Okay, so this is my first Grey's fic, and I would really appreciate any feedback that you guys have to offer. I'm trying something a little different, and I hope you like it. Let me know what you think!

Meredith entered her house after a long shift at the hospital, wanting nothing more than to curl up in Derek's arms with a glass of wine. She smiled slightly as she smelled a wonderful aroma coming from the kitchen and wondered what Izzie was cooking now. She dropped her bag on the floor and walked into the kitchen, stopping short at what she saw there.

Derek was making his way around the kitchen, checking on whatever was on the stove and in the oven, then moving back to the counter to cut some garlic bread. She watched him for a moment, stunned at how well he knew his way around her house, and really around her life. She had never let someone in as much as she had let Derek in, and she had gotten the best results she ever could have imagined. She was happier than ever, and she was just waiting for the right moment to ask him to move in with her.

Meredith was shaken from her thoughts as Derek turned to set the table and saw her there. "Hey," he said in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you to be home yet. I had a nice dinner planned."

"Mmm, I snuck out early," Meredith replied. "And you're the most amazing boyfriend ever. Thank you for being so thoughtful."

Derek pressed a kiss to her lips before he released her and turned back to the stove. "I like making you happy, Mer," he said. "I've been seeing a lot more of your gorgeous smile lately, and I want to keep seeing it."

Meredith sat down at the counter and reached for Derek's glass of wine. "Well, keep the compliments coming and you just might get lucky tonight," she said with a smile.

Derek poured another glass of wine and clinked it gently against Meredith's, then leaned forward and whispered seductively, "I would have gotten lucky tonight anyways."

"What makes you so sure of that, Dr. Shepherd?" Meredith flirted right back.

"Because you, Dr. Grey, cannot resist me," Derek replied as he lit the candles on the table. "And both of the roommates are on call tonight, so we can be as loud as we want and not hear about it in the morning."

Meredith laughed as she walked to sit down at the table. "Well, since that's the case then I suppose we don't have a choice," she said.

Derek followed her to the table and set a plate of pasta in front of her before sitting down next to her with his own plate. "Wow," Meredith said as she took a bite of the pasta. "Derek, I had no idea that you could cook like this."

He shrugged and reached for his wine. "Mer, it's not that big a deal," he said. "It was really simple."

"No, seriously, this is amazing, Derek," Meredith replied as she took another bite. "Where in the world did you learn to cook like this?"

"Well, when I was younger, I was sucked into my mother's cooking lessons with my sisters many a time," Derek replied somewhat sheepishly.

"Ah, so this is the result of being the only son," Meredith said knowingly. "It's no wonder that you turned out as sensitive and caring as you did, with all those sisters."

"Yeah," Derek said with a nervous laugh. "Speaking of my sisters…"

She put her fork down and stared at him, knowing that something she didn't want to hear was coming.

"Well, I talked to my mom today," Derek said cautiously. "And she started talking about the family reunion next month. She asked me if you would be interested in coming with me."

"Derek, I don't do families," Meredith protested automatically, terrified at the thought of meeting Derek's family.

Derek sighed and reached out to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. "You're going to have to meet them eventually," he said softly.

She stared at him for a moment, then said, "You sister hated me."

"Look, Mer, I don't want you to do anything that will make you uncomfortable," Derek said. "But Nancy isn't like the rest of them. She's my sister and I love her, but she definitely has a loyalty to Addison. She was the one who introduced us. But the rest of them aren't like that, and my mother's been asking when she gets to meet you."

"I know you want me to meet them," Meredith whispered. "And I want to make you happy, Derek, I really do. But I'm just terrified that if I meet them and they hate me, you're not going to want to be with me anymore."

Derek reached forward and grabbed her hands, holding onto them tightly. "Mer, that will never happen," he replied. "I will never ever leave you, do you understand?"

She smiled slightly and nodded. "Thank you," she whispered. "I'll think about it, Derek, but I can't promise anything."

Derek nodded and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "I'm not going to pressure you into anything, Mer," he said. "Come on, let's finish dinner so we can get to dessert."

Meredith rolled her eyes and offered him a slight smile as she turned back to her dinner.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek woke the next morning alone, and he looked around the room for a moment before his eyes landed on a piece of paper on Meredith's pillow. He picked it up and scanned it briefly.

Went to work early, had to talk to Christina. Love you.

Derek frowned as he read the note, wondering if she was freaking out about his invitation to join his family reunion. Knowing her, she was probably trying to figure out ways that she could get out of it, and he sighed, wishing that for once she would just trust him and agree to go with him.

