A/N: Thank you all for the support that you have given this story I honestly never thought I would get this number of views or even favorites and followers when I started writing this story but I did and I am forever grateful. This chapter is going to be when things really heat up with the government and you are going to see the lengths that they are going to go to to get Derek back. And some cute scenes with Zola and Derek which I always love.
Disclaimer: I only wish that I owned Grey's Anatomy but I do own the DVD's now
Dynasty
Chapter 15
Derek couldn't help but be in awe of how old Zola seemed to be in the aqua dress that she had gotten with her mother when they had gone dress shopping the week before. He loved how beautiful that his eldest daughter looked but at the same time wanted her to stop growing up so fast so that he would be able to enjoy the time that he had left with her as a little girl. But he supposed that the reason that she seemed to be so much older to him was thanks to all of the time that she had missed thanks to the government.
This was the first time that he was going somewhere in a public place without Meredith since he had returned to his family a month ago and he was a little nervous about how it was going to go with Meredith there. But he had promised himself that he was going to make this a special night for Zola and he wasn't going to ruin in because he was feeling nervous.
He was also worried that they hadn't heard anything from the government since he had escaped and gone public with what they had done to him but he wasn't going to think about that tonight.
Looking over at Meredith he saw that she had tears in her eyes as she took the camera away from her face after documenting the night with multiple photos of him and Zola. Meredith replied, "You two look amazing. Are you excited for tonight Zozo?"
Zola had been a ball of energy that rivaled Ellis' energy on a good day since they had woken up because of how excited she had been for the dance to start that night. Zola was bouncing on her heels as she stated, "I'm so excited Mommy. I can't wait to introduce all of my friends to my Daddy."
The smile on Meredith's face seemed to get even wider when Zola had said those words, it wasn't hard for her to believe that it was going to be one of the best memories that Zola had. She hadn't stopped talking about the dance since she had told her parents about the dance and getting to go with her father was the thing that had made this night even more special.
Derek put his hand on his daughter's shoulder and stated, "We better get going Zo we don't want to be late for the dance and your Mommy has an important meeting with Bailey to get to tonight."
Zola nodded and her curls that framed her face bounced as she looked to her father her brown eyes that seemed to sparkle the same way that his did when he was excited. Derek walked over to his wife and pulled her close to him and kissed her.
When the broke apart Meredith laid her head against Derek's and Zola seemed to be getting annoyed with all of the time that was being wasted while her parents said goodbye and almost whined, "Daddy are we leaving? I don't want to be late for the first dance that I get to go to with my dad."
Derek let out a low chuckle that only Meredith could hear and whispered, "She definitely has your impatience. Good luck with your meeting with Bailey I can't wait to hear all about it when I get home with Zozo." He then walked over to Zola and held out his hand to his daughter and when she took his hand and started leading him out the door he stated, "After you princess."
Zola let out a laugh and then started to follow her father to the second car that they had gotten for when one of them had to get the kids and the other had to work. It was lucky that they had since Meredith had her meeting with Bailey and he had the father daughter dance at Northgate tonight.
After Zola got into the backseat Derek closed the door behind her and walked to the front driver's side and got in. He quickly got in and turned to car on and put on his seatbelt before asking, "Are you ready Zo? All buckled in?"
Zola nodded and replied, "I'm ready dad."
Derek smiled and pulled out of the driveway and started on the route that he had gotten used to taking when he had to bring Zola and Bailey to school. As he got onto the main road Zola asked, "Hey Daddy?"
"Yeah Zo?"
"Why is Uncle Alex and Aunt Jo watching Ellis and Bailey so that Mommy can talk to Aunt Bailey today?"
Derek was never going to get over how intuitive Zola had become in the past three years and her asking him a question along those lines showed him just how smart she is. He then stated, "Uncle Alex and Aunt Jo are watching Ellie and Bailey because of the meeting with Aunt Bailey as your Mommy doesn't know how long the meeting is going to take and doesn't want to have to wake them up if it's late."
"Uh. Why is Mommy having a meeting with Aunt Bailey?"
He knew that Zola was smart but he didn't know how he was going to explain this to her without making it confusing for her. He thought about it for a few minutes before he stated, "You know how Mommy operates on the body while Daddy operates on the brain?"
Zola nodded in the backseat and Derek then continued, "Well your Mommy is going to change her specialty so that she does the same thing as Daddy but to be able to do that she needs to get Aunt Bailey's permission and will have to take her boards again."
"So, Mommy is trying to do the same thing as you do?"
Derek nodded and replied, "That's right Zo. So, when she gets the permission to be able to change her specialty, we are going to have to give your Mommy time to study for them so that will mean that the two of us will have to take care of Bailey and Ellis while she does that. You'll help me with that right Zo?"
