Alison's House of Grey - Many the Miles - Chapter 1B

Meredith found an empty space in the parking lot of the Washington State Ferry.

“We’re here,” Meredith announced as Derek continued staring out the window.

“You remembered,” he said as he took in the sight of a gigantic ferryboat on the water. He got out of the car and rushed to Meredith’s side, helping her out of the car as well. He enveloped her in a hug, wrapping his strong, muscular arms around her thin frame.

“How could I forget?" she said. "I don’t know many people who share my love for ferryboats.” She led him to the ticket counter and purchased two round trip tickets to Bainbridge Island.

The passenger deck was largely empty. Most of the commuters had already gone home for the evening, and traffic to Bainbridge Island was particularly light at this time on a weeknight. It was a thirty-five minute ferry ride there, and they would only have a couple hours to stroll around the island, but she knew that it would be the perfect spot to continue their date.

Derek and Meredith wandered on the outside deck, hands intertwined as they talked. The night air was crisp and moist, but Meredith didn’t even notice the goosebumps forming on her skin, and Derek was quick to draw her closer to him the moment he noticed.

“Do you want to go inside?” he offered as he blanketed her in his arms. Meredith had her back to him as they both stared out at the Seattle skyline, the wind blowing through her hair.

“I’m fine here for now, but maybe on the way back,” she said as she settled against his body.

Derek moved her hair off to one side, giving him complete access to the curve of her neck down to her collarbone. She felt her heart race as he leaned in and started a trail of moist, hot kisses under her earlobe, drawing her closer and closer to him.

It would be impossible to say no to him.

She tilted her head to the side, easing his access to her sensitive skin, and closed her eyes. “Derek,” she murmured.

“I can’t help myself,” he said. “It’s…you’re…here.”

“I am.”

“I can see you and taste you and touch you,” he said between kisses.

She broke away and turned around to face him, her eyes heavy with desire. “It’s pretty great, isn’t it?” she said. He couldn’t be the only one to see and taste and touch. She smoothed her hands over his chest, flattening her palms against his pectoral muscles and imagining the warm skin beneath his shirt.

His hands drifted along her body, settling on her hips as he eliminated all space between them. Their eyes met, and he kissed her passionately. Meredith felt as if fire was flooding her veins as she pushed against him, sandwiched between this familiar stranger and the cold, steel rails of the platform. A million people could have been watching them, and she wouldn’t have stopped. She was lost in his world, and she had no inclination to leave.

Eventually, Derek pulled away, tipping his forehead down to lean against hers. “We can’t do this now,” he said.

Meredith sighed.

“I want to do this, believe me. It’s just…we’re on a ferry, and you turn me on so much. I really want to be alone with you,” he said.

Meredith frowned, unable to conceal her disappointment. “Okay,” she said. Did I really say there would be no sex tonight? It’s not really a first date. We know each other. And it’s not like the first date restriction has stopped me before. And he’s only in town for a short time…Within moments she had rationalized exactly where the night would lead.

The ferry docked at Bainbridge Island, and they walked the nearby streets, settling on a coffee shop to pass the time until the last ferry back to Seattle.

“How would you compare New York and Seattle?” Meredith asked before Derek fed her a bite of his chocolate cheesecake. Her lips dragged against the fork, anxious to get every last morsel before Derek took the utensil away.

“No comparison, really," he said. "They’re two totally different worlds. But if I must…”

“You must,” Meredith teased.

“New York is obviously bigger and has a much larger nightlife – not that I’m at all complaining about our activities this evening,” Derek said.

“I hope not.” She washed down her dessert with hot coffee.

“Definitely not. This has been amazing. I never get to do things like this in New York – the city is so congested, opportunities for nights like this just don’t exist.”

“But you like the big city?” she prodded.

