't a good idea.

They paid for their lunch and made the trek back upstairs to Derek's office, which had become just as much hers as it was his. Since he'd gotten them the couch for Christmas, on-call rooms were a thing of the past; after one night on the fancy pillow-top mattress and there was no way Meredith would ever downgrade.

She tossed her white coat next to Derek's on his desk chair then dropped down onto the couch. Derek set their food on the small coffee table in front of them and kissed her cheek. It may not have been lunch at a five star restaurant with fancy waiters and wine glasses, but this worked for them. Just being together, sneaking away and enjoying the holiday. That was probably more fun anyway.

After they finished eating lunch, he went over to his desk drawer then set a heart-shaped box of chocolates down on her lap; Meredith smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered, leaning in to kiss her husband.

"I had to buy you chocolate. It's a requisite gift for Valentine's Day," Derek chuckled. "And a card, too."

Meredith opened the red envelope and pulled out the card inside. There was a picture of a cartoon squirrel on the cover holding two walnuts in either hand. Meredith laughed and read the card aloud. "I'm nuts for you," she giggled, opening it up.

Mer,

I bought this card just so I could hear you laugh. Yes, I'm serious. Happy Valentine's Day. I love you.

Love, Derek

She looked over to her husband and smiled widely. "I love it. Thank you."

Derek pressed a kiss to her temple, grinning against her skin. "You're welcome."

When she tore the celophane off the box of chocolates, Derek's smile reached his eyes. "Are you eating them now?"

"Well, you're going to help me. I don't want to be the glutton who eats the whole box. Believe me, I could do it," Meredith giggled, popping a caramel filled chocolate into her mouth.

"Fine," Derek said, grabbing a truffle one and biting into it. One taste and he was thankful that he'd sprung for the expensive imported stuff from Switzerland. Not that price mattered; Meredith enjoyed her chocolate, and he was more than happy to splurge on it for her. "This is really good."

"Hmm..." Meredith giggled as she went to straddle his lap. "It is. And I think I need to find a way to thank you for getting it for me," she whispered into his ear, gently tugging on his earlobe with her teeth.

Derek pulled her hair from her ponytail and ran his fingers through the waves of hair that fell around her shoulders. "I think so too," he agreed. Just as he was about to untie the drawstring to her scrub pants, Meredith's pager went off, thus ending the sex that was about to happen on the couch.

"Damn," Meredith sighed. She checked her pager and scrunched her nose. "Bailey. I have to go," she said regretfully, climbing off his lap. Of all days to get interrupted by a page, Valentine's Day wasn't exactly ideal. She reached for her coat and put it back on. "Thirteen hours into Valentine's Day and there's been no sex yet. That's just wrong."

"Later," Derek promised. He tilted her chin toward him and kissed her, enough to let her know that he fully planned to follow through on his promise.

"Later," she echoed. "Definitely."

Before she exited his office, she turned around and smiled coyly at her husband. "Bring the chocolate home."

Derek laughed. "I will."

--

As soon as Meredith entered the pit, she wished more than anything that she was back in Derek's office. Any holiday, even one dedicated to corny, romantic cards and overpriced chocolate seemed to draw a crowd at Seattle Grace. And Meredith always had a way of ending up in the thick of it all every time. She walked over to Dr. Bailey at the nurses' station and smiled at her former resident.

"You paged?"

"Yeah, curtain three needs a consult. Hailey Scott, five year old girl complaining of severe stomach pains," Bailey explained, searching in her stack for the correct chart, then handing it off to Meredith.

Meredith accepted the chart and nodded. "Okay." She walked over to where the little girl was, lying back in the bed with her mom next to her. "Hi, I'm Dr. Shepherd," Meredith greeted. "Are you Hailey?" she asked the little girl with a reassuring smile.

"Uh huh," the red haired five year old nodded, clutching her stomach, her knees curled up to her chest.

"Okay," she said. "When did your belly start to hurt?"

Hailey glanced over to her mother, who stepped in to speak for the shy child. "She told me she had a stomach ache this morning before school. But she didn't want to miss her Valentine's Day dance, so I let her go. An hour ago, the school nurse called and told me Hailey was throwing up and was running a fever, and suggested that I take her to the ER just to be safe. Is she...do you think she'll be okay?" Mrs. Scott asked worriedly as she combed her fingers through her daughter's hair.

"I want to run a few tests, but let's not worry until we have to, okay?" Meredith said calmly and comfortingly. "Hailey, could you roll onto your back for me so I can look at your belly?" she asked the girl.

Hailey reluctantly rolled onto her back and Meredith lifted her dress slightly to palpate the girl's abdomen. When she pressed her fingers over the lower right side, the girl flinched back in pain. "Is that where your belly hurts?" Meredith asked.

The little girl nodded, tears beginning to make their way down her face. Meredith could tell she was in a great deal of pain, and knew what she said next wouldn't make her visit any more pleasant. "Okay," Meredith said softly. She turned toward Mrs. Scott. "I'm suspecting appendicitis, but I need to draw some blood first to make sure."

"Okay," the girl's mother nodded.

Hailey shook her head, burying her face into the pillow. "I don't want to."

"I know," Meredith said sympathetically. "But I promise, it only hurts for a few seconds. And after that, we'll be able to give you some medicine to make your belly stop hurting, okay?"

After some convincing and consoling, Meredith was able to draw a blood sample and had it sent off to the lab for tests. Within a half hour, she went back to pick them up. As soon as she saw the high white blood cell count, she knew it was appendicitis. With any luck, Dr. Bailey would allow her to do the surgery by herself, like she'd done on New Year's eve. If there was anything good about working in the pit, it was first dibs on the traumas that rolled in.

