Yeah. New chapter. Like forever from the last one, but still...yeah. I wanted to keep it light because we're coming to an end on this installment to the series. Don't worry though; I'll be opening back up How Did We Get Here? and probably eventually starting another story in this series. I'm not really sure where it'll be going yet, but I'm in love with these kids and I'm not ready for it to be over yet. Without further ado, here we go...

By the time the presents had been opened and cake and ice cream were consumed, Ainsley was all but falling over in her exhaustion. She leaned dutifully against Derek leg, one hand wrapped around his waist and the other handing goody bags to each party guest as they walked toward their cars. When the last child had been led through the door, leaving only the extended family, Derek leaned down to scoop Ainsley into his arms.

"You're getting too big to be carried," Derek groaned dramatically making Ainsley giggle lightly.

"Maybe you're getting old," she joked back shooting him the apparently genetic McDreamy smirk.

"Ouch," he feigned hurt as he fell on to the couch next to Mark, settling Ainsley on his lap.

He looked at the grand array of faces scattered amongst the living room furniture. Meredith and Christina were whispering conspiratorially at the breakfast bar while Christina gave Wyatt his bedtime bottle and Meredith held a sleeping Sean. Mark and Owen occupied the end of the couch and an armchair and seemed to be arguing over the merits of some type of surgery technique while Christopher interrupted them with ridiculous questions from the arm of Owen's chair. Jacob and Kennedy were playing with blocks on the floor with a look of concentration only a very serious design could require. Alex was being interrogated by Mrs. Shepherd about his most recent break-up because in her words "she seemed like a perfectly lovely girl and you need to stop sabotaging every relationship that starts to get a little serious." He always thought it was amazing how easily his mom took in their friends as her own. He saw a lot of her in Meredith and that was maybe why he didn't kick the strays out of the old house even when after they had Christopher all those years ago. He was suddenly aware that he was wearing an extremely dopey grin on his face when Ray came over to him asking to talk. Derek gulped nervously, but quickly shifted Ainsley onto the couch where she promptly leaned her head against Mark's shoulder and closed her eyes, before following him onto the back patio. Silence settled over them, their breathing the only sound, as they moved across the porch settling in near the guardrail away from the back door.

"Do you want a beer Ray?" Derek asked motioning to the cooler nest to the grill that had not yet been unloaded.

"Yeah, sure. One won't hurt me, just don't tell my wife. She worries about me drinking at my age," Ray replied.

Derek moved to the cooler, extracting two bottles from the ice and pulling off the tops before handing on to Ray.

"I talked to Ainsley today. She seems to really like having all of these people in her life. Your coworkers," Ray started.

"Yeah. It's nice to have so many people around that care about our kids. I know that at a moment's notice any one of them will be there to help, or babysit, or buy disgusting fundraiser cookie dough," Derek chuckled at his own joke before Ray's unamused expression sobered him.

"You've built a great life for her here. We can't deny that. She has a more loving and stable environment here than my daughter could have ever given her," Ray continued.

Derek looked at the old man before him. He noticed the way his brow creased when he said something a serious, a trait he had noticed in Ainsley. He looked closer and saw Ainsley's jaw and the way her nose seemed to turn up the slightest amount at the bottom. Her nose always made him think of the word cute, but on the grown man it made him look slightly more menacing, like he was constantly judging him.

"We still want to get to know Meredith. We want to know the woman who is raising our granddaughter. And we want to arrange something permanent with her visiting us or us coming here every year. We really don't want to lose her again Derek," Ray said before taking a slow drag from the bottle in his hand.

"What are you saying?" Derek sputtered, nearly knocking the bottle off the rail where he had set it turned quickly to face him.

"We aren't going to stop the adoption. We'll sign your damn papers and let you get this thing going, but I'm serious Derek. I do not intend to let you keep my granddaughter from me," Ray gruffed before draining the last of the liquid from the bottle.

"We would never dream of doing that. You're the only link she has to Renee now.

Ray nodded once more before moving silently toward the back door, leaving Derek standing in near shock on the porch.

It wasn't until later that night after everyone had gone home that Derek got a chance to tell Meredith what Ray had said.

"I had an interesting talk with Ray," he said as he stripped off his clothes and pulled on a pair of pajama pants.

"Uh huh," Meredith said absent mindedly as she flipped through the pictures that had been taken throughout the day.

"He said that they are going to sign the papers. They aren't going to fight the adoption, but they want to make sure we keep Ainsley in their lives," Derek explained as he turned to face Meredith.

It seemed to take a moment for Meredith to grasp the reality of what he said before she set the camera in her lap and looked at him.

"They're going to let me adopt her?" she tried to confirm as she stared at Derek from the bed.

"Yes. They're going to let you adopt her," Derek confirmed.

Meredith was out of the bed in seconds launching herself at Derek and kissing him roughly. He felt her smile through the kiss before he pulled away taking in her wide grin and the sparkles that were radiating from her eyes.

"I know it's Ainsley's birthday, but I feel like I was just given the best present in the entire world," Meredith beamed as she reached up to kiss him again.

"I feel the same way," Derek replied after they had again broken the kiss.

Suddenly a knock at the door pulled them from their moment, and Meredith moved to open the door. On the other side stood a bleary-eyed Ainsley in her pink nightgown, clutching her stuffed dog and rubbing her eye.

"I had a bad dream," she whined before walking into Meredith's arms and wrapping her hand tightly around her waist.

"Probably all that sugar daddy gave you," Meredith shot at Derek who held his hands up in feigned innocence, "do you want to lay down in here with us for a while?"

Ainsley nodded against Meredith's stomach and she led her to the bed, settling her in the middle before crawling in and facing her.

"Alright. Close your eyes and try to go back to sleep," Meredith soothed, placing her hand on Ainsley's cheek and rubbing her thumb gently along the smooth skin.

Derek smiled at the pair of them before crawling in behind Ainsley and kissing the back of her head gently. His fingers moved to the ends of her hair where he twisted a ringlet around her finger, careful not to pull, and then watched it spring back to its former position. She was asleep again within minutes and Meredith sighed contentedly while she looked across at him.

"I like this. Knowing that everything isn't up in the air anymore, that we can finally get this done and we don't have to worry about Ray and June trying to postpone it," Meredith said as she smoothed a wayward curl away from Ainsley's face.

"I feel like we've been searching for the final piece to some elaborate puzzle for the past few years and we just finally found it under the rug. I can't wait to finally press it into the hole and look at it all completed," Derek replied.

"Derek I'm really happy," Meredith said behind a yawn as her eyes began to droop.

"Me too," he agreed before the sleep finally took them away.

Like I said, I wanted light and fluffy. I felt like it was time to finally leave this family alone. Like Meredith said in a previous chapter, they're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop and I think sometimes we just need fluffy stuff. Let me know what you thought and now that I'm opening back up the How Did We Get Here? prequel, that I abandoned due to time constraints, I'm taking requests. Want a particular Grey's moment rewritten for this universe? Leave it in a review. Have an idea for a fun way to merge the two universes? Leave it in the reviews. Want to tell me how much you love puzzles? Weird...but you can still do it in a review.