Author's Note – Whoop! Thank you so much for the reviews! :D They make me so happy and spur me on to write, which is what we all want, right? ;)

Some people have been asking Meredith's age considering she was called 'old'. That was meant to be a joke in that she's not old at all in normal life but in terms of fertility 35 is actually old. I have placed her around 33-34. I hope that's alright.

And without further ado, on with the chapter! :D

It was a Tuesday lunchtime, two days after the second ultrasound, that Derek returned home in the pouring rain to a silent house. As he stepped through the door he immediately felt like something was off but he wasn't sure what exactly. Frowning as he dropped the latch behind him and took a few strides into the hallway, Derek's ears listened intently for any sign of Meredith. She was meant to be at home today. She'd decided not to go into work because apparently she couldn't take another day of endless paperwork because of her arm whilst everyone else got to do surgeries. In fact, she was insanely jealous of Derek and would glower at him whenever he mentioned any type of surgery, no matter how interesting or innovative it was. In the end, he just stopped talking about his day at all so she wouldn't get upset. Being in a room with an enraged, hormonal Meredith was not a nice place to be.

"Meredith?" he called out into the quiet, dropping his keys in the dish on the dresser. He received no reply.

A sudden sense of foreboding gripped him and he felt his heartbeat quicken. Not bothering to shed his coat, Derek did a swift search of the downstairs of the house. Meredith was nowhere to be seen. There were remnants of her presence strewn about the place: half-finished neurosurgical journals, baby books and magazines, her laptop still open on the coffee table, a cup of orange juice…but Meredith was just absent.

Feeling more and more uneasy as he saw that her jeep was in the driveway and her handbag and house keys were still on the side, Derek realised that she couldn't have gone out. That meant she had to be in the house…but why wasn't she answering? Horrible, horrible graphic images began to swamp his mind and he had to try really hard in order to push them out.

"Meredith?" he called again, more anxiously. No reply.

He took the stairs two at a time and flew onto the landing. The first room he checked was their bedroom. Perhaps she was sleeping? She was carrying four babies so she was bound to be exhausted. It wasn't unheard of for her to have a nap at this hour. However, when he popped his head round the door he saw that the bed was empty and perfectly made-up. Meredith hadn't been in there for awhile. His pulse quickened even more.

He checked the bathroom. She wasn't there. He checked each of the rooms that their friends' rented but Meredith was nowhere to be seen. However, one thing that he did notice that was a little odd was that a lot of the furniture in each of the rooms had been shifted to the sides. In his haste, though, he didn't think anything more of it.

The final room he came to was Izzie's old room that was currently unoccupied. She had to be in here, didn't she? But what would he find on the other side of the door? His blood raced through his veins and pounded loudly in his head as he pushed the door open and walked in.

Meredith was lying sprawled on the floor and immediately Derek assumed the worst.

"Meredith!" he exclaimed, running across the floorboards towards her.

However, before he could reach her, Meredith sat up abruptly and spotted him.

"Derek?" Her green eyes were puzzled. "When did you get back? I didn't hear the door. I must have been completely out of it."

Derek just stared at her.

Meredith continued, oblivious, "I've spent the whole morning deciding which room the babies will have. I tried each one out like freakin' Goldilocks or something but none of them fitted. In the end I settled on this one…I mean, it's kind of sunny with that big window and I'm sure Izzie would love having the babies in her old room."

"And you were….lying on the floor because…?" Derek finally managed to get out, feeling a little breathless. Meredith didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, I was just looking at things from a different perspective, you know, seeing how things would look to the babies and stuff. I don't know what colour we should paint it or where we should put their cribs and stuff. Maybe yellow…or is yellow too obvious. I mean everyone paints their nursery yellow." She was running off on a tangent and realised it a second later. "Anyway, I moved all the furniture round so I could really get a feel for the room and where I could put things. Come to think of it, we really need to go shopping. We have nothing for the babies and we need to get started before I go on crappy bed rest. Oh, and I also need to get some new pants!" She plucked at her grey lounge pants. "I had to change into these because I couldn't do the button up on my jeans!"