Zola nodded eagerly and then stated, "When will she be taking them?"
"In June so she will have to go away for a few days to be able to take them. You know the last time that she took them you were just a baby but you didn't like the fact that your Mommy had gone away for a few days and spent a lot of them time calling out for her."
Zola smiled, "Mommy never goes away from us."
Derek couldn't help but frown at that statement as he knew that it was true, he doubted that she had gotten much of a break from being a mom in the past three years and knew that after this he was going to plan something for the two of them to do together. To get away from everything for a little while and just be Meredith and Derek.
Pulling into a parking spot at Northgate Elementary School Derek parked his car before pulling his phone out of the pocket of his suit jacket and send a quick message to Meredith telling her that he had arrived at the school.
Meredith was quick to send a reply but that had always been her, when she wasn't working or doing research, she would send him a reply as soon as possible. She had been replying even faster than she ever had before and a part of him wondered if it was because she was as glad as he was that they were together again.
He slid his phone back into his pocket and doubled checked to make sure that the tickets for the dance were in his pocket and when he felt them there, he undid his seatbelt and then looked into the backseat and asked, "Are you ready Zozo?"
Zola nodded enthusiastically her curls bouncing as she did before she undid the straps to her car seat. Derek made his way around to the back of the car and helped Zola out of the car and helped her fix her dress before locking the car and starting to make their way to where the other parents were waiting with their kids.
The anxiety that he had been left with was starting to come forward again because of the amount of people that he was going to be around since he had been back. Sure, the hospital had a lot of people but everyone there he could trust but most of these people he didn't know and wasn't sure if he could trust that they weren't working for the people who had held him as a hostage for the past three years.
He must have been transferring some of his anxiety to Zola because he felt her squeeze his hand back. He looked down at Zola and saw that she was looking worried but was smiling at him at the same time. She then said, "It's okay Daddy. Mommy knows most of the people here or she wouldn't have been so secure about us coming."
Derek knew that his daughter was right Meredith was overprotective when it came to their children and to him it was like she wanted to protect them from everything but he understood why. After everything that had happened it made sense that she never wanted to let them out of her sight.
It took twenty minutes to get to the front of the line because of how slow the person letting everyone in was being but he figured that she was just being safe and making sure that no one was who they weren't something that he was grateful for.
When Derek got to the table where Zola's teacher was sitting with a list of tickets that had been sold and tickets that were for sale Ms. Baker asked, "Hello Zola. Are you here with your Daddy?"
Nodding Zola replied, "Yes Ms. Baker."
"Go for you sweetie. Hello Dr. Shepherd did you buy your tickets ahead of time or are you buying them now."
Derek reached into his suit pocket and pulled out the two tickets that he had bought for this night and had been keeping on his nightstand so that he wouldn't misplace them at any point. As he handed them over to Valerie Baker he responded, "I bought them ahead of time so that I would make sure that I got to bring my little girl to this dance."
"Well, aren't you lucky to have such a good Dad that bought your tickets ahead of time Zola. Have fun you two."
Zola waved to her teacher as the two of them walked into the school gym where the dance was being held tonight and saw that Jackson was with Sofia. Being here with Zola made him a little sad that Mark couldn't be here with Sofia as he would have loved to do anything and everything that he could for his little girl but he was also glad that he was able to be here for both of their girls.
Sofia and Zola saw each other and ran over to each other. Even though that had different teachers this year they were still best friends and Derek loved that fact. Standing next to Jackson it felt a little strange Derek had never thought he would come here in Mark's place but then again Jackson had been like a son to Mark before he had tragically died and had promised him that he would protect Sofia.
As the girls talked to each other before the dance started and they couldn't hear each other Jackson said, "Hey Derek. How are you doing?"
"I'm good. Excited that I was able to bring Zola to her first father daughter dance instead of Alex. This was something that I always dreamed of doing before I started my family with Meredith and know I am going to get the chance to. How's April and Harriet?"
"There good. It's hard to believe how fast that Harriet is growing up though. A part of me wants her to stop growing up so fast."
Derek couldn't help but laugh because he felt the same way as he did about his kids, and he never wanted them to grow up he wanted them to stay little forever even if that wasn't a logical way of thinking. And his kids were gaining their personalities and it was amazing for him to see from the way that Zola was so chatty, Bailey was athletic, and Ellis was a carbon copy of his wife.
He then said, "That feeling is never going to go away Jackson. You are always going to want to protect them and to never let them grow up. I have it worse than Meredith because of the three years that I was away and it is amazing to see how grown up my kids are and how amazing Meredith did raising them."
