Disclaimer: I don't own it.
Chapter Seven, Part One:
Meredith winced as bright rays of sunlight filtered through the blinds and into her face. She closed her eyes tighter to block the brightness, but it didn't help. She rolled over so the rays hit the back of her head and scooted closer to the middle of the bed to snuggle with Derek. Derek's side of the bed was empty. Meredith opened her eyes to peer around the room. He was home, she noticed, because his pager and watch was still on the stand beside the bed. Meredith got up and made her way to the bathroom, but stopped when she heard Derek talking in a low voice behind the bathroom door.
"I don't know how she'll react." he said to the person on the other end. "I have to get it all sorted out before I tell her."
Meredith listened to what Derek was saying. Get what all sorted out? She thought to herself. How will I react to what?
"Okay…okay…I'll talk to you soon. No, she's home today. I don't want her knowing about this... "
Meredith felt her heart sink. What could her husband possibly be hiding from her? What can't she find out? They didn't keep secrets from one another. Meredith quickly left the room before Derek hung up. She walked towards Noah's room and heard him babbling in his crib. She opened his door gently.
"Good morning, sunshine," she called to him. Noah looked at her over the railing of his crib and smiled widely. His hair was tousled in the same way that Derek's was in the morning. She smiled at the sight of him.
"Pick me up," he said, holding his hands out to her. Meredith walked over to his crib and picked him up. She carried him over to his changing table to change his diaper.
Noah looked up at her with his blue eyes. "Melmo?" he asked.
"Yep, you can watch Elmo this morning," Meredith responded as she lifted him up. She blew raspberries on his cheeks as they walked downstairs to the kitchen. She sat him in his high chair and got his breakfast ready. Noah clapped excitedly as Meredith placed his bowl of Muesli in front of him, just as Derek entered the kitchen. He kissed Noah on the top of the head and ruffled his hair. He walked over to Meredith and kissed her on the forehead. "Good morning," he whispered in her ear. He grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and a spoon from the drawer and sat beside Noah at the table. "Nothing like having breakfast with a guy who knows good cereal," he winked at Meredith, motioning to Noah who was wolfing down his Muesli.
Meredith cleared her throat. "So, who were you talking to this morning?" she asked.
Derek snapped his head up to look at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Who were you talking to in the bathroom this morning?" she asked again, an edge in her voice.
"Oh," he paused. "I was answering a page. I was talking to the hospital."
Meredith nodded slowly, knowing that her husband was lying to her. He apparently didn't want her to know who he was talking to on the phone. She felt a lump forming in her throat at the thought.
"So, what are you two up to today?" Derek asked her, walking his bowl to the sink. He turned around to look at her.
"I'm seeing lots of Elmo in my future. What time will you be home tonight?" Meredith asked him.
"Oh, late, I have back to back surgeries all day," Derek replied, grabbing his keys. "Don't wait up." He walked over to her and placed a tender kiss on her lips. He walked over to Noah, kissing his forehead, "Bye, Bud, be good for Mommy today."
"Bye Da-yee!" Noah responded.
Derek looked at her as he made his way to the door, "Love you," he said.
"Love you," she repeated softly, looking at the floor.
"Derek, I was thinking," Meredith said as she crawled in bed beside him.
"Uh oh, this can't be good," he groaned.
"What do you mean by that?" she demanded.
"When you are thinking, it usually involves me doing something for you. I'm half afraid to ask you what you're thinking about." He replied.
Meredith gave him a disgusted look. "Well, if you're going to be that way, then I'm not talking to you," she huffed and turned her back towards him. She reached to shut off her light, her eyes adjusting to the glowing kidney in a jar beside her bed.
Derek looked at the back of his wife's head. He was hoping that they could make love tonight considering that Meredith's morning sickness had pretty much resolved and she was no longer attached to the toilet. It had been weeks, twenty three days to be exact, without sex and he'd been particularly grumpy about it. He was off to a great start on getting his way tonight.
He smirked and tapped her on the shoulder, "Mer, I was thinking," he mocked her.
"Shut up," was her reply.
"No, seriously, I was thinking," he tried again.
"What don't you understand about I'm not talking to you?" she yanked the comforter more to her side.
"But you are talking to me, I heard you," he joked.
"Derek, stop acting like a two year old." she demanded.
"Me? I'm not acting like a two year old. You're the one who's pouting, falling off your side of the bed, depriving your husband, your horny husband, of his manly needs," Derek said.