Finally, Derek managed to exhale deeply enough to get his lungs working as normal and he ran a hand through his hair, realising that he was being completely paranoid and overanxious. Meredith was fine. She wasn't just about to keel over just because she was pregnant. She was stronger than that. He needed to get a grip.

Rubbing his unshaven chin, Derek dropped down and joined his wife on the floor, splaying his legs out in front of him. She remained beside him, cross-legged and very cute looking in her tatty sweats.

She frowned suddenly. "Why are you still wearing your coat?"

"Oh, I forgot to take it off," Derek bluffed - very badly - but Meredith didn't seem interested in pressing the issue. She was more interested in paint and décor and all sorts of very un-Meredith things. Derek didn't know whether to be concerned about her state of mind or not.

"What do you think about the colour? I was thinking a pale green, maybe, or sky blue and white."

After a moment's consideration of the situation, Derek finally decided that maybe he liked this new, positive side of Meredith. He leant back, emulating the horizontal position she had been in when he had found her, and placed his head in her lap.

"Personally, I like orange but blue could work…"

He looked up at her with a crooked smile on his face and was delighted when she offered him a big grin in return. She looked beautiful when she smiled; especially the big cheesy smiles that made her eyes sparkle. Her soft waves of hair formed a curtain around her face and made her looked even more gorgeous. Levering himself up on one elbow, he twisted in her lap and kissed her softly on the lips. She giggled against his mouth.

"We're not going to get very much done like this are we?" she murmured, running the fingers of her uninjured arm through his hair.

"Can't we leave it until tomorrow?" he replied, words muffled by his intermittent kisses. "I much prefer the direction we're going in now."

Suddenly Meredith pulled away, still chuckling. "No, Derek, I'm going in for surgery in two weeks and everything is gonna be really hectic. We can't do this now."

"Do what?" he asked, innocently.

"You know what, you charming swine," she laughed and batted him playfully on the shoulder. "Now, what colours? We'll have to go get them today."

"Don't we need to know the babies' genders before we decorate?" Derek asked, leaning back.

"We're going gender-neutral…"

"Sounds like fun but it might be a bit damaging for the kids," Derek interrupted, cheekily, deliberately stalling her. He received another ineffective punch for his trouble. "Ow!" he protested, lightly.

"This is serious, Derek. I'm hormonal and you need to listen or I will not be responsible for my actions. Okay?"

Derek nodded, trying to keep the grin off his face. Meredith didn't look amused.

"Right….so green, blue or orange?"

"How about we go for a light, neutral base colour and then use all those colours for the furnishings? We can make the curtains fun colours and the upholstery. That way when we need to change the colour scheme then it will be easy." Derek offered in an attempt to be useful. Abruptly, he leapt to his feet and began moving around the room. "I mean, the walls could be cream or a really pale yellow. Then we could have two cribs on this side and two on the other and a changing table here and a lamp…"

Meredith watched as her husband danced around the room, his mind awhirl with the possibilities. She knew he liked decorating and designing things and being creative. Not many people knew this side of Derek but he was actually quite artistic, a quality that one wouldn't expect in a surgeon but actually came in quite useful when trying to work out the best way of removing a tumour. He could think outside the box brilliantly. That's why she was kind of looking forward to seeing what he did with the nursery. At one point he'd wanted to design their dream house. That plan was still in the pipeline but it wasn't feasible right now what with the babies on the way. Maybe when they were older Derek would be able to fulfil his ambition of building them the perfect house on the hill. In the meantime, Meredith could keep him entertained with the nursery and keep his mind off the worrying that she knew he constantly did about her. She reckoned he would get an ulcer if he kept stressing like he did.

"And, if you don't mind, I thought I'd paint a massive monkey head right here in the middle of this wall and then put a climbing frame with a death slide and a paddling pool here…what do you think?" Meredith came round from her thoughts to see Derek standing above her with his arms crossed over his chest. His dark eyebrows were raised.

