A/N: hey guys as always I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for all the reviews so far! Also, I'm not the best when it comes to writing the medical stuff so just bare with me if anything sounds off, lol.
The quiet stillness of another early morning was soon permeated by the chimes of the alarm clock that sat on Meredith's bedside table.
Andrew was the first to open his eyes, immediately fixating his gaze on Meredith who laid beside him. He reached over to turn off the alarm clock and she began to stir.
"Hey." Meredith whispered sleepily as her eyes fluttered open.
"Good morning." Andrew replied as he kissed her lips softly.
Meredith returned the kiss, her hand grasping at his dark curls as she kissed him. She then felt his hand slide up her silk pajama camisole and she pulled back. "No use in starting something we won't be able to finish."
Andrew looked her up in down in that way that made her melt into a puddle on the floor. "Who says I won't be able to finish?" He replied with a devilish smirk.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe the very important job that we can't be late for." Meredith giggled, slapping his chest playfully as she sat up.
"I wish we could just stay home, stay like this all day." Andrew lamented as his finger absentmindedly twirled a strand of her hair.
"As tempting as that sounds, we already did that the other day, and I'm sure Bailey found it just a tad suspicious that both of us happened to call in sick." Meredith pointed out.
Although they still tried, and sometimes failed, to maintain the certain ground rules Meredith laid out for the two of them at work, their relationship status was now a very well known fact within the hospital.
"True. That was a lot of fun.." Andrew sighed.
"Fun is certainly one word to describe it. We hardly left the bedroom." Meredith shook her head with a laugh.
"I mean, there was that one time. To get that chinese takeout we ordered." Andrew said.
The couple both laughed and their lips soon reconnected, the sheets tangled around them.
Meredith once again broke the kiss. "Okay. We really have to get up now. We have to get ready and get the kids up soon."
"But...a shower together would save a lot of time." Meredith added after a moment of thought.
Without any further hesitation, the two got out of bed and into the shower.
Meredith stepped in first, she closed her eyes and felt the sensation of hot droplets of water against her skin. It wasn't long before she was met with a pair of familiar arms around her waist and lips pressed to her neck. She leaned into Andrew, sighing contently.
Andrew then placed body wash into his hands and lathered them over Meredith's breasts. She moaned softly in response to this.
They stayed this way for as long as possible until yearnings and desire got the best of them. Meredith turned to face him, he lifted her slightly, putting her up against the tile wall, her legs wrapped firmly around his waist, where they proceeded to make love.
Reluctantly, their shower ended shortly after this and they finished getting ready for work
"Morning, Amelia." Meredith chimed brightly as she came downstairs. Amelia sat on a barstool at the kitchen counter. Andrew had already gotten dressed and was down in the kitchen making coffee.
"Someone's sure chipper this morning." Amelia said. "Hmm I wonder why."
Meredith chuckled a bit. "I have no idea what you are talking about. Can't a woman greet her own sister?"
"You're glowing." Amelia pointed out. "I know that glow."
"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about." Meredith laugh as she playfully gave a light nudge of her waist into Andrew's as she stood next to him. He gave her a knowing smirk.
"Anyways, I have time to make a little breakfast this morning if anyone's hungry." Andrew offered, wanting to shift the conversation in a different direction, considering there were children present.
Suddenly Amelia's pager went off. "Welp, looks like none for me. I appreciate the offer though." She said as she quickly grabbed an apple and headed out the door.
Andrew prepared a quick meal consisting of french toast for the family which was devoured in record time.
"Alright, who's ready for school?" He said to kids as he cleared the dishes.
"Me!" The kids all said in unison.
Meredith had already went to grab their backpacks for them and before long they were headed out the door. First stop, Zola and Bailey's elementary school then dropping Ellis off at daycare at the hospital.
She was greatly impressed by how smoothly things were running with Andrew now living with them. They had their own routine going and it was working for them. And a part of her knew her sisters were probably grateful for the much needed break.
After dropping the children off with little to no protest, it was time for the couple to officially start their day at the hospital.
It wasn't as hard being away from each other throughout the day knowing they would come home to one another that night.
Meredith stood at the nurses station to retrieve her charts for the day for the day and she was soon joined by Andrew who greeted her with a kiss to her cheek.
"Hey, you. My schedule's not too swamped today so I should be able to make it home for dinner. What about you?" Meredith asked him. She knew that as a resident and soon to be fellow, Andrew's schedule could be significantly more grueling than hers at times.
"Well I'm on Alex's service today and we only have an appy and a few hernia repairs. I should be home for dinner." Andrew told her.
Meredith smiled, moving closer towards him and gently tugging at his scrub top. "Great, see you at dinner, then."
Andrew mirrored her smile as he placed a soft kiss to her lips. Though he wished it could have lasted for much longer, he parted from her to retrieve his charts and they went their separate ways.
Meredith met up with Maggie as they were both scrubbing in on a surgery together.
"So, how's life living with Andrew?" Maggie asked her.
"It's great. It's been really great so far. I think it was the right decision." Meredith smiled, nodding with confidence. "How's life living with Jackson?"
"That's been great too. It's still weird not living with you, though. Especially on the days when our schedules are so opposite and I'm home alone. The quietness is taking some getting used to for sure." Maggie told her.
Meredith chuckled a little. "I bet."
"I do miss the kids, though." Maggie added.
"They miss you too. You're more than welcome to come by any time to hang out with them, or take them out. The door's always open for you, but you already know that, of course." Meredith said as she went to enter the OR with Maggie.
"Thanks." Maggie replied.
—-
Meanwhile, Amelia was prepping for a case that involved a pregnant woman which meant that she had to page OB.
Carina arrived promptly in the ER. "Dr. Shepherd, you paged? What do we have?"
