A/N: I won't say much up here, there's more at the end, just a huge thank you for sticking with me for so long, and trusting me with this version of Meredith and Derek's love story. Thank you.
Slow Show is what started it all. If you still haven't listened to it, this is your last chance.
Again, thank you!
Epilogue - Slow Show
They're standing here, again, fifteen years later, and Santa Maria del Fiore looks exactly the same. The square is now free of cars, just pedestrians allowed, and the white and green marble of the church's exterior has been cleaned so it gleams in the sun, but it's the same exact place.
He's still holding Meredith's hand, even after fifteen years.
"Dada," a small, tiny voice gurgles from the carrier strapped to his chest, and he smiles down at their barely awake daughter.
"Hey, Ellie. Perfect timing to wake up from your nap," he grins down at her, and her eyes, Meredith's eyes, dance in response as the sleep clears from her gaze.
"She's up?" Meredith turns to him, an identical smile on her lips, even though her sunglasses hide her brilliant eyes.
"Just in time to see our favorite spot."
Meredith shakes her head at his silliness.
"Boys!" She shouts, and three faces turn to them at the same time. Even in the chaos of the square, brimming with tourists, they never fail to pick up when Meredith means business. She has perfected her Mom tone over the years.
Ethan and Logan walk closer, all gangly limbs and ruffled hair, their t-shirts and shorts as rumpled as they are. Derek is still astonished that the twins are already fifteen. Teenagers. Freaking teenagers.
Following them like a shadow, always impressed and probably corrupted by the boys as well, is Bailey, all gentle curls and soft skin, even though now that he's six he shot up three inches and he's not their baby anymore.
"Zola!" Meredith calls out, as their daughter starts wandering away. Logan grabs her from the arm and she groans. Their daughter is a tough cookie. She had to be, considering she was surrounded by boys until Ellie recently came along.
"What? I want gelato, can we go?" she whines.
"I want gelato too!" Bailey exclaims.
"Gelato sounds good." Logan says, while Ethan just nods emphatically.
Meredith's eyes roll all the way on the back of her head even behind her sunglasses and Derek squeezes her hand, schooling his features not to laugh.
"Should we get gelato and then tell them the story?" she teases.
"I don't know. We could…" Derek plays into it, watching as four pairs of very curious eyes stare at them.
"What story?" Bailey asks, but clearly, just because the twins are not, doesn't mean they aren't just as excited. They're just teenagers who have to play it cool.
"Of the first time Dad and I were in Florence." Meredith plays it cool, but she has all kids hanging from her lips.
"Is it a long story?" Zola pipes up, her gaze curious.
"Could be," Derek says, grinning.
"Then ice cream first." Ethan is resolute.
"Fine." Meredith gives in, giggling. She's radiant in the beautiful spring sun, her eyes sparkling in delight and amusement, brimming with love and excitement. She's carefree.
It doesn't happen often anymore that she's so...unbound. She's always on top of things, juggling five different schedules, five different souls to nurture, and a million different patients. He's the one whose career has taken a step back, especially now that he can easily handle Ellie – aka she doesn't rely solely on breastmilk – and he has never been more grateful.
He's not a spring chicken anymore, so he basks in these moments with his children, also knowing that they're truly done after Ellie. Surprise baby Ellie, really. He grins down at the weight of their baby girl against him, as she's still struggling to be properly awake. He tickles her and giggles, as they start moving to fetch some gelato.
Derek lets Meredith lead their merry brigade towards a gelato shop, one they saw before, on their way there, with a waterfall of melted chocolate on the wall. He could never deny his wife and Zola a waterfall of chocolate.
They are amazed, again, at the sight of the sheer amount of chocolate in that store, the waterfall free-flowing down the wall, and they almost miss their turn to order as they keep wondering how they can even make it happen.
The twins are their own little geniuses, so Derek is sure that as soon as they have the time they will try to figure out an experiment to replicate the effect, most likely on their kitchen tiles. Yet, he's always encouraging them to explore, so much that they've almost decided to give them an experiment shed for Christmas this year. Mostly for Meredith's peace of mind, since she freaks out every time she finds them deep into an experiment in the house. That way it will only be the shed that goes up in flames.