"What? Yeah, sounds great."

"You weren't listening at all, were you?"

"Er…yeah?"

"So you don't mind about the massive monkey head and the death slide then?"

"What? A massive monkey head? What are you on Derek?" Meredith grinned, realising she'd been caught out in her daydreaming.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Derek said, teasingly, grabbing her hand and pulling her too her feet with ease. "Come on, let's have some lunch."

"You won't be able to do that for long. The lifting me up, I mean," Meredith lamented, dusting herself down and sighing. "I'll be like a whale."

"My very beautiful whale," Derek replied, kissing her.

"Ergh….sometimes you're so soppy it makes me want to vomit," Meredith said, laughing, "I see what Cristina means. Speaking of which, I just realised I was meant to be going out with her this afternoon."

"You mean I came home early to keep you company for nothing?" Derek pretended to look mortally offended as they left the newly christened nursery and made their way downstairs.

Meredith had the grace to look apologetic before suggesting, "Er…you can come too."

"Thanks but I think I'll pass on a day out with the twisted sisters. What will you be shopping for anyway? I don't want you to get everything without me."

As he spoke, Derek began collecting some bread and ham and other bits and pieces for lunch. He ensured that they had all the major food groups on the table, packed full of nutrients that both Meredith and the babies would need. Dr. Swan's advice weighed on his mind. He was in charge of making sure she ate enough and looked after herself. So far it hadn't been that difficult to get Meredith to eat more as both the previous nights she'd woken up at various times throughout the night to make herself a small meal – and when he said small it tended to be half a loaf of bread with peanut butter - because she was starving. Derek had been stunned at how much she could fit in her tiny body.

Once he collected everything he placed it on the table and the two of them sat down.

"Oh, just some baby outfits. Cristina's taking her job as godmother very seriously….in that she's determined to outdo Alex and prove she's the best godparent. I think she's expecting an award at the end of it or something."

"Right, okay," Derek laughed, helping himself to a slice of wheat bread. "Do you want to get some paint whilst you're out then?"

"I guess. We're saying cream or pale yellow, right?"

"Yep."

"Alright, I can do that." Meredith nodded as she popped a cherry tomato in her mouth and felt it burst under the pressure. Sweet, acidic liquid flooded her tongue. "But, if they have those stupid names like Sunlit…wheatfield and Honey golden… Sahara desert then don't expect anything. It'll be cream or yellow and that's it."

"Okay." Derek smirked. He kind of wished he was going on this little outing but the presence of Cristina Yang and the fact that he had some phone calls to make put him off. "I'm going to wish you luck with that now."

Meredith had left with an overeager Cristina over an hour ago, the two of them planning to hit the local shopping mall and all the baby shops it contained. When his wife had left she had been looking rather bemused by the whole affair, especially as Cristina was practically dragging her out of the door. As she left, she mouthed a pitiful 'help me' to him but he merely waved cheerily at her and closed the door, leaving her to spend the rest of the day with her extremely competitive, warped best friend.

Now he was alone, Derek picked up the phone and dropped onto the couch. It sunk a little under his weight, the springs protesting noisily. They would probably need to invest in a new couch as well as all the baby things; this one was on its last legs. Drumming his fingers on the patterned arm, Derek dialled a number and waited.

"Hello?" the voice said at the other end of the phone.

"Hi Mom, its Derek." Derek smiled immediately upon hearing her familiar voice.

He heard the excited intake of breath on the other end of the phone which reminded him that he really needed to call more often. He felt especially guilty because it had taken him this long to phone his family and tell them he was going to be a father. Meredith had made him swear not to do it until the second scan - even though she'd told Cristina straight away which Derek thought was a little unfair - but he hadn't argued. Then he'd been so busy after the ultrasound that he hadn't had time to phone. He hadn't wanted to rush the call after all; he wanted to have the time to talk to his mom and now seemed like the perfect opportunity.

"Derek! I can't tell you how lovely it is to hear your voice," Carolyn said, emotion tingeing her words.

"The same to you, Ma," he said, still smiling.

