Disclaimer: I don't own anything… So, don't sue.

Chapter 16: Be Thankful for What You've Got

VO: I never liked holidays, when I was a kid, my mother only had to work more. I often went to a friend or I stayed home alone. I never had a large family, at least not one that liked me, but now, I do have one.

"You're nervous" Derek said placing his hand on Meredith's leg.

"I'm so not nervous." Meredith answered. They were driving to the airport to pick Derek's family up. Izzie was driving behind them in her own car. Christina was driving Derek's car since she only had a motorcycle and Emily was driving her own, that she just bought. The whole family should fit in now.

"I am nervous" Sara said from the back.

"Well, your mother is nervous too" Derek said with a smile.

"I'm not nervous"

"Just admit is Mere" he said with a smile.

"Okay, I'm nervous."

"Good, me too"

"You're nervous to see your own family?"

"You know, I have a big family"

"Really?" Meredith laughed.

They pulled up the parking lot of the airport.

"Will they like me?"

"They will love you"

"Okay" She kissed Derek and stepped out of the car. She helped Sara and walked hand in hand with Derek to the entrance. The rest of 'the gang' was already waiting.

"Let's go inside" Meredith said to them. They walked in with everybody and waited for Derek's family.

Half an hour later Derek saw his sister appearing. "Nina!" He yelled.

"Derek!" She walked to him holding suitcases in her hands with two children running after her. They hugged.

"Nina, I like you to meet, Meredith"

"Oh, I've heard so much about you" She hugged Meredith too.

"I heard a lot about you too"

"Well, Derek talks a lot doesn't he?"

"Yeah." Meredith bent down. "And this must be Kacy and…" She thought for a second. "Daniel."

"Exactly"

"I remembered." Meredith said proud. "And this is Sara, our daughter."

"Yeah I've heard a lot about you too" Nina offered her hand.

Sara took it. "Nice to meet you"

"What a nice kid" She said to Meredith and Derek.

"Thanks" Derek answered.

"And these are my friends" Meredith pointed to Christina, Izzie, George and Alex. And of course, my sister"

"Nice to meet you all"

"Where is the rest?" Derek said all of a sudden

"They are still looking for their luggage, but they can be here any minute."

"Derek!"

Derek turned and saw his parents walking towards him.

"Mum, dad."

"Hello, son" His father said when they reached him.

"Hey dad" They hugged, he also hugged his mum and introduced Meredith.

"It's so nice to finally meet you"

"Nice to meet you too." She introduced everybody again.

After Meredith met Derek's parents and the rest of his sisters they went home. Meredith and Derek drove Derek's parents and Nina and her children. Because they only had place for two left, Derek's dad went in the front seat, and Meredith took Sara on her lap in the back, Derek's mother took Daniel and Nina took Kacy on her lap.

The ride home wasn't very long. They talked about how Meredith and Derek met Sara. They tried to avoid the subject of how they met each others and luckily nobody brought it up.

As they came home, Izzie started putting all the food out, it was dinner time and Izzie and Derek cooked a lot, they already started a few days ago.

"The food smells great Meredith" Nina said.

"Actually, Derek and Izzie cooked, I'm not really the cooking type."

"Oh, it does smell delicious."

Meredith smiled.

Derek had given everyone a chair and the children were sitting on some pillows on the floor.

"Time to eat!" He yelled and everyone stood up to get a plate

Meredith walked to Derek. "It's going good so far."

"It is" He kissed her lightly on the mouth and when the broke apart he grabbed her hand.

"You know you two might be the cutest couple ever." Nina said walking pas them with three plates.

"Thanks Nina" Derek yelled after her.

"Your family is nice'" Meredith said quietly.

"I'm glad you like them"

"Yeah" She paused. "Have you seen Sara?"

"Yeah" He pointed to the group of children watching the TV as they ate.

"Ah, she's making friends already"

After dinner Izzie and George would bring everybody away who needed to go to a hotel, but Derek first got everybody's attention.

"So, Meredith, Christina, George and I have to work tomorrow. Izzie is free, though she will be looking after Sara too. You can all explore the city or something." He said loud enough they neighbours should be able to hear them.

When everybody left and Derek and Meredith showed Derek's parents, Nina and her children their bedrooms they went to sleep too.

Meredith and Derek decided to let Nina stay there because she was the youngest and she could use some help with the children since she was a single mom.

