So, Zola's third birthday is here! I almost risked not putting this up, because basically, I put together this chapter yesterday. I hope I didn't miss a ton of grammar stuff, but well...

Enjoy!


Chapter 54


Meredith felt the tug of awareness forcing her to open her eyes. God, sleep was good. Sleep was bliss. Sleep meant that her baby girl was not demanding food. Sleep...

She blinked slowly, her eyes trying to adjust to the dim morning light, as she allowed herself one more second of darkness. She squinted at the alarm clock, trying to decipher its figures, but the dirty spit-up towel draped over the left half of it didn't help matters. She guessed it was either five past three, or five past eight, and considering it was already light out, she opted for the latter. Her brain felt like cotton candy, further speculation was out of the question.

She turned her gaze slightly lower, and her confusion escalated when she saw that the bassinet was empty, the sleeper forgotten there. She reached out, and she could feel the last remnants of Evelyn's warmth.

Only when sounds reached her ears, specifically a soothing, low-pitched, muffled hum, she knew exactly where her daughter had disappeared. She rolled on her back, then faced rightwards, to look at Derek. He was propped up against the headboard, only his pillow supporting his back, Evelyn draped over his chest. Baby girl was curled up in a ball, barely whining, but he kept his lips close to her ear, whispering calming nonsense, as the baby clutched at his t-shirt and his stubble.

"You're going to make me wake your Mama." Derek whispered in that soft, reverent voice he used only with his daughters, and Meredith cracked a sleepy smile at them.

Waking up wasn't so bad, after all.

She stretched a little, making little purring noises, then she scooted closer to Derek, rubbing his thigh as she rested her cheek on her pillow, peering at him and Evelyn, an amazed smile on her lips. She still couldn't believe that this was her life, especially not when it looked so perfect, sleep-deprivation included in the deal.

"Hey," he breathed out as he turned towards her, an apologetic smile on his lips.

He shifted Evelyn's position a little, so he could look at her better. His eyes were so bright and clear she got lost in them for a second, smiling back like a fool, relishing these stolen moments of quiet. She knew her day was going to be anything but quiet, so she took whatever she could get.

"I'm sorry, I should have brought her downstairs." He continued his apology, watching her with a look that draped over her like a blanket, and covered her in warmth, and a tingling feeling in her spine.

She squirmed under the scrutiny, still too sleepy to actually process her emotions and to keep her flailing hormones in check. "I need to feed her soon, don't worry. I'm amazed she hasn't started screaming already."

Almost as if she had sensed Meredith's awakening, Evelyn grunted, scrunched up her nose and rubbed it with her fist, before she let out a miserable whine.

"Come here," Meredith said quietly with a knowing smile, moving around a couple of pillows before she propped herself up next to Derek, scooting even closer to him.

She took Evelyn from his arms, settled her familiar weight in the crook of her arm, then she offered her breast. The only sounds then were their breathing and Evelyn's suckling, maybe a few birds chirping outside their window.

Meredith remained next to Derek, their shoulders touching, and she was grateful he had the entire day off. She missed sharing such intimate but mundane moments with him. It was practically impossible to catch him before he went to work, since it was exactly in between Evelyn's morning feedings, and she was usually conked out.

"Are you okay?" She looked at him carefully, then. His staring seemed more intense now that Evelyn was in her arms, a flicker of something different there, something she was still too sleepy to discern.

"Our little girl is three today." He shook his head, almost mournfully, but smiling nonetheless. "I'm soaking up all the baby we can get out of Evvie, before Zola will stop being cuddly." Meredith felt her throat constrict as she processed his words.

It's not like she had forgotten Zola's milestone, but up until yesterday night, before falling asleep, being three was a celebration. Now three meant one year closer to preschool, to the day when she wouldn't want to be cuddled anymore, a day when she would grow up and start being a mean teenager, and then she'll get married, and...

"Derek," Meredith swallowed overwhelmed, all of a sudden even more grateful for Evelyn's weight in her arms.

"I know, Mere. I know."

They didn't really need more words than those, and even if they did, they were loudly interrupted by the slam of their bedroom door.

"I three!" Zola appeared from the door, jumping with her hands in the air, three fingers each marking the occasion, her smile bright and contagious.

