You're Like Coming Home

45.

Meredith clutched the bottle of tequila close to her, staring straight ahead at the two envelopes that sat on the table in front of her. Those envelopes held her and Derek's entire future, and she took a swig of tequila as her shaky hands tried to reach for the envelopes on their own accord.

Derek would be back from work soon, and then they could open their letters from University of Washington together. These were the last letters that they had been waiting for from the medical schools they had applied for together. They already knew that Stanford was out of the running since Derek hadn't gotten in, and when Meredith had received her acceptance letter from Dartmouth stating how excited they were to have the daughter of Ellis Grey attending their school, she had ranted for hours about how she felt that she had only gotten accepted because of her mother, and subsequently decided not to go there.

So now she sat at the kitchen table, clutching her tequila and taking a swig of it every time she felt the urge to open the envelopes. She could very easily find out herself what the results were, but she wanted to wait for Derek. He deserved to know at the same time she did.

"Derek!" she shouted as the front door opened and her fiancé entered, smiling widely at her.

"Hey, Mer," he said with a smile. "I missed you too."

"They're here," she replied, grabbing his hand and the letters and pulling him into their bedroom.

"Who's here?" Derek frowned.

"The letters," she replied, shoving his into his hand. "We...Derek, this is it. We're deciding this today."

Derek swallowed hard as he nodded. "Okay," he said. "Mer...no matter what, we know we're going to be together. And I'm so proud of you. Okay?"

"Shut up and open your letter," Meredith rolled her eyes.

Derek laughed as he tore open his letter, his eyes only reading the first line before he looked up at Meredith, trying to read her expression. "Mer?" he asked softly.

"I...what does your say?" she whispered.

"I got in," Derek nodded.

"Hmm," Meredith nodded, folding her letter and tossing it in the trash. She turned to him with a smile. "We're going to Columbia," she said.

"Oh," Derek nodded, unsure of whether he should be happy that he was going to go to his first choice school with Meredith or upset that she hadn't gotten in. "Mer..."

"It's fine," she smiled, moving closer to kiss him quickly. "I want to go there, really. And this way we'll be close to your mom, and everything will be fine. I just...I have to go meet Addison, we're going over floral arrangements for the wedding."

"Okay," Derek said softly, somewhat stunned that she wasn't freaking out more. "Um... I'll make dinner for when you get back."

"Thanks," Meredith said, leaning up to kiss him one more time before she reached for her bag. "Love you."

"Love you too," Derek whispered, watching her walk out of the room. He lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering how in the world Meredith could get accepted to Columbia, one of the best medical schools in the country, but not University of Washington, as great a school as it was.

"Hey Shep?" Mark asked, knocking on the doorframe. "I saw Grey earlier, she was freaking out about some letters. What's going on?"

"I got into University of Washington," Derek said as he sat up.

"That's great, congratulations," Mark said with a smile.

"I'm not going there," Derek shook his head. "Mer didn't get in."