Irene's A/N: Hello again, readers! Is Derek's night going to be as long (and dramatic!) as he feared, or is Meredith going to surprise him? Read to find out!

Chapter 9

"Stop it," Meredith practically growls, as Derek follows her into their bedroom, "I'm pregnant, not invalid. I don't need you to help me change."

Derek sighs. They have spent the majority of their ride home in silence, Meredith quietly staring out of the window, ignoring him, her hand planted firmly on her bump, while he tried to stop himself from yelling at her. He knows he's treating her like a piece of glass, but when Dr. Ryan looks so worried and threatens bed rest, he feels like he should treat her like glass.

He backs off a little and gives her room, changing into a pair of light sweats and a t-shirt, hearing a relieved groan come from Meredith when she sits at the foot of their bed and her shoes come off. He's about to move closer and give her a massage, but he's afraid she'll threaten his life next, so he stays put.

The house plunges back into a strange quiet again. Without the kids around, it is always so quiet.

Meredith remains seated on the bed for a lot longer than usual to take off her socks, and he simply takes her in for a second, before leaving the room. She looks tired, and he has no idea why he missed it, or how she could become so good at hiding it. Now that she has given herself time to relax from her façade, tiredness fills her every pore.

Derek's eyes casually glance upwards, and he spots the two post-its hanging above their dresser, one beside the other.

Full disclosure, no lying; To trust each other; Really listen. No word twisting.

The footnote they wrote just a few weeks before jumps out at him, and the anger he has tried to repress since Dr. Ryan explained what happened swells back.

"Footnote," he spills, and he sees Meredith's head snap up, her eyes widening as she glances back and forth between him and the wall. "I'm calling post-it footnote now."

"Derek," she murmurs, but he can't contain himself anymore.

"We promised to always tell each other everything. I figured your well being was important enough for me to be in the know!" he spits out, starting to pace around the room, though he can see Meredith becoming more and more nervous as he makes laps around his side of the bed.

"You know, if you want to call footnote, then it's my turn too!" Meredith snarls. "You never even gave me time to explain myself before you were siding against me."

"What is there to say? You hid important information about your health from me! What if something had indeed happened?"

"Don't you think I care enough about our son to prevent it?" she shouts back, her cheeks tingeing with red, her pupils dark and wide as she slams her hand on the comforter.

"You can't be a doctor on your own body, Meredith!" he exclaims, his hands in the air, before he tangles his fingers in his now messy curls.

"Speaks Mr. OB Expert here," she spats, rolling her eyes.

"I want to help you feel better!"

"And you are! You were, if we didn't get interrupted. I was going to get out of the OR if I felt even remotely not fine."

"How can I trust what you're saying?" he asks, exasperated by her blindness in light of the facts in front of her.

"Because I meant the post-it. And the footnote. I didn't want to hide anything. I was going to tell you I was going home after the sex."

"But you didn't!" he almost yelps, feeling helpless. "You picked up a surgery and rushed around and -"

"Risked our son's life?"

That stops Derek from pacing, and forces him to take a deep breath. Meredith is heaving out in large gulps, one of her hands clutching the covers, the other draped over her stomach, almost unconsciously. She's a ball of anger, and she's still the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

He softens. His anger deflates. "I know you would never jeopardize our son's life like that, Mere."

"Why don't you trust me to keep him safe, then?" she asks, her voice faltering in the end. Her eyes are glassy.

"Sometimes we get so caught up in a surgery that everything else falls away, even the important alarm bells from our bodies. I'm always afraid about anything happening to you in there, when I can't be next to you."

She lets out a shuddery breath too. "The OR is the only place I feel good, Derek. I feel like I am myself, and not a ticking time bomb of high blood pressure. I know my limits."

"You are so fearless you scare the crap out of me most of the time," he admits, sitting beside her on the bed, on his side, leaving a few inches between them.

Meredith reaches out, folding her hand into his, squeezing it tightly. "I know you worry about us, that's why I didn't say anything about my visit to Connie. You don't need to worry more."

"I will always worry more than necessary," he admits, giving her a smile, then rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. "It's my job. That's what I signed up for when I married you and when we started our family."

"I'm still not used to having someone worry so much about me, you know?" she admits, and it breaks his heart. Sometimes Derek can almost see the five-year-old self of his wife, alone and abandoned by the only person who could show her selfless love. Ellis might have made Meredith into the wonderful woman she is now, but sometimes he wishes Thatcher would have fought harder to show her what unconditional love is all about.

