Can I just start out by saying how sorry I am for delaying the update of this story; somehow I feel as though it was just updated because I'm still getting comments! Life has been insane between school and rehearsals I have like no time to do anything! But I finally have some time and I couldn't wait to finally write this! You guys honestly don't know how much I appreciate all the comments and reviews for this story; because I feel exactly the same way about it! Honest to god every time I would write something for school or in general this would be on mind and it would drive me nuts at how much I wanted to write! Just a fair warning Meredith talks to herself a lot in this chapter. But enough rambling; happy reading!

Meredith; sat at the nurses desk in the Neuro Wing of Seattle Grace as she hurriedly scribbled onto her charts. She sighed when she saw the other two charts that still had to be filled out. She had gone into surgery three hours ago and had just come out a few minutes ago; and was now behind on her charting.

She quickly glanced at her watch. Meaghan would be meeting her here in less than ten minutes to head over to the new apartment she had found. After two weeks of staying with Mark and Lexie; Meredith decided that they were going to need their own space; and found a two bedroom apartment not far from the hospital. She and Meaghan were heading over there today to move in some things and stay the night. Meaghan would be seeing the apartment for the first time. Along with buying an apartment, Meredith had also been successfully avoiding Derek. They hadn't had too many surgeries together; and when they did it was small conversation; and anything outside of the OR was friendly chatter.

"Mom!" called a voice; jerking Meredith out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Meaghan quickly running towards her with her leather tote bag bouncing on her shoulder and her curls flying in the air.

"Hey." said Meredith with a smile. "How was school?" asked Meredith as she flipped the chart closed and turned to look at Meaghan.

"Awesome. Mom guess what? Remember how I said that there was homecoming coming up and everyone takes a date but I didn't think anyone would take me because I'm the new girl." rambled Meaghan.

Meredith smiled at her daughter's speedy chatter. "Yes I remember. So what happened?" asked Meredith knowing what her daughter was going to say.

"One of the sweetest; hottest guys in school asked me!" said Meaghan with a smile as she leaned against the nurse's desk. "I can't believe it; I guess I'm not the newbie loser I thought I was." said Meaghan.

Meredith clucked her tongue and raised her eyebrow. "You know very well you're not a loser and you'll never be one. You're a smart, independent, beautiful young woman and you know it." said Meredith with a soft smile.

"Sappy Mom. Less sappy lovey-dovey." said Meaghan with a joking grin. Meredith rolled her eyes and laughed at Meaghan's tone.

"I just have to finish these charts and then we can go. Sound good?" asked Meredith as she clicked open her pen and began scribbling onto the chart.

"Okay." nodded Meaghan as she looked up to see Derek walking down the corridor. "Derek!" she called out with a smile and a wave; as he waved back and began walking over.

Within the last three weeks; Derek had been popping over quite a lot. Lexie kept telling Meredith that he definitely wasn't there to see Mark. Meredith would just frown and walk away when she would make this comment. With Derek popping over so much; he and Meaghan had been talking and joking around.

"Too bad she has no idea who he really is." thought Meredith as she watched Derek approach the desk. In the three weeks Meredith had been here; she hadn't dared to bring it up with either of them. It was something she was hoping would eventually just fade away; but in all reality it was all going to have to come out eventually.

"Hey." said Derek with a grin; as he greeted both of the women.

Meredith just responded with a smile as she continued to scribble notes. "Maybe if I don't talk; he won't."

"Did you work a twelve hour shift?" asked Derek. "You were here before me and I got here at around six thirty this morning."

Meredith looked up at the clock to see it approaching five o'clock; she had been paged early this morning and hadn't even had a chance to sit down until now; let alone think.

"Yeah I was paged in at five o'clock for a crash victim." said Meredith as she closed the chart and handed it to the nurse next to her. "Then I scrubbed in on that surgery for five hours and then had a craniotomy and post-ops to check in on." said Meredith as she stretched her hands above her; trying to wake herself up.

"So I take it then you're going home and won't want to scrub in with me on a corpus callosotomy." asked Derek in a nonchalant voice; as he held the chart up in front of him.