Derek dressed quickly and made it to the hospital within the hour. He was ready for rounds just in time, and as he rounded the corner to the nurse's station, he heard Meredith's familiar freaking out voice. His initial instinct was to go to her and comfort her, but then he thought for a moment and decided to listen to what she was saying.

"I do love Derek," she insisted. "I love him so much it's scary."

"Then what's the problem?" Izzie's voice replied.

Silence, then Meredith replied, "I'm afraid he doesn't love me as much as I love him."

Derek sighed and leaned his head against the wall, wondering what else he had to do to convince Meredith that he loved her more than anything in the world, that she meant everything to him. He strained to hear the rest of the conversation, but his cover was quickly blown.

"Dr. Shepherd, I need a consult," Christina said, coming up behind him.

Derek looked at her for a moment, trying to give her a look that said he would be right with her. When that didn't work, he sighed and said, "Dr. Yang, I will be right with you."

She stared at him for a moment before she said, "Are you too busy spying on Meredith to do your job?"

Derek sighed and turned around to see Izzie and Meredith staring at him in disbelief. "Mer, I wasn't…" he stared. "I'm sorry, but I wasn't spying on you, I was just coming to get a chart and I heard you talking…"

She shook her head as she backed away from him. "Derek, I can't believe you were eavesdropping on me," she replied. "Don't you trust me at all?"

Derek stared at her as she walked away from him, wishing that he hadn't been as stupid as to assume that he could eavesdrop on Meredith without someone catching him. He was about to follow her when his pager went off. He looked down to see a 911 call and rushed off to take care of it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Derek walked into an on call room that night and collapsed onto the nearest bunk. He'd had a long day and Meredith had avoided him all day. He knew that she was mad, but she couldn't have stayed mad at him forever, and he knew that he was going to have to do some serious making up to her. As he lay in the dark with his thoughts, the door opened and someone entered, locking the door behind them. A moment later, a familiar small body slid onto the bed next to him, and the smell of lavender filled his nostrils.

"Hey, Mer," he said softly as he wrapped his arm around her, holding her firmly to his chest.

She looked up at him for a moment before she said, "Shut up, I'm still mad at you."

Derek laughed quietly. He knew that she was probably still going to be stubborn and not talk until he used the jaws of life to pry what she was thinking out of her. "I'm sorry, Mer," he whispered softly.

"It's okay," Meredith replied with a sigh. "I just…I don't know what I want to do about your family thing."

Derek looked down at her and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Mer, I'm not going to pressure you into coming, you know that," he said. "But I would love it more than anything if you came with me."

"Okay," Meredith said softly. "I'll go with you."

Derek looked down at her, and she could see the happiness shining in her eyes, even in the dimly lit on call room. "Really?" he asked. "You really want to come?"

Meredith nodded, her cheek brushing against his chest. "Yeah," she said softly. "I'm going to be terrified, but I want to do this, I want to meet your family."

Derek grinned as he leaned down and kissed her. "It's going to be great, Mer," he said softly. "I promise, you're going to be fine, everyone will love you."

"You'll stay with me, right?" Meredith asked. "I mean, you're not going to feed me to the wolves or anything, right?"

"Yes, Mer, I'll stay by your side every second if that's what you want me to do," Derek replied. "You have nothing to be nervous about, they're going to love you."

Meredith shifted so that her body was aligned with his and slid on top of him. "You know, we did have a fight this morning," she whispered seductively.

Derek smiled as he brought his hands to rest on her hips, firmly holding her on top of him. "We did," he agreed.

She leaned down and kissed him passionately, her hands slipping under his scrub top. "So we've got some make up sex to have," she added as she began placing kisses down his chest.

They kissed passionately, and Derek reached under Meredith's top and unhooked her bra in one quick motion. As he moved to pull her shirt over her head, the sound of a pager beeping erupted through the room and they both groaned loudly. "It's me, 911, I've got to go," Derek said, kissing Meredith quickly as he slid his shirt over his head. "I'll see you at home, Mer."

Meredith watched as he rushed to the door, then sat up and asked, "Derek?"

Derek looked back at her as he finished tying his pants and made his way to the door. "Yeah?"

"Where exactly is this family reunion?"

Derek paused for a moment before he said, "Disney World." The door slammed shut behind him as he hurried out of the room, not wanting to see Meredith's reaction to that piece of news.