READ THIS FIRST:
Some need to know information before you read this chapter:
Derek and Meredith are married. They have Olivia, who's now four, and their six month old son Dylan
Burke and Christina are also married. They have a three and a half year old daughter Avery, a two year old son Miles and their eight month old son Jesse
Denny and Izzie are married. Denny's heart is fixed. They have a one year old daughter Sam and … you have to read the chapter to find out the rest of the sentence! Haha!
George and Callie are engaged!
There you have it. Read on my lovely readers!
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She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, looking wildly around her for her daughter, baby balanced on her hip.
"Olivia!" she called, looking to the baby in her arms who was contentedly sucking on his pacifier. "Olivia!" she called again, panic settling into her gut.
It had been at least five minutes since Meredith had seen the four-year old and for a troublemaker like Olivia, that was more than enough time to cause chaos of some sort.
Relief swept over her as the little girl came bounding across the lawn from somewhere on Derek's massive plot of land, her light brown hair with the curly tips flying behind her as she and Avery raced. Christina appeared beside her, smile latched onto her face as she watched Avery, her oldest, and Olivia race toward their mothers.
From behind, Derek reached over his wife's shoulder and extracted the baby from her arms, seeing Olivia running towards them and knowing it was going to end in a collision. Sure enough, Olivia collided with Meredith's knees, and immediate, "I win!" from her mouth as Avery reached Christina seconds later.
Avery, ever the competitive child she was inevitably going to be, responded with a, "No way! I call a re-match!"
Olivia smiled, more than willing to race again. "Last one to the tree is a broken spleen!" she called, taking off with Avery hot on her heels.
"Not too far girls," Christina yelled to their retreating backs.
"I'll follow them," Burke reassured his wife, leaving in the direction the girls had just left in.
Feeling better now that Preston was watching the two older girls, Christina turned her attention back to her two younger boys. Miles, who had just celebrated his second birthday three months earlier, was sitting happily on the grass, zooming a fire truck up and down his bare leg. Jesse, their other son who was barely eight months, was sitting in his playpen, watching in amusement at his brother who was making zrooming noises with the truck.
Meredith turned to Derek, watching in admiration as he wiped drool from their six-month old son Dylan's chin. From the general direction of where Avery and Olivia had taken off in, a cry, that Meredith and Derek recognised immediately as Olivia's, rang out from somewhere among the trees.
"I'll go," Derek said, holding Dylan out to Meredith who immediately took him into her welcome embrace. She watched Derek until he disappeared within the tress before turning to Christina.
"I swear to God that girl's always in trouble," Meredith said, referring to Olivia who was, indeed, always in trouble.
"Well look at her parents," Christina kidded. "With a mother like you, be thankful it's not the kind of trouble you were always getting into," she said with a smirk and receiving a smack from Meredith on the arm. "Avery's the same," she said, extracting Jesse from his playpen and settling him down in her lap. "It's like she purposely seeks out trouble and involves herself in it, just to piss me off," she said with another smile.
Meredith laughed. "I know what you mean."
She enjoyed these times with her friends and family, she really did. Every Saturday, given that they weren't all working, Meredith and Derek would have everyone over to their house on Derek's land and have a barbeque, giving the kids a chance to run off some of their energy and the adults to have an actual adult conversation that wasn't about medicine or the hospital. Today, they were still waiting for Denny and Izzie with their one-year old daughter Sam who were late, as usual. George and Callie, who were now officially engaged, were both working.
Looking away from Christina and up to where Burke, Derek, Avery and Olivia had taken off to, Meredith caught sight of Derek, walking back across the field with Olivia in his arms, blowing raspberries on her small stomach in an attempt to cheer up her tear-stained face. But as she caught sight of her mother with her little brother in her arms, the sniffles started up again. Derek placed her down on the ground and she made her way over to Meredith, attaching herself to her leg.
"Hey baby," Meredith said, using the hand that wasn't holding Dylan to stroke her fine, light-brown hair.
But Olivia swatted her hand impatiently away which meant that she wasn't that hurt or injured because she only let Meredith play with her hair when she was sad or seriously injured.
