The party was finally winding down. Dr. Baily had left and so had the chief, Mark was up in the attic with Lexie and George and Izzie were helping Meredith clean up. "You could help you know," Izzie commented as she walked by a lazing Cristina who was reclined on the couch.
"I could, if I was a helpful person," Cristina said barely paying any attention to Izzie's eye roll.
"I'm taking the trash out," she called back while walking to the door. She opened it and was surprised to find Derek Shepherd pacing on the porch.
"I hadn't decided whether to knock yet or not," he said seeing Izzie's confusion.
She nodded "well I'll let you keep thinking," she said making her way to the trashcans. Izzie was torn between telling Meredith about the man on their porch or not. On one hand it was Christmas and it would probably make her utterly thrilled to see him but on the other hand he was the person who constantly caused her so much pain. Derek looked up as Izzie walked by once again. "We have cookies," she said opening the door.
Derek turned to her and sighed then stepped inside. "Izzie is that you?" Meredith's hassled voice called. "I could use some help there's a lot of wrapping paper just thrown about."
"Ya it's me and um a late guest," Izzie called back.
"A late guest?" Meredith asked poking her head into the hallway.
"Ya sorry I missed dinner," Derek threw a McDreamy smile.
"Oh um, that's fine," she gave him a longing stare. "We have presents for you," she said stepping all the way into the hallway.
"Oh I have presents for you guys too," he nodded. "I left them in the car though because I didn't want to impose."
"Well you wouldn't have imposed we did invite you after all," Meredith said trying to hide the hurt she felt at him not showing up.
"I didn't get an invitation," he frowned.
"Alex was in charge of inviting you," Meredith also frowned. "Alex," she called up the old staircase.
"What?" he asked walking downstairs.
"You were supposed to invite Addison and Derek to dinner."
"I did but she said something about not wanting to spend the holidays with the husband stealing whore," Alex said before thinking. He turned his lips into a frown "sorry I'm still half asleep," he confessed.
"It's fine," Meredith said looking away. "Derek brought presents," she whispered.
"I'll go get them," Alex said snatching Derek's keys from his hand.
"He's a present hoarder, he loves Christmas." Izzie smiled "I'm going to go get your present from my room," she disappeared up the stairs.
"George, Cristina, Derek's here," Meredith called.
"What's McDreamy doing in our house?" Cristina called not moving.
"When did this become your house?" Derek called back to Cristina.
"When I said it did," she snapped.
"It is her house, she has a room now too," Meredith said smiling fondly.
"And Alex?"
"Moved in with Izzie."
"And you're housing Lexie and Mark?"
"Mark only on occasion but Lexie yes. They're up in the right attic though, storage is in the left side."
Derek nodded as Alex brought in the gifts from him. "I have presents," Alex said setting the wrapped boxes on the living room table.
"Good, good, let me hand mine out," Derek said gathering the group. "Izzie come down here," he called and heard her footsteps on the stairs after his summon.
"Should I call Lexie and Mark?" Meredith asked kindly.
"No I met them for lunch earlier and exchanged gifts then," Derek smiled. Meredith nodded in response.
"So who's first?" he asked.
"Me!" Alex jumped in front of everyone.
Derek chuckled and took a small box and handed it to Alex. "Merry Christmas," he said. Alex ripped the paper from the box and opened the flap of the white box inside.
"Boxing season passes?" he screeched in excitement.
"Oh God," Izzie said running her fingers through her hair.
"Thanks dude!" Alex said in excitement.
"You're welcome," Derek chuckled and set an apologetic hand on Izzie's shoulder. "It's front row," his own smile widened as Alex's did.
"Meredith he's awesome you need to date him again!" Alex said. "I'm gonna go look up the seats!" he sprinted up stairs.
"Ok you do that but he dumped me," Meredith yelled up the stairs after him.
Derek swallowed hard and looked away as Meredith turned her eyes back to him. "So Izzie how about you next?" Derek said handing Izzie a small box and a circular can.
"Awe thanks," Izzie smiled opening the circular container first. Inside she found a can of no stick spray for all cooking needs. Izzie smiled widely and hugged Derek before even opening the other box. She did open it though and inside sat a gift card for a cooking utopia with a 200-dollar price amount sitting in the top corner. "Wow Derek this is too much! Thank you though it's it's perfect!" she hugged him again. Derek smiled fondly as he returned her hug before releasing her to find her present.