Meredith collapsed on the bed.

"I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, me too, it was fun, though"

"Yeah, it was definitely fun." She took her clothes of and put on some sweat pants and her Dartmouth T-shirt. She lay down under the blankets. Derek lay down next to her, she put her head on his chest and he stroke her hair lightly.

"Goodnight"

"Goodnight"

"I love you"

"I love you too"

The next morning they woke up by the sound of Meredith's alarm clock it was 4:15 AM and they had to be in at 5.

"If you go shower first, I'll make us some breakfast" Derek said, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Thanks" She stepped out of bed and walked to the bathroom.

Half an hour later they were both ready to go. They kissed Sara goodbye, while she was still sleeping and they went outside to go to the hospital.

Meredith's interns weren't very annoying today and she could scrub in on one of Derek's surgeries, so, her day was pretty good. Derek was an hour before her off so, he helped her with the charts she had she had to fill and she could go half an hour earlier. The next day they were having thanksgiving at their house so, they had to shop for some presents and food lot's of food. They already bought the presents for each other a few days ago and now they were walking through the mall.

"Come on Mere just tell me."

"No Derek and stop whining, I'm not going to tell you what I've bought for you"

"Oh you're so bossy"

"So I've heard."

They bought all the presents they needed to buy and and lot of food. They were loading it into the car.

"We should have come with two cars" Derek laughed. "God Mere, how much do you think my family can eat?"

"Well, I thought it's better to have too much then not enough."

"That's true"

They stepped into the car and drove back home. There was nobody home and Meredith and Derek sat down on the couch.

"So, are they coming tonight?" Meredith asked. "For dinner I mean"

"No, I don't know where they will eat but they're not coming."

"Okay" she paused. "I'm bored, nobody is here"

"I'm here"

"Yeah," She turned her head to him "let's do something"

"Oh but Mere I'm so tired."

"Not that, that's all you think about, isn't it?"

"Sorry, it's how my brain works."

"We can catch a ferry boat." She suggested

"Okay" He already stood up and picked up his and her coat.

"Wow, you're quick."

"What, we don't have all day."

"That's true" She took her coat and walked outside.

15 minutes later they were standing on a ferry boat.

"I love you" Derek said all of a sudden.

"We're not going all titanic are we? Cause we're having a major thanksgiving tomorrow, so, no time for sinking"

He laughed.

"I love you too"

He wrapped his arms around her waist and they looked over the water for several minutes.

"You know, I was thinking, maybe we can go to my land tomorrow, I mean at the day. We can fish and have a picnic." Derek suggested

"That's actually a good idea. I was already thinking, what the hell, we should do in the day tomorrow."

"I know I'm brilliant."

"No, I am."

"What, I brought up the idea."

"Yeah but I bought all the food. Or else we couldn't picnic."

"Okay, we're both brilliant"

"Yeah" She looked over the water. Suddenly her phone rang. She looked at the display. "It's Addison." She said astonished.

"Well, take it"

"I didn't even know she had my number" She said as she flipped her phone over. "Hello?"

"Meredith?"

"Yeah it's me" she walked to the other side of the deck, she couldn't understand her good. The connection was bad or Addison was talking really quiet.

"Mark left, and I, I just can't handle her." She started sobbing.

"Who, Addison, I can't hear you well."

"I just can't handle her" She paused. "She won't talk"

"Addison?" She still couldn't hear her well.

"I'll have to go, bye." She hung up.

Meredith closed her phone. "Okay, that's probably the most disturbing phone call I've ever had."

"What did she say?"

"She said, Mark left and she kept talking about that she couldn't handle her." She paused. "I assume she means Adrienne."

"Adrienne was never hard to handle."

"But she has been through a lot, Derek"

"Well, I'm sure Addison can handle it." He turned back to the water.

"I hope so" She stood back next to him.

About ten minutes later they were sitting in the car again.

"So, Where do you want to eat?" He asked as he started the engine.

"I don't know… McDonalds?"

"Yeah, I feel like McDonalds."

"Okay, then McDonalds it is"

An hour later they were walking through the door of their house.

"Anybody home?" Meredith called. She looked on her watch, 8 o clock. Sara came storming downstairs.

"Hey Mummy, we had such a fun day. We went swimming and Kacy (A/N: Daughter of Derek's youngest sister, Nina) and I went down the water slide. Oh, it was so much fun" She said fast.

