"Tell me why we agreed to do this here?" Meredith demanded of Derek, as she stood over the kitchen counter with the rag she was using to wipe it down suspended in one hand and the bottle of cleaner in the other.

"Because you are a glutton for punishment," commented Cristina, who was sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine her broken leg propped up on a chair.

Derek, who was standing next to Meredith, looked back at Cristina, and Meredith noticed something odd about the look, and remembered that he seemed to have been giving Cristina odd looks all afternoon.

"What I don't understand," Derek said, "Is why you won't let me clean."

"You cook, I clean, remember?" Meredith countered.

"But you have been cleaning all day."

Meredith shrugged. "Yeah, other parts of the house. I saved the kitchen for last. Besides, not all day. I spent a while buying baby clothes with your credit card."

"That's good," Derek said absent-mindedly.

Meredith looked at him questioningly. "What is going on with you?" she demanded.

"He probably was planning on screwing you on the counter as soon as I left the room, but now he can't because he knows you'd be annoyed if he got it dirty," Cristina commented dryly.

Meredith looked at Derek, not doubting Cristina's observation.

"That's not it. Listen, Mer, can I talk to you really quickly? It's…work related."

"Oh no, we don't want Cardio to find out the secrets of the Neurosurgery department." Derek turned to Cristina and laughed nervously. Meredith stared at him and nodded slowly.

" Okay," she said. "We'll be in the study," she told Cristina as she took Derek's hand and led him down the hall.

"Meaning she's decided to let you get your desks dirty, Shepard."

"You're not funny, Cristina!" Meredith called. When they got in the study with the door close, she turned to Derek and put a hand to his forehead.

"I'm not feverish," he said, jerking away irritably. "I just have something to tell you."

"Something you couldn't say in front of Cristina? Must be important," Meredith said, as she sank into the armchair in the corner of the study they had left for reading. There was a lamp next to it and she reached up to turn it on. Derek sat on the floor next to her, and she pulled his head against her legs, running her fingers through his hair. "Tell away," she said.

Derek took a breath. "Burke," he said.

Meredith leaned forward, looking down at him in shock. "Burke? As in Preston Burke? What about him?"

Derek looked up at her imploringly. "He's in Seattle. Richard called him in to work with Hahn on a case, and I didn't know until today. Of course, everyone was saying that it was a good thing that Cristina was off. Even Richard told me privately that he was going to ask another doctor, until Cristina's accident. But then, Burke cornered me at lunch. He told me that he had been to his apartment and Cristina was not there, just Callie and Hahn (something that bothered him very much, Hahn being in his apartment)."

"You didn't tell him she was here, did you?" Meredith asked, biting her lip in anxiety about the answer.

"No, of course not. But apparently Hahn let it slip."

Meredith groaned. "The one time, the one time in the history of ever that they are actually at the apartment. Cristina told me that's why Callie's such a good roommate, ever since Hahn got a place they're never there."

Derek shrugged. "I told him that I didn't think it was a good idea for him to come over, but you know how he is. He gets an idea in his head and…" Derek trailed off.

"Yeah," Meredith said quietly. "Yeah I know. Crap." She thought for a minute, searching for a solution. "We could get her out of the house… a movie or… something."

"At this hour? Plus, you know she wouldn't go."

"Yeah," Meredith sighed. That was one thing about Cristina; she refused point-blank to allow people to see her weak. She had gotten a walking cast the day before, and was doing better at hobbling around the house, but she absolutely refused to go anywhere, even when Meredith offered to buy her lunch.

"We may just have to stand back and let…. whatever happens happen," Derek said slowly.

Meredith shook her head. "I'm her person. I'm supposed to protect her from things like this. She protected me from you when we weren't together."

Derek flinched. "Yeah, that's true, but it's been so long. What if he's changed?"

"What if he hasn't?"

Derek did not have an answer for that.

Meredith pondered for a minute. "Well, I can try to do something," she finally said. "Help me up."

Derek stood, and held out his hands. She placed her hands in his and let him haul her up from the chair.

"I feel like a whale," she grumbled.

Derek smiled softly, and held her against her. Her head rested on his chest, but the babies were an obvious barrier to her being as close to him as she wanted. "You're doing beautifully, Mer," Derek murmured. "I haven't told you that in a while. You've made it almost seven months."

"I know," she replied. "I'm ready for it to be over. But I'm also scared out of my mind," she admitted.

"Me too," Derek said into her hair. "Me too." They stayed like that for a few moments, with Derek rocking Meredith gently back and forth, the Meredith pulled away.

