Ch. 44: Is Vacation Really A Vacation?

A/N: Ok, I was wondering how far along everyone was and I'm the author and I had no clue. This Chapter is set in March (everything else as been in Febuary) and Mer and Izzie are 8 months, Addie is 7 and Callie is 5. ENJOY!

The shrill ring of the alarm clock woke Meredith up at a mere 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. Groaning, she turned over, took one look at the time and slammed her hand on the snooze button. It was way too early for her to be up; and she was used to early wake-up calls and all-nighters. But having a baby who took half your energy made it difficult. A loud snore from Derek's side of the bed told her that he was still sleeping like a baby. Trying to close her eyes and get at least 10 more minutes asleep, was shut down when her baby gave a hard kick that immediately woke Meredith up, along with the alarm clock going off again. Mentally cursing her self and Derek for booking an early flight, she rolled over and attempted to get out of bed. Just topping 8 months, doing normal things was getting harder and harder for her to do. Finally getting out of bed, Meredith waddled to the shower and turned on the water. Stepping into the shower, Meredith's body cringed, then relaxed as the hot water ran down her back. After a few short minutes of alone time, Derek jumped in and joined her.

"Look who finally decided to wake up." Meredith commented as she reached over him and took the shampoo.

"Well, with all the noise you were making, it's kinda hard to sleep." He joked, taking the shampoo away from her and started to massage it into his own scalp. Meredith stuck her tongue out at him as she continued to condition her hair. As Derek reached for the conditioner, his hand brushed her breast. Meredith gave him a skeptical look as he smiled. Sighing, she decided that a little sex in the morning couldn't hurt. After moving close to him, he smiled as he began to kiss the crevice of her neck. She moaned out his name, as his hands began to roam her body. Her hands began to tangle up in his hair as he began to do his special "morning sex moves." Right before he entered her, Meredith pulled away. After a few seconds of recovering back to normal state, Derek stared at her.

"What was that for?" He asked. Meredith just shrugged as she headed for the shower door.

"You kept a major secret from me; I'm not about to forget that. So now, I'm keeping sex from you until the baby is born. No sex for one month." She said "matter-of-factly". Derek's face fell.

"Mer…" He began but he was shortly cut off.

"Sorry Derek, but your choice comes with consequences. No sex. Now, we're going to enjoy this weekend just the 3 of us. You know, enjoy the scenery and relax, WITHOUT SEX."

Derek sighed.

"Fine, but knowing you and your hormones, you're going to be begging me to do it tonight."

Meredith rolled her eyes.

"I do have some self control you know." She said, as she exited the shower.

"Uh huh, sure." Derek replied as he turned off the shower.

"What? You don't think I can do it?" Meredith asked as she wrapped the towel around her body and headed for her closet, looking for one of her maternity dresses.

"To be honest with you, no I don't." Derek said, drying his hair.

Meredith came out of the closet, with the towel wrapped around her head and a black maternity dress in place of the towel on her body.

"We've been married for about 10 years now Derek. We've been through stretches without sex." She said, trying to defend herself. Now it was Derek's turn to laugh.
"Yes, but you've never gone a month." He called, as he entered the closet himself, and emerged a few minutes later in one of his Polo shirts and jeans.

Meredith huffed as she put on her make-up and dried her hair.

"I can so go a month without sex. It's you I'm worried about." She said, as she reached for her toothbrush. Derek smiled as he began to style his own hair. Meredith rolled her eyes as she finished her teeth brushing, and packed her toothbrush in her bathroom tote. A few minutes later, both Shepherds were heading down the stairs, Meredith carrying their backpacks, that held both the laptops and medical journals, while Derek tried to balance 3 suitcases ontop of each other.

"Meredith, all I'm saying is that neither of us can go a month without sex." Derek said defeated as he set down the suitcases and accepted the coffee that Meredith brought out.

"Ha, we'll see about that. Now c'mon, we're almost late. We have to be there-"

"2 hours before the plane leaves I know." Derek said mockingly as he picked up the suitcases again and headed out the door. Meredith did one last check of the house before closing and locking the door and headed for the car. After a few more minutes of adjusting, they were on their way to Seattle's airport.

"So I guess our sex discussion is over?" Meredith asked, provoking Derek as he entered the highway. Derek let out a small laugh.

"All I'm saying, again, is that one of us is going to crack and we're going to have sex either tonight or tomorrow, or hell maybe even on the plane."

This got Derek a slap on the arm as he tired to exit the highway.

"WHAT? It's true."

"Derek Shepherd you are the most….most…"

But she was at a loss for words, too mad that he was stating the obvious. She knew that they couldn't go a month without sex, but that didn't mean that she couldn't try right?

After parking in the long-term parking lot, Derek turned off the car and faced Meredith.

"C'mon Mer, you know I'm right. And besides, let's just try to enjoy this vacation. We only got 1 more month till the baby. You know I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't love you."

