After lunch Derek and Meredith, along with Jazzy and Sammy, climbed into Derek's landrover. They led the way out to his land.

The drive was quiet, and the convoy of Shepherds followed in the cars behind them. They worked meticulously not to lose each other in traffic.

On pulling up in front of their house, Derek proceeded to move to Merediths side to open her door, while Jazzy grabbed the wheel chair out.

He helped Meredith into the chair as the others climbed out of their cars.

They all stood in awe of the place that Nancy had vaguely described - but at the time there was only a trailer on it.

Margaret moved towards Derek with a big grin, "lets look inside." she encouraged

Derek shrugged, before taking the handles of Meredith's wheel chair and pushing their way towards the house.

The Shepherd family roamed between each and every room quite dazzled by the way Derek had had the house furished

"The house is amazing Derek" Margaret gushed, and all the girls nodded, as they walked out of the house and on to the verandah.

"And the view is spectacular." Kathleen added

Meredith giggled a little at their reactions.

"Is he back in your good graces?" she asked, "after all - he did do all of this so it was ready for when the babies came." she smiled.

They all looked around at each other, before finally Margaret nodded. "The houes is worthy of my grand children." Margaret siad with a smirk. "Just dont screw it up Derek." she warned, "You have an amazing young fiance, Meredith welcome to the family."

Meredith had been surprised with the warm welcoming that she was now recieving from the Shepherd clan. She had expected from the night before, that they would be more inclined to rid her from their lives, but instead they were welcoming her with open arms.

The thought at first scared her, she wondered why they would be doing so much to welcome her, when she was obviously so scary and damaged. Or dark and twisty, which ever descriptiong they were opting to go with.

But it seemed that after seeing the house, not only had they welcomed her, but they really had backed off of Derek. The boys were quite surprised at how quickly they had retreated. "You've pulled it off." The boys had joked, despite the fact that they weren't in the complete clear yet. "Now you've just got to survive christmas."

Derek had groaned at the thought. Christmas was always one of his favourite holidays, but things had changed and he now wasn't sure whether he really wanted to even celebrate it at all.

Derek had broke off from the group when they had all returned to the house, and he had ventured upstairs, just needing some peace and quiet, away from the charade that tended to be his family. He loved them he really did, but at times it got too much for him.

He thought about what a quiet christmas would be like, if he could get away with just being at home with Meredith and the kids. He had already decided on a date that they would marry, making life relatively simple. The babies would be around 3 months old then, assuming they weren't premature, and it would make it easy for them to leave them for the night with Izzie, or someone, so they could at least have their wedding night. He had already mentioned to Richard that they would need another holiday later, where they could take the kids on a psuedo honeymoon, but that wouldn't be until the kids were closer to one.

He obviously hadn't told Meredith what he had planned just yet, so far the wedding was 6 months away. He knew he needed to discuss this with her, but there was just too much going on at the moment.

"Just here will do Mark" he heard Meredith say, and he heard her groan a little.

Derek flared with jealousy and interest in wanting to know what his best friend and brother was doing with his fiance.

"You good Mer?" he heard him ask.

"Yeah i'm good." he heard her moan.

Derek moved off of the bed and walked to the door, he opened it to see Mark supporting Meredith. He looked at the pair curiously.

"Thanks Mark." she said with a smile as she walked towards Derek.

Derek nodded at Mark who quickly turned and left.

"What was that?" he asked quietly as she walked past him into the bedroom, and eased herself down onto the bed.

"That was me getting carried up the stairs to see my fiance." she told him as she settled back on the pillows.

Meredith was completely oblivious to his jealousy.

"Why was Mark there?" he asked.

Meredith stopped to really look at him. "Oh my god your jealous." she exclaimed. "Seriously babe, it was him carrying me up the stairs." she said with a giggle.

"I dont get jealous." derek muttered as he moved closer to the bed.

"Oh you do, and your so cute." she told him as she eached for his hand and pulled him down onto the bed.

"I dont do cute." he told her defiantly.

"Oh you do, and it's hot." she told him as she leaned in to kiss him.

"So what are you doing up here?" she asked him as she pulled back.

"Thinking." he told her as he laid back beside her.

"Me too." she said quietly.

"About what?" he asked, not wanting to share his thoughts just yet.

"Baby names." she told him "i have a boys one that i like, and also a suggestion for a girls one."

"I have a girls one." he replied, "i wanted to tell you, but i wasn't sure."

"Well i like Austin James for a boy." she said sincerely. "I like the name austin, it reminds me of australia, and james because, that is Richards middle name, and according to your mom that was your dads too."

Derek nodded, "thats sweet mer, you didnt name him after my dad."

"I named him after a small continent, and both our fathers." she told him with a giggle.

"Well i like it." he told her as he leaned in to give her a kiss.

"Whats yours?" she asked.

"Bailey Grace." he told her.

"Bailey after Miranda, because she has seen us through thick and thin, even when we were both being fools, and Grace after the hospital, where we met." he reasoned.

"I love it." she told him as she leaned in to give him a kiss.

"and i love you." he replied.

Meredith giggled, "how sweet." she stirred as she settled back into his arms.

"My families downstairs." he told her.

Meredith nodded. "They sent me up to sleep." she replied.

"Thats good." he answered as she rested a head on his chest and closed her eyes. The sound of his heart beating lulling her. She could see them doing this for the rest of their lives.