Chapter 3: Family
Chapter Summary: Cormac and Meredith head out for dinner with his parents, and then Cormac spends time with his Mom and his boys.
Tuesday afternoon Cormac and Meredith walk out of the hospital hand in hand, to meet Cormac's parents for dinner. Cormac opens the door for Meredith, kissing her before letting her get into the car. As they drive towards the Italian restaurant, he says, "They'll love you. Don't worry."
"I'm not so good with parents. And you met Carolyn," Meredith replies.
Grabbing her hand and giving her a gentle squeeze, he says, "I don't think Carolyn is the easiest person to get along with. Don't beat yourself up for not getting along with her."
"Are you sure?"
"My parents will love you. Don't worry. My dad has read all your work. He's impressed," Cormac says. Seánan, his dad had retired from general surgery about 10 years before, and had settled in as a country doctor serving the communities north of Galway.
"And your mom?" she asks.
"She has her reservations, I know she's not so sure about me dating a doctor," he laughs.
"Who does she expect you to meet?" Meredith wonders, knowing it was so difficult to meet anyone outside of the hospital.
"No clue. As a single dad and doctor it's not like I meet many to date. And I'm not dating my patient's parents," he says.
"Your mom is still teaching?" Meredith asks.
"Yes, she's teaching Irish language. Her favourite course is the Advanced Senior Irish course."
"Is that the one that Liam often connects into?" Meredith asks.
"Yes, he's been skyping into her last class of the day. 6am comes early for him."
"He's lucky to have that support. He's wonderful at the hospital. So much more potential than many in the pre-med program," Meredith says.
"He's always been interested, kinda like Zola."
"Zola has always wanted to do surgery. And she's still set on neurosurgery, much to Maggie's disappointment," Meredith says thinking of the arguments between Maggie and Amelia about the better specialization. Often leaving Meredith to remind them, she wasn't choosing between her aunt's specialties, but choosing her dad's specialty.
"They'll choose their own paths. Whether they become a doctor, a surgeon or something else entirely, we'll support them," he says.
"Yes. Definitely," she replies as they pull into the parking lot and they walk into the restaurant.
"Mamaí and Da, this is Dr Meredith Grey. Mer, my Mother, Máiréad and my father, Dr Seánan Hayes," Cormac says introducing his parents to his girlfriend. He's a little nervous as he hasn't introduced anyone special to his parents in well over twenty years.
"Meredith, please call me Seánan, we don't need to stand on all that formality," Seánan says, pulling her into a hug and then walking with Meredith to their table.
"Thanks, Seánan. Did you have a good day with Liam and Austin?" Meredith asks.
"Yes we had a great time. They took us on a tour of the city," he replies. Dinner conversation is light and easy and time passes quickly. Cormac's hand spent most of the night resting gently on Meredith's knee, giving it a gentle squeeze anytime he could see her struggle with questions of the past. As 8pm approaches, Cormac says "I should get you home to your kids. I'm going to order Liam and Austin some cannoli, should I order some for your house too?"
"They would love that. And 3 extras for the babysitters."
"Three babysitters?" Cormac's mom asks.
"My sisters and one of their partners live with me," Meredith says.
"You should meet them all on Sunday. Correct, Mer? Anyone working?" Cormac asks not remembering their schedules. It was hard enough remembering his own schedules and Meredith's as well as their children.
"We all plan on being there. Not sure who is on call, you know it's a busy trauma weekend. Link's parents will be in town, so if there's an all staff page, we have coverage."
Máiréad asks, "Are they all surgeons too?"
"Yes. All at Grey-Sloan, the heads of Neuro, Cardio, Ortho and General all live together," Cormac replies.
"Very successful family. I heard about your New Years Eve, that must have been difficult," says Seánan, looking impressed at how well these surgeons seem to have figured out their child care and careers.
"We had all the contingencies planned for. Unfortunately we had to use them. Or all but the last one. Ben's a firefighter so if he'd been called in his sister would have been called to look after the slew of kids at their house," Meredith says.
"I don't know how you do it," Máiréad replies.