Meredith's eyes bugged out slightly. This was a pretty un-common procedure that she had only watched once when she was an intern; and performed once when she was a resident. Cases like these didn't come around every day.

"How old is the patient?" asked Meredith; slightly intrigued.

"Six months old." said Derek with a grin; knowing that would be a deal-breaker.

Meredith's eyes widened even more than before. A callosotomy on a six month old was even rarer. "I'm in." said Meredith with a grin as she stood up and pushed herself away from the desk.

"Good." said Derek with a smile that practically lit up the sky. "I haven't had a case like this in a long time; the time before that though was with you." said Derek as he smiled slightly at the memory.

Meredith's heart fluttered slightly at the way he was looking at her. "How do those dreamy eyes still have the same damn affect on me?" asked Meredith to herself as she smiled at him.

"Mom." called Meaghan; as Meredith turned to her daughter. Meredith had been so focused on Derek and the surgery she had almost forgotten Meaghan was there.

"What about me? What am I supposed to do while you're in surgery? What about the apartment? We were supposed to move in tonight. We have a lot of heavy things to move in." said Meaghan as she emphasized the word and looked at her mother.

"Tell you what; your mom and I will be out of surgery by eight thirty why don't I come over and help move you guys in. I'll move that heavy stuff and we'll order some dinner." said Derek.

"No really its o….." started Meredith; as she waved her hand before she was quickly interrupted by Meaghan.

"Yeah that sounds great." said Meaghan as she jumped in to respond. "I'll meet you both in the lobby at eight forty five." said Meaghan as she re-adjusted her backpack. "I'm going to go see if I can find Aunt Lexie. Bye." said Meaghan as she quickly took off down the hall.

"Pizza and some moving. Sounds like a date." said Derek with a grin as he walked away to go scrub in.

Meredith swallowed nervously as she heard those words repeat over and over again in her mind. "A date?" asked Meredith out loud to herself. Did he just say date? She groaned as she headed towards the OR; this was going to be a long surgery and an even longer night.

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Meredith quickly unlocked the door to the apartment; as Meaghan and Derek stood behind her anxiously waiting to get out of the chilly September air. She opened the door and stepped into the small walkway.

"Home sweet home." said Meredith as she quickly took her jacket off and slipped out of her boots.

"More like home sweet small home." said Meaghan as she threw her jacket onto the floor and looked around.

Meredith glared at her; as Derek chuckled slightly at the comment. She quickly turned to him and his smile immediately faltered. He cleared his throat before looking around at the small space.

"It's very…….. cozy." answered Derek with a sheepish smile.

Meaghan giggled at Derek's comment as she put her bag on the floor. Meredith glared at her daughter again before; sighing herself as she truly saw how small the place was.

"It's not a permanent place. The market isn't great right now; so this is the best I could do." said Meredith as she tried to reassure herself.

"How many boxes do we have to unpack?" asked Meaghan as she looked around at the boxes the surrounded the three of them in the living room.

"A lot." answered Meredith. "So Megs you and I will get started on these boxes and then there's the U-Haul trailer in the driveway with our couch and chairs; Derek maybe you can get those?" asked Meredith.

Derek's eyes and mouth widened in mock shock. "You mean I'm not just here to stand around and look pretty?" asked Derek.

Meredith grinned at him as she tore open the box in front of her. "Nope I keep you around for lots of things." answered Meredith. Derek grinned back at her before turning and heading outside.

Meredith's grin faltered slightly as she realized what she had said. "Did I just flirt with him?" she asked subconsciously. Meredith sighed as she opened the box; she had better the way she was saying things. Or this night could turn into a very long night; that didn't have a single thing to do with unpacking boxes.

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"I can't believe you like artichoke and spinach pizza." said Meaghan as she took a bite of her second slice of pizza. "I swear I thought I was the only person in the world that liked this combination." said Meaghan.

"No I either get cheese or this. Your Uncle Mark and your mom used to tease me about being heath conscious with pizza; but it just tastes good." said Derek as he looked over at Meredith who was fidgeting with her napkin.

Meredith sat uncomfortably twisting her paper napkin as she listened to the conversation. One of them could figure out the relationship they had in twenty seconds and then everyone's lives would un-scramble.

