I woke up to the smell and sound of bacon cooking in the kitchen. Still feeling Derek's warm body against mine, I turned to face him. He greeted me with his warm smile and a soft kiss.

"Morning."

I couldn't help but smile. I loved mornings in bed with him.

"Morning... Kids still asleep?"

"Nah, they're downstairs with my mom helping make breakfast. I called up my old friend Peter, his wife Claire is an OBGYN. They can fit us in at 10:45."

"Should we take the kids?"

"No, I asked my mom to watch them so I could take you into the city to shop then go on a lunch date. We'll go to lunch after the appointment."

He kissed me again and I moved closer into his arms, not quite ready to get up yet. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was just passed nine o' clock.

"It feels weird not being in Seattle... Derek, you know the second we turn our phones back on, we're going to have like 80 missed calls, 40 voicemails, and numerous texts and emails."

"The perks of being surgeons, right?"

"Or the downfall of going rogue. Do you really think Amelia hasn't told anyone? Not even Owen?"

"I doubt it. It's probably easier for her to play it off like she has no clue. Although we did leave that note on the trailer door for Owen. He knows we're together with the kids, and that we are safe. That is all anybody needs to know."

"I've been thinking... With how close Owen and Amelia have gotten, especially since your accident... We should give Owen your mom's old ring to propose to her when the time is right."

"Mere, that is your ring."

"I was also thinking about that... I wouldn't mind a ring... nothing crazy, just something simple.. but not that ring. That's the ring you batted into the woods when I was just trying to be there for you."

Derek tensed up, almost pulling away but I fixed it with a quick kiss.

"So you'd wear a ring?"

"I think so... I've even been considering hyphenating our last names. Especially with Zola starting school next year, she's already going to stick out because of the color of her skin to the color of our skin... When she points out Mommy has a different last name then Daddy, I don't want her to get confused, or the other kids to make comments. I know none of that should matter. To us, it doesn't. All our kids have your last name, I should too. We are married after all."

Derek had a huge grin on his face. He gave me a deep kiss which I happily returned.

"And how did I get so lucky? You want a ring and to hyphenate our last names... It only took getting shot, the plane crash, and my car crash to earn it."

We both laughed with our demented sense of humor.

"Enough of this... I wanna see our kiddos and that bacon is making our third baby very hungry."

"The baby or Mommy?"

I wrinkled my nose at Derek's teasing. We finally got out of bed and got ready for the day before going downstairs. Zola and Bailey ran over to Derek and I to hug us. I definitely didn't hesitate to love on them and voice my love for them, especially in front of Carolyn. When the pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns were all ready, we made our plates and sat around the table to eat. Carolyn kept looking over at me and I was focusing on not losing what I was eating, feeling morning sickness come on. Right as she opened her mouth to speak, I ran into the bathroom, locking the door as I vomited at least three times. I could hear Derek in the kitchen telling her I just had really bad jet lag, and that I was okay. I was just grateful he would cover for us until we were ready to share it. After rinsing my mouth, I went to join them back at the table. All eyes were on me.

"Meredith, what I was going to say before you got sick was that I'm sorry. About last night I mean. I never should have said that. I don't know what came over me. It was extremely rude and disrespectful. It won't happen again. You are indeed a very good mother. Zola has been sharing stories with me all morning about you and her. It's clear Zola and Bailey are well loved."

Feeling extremely awkward about the excessive apology from my mother in law, I just nodded.

"It's okay. No hard feelings."

Derek gave my hand a squeeze under the table. I knew he was relieved we made up. Shortly after we finished eating, we told the kids good bye and headed to the hospital for my ultrasound. We got checked in quickly and sat there making small talk before his friend came in to catch up with Derek.

"Meredith, this is my old friend and college roommate Peter Hanson. He's a neurosurgeon as well. His wife Claire is the OBGYN in this hospital."

I stood up and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Peter, I'm Meredith Grey... Shepherd."

It would take time to get used to saying that.

"Likewise Meredith. I've heard tons about you. Derek and I email back and forth frequently. This is what... #3? There was that little girl you adopted..."

"Zola, yes. She's nearly five."

"And then you just had that little boy."

"Bailey who is almost two."

"Right. I always knew Derek would make a great father. He was so caring for his sisters, especially Amelia. It only makes sense for him to have a big family."

Derek kissed my temple right as Claire peeked her head out of the door to call us back.

"Doctors Shepherd and Grey, right this way."

We said our quick goodbyes to Peter before following Claire back. I was very nervous. Had the home test have been wrong and I just thought I was pregnant, Derek would be devastated. He was always so excited when I was pregnant with Bailey. I got up on the table and lifted my shirt for her to squeeze the gel onto my stomach.

"Alright, so this is to verify you're pregnant, correct?"

"Yes... If we're right, we should just be at the six weeks mark."

Derek always spoke so official, especially with things like this. I just laid back and let him be in charge at this appointment. She moved the probe around until she paused it. The sound of a baby's quick heartbeat filled the room. Tears pooled my eyes. That feeling never got old. There used to be such a worry I would never be able to have any biological kids but now here I was, pregnant for the second time. Claire moved the probe around more, capturing pictures of the baby at different angles.

"And you two are correct. Six weeks along. You have a due date set for January 1st."

I was so happy and I knew Derek was too.

After the appointment, we headed more into the city, parking outside of a jewelry store.

"Derek, what are we doing?"

"Those rings you requested... I want to get them right away."

"Seriously?"

"Yes... I want nothing more than for you to have a set of rings on your finger symbolizing us and our marriage."

"Our marriage is much more than a couple pieces of silver on our fingers."

"I know, just the principle of it all..."

He was always so set in his ways. We got inside and each went our different ways, looking on our own side of the stores, checking out hundreds of rings before we met in the middle and both pointed out the same set at the same time.

"Seriously?"

We both laughed.

"Mere, we have the same taste. Look, it's perfect for each of us."

The engagement ring was a diamond ring with two smaller diamonds on each side, the matching bands for both Derek and I had three small diamonds on silver. They were perfect... They were simple. After we purchased those, we enjoyed a nice lunch before torrential downpour came, cutting our date day short. When we got home, Bailey was napping and Zola was playing with her Anatomy Jane doll on the living room floor with Carolyn sipping tea in her rocker.

"I swear that child with be the best surgeon in the world by the time she is in Kindergarten. She knows so much. She is very smart."

Zola just smiled at her remark.

"Mommy, I taught Nana about your method you made with Daddy, the "Shepherd-Grey method" when you put the live virus into a brain tumor to kill it. Aunt Callie told me about it one day when she got me and Sofia out of daycare to go see Aunt Arizona at the movies."

"I see..."

Derek smiled proudly at her.

"Mom, can you keep an eye on her? Meredith and I have a couple of phone calls to make."

She happily agreed, so we went up to Derek's old room to call Amelia first, then Cristina.

~So more lovey dovey. Great, right? I had purposely wrote Mama Shepherd rather OOC so it could create an arch for the next few chapters (you'll see...). I calculated Meredith's due date with some online pregnancy calculator using 3/25/15 (day before Derek's fatal car wreck)... It just gave me January 1st so I'm rolling with it. I'll hopefully be able to update Thursday or Friday but we shall see... Leave any suggestions or requests for the next chapter(s) in a review. As always, thank you for the support!~