"Okay," she said. "I need to go try to avoid disaster."

She went back into the kitchen with Derek following.

"That was a quickie," Cristina muttered with a snicker.

"We didn't—never mind. Listen, Cristina, would you ride to the store with me?" Meredith asked. "I'm dying for something salty. Like those little goldfish crackers or whatever. And I need to get out of the house."

""No. Aren't those the things you're supposed to eat once you have kids, not before? Make the one with the dick go."

"Did you miss the 'need to go out of the house part'? I'd do it for you! I did do it for you."

"You would and you did. Make doe-eyes go with you."

Meredith let out a grunt of frustration. "Come on, Cristina. Please?"

Cristina turned to her and closed the magazine. Meredith's hopes lifted. "I said no. Now why are you so eager to get me out of her anyway? Are he and doe-eyes having an affair you don't want me to know about or something?"

Derek, who had picked up where Meredith left off on the counter while she was cajoling Cristina, answered, "Definitely not."

"Derek. Put that stuff down, I'll do it. Come on, Cristina. Please?" Meredith said, pouting.

"Meredith, I told you—".

Then the doorbell rang and they all jumped.

"I'll get it," Derek said instantly.

Meredith nodded, staring at Cristina. She knew that there was no longer anything she could do, so she just stood there. The babies were moving like crazy, and normally she found that reassuring, no matter what was going on (unless she was trying to sleep), but even that did not take away from the feeling of dread.

"Cristina I—" she started to say, but then Derek reappeared.

"Cristina, someone to see you," he said. "I… I told them to wait in the living room."

Cristina looked back and forth between Meredith and Derek, and her mouth formed an 'o' of recognition, then she pressed it closed and nodded. Slowly she stood up, limping. She let the sleeves of the sweatshirt she wore fall over the cast on her wrist and made her way in silence out of the room. Meredith looked after her, watching the sliding door to the living room that they always left open, close.

"It's up to them," Derek murmured, coming up behind her and rubbing her shoulders. "Come on, let's go argue over baby names some more." Meredith laughed and before she knew it, Derek had picked her up.

"Put me down!" she protested, laughing, as her arm went around Derek's neck. "I'm pregnant with twins, you idiot, I'm fat!"

"No you're not," Derek chided. "The doctor says you're fine. And I say you're perfect." He kissed her, and then began to carry her towards the study. Meredith still didn't think he should be doing it, but she felt safe in his arms, and so she nuzzled her face against his neck.

They had reached the foyer when the doorbell rang. Derek looked down at her, and she shrugged. Instead of putting her down, he maneuvered so that she could reach out and grab the doorknob. She giggled, and pulled it open.

George stood there, shifting anxiously from foot to foot. He smiled shyly when he saw them.

"Thanksgiving's tomorrow, O'Malley," Derek reminded him, smirking.

"Yeah, yeah I know that," George said. "I was wondering if…" he took a breath and raised his head, meeting Meredith's eyes. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and he looked anxious, but his gaze was steady. "If Lexie was in."

"Put me down," Meredith said to Derek.

He obeyed. "Come in and close the door, George," he said quietly. "Meredith doesn't need to be in the cold with no shoes on."

George nodded and came in. Meredith reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, holding his gaze. "Are you going to hurt her, George? Tell me now."

He shook his head. "I really hope not," he said. "I don't want to."

"Okay," Meredith said. She backed away, leaning against Derek's chest. "She's upstairs, second door on the right." George nodded in thanks and began to go up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

She led Derek into the study and closed the door, collapsing onto the chair once again.

"Think that's going to turn out okay?" he asked, settling on the floor and pulling the baby name book off of a side table.

Meredith shrugged. "We'll see. I know she got the same look on her face this morning when 'These Times They Are A-Changing' came on the radio this morning as I used to whenever 'Rock the Casbah' came on at Joe's."

Derek nodded, and flipped open the book. Meredith was grateful that he did not push that issue any further.

"What do you bet George and Burke had one of their man-talks about 'owning up to mistakes' or something else ridiculous like that today?" Meredith asked.

"Pretty good odds, I'd say. Chloe?" he said, aloud. Meredith was not really listening to him though, her mind was in the other rooms of the house, wondering what was going on.

/ / / /

Cristina did not want to do this. She did not want to have the talk with the man who was sitting across from her in Meredith's armchair. She particularly did not want to have this talk when she was sitting with her foot propped on a pillow, and her sore wrist resting gently on the arm of the couch. It did not matter to her that, once, they had seen each other in far worse predicaments of weakness. She was supposed to be strong now that he was gone.

