They'd planned on taking off the few days that Elizabeth would be in town, but unsurprisingly, their plans were altered by several emergency surgeries. Elizabeth was good-natured about the disruption of their plans, shrugging it off.
"This is what my children do," she told Meredith. "I'm used to it."
"But you came all the way to Seattle," Meredith protested. "We feel awful."
They'd managed to squeeze in a late dinner with Elizabeth at a local seafood restaurant and Derek had just excused himself to visit the restroom.
"Well, then you'll need some retail therapy," Elizabeth smiled. "You have tomorrow off, don't you?"
"I do."
"Good," Elizabeth said. "Then we'll go shopping and have lunch or something."
"Derek has to work," Meredith said.
"That's fine," Elizabeth said cheerfully. "He's not invited. It's a girls only event."
Meredith laughed. "Okay," she agreed, even though a voice in the back of her head whined that she shouldn't do this. Danger! It said. But she liked Elizabeth and she found herself looking forward to spending the day with her, getting to know her and having the opportunity to ask her about Derek before Meredith knew him.
"Good," Elizabeth said again, nodding in satisfaction. Derek returned from the bathroom and took his seat.
"What's going on?" he asked, his gaze shifting from his wife to his mother and back.
"Nothing!" Meredith said brightly.
"Okay, now I know something is going on. Were you sharing stories about me or something?" he asked suspiciously.
"Don't be so paranoid, Derek," Elizabeth scolded him.
"The two of you are up to something."
"The two of us are going to have a lovely day tomorrow while you are playing God with people's lives," she answered.
Derek raised an eyebrow and turned to Meredith. "Really?" he asked, disbelief evident in his voice.
Meredith shrugged. "Sure."
"What did you say to her?" Derek asked his mom, referring to Meredith.
"Nothing. I simply invited Meredith to spend the day with me, shopping. I thought we could have a nice lunch and get to know each other a bit better without you guarding her like a pit bull."
Derek shook his head. "Don't pressure her, Mom."
"I didn't!" Elizabeth protested. She turned to Meredith for support. "Did I?"
"No," Meredith agreed. "She didn't. It's fine, Derek. I want to do this."
"Are you sure?" he asked her.
"Yes," she laughed.
They finished their dinner and once they'd dropped Elizabeth off at her hotel, Derek interrogated his wife.
"What brought this up?" he asked her when he'd established that yes; she had every intention of following through with her plans with his mom.
"Nothing!" Meredith said. "She just asked if I'd like to spend the day shopping with her. I'd be a fool to pass that up, right?"
"But," Derek sputtered. "You're you!"
Meredith narrowed her eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Derek sighed. "It just means that it's surprising that you've let her get so close to you."
"I like her, Derek."
"Well, she likes you, too," he confided. "But I'm still surprised, given your penchant for keeping people at arm's length."
"Okay, that was my dad," Meredith said.
"And Susan," he pointed out. "And me."
"I never kept you at arm's length," Meredith protested.
"Oh, really?" he said. "What do you call 'drawing a line'?"
Meredith snorted. "Oh, because that worked."
"Okay, then what about the bathtub?"
His wife rolled her eyes. "Again, not exactly the best example," she said, gesturing to her abdomen.
"Okay, then…"
"Derek, you're going to lose on all points. I didn't keep you at arm's length."
"But you wanted to. You told me that when you came back from your shower, I wouldn't be there."
"I wanted to," Meredith admitted. "But you made it very difficult."
"Impossible," he amended. "Anyway, I'm just surprised."
Meredith shrugged. "It's one day. I think she wants to spoil her newest grandchild, that's all."
Derek laughed. "She does it with all of them, so I'm sure you're right."
"You're not going to spend the whole day worrying about us, are you?" Meredith asked him. "We're just going shopping. Nothing bad is going to happen."
Derek turned to her. "Okay, who are you? And what have you done with my wife?"
"Do you have a crib yet?" Elizabeth asked.
