Chapter 18

                                    

                                          
The very first night
A few days had passed since their argument and neither had passed each other in the hospital, nor had Meredith been back to the trailer.
"Mark, have to seen Meri?" He asked as he pushed away from the nurses station. "She's in Webber's office, it just saw her go in there" Mark said. Derek frowned and set off upstairs to go find her. He waited outside Webbers office for nearly 20 minutes before the door opened and out walked Meredith. She frowned as she came over to him. 
"Hey" he said quietly. "Hi?" She said. They stood in silence for a moment. "I didn't mean to upset you the other day" he said. "I just wanted to be honest with you. I wanted you to know before we find out who gets Chief. I didn't want to hurt you" he explained. "I'm sorry, Meredith" he finally said before releasing the breath he'd be holding.
She smiled and without saying anything, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. "I know. I'm sorry I overreacted. I'm just scared of losing you. I don't want that" she whispered sadly. "You won't lose me" Derek said confidently. They both glanced between each other's eyes and lips, Meredith nipping her own with her teeth, fighting every nerve not to kiss him. 
"We-" he paused. "Do you still want to go fishing?" He asked. She nodded. "When does your shift finish?" He asked. "In about-" she glanced at her watch. "10 minutes she smiled. "Perfect. I'll meet you in the lobby"
He kissed her cheek, almost like a habit.
A habit he'd never done before.
He blushed deeply as he walked away. Why did I just do that? He asked himself. Walking downstairs, he handed in his charts after a long night shift and went to go grab his things from his cubby. 
They eventually met down in the lobby and they drove to Meredith's house to grab a few things before they drove up to Derek's trailer. The managed to squeeze everything into one bag after Derek insisted she wouldn't be needing her makeup bag when they were out in the wild.
"Ready to go?" He asked as he slung the backpack over his shoulder and she grabbed the fishing gear. They opted to walk from Derek's trailer and up onto the mountain trail which only took them a few hours.
They eventually came to a clearing along the river and Derek stopped. "What? Are we lost?" Meredith asked as she looked around. "No, it's not where I planned, but this seems like a nice place to camp" he said as he looked down at his map and then up to his surroundings.
He was right, the place was nice, beautiful in fact. It wasn't dark and cramped like the forest they'd just walked through; the river had created a break in the trees and sunlight flooded in. It was late fall so all the trees were a glowing amber, the river clear as a crystal.
"Let's set up camp here" Derek confirmed as he slipped off the backpack and grabbed a water bottle from the side pouch. 
Meredith watched him as he took a gulp of water. The way his throat contacted as he swallowed had her breathless for a moment, but she swore she nearly died when she watched him splash some water on his face, running it through his hair to calm the heat in his cheeks. I can't do this anymore, I need to tell him.
"Derek" she said suddenly. He looked to her and smiled. "Yeah?" He asked. She swallowed the lump in her throat. Come on, you've got this. "I-" she paused. "I think this is a really good spot to camp.