Derek shrugged. “There are some things I like about it. The night life and the proximity to my family are definitely upsides. But Manhattan wears on you after a while. And I’m more the outdoorsy type. I’d much rather live in a trailer on some tract of land with a lake and my fishing pole than fight traffic to my brownstone every night.”

“Well, we certainly have plenty of greenery here in Seattle,” Meredith said.

“Are you trying to convince me to move out here?” He quirked a wry, reassuring smile in her direction as he waited for her answer.

Meredith blushed. She wanted to scream yes at the top of her lungs, but it was much too forward for her. She reminded herself to enjoy the time they had together, limited though it may be, and accept that there wouldn’t be anything more.

Derek laughed at her reaction. She didn’t need to say anything for him to know what she was thinking.

“Have you ever been to New York?” Derek asked.

“I visited a few times when I was in college and med school. Weekends with friends mostly,” she said.

“But did you have a tour guide as excellent as me?”

“Well, I’ve never taken the Derek Shepherd guided tour,” she joked. “I can’t really compare.”

He grinned. “You’ll have to try it sometime.”

“I will,” she said. She was already calculating her next stretch of time off, and she was thrilled to receive his invitation.

The final ferry back to Seattle left at 12:55, and they rushed back to the dock just in time to make it. They found themselves practically alone on the boat once again, but this time, they opted for the comfort and warmth of the indoor seating area. They settled in together near a window. Derek wrapped his arm around her shoulders and \kissed the top of her head. If they hadn’t had the caffeine infusion at the coffee shop, Meredith was certain she would have fallen asleep, as warm and comfortable as she felt nestled against him. But she was wide awake, and she had no intention of wasting a single second of their time together.

“Where are you staying in Seattle?” she asked.

“Some Marriott near the hospital," he said. "Pretty standard, boring, lonely room.”

“Aww, that sounds so sad.” She wondered if he was intentionally pointing out that it was lonely. She suspected he said it on purpose.

“It is. Poor Dr. Shepherd, hiding his secret pain alone at night,” he mocked himself.

“Secret pain?”

He laughed. “Not really.”

“Do you want to come over to my place?” She was surprised that her voice came out in a nervous whisper. “It’s no Marriott, but I have a fireplace and we could…hang out, or something.” Jesus, Mere, are you fourteen? Did you seriously just ask him to hang out at your place?

If Derek detected her awkwardness, he didn’t let on. “I’d really like that,” he answered.

Meredith sighed. “Yeah, me too.”

The remainder of the ferry ride and the subsequent drive home went by quickly. Meredith was relieved to see that none of her roommates were home, or, if they were, they weren’t awake. She wasn’t prepared to explain this relationship yet, and she wanted to keep Derek to herself as long as possible.

“You live here?” Derek asked as she parked the car and fumbled to take her keys out of the ignition. “On an intern’s salary?”

“It was my mother’s,” Meredith explained. She opened her door and led the way to the front porch. Motion-sensing lights illuminated their path.

Derek looked at her with concern. “Does she…”

“Don’t worry. She doesn’t live here anymore," she said. "I have a few roommates, but it doesn’t look like they’re home either. They all work at the hospital.” Meredith unlocked the front door and flipped on the foyer light.

“Got it.” Derek nodded.

Meredith gave him a quick tour of the main level and left him to start the fireplace while she found some beer in the refrigerator. Now that she had decided to let him come over to her house, she gave up her alcohol prohibition.

“So, not only are you speaking at the symposium tomorrow, but you’re the keynote speaker?” Meredith questioned as she passed him a beer and settled on the floor next to him. While she always detected that he was brilliant throughout their conversations, she didn’t realize how highly regarded he was in the field. The symposium planning committee spent months choosing speakers, and selection for the keynote position was fiercely competitive. Meredith couldn’t help but feel proud of Derek for being selected.

“Guilty as charged,” Derek said.

“What are you going to talk about?” she pressed.

Derek held up his hands. “I’m not going to waste our time tonight talking about work. If you want to know, you’ll have to come and see me tomorrow.”

