Title: It Takes A Village
Authors: Sara and Lizzie
Rating: T for language, sex, you know.
Disclaimer: We happen to own our personal anatomies, not Grey's. Or Patrick Dempsey's. Sadly.
Summary: Sequel to "A Tale Of Two Cities". The raising of Meredith and Derek's three children by the Seattle Grace family. In addition, a Mark and Derek adventure will test Addison and Meredith to their limits.
Author's Note: Holy crap. You guys are incredible. Absolutley incredible. We were FLOORED by the response to the first chapter. Thank you all so much for the reviews, you can't begin to imagine how much we need and love your feedback. Keep it up!
With out further ado, the second chapter...
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Life was good. Meredith never, in a million years, would have seen herself living this life. She was the rebellious kid with the unfortunate pink hair. She was the screw up of an intern who fell for her married attending. Now she was wife and mother, and she had the best friends anyone could have asked for to help care for her kids.
However, as Christmas approached, and brought with it the impending visit of Addison and Mark, Meredith got nervous. She didn't like herself for being nervous. She wished fervently that she could just be chummy with Addison the way Derek was. Derek and Mark had even gone back to being friends. Good friends. But Meredith still had some sort of mental block when it came to Addison. When the four of them were together, she couldn't help but feel like the awkward one who came into the story a little too late.
She left the hospital over lunch to pick Cameron up from kindergarten and drop her at the day care in the hospital, where her brothers were waiting. Preschool was only three days a week. She sank down at a table with her friends and Burke. She looked at Cristina and rolled her eyes. "Never, ever have children." She advised. Cristina cocked an eyebrow.
"Something wrong with the happy McFamily, Mrs. Shepherd?"
"Dr. Shepherd." Meredith corrected, smiling anyway. When she had married Derek, Cristina had insisted on referring to her as Mrs. Shepherd for months. She still did it from time to time. "And nothing's wrong. Just chaotic." She paused, sipped her coffee and bit her lip. Everyone around the table sat patiently, waiting for her to finish. "And it's just, why do Addison and Mark have to come here for Christmas? I know Addison and Derek are all chummy, and he and Mark are all boyishly, freakishly friendly, but don't they have families?"
Cristina rolled her eyes and Izzie stifled a laugh. "God, Mer, tell us how you really feel." She said. Meredith scowled.
"Addison makes me feel like this cheap thing that Derek married because she was knocked up."
"You know that's not true."
"I know! Which is why I don't like to be around Addison. She doesn't even do it on purpose, it's just…. There!"
"Seriously, Mer?"
"Seriously."
Burke sighed and stood up. "I need to find people my age." He muttered. Meredith twisted in her chair and called out to stop him from leaving.
"Burke!" she shouted. "What's going with chief?" He approached the table again, cautiously, as if getting too close would cause her to start rambling about Addison again.
"We talked to Dr. Webber this morning, and it seems as though Derek and I will share the position." He said. He was trying to play it cool, but there was definite pride coming through in his voice. "I think the whole thing was amusing to Richard, actually."
"Does this mean there will be camping trips?" Cristina asked. Burke started backing away again.
"I'm not the one who's seen Brokeback Mountain!" he called. "Talk to Shepherd about that." Alex looked up from shoveling food into his mouth and eyed Meredith.
"Dude." He said. "Brokeback Mountain?"
She held up her hands in a surrender position and shrugged. Cristina grinned devilishly. "What you really should have seen was him dancing to Bon Jovi in an apron last night."
Izzie snorted into her yogurt cup. "I can see it." She said laughing. "Left over trauma from the wedding reception?" she asked, referring to all the eighties rock dancing that had been going on. Meredith rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." She said. "The point is congratulations, Burke. You two are going to be great." Burke smiled at her, for the first time, believing himself that she was right.
Derek sat in his office, chin resting on one hand, staring at his computer screen. The website he was scrolling through was interesting him more and more. He minimized it and re-read the email from Mark.
Derek,
Check this site out. And think about it. Africa. Six weeks. You and me, really using our talents to help someone other than really rich Park Avenue dwellers. Just like we talked about in med school. And all through our internships. And residency. Think about it.
Mark.
It was a great program. And it was short. It wasn't some kind of year long world tour of disease. Six weeks in six African countries. One week each. No pay, but hell, he didn't need it. And he and Mark had been talking about this for as long as he could remember.
It made sense to him again. Finally, after Addison and everything that had happened between them, taking this trip with Mark made sense again. And he wanted to do it, really wanted to do it. A knock on his door distracted him from the photos on the screen and the thoughts in his head.
"Hey." Meredith said, walking in and trotting over to him. He minimized the screen quickly as she kissed him on the lips. He wasn't ready to broach this particular subject with her. "You been hiding in here all day?" she asked.