Perhaps it was not so bad seeing her grow up either.

She had thrown her party dress over her pajamas, and she was now sporting cupcakes pants and sleeves under the sweetest dress, and the price tag dangled from her back. Derek chuckled, and Meredith had a hard time containing her laughter.

"Come here my little three-year-old clown!"

Derek welcomed Zola's giggling little body in his arms, and tickled her mercilessly. She squirmed and wriggled in his hold, but she made no sign to wanting it to stop, until she was breathless and unable to form words.

"Peas!"

"Peas? You want peas all day for your birthday, ZoZo?" Derek teased her, blowing loud raspberry kisses on her stomach, making Zola laugh even louder.

"No, no, no! Hep, Mama!" Zola begged, holding out her arms, and Meredith giggled at her pleading expression. She settled a now full Evelyn against her shoulder, then saved Zola from Derek's tentacles, winking at her husband playfully.

Zola sighed in relief, climbing all the way up into Meredith's lap, resting her nose a breath away from Evelyn's. "Safe 'n found."

Meredith and Derek laughed, and Zola had to hold onto Meredith's t-shirt not to fall off her lap, as Meredith laughed so hard.

"You mean safe and sound, uh?" Zola sighed dramatically and almost rolled her eyes at Derek, who chuckled. "You can't seem to get any saying straight, just like your Mama."

"Hey!" Meredith retorted, "She's right you know, it definitely makes more sense the way she said it."

Derek dropped the issue simply by kissing Meredith's temple, and the crown of Zola's head, a grin glued to his face. "Happy birthday, baby girl." Derek whispered.

Zola turned to him with a smile and a frown, making a face at him and asserting: "I no baby."

"You will always be our baby girl, Zola." Meredith smiled at her stunned face, and simply squeezed her closer to her, the weight of her daughters against her something so magical she wanted to remember forever. "Happy birthday, Lovebug."

Zola reveled in the tenderness of the moment, and it was only a happy good morning gurgle from Evelyn that broke the quiet.

"What does the birthday girl want for breakfast?" Derek asked, disentangling from the covers and the warmth his family provided.

"Cake!" Zola squealed, her excitement contagious.

"Not quite time for cake yet. All your guests still have to come." Meredith admonished with a smile.

"What about we go downstairs and we see if Nana has made something special for you?" Derek saved the day, and it took Zola a mere second to jump into his arms and scramble downstairs.

"She's already hyper, and she hasn't had cake yet." Meredith sighed, combing Evelyn's hair.

"I know. Believe me, I remember my nieces on their third birthdays."

"At least you weren't the one who had to wrangle them into bed."

"True." He laughed. "Freebie pass is gone." He smiled, and in that expression he melted all the love and the excitement over the fact that he was finally the father of the birthday girl. He seemed to have waited this day his whole life.

He kissed her lips quickly, before he headed to the kitchen and left diaper duty to his wife.

Meredith smiled at the now permanent fixture of Carolyn in her kitchen as soon as she walked downstairs, and it became even wider when she noticed the thoughtful breakfast she was feeding her daughter.

"Mama!" Zola squealed. "I gots three pacakes. They like this," she beamed, holding up her three fingers, and Meredith indeed recognized a three-shaped pancake in her plate, next to a few leftovers bite from her first.

"Wow, Nana makes the best pancakes, uh?" Meredith grinned, giving Carolyn a warm, grateful look.

"Birthday pacakes!"

"Yes, Lovebug. Birthday pancakes." Meredith placed Evelyn in her car seat, then slid in her stool between her daughters, kissing the top of Zola's head.

"Carolyn, are you sure you have everything? We are still in time to go out and buy the cake." Meredith asked for the umpteenth time.

"Nonsense. I'm making my granddaughter's cake, there's no trouble."

"Mere, she cooks for more than twenty people usually, seven or eight kids plus adults are a breeze. And it's all finger food." Derek grinned, watching acceptance settle into Meredith's look.

"I feel like we're exploiting you."

"I came here just for this. You all deserve some mothering. Or grandmothering."

