Chapter 41: Like Mother, Like Daughter
"So, how is the little monster?" Christina asked as she caught up to Meredith in the hallway.
"She's fine." Meredith smiled "I think she's starting to adjust."
"So she went for the whole McDreamy is my McDaddy thing?"
"She got over her embarrassment and is adjusting fine. They're great together."
"You really surprised me."
"How so?"
"Three months ago I would have laughed my ass off at the man who told me you would be married and have a kid right now."
"I would have laughed my ass off too." Meredith shrugged "I guess you surprise yourself sometimes too."
"You know you're doing a good job." Christina acknowledged "I mean for you, it's a good job."
"Um thanks, mother of the year." Meredith frowned "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Take it as whatever."
"I have to take it to go." Meredith glanced at her watch "I need to go pick Bella up from school since Derek is in surgery."
"Break out the mini-van." Christina rolled her eyes Meredith shot her a glare "SUV?"
"BMW." Meredith scoffed "We don't have a circus, we have a nine year old…A nine year old, as in one."
"Well don't scratch your beamer on all those minivans you'll be in line with."
Meredith rolled her eyes and jogged off to her office to change before leaving the hospital to race across town to get Bella from school. They'd argued on whether to put her in a public or private school until they found a high-end public school. It had a waiting list, but they made a large donation and managed to get her enrolled right away. Meredith sighed as she rolled slowly towards the curb in a line of minivans, just as Christina joked about.
"This is ridiculous." Meredith muttered to herself "There should be a carpool lane, or at least a luxury car lane."
Just as she said that some kids came swarming around the minivan in front of her and opened the back door to throw their stuff in, it swung wide and she heard a crunch as it hit the bumper of her car. She gasped as the kid turned to give her a playful smirk.
"Sorry!" he laughed before running around to get in his mother's car.
"You little…" she bit her tongue from saying the many profanities urging to jump off her tongue. She heard the back door open and slam closed and looked in the rear view mirror to see Bella plop against the seat and sigh as she crossed her arms "How was your day?"
"Where's Derek?"
"What's wrong with me picking you up?"
"Whatever." She muttered and turned to glare out the side window "Just thought he was picking me up."
"Bad day?"
"I don't want to talk about it!"
"Ok." Meredith sighed as she pulled out onto the road "Just saying, I am a surgeon with scalpel access. I can hurt someone if you need my services."
She saw a twist of a smirk in the corner of Bella's mouth but nothing more "Can I cut my hair?"
"What?" Meredith scoffed "You have beautiful, pretty long hair…why on earth would you want to cut it?"
"Because I want to." Bella muttered "It's my hair."
"Did someone tease you about your hair?" Meredith frowned "Because you shouldn't worry about what other people think Bella. And your hair shouldn't have to be mutilated for it."
"So no then." Bella sighed "You're saying no I can't cut my hair."
"When you're not so pissed off and throwing lasers at me with your eyes, we can talk about it. But we're not doing anything rash and out of anger."
"Whatever."
Meredith's hands gripped around the steering wheel as she breathed heavily through her nose. Bella was obviously having a bad day and she didn't want to make it any worse. She pulled into the parking lot next to Derek's car where she saw him closing the trunk. The smiled at her as she parked the car, Bella got out and he gave her a hug, then a kiss to Meredith as she got out.
"Hello ladies." He smiled "How are my girls."
"We're having issues." Meredith mumbled and glanced at Bella "I'm waiting."
"Bella?" Derek frowned "What's going on?"
"I don't want to talk about really means that I don't want to talk about it ok!"
"Ok." Meredith sighed "Well grab your backpack so you can do your homework."
"You grab it." She muttered as she started to walk off.
"Hey!" Meredith scoffed "Get over here and grab your bag! I did not carry you for nine months and go through 15 hours of labor for nothing Arabella Grace!"
"That's about all you did for me." Bella muttered before skipping off to the hospital entrance.
Meredith gasped as she felt her anger boil in her face and turned to Derek.
"That little shit!" she muttered "She just used MY own line…that I used on MY mother…on ME!"
"Like mother like daughter." Derek chuckled.
"Oh shut up!"