Fight Or Give In

He doesn't know that. He's an idiot. For all he knows, it could be the worst day of his life. You know how people say, 'Who knows? I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.' That seems pretty farfetched. Until you have a friend who got hit by a bus.

The point is you never know what kind of day is coming.

Whenever we think we know the future, even for a second, it changes.

Sometimes the future changes quickly and completely. And we're left only with the choice of what to do next. We can choose to be afraid of it, to stand there, trembling, not moving, assuming the worst that can happen. Or we step forward, into the unknown, and assume it will be brilliant. Cristina Yang

Derek opened the front door with a key and entered his and Meredith's house, holding a bottle of champagne in his hand. It was dark outside. "Hey, stranger." Meredith greeted him smiling when she looked up from the journal she was reading, something about general surgery. She already put the kids down, Zola and Bailey were sleeping.

"Hey. What are you drinking?" He asked, referring to the wine glass filled with wine. He closed the front door and went over to her. "You know what? It doesn't matter. You can dump it out." He told her, he had a giant smile on his face. Meredith glanced at him, she had no idea what happened. Why is he coming home with a freaking bottle of champagne? Why, is there some event she doesn't know about?

Meredith was kinda confused by Derek's behavior. What happened in D.C.?

"This is better." He told her, his smile was absolutely charming. Derek sat down next to his gorgeous wife on the sofa after he gave her a kiss, they both kissed. Meredith started to talk to him about what she found out about the Amelia situation.

Amelia wanted to stay in Seattle, she doesn't want to go back to L.A. where her boyfriend/fiancé lives.

She had told Meredith that she loved in Seattle and she never wants to leave.

"… because I was wrong about the Amelia situation. She doesn't want to leave. She wants to stay. She can take over your service, she can help out with the kids …" Meredith's eyes lit up when she told him about this. Derek listened to her but he has news. News that will effect both of their lives.

"You can brain map to your heart's content, I don't have to pull my hair out." Meredith was laughing while she was saying this. She was happy telling Derek that she had found the perfect solution to their problem. "This is the answer we've been looking for." Meredith told him. Derek grinned.

When she ended, he clapped into his hand and exclaimed loudly ...

"This is great!" He leaned back into the couch, figuring out a way to tell her about Washington D.C., the president and the job offer from the National Institutes of Health. "Yeah, Amy can move to Seattle and we can't move to D.C." Derek said, still smiling. Slowly, Meredith smile disappeared. "This wasn't the point of my story." She noted. "I met him, Meredith." He told her.

"I met the president. He came to us. We walked him through everything we've been working on. And then at the end of it, he said, he wanted to make it a weekly thing. They offered me a position at the NIH." He confessed, Meredith looked at him in awe. She had expected anything else but not this, the president of the United States supporting the brain mapping research.

This was a huge step in Derek's career and they both knew it.

"It's the job. I'll be right there, on the ground, doing the actual brain-mapping work myself." He gushed enthusiastically.

"They've giving me everything." Then he waited for Meredith's reply. "Well, we can't just pack up and move across the country." "They have promised to have an attending position waiting for you at James Madison Hospital. If Amy wants to move to Seattle, she can take over my practice without me hovering over her. She will thrive. Cristina is moving on, Alex is leaving." He gesticulated with his hands to underline his words.

"They all have their next step. This could be our next step." He told her smiling, trying to win her over. "This should be our next step." He added. Meredith still seemed unsure.

"How is everybody?" Derek asked as he came back from another business trip to D.C. and back, planning things, getting things ready for them … "So, Zozo is in her room, getting dressed and this little guy just pooped. So there's that." Meredith told him while feeding Bailey breakfast. "How was your flight?" Meredith asked, while doing other things like cleaning the counter. "Rough … but …" He kissed Bailey on the forehead before continuing: "We have a place to live in D.C." He told his wife.

"We got the townhouse in Foggy Bottom." He told her.

"We got it?" Meredith replied.

"Yeah, we close in a month. I just need you to sign the paperwork. What is today? Is it Tuesday?" Derek asked, he had no idea what day it was. "It's Thursday." Meredith told him. "Oh, good. That means Amy's covering for me, she's got all my surgeries and I get to sleep in all day." Derek was tired from all the flying.