Meredith sighed, a gentle, warm feeling wrapping around her. She would make sure Zola and Evelyn knew exactly what it meant to have a grandmother, on top of the boatload of family they had already. Family felt good.

A small sense of pride swelled in her chest, for giving her daughters at least a little bit more than her mother had ever given her. They had a support system, whenever she became crappy at the whole mothering thing, and it was enough to give her a strange sense of peace and accomplishment.

Whenbreakfast had been polished, Meredith and Zola headed out for their daily walk, but this time Derek and Evelyn joined them.

Zola hopped excitedly on the path to the lake, the trail already memorized, and her parents gave her the first tinge of freedom as they let her wander ahead of them of a few steps. Meredith kept her hand tucked firmly into Derek's, as Derek let his free hand linger under Evelyn in her baby wrap, fastened around his torso.

"Do you need help in setting up the party?"

"No, you just have to distract Zola and keep her away from the living room and the kitchen."

"I can do that. I can give her a bath and change her into the dress, too."

"I promised I'd braid her hair." Meredith smiled softly, eying Zola, who had bent on the ground and was yanking away a handful of flowers. She skipped back to them and handed the makeshift bouquet to Meredith, and she accepted it with a grin, ignoring the dirt still dangling from some of them.

"She's so perfect." Derek mumbled, his eyes showing all the teary amazement his tone had managed to convey.

Meredith smiled at that, her gaze a little misty too. "She is."

They finally sat on the gravel-covered shore of the lake on a big, flat rock, staring the simmering water and trying to spot the fishes. Zola talked up a storm, the excitement and amazement of her tone never failed to surprise her parents, who tried to answer all the million questions she asked them. They even allowed Zola to dip her toes in the freezing water, just because it was her birthday.

Their morning passed by quickly, and before they knew it, the sun was high in the sky and Zola was ready to come back home for lunch.

"She knows the path pretty well." Derek commented, his hand still holding Meredith's as they walked back, Meredith's turn to carry Evelyn.

"Seems like it. We usually go down the lake during the walks, but I'm trying to change the route, or we'll get bored soon."

"There's a beautiful trail starting from behind the house. It leads straight to the clearing where I had the trailer, then goes up the hill. Have you explored it yet?"

"Nope. There aren't cliffs or bear caves on the way, right?"

Derek chuckled. "No cliffs or bears, I promise."

Meredith eyed him suspiciously, studying his face, and he smirked. "You're unbelievable," she mumbled. "You'd send your wife and daughter into a bear cave."

Derek laughed, but she was dead serious. "I saw a deer once. No bears. And it's a safe trail, I promise."

"Trail for hiking boots?"

"Maybe, yeah. It's a little more challenging than the back and forth from the lake."

"We'll wait a little, then. I'll try it by myself first."

"I tried it, it's safe. I promise. I went there last time I went fishing with Mark."

"That's why there was no trout in the freezer." Meredith grinned.

"He wanted to walk and talk and...yeah."

They remained silent for a moment, sharing a look, then Meredith felt she had to ask: "How is he doing now?"

Derek hummed, the pleasant hum he always made when he was satisfied of something, and Meredith relaxed considerably. "He's still dating Holly, even though I have no idea how serious the whole thing is. I think we should let him come to us with the news."

"So I can't corner him and ask about her today, uh?"

Derek chuckled. "No, I'd say no. I think it's pretty new too him too, and I don't want to scare him -or her- off."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Daddy, daddy!" Zola interrupted them, and they frowned at her, crouched in the middle of the trail, staring at the ground. "Look!"

They walked closer, and noticed how there were marks on the freshly moved dirt. Derek's face lit up as he crouched next to his daughter, mimicking her hunched pose.

"They are the marks of a deer, Lovebug. Good job spotting them." He grinned. "Looks like it's a big one."

"Deer?"

"Yeah, see how they're shaped?"

"Pwetty." Zola nodded, giggling.

"Hop closer to me." He ordered gently, and Zola followed his instructions. "See? You leave marks too."

Zola studied the ground, then balanced herself precariously on Derek's shoulder, trying to see the sole of her feet, only to fall on her bottom. She giggled happily, but then she was able to see the pattern on her shoes, and she awed in delight.