Meredith snorted, but didn't reply to his comment.
"What were you thinking, Mer?" Derek asked, sliding up next to her and wrapping his arm around her.
"No touching me. Don't touch me when I'm mad at you," she grumbled.
"I'm not touching you, I'm touching my baby," he replied, running his palm in circles
over her slight baby bump. "You can't be mad at the person who gave you this," he whispered in her ear, putting a slight amount of pressure on her stomach.
"Yes, I can," she replied. "Thanks to you, I've been best friends with the toilet for the past six weeks. Makes me all hot and bothered for you," she said sarcastically, secretly longing for him. She missed the way he smelled, the way he touched her when he made love to her, and his tongue. That freaking tongue inside her mouth and the way he trailed it all over her body. STOP! Don't be thinking about Derek's tongue when you're mad at him, she thought.
"Well, I definitely know that feeling," he whispered in her ear, ignoring her sarcasm. He could feel her body tense up as he breathed on her favorite spot directly under her ear lobe.
"What? Being best friends with the toilet?" she said breathlessly as his hand moved from her stomach and under her shirt to her breasts.
"Nope, being all hot and bothered for you, I am all hot and bothered for you. You drive
me crazy, absolutely insane. And when you're mad at me…hmm…it makes these feelings I have ten times worse," he murmured in her ear, brushing her hair aside to kiss her neck. "I think," he continued, "I think I need a consult. I might need a doctor, because this thing I have…it's intense."
Meredith giggled at his seductiveness. "Well, lucky for you I am a doctor and I specialize in that thing you're complaining about," she teased. She turned in his arms and met his lips in a passionate kiss.
Derek pulled away to look at her with concern on his face. "Are you okay to do this?" Meredith nodded, "I need you, Derek." she purred. "I need you to fuck…my…brains…out," she murmured between kisses.
Derek raised his eyebrows at her directness. "I am an expert on brains, you're in luck," he replied seductively, moving on top of her at an angle, careful to avoid putting his weight on his baby. He kissed her passionately.
For the next several hours, they played 'doctor' and Meredith was able to successfully diagnose and treat his symptoms, multiple times. Derek followed his wife's orders in regards to her brain. They laid together in each others arms, exhausted from making up for lost time. Derek ran his hand up and down Meredith's back. "So, what was it you were thinking about?" he asked her seriously.
Meredith smiled as she ran her fingers over the hair on his chest. "It's stupid, forget it."
"It's not stupid if you thought of it. Tell me," he prompted.
"Well, I was thinking that…well because we don't want to find out what the sex of the
baby is, we should make up a name for us to call it, you know, like a pet name. So we're not calling it 'it'."
Derek smiled, "Hmm, that's a good idea. What should we name it…uh…I mean him or her?"
Meredith thought for a moment, "Something cute. Something that mean's tiny."
"What about Chip? You eat chips all the time and he may actually come out looking like one," Derek joked.
Meredith shook her head. "How about Tot? Tot as in a kid."
Derek kissed her forehead, "Hmm, I say we compromise. I like Chip and you like Tot. Chips are potatoes, or taters in the kid sense. How about, 'Tater Tot'?"
Meredith laughed. "I love it! It's perfect! Tater Tot Shepherd it is!"
Meredith quietly shut Noah's door and made her way to her room. She grabbed the phone beside the bed and dialed Cristina's number. She sighed when the call went to voicemail. "Cristina, it's me…please call me when you have a moment. Derek's acting all weird and he lied…actually lied to me this morning. I need to talk to you. Call me. Bye." She put the phone back into the receiver and made her way to the bathroom to start her shower. She heard the phone ringing and sprinted to answer it. She flew on the bed as she picked up the phone. "That was quick." she said when she picked up the phone.
"What?" the voice on the other line said. It wasn't Cristina.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Meredith apologized. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, I'm trying to get in touch with Derek. Could I speak to Derek please?" the woman asked.
Meredith raised an eyebrow. She didn't recognize the voice, "I'm sorry, he's not here. I can take a message for him."
"Oh…is this his wife?" the woman asked slowly.
"Yes, it is? Who am I speaking to?" Meredith asked.
"Uh…you know, I'll just call his cell phone. Have a good day." She hung up.
Meredith held the phone to her ear for a second. Who was the lady she just talked to and why did she know her husband's cell phone number? She quietly put the phone back on the receiver and walked slowly into the bathroom. She squeezed her eyes shut at the thought that entered her mind. Could her husband be having an affair?