Meredith frowned. “What time is your presentation at?” she asked.

Derek looked down at his watch. “It’s later this morning—eight, I think.”

“Derek, that’s less than six hours from now,” she said, surprised at how unconcerned he seemed to be.

His eyes fell with disappointment. “So what are you saying? Do you want to call it a night?” Derek asked.

“No, I don’t. But sleep…don’t you think you should sleep?” Meredith asked.

“I’ll sleep afterwards,” he said coolly. “Have you ever been to one of these?”

Meredith shook her head no.

“You’ll sleep too. Trust me,” he said. “Just not through mine,” he added.

Meredith laughed. “I haven’t committed to going to yours, yet.”

“You’re going. You wouldn’t miss it.” He leaned forward and kissed her, using their chemistry to emphasize his point.

Meredith melted like an ice cube held over a flame. There was no point in resisting him. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and twined her fingers in his hair.

“When do you have to go home?” Meredith asked as she pulled away. She could feel herself becoming attached already. She was falling far too hard for this man, and she knew saying goodbye would be difficult.

“Trying to get rid of me already?”

“Quite the contrary,” Meredith confessed. “I just want to know how much time we have left together before you leave.”

Derek smiled warmly, and his blue eyes sparkled in the glow of the fireplace. “My flight is scheduled for Sunday afternoon,” he said. “And I’m hoping to spend the rest of the weekend with you, if you don’t mind."

Meredith blushed. “That would be good,” she said as calmly as she could manage. “I’ll need to trade a couple shifts to get the time off, but I think I can work something out.”

Derek slid his arm around Meredith’s waist, pulling her closer to him. His head nuzzled against her hair, and she heard him take a deep breath. Everything about the evening had been far better than she had expected. Never in her late night post-phone call fantasies or intermittent email breaks did she expect their first encounter to be anything like this.

“If you need to spend some time at the hospital this weekend, I don’t mind," he said. "I’d like to spend some time there, too.” His voice was low and gravelly, dripping with apprehensive desire.

Amusement radiated from her face. “Why would you want to hang out there? Are you that much of a surgery junkie?” She turned towards him to gauge his reaction.

“It will help me make an informed decision,” he replied.

Meredith’s brow furrowed with confusion. “Decision about what, exactly?”

“About moving to Seattle. Richard offered me a job as Chief of Neurosurgery,” Derek said.

“What?” Meredith shrieked, pulling away from him.

Derek shrugged. “I knew before I got here that I was getting the job offer. It’s part of the reason I wanted to meet you – to see if there’s any potential for us. I didn’t want to say anything in case things didn’t work out. But, Meredith." His voice trailed off into a whisper. “Tonight, with you…it’s been amazing. I know we just met, but I feel like I’ve known you…forever. And I’d really like to give this a try."

Meredith relaxed back towards him. She wanted that too.

“Wow, Derek. This is a lot," she stammered. Her head was spinning at the possibilities.

“I know. It is a lot," he said. "Richard has made an incredibly persuasive offer, and I probably would have seriously considered it even if things didn’t go well between us. But I have to admit, Richard holds nothing over you.”

“So you’ll be moving to Seattle?” she voiced in shock.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice brimming with excitement.

“And you’ll be Chief of Neuro—you’ll be my boss, Derek,” she realized.

“Well, only at work,” he teased. He leaned in and kissed her neck. There was no chance she’d resist.

“But…you…” she said, unable to form a coherent thought with him so close, kissing her.

“I’ll explain it to Richard. It will be fine,” he said as he slid the strap of her dress off her shoulder and ran his thumb against her soft skin.

“Okay.” She inhaled as his lips trailed along her collarbone and towards her sternum before dipping into the valley between her breasts. There was nothing she could say or do to resist him, and she knew she didn’t want to anyway.