"I will worry about you forever. And we'll worry together about the kids," he says, pulling her closer to him, resting her cheek on his collarbone as she wraps her arm around him.

Derek rests his hand on top of hers over the spot where their son is growing, brushing a kiss on her forehead as Meredith relaxes in his arms.

"You're good at the taking care of each other part of our post-it," she murmurs, a hint of a giggle in her tone that makes him smile as well.

"You're good too. You know me better than anybody else," he admits, "and you really know how to take care of me, even when I'm clueless."

She finally giggles. "We would be hopeless without one another, uh?"

Derek chuckles with her as they bask in the quiet of their embrace for a moment, letting the events of the day wash over them.

"Do you want to shower now or rest on the couch and shower after dinner?" Derek asks, smiling when he notices that Meredith is still halfway dressed into the clothes she had worn to the hospital.

"I will shower now if it means you're joining me," she smirks, her eyes twinkling as she looks up at him.

Derek answers by smirking back at her and taking off his t-shirt.

Meredith traces his sternum with her fingertip, a wicked grin on her lips as she makes a show out of taking off her own top, her black maternity bra now in full display. Derek stares at her with longing, the desire he has buried deep inside after their failed encounter in the on-call room roaring back in full force.

Derek lunges in to capture her lips in a passionate kiss, her hands finding his hair as their bodies seek proximity on their own. The places where their skins touch catch fire, and Derek wants to be even closer to Meredith.

Her fingers quickly work to untie his sweatpants, the light brush of her fingers over his erection like the sweetest of torture. "Shower. Now," she hums in his ear, before she bites his earlobe. He willingly complies.

The rest of their clothes fall off in a trail as they reach their shower and slam the glass door behind them. They stand away from the gelid spray of the water, their lips still connected, their bodies close to conserve heat. By the time they pull away, steam is rising from the water.

Derek knows the bendy thing in the shower is one of Meredith's favorite positions, but with her expanding stomach it's getting more and more difficult for them to pull it off, so he figures they have to be creative.

Meredith lunges at him and slaps his naked back against the glass side of their shower, sprays from the shower bouncing off her body and hitting him, creating a sharp contrast of hot and cold. There's an overload of stimuli and their bodies are humming with desire.

"I've been waiting all day for this," Meredith hums, her hand finding his hardness under his navel, caressing his skin, making him groan.

"Stupid pagers," he manages to mumble back as a reply, before he focuses his attention on her sensitive breasts. Her head lolls back the moment he finds her nipple and lavishes her skin with kisses.

Their movements quickly become urgent, their desire too great to aim for slow and all-consuming. Derek flips them around, eliciting a gasp from Meredith as she's the one pinned against the shower stall now, completely at his mercy, while he gets ready to show her his love.

Derek runs his hand from her thigh down to the back of her knee, before he hooks her leg around his waist and joins their bodies. Meredith's shout of his name echoes in the stall, while he rests inside of her, not moving, even though his brain is begging him to do so.

"Move," she orders, biting on his neck, jerking her hips with demanding insistence. He groans in pain and pleasure.

Derek picks up her other leg as well, holding up her full weight, even though right in this moment she feels light as a feather. He smiles into their kiss when he moves his hand low down her stomach and finds the swell of their son between them, halting his exploration, a bump that wasn't there last time he had made love to Meredith like this. He kisses her even deeper, before his fingers find her clitoris and he sends her spiraling down into orgasm.

He watches her through his hooded eyes, always fascinated by the beauty of her climax, then he barely gives her room to catch her breath before he starts moving inside of her.

She moans nonsensically, her body out of control as he picks up his pace progressively, building her up again and bringing her near her climax effortlessly, up until his own movements are uncontrolled and only passion and love are guiding them.

They jump off the cliff together, their bodies humming the same melody as their breaths even out, and the roar of the water fills their ears again.

Meredith is almost happy to collapse on the couch after their make-up sex in the shower, her body still humming and boneless after two orgasms. Derek willingly went in the kitchen to make her a glass of lemon and cucumber juice after their quick dinner, and she has picked up her iPad to kill time. She promised Penny she'd spread the word about her GoFundMe account, and so far she has managed to both retweet it on her Twitter page, and she's in the middle of writing a post about her and her siblings' story on her blog.

"Freshly-squeezed juice coming right up," Derek makes a flourish of presenting the glass to her, before he gives her a dashing smile and sits down beside her.

"Thank you," she hums, taking a sip and relishing the taste. He has become so good at getting the taste just right in the past few weeks. "Have you spread the word about the GoFundMe account for Penny?" she asks, as he plops down on the couch beside her, sharing a smile with her before he picks up a magazine from the stack on the coffee table.