They sit down on the somewhat clean steps of a church, grinning as they all lick their gelato. Derek is careful not to spill any onto Ellie's head, while Zola is trying hard not to have her cone drip onto her shoes and barely succeeding.
"So, story time, Mom?" Logan asks nonchalantly, though Derek can see his curiosity burning.
Meredith sighs, pretending to be annoyed, but her smile betrays her.
"You tell it better than anyone, Mere," he encourages, chomping off the end of his cone, then freeing Ellie so she can sit in his lap for storytime and a couple of spoonfuls of gelato. She's the calmest, most alert baby when they're telling stories and she's just eighteen months old.
"Okay, so…" She waits a moment to have everyone's attention, chewing her cone. "Dad and I met on a plane to Italy. I was flying alone because a friend from college had ditched me, Dad…"
She hesitates and looks at him, asking for permission, so he cuts in. "My previous fiancée left me at the altar."
"Ouch!" Ethan grimaces. "Right on the altar?"
Derek nods, barely a blip in his radar now that he has seen Meredith at the altar. There's no way anyone can compare to Meredith.
"That must have been awful." Logan shudders.
"Yeah. But here comes your mother, all beautiful and chatty…" He wins a glare from Meredith for that.
"I wasn't chatty. You started it. You thanked me for the ticket."
"The ticket?" Zola is confused. She gives a lick to the ice cream, now half on her hand. She'll smell of strawberries for the next month.
"Yeah. I found a last-minute spot on the plane because Mom gave up her friend's ticket, so I was sitting next to her."
"Why were you going to Rome, Daddy?" Bailey pipes in.
"Aunt Amelia was studying architecture there, so I wanted a change of scenery."
"Aunt Amy told me I could stay at her place when we met at the airport," Meredith said. "So your Dad and I started the trip together. I guess I was a good travel partner because he ended up following me all around Europe."
When she turns to him, he sees that Meredith, the one from fifteen years ago, in her eyes; now there are a few more lines on her face, a bit more tiredness, and five more kids in tow. She's still just as breathtaking.
"I did. I was mesmerized. And your mom had a whole itinerary in place, I was just...lost."
"Okay, that is so romantic," Ethan says in a mock sappy voice, then grimaces, pretending to gag as Logan starts laughing at him.
"Is it here when you had your first kiss?" Zola grins, clearly ahead of them all, and the only one who clearly even cares about romance. She might seem tough, but Zola is a mushy romantic at heart.
"No, that was Paris," Meredith sighs, a wistful smile on her lips, the memory playing in the back of his head, too. "Florence is where I knew I would love your dad forever."
Her face is soft, the smile on her face dazzling, melting his heart, making his breath hitch in his throat. She's still gorgeous. She's still his wife, in spite of the fights and the craziness. They've been through so much heartache, but now Derek can't say he has ever been this happy. Even when it's hard and they're tired to the bone, this life he has is bliss.
"Yeah, I knew that after Florence there was no going back." Derek grins at her, watching as she blushes.
"But then you had to come home to Seattle for Oma, right? Because she wasn't feeling good?" Ethan says, turning to Meredith, who nods. "And Dad went back to New York?"
"Yes. Because he didn't know we had made you two in Florence."
"Ugh, too much information!" Ethan shudders, putting fingers into his ears. Meredith laughs, while the other children look quite puzzled. Except for Ellie, who is very intent on licking Zola's dripping cone.
"There were a lot of misunderstandings between us before I finally moved back to Seattle." Derek tries to keep the information to a minimum, the kids don't need all the sordid details, but it still stings sometimes to have been deprived of meeting the twins when they were born, and the loneliness before he found them again. Yet, being Meredith's husband and the father of these crazy kids is much more than he could ever dream of, and he has won the happiness of a lifetime with them.
"Were you sad, Daddy?" Zola asks, her soft, gentle nature coming out of her shell.