"30 year old pregnant female. 28 weeks along. Involved in an MVC. Her head CT shows a bleed so we're gonna have to take her up to the OR and I'll need you to monitor the fetus, fetal heartbeat, and make sure we keep that baby where he is."
Carina nodded as she took out her stethoscope to listen to the woman's heartbeat and checked the fetal heartbeat on the monitor.
They rushed up to the OR to begin the procedure.
Fortunately, Amelia was able to get control of the bleeding and the baby maintained stability throughout the procedure despite a few signs of distress.
Hours later as Amelia was putting away her tablet at the nurses station, Carina came up to her.
"Excellent job today, Dr. Shepherd." Carina said to her.
"Thank you. I can't take all the credit, though. You did a pretty good excellent job yourself, Dr. Deluca." Amelia smiled, leaning against the counter with her head slightly tilted to the side.
Carina looked away briefly with a shy smile on her lips. "Are you busy now?"
"Nope, I'm just about done here. You?" Amelia replied.
"I'm finished too. I was thinking maybe I could buy you a drink in celebration of our positive outcome." Carina offered.
"Substitute that drink for a caramel macchiato and I'm in." Amelia said.
"Deal." Carina agreed without question.
Once they were changed back into their civilian clothes, Amelia and Carina met each other at the Starbucks not too far from the hospital.
All this is, is coffee between two coworkers. Nothing more. Why the hell are you nervous? Those were the thoughts running through Amelia's mind as she walked into the cafe and spotted Carina at a booth.
"Amelia, hi, I just ordered your coffee." Carina greeted with a warm smile.
"Awesome. Thanks." Amelia said as she sat down.
Conversation began to flow easily between the two. They exchanged stories about their work as doctors, and Carina talked a lot about her life in Italy. Amelia hung to every word.
"Do you ever miss your life back in Italy?" Amelia asked her.
"I would say yes and no. I miss a lot of things about it, and some things..not so much. I'm happy to have this new start." Carina explained.
Amelia nodded. "I definitely get that. That's pretty much how I ended up here in Seattle..wanting a new start."
Carina smiled. "Well, then cheers to new beginnings." She held up her coffee mug and the two tapped their mugs and took a sip.
Amelia flashed her a smile and it was as if time had frozen between the two of them right then and there.
—-
Later that evening, Andrew was in the kitchen preparing dinner.
Meredith walked in and lazily draped her arm around his torso. "I told you you didn't have to cook dinner tonight. We could've picked up burgers on the way home."
"I know, I know. But I promised the kids chicken fajitas, and they loved them the last time I made them." Andrew told her.
"It does smell delicious, so, point taken." Meredith chuckled lightly, leaning her head against his side.
She went to have a seat at the counter and watched Andrew cook, feelings of deep admiration for the little things like the way his eyebrows furrowed in concentration or the soft hum that came naturally while he was cooking.
The food was ready about twenty minutes later, and Meredith called the kids downstairs as she set their plates onto the table.
Settling in at the table to eat their food, the children took turns discussing their day at school.
Zola got a perfect score on her math test, Ellis learned about shapes, and Bailey was chosen as student of the month.
"Funny, we're having field day at my school soon and I was wondering if maybe Andrew could come. There's gonna be all kinds of games and fun stuff to do and face painting!" Bailey exclaimed excitedly.
"Well, I'll have to check my schedule so I don't want to make any promises just yet but I will definitely try my best to be there, buddy." Andrew told him. Bailey smiled.
After dinner, Meredith sent the children upstairs to get ready for bed. Shortly after this, Amelia arrived home.
"Hey, you missed dinner. Did you get stuck at the hospital?" Meredith said to her as she walked into the kitchen.
"No, I uh, actually stopped somewhere after my shift." Amelia replied.
The flustered, can't stop smiling look on Amelia's face caused Meredith to grow slightly suspicious. "Okay...should I be concerned?"
"What? No, of course not. I had a positive surgery outcome today with Carina Deluca, so we decided to celebrate over a cup of coffee. That's it." Amelia said, shrugging her shoulders and slipping her hands into her pockets. "Nothing to be concerned about."
"Okay okay I believe you." Meredith smiled, putting a hand up in surrender.
"Are you hungry? I made chicken fajitas and we saved you some." Andrew offered her.
"Now that I think about it, I'm actually quite famished. Don't mind if I do." Amelia grabbed a plate from the rack and made her way to the stove to prep her meal.
"That didn't seem weird to you at all?" Meredith asked Andrew once they were upstairs in their bedroom.
"Did what seem weird?" Andrew asked, looking up from the book he was reading.
"Amelia." Meredith sighed, tossing her clothes into the hamper. "Something seemed..different. And not necessarily in a bad way. I'd maybe even say she seemed happy."
"And that's weird because…?" Andrew asked confused.
Meredith shook her head. "Never mind. What do you think about her and your sister hanging out together?"
"I think it's a good thing. I think they'll get along well." Andrew replied. He figured that at least this colleague of his was safe from Carina sleeping with them.
"I guess." Meredith said as she crawled into bed and snuggled up against him. "By the way, I wanted to thank you for not making any promises you might not be able to keep to Bailey earlier at dinner. I know sometimes we surgeons get in over our heads thinking we can do it all, even though we can't. And people end up disappointed."
Andrew nodded understandingly. "Of course. I mean, I'm definitely going to try my hardest to be there. I know when I was his age I would've loved having my dad there to do little things like that. Not..not that I'm saying I'm Bailey's dad or anything. What I meant was-"
Meredith cut him off mid sentence. "Shh, Andrew, it's okay. I know exactly what you meant. And I love you for it." She leaned upwards placing a reassuring kiss to his lips.