"You want to watch Elmo again?" Meredith whined as Noah brought her his Elmo's World DVD. One of about twenty Elmo DVD's. The little red monster with the annoying voice was really starting to try her nerves.
Noah nodded his head, crawling into her lap. Meredith hugged him for a moment, taking in his scent. He smelled like a mixture of baby shampoo and fabric softener. Noah wiggled out of her arms and walked over to the television. "Melmo, pwease?" he asked as he pointed to the DVD player.
Meredith sighed as she got up and made her way to the television. She was putting the DVD in when the phone rang. "Mommy will be right back," she told Noah, who had already pulled his Elmo lawn chair up to the television to watch.
"Hello?" Meredith answered into the phone.
"Mer!" Cristina exclaimed into the phone. "I just assisted Dr. Dixon with a coronary angioplasty! It freaking rocked!"
"Good for you, Cristina," Meredith said flatly. She didn't need to hear about her person's great life when her life could potentially be turning into crap.
"What's up? Derek lied to you? That McBastard." Cristina said.
"I think he lied." She proceeded to tell Cristina about what she heard this morning and how it didn't add up to who Derek said he was talking to on the phone. Then she told her about the strange woman knowing Derek's cell phone number. "I think…I think Derek might be cheating on me" she confessed.
"Hmmm, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck." Cristina stated.
"Gee, thanks for your support, Cristina. Remind me to talk to you the next time my world falls apart," Meredith felt tears forming in her eyes. She hurriedly wiped them away.
"Mer, Derek is madly in love with you. He worships the freaking ground you walk on. I've seen the way he looks at you, as pathetic as it is, and he looks at you like you're a goddess or something. He would never cheat on you, he's not the type of guy that would do that. He'd be an idiot to cheat." Cristina said.
"I don't know," Meredith whispered. "Something just doesn't seem right."
"Mer, if you are worried about it, ask him. You're all whole and healed now and whole and healed people talk their problems out. Put the rug rat to bed tonight, lock him in the bedroom with you, talk it out and then sex it up."
Meredith laughed. "Good plan, Cris, and it would work if he wasn't working late tonight." Cristina didn't say anything. "Cristina?" Meredith asked.
"Mer, Derek left about an hour ago. He was done at three today." Cristina said quietly.
Meredith felt like she had been punched in the stomach. He told her he was working late and not to wait up for him. "Mer? You okay?" Cristina asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I gotta go. Thanks for listening to me bitch." Meredith hung up the phone.
"The idiot had the nerve to inform me that I was eating too much junk food," Meredith told Izzie as she shoved a huge bite of chocolate cake into her mouth. Izzie looked at her in amusement.
"Why would Derek think you were eating too much junk food?" Izzie smiled as she watched Meredith inhale the piece of cake.
"I have no freaking idea, the man is an idiot!" Meredith exclaimed. "Just because I don't eat cardboard for breakfast and eat salads for lunch doesn't mean I'm a junk food junkie. This baby is growing, I mean, you've seen me," she stood up for Izzie to get a glimpse of her large stomach. Izzie laughed at her. Meredith was an adorable pregnant person.
"So, Derek said that you are eating too much junk food. When did he say that?" Izzie asked her.
Meredith shoved another bite of cake in her mouth. "Last night at dinner. I wasn't hungry, but I wanted dessert. He said it when I handed the waitress back the menu and asked what they had for dessert." She reached for the milk that Izzie had poured for her and took a big drink.
"Was he joking?" Izzie asked, finding this conversation with Meredith way to funny. Interacting with the pregnant version of Meredith was enough to bust a gut. The girl was a trip.
"Damned if I know. I mean, you don't tell the woman who is currently growing your child that she is eating too much. That's just wrong. I don't care if he was joking. I'm not speaking to him right now."
"Does Derek know you're not speaking to him?" Izzie asked.
"Yep, I told him I wasn't speaking to him last night," Meredith put her fork down and inhaled deeply. "Thanks, Iz, that hit the spot."
Izzie laughed at her friend, "Do you want to take the rest home with you?" she offered.
"Yeah!" Meredith's eyes lit up. "I'll take it home, put it on a plate and eat it right in front of him. I'll do it just to piss him off. The stupid brain man."