It is so normal, yet it feels almost surreal to be together on the couch like this, her sore feet on his lap as he absentmindedly rubs her calves while he's not turning the pages.

"I did. I hope we'll find a way to help her," he admits, his eyes becoming sad with the knowledge that they can't always save everybody, but that some patients deserve to be saved more than others. "I see you're writing the post on your blog, too."

Meredith smiles as well. "A couple of people on Twitter said they donated, so I hope it's true."

"I hope so, too."

Their conversation quiets down while they keep reading in the stillness of their home, relishing each other's presence without the kids pulling at their focus constantly.

"Oh, wow," Derek blunders, eyeing the page with rapt interest. He's reading the Journal of Neurosurgery, and he hardly ever gets this excited about an article, lately. He's fully engrossed in the words by that point.

"What is it?" she asks, curiosity having the better of her. He looks calmer after their shower sex, and less hover-y; maybe they can have a decent conversation now that the kids aren't around.

"There's a new Alzheimer's research that looks really, really promising. They talk about using ultrasound technology instead of drugs, breaking apart the amyloid plaques that cause memory loss. Non-invasive, too."

"Wow, indeed," she smiles. She knows Alzheimer's research will always peak his interest, no matter how much he denies that he wants to find a cure for her future self.

"I think they're really close to figuring out a cure," he smiles, big and wide, his eyes twinkling as well. "Maybe I should contact them, see if they need a hand. Their research is really headed in the right direction, I would love to help them out with what I learned through the BRAIN Initiative."

Meredith smiles, though her hand falls on her stomach, a hint of worry seeping back into her. "Who is them?"

"The University of Queensland Brain Institute."

"Queensland as in Australia's Queensland?" She knows the answer when he looks guilty all of a sudden. "Absolutely not."

"Wouldn't it be awesome to move to Australia?"

"Derek, I didn't want to move to DC. Australia is all the way across the world!" she yelps and she sees him deflating, the bubble of happiness disappearing right before her eyes.

"I was kidding," he smiles, though he looks like she just kicked his puppy. "Maybe we should do something else; you need to relax."

Meredith shakes her head, not taking the bait of his conversation switch. "I know you still want to cure Alzheimer's, Derek. I'm not blind."

"I made a choice. I will always choose you and the kids. This was impulsive and I might have done it before, but not now. Not when it affects us, our family, your work...I know I'm not on my own, I guess I just got excited for a second." He doesn't look quite as sad as he did the moment before, so Meredith decides to let it go. But she does want to talk with her husband about something more than medicine.

"Do you want to answer a couple of questions from the shrinky list? We never started any of the thirty-six before Amelia or the kids interrupted us," she proposes, digging on the coffee table for the paper he had printed that night. Derek seems eager to go along with her idea.

"No staring though, or I'm afraid we won't answer any questions," he smirks, pulling out the sheet from under one of Zola's coloring books. "Are we going to do them in order?" he asks, skimming through the text quickly, before he looks back up at her.

"We could," Meredith shrugs. "What is the first question?"

"Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?" he reads. "Sounds interesting."

"Yeah, that's...It involves famous people, right?"

"Not necessarily," he smiles, "because I will definitely want you sitting next to me."

Meredith smiles, though she blushes a little. "Yeah, I was thinking about inviting you too."

Derek kisses her quickly, settling her against his side in a half embrace. Meredith relaxes even further against him, though she's still fidgeting with the paper list.

"What about famous people, is there anyone you would like to invite?" Derek prompts, his own brain swirling to think of anyone else.

"I think...Oprah would make for an interesting dinner guest. Or Ellen DeGeneres. I'm sure they will add some laughter to the evening," Meredith grins, though she blushes again.

"They're not the only ones, uh?" he grins, teasing her, knowing she has someone she secretly longs to sit next to and swoon over. She's one hundred percent sure he has busted her.

In the spirit of being open with one another she decides to grin and bear it. "Patrick Dempsey," she whispers, lowering her gaze to her lap, biting her lip and squeezing her eyes shut.

"From that Disney movie Zola obsesses over when she's not watching ET? The guy who races cars too?"

Meredith rolls her eyes. Of course her husband would remember about the cars and not about the dreamy beauty of the man. "Yes, that Patrick Dempsey."

Derek chuckles. "People mistake me for him sometimes, is that the reason why you always watch the movie with Zola?"

