From: This is Why We Fight

"Ross asked me to write a recommendation, I'm going to do one for each of the interns."

"Did you do one for Heather Brooks?"

"Who?"

"Mousy"

"Oh no, not yet."

"I will."

"Ok," Derek replied with a sigh.

"You know, I really do love this house. I know you planned it for years but I didn't really think much about it until we moved in. You spent years planning our dream house and now we've only spent a few months living here and we're going to have to move. I never wanted to leave Seattle."

"Well, we don't have to move, but we do have to think about other options I guess. Now that you've finished your residency, we could look into private practice. Especially with the baby on the way, it would make our hours more predictable."

"True, but I just can't see myself in private practice…or you. The thrill of the hospital, I don't think I'm ready to leave that behind yet."

"I know. I was in private practice before, in New York. The whole time though, it felt fake, like I wasn't really practicing medicine. Something about having everything scheduled, never having to step in during an emergency, it just felt wrong. I mean, the hours were great but still, I missed the adrenaline."

"Well, where are we going to go? No way am I going to get another offer in Boston after turning them down before. And besides that, I don't think I want to raise my kids in Boston."

"Why is that?"

"It's where I was raised and well, you know, my childhood wasn't great. You know, I lived in Boston for more than ten years and I've never been to Fenway Park? I've never seen the Celtics play. I begged my mom to take me to see the Red Sox play. But she thought sports were barbaric and a waste of time so she wouldn't take me. I did get to go on a field trip with my fifth grade class to the Freedom Trail. But really, Boston is a place where I existed, not a place where I lived and I don't want to go back. "

"Well, we've got thirty million dollars, not to mention what your mom left us and our savings, realistically, we don't ever have to work again. But I know that would drive us both crazy. But we've got some time. We can figure it out. Let's just get through the end of things here and then we can think about moving on."

"I know we'll be ok, but not everyone has what we have. I mean, what about Alex? He is just starting to grow up and move on from everything that happened with Izzie and now the rug is going to be pulled out from under him. And Bailey clearly hates us all, especially me."

"Well, as you told me last week, Bailey has no right to be upset with you. I respect Bailey and she is a talented surgeon but she often has a problem minding her own business. And she makes things very personal when there is no need for that. She's very talented and she'll ge3t another job. Alex too, I mean, he had an offer with Hopkins a few months ago. The interns might have trouble but that's what we are writing them recommendations, hopefully that will help."

"I feel like no matter what we do, we are constantly followed by some crisis. I wonder if it will ever stop."

"Well, for every crisis we've been through, we've always come out on the other side."

"That's true."

"How's the baby tonight?"

"The Mcfetus is quite tonight, thank goodness."

"I guess he or she knows mommy needs a break tonight."

"Come on, let's put Zola in bed and go to sleep early tonight, especially since the baby is quite. I'm exhausted, physically and emotionally."

"Sure, why don't you put Zola down while I finish this up and then I'll meet you in the bedroom?"

"Ok, come on Zo, let's go to bed."

"Zo go night night?"

"Yep, give daddy a goodnight kiss and let's go to your room."

"Dood night dada." Zola said as she kissed Derek's cheek.

"Good night princess, love you," Derek replied, giving her a hug.

Zola scrambled off of her mama's lap and ran toward her bedroom, knowing she had to brush her teeth before she could have a story.

Meredith entered Zola's room to find her meticulously brushing her teeth.

"You are so your father's daughter." Meredith laughed

"My daddy?"

"Yes, your daddy is a health nut, including keeping his teeth clean. You are just like him."

"Me not like daddy, me a girl silly!"

"Oh, you're right, I am silly!" Meredith chuckled

"Let's pick out your pjs and then we can have story time. Do you think we should read Clifford the Big Red Dog tonight?"

"Zo loves Clifford!" The little girl exclaimed excitedly.

"I know baby, how about we put your princess pjs on?"

"No mama, I want my penguins!"

"Ok, those will work."

Meredith got the little girl dressed in her penguin pajamas and tucked into bed and turned the light off after reading a story about Clifford saving a kitten trapped in a tree.

As she closed the door and crept out of the room, she felt Derek wrap his arms around her.

"I didn't think anyone could make reading a bedtime story sexy but watching you make silly faces and crazy voices just to get our little girl to giggle…that blows my mind in a way the sexiest lingerie never could. You are so beautiful."

"Well someone definitely wants to get laid tonight," Meredith said with a quite giggle.

"I share a house with the most beautiful woman ever; I want to get laid every night."

"Well, you do get laid most nights!"

"True, so we shouldn't break the chain tonight."

"Well…I'm going to take a shower now, feel free to join me if you want." Meredith said coyly.

"Well, there's no way I can say no to that."

Meredith walked into the bathroom and took her shirt off, getting ready to get into the shower.

Derek walked in just as she threw her shirt into the dirty clothes pile.

Seeing his wife's naked, pregnant stomach left him speechless.

