Derek walked out of room 2117, chart in hand and headed towards the nurses' station.
"Hey Tyler." Derek acknowledged before putting the chart down.
"Hey Dr. Shepherd." Tyler replied with a smile and pointed to the floor. Derek responded with a confused face.
'Thank you' Derek mouth back to him once he figured out what the nurse had been referring to. Tyler nodded his head and got up and went to check on a patient.
Derek rounded the desk and bent down on one knee to be eye level with the little boy under the desk.
"What are you doing down here pal?" Derek asked the boy who just tucked his knees further into his chest.
"Is quiet down here dada."
"It is quiet Dillon, but you can't stay here. We've got to get you back to daycare."
"No! No! I no like there dada. I wanta go home."
"Tell you what. Dada doesn't have a surgery until 4, so until then you can stay with me but then you have to go back to daycare alright?"
The little boy pondered the idea for a moment and slightly nodded his head. "Otay."
"Alright then. Let's go get some lunch." Derek said smiling and holding out his hand to his son. The two walked hand in hand to the cafeteria. Once they got inside, Derek noticed Dillon's eyes go wide in horror.
"What is it buddy?"
"Is loud dada."
"I know. Let's go pick what you want to eat and we can eat outside. It's a little quieter out there."
"That." Dillon said pointing to the chicken salad sandwich and french fries on the menu board as Derek picked him up.
"What can I get for you?"
"We're going to have a chicken salad sandwich and a side of fries, a salad and these." Derek motioned to the cashier, holding up some drinks. They got their food and walked outside to the tables to eat. After Derek had followed his son to a table, the two guys sat down and began to eat.
"So dada is going fishing this weekend. You want to come bud?" Dillon pondered the idea for a moment but ultimately agreed with a simple nod of his head.
"Okay. Now we just have to ask mommy." Again another simple shake of his head. Derek had always noticed that his son is quiet compared to most children his age, how loud noises bother him and how he can never express his feeling or say what he wants to without getting frustrated. Sometimes he worried that maybe his son, Dillon Christopher Shepherd, was in fact autistic, but he and his wife Meredith had always pushed the thought to the side, thinking that it could just be a phase.
Just as he was thinking about her, he looked to his right and there was his wife, along with Christina, Lexie and Alex.
"Hey Dil, look behind you." He said as he pointed at the figures walking toward them. The small boy turned around and almost immediately, his eyes lit up with joy.
"Mama!" Meredith and the others set their food down and Meredith walked over to pick up her son.
"Hey baby. Did your dada get you from the daycare to bring you to lunch?"
"He actually snuck out. I told him he could stay with me until I go to surgery at 4." Derek told his wife who nodded her head and looked at her son.
"You snuck out of daycare? You can't do that baby, okay?"
"Otay." He said quietly, but just audible.
"I don't want to hear about you getting out anymore okay mister?" Meredith told him firmly. Dillon smiled and nodded his head to his mommy in response.
The group sat eating their lunches and talking about what surgeries they had lined up for the rest of the day. As Christina practiced her one handed ties with her left hand, she noticed her little nephew watching her closely.
"Do you want to try Dillon?" Dillon shrugged his shoulders and then shyly nodded his head yes.
"Okay, so you just do this." Christina said as she demonstrated what to do. He took the thread into his hands and did exactly as Christina told him. Christina looked at him, wide-eyed, her jaw slightly hanging.
They young boy handed her back the thread and smiled. "Damn Shepherds." She said in awe of how even the youngest Shepherd could do a perfect tie with his left hand.
Everyone laughed at Christina's comment as the group ate their lunch together. It was only when Dillon's head hit the table minutes later, did everyone quiet down and focus their attention on him.
"Aww." Lexie drew out.
"The little guy fell asleep." Alex said with a smile on his face.
"I'm surprised that he's only just now falling asleep. He hasn't been sleeping through the night. He'll wake up around 4 am and he doesn't go back to sleep." Meredith informed the others of what was going on, concern and worry evident in her voice and on her face.
Derek picked up the small boy and settled his sleeping figure onto his lap. The group talked for about another hour before Lexie's pager went off.
"Gotta go. 911 to the pit."
"I have a surgery in 25 minutes." Christina said happily.
"I have to check on Robbins' post ops before my surgery." Alex said before he too got up and left. Meredith's pager went off too.
"911 to the pit." She said standing up. "I'll see you later. I love you guys." She smiled and winked before kissing her husband and sleeping son.
"We love you too." Derek stood up with the sleeping toddler in his arms and carried him into the hospital to sleep in one of the on-call rooms. Laying down next to him, Derek had found himself just as tired. He drifted off to sleep with his arms around his son.
