What we missed …

Disclamer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. I own only my fancy.

So this is my first attempt to write something. Feel free to thrown me rotten tomatoes. Hope you like it !

Chapter 1 – Bailey's birth

When he saw his sleeping wife in the same bed in which a few hours before she gave birth to their son, Derek let go the breath that he had unconsciously held when Christina showed up at the window of the NICU. From the sight Christina casted at him, Derek understood that something wasn't right. His thought went immediately to his wife. The fear of losing her, that agonizing fear he felt some years ago, when she almost drowned in the Elliot Bay, came back and it was real when Christina told him that Meredith was still in the OR, hemorrhaging. He reached the OR as fast as he could, but once there, he wasn't allowed to enter.

The only thing he could do, was to try to not let the discouragement to prevail in him, to try not to think to worse. His mind grieved over the thought of losing his Meredith, his wife and the mother of his children. His children. Together with Meredith, Zola and the newborn boy were his entire world. Near him, Christina tried to comfort him as best as she could, but when they saw Bailey on the edge of crying, he ran, scared, to his wife. Only when he saw his sleeping wife, still under the effect of the anesthesia, he was relieved. He was seized with an urge to kiss his wife on her forehead as to have a tangible proof of her presence.

"Dr Grey is fine" Ross told Derek, while he sat up again in the same stool he used some hours before, after he hugged and thanked Bailey for saving his wife. When they remained alone, Ross addressed to Derek and he said: "If I may, sir", went on the young resident," your wife is one of the most courageous women I've even met", said Ross while he finished to check Meredith's IV. The young resident went on:" Before she slipped into unconsciousness, she understood what was happening to her and she guided me during the first stage of the operation."

"My wife is an extraordinaire woman", answered Derek while he stroked sweetly his still sleeping wife's forehead. His look gazed on his wife and he didn't notice the exit of the young resident. In that moment the time stood still. There were only he and his wife. His thought ran to his wife. His Meredith was an strong woman, a woman who behind her had a troubled infancy. Despite that, she became a beautiful woman, an extraordinaire doctor and an attentive mother. To reach these goals, there were fights, sorrows, they broke up and went back together. They went beyond tragedies when Meredith was almost drown in the Elliot Bay, or when, after the shooting in which Derek was wounded gravelly, she miscarried their baby.

Derek stroked sweetly her head protected by the blue bonnet, in the same way he did when Meredith donated a piece of her liver to her estranged father. Between the two the link was Lexie, the sister Meredith learned to love. Lexie's death was a severe setback for her, a shock she rode out only recently. Lexie and Meredith were so connected that Derek and Meredith chose Lexie as Zola's legal guardian in case something had happened to them.

A slight movement remove him from his thought. He lowered his gaze and he saw her wife's head move. He held his breathe back and finally he saw his wife's eyes open. An enormous smile opened on his face, a smile that released happiness, but above all joy. Finally his wife was awake and the worse had gone.

"Derek", she whispered. Meredith opened slightly her eyes and she closed them almost immediately. Fatigue and tiredness revealed on Meredith's face. That day had been stressful for her. It began with her fall on the stairs, then the labour and ended a few moments ago, when she finally opened her eyes.

"Meredith, finally", Derek said. Tears of happiness ran from his eyes. He kissed Meredith in the mouth. When his mouth touched hers, Meredith opened her eyes again and looked her husband in the eyes. His look spread the essential calm which allowed Meredith to not panic.

"How do you feel?" Derek asked Meredith, without took his hand from his wife's head.

"Like I had been opened in two", Meredith said when she attempted to lighten the heavy atmosphere in the room. Instead of answering his wife, he kissed her slight her mouth. She closed her eyes to taste the moment. Suddenly Meredith moved and stared at him troubled.

"The baby? How is our son?" she asked her husband worried. Even if she saw him briefly after his birth, she couldn't help to be worried because the baby had been transferred to the NICU right after his birth.

"Our son is fine. When he was born, the saturation and the oxygen's level where low. Calm down", he said to his wife when he saw her worried look. While he talked, he went on to keep his hand on her wife's head, to keep her calm.

"Now he is fine. Karev is taking care of him. Apgar is good, six over nine. He is a beautiful baby. He looks like you, he has your beautiful eyes", he said lowered his mouth on hers. This time the kiss was a little more longer.