"Mer, our baby is really making itself known today. You look pregnant."

Meredith looked up, shocked by Derek's comments, "I look pregnant?"

"Yeah, our baby is definitely growing"

Meredith could feel the tears forming in her eyes as soon as the words left Derek's mouth.

"You think I'm fat." Meredith stated with a sniffle

"What? No, of course not!" Derek replied. He had not expected this kind of reaction from his simple observation.

"You think I'm fat, you just said so!" Meredith shrieked as the tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Uh oh, I'm in trouble, Derek thought as soon as he saw the tears, knowing he had made his wife angry.

"Mer, that's not what I meant, you know that's not what I meant."

"Well it's what you said. You practically said "Hey look at my wife, the fat cow!""

"Meredith, that's not what I said and you know it!" Derek shouted back, finding himself getting angry with her twisting of his words.

"So now I'm fat and stupid?" Meredith shouted back

"Ugh, Meredith, you are not fat or stupid but you are acting crazy!" Derek growled back, knowing as soon as if left his mouth that he never should have said it.

"I can't help it you know! I'm fat because your baby is growing in my uterus. And it's not easy! It's not easy to grow a baby and be a surgeon and a mother and try to buy a hospital and fail and cause all your friends to lose their jobs! It's not easy Derek, it really sucks, a lot!" Meredith sobbed while putting her shirt back on.

She stormed assed Derek and out of the bathroom.

"Mer, I'm sorry, come on, where are you going, I thought you wanted to take a shower?"

"I'm going to sleep in the guest room, leave me alone!" Meredith shouted

She stomped down the hall and slammed the door to the guest room.

Derek knew better than to follow her right then, knowing she was hormonal and angry and rightfully so. He decided to go ahead and take a shower and get ready for bed, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he fixed things with Meredith.

Just as he was getting out of the shower, he heard his phone ring. Picking it up, he saw on the caller ID that it was Richard Webber.

"Hello"

"Derek, its Richard."

"Look Richard, I can't tell you how sorry I am that things didn't work out with Crest today. I thought when we were in the helicopter that we had him but I guess we just didn't have what he wanted."

"No need to apologize Derek, you took a risk, tried to do the right thing. We all know that we never would have been happy under Pegasus."

"I think your right about that. Not to be rude but why are you calling so late? Is everything ok?"

"Everything is fine, better than fine actually. I was calling to see if you and Meredith could make it to a meeting early tomorrow morning, around 7am?"

"Um, I don't see why not. But what kind of meeting? What for?"

"I'd rather wait until the meeting to give you details. Just be at the main conference room at the Archfield at 7am tomorrow morning."

"Alright, we'll be there…if Meredith is speaking to me by then."

"Uh oh, that sounds ominous."

"Just hormones, I think…I hope, haha."

"Alright, see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Richard."

Taking a deep breath, Derek figured he had given Meredith enough time to calm down and went to knock on the guest room door.

"Mer, are you ok? I'm so sorry about what I said earlier."

Derek didn't get a reply so he gently opened the door. He found her curled up in the middle of the bed, still crying. It broke his heart to see her so upset, even if it was over something so insignificant.

He walked over and sat down on the bed next her, placing a hand on her cheek.

"Mer, I am so sorry that I upset you earlier. I never meant to hurt you."

"I know Derek!" Meredith wailed, crying in earnest once again

"I'm sorry I'm crazy! I'm trying not to be! I am but it's so hard! And sometimes I just can't stop it! And I'm fat! My clothes don't fit! And I feel so ugly!"

"Oh Mer, sweetie," Derek reached down and pulled her into his arms, pressing her head into his chest.

"You're not crazy, you're just pregnant. It happens, it's supposed to happen. And you've been so calm and hardly crazy at all. Remember when Bailey was pregnant? She was mean! To everyone! You haven't been like that at all. You're not crazy and you sure as hell are not fat. You are tiny. You have been tiny since I met you. You have a baby in your uterus and you're still tiny. But we want our baby to grow, right? You have to get bigger for the baby to get bigger. I'm sorry if that makes you feel crazy though. But you are beautiful. Mer, seeing you carrying around our baby, it's the hottest thing I've ever seen. We've wanted this for so long and seeing it actually happen, it's so much better than I could have imagined. Pregnancy looks stunning on you."

"We have wanted this for a long time haven't we?" Meredith asked with a sniffle.

"We have, so we can take whatever comes with it."

"We can. I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier. And I'm sorry I'm crazy."

"I'm sorry I yelled too. I need to be more understanding with you right now. And I can take the crazy, I promise."

Meredith giggled before turning to kiss him.

"Hang on, before this gets out of hand and I forget to tell you, Richard called."

"What did he want?"

"He wants to meet with us tomorrow morning, at 7am at the Archfield but he wouldn't tell me why."

"That's weird, but I'm too distracted by other things to worry about that right now."

"Oh, and what other things would that be?" Derek asked, grinning

"You!" Meredith replied before reigniting their passionate kissing.