Five Almost Perfect Seconds

Meredith just finished an emergency exploratory laparotomy.

It was very bloody, the patient was very lucky that he was still alive after he crashed his car into a pole while driving when he shouldn't have been driving. Stupid drunk drivers, Meredith thought as she entered the scrub room and leaned against the sink. Why do some stupid idiots always feel the need to get drunk and decide that it's a brilliant idea to get into a car and drive after getting wasted. She just didn't get it.

It had taken hours until she was able to scrub out.

She'd been here since 3 A.M. in the morning. A 911 page had interrupted her good night's sleep and she was visibly tired. But she did not show it. Meredith Grey hasn't seen her husband since yesterday evening, he didn't even wake up when her pager beeped.

Lucky him – he was so lucky that it wasn't his pager that beeped loudly to signal that Meredith should get her ass to the hospital as soon as possible. Derek was the one who could sleep in this morning, and she wished she could too. But she has to work. She tossed a glance at the clock.

It was already 7: 34 AM in the morning and her day hasn't even begun.

She sighed.

This was going to be a crappy day. She already had it in her bones. "Meredith, you need to come to the pit, they need you there." Amelia opened the door of the scrub room and immediately recognized her sister in law.

"Another trauma?" Meredith asked, already knowing the answer. "Yeah, lots and lots of stupid, drunk morons. I get that." Amelia smiled shortly at her. "I have to go, emergency craniotomy, some guy who crashed his motor cycle suffered a subdural bleed. Now I have to go in and relieve the pressure. Isn't this Derek's day off?" Amelia Shepherd asked, her eyes on Meredith.

"Yeah, no, he's got lucky that way. But this isn't his day off, he is on call today but he does not have to come in early." Meredith explained.

"But I better go and see what's going on down there." Amelia nodded in understanding. "And I have a surgery to get to." With that she left for OR 4. Meredith glanced at her as she walked away. She liked having Derek's sister in Seattle. Amelia was the only one who she really likes and all … In this moment her pager beeped loudly.

"I'm going." She grumbled as she scanned the screen quickly and walked off toward the Emergency Department.

Derek woke up by the sound of the rain splashing against the windows. He turned to Meredith's side of the of the bed only to find it empty. Where was his wife? Maybe she got paged. He calmed his mind with that. It wasn't that uncommon for surgeons to get paged in the middle of the night.

Maybe it was the reason for Meredith not being in her bed.

Then he looked at the clock. And he was kind of about to be late. So he got up, even if only reluctantly. His first point was making coffee for him and then making breakfast for the children and then getting the kids ready.

"C'mon, Zola, get up. It's already … oh my, we're running late again." Derek tried to negotiate with his four year old.

But she was so stubborn which reminded him of Meredith's stubbornness.

It seems like Meredith's stubbornness has influenced Zola.

"Daddy will be late for work if you continue to do this." Zola just snuggled deeper into the cushions.

"And you don't want Daddy to be late, do you?" Derek started another time. But so far there was no success. "'m tired, wanna sleep." His daughter just answered in a sweet voice that didn't let room for him to say anything. This was going to be hard. Derek sat down on the edge of Zola's bed.

"Okay, Zozo. Here's the thing: I know you want to sleep and all but what about going to bed earlier? Maybe that would solve this issue what we have now." Derek smirked at his daughter. "Oh, no, that is not necessary." Zola answered quickly, her head tucked under the covers. And then her head appeared on the surface, her hair was …

"But I think this is." Derek said and without warning, he started tickling Zola out of bed so that she hadn't has a choice but to get up.

"Stop, Daddy, this is … I …" But mid – sentence, Zola began giggling. And finally, Derek had managed getting his daughter out of bed. He guessed Meredith had been called in for some emergency and he was right. Apparently, she left a note on the kitchen table. "Let's go, Zo. We're gonna braid your hair so you look pretty for the day."

Derek led his daughter to bathroom.

After Zola was ready and dressed and sitting on a chair in the kitchen and eating cereal from a bowl, Derek got Bailey ready.

Even getting Zola to put her shoes on seemed to be a very challenging task sometimes. Sometimes, kids can give someone a hard time ... and now that was the case - obviously. And today, obviously, was sometimes. "Zola." Derek said patiently as his daughter did not seem to want to listen to him. "Put them on so we can go."

"Why?" Zola asked innocently.

"Daddy needs to work. I'll even play princess tea party with you and Bayls after work." Derek tried it with bribing.

He knew it was wrong but he had no choice. "Yeah, pwincess tea party." Zola exclaimed happily and she finally agreed to put on her shoes. Derek had Bailey on his arm as he and Zola exited the Dream House he built for his family. His family means everything to him. After another thirty minutes, he arrived at the hospital and went to drop off Zola and Bailey in daycare. He had scheduled an important surgery in one hour if nothing happens.

When he was about to scrub in he met Meredith in the hallway. She looked like she was under a lot of pressure right now and seemed stressed. He knew her.

"Hey, Mer." He called out, seeing his gorgeous, ethereal wife running across the hallway.

She seemed to be in a rush, a hectic morning, he guessed by her looks.

Meredith turned and saw the neurosurgeon walking toward her. Her knight in shining whatever was there. She smiled at him and even though she looked exhausted and her eyes told him that she was longing for a bed, she still looked beautiful. His breath caught when he saw her. "Derek. You don't believe me when I say that you are the only thing that I have been looking forward to seeing in the last few hours …" She giggled tiredly as Derek's piercing blue eyes met hers.

"I feel honored." Derek replied, softly. He loved this woman with all of his heart.

She is the one. She is the right one.

His thumb caressed Meredith's cheek for a slight moment and in the next, Derek's arms were embracing her. She closed her eyes for a moment. Derek gave her gentle kiss on the forehead.

"I only have a few minutes, then I have to go prep for surgery on my Spondylolisthesis patient. I am working with Torres together. Plus, I might have promised Zozo a tea party." He confessed. Meredith's head was still pressed against his chest. He looked down at her for a moment, his hand ran over her hair. He couldn't believe how blessed he was to have everything he wanted.

A perfect, happy, shiny little family.

"I love you." He murmured into her hair. "I love you too, McDreamy with the perfect hair." Meredith chuckled as soon as the words escaped her mouth.

Derek looked at her flabbergasted.

"You just didn't say that, right?" Derek asked, shock evident in his voice.

"I did."

Meredith laughed at his face.

Both surgeons erupted in laughters. It was freeing. "If you want you can scrub in." Derek offered suddenly. "If you have nothing to do." In this moment, Meredith's pager beeped again.

"When do people learn not to drive drunk?" She said acidly as she stared at the pager. Trauma.

Once again.

She then looked up to Derek, kissing him quickly and said: "I would really love to but as you see - some idiot has wrapped his car around a pole. Which means I have to go. Sadly." Meredith did not like that she couldn't scrub in with her neurosurgeon husband and his brilliant piece of mind.

"Hey." Derek said, lifting up her chin with his finger. "Look at me." His eyes met hers.

"We will reschedule our surgery we perform together. We're overdue for a date." He smiled at her dreamingly. "I love you." Meredith said. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me including Zola and Bailey - our family."

"Come and find me after your surgery."

"Oh." Meredith grinned.

She knew what he wanted to say. They understood each other without having to use too many words. "You mean for dessert, right?" Meredith asked, smiling widely. Now she has something to look forward to.

"Right." Derek placed a soft and short kiss on her lips and watched Meredith walk away to the pit ...