She walked back into the ER and found Bailey finishing up on a consult. "Dr. Bailey," she called out.

"How's your patient?" she asked.

"I just got the labs back. Appendicitis," Meredith informed her. "She's in a lot of pain. I was going to give her a low dose of morphine while we wait for the OR."

Bailey nodded in approval. "Good. Book an OR and get her into a room. You're doing this one solo. You've done it before, you can do it again. I trust you," she said confidently.

Meredith smiled. "Thank you, Dr. Bailey."

"And if you're able to come back down here and stitch up the drunken fool in curtain four while you're waiting for the OR, I'll make sure you and Shepherd get out of here at a decent hour, my gift to you," Bailey said, grabbing another chart.

"Right away," Meredith said eagerly. She was willing to do almost anything to get herself and Derek at home, in bed, and naked as soon as possible. With Valentine's Day sex on the horizon, it was worth it.

After booking the OR, Meredith took Hailey up to a patient room, got her in a gown, and was now trying to get IV access, which was proving to be a difficult task. Five year olds and needles were never a pleasant mix. "This is going to make you feel better," Meredith said as she rubbed a an alcohol wipe over the girl's arm. "It's only going to hurt for a few seconds, okay?"

When the child bent her arm, resisting the IV, Meredith smiled at her. "You know, I had to get my appendix out a while ago. And I didn't want to get a needle either. But I felt so much better when I did. My belly ache went away," Meredith said, thinking back to her own morphine experience. Sure, she was higher than a kite and Derek still teased her about it occasionally, but she was pain free.

"Okay," Hailey finally consented, much to Meredith's relief. Gentle convincing was always a better route than anything else.

But her patience was quickly worn thin when she went back down to the pit to stitch up the guy in curtain four, who kept trying to hit on her, despite Meredith's blatant avoidance, not to mention the wedding ring on her finger.

"You're hot," Dan, the drunk man grinned, leaning back in the bed as Meredith examined his facial laceration.

"Thank you. Now hold still," she ordered. "So how'd you manage this one?" she asked as she irrigated the cut.

"Bar fight," Dan shrugged. "Some ass tossed a bottle at me."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "And I'm sure you did nothing to deserve it, right?"

"Hey," Derek greeted as he walked up next to her.

Her attention was momentarily pulled from her patient and she smiled. "Hey."

"Doc, tell her she's hot," the man said to Derek.

"She's my wife. I know she's hot," Derek smirked. "And as her husband, I'd appreciate if you would stop saying that."

"Thank you," Meredith smiled amusedly.

"Damn," Dan sighed. "Valentine's Day and you two are stuck here? That sucks."

Meredith injected the man's forehead with an anesthetic, hoping it would shut him up for a few minutes. "Yeah, it really does. Now hold still while I sew you up, or you might lose an eye," she said, and Derek laughed. When Meredith was cranky and unsexed, any patient that annoyed her suffered her wrath.

"Here, let me finish," Derek offered. "You have the appy soon. Go relax for a while before it starts."

"Really?"

Derek kissed her cheek and took the needle and sutures from her hand. "Part of my Valentine's Day gift," he chuckled.

"Dude, you're so getting laid tonight," Dan chimed in, a smile on his face.

Meredith pulled her gloves off and tossed them in the trash. "Yep, he is."

True to her word, Bailey made sure Meredith got to leave early with Derek. The appy was quick and successful, and after taking Hailey to post-op, Meredith met up with her husband in the lobby and they were out the doors by six, two hours before they were supposed to leave. Getting to leave early on any day was rare, especially a holiday. So, lack of sex aside, the day wasn't half bad.

--

"Holy crap," Meredith panted as she lay back in bed trying to catch her breath. Dinner had been eaten, a bottle of wine had been finished off, and now they were making up for all of the sex they should have been having all day. And it was quite the payoff.

"Yeah," Derek laughed, lying beside her as he, too, relaxed before round three began.

She looked over at her husband and smiled. "That totally made up for being interrupted this afternoon..."

Derek cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her. "Hmm," he hummed against her lips. "It did."

"I hated Valentine's Day before you came along. Now I kinda love it," Meredith giggled, rolling on top of him, her naked body pressed against his.

"Because of the chocolate and the lingerie and all the sex?" Derek asked teasingly as he ran his fingers over her back.

"Well, there's that..." she admitted. "But really because I never had anyone to appreciate it with. I never understood it, you know? But now I do and it's just...I don't know. I'm glad I get to celebrate it with you," Meredith said softly.

"Me too," Derek whispered, settling his warm hands down on her bottom, making Meredith gasp.

"Derek!"

He grinned at her innocently. "What?" he laughed.

"Feeling me up while I'm trying to have a warm, gooey moment with you," she said, her fingers tangled in his hair.

"Sorry," he apologized. "What were you saying?"

The feel of his naked body beneath her wasn't exactly making her train of thought coherent, so Meredith just smiled at him. "That I love you," she replied, her eyes sparking even in their dimly lit bedroom.

"I love you too."

Meredith raised up and sat up on top of him, grinding her hips into his. He could tell by the way she bit her lip and smiled at him that she was ready for round three. Valentine's Day or not, their insatiability was always there.

"Wanna go again?" Meredith asked coyly, already grabbing a condom as she waited for his answer.

Derek smiled back at her. "Always."

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