Izzie smiled and started cutting the cake to fit it in a Tupperware container. Derek sure had his hands full with Meredith. Only a select few knew about the little calendar that Derek kept in the locked part of his desk at work. The calendar that he pulled out every day to cross of the days until "Hormone Hell", how Derek referred to Meredith's pregnancy, ended.
Meredith laid awake listening to Derek's slow, even breathing. He had gotten in after eleven that night. He had quietly gotten in his pajamas and crawled into bed. He had kissed her cheek and spooned against her as Meredith pretended to sleep. After waiting a half hour to be sure he was asleep, she turned to look at him. She moved her face closer to him and sniffed his neck. He didn't smell like another woman's perfume. He didn't have lipstick marks on his cheeks or neck. Geez, Meredith, you need to stop watching those freaking soaps, she thought to herself. After being at home for six weeks with Carolyn after Noah's birth, Carolyn had gotten her addicted to The Young and the Restless. Derek now thought it was hilarious that his wife was a soap opera junkie and she faithfully set the DVR to record it when they were working.
Meredith looked at Derek's face sadly. She hated sneaking behind his back, but she had to find out what her husband was up to. Meredith wiggled her way out of his embrace and grabbed his cell phone off the stand. The fact that the mysterious woman knew Derek's cell number drove her insane. She needed to know who the lady was and thought for sure that she would have left Derek a message while he was in surgery. She quietly walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
She sat on the toilet seat, her fingers shaking as she dialed Derek's password when the voicemail prompted it. Derek had the same password for his computer log in, his debit card, and his voicemail. He had told her his password right after they had gotten married, telling her that because she was his wife, she needed to know these things. She felt a little guilty snooping thought his messages, but the curiosity was killing her.
She listened to the messages that Derek neglected to delete from his phone. The first message was one that she had left him a few days ago, just telling him that she missed him and loved him and to call her when he had a minute. The second was his mother calling to see how her Seattle family was doing. The third was from Monica. Monica, who? Meredith thought. She listened to the message. "Hey, Derek, it's Monica. Just calling to see if we're still on for tonight. I accidentally called your house phone and your wife picked up and I forgot that you didn't want me to call you there, so I just told her I'd call your cell and hung up. I don't think she's suspicious, but I thought I'd let you know. Let's meet at seven tonight. There's a nice little café on Second Street. I'm looking forward to seeing you." Meredith clicked the phone shut and sat in shock. What she had suspected was true. Her husband was having an affair with a woman named Monica. He told her not to call his home phone for fear that his wife would pick up and catch on to what he was doing. Meredith felt sick as she knelt down in front of the toilet. She lifted up the lid just in time to vomit.
"Her name is Monica and she's meeting my husband in cafes." Meredith told Cristina at lunch the next day.
"How'd you find that out?" Cristina asked.
Meredith looked at her for a moment. "I listened to his voicemails," she said softly.
Cristina snickered, "You've become a crazy stalker," she joked.
Meredith frowned at her. "I had a hunch he was up to something. I hate that I did it, but now I'm glad I did. My intuition was right, he's cheating on me." Meredith announced.
"Mer, you don't know he's cheating. Seriously, you don't. You have no proof besides the top secret phone call with Monica yesterday and him telling you he was working late when he was really with her. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, it does sound suspicious."
"I told you," Meredith said quietly, poking her grilled cheese with her fork. "What do I do about it?" she asked.
"You should hire a private investigator or something. You know, like they do in the movies."
"I am not hiring a private investigator!" Meredith exclaimed.
"Well, hire me. I have some time before my next surgery and you do, too. McDreamy will be in surgery for another two hours. Let's snoop through his office." Meredith looked at Cristina with a bewildered expression. "We can be like those two women, what are their names…Cagney and Lacy." Cristina offered. Meredith shrugged.
"Come on, Mer! I'm offering my assistance to you…I'm your person."
Meredith raised her eyebrows at her. "What if we get caught?"
"We won't. Promise. No one will know. He's your husband and no one will think it's suspicious if you go into his office," Cristina pointed out. Meredith nodded her head in agreement. "You'll have to be the detective that Tyne Daly played, though, because you're all domesticated with a kid," Cristina informed her.
"Fine," Meredith sighed. "But why do I feel like I'm rubbing salt in my wounds? If I find something out that I don't want to know, my world could come crashing down. Derek and I would get a divorce and then Noah would become a statistic. He'd be in the divorced parents club. It's not a nice club to be in, trust me. You know what? Maybe I don't want to know. Maybe what I don't know won't hurt me, turn the other cheek, pretend I don't have a clue…."