Derek nodded and kissed her again. "My surgery isn't until later. You want in?" She smiled and nodded, sitting down gently in his lap and planting another kiss on his lips. "Three kids and you're still the tiniest adult I've ever been sat on by." She made a face.
"How big is your sat on by list?"
"Extensive. Lots of people want to sit on me, Mer."
"Uh huh." She said, smiling. "Congratulations, co-chief."
He frowned. "Right. Co-chief." She leaned into him and sighed.
"Don't be like that, Der. You both got what you wanted. You're both going to be great. Embrace it. Be proud of yourself. I'm proud of you." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her again.
"Thanks." He murmured into her lips. One of her hands trailed lazily around his neck and her fingers tangled in the curls of dark hair there.
"We should celebrate." She said huskily. His pager went off and she checked it. "Bailey." She said. "Probably needs a consult. You should go. Bailey could kill you." Derek pouted.
"What about celebrating?" She dropped one eye lid down into an adorable wink.
"Wait until you get home tonight, Dr." she said. He scooted out of the chair, leaving her sitting on it, leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"Looking forward to it." He said, leaving hastily. Meredith sighed and smiled at his retreating form as it left the office. She took a sip of the coffee he had left behind and reached for the mouse on his computer, and pulled up his open browser. Her brow furrowed into a frown as she scanned the page, teeth tugging at her lower lip in confusion.
"What the hell?" she said out loud, as she realized what was unfolding in front of her. One of those programs where doctors go to a bunch of war torn, disease ridden African countries, and perform surgeries for awhile while their wives and three kids tried to function at home. She left the page up and stormed out of the office.
A near crash into George in the hallway stopped her from storming, enraged into Derek's consult and demanding an explanation. "Whoa!" George said. "Meredith, what's wrong?"
Seething, she gritted her teeth, and searched for words. "Derek wants to go to Africa." Was all she could come up with. George looked at her strangely.
"Okay…." He said slowly, in a tone that begged for elaboration.
"On one of those doctors with hero complexes programs where he would do surgery on impoverished kids for six freaking weeks, while I would be here to care of his own children."
"How do you know all this?"
"I saw the website open on his computer. He hasn't said a work about it to me, George."
"Maybe he's just looking into it."
Meredith rolled her eyes. "It's not a new car, or a sofa or something. It's a major life altering choice. He should have told me!" she huffed, storming away. The truth was, George had a point. Maybe there was more to the story. Maybe it was just curiosity, or some mass email he had opened a link to.
She didn't want to be the wife who jumped to conclusions and freaked out and rambled and shouted about every little thing. She wanted to be the wife who got a lot of sex, and had a happy marriage. She turned on her heel and went back to Derek's office. Seated at his computer once again, she looked at his toolbar, and opened the other open window.
Her rage rebuilt as she read the email from Mark. So it wasn't just a whim or a misunderstanding, it was the sudden fulfillment of a lifelong dream? Meredith pushed the chair out from under her and stood. She paged one of her interns to go scrub in on Derek's surgery. She wanted nothing to do with him right now.
Mark Sloan was happy. Life was good. He had never been a one woman type of guy, but the second chance he got with Addison seemed like some kind of sign. He wasn't twenty five anymore. Maybe it was high time to hunker down and get serious about someone. And, he figured, if you had to do it, Addison was the kind of someone you'd want to get serious with. He was feeling sort of spend the rest of my life with you kind of serious these days.
But before he went down that road, the one that involved engagement rings and wedding plans, there was something he needed to do. It was a silly, idealistic pact he had made with Derek in medical school. A pact that said they would go to some third world country and put their surgical skills to good use. After their falling out, Mark figured it would never happen. He would grow to see it as the shadow of the good old days; something people said before they knew what life would throw at them. But now Derek had a family and Mark had a real life and they were friends again, so the thought that they should go occurred to him one day. And stuck.
His phone rang, showing a Seattle area code. "Hello?"
"Mark Sloan."
"Meredith Shepherd." He said. "To what do I owe the pleasure? You pregnant again?"
"You want my husband to go to Africa?" she snapped, anger evident in her tone. "Africa? You do realize that we have three children under the age of five? That I'm a neuro resident? And you want him to go gallivanting off to freaking Africa?"
Mark whistled into his phone. "I didn't think he'd have the balls to tell you so quickly."
"He didn't." Meredith hissed. "He didn't have the balls to tell me or the brains to close the windows on his computer."
Mark chuckled to himself as he tried to console her. Derek was in for a rough night.
A/N: So basically, Meredith is nervous about Mark and Addie coming, because she's Mer, and three kids and five years later, she still has abandonment/Addison issues. And Derek really wants to go with Mark, to prove that he can make something of himself besides just co-cheif. Volatile situation. REVIEW!
