"Liam! Wait up, son!" Cormac called behind his eldest.

This was not the way he had thought this evening was going to end. He had gone from not wanting to go on the blind date, to getting butterflies when he saw Meredith sat at the table and now, he was running after his son. An attempt of some sort of damage control.

Cormac had known that telling his boys that he was beginning to date again was not going to be easy to do. Especially when he was still wrapping his head around the fact. Liam seeing his Dad on an unexpected date was not going to help matters. He wasn't meant to find out this way. Since coming to Seattle and meeting Meredith, Cormac had felt a shift within himself that made him feel as though he was ready to try and date. This blind date had not been his idea though, he hadn't even been taking it seriously. More just a way to stop a co-worker from harping on at him. That was why he hadn't mentioned anything to his sons.

He'd had it all planned out though. On the weekend, he was going to ask them how they would feel if he decided to begin dating again. He was going to make sure that he reassured them that he still loved their Mom, that nothing would ever change that fact but she wanted him to find someone when he was ready to. Cormac had gone over the speech in his head a million times, preparing himself for this chat but it looked like all of that preparation was about to go down the drain.

It didn't take long for Cormac to find Liam sat on a bench, overlooking the docks. The Seattle skyline glowed at night. Cormac had set his eyes on that skyline the same night he and the boys had landed in Seattle. There had been something about it that had settled his soul, that made him feel that he'd made the right decision in moving here with the kids.

Silently, Cormac sat next to Liam, both of them staring straight ahead. The only noise around them was the distant rumble traffic and the sound of the water hitting the barriers. In any other circumstance, Cormac would have found this rather peaceful but instead, he felt like he had a lead ball in his stomach.

"Son," Cormac turned his body towards Liam. "Can we talk about this please?"

Liam just shrugged his shoulders, a gesture that Cormac had become accustomed to this the boys had entered their teen years. He always wondered if that would have been different if Abigail had been around if they would be more open, less worried that opening up to someone would result in unimaginable pain.

"What's there to talk about?"

Cormac sighed, this conversation was obviously not going the way he would like it to. "Meredith and I-"

Liam cut him off, "Meredith? So, it's not Dr Grey anymore," he scoffed.

"Liam, I work with her-"

"And dating her apparently…" his son rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Are you going to let me explain?" Cormac asked with a sigh. He took his son's silence as a yes. "It was a blind date."

"So, it was a date!" Liam yelled accusingly, glaring at his father.

Cormac slowly nodded, "Yes." There was no point in denying that fact. "But if it makes you or Austin feel uncomfortable then it won't happen again. Not until you're both in a place where you'd feel okay with it."

There had been a lot of lessons that Cormac had needed to learn when he had become a father but one thing that had come naturally to the surgical resident was that his kids' needs always came before his own. It didn't matter what he had to change or put aside, Cormac Hayes would do absolutely anything to make sure that his boys were happy and safe.

Sure, he might have thought that there were some feelings that had been blossoming for Meredith, but he wasn't willing to explore that at the risk to his boys' wellbeing. They only had one parent left and it was on him to make sure that he was the best parent that he could be.

To Cormac's surprise, Liam just scoffed and stood up, walking towards the railing. He rested his arms on it and leaned forward, looking down at the rippling water below him. Not quite understanding what was going through his son's head, Cormac went to stand beside him.

"What was that about?"

"What?" The attitude in his voice was familiar to Cormac now but the undertones of hostility were not something that he was used to.

"Liam, son. I promise this won't happen again until you and Austin are comfortable."

"That's not the point here, Dad!" Liam's outburst came as a shock as he quickly turned around to face his dad.

"Right," Cormac said slightly taken aback, trying not to let the shock show on his face. "So, what is the point?" He gently probed, hoping that his son would open up to him about what was going on. If Liam wasn't upset that Cormac was on a date then he had no clue what his son was.

''You didn't bother to tell us, Dad. Me or Austin. You didn't bother to even tell us that you were ready to date." Realisation dawned on Cormac's face as he realised what his mistake was.

Cormac placed a hand on Liam's shoulder, "Son…"

Liam shrugged off the hand and shook his head. "Austin and I knew that you would eventually date again, Dad. Mom told us not to hold it against you, she even told us to encourage you to get back out there."

There was a faint smile on Liam and Cormac's lips and the teenager spoke about his mother. Of course, Abigail would tell the boys to encourage Cormac to date, it was such a typical thing for her to do.

"I just thought you would have spoken to us about it…"

Cormac could hear the pain in Liam's voice and it killed him to know that he was the cause of it. "It was just a blind date, Liam. I wasn't the one to set it up."

Liam sighed, "I know and I get that but if you were willing to agree to it, it means that you felt that you were ready. You were ready to date again and you didn't bother to let us know."

Cormac knew that his son had a valid point. He had been thinking about dating again for a while now, ever since he had gotten to know Meredith Grey. The thought had been intimidating though. It had been years since he had even asked someone on a date, he didn't know what the minefield of dating was like anymore. Regardless of that though, he knew that he should have spoken to his boys about it. Let them know that he was at least considering putting himself out there again so when he did go on a date it wouldn't end up… well… like this.

"I'm sorry, son, for not talking to you boys about this. It was wrong of me, you should have been included. I didn't mean to hurt you or your brother." Cormac rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "If I'm honest with you, this whole dating thing has me a little nervous. It's not exactly every dad's dream to tell their teenage sons that they had no clue what modern dating is even like."

This elicited a smile from Liam, "We want you to be happy, Dad. We know that you still love mom, we know that she'll always be a part of our lives but you deserve to find someone as well. Just keep us in the loop? I mean not really in the loop, just you know… let us know if you find someone you want to date… just so we're not surprised."

Cormac chuckled at his son's babbling and pulled him into a hug. For once, Liam didn't resist and hugged him back.

"I promise, I'll let you know."

Pulling away, a mischievous grin spread on Liam's face and Cormac knew that the only thing that that could mean was trouble. "So, you and Dr Grey…" he trailed off.

"I told you, it was just a blind date."

"I mean, I know that that's what you're saying but I saw the way you looked at her, Dad and it definitely wasn't the way that colleagues look at each other."

Cormac pinched his brow and gave a sheepish smile to his son's teasing. He was not going to get out of this one easily.