"Is our son really fine?" asked Meredith worried. She knew that Derek would have never lied on an important thing like this, but she couldn't help to be worried. This baby had been a surprise for them. After the miscarriage, Zola's adoption and after what had happened, the last thing they expected was to become parents for the second time. While Derek was enthusiastic of become a father of the second time, Meredith was very careful on her pregnancy; she was happy to become a mother for the second time but she took it more rationally, trying not to grow fond of the baby. She was afraid to miscarry again. She was so afraid that she didn't say anything to no one, not even to Christina. After a certain time, they announced it to their colleagues first and then to Derek's sister, Liz, with the promise not to tell anyone.

"Our son is fine". This time Meredith was more calm. He closed her eyes for some seconds. She reopened them immediately.

"Zola! Did you check on her?" she asked worriedly to her husband.

"Zola is fine. She is safely in daycare", said Derek smiling. Despite at the beginning Meredith was scared at the idea to become Zola's mother, after a while between a strong bond was born Zola and Meredith.

"Poor girl! How afraid she would be!" said Meredith loudly. She knew that her little girl was afraid of storms, especially when there was a blackout. Meredith knew everything about Zola. She knew when she woke up in the morning, without made a noise. They had a very tight relationship.

"Let's do in this way", said Derek, "I tell Bailey you're awake, so she can check on you and then transfer you in a room. Once you're situated, I'll check on Zola and on our son. Ok?" Meredith nodded. From the pocket of his trousers, he took a cell phone and he texted Bailey that Meredith was awake.

"Why do you text Bailey? It was Ross who operated on me", said Meredith in an interrogative ton of voice.

"Ross begin it, but it was Bailey who concluded it", said Derek putting his cell phone away.

"Why don't you rest?", asked Derek. Despite she was awake and talking, Derek saw tiredness in Meredith, tiredness that events like that could cause. Meredith turned her eyes toward her husband and she closed them. She went to sleep within seconds. Derek didn't remove his look on in wife not for a second. He saw traces of tiredness under her eyes. Ross entered shortly after Meredith went back to sleep. With him there were two nurses.

"Dr Shepherd, Dr Bailey asks me to move Dr Grey in her room in the maternity ward", the young resident told him. Derek got up to make her wife move. Meredith didn't wake up. Slowly, the group of people moved along the hallway. Meredith woke up only when they reached her room. Her IV was put back in place.

"Go back to sleep. I'll go and see the children", said Derek. Meredith closed her eyes. Derek went out the door. Derek walked quickly in the hallways he knew so well. Short time later, he reached the daycare. From the door, he could see Zola playing quietly with the other children.

"Zola!", Derek called her. The little girl turned when she heard her father's voice.

"Daddy!", she said while running towards her father. Derek held her and kissed her cheeks. The little girl closed her little arms around her father's neck and she hugged him tightly.

"Mommy?" asked Zola.

"Mommy is fine and she waiting for you, but before we go and visit mommy, we must go and see another person", her father told her.

The little girl nodded. Derek told Zola's daycare teacher that he was taking her away. While holding his little girl, Derek went toward the nursery.

"Do you remember when mommy and I told you that soon you'd have a baby brother?", said Derek to his little girl when they reached the nursery. Zola nodded smiling. Derek smiled at the positive answer of his baby girl. With his thought he went back to the evening, when Meredith and Derek decided to tell Zola about her baby brother's arrival. They decided to tell her before putting her to bed. As every evening, Meredith changed her and put her to bed. Derek reached them to read her a good night story. When the story ended, Meredith, keeping her lying down position near Zola, told her: " Zola, my little one, daddy and I have to tell you something". Meredith looked, hesitating, her husband how to go on. Derek, seeing that his wife didn't know how to go on, went on taking her place: "What mommy and I wanted to tell you is that soon you'll have a baby brother."

"Baby brother?" repeated the little girl looking her parents.

"In this moment, your baby brother is inside mommy's belly", Derek told her, while Meredith took Zola's little hand and put it over her barely noticeable belly. Meredith went on: "Inside my belly, you baby brother is growing up day by day, so when he'll born, he can play and learn with you". Zola watched her mother and she said smiling:" Baby brother!". Meredith smiled and she remained near her daughter until she slept.

A noise pulled Derek out of his thought. "Your baby brother is born", Derek said to his daughter, when he went back to reality. He saw that they were in front of the nursery. The baby boy was in the incubator near the window.