"Without Mommy?" Zola nods, encouraging him to continue. "I was terribly sad and lonely. I only wanted to find her again."
"And you did!" Bailey grins, shooting his arms up in the air, gelato dripping down to his elbows.
"Gross, Bails!" Zola scrunches up her nose in the same way Meredith does. He has no idea how it's possible since, technically, Zola is not biologically theirs, but she does.
They adopted her maybe a month before Meredith found out about Bailey, when Zola showed up alone in the hospital, for spina bifida surgery. Her biological parents abandoned her, and Derek bonded with her immediately, even though she was Meredith's patient. When he saw Zola and Meredith together, he knew they couldn't let her go, that she should be a Grey-Shepherd like Logan and Ethan. And then as soon as the papers were finalized, the stick turned blue and Meredith almost murdered him.
"Dada, Mama!" Ellie exclaims in the commotion, giggling and kicking her little feet, while Meredith tries to referee between a bickering Zola and Bailey.
"How did you know?" Logan asks, his voice directed just for him, and Derek has a hard time connecting the statements.
"How did I know what?"
"That Mom was...the one. That you were in love forever." He blushes crimson when he says that, up to the tip of his ears, and Derek smiles at him. Clearly, his son is in love, somehow, and his heart squeezes in his chest. Logan is big enough to fall in love.
"She made everything better. The way she smiles, or even when she rolls her eyes at me...she makes everything shine. Even when it's tough, even when we fight, I love her." He glances at her now, busy with a baby wipe, trying to clean Bailey's elbows the best she can. "She has this light inside her that she doesn't even see herself, but it's like it was made to guide me. It's corny, so don't ever repeat this to anyone. Especially not your mother. She gives me enough grief for my sappiness as it is."
Logan pretends to zip his lips, then toss the key, and they laugh together.
"What's her name?" When Derek asks, Logan's eyes widen and his cheeks turn rosy. Derek is loving this immensely.
"Olivia."
Derek hums, smiling. "I'm too young to become a grandpa, okay?"
"Ew, Dad, no! Gross. No!"
"Just saying…"
Logan rolls his eyes at him, then tickles Ellie, who's reaching for him.
Derek knows Logan is smart, and he also knows that Olivia is probably not the love of his life, but he's glad Logan is confiding in him. He still remembers the shy kid sitting in the hospital bed after a heart transplant, and now Logan is completely different.
He's still shy, but he hasn't needed an operation since the transplant, luckily. He still has regular check-ups and he doesn't play any cardio-heavy sports, but he's thriving. And he makes Derek so proud. Just like Ethan. They are both remarkable human beings, even though Ethan is louder, more boisterous, and more unhinged than Logan.
He is proud of his whole family, what he and Meredith built, starting right here, in this city.
"Logan, wanna see the river you're named after?" Meredith says, tossing the baby wipe soiled with chocolate ice cream in the trash can.
"What? I was named after a river?" He looks puzzled.
Meredith laughs, turning to him for the explanation as she moves to Zola and hands her the baby wipes now.
"Your middle name, Arno. That's the river here."
"Hudson is the river in New York." Ethan interrupts. "Am I named after a river, too?"
"Yes, you are."
"But what about Zola and Bailey and Ellie?" Logan pipes in, frowning.
"Emerald isn't a river, right Dad?" Ethan frowns.
"No, Emerald is the place where we decided to adopt Zola. Emerald City Bar. Where Joe works. Since Zola didn't have a middle name, we decided to add it for her, so now she's Zola Emerald."
"Oh!" Zola grimaces. "I'm named after a bar?"
Meredith grimaces, blushes, and stammers. "Also, Emerald City? Where we found you?"
"Oh, yes, it's a nickname for Seattle!" Logan grins. "Clever. Though I like the bar theory better."
Zola sticks her tongue out at him.
"What about me? I'm Bailey Elliott."
They let the silence linger for a second, wait for the kids to figure it out. As predicted, Ethan's eyes light up. "Elliott Bay!"
