"Wow, Derek, I must say that I'm very impressed," Dr. Prescott, his physical therapist said with a wide smile a week later. "It's rare that coma patients make a full recovery this quickly."

"Well, I've got a lot to work towards," Derek said with a smile as he reached for a water bottle.

"I'm aware," Dr. Prescott smiled, looking down into his chart. "We're sure going to miss your daughter running around here."

"Miss her?" Derek asked, hope rising in his chest. "As in…she won't be visiting here anymore?"

"You can go home, Derek," Dr. Prescott laughed. "Today if you want. Just call your wife and have her pick you up."

"Today," Derek repeated. He'd been working hard since he'd awoken from his coma, needing to get home to begin making things up to his family and help Meredith prepare for the birth of their son.

"I'll just need you to sign these discharge papers, and then you're free to go," she said with a smile.

"And I'm okay to do everything?" Derek asked, scrawling his name across the discharge papers. "Stairs, drive, fish?"

"Well, you might want to take it easy," Dr. Prescott said with a laugh. "Your body's still working to get back to normal. But yes, normal everyday activity is okay. Just give it a month or two before you go hiking in the woods and putting your body through any extreme exercise. And make sure if you have any problems at all to call us. And to schedule a follow up appointment."

"I have a pregnant wife," Derek laughed as he stood. "There will be no fishing trips for a long time."

"Of course," Dr. Prescott said, reaching out to shake his hand. "It's been wonderful working with you. And congratulations on your new baby. I'm very happy that you'll be there for that."

"Thanks," Derek said, smiling widely before he walked out of the physical therapy room and moving towards his own room. He had to call Meredith, and pack his things, and… home. He was going home.

"Hey Der," Meredith's voice greeted him as he held the phone to her ear. "How was physical therapy."

"Amazing," Derek nodded. "Are you busy? Can you come? I have exciting news for you two."

"Are you going to be awake?" Meredith asked. "You're usually tired after physical therapy, and not that I don't want to see you, but Katie's napping and your mom's grocery shopping, and I don't want to wake her if you're just going to sleep. We're coming by when she wakes up…"

"I'm coming home," Derek interrupted her.

The line was silent for a moment and he frowned as he looked down at the phone. "Mer?" he asked. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here," she said, and he could hear the shakiness in her voice. "I'll be there in an hour."

"An hour?" Derek frowned.

"Waking your daughter up is like waking a bear from its slumber," Meredith giggled. "Except sometimes I think a bear would be more pleasant. Especially when she kicks my stomach. Baby doesn't like that."

"She gets that from you," Derek laughed.

"Shut up."

"Take your time," Derek said. "I can wait."

"No, we'll be there as soon as we can," Meredith sighed. "And she likes you better than me anyways. When I tell her we're taking you home she hopefully won't be as crabby as usual."

"Good," Derek laughed. "Drive safe. I love you."

"I love you too," Meredith said. "We'll be there soon, as soon as our princess stops screaming."

Derek smiled as he hung up the phone, taking in a deep breath as he looked around his room. Meredith had decorated it with as much character as had been allowed, and he had woken to find his walls covered in pictures of the two of them, of Katie, and his family. There were also scribbled pictures from Katie and ultrasound pictures of their son. He'd left them up, wanting to feel as at home as possible in the strange room. And it had worked. It had only taken a week for his soreness to go away and he had regained most of his mobility. He still tired more easily than he had before the accident, but the doctors had assured him that it would go away.

"Hello?" there was a knock on the door, and Derek looked up with a smile to see Owen Hunt standing in the doorway.

"Owen," he said. "Come on in."

"How are you feeling?" Owen asked as he stepped forward and shook Derek's hand tightly.

"Wonderful," Derek said. "Mer's on her way here to take me home. I'm finally getting back to my real life."

"That's great," Owen said as he settled into a chair on the side of Derek's bed. "Congratulations, by the way. On waking up and the baby. It's a really exciting time for you."

"Thanks," Derek said as he reached over to take the sonogram picture off of the wall. "It's amazing."

"I'm sure," Owen nodded. "And I heard through the grapevine that you were curious about your place at the hospital."

Derek sighed. "Yeah," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I'm not…I'm still recovering. I feel a hell of a lot better, but I'm not sure I'm strong enough to work through a surgery for several hours."

"I was going to offer you a deal," Owen nodded. "Meredith's taking the next six months off on maternity leave."

"She's had a hard few months," Derek sighed. "I hate that I did that to her. But I'm going to make it up to her."

