I'm definitely not happy about this chapter. I feel like there's something missing. Maybe because it's short, maybe because it's a filler, I just don't really like it.

Anyways, I hope you'll do!

Enjoy!

Chapter 38

The papers on the desk rustled as Derek got through them for one last time. He couldn't believe that this was going to be his last official lecture to these young students.

He looked at the empty classroom and smiled, knowing that despite all the reservations he had before starting, he had really enjoyed the experience. At first, it was a way for him to feel connected to a field he was worried he had to leave forever, then it became fun and challenging, something that he was sure made him a better doctor and a better teacher to the new interns.

A couple of students started shuffling in the room, some chatting in quiet voices, other barely able to keep their eyes open; they were all there though, eager to learn from him, despite his unconventional style and more than a couple of privileges the University of Washington had offered him.

"'Morning Prof. Shepherd." Melinda and Devon, two of his brightest students, greeted him, and he smiled back widely, nodding and greeting as well a trio of other students that sat behind them.

They all looked tired, they surely were, after the exam session they had, but he was sure the case he would propose during this lecture was going to wake them up right away.

Jonah, another member of the trio that always had the quickest response to his quizzes, came in last, hastily throwing his stuff on the floor and panting heavily as he slumped in one of the chairs in the third row, clearly having rushed to class not to be late for the last lecture.

Derek projected the x-rays of the patient they were going to examine today, and there was a loud gasp from each member of the class.

A hand rose, and Derek smirked when he nodded for the young woman to talk.

"Is that..." She mumbled, pointing awkwardly at the image on the white screen.

"A giant spinal cord tumor?" Derek chuckled. "Indeed."

"You removed that?!" Jonah, always the skeptic one, asked in disbelief, clearly having recovered from the mad dash in the room.

"I did." Derek knew he was smiling like a little kid on Christmas day, but he couldn't help it. "The patient has worked with me at Seattle Grace since I moved here, and he still does. He's a radiology technician, and he told me I could use his full name when I disclosed the details on his tumor; just go to Grace and ask for Isaac, you'll surely find him."

"Wow." Devon blurted excitedly, unable to keep his tongue in check. "How long did it last?"

"A while." Derek grinned. "First things first, though. Let's start from the beginning."

Derek went on and on about Isaac's tumor, how unfazed Isaac was about the possibility of never walking again, and the pressure he felt as soon as he stared at the tumor for hours and didn't make a single cut.

"They let you open him up, stare at his cord, then close?" A reddish-haired boy commented, skeptical.

"They strangely did. But the Chief of Surgery was not happy that I disregarded his order of not operating on this tumor. The whole staff of surgeons tried to back me up and support me all through the end. I guess they were excited too."

"You don't see such a tumor every day!" Melinda commented.

"You indeed don't." Derek smiled. "Anyway, my wife told me that if I didn't cut the cord the first time and just stared ad it, it meant I had a way to remove the nastiest, most fascinating tumor of my career."

The kids nodded, their attention all focused on the scan of the draw that Derek had made on the wall of their older bedroom, and he had adamantly wanted framed over the bed in the new one.

"I went over the procedure all night talking it over with my wife, then with every other surgeon that came in the operating room, but I had no idea how to go on." He explained, the students enthralled. "What would you have done?"

The silence was poignant, until he saw a hand raising and he met a pair of very familiar eyes. His face split in a grin, as he nodded for the woman to reply.

"You had to go in blind and cut the vessels that you thought were right." She said confidently, smiling back.

"Exactly, Meredith."

The room turned towards Meredith, their eyes scanning her curiously, as the girl next to her asked her something in a whisper.

"I indeed went in blind. I honestly had no idea what I could have compromised, and it literally made me sick to my stomach at some point, but after more than twenty-four hours of surgery, there was only the last cut to make to remove the tumor. I knew Isaac's nerves weren't compromised after everything I had done, but I could screw it all up with one final cut." He smiled at the gasps. "This is why surgery is such a tricky field, no matter how good you think you are, sometimes you have to go in blind."

"Can you refine instincts?" A guy in the fifth row bellowed.

"Sure you can, with experience and trial-and-error, but in this case I was really at a loss. I even tried to guess it with eenie-meenie-miny-moe, but my resident-slash-doctor thought it was a little silly."

The students chuckled, and so did Derek.

"So the guy was perfectly fine afterward." Devon concluded.

"Yes, he was. He still is. He had a hard life, he deserved some kind of miracle to balance things out." His eyes darted for a second to Meredith, and he clearly saw her rest her hands gently over her stomach, grinning back. "You have to be surgeons for the people, not for the cases. If I had been a cut-hungry surgeon, I would have cut the cord, because honestly, a whole day in surgery is a bit too much, especially when you risk to be fired for it. But as a man and a doctor, I knew I couldn't paralyze the man that had put so much faith in me."

Derek smiled shakily, letting a moment of silence settle in the room.

"Patients are the reason you should be better doctors; awards or money or anything are not about the people. This is why I work, this is why I'm here, trying to teach you something, and this, I hope, is the message that I could pass onto you."

From the first row there was a spontaneous start of a slow clap, then the whole classroom followed suit, Derek's smile brightening as the seconds passed.

"Oh, and the exam is in three weeks." He chuckled, and there was a loud laugh as the claps died down.

The students then began gathering their own notes or laptops, and he immediately noticed how Meredith was crowded by a bunch of students sitting near her, clearly asking her about the trial and the many more surgeries he had described and they had performed together.

