A/N: I know you really wanted to see Rose put in her place and Derek's reaction to William Dunn but…this is just a little bit of Shepherd History.

This is a bit short but, there will be another one coming by the end of this weekend.

***

"Derek stop it!" eight year old Meredith Grey giggled as her best friend sat on top of her, tickling her senseless. Meredith finally got the opportunity to push him off and she reversed so that she was straddling him, knees pressing down on his chest as she tickled him.

"Stop," he gasped. "Can't…breathe…"

"Wimp," Meredith sighed climbing off his chest.

"Let's play Chutes and Ladders," suggested Derek. Meredith shrugged as she got up to grab the game off Derek's shelf.

"I always win anyways."

"You do not!"

"I do so! Derek, you suck at board games."

"No, I don't. How do you know I don't let you win?"

"'Cause you don't.

"Fine…I don't…but you don't always win."

"Yes, I do," she said in a singsong voice.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Let's just play," groaned Meredith.

"Fine," he replied, sliding the box top off.

"Fine."

They played the game but in the middle the doorbell rang and the two scrambled towards the stairs to see whom it was. Mrs. Shepherd opened it before they got down and the door was effectively blocking their view of the person. They seemed like they were in an intense conversation so Meredith and Derek sat at the top of the stairs, waiting for any indication of who the person was.

It was then that they saw Mrs. Shepherd collapse to the ground, sobs wracking her body. Meredith and Derek ran as fast as their legs could carry them, down the stairs to her side.

"We're very sorry," one of the two police officers at the door said before they turned around and walked back to the cruiser by parked on the street.

"Mommy?" Derek asked nervously.

"I…can't repeat it…come into the living room, first call your sisters," she said, trying to hold back her sobs as she got off the ground and walked towards the living room.

Derek knew something was obviously wrong. He grabbed his best friend's hand and called up for his sisters. "Kath, Nance, Amelia, Cate!"

"What?" he heard three voices respond.

"Mom needs to talk to us," he replied. Within a minute clunking feet were heard descending the stairs. Eighteen-year-old Nancy was first carrying four year old Amelia.

Eleven-year-old Kathleen and fifteen year old Catherine followed her.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked.

Derek shrugged. "Mom was crying…and there were police officers."

"Oh god," she gasped. "Come on. Let's go."

They walked towards the living room. Meredith tried to pull away from Derek. "I should go home," she told Derek. "This is a family thing…"

"You are family Mer," Kathleen smiled. "I like you more than I like Derek."

"Yeah, you really are," Catherine assured her. "I like you better than Derek too."

Derek frowned but turned to Meredith. "Meri, you're my sister."

"Ok," she breathed, so honored that the family pretty much adopted her. They continued into the living room to find Mrs. Shepherd slumped on a couch, her hands cradling her face.

"Sit down," she told them all, wiping her eyes. Once they were all seated, she sighed. "Two men went into your father's store this morning…and they tried to steal the watch I gave him this year and he refused…" before she could finish, she began to hyperventilate. "They shot him," she finally managed to croak out.

All the children gasped excluding Amelia who had no clue what was going on.

"He's…you know…" Cait whispered, tears falling out of her eyes.

Carolyn nodded. "They said it was a quick death."

"What is death?" Amelia asked innocently.

Nancy leaned in towards her little sister's ear, tears falling from her face. "It's like bubba our fish…he died. Dead means that daddy isn't going to come home for a very very long time," she told her, through her sobs, giving her sister a big squeeze.

"So, when I'm seven? 'Cause that is a very long time from today."

"It means he's in heaven, he's never ever going to come back," Derek said before standing up and walking out of the room.

"Derek!" Meredith called after him running to stand beside him.

"Leave me alone."

"No," she shook her head, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing. After a minute, he responded, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist. They both let out a good cry, Derek for his father, his only other male confidant and Meredith for her father of the past three years.

"We were going fishing this weekend," he whispered into her shoulder, crying harder. "It was gonna be just us. Me and my dad fishin' together."

"It's ok," promised him Meredith. "Come on," she said, letting go of him and taking his hand. "Let's see how your family is."

They walked into the living room to find the Shepherd sisters all curled up on the couch together with their mother in the middle. Derek automatically climbed on the end, pulling Meredith along with him. Amelia climbed over her brother and into Meredith's lap. Meredith wrapped her arms around the four year old and rocked back and forth.

"We're going to make it," Mrs. Shepherd said confidently. No one really listened.

***

The night of Christopher Shepherd's murder, Meredith was picked up by a nanny and brought home. The Shepherds begged the nanny to let Meredith stay but the nanny refused, saying that Ellis was going to be home and Meredith had to be there. Of course Ellis never showed.

In the days following, Derek didn't show up for school, which Meredith explained to their teacher. Sunday came and Meredith was allowed to go to the funeral with the family.

"Der," she whispered, approaching her best friend whose blue eyes were red. Without responding he wrapped his arms around Meredith. "My daddy says bear hugs make people feel better," whispered Meredith into his ear, quoting what he'd told her when they were five and Meredith's own father had left.

The Shepherd sisters watched the interaction between the two eight year olds. In the moment besides their small statures, you'd never guess that the two were eight. Somehow they seemed very mature. And it was in that moment Mrs. Shepherd was sure that one day Meredith would be an official member of the family, which brought a small smile to her face for the first time in days.

Derek squeezed his best friend as hard as he could. "I want my dad," he told her.

"Me too."