"It wasn't your fault," Owen shook his head. "But she deserves it. She's been through hell."

"She does," Derek nodded. "I'm going to spoil her rotten, and make sure she takes care of herself. And my boy."

"Well, here's my proposition," Owen said. "When you feel ready in the next month or so, you can come back, do some consults, maybe a quick craniotomy with another neuro attending, get your feet wet again. If that's successful, you can take an extended paternity leave and then come back for good when the baby's born."

Derek nodded slowly. "That sounds good," he said. "And I…just an attending? I can't be head of neuro again?"

"I had to fill your position, Derek," Owen said gently. "I know it's not fair, but I can't demote Nelson because you're awake."

"I know," Derek nodded. "It's okay."

"And you'll still get your annual salary," Owen laughed. "By the way, your wife's ready to beat you out of the system. She's been kicking ass in the OR."

"That's my girl," Derek smiled proudly.

"Daddy!" Katie cried as she ran into the room unsteadily on her short legs. "Hi!"

"Hi Katie," Derek said as he scooped her into his arms. "How are you?"

"Good!" Katie smiled, pressing a wet kiss to his cheek. "Hi, Wen."

"Hi there, Katie," Owen smiled, reaching out to tussle her hair. "You're looking more like your dad every day."

"I pretty!" Katie nodded.

"Beautiful," Derek smiled, shifting her to his hip. "Where's your mother?"

"What did I tell you about running ahead, Katherine Isobel?" Meredith sighed as she appeared in the doorway. "Mommy can't run anymore."

"I see Daddy," Katie frowned.

"We've talked about this," Meredith said. "Next time you run ahead of me you're getting put in the stroller."

"No toller," Katie said firmly.

"Then behave," Meredith sighed as she moved to sit on the bed beside Derek. "Hi."

"Hey," he said, kissing her quickly. "You okay?"

"Fine," she nodded. "Just…pregnant stuff. Hi Owen."

"Meredith," he nodded. "I'll let you have your family time. But give me a call, Derek, and we can set up a meeting to discuss things further."

"Thanks," Derek smiled. "I'll call you later this week."

"Daddy ho?" Katie asked, looking up at him.

"Daddy's coming home," Derek nodded before he returned his gaze to Meredith. "You got here fast."

"Yeah," Meredith said, looking down at her stomach. "Look, Der…"

"What's wrong?" he asked, shifting Katie to his other side so he could pull Meredith closer.

"I love our house," Meredith whispered.

"Well, good," Derek said. "Because that's where we're going."

"You were asleep," Meredith continued. "And I didn't…the house is so far away. And the ferry boats don't run in the middle of the night, so if something happened…"

"Mer," Derek frowned, pulling back from her. "You didn't…did you sell the house?"

"No!" Meredith shook her head, taking his hand. "Definitely not. But we've been staying in a hotel. In town, close to here, just in case something happened."

"Oh," Derek said, looking at her closely. "Okay, so we'll go to the hotel and get your stuff and then we'll go home."

"You're not mad?" Meredith whispered, tears filling her eyes.

Derek looked at her closely for a moment, wondering exactly what was going on before it hit him. Hormones. With Katie she'd been completely snappy, biting his head off whenever he moved, but maybe their son was making her weepy. He mentally kicked himself again, hating that he didn't know how this pregnancy was affecting her. "Mer," he breathed, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. "Of course not."

"Good," Meredith whispered, cuddling into his side. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to be so far away."

"I get it," Derek nodded. "So let's go."

"Okay," Meredith whispered, a hand moving over her stomach.

"Are you sure you're feeling all right?" Derek asked as he placed Katie on the bed and moved to pull the pictures down from the wall.

"Fine," Meredith sighed, leaning back into the pillows and smiling when Katie crawled into her arms. "Just tired."

"We're almost to the third trimester?" Derek asked.

"Hmmm," Meredith said, running her fingers through Katie's hair.

"I want to know everything, Mer," Derek said as he zipped his duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder. "When she goes to bed, we'll soak in a bath and you can tell me everything about the pregnancy."

"Okay," Meredith nodded, taking a deep breath before she pulled Katie onto her hip, a grimace moving over her features.

"Let me take her," Derek said, reaching for Katie.

"No," Katie said, burying her face in Meredith's shoulder. "Mama."

"She's fine, Derek," Meredith sighed. "Just getting heavy."

"You shouldn't be carrying her."