There was a slight pause as Derek tried to get his words together in order to tell his mother the news but she got in there first.

"So, will you be coming to our summer get-together in July or are you going to be 'busy' again? I understand you and Meredith have your own life in Seattle but we would all love to see you both. You know, I don't think I can cope with seeing my son once every two years. If you carry on like this I might have to do another surprise drop in."

"Ma, I'm sorry," Derek sighed. He should have known she would be a little bit annoyed at him, especially as they didn't manage to make it for Thanksgiving or Christmas. "You know we are really busy. It's not just an excuse. I have my work and Meredith's still training, she needs to get all the hours she can. Having said that, I think we might have a bit more time now."

"Oh, why's that?" Carolyn asked in her usual flippant manner.

"Well, a couple of weeks ago Meredith had an accident."

"An accident!" his mom repeated sounding horror-struck. "Derek! Why didn't you call us? Is she alright?"

"Ma…Ma, calm down. That was a bad way of explaining my news. I'm sorry."

"What news? What are you talking about? Derek, is she alright? I don't think I could cope with her being hurt, not after what happened to you…"

Derek had to but in quickly, practically shouting down the phone. "Ma! She's fine! Well, she broke her elbow but other than that she's great. We're both great."

"Oh…then why…I don't understand?" Carolyn sounded very perplexed.

Derek sighed, annoyed at himself for making this more difficult than necessary. He ran a finger along the hem of a cushion, feeling the rough texture of the fabric against his sensitive skin and tried to sort out his words again.

"Let me start again," he finally said. After a moment's pause, he took a deep breath and explained, "Meredith had an accident and broke her elbow. Because of that she had to have an x-ray and because of that x-ray she had blood tests and we found out she was pregnant."

"Pregnant!" Carolyn cried. Her voice was filled with complete and utter delight. "That's fantastic, Derek. Oh, I knew it was only a matter of time before you became a father.

"Yes, Ma, she's pregnant but that's not all."

"Oh?"

"Ma…" Derek couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he broke the news. "Meredith is having quadruplets."

There was stunned silence on the other end of the phone. Derek could imagine his mother processing his words, the cogs turning rapidly in her brain. In fact, he could almost predict how long it would take for her to…

"Oh, Derek. That's incredible!"

"Yeah."

"Incredible," she breathed, still sounding a little astounded. Derek guessed that must have been how he reacted but it was so much funnier witnessing the astonishment from this side. "Quadruplets? Good god! I don't think I've even seen quadruplets in all my time. How far is she along, Derek? Are things going well?"

"Um…she's almost eight weeks and things are progressing as normally as they can be. It's all a little bit overwhelming but Meredith is doing great. She's out shopping for baby clothes at the moment."

"Yes, with that many to feed, clothe and change you'll need to get started. In fact, I'm sure the girls have lots of old baby things we can pass onto you. Well, Kathleen does anyway, Dillon, Angela and Jenny past that stage years ago and Bobby is almost three."

"Yeah, that would be great."

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm just so excited for you. You finally get to be a Dad. I know you'll be brilliant. You and Meredith will be brilliant. Those kids are lucky. Hey, and with four of them maybe you'll reconsider relocating to New York. I wouldn't mind helping out…"

"No, Ma," Derek refused, immediately, "We're staying put. We'd love your help and we'll try and make it to the summer gathering but we're staying in Seattle. We've got a house here and we've been picking out the colours for the nursery."

Carolyn chuckled on the other end of the phone. "I was just teasing, Derek. I know you're settled. Now, can I tell your sisters?"

Derek grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that. I don't think my ears can take four phone calls with four separate shrieks."

"Oh, Derek, they would love to hear from you sometime though; maybe on another occasion. Just remember they do care about you and want to know how you're doing just as much as I do. You haven't even met Nancy's youngest one, have you? His name's Harrison. Your little ones will all be about the same age, won't they?"

