I'm back! Alright I know I've been gone for a little while, updating my other story and doing schoolwork; and starting a new school year. But hopefully we'll be back on a regular track.Alright so as we saw in the last chapter that Maeve is starting to grow up. This chapter shows how much everyone is growing up, but is a buildup for a big chapter that Maeve has coming up. But you'll find out more up that sometime soon ;) This is chapter also introduces Natalie Elise Shepherd, the fourth and FINAL baby. People have also asked, why only one boy in most of my stories. To me Derek Shepherd having grown up with all girls would only be lucky enough to get one son. Alright so in this chapter Maeve is ten, Emily is seven, Jack is three and Abby is seven months. Sorry this was so long! Happy Reading!
Meredith pulled into the driveway, to see all her kids outside running around and playing. She smiled as she shut her car engine off and opened her door. The weather was just beginning to get cool again; and the leaves starting to change colors.
"Hi Mommy!" shouted Jack as he raced passed her on his tricycle, turning back and waving.
Meredith giggled and waved back as she walked over to the front lawn, where Derek was raking some of the leaves that already fallen, while Natalie sat on a blanket. She walked over and came behind Derek kissing him on the cheek.
"Well excuse me stranger, but I don't think my wife would appreciate all this affection you're giving me." joked Derek.
"I think she'd forgive you." said Meredith as Derek's arms made their way around her waist. "How was your day?" asked Meredith.
"Pretty good, except for the Natalie smearing baby food all over her part." said Derek with a slight grimace.
Meredith laughed slightly and patted Derek's check. "You did that? My Nat?" asked Meredith as she turned to Natalie who was squealing in delight and kicking her legs, clearly delighted to see her mother. Meredith bent down and picked the baby up swiftly putting her on her hip.
"Yes she did. And did it well too, I'm talking everywhere." said Derek as he leaned in and kissed Natalie's head, which as currently covered in a crochet hat. "How was your shift?" asked Derek was he went back to raking leaves into a pile.
"Pretty dull. No surgeries. Just some sutures and some ct scans." said Meredith as she made a silly face at Natalie. "Are you on-call tomorrow night?" asked Meredith.
"Yeah, I go in at nine tomorrow and then I'm on-call." said Derek as he tied the garbage bag in a knot and place it in the trash can beside him. "Do you need me to change my schedule around?"
"Nope we're good. I'm working only a nine hour shift tomorrow, so I'll swing by and grab Nat and Jack at three and then run over to the school and grab the girls." said Meredith.
"Sounds good." said Derek as he picked up the garbage can and went to go move it to the side of the house.
"Mom!" called Maeve as she ran up to her mother, a brightly lit smile on her face. "Mom look at the new earrings that Aunt Izzie dropped off for me today!" said Maeve as she pushed back her hair to reveal two pinwheel earrings, in a very light baby blue color.
"Wow look at you." said Meredith in an impressed tone as she grinned at her daughter. Lately a lot had been changing with Maeve. She recently cut off almost six inches of her hair and it was now hitting her right on her shoulders. She'd also gotten her ears pierced recently, and was finally able to take the other ones out and put in dangling earrings,
"I hoped you remembered to thank her." said Meredith as she bent over and set Natalie back on the blanket. "Did Leah come and play with Em today?" asked Meredith as she sat down beside the infant on the blanket.
"Yeah she came after lunch and Uncle Mark came and picked her up a few minutes ago." said Maeve as fidgeted with her earrings.
"Don't play with them." warned Meredith, with a raise of an eyebrow. "Did Kyle come over and play with you?" asked Meredith.
"No." answered Maeve curtly. "We're not friends." said Maeve as she sat down on the grass in front of Meredith. "He was having some of his friends come over to play football. But when Uncle Mark came he said that a few girls were over there too." said Maeve.
"And that doesn't bother you? That you weren't invited?" asked Meredith gently.
"No. We're not friends." said Maeve as she stood up and brushed herself off. "I'm going to go play with Em down there." said Maeve pointing to sidewalk pavement by the driveway.
Meredith nodded as she watched her run off and Derek come back and approach her, a nervous look on his face.
"I thought we agreed no dangling earrings." said Derek. "We agreed she was too young to hold the responsibility of pulling her earlobe out." said Derek with a serious tone.
Meredith looked at Derek, and then burst into a fit of giggles. "Derek it's not like she's wearing makeup or going on birth control. She's wearing earrings." said Meredith.
"Birth control?" asked Derek, only picking up those two fearful words. His face paled as he sat down on the blanket and groaned. "Can't we lock her in the basement till she's forty?" asked Derek.