Derek's eyes snapped opened to a heavy feeling in his chest. When he focused, he realized Dillon had woken up and that the heavy feeling in his chest was his son sitting on his chest.
"You okay buddy?"
Dillon nodded his head while holding up his dad's pager. Derek took his pager and read what it said. He hadn't realized that his pager started going off.
"Okay bud, I have to go so you have to go back to daycare okay?"
"No!"
"Come on Dillon, I have to go to surgery. Don't worry, mommy's going to pick you up in a little while."
"But no wanta go dada." Dillon started crying.
"C'mon Dillon. Don't cry son." Derek continued to try to calm his son down but he wouldn't calm down. The little boy was close to a complete tantrum. Derek picked up his son and held him tightly against his chest in hopes of relaxing him.
Alex Karev walked into the on- call room with a loud sigh. Soon after he noticed the cry of a kid. Looking up, he noticed he noticed his nephew, Dillon.
"Hey Dillon. Hey Derek." Alex walked around to the other side of Derek to get face to face with Dillon. The crying little boy looked up and into the eyes of Alex.
"What's wrong with him?"
"My pager went off reminding me I have surgery in 20 minutes and I told him it was time to go back to daycare. He started crying and he has been for the last 10 minutes." Derek said with a look of sadness on his face.
"Here. Give him to me. I'll calm him down and bring him down to…d-a-y-c-a-r-e." Alex said looking at Dillon and then spelling out the last word like it was cursed.
"Are you sure Karev, you don't have to do that. I can just bring him to Meredith."
"Mer's still in surgery. I can at least keep him until then if I can't get him to calm down."
"Thanks Karev." Derek said as he handed Dillon over to him and pressed a kiss to his son's forehead. He left the room and hurried off to his surgery. Alex was now faced with a task: getting Dillon to calm down and getting him to daycare.
Alex spent the next 15 minutes calming down Dillon and trying to convince him that it was time for him to go to daycare. After 30 minutes, he finally agreed and Alex and Dillon set off toward the daycare center. As they passed the OR hallway, they ran into Meredith.
"Hey Alex. Hey baby!"
"Mama!" Dillon hugged Meredith's legs and squeezed as tight as he could for a barely three year old. She lifted the little boy into her arms as she gave him a kiss.
"Have you been crying?" She looked over to Alex, hoping he would tell her and why.
He nodded his head and said, "He's been crying for like the last 45 minutes."
"Aw. Dillon why were you crying?"
"Dada try take me to daycare."
"That's where we were headed now."
"No that's fine Alex. I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off and take Dillon home. Thank you." Meredith smiled to Alex.
"Of course Mer."
"Say bye-bye to Uncle Alex, Dillon." Dillon waved with a small smile to Alex and Alex returned it with a smile and a goodbye.
As Meredith walked off with Dillon, she too wondered if Dillon was autistic. It seems as though not all of the symptoms were there but still, enough of them were. She needed to talk with Derek about what they should do and if it was necessary for them to take Dillon to a doctor about it. Meredith didn't want to eliminate the possibility that this was still only something that he would eventually grow out of.
She brought Dillon up with her to the chief to tell him that she was going to be taking the rest of the day off to spend with her son. She explained the meltdown he had about going to daycare and the Chief was very understanding. He wanted to know how the boy was doing and Meredith expressed some concerns about his development. Richard explained to Meredith that it was important to see a doctor about it all and in the meantime just relax and keep doing what they've been doing in the meantime.
Meredith went and changed out of her scrubs and walked out of the hospital with her son latched onto her hand, trying his best to match her paces with his little legs. When Meredith and Dillon got to the car, she buckled him into his seat and took off for home. When they got home Meredith sent Derek a text to let him know she went home early.
"Hey. I took the rest of the day off to come home and spend some time with Dillon. Alex told me about his meltdown. We love you."
She set about making dinner while she had set Dillon up with his favorite movie, Monsters Inc. He sat on the floor, with his blanket that he took everywhere with him, and his Mike Wazowski stuffed toy. He had a couple of his toy cars around him too. Meredith smiled at the sight and secretly snapped a picture of him and sent it to Derek. Meredith looked back at him and couldn't help but notice how the toy cars had been lined up meticulously. She told herself to just relax. Seconds later a reply came from Derek.
"Okay. I have to finish up some paperwork, but I'll be on my way soon. I will see you at home. I love you both too."
It was no more than forty- five minutes later when Meredith was in the kitchen when she heard the front door open.
"I'm home." Derek said. Meredith walked out of the kitchen to see her husband knelt down by their son with a big bag behind his back. Dillon was still unaware of his presence, being so focused on his favorite movie. Derek put his hand on Dillon's shoulder and he jumped and yelped, terrified at the all too sudden presence behind him.
