Zola Christina Grey-Shepard the name sounded nice it had a good ring to it, and it would certainly make Christina happy. But how can She tell Derek that their naming their kid after her best friend,now that was an issue. That's irrelevant right now anyways. she thought walking back to the kitchen "Ive got to finish laundry and start dinner." She mumbled out loud her mind preoccupied by the names rolling around in her head. They'd had Zola for almost a year now and had yet to figure out a middle name for her,it was Alex who'd said something about it one day when they were having lunch at the hospital,it came out of no where.
"Mama...ma...ma" the voice startled her as it came from the baby monitor attached to her hip. She still wasn't used to Zola talking yet, the speech therapist said that the reason Zola didn't talk as much as she should is the result of the language change from Chichewa to English. Also as a change in her surroundings from Malawi to Seattle. But none the less did Meredith care she was just happy that Zola had started making progress and that her first word was mama. "Hi ZoZo who's up when they should be taking a nap?" She asked the 1 year old using the voice she only used on Zola. She picked Zola up out of her crib knowing she'd never take a nap anyways and carried her out to the kitchen strapping her into her high chair. "Zo what should we have for dinner huh? Rhetorically asking Zola thinking that spaghetti sounded good for dinner.
She had just finished setting the table when she heard Derek's car pull up outside. "Smells good!" She heard heading back into the kitchen. "Thanks" she said after Derek finished kissing her. "Hi ZoZo how are the Cheerios?" He asked stealing one off the tray of her high chair and smiling at her. "Dinner will be ready in about 10 minuets if you want to take her and get her changed and ready please" Derek stood up and looked at his wife "alrighty but she's yours next" he said jokingly while lifting Zola out of the chair and grabbing a couple more Cheerios off the tray and handing them to her.
Meredith got the bread out of the oven and the pan of sauce off the stove and carried them to the table listening to Zola laughing in the other room. She headed back to the kitchen to grab the noodles and salad and put them on the table just as Derek and Zola came back out. "Here I'll hold her if you wanna go get the high chair please" she said giving him a kiss and taking Zola out of his arms. She strapped Zola in and pushed her up to the table next to Derek and went to sit on the other side of the table.
"How was your day" she asked him after she had gotten everyone served and they had stared on dinner. " I had a Craniotomy on today the older gentleman the teacher you meet him once didn't you?" She nodded her head "once" she said remembering the older man. "Everything went well with that there were a few complications when we went in but it was good in the end!" He said pausing to take a bite of salad. "After that I clamped a few aneurysms but that was all" he said like it was something everyone did on a daily basis "that's good" she nodded "well Zola and I played outside most of the day it wasn't to bad just a little chilly earlier but that's normal since its September" she smiled at Zola across the table who had shoved a piece of lettuce into her mouth while trying to smile. "Then we came inside and watch a few movies" she said remembering earlier when Zola made her watch Lilo and Stich 2 times in a row because it was her favorite movie at the moment.
They'd finished eating and were in the process of getting Zola to bed since it was almost 9:30 "I wish she would stay this little forever" Derek said putting Zola's pajamas on "me too...she said mama again today well she said it twice" Meredith said not wanting to rub it in but wanting him to know that Zola was talking more. "That's great maybe she'll say more tomorrow when I don't have to work" he said happy that tomorrow was one of his few and treasured days off. "Maybe she will but now its bed time...huh Zo" she said picking up Zola and laying her in her crib handing her favorite blanket to her and rubbing her back.
They were laying on their bed later that night when Meredith finally got the nerve to ask him about Zola's middle name "Derek I was thinking about a middle name for Zo" she said nervously afraid he wouldn't like the names. "What kind of names are we talking about?" He asked wondering what kind of names she'd thought of over the day "we'll I like Christina it goes well with Zola and it would make Christina happy too" she mumbled scared he'd say no without thinking about it. " it does sound good with Zola and yea it would make Christina happy but would it make you happy?" He asked playing with her hair "I like it so yes I'd be happy with Zola Christina Grey-Shepard" she said looking him in the eye as she said the name confident that maybe they'd found the right name "hmmm Zola Christina Grey-Shepard... I like it" he said kissing her cheek "I do to" she said and rolled over laying her head on his chest. "Zola Christina it is then" he said kissing the top of her head and closing his eyes with a smile.