Meredith laughed as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I never said I didn't love you. I just said I didn't want to have sex with you." She said simply, as she rolled out of the car, just as Airport Security came over and helped them with their bags. Acknowledging his defeat, Derek shrugged his shoulders, as he followed his very pregnant wife and the guy with their bags, hoping that this sex-restriction wasn't going to last very long.

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Christina entered the scrub room just shortly after 3 a.m. dead tired. She had just finished a grueling 12-hour surgery to remove an abscess that was blocking her patient's airway. Unfortunately, the abscess was so large, it was crushing the nerves in her abdomen also. Christina sighed as she turned on the water, but was too tired to scrub down. Lucky for her, Dr. Mitchell, the neurosurgeon on call, walked into the room all-cherry and happy.

"Wonderful surgery Dr. Yang. Looks like she'll make a full recovery."

Christina opened one eye and grunted her reply. Mitchell gave her a weird look as he continued to scrub down.

"Aren't you going to…you know? Scrub out?" Mitchell asked, still giving her a weird look. Christina grunted again as Mitchell dried his hands and opened the scrub door, only to be welcomed to Burke.

"Chief. What are you still doing here?"

"I couldn't pass up an opportunity to watch a surgery like that. Great work Mitchell."

Mitchell smiled proudly as he exited the room and walked down the hall. Turning to face Christina, Burke smiled as he watched his wife fall asleep over the sink.

"I-am-so-damn-tired." Christina muttered, as Burke put his arms around her.

"Shhhhh I know. I know. But that was a great surgery."

All Burke got as a response was a soft snore. Burke laughed as he took off Christina's surgery gown and scrubbed her out. He took her in his arms and carried her out of the scrub room. Normally, we would just wake her up, but it was a long and hard surgery, and the patient did crash twice. Kicking open his office door, he set her down gently on the couch and pulled the blanket over her. Christina cuddled on the couch, emitting another snore. Burke cracked a smile as he headed for the door. Getting one last look of Christina, he closed the door. Sighing under his own exhausting, Burke headed down to an on-call room where the kids were. Walking into the room, he smiled when he saw his kids on one side of the room ,and Meredith and Derek's kids on the other. He walked over to Amelia and Christopher pulling the blanket over their shivering bodies. After kissing them each on top of the head, he turned to his "other" kids. After seeing that they were sleeping just fine, he climbed up on the top bunk and snuggled under his own blanket. He knew that he should be with Christina, but there was no room in his office to sleep, and he knew that she would kill him if she found out that she fell asleep in the scrub room. Smiling, he fell asleep instantly, knowing that he was only guaranteed a few decent hours asleep before someone or something woke him up.

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"Mer. Meredith. Honey?" Derek tried to gently shake Meredith awake from her deep sleep. Meredith groaned as she opened one eye to see Derek hovering over her.

"Derek, there's this thing called personal space." Meredith muttered as she tired to awake from her uncomfortable position. Derek smiled as he settled back into his own seat and prepared for the decent.

"Are we about to land?" Meredith asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Ya. The attendant just came by and told me to wake you and prepare to land."

Meredith nodded as she tired to adjust herself in the small airplane seats.

"I swear, I'm calling up American Airlines when we get home and filing a complaint. How the hell is a pregnant woman supposed to sit in these things?" Meredith grumbled. Derek laughed, as he began to gather up their carry-on items. As he laid them in his lap, a soft buzzing noise was emitted from the bottom of the backpack. Meredith turned to him and gave him a very annoyed look.

"Please don't tell me that's your pager." She gritted through her teeth.

Derek smiled sheepishly, trying to cover up the noise.

"Derek Gavin Shepherd." Meredith said closing her eyes, trying to keep her blood pressure down.

"Now Meredith, you never know if-"

"DEREK! WE'RE GOING ON VACATION! WE'RE ABOUT WHAT AN HOUR FROM SEATTLE? HOW CAN EVEN THINK THAT IF THERE WAS A REAL EMERGENCY THAT WE'D MAKE IT BACK IN TIME?"

By the time Meredith stopped yelling, everyone on the plane was staring at them. Closing her eyes, Meredith tried to take deep breaths. Derek slid down in his seat, trying to disappear.

"Well, aren't you going to see who it is?" Meredith asked, still mad. Derek sighed as he unzipped the backpack and hunted for the pager.

"Sir, we really need you to put that up. We're about to land." The flight attendant said, trying to hide her laughter. Derek nodded, as he pulled out the pager. The attendant smiled as she turned and headed back up to the front of the plane.

"Well?" Meredith said after a few seconds as she calmed down.

"It's just telling me that my battery is about to die." Derek muttered, throwing the pager back into the backpack. Meredith nodded as she held onto the seat of the plane as it started towards the runway.

