Brighter Days

MERDER AU. "I was pregnant that day, I was pregnant and I lost it..." What if Meredith hadn't had a miscarriage in season 6 but things hadn't actually gone as planned? What are the challenges set up for Meredith, Derek and their family? Will there be brighter days where you seem unable to see nothing but clouds in the sky? A companion to my other story "At the end of the day."

A/N: Hey guys! So I am in no way abandoning my other stories, but this just wouldn't leave me alone. If you've read "At the End of the Day." then you know I been meaning to write this down for a while and since it's almost summer break, I thought I'd give it a try, let me know what you think of this, please?

I own nothing.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Prologue

"You think that true love is the only thing that can crush your heart. The thing that will take your life and light it up or destroy it. Then you become a mother."

-Meredith Grey

Age:16.

Derek opened his eyes to the sound of the alarm. He sighed, stretching his arm to turn it off.

"What time is it?" Meredith asked. She moved her body to the side so she was able to face Derek.

"The time of utter silence... until told otherwise." Derek smiled softly, kissing his wife on the cheek. "Hear that?"

"What?" Meredith giggled as he pinned her down to the bed.

"Absolutely nothing..."

Thud.

"You spoke too soon, jinxed it..." Meredith groaned. "I have to get up..."

"Come on, five more minutes... it's not like that they don't know they should knock..."

"Seriously, have you met our children?" Meredith laughed as Derek began kissing her again. "Derek..."

"What..."

"We have to get up..." Meredith shoved him to the side to get out of bed, but he grabbed her waist and pulled her back. "Stop!"

"Ewww...!" Came the alarmed squeal of Zola as she opened the door. "I tried knocking, but.."

Derek released Meredith as she got out of bed. "It's fine Zo, I'm up, let's go..."

"Can I just point out no one should be up this early on a Sunday, it's wrong..." Bailey said as he collapsed on the couch as Meredith was coming from her room.

"Specially if it's someone's birthday.." Came another voice next to him on the couch. "Which apparently no one remembered..."

"Happy Birthday!" two excited voices said from behind Bailey and Sebastian. "Happy birthday Bash!" Derek came out a moment later, followed by two girls, he was holding a box in his hands.

"Happy birthday kiddo." Meredith hugged her eldest son. "I can't believe you're sixteen..."

"Am I? Is that why dad might be going senile or something..." Bash joked as Derek joined Meredith on the couch.

"Really? Well you aren't getting a present then..."

"No!" Bash snatched the box from Derek's hands. "I'm kidding, give me, give me!" Derek watched as his teenage son practically reverted to a 3 year old. This was actually happening. Meredith eyed her husband for a moment and she felt her heart pressing on her chest as Bash's eyes widened in shock and Zola's indignant look gave her brother an incentive to be more excited.

"Yes! A responsible driver!" Bailey said excitedly.

"Hey!" Zola hit him with cushion. "You'll take the bus to school then..."

"Well, they are not keys, not yet, but it's a start..." Derek said with a smile. "Mom and I have been talking about it and... we decided it was only fair to give you the benefit of the doubt..."

"It wouldn't be manly if I cried, would it?" Bash said as he hugged his parents. "Best birthday in the history of days celebrating the fact that I was born..."

"Duh, birthday!" Casey said in a matter of facty way. "Makes sense. You celebrate your birthday..."

"Yeah, yeah, Caseypedia I don't need that today, I got a car!" Bash jumped off the couch and onto the end of the hall to his room.

"It's not a car yet!" Zola called after him. "Is it?"

"No, I'm just taking him to get his permit. That's all..." Derek said as he began taking things out of the fridge. "You guys would have to share the car for a while actually..." Zola's face filled with disgust.

"What!"

"Zo, we've talked about this..." Meredith said as Wes and Casey joined her on the kitchen island. "We said we had to give him a chance to at least..."

"Live? Yeah, I know...But if he as much as hurts..."

"It's not a living thing Zola..." Her sister said. "It doesn't feel..."

"Yes, thank you, I know! Still..."

"Zo...We said..." Derek warned.

"Fine..."

"Let him be, it's his birthday..."

"So, did he like his present?" Callie asked Derek later that day as they sat outside the dream house drinking a beer.

"He did. I'm taking over to get his permit tomorrow..." Derek smirked.

"Good. t How did Zola take it?"

"She... She's fine..." Derek added in. "You don't that you are lucky Justin isn't old enough to drive...It will be a nightmare having those two fighting for who gets to drive the car..."

"Well, look at it this way, now you have one more person to do car pooling and you get to bribe him with the possibly of loosing privileges, so, it's all good..." Derek laughed as he watched Meredith go inside the house. She seemed overwhelmed.

Meredith found the silence of her room comforting. She didn't want to hide. She shouldn't really, this was about celebrating more than freaking out. She'd made it this far. He'd made it this far...