Jackson looked over at Derek and could see the love that he had for Meredith in his eyes when he talked about her and their kids, it was the same way he felt about April. It made him glad that they hadn't gotten divorced after Samuel like he thought they were going to but were able to work things out and hand Harriett.
Zola ran over to Derek who leaned down and picked her up and asked, "Are you ready to have some fun at the dance?"
She nodded enthusiastically and opened her mouth to say something when one of the teachers came over the microphone and said, "Welcome to the annual Northgate Elementary father daughter dance. We are so glad to see all of the parents with their children here tonight and we hope that everyone is going to have some fun tonight."
The teacher then got off the microphone and the music started playing and Zola looked up at her father and asked, "Are we going to dance daddy?"
"Of course, we are Zozo. Just promise me that you won't make fun on the way your dad dances."
She nodded and looked her father in his blue eyes that were the same shade as her younger brothers and replied, "I promise that I won't daddy."
Music started playing throughout the gym of the elementary school and the parents and kids of the students started dancing around the gym. Derek saw more than one mother with their daughter knowing that they were probably a single parent or their husband was working that night and couldn't make it so they had gone with them and he couldn't help but smile knowing that Meredith would have done the same thing for their kids if she had had to.
Dancing with Zola was something that Derek was never going to forget about that night the way she was smiling and laughing along side him throughout the night. It was one of the best things that he could have ever imagined doing that night and he was never going to forget about this tonight.
The two of them danced together for a few hours before Zola became tired out and feel asleep in Derek's arms as she spun her around. With her head on his shoulder Derek knew that she was going to be out for the night from everything that had happened and the fact that she had been dancing most of the time.
Going into his pocket Derek pulled out his car keys and made his way to the exit with Zola in his arms still sleeping with her face buried into his shoulder. Derek made his way over to his car and opened the backseat and put Zola into her car seat before he moved her hair out of her face. Zola sleepily moved her head against the car seat but stayed asleep.
Closing the back door Derek made his way to the driver's seat and turned it in and kept the music off and started the way home after sending Meredith a quick text telling her that he was on the way home. Derek had been a little shocked that his shoulder wasn't more sore than he thought it would be as it was still healing and was told that it could take up to six months for it to get back to where it was before he was held captive.
Pulling into the drive way of the house Derek was a little shocked that Meredith wasn't home yet as her meeting shouldn't have taken this long and should have been home already. Parking his car Derek pulled out his phone and saw that Meredith hadn't responded and it made him worry.
Putting it out of his mind for the moment Derek made his way to the back seat and took Zola out of the car seat and walked up to the front door. Undoing the alarm before he opened the front door and made his way to Zola's bedroom.
It looked similar to the room that she had at the frat house but it also had things that had been changed, it was a lighter shade of purple and had more princess decorations lining the walls and Zola loved it.
Derek quickly changed Zola out of the dress that she had been wearing and into the unicorn pajamas that Meredith had left out for her to wear to bed that night. Once she was changed Derek pulled the blanket over her and kissed her hair watching as she pushed her head deeper into the pillow.
"I love you, Zola."
Derek then exited her bedroom and walked up to his bedroom and changed out of the suit that he was wearing into the pajamas that he was going to wear and looked at his phone and saw that Meredith hadn't responded to his text yet.
And unless she had been pulled into an emergency surgery, she would have text him back but even if she had been pulled into an emergency surgery, she would have told him that she was going to be home later than she expected and was getting worried about her.
Deciding that he couldn't wait any longer because his anxiety was kicking in with worry about his wife Derek called the hospital. One of the night receptionists named Casey answered, "Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. What can I do for you?"
"Casey its Dr. Shepherd and I was wondering if Meredith was still there because she isn't home yet."
"No Dr. Grey left an hour ago Dr. Shepherd."
That was exactly what he was afraid and the worry that something had happened to her had grown even stronger and he was wondering if this had anything to do with the government finally finding him like he had worried about from the beginning.
But in the weeks since he had escaped, he hadn't heard anything from them even when he went public with the information of what they had done to him. The only thing that he had seen was a news report that the president had done and he had looked stressed out in the conference but with nothing happening he thought that he was in the clear until now.
"Thanks Casey."
He then hung up the phone and dialed Meredith's number and it went straight to voicemail causing his nerves to skyrocket. At the beep he stated, "Hey Mer it's me I was just wondering when you were going to get hone. Give me a call when you get this message, I love you."
Derek's heart sank with guilt and worry if he had brought the government who had treated him like crap to her who knew that they would do to her to get him back. Looking at his phone Derek said, "Meredith where are you?"