"What happened?" Meredith asked Olivia, looking up to Derek and gesturing for him to take Dylan so she could hold her daughter. He moved towards them and picked the baby up with ease, readjusting the blue pacifier that was falling from his mouth. In a swift motion, Meredith picked Olivia up and sat her in her lap, waiting for an answer. When she didn't get one, she asked another question: "Where does it hurt?"
Olivia pointed solemnly to her ankle and Meredith looked down, pulling her daughter's foot into her lap and examining it.
"Hmm," she said thoughtfully. "Looks like a hairline fracture of talus bone. What's our course of action Dr Shepherd?" she asked Olivia who grinned widely at her, loving the little game that was a ritual whenever she got hurt.
"Immediate kiss to make it all better," she replied instantly, a happy grin on her face.
Meredith raised Olivia's ankle gently to her lips and pressed them to it, making a smooching noise and exaggerating it for all it was worth. "Did I get it?" she asked to Olivia's now smiling face.
"Uh huh," Olivia replied, now fully healed. "Thank you Mommy," she said as she extracted herself from 'Dr Mommy's' lap.
"Thank you Dr Shepherd," Meredith replied.
With fully restored health, Olivia ran over to Avery who had just returned with her father and dragged her over to the sandbox.
"Man do I wish everything could be fixed with a kiss," Preston said, walking over to Miles and picking his up from the grass. "Come on buddy. Let's go put on some pants!" he said with feigned enthusiasm.
"No, no, no!" Miles cried from his father's arms, fighting tooth and nail to get back to his fire truck.
Burke bent down and picked up the truck, handing it to his son who immediately settled down, running it across his father's chest with the same zrooming noises that were entertaining Jesse earlier.
A giggle from someone small turned all their attention to the side of the house where three new people were making their way towards them. Izzie was walking at the front, diaper bag and casserole dish clutched in her hands with Denny following behind, hand outstretched to Sam who was walking on her own.
"No Daddy!" she said, pushing Denny's hand away. "Me do!"
Everyone laughed at Sam's stubbornness and independence. Meredith pulled herself out of her chair and walked over to Izzie, taking the casserole from her and placing it on the picnic table with the rest of the food. Izzie dropped the diaper bag onto the grass and reached over to Meredith, pulling her into a friendly hug with a, "Where are the girls?"
Through the forest from the direction of the sandbox came the sound of happy screaming voices running towards them as Avery and Olivia came into, something clutched tight in Olivia's grasp.
"Guess that answers my question," Izzie muttered to herself, grabbing Sam from the ground and pulling her into her arms, jamming the hat that she kept throwing off back onto her head for what felt like the fifteenth time.
"Mommy, mommy! Look what we found!" Olivia yelled as her and Avery ran at top speed towards their parents.
"Wacha got there Olivia?" Meredith asked, approached her daughter curiously.
"Look!" Olivia said excitedly, extending towards her mother the object grasped her in her hand.
Catching sigh of what Olivia was holding, Meredith let out a noise of disgust. "Eww sweetie, gross!" Meredith exclaimed, reaching out and taking the dirty old boot from her hands. "Olivia what did Mommy tell you about picking up garbage that you find on the ground?"
Olivia's lips quivered, she hated when her mother got made at her. And even though Meredith wasn't even mad at her, Olivia was the queen of exaggeration. Derek, seeing that the four-year old was about to cry, handed Dylan over to Meredith and scooped Olivia into his arms.
"Aw come on Mer," he said, tickling his daughter's sides in an attempt to make her smile. "You can't blame her for being curious," he said with a coy grin.
Meredith could tell that Olivia was upset and she walked over to her husband and daughter with her son in her arms and dropped a kiss onto her oldest child's head.
"No you're right," she said to her husband, then turning her attention to her daughter. "'Livia baby I'm not mad," she said.
"Really?" Olivia asked back, lips no longer quivering.
"Really," Meredith stated matter-of-factly. "Now why don't you take your brother and go play with Avery and Miles and Jesse and Sam?"
"But Dylan always throws things at me!" Olivia protested.
"Babe please!" Derek pleaded. "Daddy and Mommy need some grownup time!" he begged. Then leaning in to whisper in her ear, said, "We'll raise you're allowance."