"Hey pal, its okay. It's just me." Dillon jumped to his feet with his stuffed toy in hand and threw his arms around his daddy's neck.
"Dada." Dillon whispered and Derek smiled. Derek picked Dillon up and walked the short distance to his wife.
"Hey you." He said as he gave her a loving kiss on her lips.
"Hey yourself." She said back with a little smile.
"How was your day?"
"Good. I got to come home early, clean up, make dinner and watch a movie with Dillon. How was your day?"
"Pretty good. The day kid of breezed by." Derek smiled and tickled his son's stomach causing a little giggle to escape him.
"What is that?" Meredith asked Derek warily.
"Mer, I know we said no more toys for a while since he got so many for his birthday and because there's about a thousand of them already around here, but I just had to after the day he's had."
"You give in too easily, but okay I agree." Derek smiled at Meredith and kissed her.
"Hey buddy, look what dada got from the store for you today." Derek set him down on the floor and scooted the bag toward him.
"Was init?" He questioned curiously.
"I don't know bud, you have to look in it." He opened the bag and Meredith and Derek chuckled when his eyes went big in surprise.
"Is for me?" He said excited about his new Monsters Inc. Sulley stuffed toy. Meredith walked over and grabbed took the toy out of the bag for Dillon.
"Yes baby, your dada got it all for you."
"Fank you dada." Dillon said as he hugged Derek's legs. Derek picked him up and kissed him.
"You're welcome buddy. Now what do you say we eat dinner and then we open it." Dillon thought about it for a moment but eventually nodded his head. After the three of them had eaten dinner together and cleaned up, Dillon rediscovered his new toy. He pushed the box that Sulley was in, into the kitchen and went and tugged on Meredith's pant leg. She turned around to see a box and a little boy with a pleading look on his face. Meredith worked on opening the box while Derek picked him up.
"So what did you do today after mama brought you home?"
"She clean and watch my movie with me." Dillon said quietly but still audible with his hands on Derek's cheeks.
"Oh really? What movie did you and mommy watch?" Already knowing the answer because the same movie had been played constantly in the house for the last month.
"Monsers Inc!" Meredith had gotten the new toy open and threw the packaging away. When she brought it over to Dillon, his excitement was uncontainable. Derek and Meredith just smiled at each other, happy to see how happy their baby was.
After Meredith had given Dillon his bath, she and Derek sat in his room with him until he fell asleep. He had told them he didn't want a bedtime story tonight, but he just want them to lay with him and his two Monsters Inc. stuffed toys.
When Meredith noticed he was almost asleep, she kissed his forehead and said, "Goodnight baby. Mommy loves you." Derek leaned over and did the same, leaving a kiss on his forehead and saying, "Goodnight, buddy dada loves you."
As they walked out of the room, they both heard a barely audible, "'Wuv too." They smiled and walked to their bedroom crawling in and immediately turning off the lights.
"Goodnight Mer, I love you."
"Goodnight Derek, I love you too."
They were both woken up out of dead sleep at 1 a.m to the sound of shrill screams from across the hall. They both sat upright and jumped out of bed to go across the hall and comfort their son. They ran in and turned on the light and noticed that Dillon was crying. Meredith picked him up in an attempt to comfort him but he just kept screaming. She squeezed him tight in the hug and rubbed his back in hopes that what Cristina had told her she'd learnt from Dr. Dixon, would work. Derek ran downstairs to fill up his drinking cup with water for him. By the time he came back, Meredith had calmed him some, but he was still shaking and crying.
"Bring him back to our room." Meredith nodded started to walk out, Derek following closely behind, only stopping to turn off the light. Once they got into their room, Meredith still held onto Dillon tightly, as he was still sobbing and shaking. Derek ran his hand back and forth across his back hoping that would help some. They sat there, doing just that for thirty minutes before he completely calmed down. Meredith lifted him from her shoulder to look at his face. His eyes were puffy and his face tear stained. Meredith sat him on the bed while she went to the en suite bathroom to grab a wet towel to wipe his face.
After she wiped his face, she came back into the room and laid down next to her son and husband.
"Lay down Dil, okay bud. Just lay with mama and dada." Derek said. He nodded his head and laid under the covers with Meredith and Derek. Meredith and Derek laid on each side of Dillon watching him closely. They were surprised when he turned over and he was fast asleep. This meant they could get some sleep of their own.
Each saying "Goodnight and I love you" one last time before they fell asleep, they went to sleep without any trouble, the events of the night wearing any energy they had left completely thin.