"When I heard," Burke said, jarring her out of her thoughts, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Well, you can see," Cristina said, staring at the picture that hung on the wall above his head. What in the world had Meredith put a picture of he Space Needle up there? She could see it any time she wanted. It was probably Shepard. Shepard and his fascination with ferryboats and all other things Seattle.

"Yes," he cleared his throat. "I can. I… those stairs are tricky, I very nearly did the same thing on more than one occasion."

"But you didn't. That was my stupid move."

"It was an accident, they happen. I'm glad to see you're healing well."

"Oh, save it," Cristina snapped. "You were going to come before you found out about my tumbling act. Why are you here?"

He smiled a little, and she hated that it too effort for her not to smile back at him. She hated him, she was fully aware of that. However, a tiny piece of her, a very tiny piece, still lived in the time when she… didn't.

"I...had a surgery. Before I heard that you were out, I was going to ask you to scrub in."

"I would have said 'no'," she retorted, wondering at the same time if she would have.

"I know. But I still would have asked."

"Why?"

"Because…because when I am in the OR, I look up expecting to see you across from me. Because when one of my interns says something ignorant I look for you to laugh and give the right answer. Because in bed at night I almost think that I can feel you next to me, but you're not there."

"Am I supposed to cry you a river now? Confess that that's all I wanted you to say and take you back? Because that's not going to happen."

"I never expected it to… I just…"

"You just what? You just what?" Cristina asked, angrily. "You just? Well let me tell you what you 'just' did. You won the Harper-Avery. You won the damned Harper-Avery, because of me, yet you never mentioned me once. If… if it's true. If you missed me, then that might have been a good way to show me. Or at least, a better way than this.

"I might have missed you, Burke. I might have missed you, over a year ago. But that? I stopped missing you."

She didn't know what she expected him to do when she told him that. She was not expecting him to bow his head, resting his face in his hands.

It was nearly a full minute before he looked up, and she took the time to study it. He wore a sand-colored sweater that she had seen him wear many times before. She thought that the black slacks were new. The shoes were familiar as well.

"I didn't want that award, Cristina," he said, finally. "They gave it to me anyway. One does not reject the Harper-Avery. They wanted a statement, so I gave it. I should have mentioned you. I know that. They did not want to hear, though, that I was not solely responsible for what I had done. They were far more interested in the surgeries, in the coming back after being shot. They copied down every word I said, many of them having to do with the bright, promising, Seattle Grace intern who had been with me on the way. It's not my fault that this is not what they decided to focus on."

"It's not enough."

"I know that."

"How long are you in town?"

"Until Sunday. Assuming my patient is okay."

Cristina nodded slowly. "You should come tomorrow. Shepard and Meredith are hosting Thanksgiving. It should be amusing."

"Are you sure?"

"Would I say it if I weren't sure?"

"Okay then. I'll be here."

"We're eating at seven," Cristina offered.

Burke nodded, and stood. "Good bye, Cristina."

Cristina merely nodded in response, and listened as he left the room, and opened and closed the front door. After a few moments, she stood up with some difficulty and began to make her way slowly to the bedroom that was temporarily hers. Once there, she shut the door, and sat on the end of the bed, resting her head in her hands. She knew that she would not sleep that night.

/ / / /

Lexie did not hear the door open to her room. She had not brought much from the apartment, but her iPod had been in her purse and sometimes when Meredith and Derek's cuteness was just too much and Cristina's sarcasm grated on her nerves, she retreated to a land of loud, screaming, heavy metal. Because of this, she jumped a mile when a hand came down on her shoulder.

"Relax," someone murmured as she yanked the earbuds out of her ears. She stood up from the bed, and backed up against the wall when she realized it was George.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Did Meredith let you in? I'll kill her." Lexie clenched her fists in front of her.

"Don't kill Meredith," George said, gently. "I don't think Shepard could handle two kids on his own."

Lexie almost laughed. She had no idea what possessed her, but she almost laughed. She did not laugh, though. She kept glaring at him.

"Lexie," he began, walking around the bed.

"Stay there!" she said, picking up a pillow and brandishing it. She knew how stupid she looked, but she could not let him get closer. Because if he got closer, she would be thinking about his arms around her and that would not be a good plan.

"Okay," he said, backing off and leaning against the dresser. "I'll stay here, and you can stay…wherever you want. I just want to talk."

"Okay," she echoed, sitting down on the head of the bed. "Talk."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I know that I did. I'm sorry for that. I should have talked you instead of just leaving like that. It was… habit. A stupid habit, but habit. You deserved… you deserve better than that."