Olivia smiled widely, then sighed. Derek and Meredith exchanged a look, knowing she was about to cave.
"Fine," she said, extracting herself from her father's arms and straightening her shirt once she was on her ground, then reaching out for her little brother.
Meredith gently gave Dylan to Olivia, unsure about leaving their six-month old with their chaos-causing four-year old. Dylan went into the arms of his sister, playing with the pacifier in his mouth, then being carried off by Olivia. Derek turned his attention to Meredith after watching Olivia cart Dylan over to Jesse's playpen and set him carefully down inside. For a four-year old, she was especially careful when it came to her little brother.
He put his hand on her hips, pulling her into him. Running his fingers through her soft, lavender scented hair, he pulled her even tighter, mashing his lips onto hers and tasting the strawberry of her lip-gloss. She smiled, lips still upon his. He pulled her even closer, even though there was no space separating them.
A small 'ahem' broke them away from each other and they turned, cheeks resting against the others and smiling guiltily at their guests. Christina was staring at them, a small, disapproving smile crossing her face.
"What?" Derek asked with a smile. "Just because we have kids doesn't mean our sex life becomes non-existent," he laughed.
Everyone burst into laughed and Meredith pulled away, looking to her kids who were sitting contentedly. Olivia was sitting beside Avery, Sam and Miles, all trying to make a noise with a blade of grass following Avery's instructions. But the attempt was futile and Miles through his blade onto the ground in frustration. Dylan was sitting in Jesse's playpen, still sucking on his pacifier and watching Jesse play on his little toy piano. Meredith smiled. She adored just sitting back and watching her kids interact. Remembering that it was time for Dylan's medication, she pulled away form her husband but intertwined their fingers.
"Derek's it's time for Dylan's meds," she said to him, then turning and looking at their son who was still content.
It struck Meredith as odd as how her two kids could be completely and totally different. Olivia was always on the go, always on the move, never stopping to do something for more than five minutes; ten at best. And then there was Dylan. You could sit him down anywhere for hours on end and he would never make a fuss. Only if he was hungry or tired would he cry, and even then it was quiet and reserved.
"I'll do it," Derek said automatically. He hated forcing the discusting medication down his baby's throat but if they ever wanted that cold to go away it was something they had to do. And even though Derek despised force-feeding Dylan the medication, it was precious time he got to spend with him.
Walking away from his wife, he made it to Jesse's playpen and pulled Dylan out, hoisting the little weight he had into his loving arms and carting him inside.
Meredith made her way into the vacant chair beside Christina and Izzie and sat down with a sigh. The other two women turned and looked at her curiously.
"What?" Meredith asked with a confused smile.
"You sighed," Izzie replied.
"Oh," was Meredith's response. "Just tired."
Christina and Izzie nodded their heads before turning their attention back to Burke and Denny who were now chasing the kids around the yard and pretending to be monsters. The girls laughed. From inside the house, Derek emerged with Dylan on his hip. Dylan was smiling, his blue soother out of his mouth for a change.
"Daddy, Daddy!" Olivia called from the yard, still running from Burke who was right behind her. "Come be a monster Daddy!" With a fleeting glance to his son in his arms, Derek took off running after all the kids, Dylan's smile growing even bigger.
"I've got something to tell you guys," Izzie said to Christina and Meredith with a coy grin on her face.
"Ooh what is it?" Christina asked, ever the gossip-queen.
Izzie let the conversation pause, allowing the tension to build up before she released her news.
"Come on Izzie don't leave us hanging!" Meredith pleaded.
Izzie smiled, knowing the agony the suspense was causing her friends. Finally, knowing that they were going to beat the answer out of her if she didn't answer, she told them what they were dying to hear: "I'm pregnant."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOk and now I need to vent. Was anybody else totally pissed about what a jackass Derek was being to Meredith in the last episode, Damage Case! I mean seriously, he was PISSED OFF! Damn…. Anyways. Now that that's out of my system.
Thanks you guys so much for everything! You rock!
Oh ya and that's the end! For good this time! So sad Again …You guys rock!