Chapter 2

Christmas Eve, 1 week after last chapter.

Derek and Meredith were at her house. Derek was doing dishes and Meredith was cleaning up the girls.

"So, I have to go get my stuff. You wanna come?" Derek asked.

"Drag three kids out in the snow?" She asked, smirking.

"Yes." He said, smiling back. "Come on, just come with me."

"Fine." She agreed. "But you're putting on coats and hats and gloves and shoes…"

"Okay!" Derek cut her off.

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"How long does it take you to pack?" Meredith asked as Derek packed his bathroom bag.

"A long time. I have lots of hair products!" Meredith laughed. "Plus, the girls like it here." He said peeking his head out of the bathroom.

Meredith sat down on the floor with the girls just as Derek walked out with his bags.

"I'm ready now." He said smiling. Meredith stood up and they took the girls to the car.

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Meredith and Derek walked up to her porch. Derek was carrying Grace and Madison and Meredith was carrying Ella while getting her keys out of her purse. She opened the door to her dark, old house. Meredith set down Ella and turned on a light. There, in the middle of the room was her best friend, Cristina.

"Cristina?" Meredith asked, "What are you doing in my living room?"

"They're not bald anymore." Cristina said, ignoring the question.

"How did you get in?" Cristina pointed behind Meredith to Derek. Meredith turned around to see Derek smiling. "You planned this?" Derek nodded. Meredith slowly walked over to Cristina and hugged her. "I missed you." Meredith said quietly enough so Derek couldn't hear. Cristina nodded.

"I'll put the girls to bed, you catch up." Derek said.

"Thank you." Meredith said, turning to him and smiling.

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Meredith and Cristina sat in the kitchen drinking coffee while Derek put the girls to bed.

"Where's Burke?"

"He's at the hospital, talking to Chief probably."

"How long are you here?"

"Only a few days. I didn't want to come but McDreamy was begging."

"Seriously? He begged you to come?"

"Yes, I begged her to come." Derek said as he walked into the kitchen.

"You got them to sleep already?" Meredith asked, checking her watch.

"Yes." He said as he leaned in and kissed Meredith. Cristina held her hand up as she answered her phone.

"Yeah….okay……See you soon." And she slammed her phone shut.

"I gotta go." She said, standing up. "Bye." She said giving Meredith a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Cristina left and Meredith waved.

"I'm exhausted." Meredith said as she walked over to the sink with her coffee mug.

"Go to bed, I'll do the dishes." Derek offered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, go to bed."

"Okay, thanks." And Meredith went to bed.

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Meredith looked at her alarm clock, 1:41AM, she had been in bed for over 2 hours, and still hadn't slept. She threw her covers off and walked down the hall to the girls' room. She opened the door lightly and saw her daughters…all sleeping. They looked peaceful. She shut the door quietly. The guest room across the hall was dark and the door was shut. Meredith walked over to the door and put her hand on the doorknob while biting her bottom lip. She missed Derek. They hadn't talked about the other night. She slowly turned the knob. Derek was lying on his back with one hand above his head. He was snoring ever so slightly. (A/N I had to put that in:D ) His other arm was lying across the bed. Meredith walked in and shut the door quietly. She pulled the covers back and got in bed with him. She cuddled up and although he didn't wake up, his arm moved around her back. Within minutes, she was asleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I need help. In a recent chapter, Derek will be asking Meredith to marry him. I don't want it to be extremely corny. I think I will probably quote from season 3 eppy 1, the "I'm in love with you." speech. So, if you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know. Thanks!

I know, the link didn't show up. Apparently Microsoft Word hates links. Oh well, it was pretty! I had help picking it out! Thanks!

Also, I'm sorry it took so long, I said next day…. Well I was out of town for a week. So, here it is! Next chapter hopefully tomorrow, or Friday!

Anyways, now…the chapter. It was hard to write, I've been working on it for…. Over a week:O I know! My favorite part was the last paragraph, the last L O N G paragraph! I had to add in snoring! DUH! So Cristina being there was hard for me to write, I don't know why.

Julia