"Cristina would you like your present?" Derek smirked teasing his ex's best friend. Cristina nodded but didn't give him the satisfaction of actual words. He presented her with a rather large box, larger at least then Alex's and Izzie's. She ripped the paper from the box and let it fall to the floor much to Meredith's annoyance.
"It's a puzzle cube," Cristina said holding the maze box that barely fit in her two hands.
"It is," Derek confirmed. "Inside are 5 red blocks, 5 green blocks, 5 blue blocks, 5 purple blocks, and one gold block. Each block that you get out of the puzzle box gets you something from me. The green blocks I'll let you ask me a question and I will answer it, personally or professionally. The purple blocks get you a favor outside of work the red a favor inside of work. The blue blocks are a present from me, anything you want. Then the one gold block gets you anything." Cristina went to work at cracking the puzzle right away and walked zombielike to the couch before plopping down on it.
"That gold bock may get you in trouble," Meredith said giggling lightly.
"Ok George here you go," Derek said smirking at Meredith's comment.
"Oh thank you uh Derek," George said obviously uncomfortable. George unwrapped the present neatly keeping all of the trash in his hands. Inside the box George found a pair of keys. "What are these too?" he asked curiously.
"I heard that someone may have keyed your car so I went ahead and got it fixed up body work new paint job."
"W-wow! That's thank you, thank you so much," George said in his normal sincere voice. "I'm gonna go see my new car," George said smiling widely before exiting the house.
"That was very nice," Meredith said smiling up at the man she missed.
"Oh you know no big deal, he's your friend and we're friends so he's my friend." Derek's sentence made Meredith want to laugh, he seemed nervous. "I got you something too," he smiled handing Meredith a long box.
"Oh well thank you," she smiled and opened the package. "Derek this is gorgeous! You, you didn't have to do this, this must have cost you a fortune!"
"Nothings too much," he whispered. Meredith's cheeks lit up like a wildfire and her head snapped up. Derek looked away forgetting that he wasn't supposed to say that. "Um anyways I got it because I remember you used to complain about not having a necklace that would match everything. But with all the gym stones in it then it should match anything you want it to."
Meredith smiled at him and handed the necklace to him turning around. "Could you?" she asked lifting her hair.
"Ya, no problem," he said standing close up against her. As he finished attaching the necklace his hands slid down her neck and down to her shoulders and caressed them gently.
"I, do you want your present?" Meredith's voice whispered softly.
"Sure," he whispered back.
"Well it's up in the attic so you'll have to come with me," Meredith said walking up the stairs with Derek following. She opened the attic door and led him to the front left side. "Here it is," she said running her hand over a dark wood wardrobe.
"This is the one from the LA stores," Derek said amazed.
"Actually no," Meredith confessed "I saw how you fawned over that one and I tried to get it but it was gone when I went back. So I bought a cabinet that was the same color as the one we saw and even though I'm no wood worker I did the carvings myself."
"Astounding," Derek said running his fingers over the intricate designs. "It's beautiful Meredith."
"Ya well I had more but it's kind of um not fitting anymore," she gave a shy smile. Derek was confused but she just hugged him as they descended the stairs.
Alex met them on the second floor, "Ok time for me to steal him to show him my present."
"I want it out of the garage soon do you hear me?" Meredith said exiting up the stairs.
"Ya you do kind of need to take it soon because that's all I hear about from her," Alex said leading Derek to the garage. "Ok so I don't really have a lot of money but I am good and building things and my dad has a hardware store so, Merry Christmas." With that Alex opened the garage door and inside sat a kitchen! Derek walked inside and looked around and it took him a minute to realize that this was going to be his kitchen. In his new house.
"Wow Alex this is amazing, thank you."
"Ya no sweat Mer said that you couldn't decide on a lot of stuff for the kitchen so I decided it'd make a good present."
"Meredith talks about the house?" Derek asked looking back to Alex.
"All the time," he said. "I had her narrate the measurements of the kitchen to me so that everything fits just right."
Derek just kind of looked around the kitchen and looked at all the detailed cabinets. "Did she say what each cabinet was supposed to have?" Derek asked curiously.