"Do you see that big box with a sleeping baby inside it?" he pointed to his daughter. Zola nodded and he went on: "that baby is your baby brother".

"Baby brother!" exclaimed a very happy little girl. They entered in the room and Derek made her look her baby brother.

"Baby brother!" repeated the little girl. Derek smiled at his daughter's happiness and asked to the NICU nurse if it was possible to bring the baby to his wife. At the positive answer, Derek put the little girl down while the nurse put the baby boy inside a wheeled crib. The nurse left the little family alone. Derek took with one hand the little girl while with the other he pushed the crib towards the door.

When they reached Meredith's room, Derek stopped for one second and watched his wife sleeping quietly. She was lying in her bed, dark shadows were under her eyes. Without making any noises, the small party entered in the room. Derek put the wheeled crib near the bed. Then, he made his daughter sit on the bed right in front of the crib. He took his sit on he chair near the bed.

"He is little and he is sleeping. When he can play with me?" asked Zola to his father.

Derek chuckled. "He is sleeping because he is very little and he needs to sleep and he will not play with you for a while, but you can help mommy to care for him", he said to his daughter who was watching his brother sleeping.

Meredith choose that moment to stir. She opened her tired eyes and saw her little family gathered in her room. She quietly listened her husband talking to their daughter. Derek noticed that Meredith was awake and he whispered something to Zola. She turned around and she saw her smiling mother with her arms opened ready to embrace her little girl. Zola threw herself towards her mother.

"Mommy!"

"Hi, baby girl!". Meredith kissed her daughter's hair while Zola hugged her.

Derek saw the scene and he smiled at her girls. A little noise was coming from the crib. He looked down and he saw his baby boy with his eyes barely open. He took him in his arms, he held him up and told him: "Look our girls", he moved him carefully, so the baby could see his mother and sister.

He reached the bed and he said: "Hi mommy!". Meredith turned her gaze towards his husband and she saw her baby boy. She let Zola go and she took her son in her arms, carefully supporting his head. Derek took Zola in his arms and stood near her.

"Hi baby boy!" said Meredith to her son. Her baby boy opened his eyes once more when he heard his mother's voice. She was extremely happy to finally hold her son. She kissed him on his tiny forehead. Her eyes were full of tears, happy tears. She couldn't believe that finally her son was here. After her miscarriage and the bad prognosis she was given, she didn't believe it was possible for her to have a baby. She was extremely happy. She was on cloud nine.

"He needs a name", said Derek.

"What do you think about Bailey? She saved my life after all" she replied.

"Bailey? I love it!" he answered.

"What do you think?" he asked to Zola. The little girl said nothing; she kept looking her little brother.

The couple slipped in a comfortable silence, each of them thinking about the previous day, about life and joy, love and family. Later that night, after their friends went to congratulate the couple, in her room, Meredith and Derek were watching their kids sleeping; their daughter in her father's arms and Bailey was resting in her mother's arms. Meredith was looking adoringly her sleeping son. Zola was resting with her head on his father's shoulder. Looking her kids, she realized that she was perfectly contented. She wasn't like her mother. Ellis would have never stopped to do her job just to look her sleeping daughter or to organize her daughter's birthday party. Meredith was a completely different person. She took time to know her daughter, to became her mother. She was the one who organized Zola's birthday party or the one who walked the baby up and down the room when she was unable to sleep. She had to thank her husband for that. He brought happiness but also sorrow in her life. But it was because of him and for him that she began to heal from the sorrow her mother caused her. In him she saw something better, something it was worth fight for, even if he decided to came back to his wife or she dated the vet. She was his world and he was hers. Without him, she would have become a different person, maybe she would have become a shadow, someone completely different. Neither a wife or a mother.

She raised her head and she saw Derek watching her smiling.

"What?" Meredith said him smiling .

"Nothing" replied her husband.

"Thank you" said Meredith to him after a little while.

"For what?" he replied.

"For keep your promise", she said. "Not once but twice. First with Zola" she said looking her sleeping daughter, "and then with Bailey", she said looking down at her newborn son. He didn't replied. Without moving his sleeping daughter, he sit down on the bed near her and leaned forward to kiss her. Their kiss was sweet and fool of love. That kiss was more significant than thousand words, that kiss was the symbol of their love.

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