"You okay Mere?" asked Derek gently; as he placed his napkin over his dish. "You seem jumpy."

Meredith gulped back the lump that was forming in the back of her throat. "Yeah I'm fine. I guess I'm just eager to finish un-packing the last couple of things."

"Well I have homework that needs to be done. Mom am I sleeping on the mattress we brought?" asked Meaghan as she pushed herself up from the table.

"Yeah that's fine. I'll just crash on the couch for now. We're going to have to get you a bed frame and me a mattress and a bed." said Meredith.

Meaghan nodded at her mother; before reaching down and grabbing her school bag from where it had been abandoned before. "Okay. Good night Mom." said Meaghan as she walked over to Meredith and hugged her as Meredith kissed her forehead.

"Night Megs. Don't stay up too late doing work." said Meredith; with a serious tone in her voice.

Meaghan once again nodded her head before turning to Derek. "Good night Derek." said Meaghan as she reached out and hugged him tightly.

Derek look surprised at first to what Meaghan was doing; but then returned the hug before they both pulled away. Meaghan then turned and walked to the back of the apartment where the two bedrooms were.

Meredith sighed; as she realized what she had just witnessed. She then stood up and picked up the paper plates they had been eating on and began to the throw them away; in a garbage bag.

"All I really have left is a few boxes; so if you don't want to stay you don't have too." said Meredith as she brushed her hands of crumbs and headed back over into the living room area and began opening a box.

"Mere stop. I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to help." said Derek as he opened anther box and began to un-pack a lamp and some books. "Besides like you said it's only a few more boxes.

Meredith smiled a light smile; before returning her attention to the box. Within the next half an hour she and Derek had gone through almost all the rest of the boxes. She could feel the exhaustion from the day finally creeping up on her; but refused to stop until she was done. There was only one more box. She pulled it open to reveal photo albums. She took out the first one and opened it. She smiled at what she saw.

"Take a look at this." called Meredith to Derek; who was currently trying to put together a lamp. He got up from where he was kneeling and walked over to where Meredith had sat down on the couch. She leaned closer and shifted the book for him to see. "That's Meaghan at two days old."

Derek smiled at the picture of the newborn. Most newborn pictures weren't flattering but not Meaghan's. She had her eyes open and had a look of almost surprise on her face.

"She was really alert for a newborn wasn't she?" asked Derek as Meredith flipped to the next page of pictures to where it looked to be like Meaghan was being taken home.

"You have no idea." said Meredith as she flipped to when Meaghan was a year and half and sitting in a high chair covered in cake. Meredith giggled slightly at the picture. "She was in the bath for hours after that."

Derek smiled as Meredith continued to look at the pictures on the page. "May I?" asked Derek as he outstretched his hands slightly to get a better look at the pictures.

Meredith nodded as she handed the book over to Derek. She the leaned her head back against the top of the couch. Derek then flipped to a picture of when Meaghan was toothless.

"She lost both those teeth three days apart from each other. She was upset at first because she didn't like how she didn't have any front teeth; but she was thrilled when she got double from the tooth fairy."

For the next few minutes; Derek and Meredith flipped through next few pages; stopping every so often for Meredith to comment or tell a story about the picture. Derek flipped to the next page and waited for Meredith to say something. When she didn't; he looked over to see her sleeping. He put the album down on the floor and reached for the afghan that had been unpacked earlier. He then gently laid it over Meredith's body and watched her chest rise and fall with each breath she took.

Derek then reached out and kissed her forehead; holding it there for a moment. He smiled as he watched Meredith snuggle deeper into couch and drift back into sleep. He then looked down at the box of albums that still needed to be unpacked. He unpacked the albums and laid them on the floor; not knowing where Meredith would want to keep them. He peered into the box to see a sheet of paper at the bottom. He lifted it put and picked it up to examine it more closely. It read;

Birth Certificate

Meaghan Elise Grey- Shepherd

March 11th 2008 4:54 am

7 pounds; 6 ounces and 19 inches long.

Parents: Meredith Elizabeth Grey and Derek Christopher Shepherd

Dum; dun; dun!!! I know I'm evil by leaving it off at that; but I promise the wait for the update will not be as long! As always reviews make my day =D