Derek Shepherd Edit

Meredith and Derek wake up after their first encounter.

Meredith and Derek first met at Joe's Bar the night before her first day at Seattle Grace Hospital.
Derek approached her, they got drunk, before ending up at her place, sleeping with each other.
When she went to work, she discovered, much to her shock, that Derek too worked at Seattle
Grace, as an attending, so she staunchly refused to date him, although they did manage to
sneak by a few stolen sexually charged moments. However, it was eventually at the unexpected
house party that went out of control that she finally gave in and the two got intimate in the car.
Despite Miranda Bailey, who felt that Derek was beginning to show signs of favoritism towards
Meredith the following day, catching them in the act, the pair began to date secretly, something
which her roommates would eventually discover, and thus were mostly not too pleased about as
they thought she was trying to win favors and felt uncomfortable sharing living space with their
"boss's boss." They became public quickly, although Richard Webber discovered and
disapproved of the relationship, knowing that Derek was still married to Addison. Their
relationship ended temporarily relationship ended when Addison Shepherd arrived at the hospital
for a medical case, and claimed to be Derek's wife, thereby surprising her.

Meredith and Derek's future house (made of candles).

Meredith stayed away from Derek, but later asked him to make a choice between her or Addison.
Derek tried to make a decision, but it was a hard one, as he had been married to Addison for
eleven years. He eventually chose Addison and Meredith was left heartbroken. Addison stayed
at Seattle Grace and Meredith was left alone and when news of the scandal leaked out, she
became much of the hospital's talking points and gossip. After avoiding each other, they
attempted friendship, but on the night of the Seattle Grace prom, they had sex in an exam room
despite the fact that Meredith was dating Finn Dandridge and Derek was married to Addison. An
unexpected event of the secret rendezvous was Meredith losing her panties, when Derek had
pocketed them. The next day, Addison found Meredith's panties in Derek's pocket and realized
her marriage was over. After Derek caught Addison and Mark Sloan together again, they both
admitted their relationship was finished. He told Meredith that if she wanted, they could date and
that he loved her. Meredith tried to choose between Derek and Finn, but when she was unable to
decide between the two men, she decided to date both of them until she decided. After Derek
decided to be a better person and let her go and be with Finn, she realized she wanted Derek
and broke up with Finn. She didn't tell Derek immediately, because he was going through his
divorce with Addison but when she finally did, he no longer cared, as he was suffering from
Addison's secret about her and Mark living together for months, after he had left her.
Derek and Meredith get engaged.
They started dating again, but Derek later complained that she was constantly leaving him and
that she should be worried that the highlight of his week was meeting another girl at Joe's.
When Cristina and Burke called off their wedding, she broke up with Derek, not convinced that
relationships could work. They tried to stay apart but began having break-up sex, and mockery.
Later, Derek kissed a nurse named Rose in the scrub room; when Meredith found out, she
severed all ties with him. Derek and Meredith started a clinical trial but Derek began
dating Rose and her feelings for him started to come back as the clinical trial continued. After
their last clinical trial patient survived from surgery, Meredith and Derek celebrated and she
showed him a house of candles she had made. He kissed her and they got back together. Trying
to take steps forward, Meredith asked him to move in and he accepted. They stayed together
and after his mother's visit, Derek decided to propose with his mother's engagement ring.
Meredith originally thought he was avoiding her because of a conversation they had about
babies, but he insisted that he wanted to have all her babies. Derek planned to propose to her,
with a ring from his mother, but remarked to Mark that the timing had to be right, otherwise she
would bolt. Derek's plans to propose left his mind after he accidentally killed a
patient. Richard told Meredith about the ring, but the despondent Derek hit the ring into the
woods, with a baseball bat. He apologized and she forgave him and he proposed properly to her
later. They planned a wedding, but when they realized that Izzie had stage 4 cancer, they
eventually gave their wedding to Izzie and Alex. With very little time to get married themselves,
they went to the locker room, wrote down their vows on a Post-it note, and married each other.

The post-it note that married Derek and Meredith.

After their Post-it marriage, they referred to each other as husband and wife and in the days
immediately after their wedding, they had sex frequently, while often getting caught in the act, in
different places in the house, by those living there. Later, she found out she was pregnant. The
shooting that happened after the death of a patient of Derek's, when the patient's husband shot
numerous people, also shooting Derek was traumatizing for both of them, especially as Meredith
miscarried because of the events of that day. She waited to tell him about this long after his
recovery wondering how he would react. Then they proceeded to try to conceive, but they
learned Meredith had a hostile uterus, which made it unlikely she would conceive naturally.
Eventually, the two did formally marry, as it would make it easier for them to legally adopt Zola,
an African girl Derek got to know while treating her spina bifida. Derek engaged Meredith in his
Alzheimer's clinical trial, trying to find a cure for her mother's disease. When Adele Webber
became part of their trial, however, Meredith's emotions started to cloud her judgment, and as a
result, she switched the placebo with the active medication, so Adele would get better. This
caused Alex to become suspicious when he saw her acting weird. When Alex was drunk, he told
Owen Hunt about this incident, who continued to alarm Derek and Richard. Derek then continued
to become really angry at Meredith, accusing her of not knowing the difference between right or
wrong and saying it wasn't any way to raise a child. It took them a long time to resolve these
differences in their marriage and their separation caused trouble with Zola's adoption, for which
each blamed the other. However, in times of crisis, they made up and all of them lived happily as
a family after Alex, feeling guilty, managed to get them Zola back. Even after enduring the
horrible plane crash, in which both her sister and his best friend died, and Derek's hand was
severely injured, their bond only grew stronger and they helped each other. Meredith discovered
she was pregnant with Derek's child. Though both of them were really happy, Meredith was very
concerned due to her hostile uterus, but Derek remained optimistic, and she was still pregnant.
During the "super storm," Meredith gave birth, via c-section, to a baby boy whom she
named Derek Bailey Shepherdafter both Derek and Miranda Bailey.[43]

After the birth of Bailey, Meredith and Derek enjoyed their time with their children. Eventually,
Derek was offered a job with the president. At first, Meredith was upset as Derek promised her
that she could kickstart her career, but eventually grew not to mind. They were going to move to
DC. but Meredith decided she wanted to stay, so Derek resigned from Grey Sloan.

The couple argued on and off over his new job and he moved to DC in the heat of the moment.
He flew back and forth between Seattle and DC, putting a strain on their marriage. He eventually
grew to realize that he was miserable without his family and wanted to be with them more than
"saving the world." Meredith also realized that she could live without him, but she didn't want to.
They both agreed to work on their marriage once he moved home to Seattle permanently. On his
way back to DC to resign, he got into a car accident and died.[44] When Derek died, Meredith
was pregnant with his baby.[45]