"Derek!" Meredith called as she walked in the house. "Where are you?"

"In the kitchen, sweetheart."

She walked in the said room to find him loading the dishwasher with last night's dishes. They had been doing things the night before that had seemed far more important than dirty dishes; that is, each other.

Coming up behind him, she wrapped her arms around his waist, and leaned her face against his back.

"Hi," she whispered.

Derek spun her in his arms so she was pressed against the sink and greeted her with a long, languid kiss. "Hi," he whispered back, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Where's Katherine?"

"In her playpen, but first, guess what?" Derek said to her as she grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and leaned against the counter across from the sink.

"What?"

"We have a babysitter tonight," he announced with a huge grin on his face.

Meredith stopped mid-bite, pulling the apple away from her mouth. "A babysitter? As in leaving our baby with some strange teenager? Sorry, Derek, but it's not going to happen."

"Meredith, you'll have to leave her eventually. She's seven months old already."

"I leave her everyday, but I draw the line at babysitters. We can hire a nanny. A responsible, older lady."

To her disgust Derek started laughing. She glared at him until he stopped. "Sorry, Mer, but it's funny to see you get so worked up. Just relax. Christina is not a teenager, and while she's strange, she's not technically a stranger."

"Wait, leaving Katherine with Christina! Give me the teenager please."

Derek laughed again. "She needs practice."

Grinning herself at the thought, Meredith nodded. "She's due in five months."

Coming to stand in front of her, Derek boasted her onto the counter. "And we need to go out. We've been together for a month now, and we haven't gone out once."

"Hmm." She wound her arms around his neck, leaning down to kiss him again. "Wouldn't you rather stay here and have sex?"

Derek stole a bite of the apple that was now by the side of his head. "We'll have sex when we get home. After Christina has put our little one to bed. Trust me, Mer, this will spoil you."

"But I like putting Katherine to bed," she protested.

"Don't you like talking to your Derek over steak and red wine?"

With a smile, she tilted her head to the side. "I suppose it's a second best."

"Go out with me, Mer."

"Okay."

"Mmmm, good." He trailed kisses up her neck, and across her jaw, making her giggle. "You're yummy," he mumbled, before he reached her lips. Nibbling on the bottom one he finally took it into his mouth, sucking on it as she moaned.

Finally, she pulled her lip away from him, only so she could plunge her tongue into his mouth. His hand came up to push her thighs further apart so he could stand closer to her, and he left that hand there; a warm weight on the junction of her thigh, as his growing erection rubbed against her. As their tongue battles in his mouth, and her finger tangled in his hair, his other hand worked its way up her shirt to finger a hard nipple through her thin bra.

"Holy shit! There is an underage child in this house!"

"Christina!" Meredith exclaimed, as she and Derek sprang apart. "Do you not knock?"

"When have I ever knocked at your house? But, god Mer, sex on the kitchen counter with the baby in the next room. Nice."

Meredith climbed down from the counter, bending to pick up and throw away the apple core that had somehow fallen to the floor. "Shut up, Christina. Stay here a second."

Leaving the kitchen, Meredith went to the living room to get Katherine.

"Hey princess!"

Katherine squealed in response and babbled something incoherent, as she reached her arms towards Meredith.

Scooping the baby out of the playpen, Meredith cradled her close before carrying her into the kitchen.

"Alright, Christina, here's my most important possession." Meredith handed Katherine to her. "You are watching her while Derek and I change, and when I come back, I will evaluate how the rest of the evening will proceed."

"Meaning she'll leave Katherine with you while we go out," Derek clarified.

Meredith opened her mouth to protest, but Derek cut her off with a kiss.

"Okay, okay, break it up!" Christina exclaimed, pulling Meredith back with the hand not holding Katherine. "How do you live here?" she asked Katherine.

"Shut up, and watch the baby," Meredith told her. "Come on, Derek."

"Wait, you guys are not going up there together. I am not going to watch this baby while you two have sex upstairs."

"We're not going to . . ." Meredith began to protest.

"Yeah, you will," Christina countered. "Derek, you hold Katherine. Meredith, come with me; I'm sure you'll want help getting ready."

"I don't need . . ." Again, Christina didn't let her finish her thought.

Christina glared at her, and pushed her towards the stairs. "This way I can guarantee McDreamy's not up there with you."

Glancing over her shoulder, Meredith mouthed at Derek for help. His only response was a smirk and an affectionate smack on the bottom as she walked by him.

"I saw that, Shepherd. Hands off!"

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"That's hot," Christina evaluated, as Meredith surveyed her completed appearance in the full length mirror.

"Yeah?"

"Definitely. Shoes are really cute."

Meredith snorted. "Like Derek will look at my shoes." She looked in the mirror again, pushing a curl over her shoulder. "I wore this dress the first time I met him."

"Oh, the time you two got wasted at Joe's, and then went to your house to screw."

Rolling her eyes, Meredith said, "That makes it sound so dirty, but yes. Though technically, I get credit for that time because I didn't know that he was married, or my boss."

"Wow, you were practically the Virgin Mary."

"Shut up. Now come on, there's a lot I have to tell you for Katherine."

Christina took her turn to roll her eyes. "I'm a surgeon; I can watch a baby for a few hours."

"But this is my baby."

The girls bantered as they made there way down the stairs, meeting Derek at the foot. Meredith took Katherine from his arms.

"Christina, look at this baby," she ordered, hardly addressing Derek. "Can't you see why this beautiful princess needs special attention and instruction? She can't just be healthy and safe, she needs to be happy."

"Yeah, whatever. McDreamy, you better be ready by the time these instructions are over."

Meredith could feel his eyes on her, and they didn't leave, even as he addressed Christina. "Do you have to call me that?" Then turning to her fully, he gently grasped Meredith by her upper arms. "You look gorgeous."

"You can stare at her all night, now . . ."

"Christina!" Derek interrupted her sharply. "You can tell me to do a lot of things, but stopping me from telling my girlfriend how beautiful she is is not one of them." Cupping one of Meredith's cheeks, while Christina was uncharacteristically silent, he dropped a kiss to her forehead, and whispered, "You are beautiful, and you can't even imagine the things I want to do to you."

She blushed. "I probably don't want to."

"Oh, I think you do." His eyes sparkled. "I love you."

Breathlessly, she returned the words, and he brushed their noses together before pulling away, making her slightly weak in the knees.

"Now you make sure our little girl is taken care of," Derek told her, as he tickled Katherine, making her giggle.

This is only the first half of the chapter, but I don't know when I'll have time to write again, and I wanted to give you guys something. I'll be really busy for the rest of the week, then out of town for the weekend. I'm sure I'll bring by computer and write at least the rest of this chapter, but I don't know about internet access. Update Monday for sure.

Please review.