Meredith giggled as pulled Natalie into her lap and bounced her slightly. "I don't think she'd like that very much? What do you think Nat?" asked Meredith as she turned and asked the infant.
Natalie happily gurgled in response, giving her parents a gummy smile. Derek smirked at his daughter's innocence and leaned in to kiss her forehead. He put his cheeks tenderly on her cheeks and looked into the baby's blue-green eyes.
"Never grow up; okay Nat? And if you decide to; never listen to a man in a bar; no matter how handsome he might be." said Derek as he winked at Meredith.
Meredith smiled back at him and tickled Natalie on her belly, before placing her back down on the blanket to crawl around.
"Well we have a long time for her so I don't think we need to worry. And we don't need to worry about Maeve either. Not yet anyway." said Meredith.
"Mommy!" shouted Emily as she ran up to her mother. "When did you get home?" asked Emily as she launched herself into her mother's arms.
Meredith jokingly groaned from the impact, and rubbed her daughter's back. " A little while ago. Did you have a fun day?" asked Meredith as she pushed Emily's long brown hair out of her face.
"Yeah! Leah came over and played for a little while. And Mom guess what? This morning Daddy took us riding and I turned the corner all by myself on my bike! Without falling!" rambled Emily.
"You did?!" asked Meredith with a surprise. "Emmie that's great!" said Meredith as she pulled her into a bear hug and squeezed her tightly. "And you know what that means?" asked Meredith.
"What? What?" asked Emily excitedly as leaned back to look at her mom. "What does that mean?" asked Emily as she bounced slightly.
"Ice cream sundaes after dinner." said Meredith with a grin.
Emily squealed as she excitedly clapped and jumped up and down, she broke free from her mother's hold and ran down the grass to go share the good news with Maeve.
Meredith sighed as she leaned her head against Derek's shoulder. "I wish I could've been there to see it." said Meredith sadly.
"She wants to show you. That's all she talked about afterwards. How she had to show Mommy when she got home. And she kept asking "When will Mommy be home?" "How many more hours?" said Derek with a smile.
Meredith smiled a small smile. "I still wish I could've been here to watch for the very first time." said Meredith. "I remember when I learned how to ride without training wheels. I was five and a half; it was right before Thatcher left. He had taken me out riding for almost the entire day. I remember when he let go and I finally rode by myself. I was so proud. And then later when my mom got I wanted to show her and impress her; and she shooed me away saying she had work to do." said Meredith.
Derek put his arm around Meredith and squeezed tightly, before leading over and kissing her on the temple. "You're not your mother though. You want to see how amazing she is and cheer her on."
Meredith sighed and nodded against his shoulder. "Some days I feel like I should quit my job and stay home with them. And then other days I don't know what I would do with myself if I wasn't a doctor."
"Cook?" joked Derek with an amused grin.
Meredith smacked his arm and pouted slightly. She looked down to where Natalie was lying down, next to her. "Daddy's making fun of me. He's not being nice." said Meredith.
Natalie laughed and grabbed a piece of Meredith's hair. Meredith winced as the baby pulled slightly. She lifted her into her lap, and sat Natalie to face her.
"Come on Nat that's the only part of me that looks good today." said Meredith as she undid Natalie's little hands from her loose waves. Meredith replaced her hair with her own hands as she bounced the baby ever so slightly.
"I think you look absolutely beautiful." whispered Derek into her ear. Meredith felt his warm breath on her neck, and it immediately sent off goose bumps fro head to toe. She still didn't know after all these years, how he had that affect on her.
"You're just trying to save yourself from the cooking joke." said Meredith with an amused grin. "Because you want…" Meredith then stopped herself as she remembered who was sitting on her. "You know what."
Derek grinned as he leaned in and kissed her all over her ear, stopping once to bite. He then pulled away to check out her expression. "Is it working?" asked Derek.
"Maybe it is maybe it isn't." said Meredith with a gleam in her eye. She then watched as Derek pretended to be upset and frown, which sent Natalie into a fit of giggles, setting off Meredith.
Meredith took his face with her free hand, and brought it closer to her. She kissed him hard on the lips and pulled back. "It's working." said Meredith with a seductive grin.
"Later." said Derek with a grin as he kissed her again.
"Later." repeated Meredith as she leaned nose to nose against him. Her hand had found its way to her face, and stayed there for a few minutes before a scream, and sobbing jolted them both out of their daze.
Both of their heads whipped around to see Jack lying on the concrete screaming, and his tricycle flipped over. Meredith and Derek immediately jumped up; Meredith quickly grabbing Natalie and ran down the hill of grass to where their son was. They both raced up to where there daughters were standing with panicked expressions.
