Next chapter, enjoy- Lumae
Meredith sat silently next to Derek in the obstetrician waiting room, she kept tapping her foot, anxiously against the ground, it was surreal sitting in that waiting room, looking at all women in various stages of pregnancy, knowing that they were looking at her probably guessing she was here for her first ultrasound. She had been so nervous, when she was pregnant with Bailey that she had not enjoyed this part of the pregnancy, she was so scared of losing him to a miscarriage that she could not bring herself to look at the ultrasound. Natalie had not shown up yet. There was an older lady sitting next to her, maybe she sensed Meredith's hesitation.
"I'm sure it will be all alright dear." The lady said turning to Meredith, with a warm smile.
Meredith just nodded not wanting to go in detail.
"How far along are you?" The lady asked.
"I" Meredith paused as the door opened and Natalie walked in accompanied by a young man, Natalie nodded at Derek and her, before going to the desk to talk to the receptionist.
"So how far along are?" The old lady asked again.
"I'm not pregnant." Meredith said, turning towards Derek.
"Are you sure you want to be here?" Derek whispered so the old lady couldn't here.
"We can hardly leave now, not now that she's seen us. Is that her boyfriend?" Meredith asked, staring at Natalie and the man who had now taken a sit over the other side of the room.
"I guess so." Derek said, his eyes narrowing at the man, he was pretty sure he had met the young man in DC, which made sense since Natalie had said her boyfriend worked with the brain mapping initiative.
"Do you think we should go and say hi?" Meredith asked, she was trying to be supportive but she did not know what to do, there was no book on what to expect when your husband is expecting with his one night stand, she wished there was, that would make the whole thing so much easier.
"We don't have to. We are just here to see the ultrasound." Derek said, he did not want to talk to Natalie, he knew it was irrational and wrong considering the very platonic friendship they had had in DC, but he could not stand to interact with Natalia anymore, she was a reminder of all he had done wrong. All the ways he had hurt Meredith.
"Natalia Hughes." A nurse called, and all for of them stood up, somewhat to the nurses surprise.
"Are you all coming in?" The nurse asked and the four of them looked at each other.
"I guess we are." Natalie said.
"Okay." The nurse muttered, though it did not really phase her, there were a lot of weird set ups when it came to pregnancy.
"So, if you would all like to make yourselves comfortable." The nurse said, "There are a couple of stools beneath the cabinet over there you can use."
"Natalie here's gown, if you could just put that on, there's a bathroom behind that door." The nurse pointed.
"The doctor will be with all of you soon, here's some paper work, general family history sort of stuff." The nurse paused not sure which gentleman she should pass it to, Derek stepped forward taking the forms from the nurse.
"Alright, so the Doctor shouldn't be wrong." The nurse said before leaving the room in an awkward silence.
"So." the man said, "I'm Trevor Dover and you must be Meredith and Derek."
Meredith and Derek just nodded, awkwardly. Meredith looked at Natalie, remembering her shouting match she had had with the woman days earlier.
"Thanks for coming." Natalie said, looking at the both of them.
"I," Meredith started she thought she should say something.
"Look Meredith if it about the other day, don't worry about it, it was my fault, I shouldn't have approached you I am sorry for ruining your lunch." Natalie said, breaking the tension that had been building in the room.
"You are allowed to be angry with this situation and with me." Natalie said, Meredith just stared at the lady, quiet shocked and thankful, she really didn't want to have to explain herself.
"I should go put this gown on." Natalie said.
"So I hear you're a General Surgeon." Trevor said to Meredith, Meredith did not quiet get these people they were different chatty weird.
"Yes." Meredith said, was this, this guys idea of small talk, Meredith wondered, looking at Derek who was busy scribbling on the paperwork.
"My brother is a general surgeon over at Johns Hopkins." Trevor said and the room fell silent again.
Natalie came back dressed in the gown just as the Doctor entered the room.
"Hi, I am Doctor Felicia Clementine." The woman said staring at the four of them.
"I'm guessing you are Natalie." She said, to Natalie, "But umm, who are the rest of you?"
"I'm, we're." Derek stuttered, speaking for the first time.
"It's a bit of a complicated and sensitive subject." Natalie said trying to spare them all the awkwardness, Doctor Clementine seemed to sense that there was something going on but that she did not need to know, so she tried to ignore it.
"Well then, it say here you are 13 weeks along and so your due on the first of October." Dr Clementine said, taking out her chart.
"So how's the pregnancy been going?" Dr Clementine asked.
"Any morning sickness, cramping, bleeding?"
"I had some morning sickness for a few weeks but that's all gone."Natalie admitted, she really did not like being the center of attention, she was a wallflower by nature.
"Have you been taking your pre natal vitamins?" Dr Clementine asked.
"Yes." Natalie said.
"Any Sexual transmitted diseases i should be aware about." Dr clementine asked not at all bashfully.
"No." Natalie said.
"Anyone else here want to own up to any." Dr Clementine said, not looking up.
"No." The others said all looking awkwardly at each other.
"Are you sure, no syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia genital herpes, if anyone has genital herpes, speak now." Dr Clementine said, with a grin, sometimes she liked messing with people.
"Okay, I was not going to ask, but are you a group of swingers?"Dr Clementine asked, curios as to how all four people had ended up in a room.