Derek’s fingers located the zipper on her dress and slid it lower, exposing the lacy black bra beneath as the dress started to fall towards her hips. Meredith closed her eyes and felt her heart racing in her chest.

“Are you sure about the no sex tonight policy?” he inquired. The coarse stubble on his jaw grazed her skin, tickling her sensitive nerve endings.

“I’m not sure of anything right now,” she murmured as she ran her fingers through his curls. “But I’m not saying no. I’m definitely not saying no.”

“Good,” he whispered. “Neither am I.” He paused to grab a couple pillows from the couch and placed them down on the floor for Meredith to lean back onto. She reached for his shirt and started fiddling with the buttons, slowed by the fact that her eyes were entranced by his and unable to focus on the task her hands were working to complete. There was something luring her to his gaze, and it wasn’t just the reflection from the flames in the fireplace.

Once his shirt was unbuttoned, Derek removed it and threw it onto the couch. Meredith slid her dress off the remainder of the way and did the same. Her skin was flushed and warm, but the heat showed no signs of dissipating as Derek slid his hands around her body to work on unfastening her bra. She could smell the musky scent of his aftershave, and his skin was starting to glisten with sweat. Her lips nuzzled against his neck while her hands glided along his back. He managed to slide her bra off each shoulder and toss the lacy black garment aside. He seemed delighted by the sight of her naked torso, and she leaned back against the pile of pillows, anticipating his further exploration of her body.

He cupped her breasts in his hands, drawing her nipples into hardened peaks with his tongue and mouth. She squirmed beneath him as the sensation rippled lower through her body, and her fingernails resumed grazing his back only to discover that his hips and waist were just out of reach. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she bit her lower lip, trying to stifle the longing moans from escaping.

Derek continued to drag his tongue lower, kissing a trail towards her navel and then lower still. She arched her back and splayed her legs further apart, inviting him to touch, but he chose to circumvent her black panties and kiss along her inner thigh instead. She reached for the cushions under her head and balled the corners in her fists in an effort to resist touching herself. She was getting so worked up that it wouldn't take him long to bring her to orgasm.

Derek’s hands slid along her hips, gripping the elastic of her panties. Rather than pull them off, however, he started kissing her through the garment, nudging her through the fabric in a way that left her begging him to go further. He soon pulled them away and accommodated, leaving her naked before him.

He resumed kissing her, trailing hot circles with his tongue. She writhed against the carpet in ecstasy, longing for so much more than his tongue to dip inside her. He suckled her slid two fingers inside, building a rhythm that sent her spiraling into orbit. Her hips bucked against him, and delighted whimpers escaped her lips before her body relaxed from its frenzy.

Derek pulled away and grinned. “I’m not done with you yet,” he whispered.

“Good,” she managed back as she sat up and helped him undo the pants that he was visibly straining against. She slid her hands beneath the waistband of his boxers, easing them down his thighs. Her eyes grew wide with lust at the sight of him, and she enveloped his shaft in her hands, circling its wet tip with her tongue. She watched as Derek located his wallet and withdrew a condom. He tore at the wrapper, and she took it from him. She rolled it on and fell back in shock when it began to glow.

“Glow in the Dark condoms?" She gasped. "Seriously?”

He smiled impishly at her. “Just one more thing to make the experience memorable,” he said.

Meredith laughed. “It’s just…”

“What?” He lowered her back down onto the pillows and nudged her legs apart.

Their eyes locked once again and Meredith’s fit of laughter subsided. She bit her lower lip in anticipation as he hovered over her, and she found herself mesmerized by his deep blue eyes.

Derek gripped Meredith’s hips and tilted her up as he slid inside of her. Both gasped at the tight fit. It had been months since Meredith had been with anyone like this, and she felt herself contracting around him, creating whole new levels of friction. His hands moved under her shoulders, pulling her down towards him as he kissed her neck and established a slowly building rhythm that let her feel every inch of him pushing in and slipping out.