"Gold star for you, Ethan." Meredith grins. "You're a Seattle baby through and through, Bails."
"And Ellie?" Bailey asks. "She's ….."
"Well, there's a trick with Ellie. Because her place name is actually Elizabeth. Cape Elizabeth."
"Maine? With the lighthouse?" Logan frowns. "Why?"
"Remember when we went to the Acadia National Park with Aunt Lizzie?"
"Yeah. We went on two hikes with her because Mom wasn't feeling well." Ethan recalls, but he still looks confused.
"I took her to the lighthouse while you were hiking, and that's where she told me Ellie was coming."
He still has the brilliant image of Meredith, hair blowing in the breeze, telling him about Ellie as she tries not to cry. The way her face softened, the hint of fear, the way a tear slipped down her cheek when he started laughing and cheering, as well as how they spent the rest of the day wrapped in each other's arms, staring at the ocean, planning and dreaming and trying to figure out life with five children.
Cape Elizabeth definitely holds a special memory in his heart and Elizabeth has been a very pleasant surprise, right from the start.
"Carolyn is after Nana, right?" Zola smiles, proud to know one of the answers.
"Yes, that's after Nana. Ellie also kinda sounds like Oma Ellis, right?" Meredith sighs.
"Indeed. So two grandmas in one name! Super cool!" Zola grins at Ellie, who shrieks in response.
"I can't believe we have all these places in our names." Logan sighs.
"Well, Logan is the Boston airport, too." Meredith laughs. "I used to live in Boston, before I moved to Seattle."
"Really? I have two place names?" He groans, and Ethan laughs.
"They're good names, though. I don't think anyone has ever told you 'Logan like the airport', right?"
"No. Luckily!"
Meredith grins, messing his dark hair.
"Well, at least we don't have boring names. Sarah told me that she's named after her grandma, and she will have to call her kid Maria like her mom because that's how they do it in her family. So all of the girls are named either Maria or Sarah." Zola shrugs. "I like being Zola."
"Yeah, that's super boring. And you guys wouldn't have all those names anyways. There's too many of us!" Ethan teases, and it's Derek's turn to shove his son playfully. It's an argument that only Meredith can make in the Grey-Shepherd household.
"Don't remind me. I have no idea how I agreed to have all of you. Your dad messes with my head." She gives in a dazzling smile, though, in complete contrast with her words.
"Or maybe you just can't resist me," he whispers in her ear, and she glares at him, blushing.
"You guys want to see the river, then?" She cuts him short, diffusing the tension, even though he likes the way her cheeks are still flushed as she turns to round up the children.
"I do," Logan says, his eyes sparkling. "I hope it's a badass river. Better than the Hudson."
"Well, you can kayak in the Hudson! For free!" Ethan retorts.
Derek lets Meredith deal with the squabble as they all toss their dirty napkins and cups and stand up again, ready to conquer Florence.
It's been a crazy ride, especially the last seven years, but he's looking forward to the next fifteen years, then maybe come here for their anniversary, their kids grown and maybe out of the house. Yet, there's no doubt in his mind that he and Meredith will be together.
He cannot see a future without Meredith in it, and he's glad he doesn't have to anymore.
A/N: This is the end. It's full circle, with the song that started it all. It's been quite the Slow Show, hasn't it? Slow in all sense of the word, since it took me almost 4 years to finish this story. And what a ride it's been! I loved every single minute of it, even though my life has changed so much from the moment I started this story. You have all been special, but a special thank you goes to Paz and Prerna who kept prodding me until the end for new chapters and keeping me in line. Thank you for reading and loving this, for your patience and your kindness in spite of my shortcomings as a prompt updater.
I still have IWBY to finish and the Storm trilogy is still a thing, and I'll get around to them both, but then we'll see what will happen as far as more stories are concerned. It's hard to write for a show I'm not watching anymore, or that left me so bitter over certain parts of it. In any case, it's been huge for me. Over 10 years of my life have been intermingled with fanfiction, so I will always be grateful to you for indulging me.
Stay safe during these tough times, and see the beauty in the little things.
Irene