Derek felt a jolt of guilt when he realised he hadn't even realised that his sister had had her baby. He was so out of the loop that he didn't know he had a new nephew. His sister finally had a boy to go with all her girls. In fact, Derek felt slightly sorry for the kid, having four sisters; Harrison would be in exactly the same situation he'd been in. He'd loved his sisters dearly – still did – but growing up had been rather crazy, especially after his father died, and he always wondered how he'd survived it. In fact, he really hoped that at least one of the quads was a boy because then he'd finally have some male company.

"Tell her that I'll definitely come and meet him at the summer get-together. I promise."

"Good. Oh, I've just realised I'm meant to be picking up Barnett from his karate lesson! I'll have to cut this catch up short, I'm sorry, love."

"That's fine. I love you."

"I love you too and I want regular updates. You got that, Derek?"

"Loud and clear, Ma."

"Bye."

"Bye."

After hanging up, Derek leant back on the couch and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was nice to have finally told his mother about Meredith's pregnancy. He was so proud of the fact that he was about to become a father and therefore he'd desperately wanted his ma to know. Now that she did, he felt a warm glow form inside him.

Over the next two weeks, Meredith and Derek began to decorate their nursery with the help of Jackson, Lexie and April who had returned from vacation. Each of their reactions to Meredith's pregnancy had been different. Avery had looked a little surprised and then immediately enquired as to whether they would have to move out. This had then resulted in a small argument between Derek and Meredith; reminiscent of the one they had when Derek first moved in, about whether they should have so many 'waifs and strays' staying in the house. Once again Meredith won, mainly because she pointed out they would need all the help they could get with four needy infants and having three in-house babysitters could be no bad thing. Lexie had been ecstatic about being an aunt, especially when she realised it would be to four little nephews or nieces. April had been thrilled too but then she'd started asking Meredith about all the details of her pregnancy and the complications because she was considering neonatal surgery as her speciality and Meredith had eventually had to tell her to just shut the hell up.

Everyone in the house was clued up in terms of knowing when Meredith was having a mood swing so they knew when to bother her and when not to. And, to Derek's surprise, the three lodgers had learnt pretty quickly when he needed time alone with his wife without all of them getting under his feet. They even ran errands to the shops when Derek wasn't at home such as fetching whatever was Meredith's current craving. These ranged from strawberry ice-cream to anchovies on pizza.

The nursery was now practically finished. The walls were painted and the white cribs were in. Now all they needed to do was decide on a theme for the curtains and mattress covers. Derek wanted jungle-themed and Meredith was vying for dinosaurs because she'd seen some lovely patterns in the local fabric shop. Neither was willing to compromise so they decided to wait until they knew what the gender of the fetuses was before finally resolving the feud.

Meredith went in for surgery on a rainy Monday afternoon and was out again in just over an hour. Dr. Swan informed her that it had gone really well and that, in fact, she had the perfect anatomy for this kind of procedure. Meredith didn't know whether to be flattered or not. After it was over she felt really pathetic for worrying, but where her babies were concerned she couldn't afford to cut corners, because it had been so simple. She learnt that really, for mothers expecting multiples, TAC was a procedure as common and relatively simple as an appendectomy. The only worry would have been if she'd grown too big since the scheduling of the surgery four days ago and then they would have had to do a vertical incision rather than a horizontal one. Fortunately, she was still small enough.

Derek had been there with her the whole time and the two of them had gripped tightly at one another's hands when they saw the before and after ultrasounds that showed that their babies were still alive. They even got to hear the heartbeat of each individual baby and watched them move around in Meredith's uterus for almost an hour whilst she was in post-op recovery. It was so strange to Meredith to imagine that these little white creatures would one day be living, breathing humans. Her mind boggled at how quickly they were growing already. Baby B was the biggest by quite a margin and Meredith definitely imagined it to be a boy. Baby A and C were relatively the same size but Baby D lagged behind his or her siblings by quite a margin. The maternal-fetal specialist suggested it was receiving less blood via its cord than the others because it was being squashed at the bottom. She suggested that they should keep a close eye on it which only served to worry Meredith.