“Oh god, I want to do this for hours,” Derek grumbled, barely audible.

Meredith smiled, knowing full well that they’d be doing this several more times over the span of the weekend. She met his mouth with hers and began rocking her hips against him, intensifying the pace in the process. Within moments they couldn’t control themselves any longer. Both climaxed amidst a flurry of excited moans and movements before Derek collapsed on top of her small frame. The weight of his body pinning her to the floor left her almost as breathless as the orgasm before it.

“Wow. That was…” she started.

“Yeah.” He grinned as he cut her off. He rolled off of her and basked in the flickering glow of the fireplace.

Meredith watched in awe as the shadows danced along his chest, tangling in the dark tufts of hair that cascaded along his sternum and feathered out around his stomach. She turned on her side and propped her head on her hand, unable to resist the temptation of running her fingers along his body.

“Well, I feel as though your no sex rule was successful,” Derek teased as he intercepted her hand and drew it up to his mouth.

“Absolutely,” Meredith said as she snuggled against him. “I think I’ll have to extend that rule for the rest of the weekend.”

Derek laughed. “You’ll have to give me a few minutes to recover, at least. I’ve been out of commission a while.”

His comment surprised her. “Out of commission? Really?” Meredith said.

Derek forced an awkward smile and exhaled. “Yeah, I haven’t been with anyone in months.”

“How long?” she pried. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have forced a conversation like this on the heels of having sex, but she was curious. She didn’t suspect that Derek Shepherd was someone who lacked opportunities.

“How long have we been in communication?” he asked.

Meredith shrugged. “Four months, maybe five.”

“Well, then it’s been about six or seven,” Derek replied. “And you?”

“Something like that,” she replied. Although she had given up on men several months ago, she had no interest in discussing her string of one night stands that led up to that decision.

Derek smiled and kissed her cheek before sitting up and searching for his underwear. “Can you point me towards the bathroom?” he asked as he snagged his boxers from the arm of the chair and stood up. The glow in the dark condom still lit against his skin, and Meredith once again fought to suppress a giggle.

“Through the kitchen, second door on the right.”

“Thanks,” Derek answered as he followed her directions.

Meredith reached for the chenille afghan on the back of the couch and wrapped it around her before she got up and wandered towards the kitchen. She found a clean glass inside the dishwasher, and walked over to the refrigerator to use the ice and water dispenser, listening for signs that Derek would be on his way back to her. Within seconds she heard the bathroom door open and his footsteps through the hall, heading towards the kitchen.

“Hi,” she said as she leaned against the cold door of the refrigerator.

He jumped back as though startled before smiling at her. “Hi,” he said. He changed direction to walk towards her.

She offered him the glass of water, and he took a small sip, never taking his eyes off her in the process.

“It’s after three,” Meredith said as she read the digital clock on the microwave. “What do you want to do?”

Derek sighed. “Well, there’s no real point in sleeping since I have to be back up so soon.”

Meredith bit down on her lower lip, quelling her excitement that they wouldn’t be ending their evening together yet.

“I’m going to need to go back to my hotel at some point to change. Maybe we could go back there now, catch a movie on pay-per-view…”

“What kind of movie?” Meredith asked. She let the afghan slide down off her shoulders so that it barely covered her breasts.

“Any one you want,” he stammered. She watched as the pace of his breathing picked up, and his skin flushed.

“I’ll need some clothes,” Meredith whispered. She dropped the blanket to the floor.

“Yeah.”

She leaned forward and met his mouth with hers. Her body pressed against him, and she could feel him becoming aroused again.

“My clothes are upstairs in my bedroom,” she said as she pulled away. His heavy, moist breath fanned against her face as she continued to hover close. “Do you want to come upstairs and help me find something to wear?”

“You lead, and I’ll follow,” he said. His voice quivered with longing, and she answered with another passionate kiss before taking his hand and guiding him upstairs.