"Mer?" She heard the sound of Derek's voice coming from the threshold. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

She turned her face away, cleaning her tears as she went. "Nothing. Nothing, I'm fine. I think we should go back out there..." She tried to stand up but he pulled her back down.

"Hey, come on, talk to me..."

"It's today Derek..." She said. "Today was our promise, we promised him, he'd come this far..." Derek took her hand in his and gave it a light squeeze. "And I just can't believe it..."She cried as he held her.

"Then, as it seems we've reached our quota, we should make another promise..." He said, tracing his thumb across his wife's cheek.

"Hey guys..." Maggie called out. "What's the hold up, the cake is out..."

"Alright." Derek said softly. Maggie frowned. "We'll be right there."

"Everything okay?" His sister in law asked.

"Yeah, just go back out there, We'll be right there..."

"Okay..." And just like that, she left. Meredith tried calming herself, she sat farther into the bed and grabbed a picture from the nightstand. She saw the faces of the people who mattered most to her. Derek whose eyes sparkled and hair had somehow managed to remain amazing. Zola, her unexpected gift of a girl who had been her biggest cheerleader when things got bad. Bailey and his sweet ways, she was sure he'd be surgeon when he grew up. Next were her trouble makers. Those three had been born years apart and but were inseparable. Ellie, who to Zola's delight had come to turn a stop to all the testosterone in the house. Casey, her know it all, he reminded her most of her sister Lexie, ergo, his nickname. He was too smart for his own good, and usually dragged Wes along for any idea he might come up with, even though her youngest son was just as sweet as he was hard headed and easy to influence on. And, there in her lap was the baby of the family. Hannah had been a surprise. To everyone, Meredith was sure to nature itself, but she was just Derek's little princess and she loved every second of it. Her fingers traced on Sebastian's face as she paused, her son was a carbon copy of Derek, eyes and all. She felt her chest pressing again.

"Let's just go." She said after a moment. "We need to go..."

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you, dear Bash, happy birthday to you..." Meredith watched as everyone gathered around the cake and her son while they sang. He stole a glance her way, his bright, Shepherd smile made her want to smile to, even though she had conflicted feelings on how she was meant to be handling this.

This was a good thing. He'd turned sixteen. She had kept her promise.

"Come on Mer, it's picture time!" She heard Amelia call for her. Ah yes, she and Derek had made it their mission to take a picture of them and each of their children every birthday, call her systematic. She liked the way things grew. She liked to see things evolving and growing.

So, she took her spot next to Derek as he wrapped his arm around her, his other arm held their youngest daughter. The little girl had her head on Derek's shoulder. Casey, Ellis and Wes sat under their parents, as Bailey took a stand next to Derek, Zola to his left. Meredith saw Bash standing next to her and she felt like crying again.

She had kept her promise. To herself, to Derek and to her son.

"You had a good birthday?" Meredith asked her son as they cleared the kitchen together. Bash nodded, focused on the task of drying the dishes. "What?"

"Why did I feel like you've been avoiding to even look at me? Is something wrong?" God. She knew he'd noticed. Darn empathy.

"Nope." Meredith smiled. "Everything is fine." They continued to do chores in silence until Derek came into the kitchen.

"Who broke what?" He said as soon as he noticed the silence. "If you're mad because we couldn't have your friends over, I'm sure you can do something next weekend..."

"Dad...It's..." Derek saw Bash tip toe a bit when he turned around.

"Okay, you know what? I'm going to finish up with those, why don't you go get ready for bed? It's been a long day..." Derek smiled as he took the cloth from him.

"I'm fine." He insisted. "I'll do it..."

"Have you heard of a sixteen year old who wants to do chores? Come on, get out of here birthday boy...we've got somewhere to be tomorrow." Bash smirked as Derek hugged him. He was almost as tall as he was. "Good night bud."

"Night." Bash turned to Meredith and she kissed him good night and told him she loved him. Derek didn't move until he heard the sound of the door closing.

"He's right you know?" Derek pointed out. "You are looking at him as if he was going to disappear..."

"And you don't?" She said defensibly. "I just..."

"Hey..." Derek held her face up. "He's fine Mer, he's happy, you have to stop worrying..." She sighed as he hugged her.

Derek was right. She had made sure her son had reached his sixteen birthday, she had to stop worrying.

Beeep... beeep... Her heart froze at the sound of monitor going off. That could only mean one thing.

She had still to keep her promise.

"Nothing in the world can prepare you to be a mother, there's no manual on how to do it, mostly you do it because somehow, you think you can . Because someone depends on you and you are at a loss if you try to look for a mechanical way to do it, because somehow, you depend on that child too."

So? What did you think? This is just the set up chapter! We will see more of Bash and find out what exactly is wrong with him... Get ready for this ride full of Merder, children, love and resilience.

Also, I've made Zola a bit older than Bash in order for the story to work better. ...

Thank you so much for reading and don't forget to review if you liked it ! It inspires me to write more.