"Uh she speculated actually," Alex admitted. "She said these see through ones would hold the plates you guys would have for when company came over. On the top shelves, on the bottom ones would be the everyday ones you guys would use."
"I can't believe she thinks about this stuff," Derek said.
"She does, kind of all the time," Alex said.
"Are you two done out here it's my turn!" Izzie said popping her head into the garage.
"Alright Izzie I can't wait to see," Derek said stepping inside to the kitchen where Izzie led him.
"Meredith said that you already had a lot of the house planned but here's my blueprints for your backyard," Izzie said clapping happily. Derek smiled widely waiting to see what Izzie had planned. "Ok so this huge square here is the pool. It's a little more than twice the size of a normal pool. And if you hit this button a wall will come up dividing the pool in half and it will start to get heated."
"That's awesome Izzie," Derek said smiling.
"I'm not done," Izzie said giggling. "Meredith talked a lot about kids and she said they were really important to you so this cone drawing her is actually a really cool volcano designed water slide for the kids. What's even cooler is underneath this volcano thing is the Jacuzzi. Then over here is some water fountain stuff that sprays in the air and the kids can run around in it. Also there's an outside cabana with a bathroom and an area to change for when you're wet from swimming. On the other side is some storage space because Meredith said that you needed storage space for your fishing poles and hunting gear. The last thing is some cooking areas, it's a covered area and there's a sink, a stove, an over, anything you'd need."
"That's so amazing Izzie! You'll have to come over and cook with me sometime," Derek smiled excited.
Izzie's smile fell "well I'd like to but I mean, that'd kind of be a slap in the face to Mer, you're with Addison now and it's not like she's very fond of me anyways."
Derek's smile now fell as well "oh ya, wouldn't want to upset Mer."
"Well I think George and Cristina still have presents for you," Izzie said.
"Ya ok," he nodded. He left and ran into George first.
"Merry Christmas," George said. "Meredith helped me pick these out," George said dragging two bed sets from his bedroom. "I didn't really know how to wrap them, so I didn't," he frowned and gave a nervous laugh.
Derek smiled and lent down to look at them. "These are perfect they match almost exactly the colors I want the master. Thank you George," he smiled widely.
"No problem, glad you like them."
"I do," he nodded. George nervously excused himself and Derek moved on to find Cristina.
"The presents from me are leaned up against the wall," she said. Derek saw three huge picture frames and picked the first one up. "I had it fitted to go over the fire place." It was a gorgeous hand painted picture of Meredith. Her hair was slightly tasseled she had a smile on her face and she was peering over her shoulder. The picture took Derek's breath away as he continued to gaze at her. The next picture Derek picked up was a Meredith's favorite picture of both of them done in charcoal. The last picture was a blown up shot of him and Addison on their wedding day. "I don't return paintings but I didn't think you'd want to explain the one's of Meredith to your wife who isn't Meredith which is stupid by the way."
"Thank you Cristina I love them," he said staring particularly long at the one of Meredith.
"Ya no problem," she snorted. Derek began to walk out of the room but Cristina's voice stopped him "we didn't make these things for her you know, Addison. We didn't try to make you two a house we made Meredith's house, the one she envisioned and loved. Do you honestly think that we did any of this for the woman who hurt Meredith so much? You need to stop living your life for responsibility and start living it to make yourself happy. Does Addison make you happy Derek?"
"Guys look it's snowing!" Izzie's voice interrupted.
Derek choose to go with the rest of the group to the living room rather than face Cristina's wrath. "That's not snow," Meredith said who was one of the first to arrive at the window. "It's rain."
"Oh no," Izzie said "that means black ice."
"That means traumas," Cristina said giddy.
"That means you should consider staying the night here," Meredith said turning to Derek.
"I really shouldn't, Addison would be upset."
"Wouldn't she be more upset if you went and died?" Alex snipped.
"I should go," Derek reiterated.
"Well I'm going to go to sleep and if you change your mind you're welcome to come into my room," Meredith went up to retire.
#
The bed sunk slowly on the cold side and two arms encapsulated Meredith. "Derek?" she spoke softly into the darkness. "You came back," she said inhaling his aftershave.
"She was in a compromising position with one of our residents, I didn't appreciate it much as her husband and so, I left. I came here, where I am loved."
Meredith smiled and turned around kissing Derek pulling herself close. "I missed you," she said.
"I missed you too."