"Good, but first, this guy has a foggy bottom and I can take a look at these tonight." "Hey you want to look at the brochure again and remind yourself how much you love it?"

Derek held up the brochure, grinning.

He's very dreamy. But he's not the sun. You are.

Meredith was lying on their bed. She was supposed to sign the papers but somehow she had doubts, whether moving to D.C. was such a good idea. She has everything here, a family, a job she loves and people who are like a family … she had it all here.

Not in D.C. Cristina's words made her think. She was holding the pen in her hand, debating whether she should sign it or not. Derek entered the room. "I just put the kids down, they're asleep." Then he sees Meredith hesitating over signing the papers of the townhouse.

"Did you get those signed?" When she didn't answer, Derek continued, he thought this was about Cristina leaving: "Meredith, you'll talk to her tomorrow. Knowing you guys you'll talk every day." While saying this, he laid down next to her. He was wearing that blue shirt that makes him so adorable.

"No, it's not … I don't think I can sign this." Meredith told him.

"Sorry, I know you're wiped but I need to have those on the plane by 7:00." Derek told her.

"No I don't … I think I need to stay here." She confessed.

Derek didn't know what to do. Meredith wanted to stay here, without him in Seattle? Why would she want to do that? It appears Meredith was having second thoughts about the whole 'we move to D.C., I get to do my brain mapping thing and we live there as a family' thing. She begged to differ, she had a different opinion about this. Derek should have talked to her about this, instead of deciding everything by himself.

She was his wife, she was allowed to have an opinion. They ended up discussing and fighting about this.

Meredith and Derek went into the kitchen to discuss this all.

"I took the job." Derek exclaimed loudly. Luckily, he didn't wake the kids. "You were supposed to be stepping back." Meredith argued back, throwing the papers she was supposed to sign on the kitchen table.

"You said 'take this year and make it count and I'll make sure you can do it'. You lied." She held it against him, she gritted out the last words. He'd broken his promise to her, after all. Derek replied: "I'm sorry. I lied. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." He tried to tell her. "So you got this thing and I gave up a piece and I found I way to make it work with my job, with my kids, with my research with less help from you but I did it." Meredith tried to be heard by him. "You're not a victim." Derek threw back.

"I'm killing myself just as much as you are …" "and then you wanted more pieces and more pieces …" Meredith reasoned.

"I'm flying back and forth … twice a week." Derek raised his voice. "… And more pieces." Meredith went on. "You can't just drag us away so that I have to live in your shadow." Derek frowned. "Shadow?" He asked.

"You have a job. You're gonna be working at James Madison-" "Right that's how my father got his first job in Seattle, they wanted my mom, so she had to call the university and pull some strings and find something for Thatcher to do. It's called a trailing spouse." Meredith told him in a sharp voice. Derek looked down. "This is not like that."

"This is exactly like that." Meredith insisted, she knew what she was talking about.

"And it's not what I signed up for."

"You know what? You're being selfish-"

"Well, I have to be, Derek, because you believe that your career is more important than mine." "At this moment and time, it is." He gave back. "No, not at this moment, always." Meredith replied, her voice got louder as well.

"You will always be that hotshot neurosurgeon and I will always be that young intern that fell in love with you." "If that's how you see yourself that's your problem. I can't do anything about it." "That's not how I see myself. That's the issue here." Meredith exclaimed.

He breathed heavily. "D.C. You can do your surgeries there, you can do your research, you can do your portal veins. There is nothing you can do here that you can't do here." Derek tried to reason with her.

"BUT I DON'T WANT TO." Meredith got louder. "We are not just talking about my job, Derek. We're talking about my life. I grew up here. I made my family here. I helped to rebuild the hospital that has my sister's name on it, my name, my mother's name. I live here, my live is here. I don't want to leave." Meredith told him.

Derek and Meredith were in the living room of her house in the woods. Zola and Bailey were already asleep. Derek got a great job offer. A job offer from the President to work for him on his giant brain-mapping project. "Have you been thinking about moving to D.C. because of the job?" Derek asked. "How, thinking about?" Meredith repeated, obviously confused.

