Dr. Derek Shepherd
Derek arrives at Seattle Grace hospital as the new head of neurosurgery earning a salary of $2 Millon a year. He is a Bowdoin College graduate and went to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons for Medical School. Shortly after arriving, he has a one-night stand with Meredith Grey, only to discover that she is a new surgical intern at the hospital where he has recently begun working. Although she initially rejects his advances, Meredith eventually agrees to date Derek. His personality and good looks earn him the nickname “McDreamy” among Meredith and her friends. Their relationship comes to a sudden halt, however, when Derek’s estranged wife Addison Montgomery arrives in Seattle unannounced, making it clear that she wants to give their marriage another try.
Although Derek struggles over the decision, he breaks up with Meredith, and returns to Addison. Their attempts to repair their marriage are strained when Derek confesses he had fallen in love with Meredith, becoming jealous when she begins dating again. They sleep together at a hospital prom, with Derek confessing his love to Meredith the next day. Derek initially feels guilty for hurting Addison, but is angry when she seeks solace with his former best friend Mark Sloan, with whom she had previously had an affair. Addison ultimately leaves Seattle to work in a private hospital in Los Angeles. Derek's relationship with Mark remains tense for some months after Mark transfers to work at Seattle Grace, but the two eventually repair their friendship.
Meredith dates both Derek and her new beau Finn Dandridge for a brief period, eventually choosing to be with Derek. After a ferry boat accident, Derek saves Meredith from drowning. Meredith becomes increasingly depressed after the event, causing a growing disconnect between them. They break up, but continue to have sex. Meredith becomes jealous when Derek goes on a date with another woman, and they reconcile only to break up again when Derek wants to take their relationship faster than Meredith is comfortable with. He begins dating Rose, his scrub nurse. Several weeks later, he and Meredith begin working on a clinical trial together, realizing they still have feelings for each other. When their final trial patient becomes their first success, they reconcile again, and Derek breaks up with Rose. After Derek breaks up with Rose for Meredith, Rose gets angry because Derek told her all the time that he was over Meredith.
At the start of Season Five, Meredith and Derek begin to talk about the possibility of moving in together. Meredith agrees, but becomes angry when he wants her to move her roommates out. Eventually, Derek agrees to move in along with her friends. In Season Five, Derek's mother meets Meredith for the first time. She approves and tells Derek that he only sees things in black and white and Meredith does not and that he needs that in his life. Before she leaves she gives Derek her wedding ring to give to Meredith. Derek is shocked because he then realizes that his mother never thought Addie was the one for him. Now that Derek has the ring, he just needs to find the right way to propose to her, but is worried that Meredith is not ready for marriage. He soon realizes she is when she makes a comment about having his babies.
Derek is in a serious depression and refuses to go to work after losing a pregnant patient and being hit by a lawsuit. Derek's depression deepens after he meets with his lawyers and they tell him he's lost more patients than he's saved. He returns to the hospital, but only to tell Richard that he's not operating. Richard orders him back to work, but Derek just walks away. When Meredith meets Derek later on, she reveals she knows about the ring and he bats it into the distance and yells at her, "Go home." [8] After a while, Derek tells Meredith that he loves her and asks her if she would still love him if he wasn't a surgeon. She then tells him of Izzie's skin cancer which spread to her brain. Derek is "one of about 20 people in the world who can save her. And I don't know if I could respect somebody who could walk away from a gift like that. So please don't" She shows him Izzie's scans. "It's pretty bad," she says, and drives away. [9]
Derek preps for Izzie's surgery, but he tells Meredith, "I'm not ready." He tells her he needs her to say yes, but she says she's not going anywhere. When Richard wants to know why Derek and Meredith aren't out celebrating the success of the surgery, Derek tells Richard that she has turned him down twice. "Meredith believes in you," Richard replies. Richard makes Meredith wait for the elevator and when the doors open, she sees why: A clean-shaven Derek is inside and the elevator is decorated with scans of all the surgeries they did together. He recounts the stages of their relationships as they played out during each case. Lastly, he shows her the post-op scans of the different lives they have saved over the years and of course, Izzie's brain. "You got me into the OR," he tells her. "if there is a crisis, you don't freeze, you move forward. You put the rest of us to move forward because you've seen worse, you've survived worse, and you know we'll survive too. You say you're all dark and twisty, it's not a flaw, it's a strength. It makes you who you are. I'm not gonna get down one knee, I'm not gonna ask a question. I love you Meredith Grey, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." "And I want to spend the rest of my life with you," she says, and they kiss. They are now officially engaged.
Source: Wikipedia.org