"Mamaí, just like how you would cover for Da when he would be called in. We just help one another. Now I need to take Mer home so she can kiss her kids goodnight," Cormac says standing from the table and grabbing Meredith's coat to hold while she slips it on.
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After dropping Meredith off, he stops in the family room where Liam and Austin were connected to their video game. He does manage to chat with them for a few minutes as he hands them their cannolis. They quickly go back to playing so he walks to the kitchen grumbling, "Only reason you talked to me is I brought food…"
And quickly he could hear, "Thanks, Da," coming from both his boys.
"Mamaí, do you wish some tea? Where's Da?" Cormac says in Irish walking into the kitchen.
"Please, then come sit with me. Your Da went to bed," she answers from the living room. Cormac wonders what questions his mom will have, thinking back to how she grilled him after he proposed to Abby. Cormac goes through the process of boiling the kettle, pre-heating the tea pot, getting out the tea cups and filling them with milk. Normally he doesn't use a tea cup and saucer, but his mom prefers traditional tea cups. He uses the process of making a traditional cup of tea as he was taught as a little boy to centre his thoughts and feelings. Cormac brings the tea tray into the living room, and sits down before serving the tea to his mom.
"You love her," she says.
"Yes, Ma."
"It hasn't been that long. You haven't been here much more than a year."
"You and Da got married within a year of meeting," he says.
"But we didn't have kids. What about your boys? Her kids?" she replies.
"I love Meredith, and she loves me. She has been patient with me. She understands me. We are equals. And we both know our kids are important. We understand."
"But...," she protests.
"Mamaí, if we decide we are ready to move forward with our relationship, that is between us and our kids. We'd definitely have some logistics to work out with five kids if we made a commitment to one another, but I'm not moving in with her tomorrow. I love it here, the hospital is amazing. I've been accepted here and my lads are thriving. They are excelling at school, well everything other than US History…," Cormac says, pausing to finish his tea.
"Our kids love spending time together. They are so amazing together, even given the age difference of 11 years between Liam and Ellie. Please, I'm over 40. This is my life, let me decide my future," Cormac continues ready to end this conversation.
"I love you and my grandsons. I just want what's best for you."
"I know. I love Abby, I loved her with all my heart. She was my first true love, but Meredith… she holds my heart now. She completes me now. She understands me. She has her own losses, her own pain. She understands tough memories. I'm sorry if you aren't ready for me to move on, but it's my life," he finishes softly before standing up and retreating to his bedroom.
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Wednesday evening Liam and Austin had football practice (OK soccer practice) but Cormac still couldn't get in the habit of calling it soccer. After dinner with his parents he left them so he could pick them up and take them for tacos. Normally they eat at home, but he wants to talk to them without his parents present. He is nervous about talking to them, but knows he needs to talk to them before Sunday if he's going to ask Meredith to marry him.
They arrive at El Mezcalito, a local mexican restaurant with amazing fresh food and a great selection of Tequila, or so he's told by Meredith. They had found this gem one evening by chance and she had been excited by their tequila specials. They also loved their late night Happy Hour taco specials, making it a great place to sneak out once her kids were in bed. Tonight he figured the taco specials would be great for his hungry teens after their practice giving him time to talk to them.
While they are waiting for their tacos, he sips his mexican beer, takes a deep breath and starts, "So I wanted to talk to you guys about Meredith and… I know it hasn't been that long since your mom passed away, but I love Meredith… I will always love your mom, but…"
He stops, not able to get more words out while watching his kids, he is sure that Liam knows where he is going with this conversation, and is most concerned about Austin's reaction. Sure Liam is the one with the temper, but Austin is the moody teen, often his moods oscillating between sullenness and anger.
"What are you saying Dad?" Austin asks quietly.
"I am thinking about asking her to marry me," Cormac says reaching his hands and placing one on each son's hands.
"Da, you don't need our permission. Mom would want you to move on. She would want you to be happy," Liam says.
"Aye. I like her," Austin replies quietly as their food is delivered. Cormac figures Austin's comments are the most positive he's going to get from him right now.
A/N: Thanks for the positive feedback. Some of these are a little harder to write than the first two of the story. I hope to get a chapter up every day or two.