She couldn't look at him. She stared at the floor, too afraid of what was coming.

"But what I said, it was true. I needed to think. Time to think is difficult to come by, in our lives. You know that. But I figured, Alex and Izzie were together so there wouldn't be much distraction for me at the townhouse. I wasn't expecting to walk head-on into their drama. But I can promise you, whatever there was before with me and Izzie… we're just friends now. We've been just friends for a long time. She was…she was my best friend. I wanted there to be more, and so I found it. I was afraid of doing that with you, and then hurting you."

"You were afraid of finding more with me?"

"No. I was afraid that I would want there to be more so badly that I would find something that wasn't there. I wanted… I want there to be more with you, Lexie."

Lexie looked up, hesitantly, and just for a second.

"Can I sit down?"

She shrugged. "Suit yourself."

The bed shifted as he sat at the end, not close to her, but not too far either. "Lexie, I'm not going to say that I love you. I don't know if I do. I think I could. I know… I know that I love your smile. I love that you're persistent. I love that you try to see the good in things. I love that even with your optimism, you have a dark sense of humor. I love that you never let things, things that would break other people, get you down. I love a lot of things about you."

"But you don't love me," she said cautiously.

"Not yet. But I could. I want to." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him reach out and felt his hand on her shoulder. "But I have to ask you, if you could let me. Let me try. Let us try together."

Lexie sat stiffly with his hand on her, trying to piece her thoughts together outside of the heat that was radiating from his hand and making her want to turn and kiss him and forget. Finally she got the courage to look over her shoulder and meet his eyes.

"I want to try," she admitted softly. "I want to. But I can't just start where we left off."

"I know. I don't expect you to. We'll take it slow. I've moved my stuff back to the apartment," he admitted.

Her pulse quickened, and she nodded. "So... okay. I can do that. I can do that too and then… we'll just…"

"We'll just see where it goes, okay? We have time. I'm not going anywhere."

"I can't believe that yet," Lexie said, sadly.

"I know. I won't expect you to."

Lexie nodded again. "You say all the right things," she admitted. "You are a good guy, George. I know that. I've always known that."

"It's a step, then," he said. "And tomorrow after Thanksgiving we can go home. You'll be here, right?"

Lexie nodded. "My family thinks I'm on-call. I didn't want—I wanted to be here."

He looked concerned, but he backed away, knowing that for now that was not his territory. "Okay," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow." He stood, and laid a chaste kiss on the top of her head.

Unexpectedly, even to her, she reached out and grabbed his hand, using it to pull herself up. She leaned up and tentatively met his lips with hers. She kissed him hard, fighting the urge to push him back onto the bed. Instead, she broke the kiss after just a moment and looked away.

"Go," she said.

"Good night, Lexie," he whispered, as he closed the door behind him. Lexie sat back on the bed, and flopped over onto her side. Her mind was a mess of emotions. She was confused, definitely. And scared, and unsure. But for some reason, she couldn't keep a smile from her face and she had to work very hard not to squeal into her pillow as she would have done were she still thirteen instead of more than twice that.

/ / / /

It was late, but Meredith was awake. The babies wouldn't quiet down, not even when she had done the "lullaby songs with headphones on her belly" thing that usually calmed them down, and always kind of freaked her out. She had so many pillows piled around her that there was barely room for Derek, but she was careful to shift them so that she could get up without waking him.

She crept carefully down the stairs, and into the foyer, her mind intent on what sat on the third shelf of the refrigerator. She knew that Derek had tried to put it in there without her noticing, but if he had really thought about that, he would not have put it on the same shelf as the strawberry jelly, something that she could not get enough of lately.

She looked over her shoulder as she flicked on the kitchen light, just in case Derek had followed her, but there was no sign of him. She made her way over to the fridge and yanked it open, smiling to herself as she gleefully pulled the pumpkin pie out and put it on the counter.

She was pulling a knife out of the butcher block when a voice startled her. "Going to share that?"

"Ack!" Meredith cried, turning to see Lexie, who was pulling out a chair.

"Whoa, chill. That thing can do more damage than a scalpel," Lexie said, as she pulled her legs up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around them.

Meredith smirked and went over to the cabinet, pulling down two plates. She cut into the pie, watching Lexie cautiously. Her sister was resting her head on her elbows, pushing her dark hair behind her ears. It was as she was carrying the plates over that Meredith noticed something she had never seen before.

"Lexie? Is that a tattoo on your shoulder?" she asked, glancing at the black star that was visible under the strap of Lexie's black tanktop.