The rest of their walk back was spent hopping over the freshly moved earth and tracking down her footprints. She was careful to stomp hard enough to leave a mark every step of the way, and both parents weren't surprised when Zola collapsed in exhaustion at nap time.

That nap was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because it allowed Meredith and Carolyn to set up the tea table for the girls and the tables for the food in the living room; a curse, because it gave Zola plenty of energy to wreck havoc for the rest of the day.

The guest started arriving around four, and Zola was already bouncing on the porch to welcome them in. Derek watched amused and terrified the way she ushered her best friend Sofia into the house, almost like she hadn't been there the day before.

"Hey man," Mark grinned, locking his car with the remote and walking up the porch. He was holding a gift in his hands, wrapped in sparkling paper, almost too perfectly if they knew the way Zola was going to rip the paper apart.

"They have already disappeared inside. It's uncanny how much they remind me of us."

Mark laughed. "I hope Sofia will never sleep with Zola's husband in the future, but for the rest, I'm plenty okay with them reminding you of us."

"Mark, it's her third birthday, don't throw around words like husband and cheating when you're talking about my little girl." There was amusement in his tone, but Mark could see he was pretty serious.

"Hey, I'm going to ask for your help when Sofia starts dating. You're good with sharp blades."

"Good." Derek grinned.

"Where's the food?"

"In the kitchen, with Mom and Meredith. You need to wait the other guests."

"No fair. I came here first because I wanted dibs on the best food."

Mark resorted to pouting, which only made Derek laugh, and lead his best friend on the lawn chairs outside, waiting for the other guests.

One by one all the children arrived, mixed with most members of their Seattle family, Edda and her brood and even Beth. Last of them all were Thatcher and Laura, while Molly was still stuck at work.

It was all a bit chaotic right from the start. While the guest girls settled around the coffee table with their real tea and real pastries, finally enjoying a real tea party, despite the cups were still made of plastic, the adults seemed to be noisier.

The chatter filled the living room and the porch, voices bouncing around the walls, as stories were exchanged.

Only when Zola came closer to Derek and argued: "Daddy, we gots a pwaty goin' on. Quiet." that the whole room erupted in giggles and decided to move outside for good, leaving only the girls and the food inside.

Derek watched the whole party going on inside from the French doors, amazed that Meredith was sitting in the midst of all those little girls, cradling Evelyn in her lap and sipping real tea from fake cups, just to make her daughter happy. Her smile was so bright, her eyes so green and her laugh so terse, he couldn't stop staring.

"Never thought I'd see the day." Cristina commented, gulping down her beer straight from the bottle.

"Don't mention it, okay?" Derek looked at her in confirm, but he had never learned to read Cristina Yang. "She'll feel self conscious and covered in mommy hormones and..."

"It will not be pretty." Cristina smirked. "You changed her, McDreamy."

"No, she just showed a layer that she has never allowed herself to show. It's all her." Derek smiled, awe still filling his gaze. "She changed because she wanted to change, not because I wanted her to change."

Cristina sighed, her scowl contrasting with the bell laugh of Meredith inside. "Can you tell her I want to talk to her, alter?"

"You can stay longer, when the kids have left, talk to her then. I won't even make you clean the dishes." Derek smirked, but Cristina remained expressionless, before she left.

He took a deep breath, before he forced himself to play the good host and go talk to Isla's dad, a guy in radiology with whom Derek had worked a bunch of times. Still, his gaze kept being pulled inside where Meredith was, and he couldn't focus on the conversation unless he was facing away from the house.

He felt a hand on the small of his back, before a warm, humming body settled next to his and lavender filled his nostrils.

"You emerged." He grinned, as he brushed his lips against Meredith's temple.

"Yeah, Evvie started fussing and I gave her to Bailey." Meredith laughed.

"What?"

"Hey, she offered. You know Evvie likes to be with people all the time, my arm was numb."

Derek shook his head at his wife's sincerity, for a second ignoring Beth and the conversation they had going on.

"How was the tea?"

"Good. You picked a good blend, the girls were ecstatic." Derek regarded her with an amused look, and she rolled her eyes. "Zola wanted Evvie to take part, even without the tea. She was being a good big sister."