After her surgery, Meredith spent four days in the hospital and had several interesting visits. The first was from the Chief who had undoubtedly either heard of her pregnancy and its complexity from Derek or the Seattle Grace gossip mill. She didn't think there was a single person in the damn hospital that didn't know she was pregnant. Whether they all knew it was with quadruplets was another question.

A quiet, tentative knock on the door had signalled his arrival.

"Come in," Meredith had called out, feeling a little tired and a little sore from her incision. She'd been using the morphine pump a like a drug addict and so it was having no effect now. She'd cursed Derek for not letting her up the dosage.

"Meredith…hullo," he had said, looking rather awkward as he stood in the doorframe.

"Chief," she'd replied, surprised by his presence. That was the only word she seemed to manage as she opened and shut her mouth uselessly.

"I…er…" He had scratched the back of his head. "Just came to…you know…check on you. How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, thanks," she'd smiled, feeling rather uncomfortable herself. They had never been very good at these moments, whatever 'these moments' were.

"I'm glad." The Chief had paused and took a cautious pace into the room. "Look, Meredith, I just wanted to say that you can take as much time as you want off for these babies. You and Derek are….important to me and I want you be able to look after your family and have time to raise them. You don't need to worry about losing your place on the program. I'll make sure there is always space for you."

"Oh." Meredith had blinked, amazed. "Thank you, Chief."

"That's alright. I'll…er….just be going. Take care of yourself."

And then he'd left, just like that.

However, her favourite visit had probably been from Mark who'd ducked into the room when Derek wasn't there.

"How's my favourite pregnant dirty mistress?" The grin on his face was megawatt; it could have bust the filament in a light bulb.

"Mark, how lovely to see you," she'd replied, smiling back, already amused by his mere presence. Mark just generally made her laugh. She could tell why he was Derek's best friend and also why he could get any woman he wanted in bed with him. He was funny, smart and gorgeous. He ticked all the boxes. But, fortunately, they just weren't her boxes.

"Where's your guard dog?"

"Derek's getting me a soda."

"Oh, so you taught him fetch too? He is a clever boy. Don't forget to give him a treat when he gets back, if you know what I mean." He'd winked playfully at her. Meredith had refrained from flirting back. She knew it was just as friends but she could just imagine – with her luck – Derek walking back in at the worst moment. "Does he have a bone for you…"

"Mark!" Meredith had admonished, swiftly, but a chuckle escaped her lips.

Mark had grinned. "You see? You see what I'm doing with the mutt jokes here? I think it's pretty good considering you're having a…litter! Ya get it?"

Meredith had arched an eyebrow. "Yes, I get it Mark."

"I'm glad. I put a lot of work into setting that gag up."

On the Friday of that week, Meredith finally returned home and resumed her 'nesting' as Derek so fondly called it. She just called it gathering a load of crap that the babies would need. They had a few things through the post from Derek's relatives and April had very kindly knitted four little sets of woollen hats, scarves and booties. They were all yellow, a colour Meredith was growing to loathe because of its neutral-ness. It just reminded her of the fact that they didn't know the babies' genders yet. She was counting down the days until she no longer had to call the tiny-tots 'it'. It was highlighted in her calendar with a giant red star.

And finally the day arrived in her sixteenth week. Meredith couldn't sleep at all the night before. She just tossed and turned and annoyed the hell out of Derek. The insomnia wasn't just because she was excited but also because of the fact her belly was growing larger by the day and now she could never get comfortable. Beside her normal wardrobe was a fast growing alternative wardrobe for all her maternity clothes. She couldn't believe she was changing size so rapidly from day to day. As a person who found it hard to put on weight she was a little astounded. It was especially unnerving as she was growing seven weeks ahead of the normal singleton pregnancy and so at sixteen weeks she resembled a normal 23 week expectant mother. In other words she looked like the whale she'd predicted and she wouldn't stop growing.

"Come on, Derek, get your lazy butt out of bed!" Meredith ordered, shaking him so that he would wake up. Her appointment was in an hour and she wasn't missing it.