Lexie smiled guiltily, as she put the first bite of pie in her mouth and nodded. "College," she said by way of explanation. Meredith nodded and smiled happily as she too took a mouthful of pie.

"Is this a secret sister thing, or can anyone join?"

They both turned guiltily to see Cristina closing the door to her bedroom.

"It's a men are stupid thing," Lexie answered. "They mess with your heads and get you knocked up, and do other dumb things."

"In that case," Cristina said, as Meredith got up to cut another slice of pie for her. "I'm in. By the way," she said as Meredith set the pie down and went to the refrigerator in search of whipped cream, "Burke's coming to dinner tomorrow."

Emerging with the spray can, Meredith wondered if she were supposed to be more surprised by that statement than she was.

"I'm going back to the apartment tomorrow, too," Lexie admitted softly. "To try."

Meredith nodded, and put a hand on Lexie's wrist. "Trying is good," she said, encouragingly.

"But not always successful," another voice said, causing all three women to look up guiltily. "Like, I tried to make sure that we would have dessert for our guests tomorrow, but it looks like I failed at that."

Derek came over and looked at the already half-empty pie tin. Shaking his head at Meredith he took the knife and cut a fourth piece. After he had gotten a plate, she helpfully held up the whipped cream.

When he took it from her, she realized that she did not like the sly look on his face. "Oh, no. Derek…" she said, and then shrieked as he shook the can and sprayed it onto her nose.

Lexie and Cristina burst out laughing, and Derek grinned, looking very satisfied with himself, as he leaned into lick the whipped cream off of her nose. When he was distracted doing this, Lexie took the whipped cream out of his hand, and put it the hand that Meredith reached out from her. She pulled away from Derek, and held the can up, aiming right for his face.

"You wouldn't—" he said, just as she did.

"This means war," she declared. "Lexie, there's another can in the fridge."

Soon the two cans were being snatched from hand to hand. Lexie and Derek chased each other around the kitchen, as his spurts of whipped cream stained her black shirt. Meredith and Cristina, less able to run, squirted at each of them whenever they passed by.

After one lap of the kitchen, during which Lexie stepped onto a stool and onto the island counter, she jumped down and threw open the pantry, discovering a bag of marshmallows on a shelf. "Cristina, catch," she cried, tossing it to Cristina. Meredith had just a moment to be grateful that the two were getting along, before she was hit by a maelstrom of pelted marshmallows.

"Derek!" she cried. Laughing, he scooped her up, and placed her on the couter, where she hid behind him, watching.

"Come on, Grey, go for it," Cristina taunted. She and Lexie faced each other, each holding a can of whipped cream. Lexie looked nervous, Meredith could see. Her finger was unsteady on the top of the bottle. "What's amatter? Chick--" Cristina was cut off by a stream of whipped cream landing in her mouth. Meredith and Derek burst into laughter, as Lexie turned and ran, thrusting the whipped cream at Derek and perching next to Meredith.

"I am not protecting you with the bulk of your niece and nephew," Meredith told her, as Cristina advanced on them, one hand clutching the island for support and the other with the whipped cream. She took aim and squirted over Derek's shoulder, but all that came out was a stream of air.

This made Meredith and Lexie laugh so hard that both nearly lost their balance. Meredith was still laughing when Derek lifted her down.

"Well," Lexie said as they returned to their abandoned pie, "We could always huff it now."

They stared at her. "What?" she said, putting a bite of pie in her mouth, "I was joking."

It was Cristina who spoke, "I think I misjudged you, Grey."

Lexie shrugged. Meredith started laughing, and then looked over at the counter. "Oh my god, this kitchen is a mess!" she exclaimed. "I just cleaned it!"

"Relax, Mer," Derek said, "I'll take care of it."

"You have a good one," Lexie pointed out, as they watched Derek attack the kitchen.

Meredith nodded. "I do," she admitted.

Later, after the kitchen and they were cleaned up, Meredith and Derek lay in bed, once again surrounded by pillows.

"We'll have to get something else for dessert tomorrow," Meredith murmured sleepily.

"No we won't," Derek replied. "I got two. The other one's still out in my car."

Meredith turned to him. He was grinning cockily. She tried to scowl, but couldn't. Instead, she just shook her head and kissed him.

A/N Review please :) Sorry this is later than usual, i was out of town again! PS Holy reviews, Readers! this is so far the most I've gotten (with the exception of My Mother's Daughter, but hey who doesn't love Hannah?), particularly ten chapters in! Thank you!!