"Uh uh."

"And I didn't want them to scald themselves with the tea."

"Of course." Derek mocked her, but he was allowed to make a big deal out of the moment, he was the only one brave enough to comment on it. His gaze softened then, turning tender all of a sudden as he brushed away a piece of hair from her face. "You looked so cute in the middle of all the pink and the sparkles."

"Zola wants you in there, later." Meredith's turn to smirk at him, and he groaned, the moment clearly ruined. "The princess crown is waiting for you."

"Uh, a crown for Dr. Shepherd." Beth butted in the conversation, a gleam in her eyes. "I'd say you should have posed with it instead of your scrub cap in the trial article."

"He would have looked dashing, I'll tell you." Meredith and Beth ganged up on him, and he tried to hide the rosy blush of his cheeks.

"Here I was, trying to romance you, and you bring up princess crowns." He pouted, but it only made Beth and Meredith giggle louder.

"I think this is my cue to leave, before he bans me from the house or lowers my babysitting wage." Beth laughed. "I'm gonna make myself scarce and go share a cookie with Zola."

"Thank you for stopping by, Zola was elated when I told her you'd come."

"I promised I'd come and see the baby, and what a better occasion than a tea party?" Beth grinned. "She's super cute, by the way."

"We know. We're doomed for the next twenty years."

Beth laughed with Meredith as she retreated, and Derek couldn't help but pull Meredith closer and share her joy with him. They embraced in the middle of the party, not caring about the awed looks they were receiving, simply happy to be celebrating their daughter's third birthday.

"Cristina wants to talk to you." Derek whispered, running his hand down her back, letting it dip low, then he sneaked it under her sweater.

"Yeah?" Meredith asked, her breath hitching a little as Derek kissed the back of her ear.

"She seemed...sad." He continued, moving his kisses up to her cheek, then finally finding her lips.

"Stop feeling me up, so I can talk to her." Meredith pretended to be annoyed, but it only made Derek's smirk wider.

"But I like feeling you up."

"I know." She whined, then sighed loudly. "Only one more week of celibacy."

"One more week."

Meredith bit her lip, but Derek couldn't understand if it was sexual frustration or something else lingering there. She still looked breathtaking though.

"Right; Cristina." Meredith shook herself from her inappropriate thoughts, and Derek laughed as he let her go, watching as she almost tripped on her way to the chair where Cristina was sitting, talking to Alex animatedly.

"If you like the intern, go for it. You're whining like a girl." Meredith heard Cristina say, and she smiled at that. "Look at Meredith and Shepherd. She was an intern."

"Jo is not like that. They look like lovesick teenagers." Alex grumbled.

"Hey!" Meredith retorted. "I still love my husband despite he made me carry around then shove a little girl out of my vajay-jay, do you have a problem with that?"

"No!" They replied in a chorus, before Alex left to grab more beer, or to escape Meredith's hormones.

Meredith's smile sobered when she noticed Cristina's scowl. "Derek said you wanted to talk to me."

Cristina remained silent, sipping her beer, before she turned to Meredith gravely. "I think I'm losing Owen."

"What?" Meredith's eyes widened.

"Okay, we might be divorcing for the legal issues of the plane crash, but-"

"Wait, what?" Meredith echoed. "Divorcing?"

"Yeah. Formally, so I can let the insurance pay."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Meredith frowned, a sliver of hurt passing through her features.

"You were so busy, and it was just a formality."

"I'm never too busy, Cristina." The beat of silence was heave then, and Meredith knew she had to prod Cristina for more. "If you're only formally divorcing, why do you think you're losing him?"

"Did Derek tell you about the pile up two days ago?"

"Yeah, told me a family of three came in, the mother died a couple of days after, the dad is barely hanging on and the kid came out unscathed."

"Them. Yeah." Cristina looked uncharacteristically thoughtful.

"What they have to do with Owen?"

"The kid, Ethan..." Cristina sighed. "Owen's been following him around, making a bed for him, bending rules to keep him next to his father and not calling social services. He's probably going into the system if his grandmother can't take him and his father doesn't wake up."

"Still..."

"He's acting like a father." Cristina admitted mournfully. "I see him with Ethan, and he acts in the same way he acts around your kids, if not more. He's too involved with him,and..."