Meredith shook her head. "No. We're still hoping that the house will be ready on time."
"Money talks," Elizabeth advised. "And Derek has plenty of it. I'm sure it will be ready if that's what you want. There's nothing that he wouldn't do for you and your child."
Meredith smiled. "Yeah," she agreed. "He's been great."
"He adores you," Elizabeth said. "That much is clear."
"It's mutual," Meredith told her.
"I'm happy to hear that. So, I suppose that your parents would like to buy the crib?"
Meredith balked. "Uh, I don't… no."
Elizabeth's forehead creased. "I'm sorry, Meredith. Am I being invasive?"
Meredith shook her head. "No. I … well, I guess Derek really hasn't shared much with you."
"No," Elizabeth agreed.
"My mom is gone," Meredith revealed. "She passed away about eight months ago."
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said gently. "Were you close?"
Meredith shook her head again. "We had a difficult relationship at the best of times," she said. "And at the end… well, she had early onset Alzheimer's, and it wasn't easy."
"No," Derek's mom agreed. "I don't imagine it would have been. I'm very sorry for your loss."
"Thank you," Meredith said softly.
"So, it's just you and your father? Do you have siblings?"
Meredith laughed dryly. "Oh, well, that's a whole other story."
"I'm sorry, Meredith," Elizabeth began. "Please just tell me if I'm being too nosy. I have a habit of sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong. My children have been coping with it for years."
Meredith nodded. "Well, if you don't mind, I'd rather not discuss my family any more."
"Okay, dear," Elizabeth said gently. "Why don't we discuss your new family, then? Have you chosen any names for the baby?"
"No," Meredith said. "We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl yet."
"That never stopped me," Elizabeth laughed.
"Do you…" Meredith hesitated. "Do you have any suggestions?"
Elizabeth smiled. "Oh, that's sweet of you to ask," she said. "But this is your and Derek's child."
"But there are names that you like?" Meredith pressed.
"Well…" Elizabeth laughed. "There are certainly names that I don't like." She winked at her daughter-in-law and Meredith joined in on her laughter.
"Such as?" Meredith asked.
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose. "I'm not big on these super-trendy names."
"Me either," Meredith confided.
"And I don't like a child to be named something that was a noun. No Rainbows or Rivers or Echos."
"I hate misspellings!" they said in unison. Laugher ensued and when they'd caught their breath, Elizabeth told Meredith that she was sure that whatever she and Derek chose to name their child would be perfect.
"Thank you," Meredith said.
Elizabeth nodded. "Is the crib something that you and Derek would like to purchase on your own?" she asked. Meredith shrugged.
"I'd like to buy you one, then," Elizabeth said. "I always go overboard with my grandchildren and I always make one extravagant purchase," she laughed. "I'd like this to be it, if that's okay with you."
"Oh," Meredith answered. "Wow. I … well, I feel like it's too much."
"It's really not," Elizabeth assured her. "I've been waiting for a long time for Derek to have a child, and I'd like to do this."
Meredith hesitated and then nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "Thank you. But please don't spend a lot of money."
"Nonsense," Elizabeth said. "This is for your child, Meredith. My grandchild. No expense should be spared."
Meredith laughed. "Thank you," she said softly.
"Of course, dear."
They spent some time looking for the perfect crib and once they'd found it, Elizabeth declared that they should go to the spa to rejuvenate from the effort.
Meredith shook her head. "Now you're just spoiling me."
"Are you kidding me?" Elizabeth asked with a wink. "I need this for myself. I just think that you'll be good company."
They stopped for a bite to eat before they headed back to Elizabeth's hotel for treatment in the hotel's spa. At the end of the day, Meredith felt incredible and she thanked Derek's mom profusely for everything.
"I'm just trying to butter you up so that you'll convince my son to come home at Christmas," Elizabeth winked.
Meredith smiled shyly and Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.
"You're worried about his sisters, aren't you?"
