Chapter 4
She wakes up a couple hours later to the baby's soft cries. She opens her eyes to see Derek was no longer in the bed. She looks around trying not to panic.
"Derek?" Before she has time to panic too much, Derek comes back into the room, with a bottle in his hand.
"Hey sorry, she was starting to wake up and I figured she's probably hungry by now." She looks up with terrified eyes.
"You left." She whispers.
"Yeah, what's wrong, Mer?" She shakes her head. Returning her gaze to the baby as her cries increased.
"I-I just...nevermind, it's stupid." She reaches out, taking the bottle from Derek, starting to feed the baby.
"Mer?" He asks softly, seeing the tears as they rolled down her face. "I- I was just afraid you left. I don't know why I-I just felt like you got too freaked out by all this.''
"Mer," Derek whispered softly "I'm in this with you. Forever."
"I woke up and you were gone." Meredith whispers.
"I know, I should have woken you. I never went to sleep, I couldn't. When I saw she was starting to wake up, I went and got her some food and wanted to go back before she woke you up. I promise, everything is alright, Mer. I'm not going to run away from this...from my family."
"I wouldn't be able to do it without you." She admits, letting her fears out. "I don't know how to do any of this."
"You don't have to, Mer, we will learn as we do this. Yes, we're going to make mistakes with her but we'll learn as we go. I know you are going to be better than your mother." He pulls her into his arms, wanting to reassure her that he wasn't going anywhere.
"I don't know how to do any of this. I didn't do relationships. I brought guys home to piss off my mom. Nothing was ever as serious as it's been with you. I barely know how to handle kids. It's a lot." She whispers, admitting all her fears.
"I know. I love you, Mer, and together we can do this. Together we can do anything." he whispers.
She smiles softly, "You do realize the first step is we're gonna have to name her."
Derek sighs. "Oh boy."
"What's Addison's middle name? Under normal circumstances I'd never name my child after an ex but seeing as well she did kind of do this for us." She smiles at the thought.
"Trust me, you don't want our kid to have her name." He responds with a laugh.
"It can't cant be that bad," Mer laughs. "Do you really want our kid to have the name Forbes?" He deadpans.
"Isn't that her last name?" She asks, confused. He agrees, noting how dumb he was. Eleven years and he thought that was her middle name?
"Well, her middle name is actually Adrianne...that would work for a first name." She looks down at the baby who had quieted down. "It's a pretty name but is it...us?"
"What do you mean?" Derek asks, confused
"Adrianne. Are we those people? Those people that give our kid such a long name that sounds all fancy?" She was so scared of picking the wrong name. It had to be perfect.
"Okay, you have a good point there." He agrees.
"This is gonna be harder than we think," Mer says, laughing lightly.
Derek sighs. "I think so, too."
"A simple name. With meaning." Meredith says.
"Well, does it have to be after a person?" Derek asks, after some thought.
"No, not necessarily. Just a special meaning." Meredith smiles, trying to think of something that would fit.
"Well, I've always liked the name Braelynn, it means strength." Derek smiled, thinking they found the one.
Meredith bites her lip. She wasn't sold but she didn't want to tell him that.
"We can consider it but we should make a list." She finally settles on, trying to put it nicely.
And so the pair spent the next little while going back and forth picking names until they found the one.