"Okay, honey breath" She said laughing. "I'm glad you had a fun day."

"Yeah, can Kacy sleep in my room tonight?"

"Of course, I will put a mattress down." She kissed Derek on his cheek and walked upstairs to put a mattress down she bumped into Nina. "Hey"

"Hey"

"Did you have a nice day?"

"Yes, Seattle is great, I really love it here."

"Well, I love it here too"

"Yeah, so what have you done all day?"

"Well, the hospital of course and Derek and I went shopping for tomorrow, we also went on a ferry boat and we ate at the McDonalds, that's my entire day"

She laughed. "You two just can't get enough of each other, can you?"

"Well, because of Sara, we don't have that much time together anymore."

"I can understand, my kids also need a lot of attention."

"Yeah, and you're a single mum too, with two kids, how do you do that?"

"Oh, it isn't as hard as you think; I get a lot of help from my family."

"Yeah, it's very big"

"I know"

It was quiet for a while.

"Sara and Kacy really get a long" Nina said.

"Yes, they actually want to sleep together, in Sara's room tonight. I was just about to put a mattress down."

"Yeah, I know, Kacy was all excited about it"

"Kids."

"Yeah"

"Well, I should go" She pointed to Sara's room. "Put the mattress down."

"Do you need help?"

"Oh no, it's okay"

"Okay, see you later, I should really put Daniel in bed if he wants to wake up tomorrow."

Meredith smiled. "Okay" She walked to Sara's room…

Ten minutes later she walked downstairs, she saw Derek, Kacy and Sara watching TV. "Derek" She called. He turned. She nodded to Sara and Kacy.

"Okay, girls, it's time for bed."

"Can we take a bath first?" Sara asked as she jumped up.

Derek looked at Meredith. "Okay, but only for 30 minutes."

"Okay Uncle Derek" Kacy said as she grabbed Sara's hand and pulled her upstairs. They could hear Sara laughing.

Meredith yawned. "I'm going to wait until those two are lying in bed and then I'm going in too"

"Me too"

Half an hour later they were putting Kacy and Sara in bed.

"Don't make it to late." Meredith said in her mother-tone.

"Sara, you heard your mother"

"Okay, mum"

"Okay Auntie Meredith" Kacy said shy.

"You don't have to go to sleep right away but in an hour we're coming to check on you and you have to lie in bed then"

"Okay mum" Sara said annoyed.

"Okay goodnight" She bent and gave Sara and Kacy a kiss on their forehead, Derek followed. They walked out of Sara's room and into their own room.

"I'm not going to check on them, are you?" Derek said as he suppressed a yawn.

"No of course not, I only said that so they will go to sleep."

"Ha, smart"

"I know." She took her clothes on and put her sweat pants and her Dartmouth T-shirt on, just like she did… most of the nights. She stepped in her bed.

Derek stepped in bed too after he put his sweat pants on and wrapped his arms around Meredith.

"I love you" He kissed her forehead. "Goodnight"

"Goodnight" She murmured. She was already a little a sleep.

Derek smiled. After half an hour he was almost a sleep. Suddenly he heard the door open a little.

He heard a soft whisper. "Mum dad?"

"Yeah" He answered. He stepped out of bed quietly. "Ssh, your mum is a sleep." He walked to Sara and Kacy. "What's wrong?"

"We can't sleep." Sara answered.

"Oh, I got something for that" He grabbed a hand from both of the girls and led them downstairs. "Do you want some hot milk?"

"Yeah" Kacy said.

Derek made the girls some hot milk. After they finished it he brought them back to bed and tugged them in. He kissed them both on the cheeks. "Goodnight" He walked out of the room back to his own. He stepped back in bed and wrapped his arms around Meredith again.

The next morning Meredith woke by the smell of food, again. "Jeez, Izzie loves to cook." She turned to find her bed empty. She stepped out of bed and walked downstairs. To her surprise she saw Derek cooking, Sara, Kacy, Nina, Emily and even George and Izzie were all sitting at the table, they all looked tired except for Sara and Kacy. Derek noticed Meredith.

"Oh, good morning Mere. Did you sleep well?"

"I slept great, you?"

"Great" He looked at the rest. "They seem very tired, though"

"Yeah" She looked at them. "How did you guys sleep?"

"We slept great, we're just out of coffee."

"What? I'm started to feel very tired too" Meredith said as she sat down.