Meredith shrugged. "Well, Nancy and I didn't exact get off on the right foot."
"Pay no attention to Nancy," Elizabeth advised her. "Her bark is worse than her bite. She really just wants what's best for Derek. I'm sure that you can understand that."
Meredith nodded. "I do. But I get the feeling that she really doesn't like me much."
"What's not to like?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well," Meredith laughed. "For starters, I'm the young, slutty intern who came between Derek and Addison."
Elizabeth's mouth tightened into a thin line. "Meredith," she said. "For what it's worth, we were all aware long before you entered the picture that Derek and Addison's marriage was likely over."
Meredith nodded. "But…"
"When he left Manhattan, Addison called us in tears. She didn't know where he'd gone and to be honest, he didn't advise any of us that he was even leaving. When Addison confessed her indiscretion with Mark, I knew that it was unsalvageable."
Meredith frowned. "Derek didn't."
Elizabeth sighed. "Derek is stubborn and optimistic and generous to a fault. I have no doubt that he sincerely believed that his marriage could be saved, and that he had an obligation to do so. I'm not saying that Addison should be absolved of what he did, but I also know my son, and I know that he didn't attend to his marriage as he should have. So there was a lot of guilt for him to work through. But you know all of this."
Meredith nodded. "Yes."
"What I'm saying is that all of us are fully aware that you did not come between Derek and Addison because the gulf between them was wide enough that it was simply impossible for you to do so. Nancy knows this. She's very protective of him, though. She came out here and she saw for herself the depth of his feelings for you. It concerned her," Elizabeth said with a shrug. "Derek has a tendency to fall very hard very quickly."
Meredith blinked. "Is that how it happened with Addison?" she asked. Then she shook her head. "You know what? Never mind. It doesn't matter."
"Addison was a challenge for him. She was stunning and cultured and refined. In the beginning, being with Addison was as much about proving that he'd arrived as anything."
"But he loved her," Meredith said. It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Elizabeth acknowledged. "He loved her. And she loved him. But they met when they were twenty-two years old. They dated for quite a long time before they got married, yes. But in those years, they were headed in the same direction. They thought they wanted the same things."
"But Derek wanted children," Meredith murmured.
"Yes, he did. But so did Addison. They were planning on having a family, eventually. But then their careers really took off, and children were put on the backburner to accommodate their more immediate goals. It's not a bad thing, per se. It's just that as time passed, other goals that they had in common, along with shared interests, were sidetracked, and what was left wasn't enough to sustain their marriage."
"Doesn't that make you worry?" Meredith asked her.
"Why?"
Meredith shrugged. "There is a considerable age difference between us. And I'm just starting out in my career. There are a lot of things that I'd like to do in my life."
"Meredith, what do you want?"
She blinked. "Excuse me?"
Elizabeth smiled benevolently. "When you picture yourself in five years, or ten, what do you see?"
Meredith shrugged again. "I don't know. I guess I'll be done my residency. Derek and I will have this baby, and we'll be a little family. Or maybe we'll have one or two more." She blushed. "I haven't really thought about this."
"Yes, you have," Elizabeth said gently.
Meredith sighed. "We'll be living in our new house, and maybe we'll have a dog. We had a dog; did you know that? Well, actually, I had a dog. His name was Doc. But he peed on my roommates' clothes and he violated George's leg…" She laughed nervously, and then shook her head. "Anyway, I had Doc. But I couldn't keep him, so Derek took him. Well, Derek and Addison, because she was living in the trailer with him at the time, so he was kind of their dog. Except not really, because he was more Derek's dog. Addison just tolerated him. Barely. And he was still my dog. So, he was my dog and he was Derek's dog. And…" She took a deep breath, and turned crimson.
"I'm sorry," she apologized to Elizabeth. "I tend to ramble."
Elizabeth laughed. "So, you see yourself as a family, and you want that?"
Meredith nodded. "Yeah. Yes."
"Then that's why I'm not worried."