"And he makes a pretty good father." Meredith finished for her friend, watching the pained expression on her face.

"I can't have kids, Mere."

"I know." Meredith squeezed her hand sadly, because she knew. She knew what it could be like for Cristina to become a mother, but she also knew that she'd be better than her own mother ever was, if she let herself go. "I can return the favor, you know?"

"What?" Cristina frowned, suddenly losing the train of the conversation.

"You're making sure I don't turn into my mother. If he happens to ask for kids and you want to do it, I can return the favor."

"Meredith, you were drinking tea with Zola today, from a fake tea set. You threw a party for her. I haven't seen you at the hospital in five weeks. You are not going to be your mother." Cristina's tone was resolute, and Meredith smiled softly at that.

"Still, my offer is on the table."

Cristina nodded, almost grateful, and Meredith knew that she needed more time to figure out this whole thing. It was messy and complicated, and she was grateful she was not her friend right in that precise moment.

"You know, I miss my mom sometimes." Meredith sighed, her eyes darting inside. "I know she wouldn't be sipping tea with Zola on Sundays like Thatcher does, sometimes, but I think she would have been a cool grandmother."

"How? Sneaking your daughters into surgery?"

Meredith chortled at that. "We did something fun, once every blue moon. Like museum tours or trips around the States. I knew she was there for consults, but sometimes she took me sightseeing too, and I loved when we spent time together. It became tense when I hit my teens and dyed my hair pink, but before, when I was seven or eight, things weren't so bad."

"Mere, your childhood sucked."

"Yeah, but she was my mom. Maybe she would have been proud of me, you know?"

"Because you turned out to be a better human being than she was?"

"Because I fought for the things she fled from."

Alex came back after that, so their conversation was archived, and Meredith's focus turned back on her daughter inside the house, playing with her friends and the occasional adult.

"Shepherd is in a tiara." Alex announced with a smirk, and Meredith rolled her eyes.

"You're lucky I forbid Zola to give you her diamond necklace as soon as you stepped in the house."

"What?" Alex paled.

"There was a dress code. Sparkles were mandatory, and boys weren't allowed, unless they had sparkles on."

Alex laughed. "I might be working with kids all day, but yours? She's hilarious."

"Don't I know it?"

She glanced back at Zola, laughing hysterically as she balanced her tea and a cookie, and she knew that even if Ellis wouldn't have been proud, she certainly was proud of herself. For the moment that was more than enough. It made her feel like she could burst at the seams with love for Zola, especially when she tucked her in that night.

Zola had been hyper and unable to keep still and lay under the covers, but she had gladly listened to Meredith read her all the new books she had gotten as a birthday present, her eyelids drooping only halfway through the last one.

"Thank you for da pwarty, Mama." Zola whispered gently in Meredith's ear, as she finally succumbed to sleep. Meredith's world aligned then, and she knew she was exactly where she belonged, crappy mom or not. "I love tea." Zola mumbled, a sleepy smile on her face as she definitely closed her eyes, snuggling even deeper into her embrace.

"And I love you, my big girl."


I know I didn't delve much into the whole birthday party, but I wasn't sure you'd want to hear three-year-olds talking about tea and princesses for 4,000 words. I decided to focus this more on the parenting side of the birthday, and on the fact that it was basically a family gathering.

I have wanted to include the fake divorce of Cristina and Owen for a while, and I have plans for them, just like I have plans for Mark and the whole blossoming romance of Alex and Jo. What I don't have plans for is the whole lawsuit story, and changing the name of the hospital. First of all, because Mark is still alive, but also because I don't want to bore you with the details. Nine months are acceptable for a lawsuit to go on, so I'll resolve that quickly, but I introduced the topic here, because I felt like I put the whole premise of the story aside, and turned this story into a blissful chronicle of Meredith and Derek as parents. There's going to be bliss, but I wanted to pick up topics I had forgotten a little.

I'm still open for your opinions on a sequel, and well, I think the story is going to end up being roughly 80 chapters, more if I feel I have to stretch a few storylines, so there's plenty of time for you to decide.

Thank you guys for staying on board!