"I really hate you right now." Meredith said, as her knuckles turned white from gripping the arm rests so hard. Derek didn't say anything, knowing it was best not to speak at that moment.

Finally the plane had landed, and Meredith and Derek were outside of the Airport, bags and all, waiting for a taxi.

"Couldn't you just of rented a car?" Hissed Meredith, one hand on her stomach, the other one on her hip.

"Are you going to be like this the whole trip?" Derek asked, teasingly. But this earned him a slap on the arm.

"OW! What the hell was that for?" He asked, alarmed as he rubbed his shoulder.

"For being an ass." Meredith muttered, as the taxi pulled up.

"Someone's cranky since she hasn't gotten any sex." Derek grunted, as he hoisted the suitcases into the trunk. This, consequently, earned him another slap.

"MEREDITHI!" Derek cried.

"Don't mess with me." She hissed as she slid into the seat. Derek rolled his eyes, knowing not to go any farther unless he wanted some serious nerve damage to his arm, slid in next to her.

"Where to sir?" The taxi cab driver asked in very bad English.

"Kachess Lake. The suite cabin." Derek mumbled as he handed the driver a hundred dollar bill.

"Yessir."

The ride up to the lake was only about 20 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. Neither Meredith nor Derek said a word. Meredith was too mad at him to say anything, and Derek was too scared to say a word. Finally, the driver pulled up infront of a wood cabin that surrounded by big fir trees.

"Finally." Meredith sighed as she got out of the car. Derek heard a small gasp, and smiled. He knew that she had just saw the scenery. Getting out, he saw Meredith facing the lake, as a tear came to her eye. Derek walked over and put his arms around her waist as she leaned back into him.

"It's so beautiful." She whispered, not taking her eyes off the vast lake.

"Just like you." Derek responded as he kissed the top of her forehead.

"You're still not getting any sex." Meredith said, laughing.

"Shhhhh, don't ruin the moment." Derek said, laughing himself.

"Uh sir? Where do I put these….bags?" Asked the driver, very confused. Sighing he broke away from Meredith and walked over to the driver, picking up one of the bags. Meredith, walked over to the cabin door. The key was lying on the windowsill; easy access for her. Putting the key in the lock, and turning it, she let out another small gasp. It was like walking into fantasyland. A big kitchen that was connected to the living that had no TV; just a fireplace and a couch. There was a small hallway that ventured off to the half-bathroom and the master bedroom. Walking down to the bedroom, another gasp was let out. A king size bed centered the room with an amazing view to the lake. The sun shined through the window and cast a shadow through the window and onto the floor. The master bedroom had a Jacuzzi tub and a sink for two. Turning around, she saw Derek standing at the door.

"You like?" He asked, laughing.

"I LOVE!" She squealed as she landed on the bed.

Derek laughed as he crawled over to her and started to kiss her. But she pushed him away.

"NO SEX!" She said firmly.

"Fine." He said pouting. They both laid there in silence.

"Thank you." She whispered. Derek looked over at her.

"For what?"

"F or making me your wife. For giving me 2 kids and one on the way. And for giving me this wonderful vacation."

Derek smiled.

"Anything for you."

Meredith smiled.

"I love you Derek Shepherd."

"And I love you Meredith Shepherd."

After a few minuets, they were holding onto each other, sound asleep, as the sun shone on both of them, giving them warmth and security.

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Izzie woke up with a searing pain in her abdomen.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" She screamed. This made Alex jump up from the bed and go into attack mode.

"WHAT WHAT? What is it?" He said alarmed. Then he saw Izzie scrunched up in the bed, holding onto the comforter until her knuckles turned white.

"Izz? Izzie? Are you-"

But he was shortly cut off by another scream from Izzie. After a few minutes, the pain subsided.

"Izzie?" He ventured again.

"SHUT UP!" She yelled. Alex nodded, trying to do what he told her to do. After a few minutes of her breathing she spoke again.

"Page Addison." She whispered, opening her eyes. Alex nodded as he walked over to the phone and started to dial her number.

"What do I tell her?" He asked as he heard the phone ring on the other end. Izzie's face scrunched up again as another pain came.

"Tell-her-that-OWWWWW-I-think-I'm-in-pre-term-labor."

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A/N: I really wanted some1 in preterm labor, so yes Izzie. It was going to be Addison but w/e. Ummm, i like this chapter personally. I'M SOOOO SORRY IT'S A DAY LATE!!! W/ Fanfic down, and then my internet was down and i had minor writer's block. But hey it's up! Thank u for the 5 of u who reviewed last time. Let me know if the pic showed. ONLY 4 MORE CHAPTERS PLUS AN EPILOUGE!!!!!!!

5 more reviews gets u a chapter on...let's say...Thrusday or Friday. I"m getting my wisdom teeth pulled on Wednesday, so i'll have time to write. Again, if u review, u will get a surprise! (if the pic showed up last time...which i hope it did!!!!) :D