"It's okay," Meredith said firmly. "I've been doing it every day. And I don't want her to feel like I don't love her anymore because she's pregnant."

"Okay," Derek said, wrapping an arm around the two of them. "Ready?"

"I feel like I should be asking you that," Meredith giggled as they moved down the hall.

"I've been ready for the past week," Derek said, stopping as they stepped out the door. "Fresh air."

"Well, I've been ready for the past five months," Meredith giggled as she rested her head against his shoulder. "Are you allowed to drive?"

"Yeah," Derek nodded.

"Well, go for it," Meredith sighed, handing him the keys. "I barely fit behind the wheel anymore."

"You weren't this big with Katie," Derek said as he looked down at her stomach.

"Big?" Meredith stopped, her eyes filling with tears.

"Pregnant," Derek quickly corrected. "I meant pregnant."

"But you said big," she whispered, holding Katie close to her.

"Mer, please don't," Derek said, reaching out to her. "This is a big day, I don't want you to be mad at me. I'm sorry."

She stared at him for a moment before she took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," she said, moving to open the back door of their car.

"Let me take her," Derek offered, pulling Katie out of her arms. "And we can stop and get some chocolate chocolate cake on the way home."

Meredith smiled softly as she handed their daughter to him. "You sure know how to make up for being an idiot," she said.

"Daddy trouble," Katie said as he pulled the straps of her car seat over her shoulders.

"Daddy got himself out of trouble," Derek nodded, snapping her into place. "Let's hope I haven't lost that touch."

Katie giggled as he pressed a kiss to her forehead before closing the door and moving around to the driver's side. "Let's go home," he said, smiling at Meredith before turning the engine on.

XXXXX

"How are you feeling?" Meredith yawned later that night as Derek entered their bedroom.

"Fine," Derek nodded, pulling her book out of her hands and looking at her closely. "What about you?"

"I'm fine," she said, pulling him down to lay beside her. "Happy to be home. With you."

"Me too," Derek said, rubbing a hand over her stomach. "Katie went down quickly."

"She was tired," Meredith nodded. "She didn't get a full nap today."

"So now we have time to talk," Derek nodded. "About Chris."

"Nice try," Meredith rolled her eyes. "I'm not naming my son after you. First or middle name."

"Fine," Derek sighed dramatically. "I know you said it's been a healthy pregnancy, but you look…exhausted."

"I think it's all catching up to me," Meredith whispered. "When you were…away, it was easy for me to do everything, to make sure that Katie got enough love and to take care of myself because the baby needed me. But I think I was just keeping myself busy as a distraction."

"From me?" Derek asked.

"Yeah," she sighed. "There was this constant worry, this constant ache of missing you. And I saw you every day, but, you weren't there, not really. But I wasn't strong enough to worry about you all day every day, so I threw myself into being a mom, a doctor… anything besides a wife who was terrified of losing her husband for good."

"God, I hate that you went through that," he sighed, burying his face in her shoulder. "I hate that I wasn't here for that."

Meredith took a deep breath as she leaned back to meet his eyes, cupping his face in her hands. "You're here now," she whispered. "And that's all that matters."

"I am here," Derek nodded, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"And I think…I think the exhaustion is catching up with me now because I don't have to worry anymore," Meredith said. "I can just be…me. Not a pretend version of me who's not terrified every moment of the day."

"I'm not leaving," Derek said with a firm nod. "Ever."

"Please don't," Meredith whispered. "Because if there's one thing I've learned in the past few months it's that life sucks without you. And I'm not sure I could do it again."

"Well, it's a good thing you'll never have to," Derek said. "And four the next four months you're going to get spoiled rotten."

"Only the next four months?" Meredith giggled with raised eyebrows. "So you're only going to treat me well until I pop out your son, and then you're going to forget me completely?"

"Of course not," Derek laughed. "But you're getting extra spoiled. Because you've been through a lot in the past few months. And you're giving me a son. So that definitely deserves spoiling."

"And what does this spoiling include?" Meredith asked, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Hmmm…long hot bubble baths," Derek said softly. "Breakfast in bed with the princess. Spa days with Lex."

"Anything else?" Meredith purred, pushing him onto his back and straddling him as he ran his hands down her back.

"Well…there could be some fun things thrown in there too," he murmured. "If you feel up to it."

"Sex is fun," Meredith whispered, her hips moving over his rapidly growing erection.

"Very fun," Derek nodded, reaching up to kiss her. "And this is me starting to make this whole thing up to you. I love you, Mer. Forever. I promise."