Meredith swats his chest playfully as he chuckles, her cheeks reddening even further, "I like it, not just because Zola loves it, and I don't watch the movie because of him," she admits, now feeling her cheeks burn even more. "I've been a fan of his since I was a teenager."

Derek's mouth opens, closes, then he can't suppress the grin spreading on his lips. "He was your first celebrity crush?"

"Stop it!" Meredith giggles nervously, hitting him again.

"It's cute. I never pegged you to be the type of girl who got a crush on an actor," he keeps teasing, his chuckling covering up Meredith's mood changing.

"Remember, I'm not peggable," she grins, her giggling deflating as the memories come back to her. "I think I didn't just have a crush on him, it was more what happened around the time I saw that movie that made me remember him fondly," she confesses.

"Hey, it's okay, I remember Amelia begging me to take her to see certain crap movies to only see an actor, I'm not judging you," he smiles reassuringly, turning his face to stare deep into her eyes. She can only see trust and understanding there.

"It was my first PG-13 movie. I was eleven," she says, a small smile on her lips at the memory, as it slowly engulfs her. "I put on make-up and dressed up. I looked at least fifteen. I went with my neighbor. She was already in eighth grade and one of the coolest kids of the block, so I felt privileged to be hanging out with her. I mostly went to her house because her brother was my age and Ellis needed someone to look after me, but I liked spending time with Sarah more than I did with her brother, though her brother was a nice kid."

"Was Sarah your first best friend?"

Meredith sighs. "I worshiped the ground she walked on, but she only found me funny. She wasn't the best role model either, but I hung on her every word. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I had a different neighbor," she admits. "Do you have any famous people to add to the list?"

"Ernest Hemingway," Derek replies, not missing a beat, knowing she wants to change the subject. It's those times that makes her wonder what more there is to know between them, and yet she always manages to be surprised. "Wait," he interrupts her thoughts, then. "Dead people are allowed, right?"

"They are," Meredith replies. "Anyone can take part in our weird dinner."

"Then I'd want my dad there, too." Derek's voice softens and she feels his hand touch the spot where their baby is growing. "You know, I remember seeing a movie with a couple of my nieces, out of my will, one of those chick flicks that drive men nuts. I can't remember the title, only that Jake Gyllenhaal was very young and Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman were hilarious," he breathes out, a small smile on his lips. "It reminded me of the time my dad died."

"Why?" Meredith asks quietly, knowing that he hardly ever shares a memory of his father, and she wants to treasure this moment.

"I had a silly girl crush at the time. We went to the movies, we held hands, you know, the things you are supposed to do as a tween. I invited her over once, and Mom was beside herself. I think she was ready to plan a wedding already," Derek chuckles.

"I can see your mom doing that," she grins, laughing with him.

"The day Dad was murdered I was in his shop as usual after school, but I would have remembered it even without the robbery," he gulps. "Lisa - that was the girl's name - and I just argued about something silly I can't remember, and of course we broke it off. I was crushed."

"Aw," Meredith smiles, though she feels like the break up wasn't the interesting part.

"I had no idea how to tell my mother there wasn't a wedding in our future anytime soon," he smirks.

"So you went to your dad?" she prompts.

"Dad pulled me aside, and I still remember his amused smile. He told me that when I would find the right girl, even when we fought about important things and we'd be at each other's throats for days, I'll never want to leave her. The mere thought of leaving her would push me to make up and forget about the argument. And I forgot all about his advice until the night of the movie, when I fought with Addison and I remembered his words. I panicked, because I never felt that way about her."

"Derek, -" Meredith whispers, squeezing his hand.

"I feel that way about you, Meredith. These last few months are proof that my dad was right, and that's why I'd want him sitting beside me at dinner. To tell him he was right all along, and that I wish I had remembered his advice sooner."

"I feel the same way about you," Meredith hums back, then wraps him in his arms even tighter as they relish the feeling of his words.

"So we're set for the speech when the kids will start dating, uh?" Derek jokes, trying to lighten up the mood, and drawing a small giggle out of Meredith. He puts his hands over her belly, lifting up her shirt to touch her skin as she sinks into his touch.

"You know," Meredith says quietly, "I never thought such a simple question could spark such big revelations," she admits, joining her hand with Derek's.

Before she can say something more, or Derek can reply, she gasps loudly at the feeling under her palm.

Nicole's A/N: I had fun reading this chapter (thanks, Irene, for writing it), so I hope you all did, too. You'll be happy to know we're finally ahead again and have more chapters banked. We're shooting for weekly updates on Sundays, so check your inboxes next Sunday for chapter 10.