Author Note: This is before A Change in the Timeline. I wanted you guys to see their life before and as its Easter, well why not show you their Easter :). Caitlyn is about three in this story. I have a lot of A Change in the Timeline written I just need to type it up so until they get typed, this is my treat to all that have supported my story. Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

Derek's POV

"MOMMY! DADDY! WAKEY TIME!" Meredith and I look up and see Caitlyn at the foot of our bed. "Egg time?"

"Good morning baby." Meredith says as Caitlyn climbs up on our bed. "It will be egg time when we go to Uncle Mark and Aunt Lexie's home ok?" Caitlyn pouts a little bit.

"Breakfast time entead?"

"Of course it can be breakfast time sweetheart." I say as Meredith giggles when Caitlyn's pout turns into a huge smile. "How do waffles sound?"

"WAFFLES!" She starts jumping on our bed in excitement and neither Mer nor I had the heart to tell her no. "Mommy, I wuv WAFFLES!" She says excitedly.

"Well we need to go downstairs if you want waffles Princess." I said since we couldn't just sit on the bed for the whole day. She jumps off the bed and starts to go towards the door. "Don't run in the house Caitlyn!" We quickly get up and go after her, since we know she is probably half way to the kitchen now.

"WAFFLE TIME!" Caitlyn calls from the kitchen and Mer and I look at each other with matching smiles as we both listen to our daughter's excitement. "MOMMY! DADDY!" She called impatiently.

"We're coming Caitlyn. Hold on." Meredith calls to her as we walk to the kitchen to see her by the cabinet where we keep the mixing bowl. I get out the ingredients knowing that soon Caitlyn was going to get cranky if she didn't eat soon. "How about the two of you get started on the waffles and I will go get her testing stuff so we can make sure to give her the right amounts?"

"Sounds good. I left her stuff on her dresser." I say as I hand Caitlyn a cup of flour to pour in the bowl. We finally get all the ingredients mixed together and I start to pour some waffle mix into the waffle iron. Mer decides now would be the best time to test her.

"Mommy, when time for Aunt Wexie and Unce Mar?"

"We are going to their house for lunch Caitlyn." Meredith answers while putting a waffle on Caitlyn's plate.

"Pretty dress day?"

"Yes honey, you get to wear your new pretty dress."

"Yay!" Caitlyn starts to eat her waffle and when she is done, we have a little bit over half an hour before we need to leave for the Easter egg hunt that Caitlyn didn't know about. "Mommy dress time now?"

"Of course Caitlyn."

"I'll clean up while you help her get ready." I watch my wife and daughter walk upstairs before going to get started on the dishes. Luckily, there weren't too many so I was finished pretty soon. I went up stairs and changed into some slacks and a blue shirt that Meredith had bought for me.

"DADDY?" I hear Caitlyn call from her room. I walk to her room and see that she is already changed. "Look at pretty dress!" She spun around so that the pink dress spun out from her body just enough to make her look like an upside down flower.

"Wow, that is the prettiest dress I have ever seen and on one of the most prettiest girls too!"

"Thanks Daddy!"

"I'll watch her Mer. Go get ready."

"Ok." She smiles and walks towards our room.

"Daddy, me wear pretty bows?" Caitlyn asks holding two gauze like bows in her hands and I notice that Meredith had pulled her hair into two pony tails, but hadn't put any ribbons or bows in.

"Sure princess. Come here and let me put them on you." She runs over and hands me the bows. We then go downstairs and I put on an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Halfway through the episode, Meredith comes downstairs in a light blue dress that falls just above her knees. "Wow. Someone looks amazing, Mer." She smiles at me. She carries her purse in one hand and Caitlyn's socks with lace at the top and a pair of her white patent leather shoes.

"All we have to do is get Caitlyn's shoes and socks on and we are ready to go." Meredith says to me and I nod. We both put one sock and shoe on to speed the job up. Meredith reaches over, though, after I put her shoe on and folds the socks down so that they both stop with the lace hitting the top of her ankles.

"Time Aunt Wexie and Unce Mar?" Caitlyn asks.

"Yes it's time to go to Aunt Lexie' and Uncle Mark's home."Meredith replies which makes Caitlyn smile with excitement. "Can you grab her testing kit? It's on the counter."

"Of course." I grab it and we walk out to the car. We drive to Mark and Lexie's house, seeing from all the other cars that everyone else had pretty much arrived already. We get out of the car and walk up to the front door. Lexie opens the door.