"Maeve take Natalie and Emily and bring them up to the blanket." said Meredith as she handed the seven month old, to her eldest daughter.
Maeve looked down at her brother, and then nodded as she went to move. Emily was crying at this point not knowing what was going on; and Natalie sensing all this had begun to whimper slightly.
"Go." ushered Meredith with a shake of her hands. As soon as the girls left, she bent down next to Jack. "Jack tell Mommy where it hurts." said Meredith as she soothingly stroked his left arm. She watched as the three year old pointed to his head, which was currently covered in a helmet.
"Let's get that off, and have him lay down." said Derek to Meredith. He looked down at Jack, "Buddy; Daddy's going to take your helmet off so he can look at your head. Okay?" asked Derek.
Jack continued to wail, not answering as Derek reached for the straps and removed the plastic hat. He held Jack's head in his arms. "He's not bleeding. Here hand me your sweater and that penlight." said Derek.
Meredith quickly took off her sweater and bunched it up, into a makeshift pillow as Derek placed it down and lowered Jack onto it. She then handed Derek the penlight that was in her scrub pockets.
"Jack keep your eyes really big and open so we can check them, okay." said Meredith over the wails of her son, her stomach becoming more and more nauseous having to listen to him in pain.
Derek quickly examined him with the penlight, and the looked up at Meredith. "There's nothing wrong with him neurologically as far as I can tell. We'll watch him to make sure. I think when he fell he laid down on the impact and he must of just bumped his around in the helmet." said Derek.
"Then why is he so upset?" asked Meredith as she stroked Jack's left arm gently trying to console him. "Jack where else does it hurt? Point for me where it hurts." said Meredith.
Jack pointed to his right arm, the arm he had fallen on. Derek leaned over it slightly and touched it certain areas, much to Jack's dismay who screamed hysterically in response. Derek then released his touch and leaned back.
"It's not broken, it might be sprained but I don't think so. Let's get some ice on it." said Derek as he reached down to pick Jack up who curled away at his touch. "Come on bud, I'm going to carry you inside and we're going to make you're arm feel better."
"Mommy." cried Jack as he reached for Meredith with his good arm, hiccupping as he continued to sob.
Meredith carefully picked him up, careful to avoid his injured arm and he rested his head on her shoulder as he continued to cry. "Shh. Shh. It's okay Jack; Mommy's got you now. You're going to be okay." soothed Meredith in comforting tones as she gently rubbed his back in small circles.
"You're going to be okay."
GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG
Derek stood against the frame of his and Meredith's bedroom door; as he watched Jack sleep peacefully as Meredith looked on and watched.
"How's he doing?" asked Derek quietly as she walked into the room and came around and sat on the other side of the bed.
"He's doing okay. He finally fell asleep a few minutes ago." said Meredith as she stroked Jack's curls with her fingertips. She carefully re-arranged the ice-pack on Jack's arm so that it wouldn't fall off.
Ever since being brought into the house; Jack had clung to Meredith for the rest of the evening. Derek wasn't insulted that he wanted her instead of him; he just wanted him to be okay and likewise with Meredith. Derek carefully lifted the blankets and pulled them over himself.
"How are the girls?" asked Meredith. She felt guilty that she hadn't been able to see them much when she had gotten home; and not at all after the incident.
"They're good. I gave Natalie a bath and a bottle and she's asleep. I helped Emily read through one of her books, and Maeve was tucked in a few minutes ago and she's reading for a little while." said Derek as he settled back into the pillows.
Meredith let out a little sigh and then a tired yawn. "Thank you." said Meredith as she pushed her hair back behind her ears and laid down into the pillow; propping herself on one arm to face Derek.
"You don't have to thank me. You were taking care of him all night; and I took care of the girls. It's what we have to do in situations like these. As much as we want to be with all of them twenty four-seven, it's not possible." said Derek.
Meredith nodded, as listened to her son's even breathing. "I'm guessing this isn't exactly what you had in mind tonight for us." said Meredith with a tired smile.
"Not exactly." said Derek with a laugh. "But do you know when we'll be able to have lots and lots of that?" said Derek with a devilish grin.
"When?" asked Meredith as Derek scooted closer to her, and she rested her head in the crook of his neck, as she began to feel her eyes giving in to sleep.
"When Natalie goes to college."
As always read and review! Oh and I almost forgot to mention; pictures of what I think the kids look like at this age are up on my profile! Happy Grey's Premiere week everyone!