He had the bittersweet feeling of a new beginning that left behind a good thing as the first students bid him goodbye, but he couldn't help but be happy that he could return tosurgery once again.

Derek sighed, then approached Meredith and the group of students, and he could clearly see her blush.

"What are you doing here?" He smiled as soon as his eyes met Meredith's, and she smiled back.

"I told you I'd come visit you at your lectures sometimes."

He got near her and kissed her cheek quickly, unwilling to show too much PDA in front of his students but still feeling the craving of a better kiss to his wife.

"I'm glad you came."

"My shift doesn't start in another three hours, and Mark offered to keep Zola for the day and have her and Sofia over for a playdate."

Derek hummed in response, smiling brightly at Meredith.

"These kids think I am some kind of medical celebrity Derek, or something not shy from a cape-wearing superhero. What the heck did you tell them?" Meredith giggled, and she swore she had seen him blush a little.

"The truth, Mere."

"Right." She smirked, squeezing his hand. "I do like your way of explaining cases, even the difficult ones like Isaac's."

"Numbers and medical terms would have been boring otherwise."

"I can't deny I'm still hot for my teacher." Meredith winked, making Derek laugh loudly, and the few students around them turned their heads all simultaneously, stretching soft smiles of their own.

Their conversation was cut short when a group of students came closer to Derek to ask him more questions and congratulate him on the recovery of his wrist, then Meredith's pager beeped. She reluctantly headed in earlier than planned, leaving Derek to a free afternoon.

He spent the rest of his day in between the university campus and libraries, signing the latest paperwork or discussing a few topics with a group of students who showed particular interest in neurology. He guest-lectured in one of the advanced classes, booked the classroom for the exam and began thinking about the questions he could put in the exam. He also passed by Seattle Grace to sign the last of the paperwork and grab a few old documents of diagnosis he wanted to revise in case he wanted to add them to the pile of possible questions for the exam.

He was not home until dinnertime.

Derek left his briefcase in the foyer as soon as he got in, and took a deep breath, aware that something good had ended, and he could focus back on being a surgeon and not just a teacher anymore.

He walked puzzled towards the living room when he heard a faint bass sound he recognized well coming from there. The house was mostly dark, but he knew it was not empty. Meredith's shift ended basically when he had finished guest-lecturing, so he knew her and Zola were at home.

He didn't expect them listening to The Clash though.

His eyes widened as Zola danced funnily in the middle of the room, the coffee table pushed aside, her socked feet padding and jumping on the hardwood floor; Meredith was smiling tiredly and rubbing her stomach gently as she surveyed the whole thing, glowingly beautiful.

"Hey," he greeted, then smirked "Playing my CDs?"

Meredith groaned, blushing all of a sudden and burying her head in her hands.

"Dwancin' Daddy!" Zola exclaimed, putting a wide smile on Derek's face.

"Gosh," Meredith whined "It's the only thing that keeps them quiet;" she motioned to Zola and her stomach in a quick gesture "Classical music my A-S-S."

Derek chuckled, walking in the room to kiss his daughter, wife and unborn child. "So, Zola loves The Clash, and they also make Bird sleep. I'll remind you at the three in the morning feeding when Bird doesn't want to go back to sleep."

"Stop it Derek! They're your children, it's your fault," she pouted "I tried every kind of calming, quiet music. Heck, even the Lamaze techniques Nora told me were worse than London Calling!"

"What about Zola? Just excited to dance?"

"And on a sugar high. A kid brought cake for his birthday at the daycare. Remind me to never do that." She groaned.

Derek sat next to Meredith then and pulled her closer, letting her head fall gently on his shoulder as he rubbed her upper arm.

"I didn't even ask you how he rest of your day was!" She moaned "I'm so full of myself lately..."

"Hey, it's okay, you're growing a child. My child." He smiled, still not fully believing his words until he could rub her stomach. "My day was bittersweet, though. I'm glad to be home."

"You're going to miss your students." Meredith smiled, turning a little towards him

"They were great students;" he sighed wistfully "I told them that if they want they can come and watch me in the OR." He grinned.

"Do I need to book a spot for my charting from now on? Looks like it's gonna be a full house for a while." She grinned, kissing him sweetly.

"There will always be a spot for you." He replied with a dreamy smile, making Meredith roll her eyes as his cheesy remark "I'm sure these two will keep you quite busy in a while though."

"I can't wait." Meredith smiled "It's weird that I'm looking forward to my maternity leave because it means that I won't be kicked from the inside anymore?"

"No, it's not weird." He smirked "We'd spend a little while together, I hope. If Hunt gives me paternity leave so soon," he sighed, "Otherwise I'll take it when you're back to work, so we can wait a little more to enroll Bird in the daycare."

"I think..." Meredith swallowed "Maybe you could take a bunch of vacation days when the baby comes, just to get settled, then take the leave later." She proposed "I'd be happier if Bird is with you and not at the daycare when he or she is barely a couple of months old."

"Bird will be fine either way Mere, but we can think about it." He suggested, brushing his lips fleetingly on her temple. "There's still time."

"Yeah."

I thought I had updated the story much earlier than this, sorry for the slight delay. I got a little sidetracked by the Internet this time around. Nameberry will be the death of me.

So, this one was a bridge chapter, nothing really exciting happened, and I know it could have been way better than this. There are probably a lot of typos too. I apologize. I'll work harder on the next chapter, I just had a busy week. I'm helping out at a summer camp in my community, and it's pretty tiring to look after more than 50 kids from 8 to 5. I finally understand exhausted parents ;)

Thank you for bearing with me and this slightly lousy chapter.

Have a good week!