"Yeah"

"Have you checked my secret storage?"

"Your secret storage?" Izzie asked.

"Well, that's probably why I call it secret" Meredith said to herself. She walked to the fridge and pulled a chair with her. She stepped on the chair and looked on the fridge she grabbed something in the back. "Here it is." She threw it to Izzie.

"Coffee" Izzie said cheerful.

After they all drunk their coffee and ate Derek's pancakes. Meredith suggested Derek's idea, everybody agreed and Derek and Nina started calling the rest of Derek's family. Izzie called Christina and Alex, they would come there with their cars, so they could move Derek's family since his family doesn't know where his land is. Meredith showered fast and she put Kacy and Sara in the shower together.

When they were all finished, they were waiting for Christina and Burke to come, they were kind of late. When they finally arrived they split up in groups and drove to Derek's trailer. Derek convinced Alex and George to come fishing with him, the older kids of the family went for a walk around the land and the younger ones were playing with the stuff Meredith and Christina brought. Meredith, Izzie, Christina and Derek's sisters were lying in the sun. Yeah, there was sun, for ones sun in Seattle.

After a few hours, when Derek was done fishing with Alex and George they went for a walk, with everybody. It was fun. After that they all had lunch. At about five they went back to the house. In the morning Izzie had put the turkey in the oven and it should be ready by now. Izzie made the rest of the food, the salad and stuff while Meredith was making the table ready.

20 minutes later everybody was sitting at the table. Izzie made some chicken too for the ones who didn't like turkey. Everybody enjoyed their dinner and after that they all played some games, until the kids started to get impatient, they wanted their gifts. So they agreed it would be time to unpack the gifts. All the gifts were already lying on the table, it was like a mountain. They made it a game, somebody would start to pick out a gift with his or hers eyes closed and the one who the gift was for could unpack it and then it was his or hers turn to pick a gift, with the eyes closed of course. Sara was the first to pick out a gift.

After an hour most of the gifts were already unpacked, Derek bought Meredith a beautiful dress, with shoes. And Meredith already gave Derek her present. There was only one present left, it was for Sara, she already got million of presents but this one was special it was from Derek and Meredith. She opened it; it was a beautiful golden set of earrings, a necklace, a bracelet and a ring.

"Thank you mum, dad." Sara stood up and kissed them on the cheek. She looked at her present with her eyes widened "Only one problem, my ears aren't pierced." She said all of a sudden

"Well, if you want to, we can do that tomorrow. That's part of the gift too" Meredith informed

"Yeah, I would love to"

Meredith smiled. "Well, those were all the presents" She stood up and started picking up all the paper. Sara showed her present to Derek's family. Derek stayed on his chair.

"Derek could you help me?" Meredith asked.

"I still have one present." He said nervous

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" She sat back next to him. "Everybody, Derek still has a present" Everybody turned to face Derek. He was still sitting nervous on his chair. Izzie's eyes were sparkling.

"Derek?" Meredith looked in Derek's eyes. He grabbed her hands.

"Meredith, you are the most beautiful and… loveable woman I have ever met. You can say, I really fell in love fast…"

Meredith slowly realised what was happening and she was looking astound.

"…I still love you as much as I did then, even more. We share so much, of course our daughter, but we have ferryboats and other weird stuff. So..." He pulled a velvet box out of his pocket and sat down in front of her on one knee. "Meredith Grey, mother of my child, love of my life, will you marry me?"

Meredith burst out in tears, with a smile. "Of course I will, yes" She sobbed. He put the ring on her finger and everybody started clapping and congratulating them.

The rest of the night Meredith and Derek had that glow on their face. At the end of the night they said goodbye to Derek's family who had to go back to their hotel and they went to bed.

When Derek stepped in bed Derek was already lying in bed he looked at the ceiling. She snuggled against him.

"You know, you are the most romantic guy I've ever met."

Derek smiled. "Well, I was this close to saying: Pick Me, choose me, love me"

Meredith laughed. "Good you didn't. I still can't believe I actually said pick me"

"Well, you did, I heard it with my own ears."

She looked at her ring.

VO: I never thought that holidays could get any better then being with your family and having a good time, but some presents you get really do take your breath away.

"You still have a really good taste" She said with a smile.

Yes, it's done! One big hurray for me! God, I worked long on this chapter… and it's long… Review please… Seriously I'm practically begging you now…