A/N 1: For the first time in this fic I'm covering multiple episodes in one series of chapters (because of that I do not have Meredith's voice over included in the chapter).

A/N 2: Sorry for the long delay for this chapter. I'm trying really hard to push through with writer's block for the chapter I'm currently on and I didn't want to post anything until I got through it but it's been so long, I wanted to give y'all something. I can't guarantee the next chapter will be up anytime soon, but I'm still trying. If you enjoy, please take some time to review, it definitely helps my writer's block knowing you guys are enjoying my story.

But if you find that you don't like it
That the people there aren't inviting
Or that city life is too frightening
Won't you come home
Wish I - Jem

My head is at the foot of the bed and my feet are propped up against the headboard as I lay on my back and stare at the ceiling. Derek mirrors my position, his head on the pillows and his feet by mine, also awake and staring straight up. We listen to the rain as it patters against the window pane, both worrying about what work is going to offer now that Bailey knows. The day before hadn't been too hard, because I was meeting with Burke to discuss the heart patient, I spent minimal time with my resident. Today though, she holds my life in her hands and I can only assume she is going to make it painful.

"We need to tell her," I say.

Derek sighs, "If we tell her, the whole hospital will know."

"Are you sure about that?" I ask, "Bailey isn't really a gossip, it's not like it would spread from her."

"I just feel like it's going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back and I know you aren't ready for people to know."

I close my eyes and try to figure out what I actually want before replying, "You're right, I'm not ready. But at the same time we can't have Bailey thinking you're cheating on your wife and that I'm your side piece. We need to tell her. I don't want to, but we need to."

Derek adjusts in the bed, flipping his body so that he's on his stomach, his head next to mine. He reaches out a hand and brushes my bangs from my face, "Are you sure?" He asks. I nod, before climbing off of bed to get coffee. I open my door to find George struggling with two mugs, just steps away from me. "Are these for me?" I ask him. His eyes seem to light up as he stretches one out of to me. I grab both mugs and move back into my room, closing the door behind me. I vaguely hear Izzie say something about marriage, but I'm too busy talking with Derek about how to tell Bailey to take the time to dwell on her comment to George.

Wanting to keep low until we tell Bailey, Derek and I drive in separate cars to work. Because we left at the same time, we reach the hospital only seconds apart and pull into spaces right next to each other. As soon as Derek is out of his car I look him dead in the eye and say one word, "Crap."

"Crap?" He asks me, a small smirk on his face, "That's no way to say good morning to your boss."

"Crap," I repeat before saying, "We didn't decide who would tell Bailey." I start walking towards the doors of the hospital at a fast pace, already running late and not in the mood to be on Bailey's bad side. Or I guess her even worse side cause after she caught me with Derek, I already am on her bad side.

"This is getting complicated," Derek sighs as he walks by my side, his steps quick to match my hurried pace.

"Complicated for me," I reply, "I'm the intern married to the attending. Bailey didn't speak to me yesterday," Realization dawns over me and I stop in my tracks, "Crap," I turn to look at Derek, "I need to be the one to tell her, don't I?"

He shrugs, "It might be for the best."

"Then we can't work together today," I decide.

"But Mer," He starts.

He would have continued talking but out of the corner of my eye I shoot a glare towards him while joking, "I'm really regretting marrying you." We've reached the elevators, and after pressing the up button, Derek steps up close to me, smirking.

"Nah, you're not."

I have to fight the urge to kiss his stupid smirk off his face and instead I say what seems to be my catch phrase for the day, "Crap." Before Derek can say anything else I spin on my heels and quickly march towards the stairs, anxious to get to the locker room so I can start the day. The sooner the day starts, the sooner it will end, that's what I'm telling myself anyways. When I finally reach the locker room I'm disappointed to find it empty, part of me hoped that the others hadn't started rounds yet and Bailey wouldn't notice I was late. I change into my scrubs at record speed and was just tying my shoes when Cristina bursts through the doors akin to a whirlwind.

"You're late," I tell her.

Cristina retorts, "So are you," Before taking quick strides to her own locker.

"I know, and I can't afford to piss off Bailey any more. Do you think she told anyone?"