"No, no." They all said.
"So, you what's your deal?" Looking at Meredith.
"He's my Husband." Meredith said, holding on to Derek's hand.
"Husband, what's your deal?" She asked looking quizzically at Derek.
"I'm, I'm, biologically." Derek stuttered, he did not know what he was. Was he the father
"and you?" She said to Trevor not missing a beat.
"I'm Natalie's boyfriend." Trevor said, looking at he shoes.
"Right so now I understand why it is so tense in here, how about we take a look at the main event and then I'll leave you all to talk." Doctor Clementine said, rolling the ultrasound machine over.
"Okay can I just get you to lift up the gown." Doctor Clementine said.
"Okay this is going to be cold."Doctor Clementine said squeezing the gel onto Natalie's belly.
'Okay, everyone here we go." Doctor Clementine said as she started to move the probe across Natalie's abdomen and a grainy image appeared on the screen.
"Well hello baby." Doctor Clementine grinned.
Meredith looked at Derek, his face was full of awe, that quickly disappeared. Meredith looked at the picture that was her husband's baby, that was Derek's baby and she couldn't help but let a small, faint almost invisible smile slip onto her face.
"How is the baby?" Natalie asked and Meredith could not help but notice the lack of emotion on the young woman's voice, was it because she did not want to get attached to the grainy baby like image on the screen, or was it that this woman truly did not care to be a mother.
"The baby looks fine." Meredith said, trying to reassure Natalie.
"See look, there's it head, it's good size for a baby at this stage and it's got a strong heart beat and look, it's sucking it's thumb." Meredith said pointing.
"I see we have another doctor in the room." Doctor Clementine said, though she was fairly sure she knew who these two people standing a few feet away from Natalie where.
"Two doctors." Derek said, not taking his eyes away from the image, that was his child, his baby but it wasn't Meredith's and that fact tore him up inside.
"Actually four Natalie and I have both done our PHD's" Trevor said, with a bit of gusto.
"You two are on the board at Grey Sloan, right?" Doctor Clementine said, ignoring Trevor and wiping the goo off Natalie's belly, Meredith and Derek nodded, there was no escaping their notability in the medical world.
"So as she said, everything is fine, so far, I'd like to see you in a 5 weeks for the 18 week scan, you can book an appointment on the way out, and feel free to use this room for as long as you need. Here are four copies of the image, cute baby." Doctor Clementine said, before leaving the room.
"So" Natalie said , placing the picture on the counter.
"That was, interesting." Trevor said, helping Natalie up. "I've never seen an ultrasound preformed before."
"How did you guys find it?" He asked, looking at Meredith and Derek, who just stared at each other, neither one knowing what to say.
"Thank you for letting us come." Derek finally said, it seemed like the best response, he was thankful he was there but he still did not know what that meant for him and Meredith or where they stood.
"Crap," Trevor said glancing at his watch,"I have to leave, I'm late for a research meeting."
"You'll be right getting yourself home." Trevor said, kissing Natalie.
"Yeah I'll be right see you tonight." She said as Trevor walked out.
The room once again fell to silence. Meredith and Derek did not quite know what to do, or if they should leave.
"Look I know this is all confusing and it throws spanners into everyone's lives but, the one thing I got from this ultrasound was, this thing, living growing inside me is real and whilst I don't want to be it's mother, I owe it to this baby to find someone, some people who are willing and wanting to take it. I get that you two may still be unsure and that's fine, I can wait, but this baby is coming and I can't keep it in me for ever, so I would really appreciate it if we could talk, actually talk about everything, somewhere that isn't a doctors office." Natalie said.
"I've got work." Meredith lied, she had taken the day off, so had Derek. She did not want to lie, she just needed this to not go so fast. Derek looked at Meredith, he knew that she did not want to commit to anything until they had both worked it out.
"Can we do it another day?" Derek asked.
"How about tomorrow?" Natalie asked, she understood that this was difficult for them, but it was not easy for her, or how she had planned her life but it was now her life and she wanted, no she needed to sort it out.
"I, can we do that Meredith?" Derek asked.
"I guess." Meredith replied, looking at her shoes, it felt like she was being rushed.
"Okay then we'll see you tomorrow at 2." Natalie said, grabbing her clothes.
Meredith and Derek, seized the opportunity to leave. As they reached the car park, Meredith realized they hadn't specified a place and she did not want Natalie showing up at the house. She turned to Derek and told him to wait and she ran back in. She walked back into the room and noticed Natalie was not in there, but her phone and the ultrasound picture where sitting on the bench, as she glanced at the phone a message popped up. Meredith stared at it, shocked at what she was seeing.
I know cliff hanger again, I'll try and update soon. Try guessing what Meredith saw and why it shocked her, don't jump to obvious conclusions though.
Also from now on all gutless comments go up, so everyone else can read them and judge. And by the way to that oh so familiar guest reviewer you can critique a story but what you most certainly can not do is turn around and decide to attack me or my family. Just so we are clear my parents have been happily married for 30 years and neither of them are doormats and you are totally out of line with what you said. Also do you want to know what is pathetic, reading a story that you hate, chapter after a chapter, I mean why do you do it, is that what gets you off?
Anyway after that, for all you loyal readers, I hope today finds you well and is pleasant for you.
Cheer Lumae