"I prefer not to move Washington DC at all. You've built this beautiful house for us and I think we should stay here." So for Meredith was it end of discussion, but Derek did not give up. "I can not refuse to take Job. . How is this possible at all if I am across the country in another state." "I don´t know. Your sister can help. She seems to have a way with children." Meredith suggested.

"You are talking about Amy?!" Derek asked. "Well, she grew up with many nieces and nephews." "Yes, Amelia understands me at least." Derek grinned involuntarily.

"What is it?" Meredith said wonderingly.

"Nothing, you're just as sharp." Even Meredith had to smile. "Don´t forget, I'm still mad at you." Meredith said reproachfully.

"Yes, yes." Derek muttered in response. "Come here." She grinned and Derek kissed her. "How do you do that?" He asked her about it. "That I cannot even be mad at you?" Meredith kissed him simply as an answer, then she backed away from Derek and repeated firmly.

"I will not go to Washington DC, Derek. All my friends are here in Seattle. In D.C. I have none. Everybody is here. Amelia is here, Alex is here, the chief and Bailey are here. I am at home here. I may have not grown up here in Seattle, but it´s my home. And what about Bailey and Zola? They need you as their Daddy. You are a great dad, but how will you manage being a a dad when you are on the other side of the country."

"You´re right. It´s gonna be difficult to be a good dad, if I am on the other side of the Country. That is a very good reason that we should move to D.C. together. But I can´t force into anything, so... if that´s what you want..." He didn´t complete the sentence.

"Did you just say... Did you just say that I am no different from my mother? I am not moving across the country with your kids without... You are talking nonsense. I am not even Close to being like my mother." Meredith was infuriated. Why was he saying that? Why is he accusing me to be like my mother? I am definitely not like Ellis Grey.

"Sorry, Mer. You are right. I stepped over a line. My comment wasn´t fair and it isn´t any near to the truth. You are the best mother ever for Zo and Bai..." Derek spoke. Meredith calmed down, she knew Derek did not just say that, because he is obligated to. He means it.

She did not want to move away, even if it would not be the same here without Cristina same her person. She finally moved to Zurich. Meredith missed her person right now more than ever. She would understand what Meredith wants to explain without even the need of explaining.

"Meredith, look..." Derek began, but Meredith cut him off.

"No, Derek Shepherd, I am not movingto Washington D.C. I live here in Seattle." Meredith took a deep breath, and then proceed with a trembling voice: "Seattle is my home and not Washington D.C. We had the same discussion already but with Boston." "Boston was something else." Derek replied in a low voice. "Oh. Was it? Because when I think about it there wasn´t any difference between our Situation then and our Situation right now." Meredith stood up and stood with his arms crossed in front of Derek who looked at her.

"Of course, it was about me, about my career. And now it's all about you. Everything." Meredith snarled." Meredith, I cannot reject this offer. That is impossible. " "Yes, you can. If I mean something to you, then you can do it." Derek looked at his wife, "Meredith, you can not here me before make a choice." "I did not do also. Just think again about what you mean our relationship."

"I love you, Mer and the Kids more than anything, but this job is a huge opportunity..." Derek tried to explain. Dumbfounded Meredith looked at Derek. "And what about us? With Zola and Bailey? And me?" Meredith asked, glaring at him with angry eyes sparkling. "But if this is so important for you, then you really should take it. Otherwise you´ll resent me and I don´t want that."

"I am not going to resent you, I love you, Mer. Just..." He confessed. "I could never hate you, even I tried."

Meredith just nodded.

"We'll find a solution. Not today, but in the near future. Come on, Mer. Let's go to sleep. We need to get up early tomorrow morning." Derek yawned after he said the last sentence. Before he fell asleep, he clasped Meredith with his arms. Tired, the general surgeon snuggled up to the neurosurgeon. "I love you." She murmured softly. "I love you too, Mer. More than anything." "Will you promise me that?"

"Yes." He replied and kissed her...

Of course it´s not the end. There will be a lot up and downs along the road, but they´ll make it. They are Meredith and Derek... They´ve been through so much and they will make through this. They are unstoppable...