Cristina's ripping off her clothes as she clarifies, "About you and McDreamy?" I shoot Cristina a look as my answer, of course it's about Derek. "No," Cristina assures me, "He's her boss too, she wouldn't tell. Yet anyways."

Alarmed, I shoot up to my feet, "What do you mean yet?"

"She won't tell anyone until she knows the full story and even then she probably won't, I mean he's the Chief of Neuro, no general surgery resident wants to piss him off," Cristina says, "Besides, it's not like you're doing anything wrong. He's your husband, Meredith," She's pulling her coat out of her locker and leaving the room when she adds, "And Meredith, shut up."

Following her out of the locker room I ask, "Did you seriously just tell me to shut up?"

"Oh, please. You're married to a hot doctor who likes to make you open up, and say "Ahh." It's the American dream, stop whining about it."

I'm about to say more when we catch up with the other interns and Bailey. Our resident calls Cristina out for being late but doesn't even acknowledge me. Trailing behind the rest of the interns, I hiss under my breath, "Crap." I need to tell Bailey, and I need to tell her soon.

We're all on the same case today, all five of Bailey's interns. Yes, there are other cases that we aren't sharing, but there is one patient that we all are charged with. Only two of us will be able to scrub in on the surgery, but a tumor as large as hers is so rare that Bailey wanted all of us to at least work with the patient a little. Rounds are moving quickly today, Bailey taking us patient to patient at light speed. Every time we leave a room I try to get her attention and to talk to her, but she either says something to somebody else or completely ignores my existence.

For some reason, it feels like we have more patients to round on than usual. We don't, and logically I know that, but it feels like we've been to a thousand different patients as we move room to room. When Derek tells his patient that I'm the one who is going to prep him, I decide I'm going to kill my husband. I've heard widowhood can be nice.

Instead of staying to prep our patient for surgery, I tell Mr. Levangie that I'll be with him shortly and I follow Bailey out of the room. I end up in the back of the crowded elevator, my annoying husband on one side and my angry boss on the other. If I had known actually getting Bailey alone to tell her about my marriage would have been so difficult I probably would have just blurted it out halfway through rounds to get it over with. On the third floor, everybody except the three of us empties the elevator. I let out a small sigh. I finally have an opportunity to tell her. When Bailey notices the elevator is emptying, she makes a move for the door. Derek blocks her with his body, intentionally leaning in front of her to click the elevator door closed.

Derek's smirking a little and I can tell from the look in his eye that he's about to do something to goad Bailey. I blurt out, "Dr. Bailey don't hate me," In my desperate attempt to stop Derek from saying something to dig us deeper into the hole we're already in.

"Excuse me?" She asks, her glare bouncing between Derek and myself.

"We're married, Dr. Bailey," I confess, "Der- Dr. Shepherd and I are married so what you saw I mean as embarrassing as it is it really isn't any reason to, I don't know, say ignore me during rounds and push me out of surgeries," At those words she gives me a warning look and I cover my ass by adding, "Not that that's something I would ever think you would do, Dr. Bailey."

Bailey's eyes dart between the two of us as I inch a little closer to Derek, hoping that our body language will vouch for my honesty, "Married?" She asks, and we both nod. Rolling her eyes, Bailey warns, "I'm not going to advertise your extracurricular activities, sanctified by marriage or otherwise. However, the next time I see you," She points at Derek, "favoring Meredith Grey," She points at me, "in any way, I'll make sure she doesn't see the inside of on OR for a month. Just for the sake of balance."

As she finishes speaking the doors to the elevator open. She's halfway out of the car when she stops, leaning against the doors to stop them from closing and says to Derek, "You think you're charming in that talented, neurotic, overly moussed hair sort of way, good for you. But if you think I'm going to stand back and watch while you favor your wife-"

Derek cuts her off, "I do not favor Meredith," He glances down at me, pride shining in her eyes, "She's good."

Bailey opens her mouth as if she's going to say something else but something in her eyes changes and she opts not to speak, instead walking away as she shakes her head.

As the elevator doors slide shut, Derek shoots me a smug look and jests, "See, that wasn't too bad."