Derek pulled his scrub cap off as he pushed through the doors of the scrub room and made his way down the hallway toward the elevators that would take him up to his office. It was quarter past four in the afternoon and he fumbled with his pager, checking it yet again in the hopes that his wife had paged him. There were a couple of non-emergency pages from one of his colleagues, and he ignored these as he got on the elevator and pushed the button.
When he reached his office, he checked his personal cell phone as well and found it free of messages. Frowning, he pressed speed-dial and waited for Meredith to pick up.
"Hi," she said cheerily a moment later.
"Where are you?" he demanded.
He could almost hear her frowning. "We're just heading over there. What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" he said, annoyance washing over him. "I haven't heard from you all day."
"I wasn't aware that I had to check in," Meredith teased him.
"Mer…"
"We're just pulling in to the lot. Where are you?"
He sighed. "In my office."
He heard her repeat this information to his mom and he looked around at the stacks of medical journals and assorted papers littering his office space. By reflex, he quickly picked up a stack of them and shoved them in a box under his desk. If his mother was heading to his office, he'd rather avoid the lecture about untidiness.
"Okay, stay there," Meredith said. "We'll be there in two minutes."
"Mer…"
"Just stay!" she demanded. Derek sighed again and promised her that he would.
After he hung up, he hurriedly tidied the office, and then collapsed into the chair behind his desk. He rolled his head forward and back, trying to loosen the stiffness he felt. Thirty seconds later, there was a soft knock on the door and Meredith pushed it open. She was followed by Derek's mom, who laughed.
"What?" he asked with a scowl. He'd just lost his patient on the table, and this, combined with his inability to get a hold of his wife all day had decimated his normally warm demeanour.
"Did you hide everything under the desk?" his mom asked with a wink.
Derek grunted in response.
"Somebody is cranky today," Meredith observed. She set down a bag on the edge of his desk.
"Did you have a good day?" Derek managed to ask, softening when she moved to him and kissed him hello.
She smiled. "We had a wonderful day. We went for a late breakfast, and then we went shopping for the baby."
"Oh?" The bad mood slipped away.
Meredith nodded enthusiastically. "And your mom got us a crib."
"She did?" Derek asked. He turned to his mom. "You did?"
"I did it for all of your sisters' first babies," she reminded him.
"Thank you," Derek said softly. "You really didn't have to."
"I wanted to," she said firmly.
"Where are we going to put a crib?" Derek wondered out loud.
"Well," Meredith answered with a grin. "We were hoping that it would give you some incentive to put some pressure on the builders."
Derek chuckled. "I'm working on it, I promise."
He pulled Meredith into his lap. "So, is that all you bought today?" he asked, eyeing the bag.
"No," she said enigmatically. She twisted around so that she could face him. "I bought you something, too."
"You did?" he asked. He dropped his voice to a low, husky whisper and made a guess that only she could hear.
"Derek!" Meredith scolded him. She rolled her eyes at him. "Your mother is in the room."
"I didn't hear a thing, dear," Elizabeth said with a wink.
"Anyway, you're wrong," Meredith informed him. She pulled the bag closer and handed it to her husband. He reached inside and pulled out a baby bib declaring him the number one daddy.
He chuckled. "I love it. I don't think it'll fit me, but I love it," he winked.
Meredith rolled her eyes at him. "Funny."
He leaned closer to her. "Thank you," he whispered.
"It was your mom's idea," Meredith confided. "I got one, too," she added proudly, pulling a matching Mommy bib out of the bag.
"You will be the number one Mommy," Derek told her.
Meredith sighed and he detected a note of worry in it.
"You will be," he insisted.
"Aside from your own Mommy, of course," Elizabeth piped up from her seat.
"Mom, I'm a grown man."
"You're never too old to have a Mommy," she told him with a wink.
"When are you going back to New York?" Derek asked her.