"I can't believe you are saying this, Mer. If your husband is cheating on you, you have a right to know." Cristina leaned in closer to her. "After what Addison did to him with Mark? He'd be a hypocrite," she said in a low tone. "You need to know, and I'm going to help you find out for sure."
The hallway was empty as Cristina and Meredith inched down the hall to Derek's office. They looked in both directions before slipping through the door and locking it after it closed. Cristina looked around as Meredith stood, nervously wringing her hands.
"Okay, let's start with his desk." Cristina ordered, making her way across the room to the desk piled with charts and paperwork. She looked at Meredith, who hadn't moved from her spot. "Mer?" she asked.
"Maybe we shouldn't do this," Meredith said in a shaky voice. "He could come in at any time and we'd both be busted. Then he'd never let me live it down.."
"Okay, but if we find things that prove what you think he is doing, then he'd have a lot more to live down than you snooping in his office. Now, where's the key to this locked drawer?"
"It's taped under the desk," Meredith informed her, moving closer to the desk. Cristina felt with her hand under the desk and found the key. She yanked the tape off of it and proceeded to open the drawer. Meredith stared at the wall while Cristina rummaged through the items in the drawer. She couldn't bare to look.
"Hmm, lots of breath mints. Does McDreamy have stinky breath?" she asked Meredith.
"No, those are for the elevator. It's a Derek thing," Meredith explained.
Cristina rolled her eyes and snickered at the contents in the drawer. Cristina held up a pair of pink furry handcuffs. "Um, Mer, please tell me you recognize these," she said. Meredith could feel her cheeks turning red as she snatched the handcuffs from her hand. "Was it a prop for Project Baby Shepherd?" she joked.
"Shut up!" Meredith hissed. "They were on sale at Lusty Lady!" She threw the hand cuffs back into the drawer, catching a glimpse of a tiny calendar. She grabbed it and started flipping through it. "This is a calendar of last year and every day is crossed off. Hormone Hell? What is Hormone Hell?" She asked, reading the title on the front cover of the book.
Cristina cleared her throat and looked away.
"You know what this is about, don't you? Tell me!" Meredith demanded.
"That was how Derek…uh…kept track of when you were due," Cristina explained.
"And he titled it Hormone Hell? Why?" Meredith asked.
Cristina thought for a moment, "Because your hormones were hell to live with when you were pregnant?" Cristina guessed.
"I was not that bad!" Meredith protested.
"Mer, okay, the fact that your husband kept a calendar of your pregnancy and took the time to cross off every day until you gave birth is a sign that you were that bad!"
"Whatever," Meredith paused. "There's nothing in here, nothing suspicious anyway." She closed the drawer and turned to the stand along the wall. She smiled sadly at the pictures Derek displayed on it. One was of the two of them in front of the Eiffel Tower on their honeymoon, another was of them and Noah at the park, another of Derek and his mother. He looked so happy in their pictures together. What happened since then that changed that?
Meredith turned back to watch Cristina search Derek's desk, careful not to move anything out of place. Cristina's eyes were suddenly drawn to a post-it note that had Derek's handwriting scribbled on it.
"What is it?" Meredith asked. "What do you see?"
Cristina grabbed the post-it and held it up for Meredith to see. "Bingo!" she exclaimed.
Meredith felt the lump become bigger in her throat as she read the contents of the paper: One and Only, Monica Douglass, 684-2419. Meredith could feel the floor fall away beneath her as she collapsed into Derek's chair.
"Mer, are you alright?" Cristina asked her.
"No," Meredith whispered. "No, I'm not." She looked at Cristina in shock. "He put his girlfriend's name on a post-it note," she said bitterly. "We put our marriage vows on a post-it note." Meredith burst into tears. Cristina rubbed her shoulder soothingly.
Meredith looked at the name again. She now had proof that her husband was cheating on her. He wasn't thinking about his family or what this would do to her and Noah. He was thinking of himself. Himself and his whore. Meredith could feel the anger burning through her veins. She would be paying Miss Monica Douglass a visit. And the visit? I would be anything BUT bright and shiny.
To Be Continued….
Okay, I so pulled a Shonda and left you in slight suspense. Please don't kill me. This chapter was wayyy to long to post as one, so I will post part 2 as soon as I can.