I roll my eyes at him. Once I told Bailey about our marriage, the day seems to go much smoother. Working with Derek, I don't feel Bailey's eyes on me anymore and I no longer feel her judgment. Okay, that's a lie, she's my resident of course I feel her judgment, I just don't feel it in regards to my personal life. After all the buildup the actual act of telling seemed like nothing. Glancing at Derek as he works on Mr. Levangie I feel as if the weeks of us hiding in the hospital had been for nothing. I was just being paranoid. It was good of him to let me be paranoid. But I'm relieved to be able to finally stop and come clean.

one week later

Miranda Bailey, being my boss but working under Derek, was the main roadblock preventing us from being a married couple within the walls of Seattle Grace. Now that Bailey knows though, Derek and I agreed that we were done hiding. Done hiding means every day for the past week we have driven to work together, we have eaten lunch together the days neither of us were in surgery, we talk to each other if we can when passing in the hallway, and at the end of the day we drive home together. The past week has been domestic, comfortable, and happy. Both of us seem to have a weight lifted off our shoulders now that we're no longer hiding. Being able to be with my husband, everyday seems better than the day before. Everything is better, that is except for the gossip.

From the moment Derek and I first started holding hands as we walked into the hospital, every whisper from a staff member has been about the two of us. Nurses have been giving me death glares, furious that I have McDreamy and determined to win him away from me. Our professional lives have been fine since our marriage reveal but relationships with our coworkers are truly suffering. Rumors have been flying everywhere since we stopped hiding. Derek and I have gotten into the habit of discussing the juiciest rumors we've heard every time we pass each other.

"Hey step-dad, how's it going?" I greet Derek as I playful wrap an arm around his shoulders.

"Step-dad, huh?" He asked with a laugh, "So in this scenario, which one of us did the seducing." He spins me so that my back is pressed against him and his voice grows husky at the end of his sentence. A soft blush comes to my cheek at the public display of affection but I've been letting him get away with it the past few days after having to restrict moments like this for so long.

I shrug, giggling as I tell Derek about the gossipers in the intern locker room and how they just couldn't agree on how I ended up married to my former step-father. Derek's about to tell me the most recent chatter about us that he's heard when his pager beeps. He glances down and sighs, apologizing and promising to finish our conversation later as he heads down to the pit for a consult. Smiling to myself I lean against the counter of the nurses' station and watch him go. I'm about to finish going through my charts when I glance up and see two of the catty interns staring at me. I snap at them, telling them to get a life, before going back to my charts feeling even better than before.

Later in the day, I manage to ignore the gossip and ignore the stares as I watch Derek work. His patient is a young girl and he's in the middle of removing half of her brain. It's an incredible surgery and a rare one. While most of my mind is focused on how incredible both the procedure and my husband are, a small part of me can't help but think of the future. One day Derek and I will have a daughter or a son that age and heaven forbid they ever have to go through that.

After Derek's done with his surgery I find him to congratulate him. I had finished work about an hour before hand but decided to wait for him.

"That was incredible," I tell him, as soon as I'm in front of him.

He smiles, never one for modesty he replies, "Yeah, it kind of was."

I jokingly nudge him with my elbow and jest, "I was talking about George in there, he did great assisting."

"Sure you were," Derek murmurs as he leans into kiss me. After indulging in some PDA, I pull away from our kiss, but remain in his arms, smiling.

"How much longer do you have?" I ask, "I've been done for a while, just waiting for you."

I expect a normal answer from Derek, an hour maybe a little longer and then he'd be ready to go. Instead, my question seems to have knocked him off balance, as if it's unusual for me to want to go home with my husband. He stutters an excuse, saying something about monitoring the little girl and wanting to stay the night. As he speaks he scratches the back of his neck, a nervous tic that he often shows. He places a quick kiss on my cheek, promising to get me coffee in the morning, before hurrying down the hall. I stay at the nurses' station, watching him leave, confused by his odd reaction. He seems lustered, as if he was hiding something, and his claim to stay all night for his patient doesn't feel like the truth. Derek and I don't keep secrets from each other and I'm scared because as I walk out of the hospital on my own, it really feels like he is.