Elizabeth ignored him and turned her attention to Meredith. "You need to convince him to come to Long Island, and we can repeat the spa with the girls. Maybe we can venture into Manhattan and do some shopping there. I'm sure Derek will gladly hand over his platinum card."
"Gladly," Derek agreed dryly. "And maybe we'll let everyone get used to the idea of the baby and the marriage and everything before I let the lions loose on Meredith."
"Meredith is perfectly capable of taking care of herself," Elizabeth asserted.
"I know that," Derek said. "But you know the girls."
"Derek, they'll be fine. They'll be excited about the baby."
Meredith watched the two of them argue for a minute before she interrupted. "Do I get to have an opinion here?" she asked. They fell silent.
"I loved getting a chance to know you," she told Derek's mom sincerely. "But I have a long, sordid history with families. Nancy is already predisposed to disliking me, and I don't think that if I were having quintuplets that would change. But I realize that they're your family," she said to Derek. "So maybe there's a way that I can meet them individually? Maybe we could invite them out here one at a time, if they can make it. Or maybe, if we fly out there, we can stay in the city and I can meet each of them on different days for lunch or something?"
"Whatever you're comfortable with, Mer," Derek told her. He reached up to stroke her cheek.
Elizabeth pursed her lips. "Would you like me to speak to them?" she asked.
Meredith shook her head. "I don't want them being nice to me because you've asked them to."
"It won't be asking," Derek assured her with a laugh.
"That's comforting," she whispered.
He squeezed her arm gently.
"You are family," Elizabeth said firmly. "You and this child. They'll come around, I promise."
"Thank you," Meredith said softly. She pulled herself up out of Derek's lap. "Will you excuse me for a minute?" she asked. "I just need to check something."
She left them alone in Derek's office. When she was gone, Derek frowned and rubbed his temples.
"Are you feeling all right, Derek?" Elizabeth asked.
"Fine," he said with a sigh. "I know you mean well, Mom, but Mer gets a little skittish when it comes to things like this. I really don't want to pressure her, especially not now."
"Derek, honestly," Elizabeth sighed impatiently. "Your sisters are adults. They will behave themselves."
"They're Addison's friends," he reminded his mom.
"They're your sisters," she countered. She frowned. "Is she feeling okay? Is everything okay with the pregnancy? She seemed fine today. We went to the spa because I didn't want to completely wear her down."
Derek shrugged. "I guess. She's had some morning sickness, but nothing too debilitating. We're having the first ultrasound done soon."
"That's exciting," Elizabeth smiled.
Derek lit up. "Yeah," he agreed.
"I asked Meredith if you'd thought of names. She said that you hadn't because you didn't know the gender yet," she said, lifting an eyebrow.
"Yeah. We have time."
"This is your child, Derek."
He laughed. "I'm aware, Mom."
"Your first child."
"Yeah." He smiled happily.
Elizabeth sat back and observed her son for a moment.
"I think you're the most settled and relaxed I've ever seen you," she said after a moment. "I wasn't happy when you and Addie split. I loved her like a daughter. I still do, and I suppose that I always will. But I see the change in you, and it's for the better, Derek. I never said anything before because I knew that you would choose to ignore it, but I was concerned about the way you were living in Manhattan. I know that you love what you do and you're very good at it, and I am proud of your accomplishments, but you were getting lost in that lifestyle. I'm not suggesting that everything is sunshine and roses here, but you seem happy."
"I am."
"Well, then never mind your sisters. They'll come to see what I do, Derek."
"I'm fine with whatever they think. I really don't care. But Meredith will. I know that she can take care of herself, but she's pregnant, and I don't want her any more stressed than she has to be. I don't want her stressed at all, to be honest."
"Let me worry about the girls," Elizabeth said with a determined look. "And we'll take it as slowly as the two of you need to. But Derek?"
"Yeah?"
"You really need to reach out," she advised him. "They feel so hurt and rejected."
He nodded. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely.
"Don't tell me," she said. "Tell them. And for God's sake, tell them about your child."
He grinned. "I can't wait."