"Urgh…" he murmured into his pillow.

"Stop sleeping and get up. We need to find out the sex of these kids! It's actually killing me."

"I've just got back from my shift," he yawned, sleepily and turned slightly to look at her through bleary blue eyes.

"Yeah, I get it; you were working so hard whilst I was sleeping. and doing nothing. I don't give a crap, Derek. If we could swap positions, I would happily and I wouldn't be such a damn whiner about it. You try carrying four friggin' babies in your uterus! I pee four times in an hour and I look like an elephant…"

"I'm up! I'm up!" Derek yelped, throwing the covers off and jumping out of bed in a move so fast he almost fell over.

Meredith grinned. Whenever she started ranting and getting angry, Derek would leap into action and do whatever she wanted. It was quite a useful tool. His fear of her hormones was pretty hilarious.

They made it to Seattle Grace obstetrics with plenty of time to spare and Meredith plonked the still half-asleep Derek down in an empty plastic chair and went to sign in. Once she'd done that she came back and sat beside him. However, she couldn't sit still and kept jiggling like an impatient child in her seat. This was it. She would find out if they were having four little Dereks or four little hers – which she knew she would hate – or some other mixture. The anticipation was killing her.

In the last few weeks she'd become aware of Alex taking bets on the sex distribution of the fetuses. He said he wasn't doing it to make money but that he was just curious to see if people guessed right. She highly doubted there was no financial gain for her friend but she was interested to see what people thought. Most people had betted on an equal split which was an idea she really liked the sound of. Two of each would be perfect.

And they were about to find out if the gamblers were right because her name was called out. Nudging Derek, she climbed to her feet with a little bit of a strain and then waddled slowly towards the door. She hated her waddle. Derek said it was endearing but it just made her feel even more whale like.

"Hello, Meredith," the maternal-fetal specialist, Linda, smiled as she stepped into the room, "Dr. Swan can't be here today I'm afraid so you're stuck with me. Where's Derek?"

"He's here," Meredith began and then turned, realising he hadn't entered the room with her. Sighing, she asked the doctor to give her a moment before marching out of the exam room and dragging a bewildered Derek back. "He was asleep."

"Ah…I see," the specialist chuckled, "You're going to have to get used to lack of sleep with these four, Doctor Shepherd."

"I know," Derek replied, blinking wearily.

"Now, I want you both to be aware that these are early readings of the genders and they could be wrong. However, just to give you an idea of how accurate I am, I've only been wrong once in all my twenty years."

"Wow," Meredith said, "That is good."

Linda asked her to take up her top and Meredith complied, exposing her distended abdomen to the world. It looked oddly round and smooth. There were already awful red stretch marks marring the previously unblemished surface and she sighed. Her previous life with a taut, tanned stomach was officially over.

The gel was cold as Linda spread it on her skin and Meredith let out a small gasp. She knew the cold was coming, she'd had several ultrasounds by now, but the temperature always surprised her. Derek looked a little alarmed by her reaction but Meredith waved him away. He was always overanxious.

"Right, so, let's establish they're still healthy. Yes, their heart rates and tones are great. Also they're all growing at a steady pace so that's good." She looked over at Derek – who seemed to have finally woken up – and Meredith and saw their eager faces. "But I'm guessing you really want me to shut up and tell you the sex, am I right?" She laughed because she was used to the one track minds of expectant parents.

Gently, she moved the transducer over to the left side of Meredith's round stomach and paused. She leant over and inspected the screen carefully.

"Baby B is a…boy."

Derek exhaled deeply. He would finally have a fellow male in his family.

"Baby C is…also a boy."

She moved the transducer to the other side of Meredith's uterus.

"Baby A is a…girl."

Derek and Meredith waited with baited breath for Linda to reveal the gender of their fourth and final child.

"And Baby D is….also a little girl. Your littlest baby in fact."

Equal numbers! Both Meredith and Derek couldn't have been happier.

There you have it. The majority of you betted right. Pity it wasn't for actual money, eh? Aha. :D Please, please review!