"AUNT WEXIE!" Caitlyn says before anyone else can say a hello and then runs to give her a hug.

"Hi Caitlyn! How's my favorite niece?"

"GWEAT!" Mark joins Lexie at the front door.

"Hi Caitlyn! Did you miss your favorite uncle?"

"UNCE MAR!" She says before giving him a hug. We all walk inside.

"Look the Shepherd family is finally here! Now we can have some fun." Christina says and Mer smiles at her best friend.

"Hi Christina."

"Your sister and her husband wouldn't let anything fun happen before Caitlyn showed up." Christina said whining to Meredith.

"The party is for Caitlyn, Christina." Lexie points out.

"No the party is for Easter, duh number three. Thought with you being Lex-apidea you would remember that." She says jokingly but with a sarcastic tone to Lexie.

"AUNT CHWITINA!" Caitlyn runs to her godmother and throws her arms around Christina's legs.

"Hey munchkin!"

"I no munchkin. I alost four!" Caitlyn holds up four fingers to Christina even though her birthday is not for months. "Mommy and Daddy say I big girl."

"Well of course you are." Owen says as he walks over to his wife.

"Caitlyn, would you like to go on an egg hunt?" Caitlyn gasps in surprise.

"Weally?"

"Yes, the Easter bunny came this morning asking if he could leave some Easter eggs for you and we said sure."

"Mommy I go eggs?" Caitlyn asked Meredith, almost jumping up and down with excitement.

"Of course baby." Caitlyn runs towards the backyard, where Lexie had left an Easter basket for Caitlyn. Everyone followed her to watch her first egg hunt, now that she could appreciate it. Meredith grabbed the digital camera from her purse. I wrapped my arms around Meredith's waist so we could watch Caitlyn as she ran frantically around the yard wanting to find all the hot pink plastic eggs that had been hidden for her.

"Daddy help!" Caitlyn smiled in my direction after she had found about eight eggs.

"Sure princess." I walked over to her and she grabs my hand and pulls me towards the next egg she saw. I could hear Meredith giggle as she snapped some photos. In the end Caitlyn found all of the 24 eggs hidden for her. Caitlyn ate a couple of jelly beans from one of the eggs. "Should we put the candy away so she doesn't mess her blood sugar up too much?" I look to Meredith to see what she thinks.

"Probably, it's almost time for lunch anyway so we should check her and then maybe she can have some after lunch." I nod in agreement. "Caitlyn, honey, can you come here so I can check you?"

"Otay Mommy!" Caitlyn said running over to Meredith. I took this as my cue to take the candy and put it up for now. I decided to move it to the hallway so Caitlyn wouldn't see it.

"Lunchtime guys," Lexie called from the kitchen. Caitlyn ran to her aunt as soon as Meredith was done testing her. I walk over to Mer as she puts up the testing supplies.

"How did it look?"

"It was a little low, but nothing that eating lunch won't fix." I wrap an arm around her waist and we walk to the dining room.

"Mommy Daddy sit Caitlyn." Caitlyn pointed to the seats on either side of her. We sit down and Meredith puts some food on Caitlyn's plate equal to what she needed to raise her blood sugar before putting some on her plate. I grab some ham and some mashed potatoes to but on my plate. We ate lunch and since there were many doctors around we heard about almost all the areas of the hospital in one way or another. Alex and Lucy talked about a baby that had recently come in and Arizona and Callie talked about some little kid that had broken both his legs. We also heard about a patient that Mark and Lexie had helped after she burned over half her body due to a fire. Most of the conversations flew over Caitlyn's head, which I personally was grateful for. I don't want Caitlyn to learn too much stuff that we talk about as it is sometimes very grotesque. After lunch everyone moved into the living room where we talked about everything from Caitlyn's daycare to, no surprise, the hospital, again. After a while though, I noticed Caitlyn had fallen asleep on Meredith's lap.

"I think it's time for us to get going." And everyone agreed with just one look at the now-silent, sleeping Caitlyn. We all said our goodbyes and I scooped Caitlyn from Meredith's lap and carried her to the car. Meredith followed me out with Caitlyn's basket and her testing supplies. After settling Caitlyn in the back, we started our drive home. "Happy Easter Mer."

"Happy Easter to you too Derek." I looked at my little family and couldn't wait for the traditions that would follow as our life together continued.

Author's Note: Again Happy Easter to those who celebrate it :)