Sunday Meredith heads home for a morning nap while Amelia and Link feed the kids, then she gets up and puts on a sundress for her afternoon at the park. She gets the kids ready and heads to the park. She has water bottles, snacks, a frisbee, a couple of small neon soccer balls, sunscreen and a blanket. She hopes she was ready for everything, but is tired from overnight surgeries, but hopes to get through the day.

When they arrive at the highschool, she texts Cormac wondering where to meet. He heads out to meet her at her car and wishes he could kiss her, feeling jealous of Liam and Amahle under the tree. But they've only had one kiss, ok two kisses. But today they are introducing their kids to each other, not kissing in front of kids stage yet. He'd spread out a blanket under a tree as a homebase for the day, and directs Meredith and her kids over to the tree where Austin, Liam and Amahle are sitting. As they walk up Liam and Amahle separate slightly, sitting up separately instead of intertwined.

Cormac introduces everyone and Liam and Amahle volunteer to take Zola, Bailey and Ellis over to the bouncy castle, obstacle course and large slide. Austin heads off to his volunteer responsibilities. Cormac sits down beside Meredith on the blanket.

"How was Austin about us coming?" Meredith asks.

"Not happy, but accepting. As you can see he volunteered to help instead of hang out with family," he replies, slipping his hand onto her thigh as they are now alone.

"He was polite, so that's a start. Give him time," she says.

"I'm trying," he says.

"The fact he does stuff with you and Liam is a good thing. He's a teenager! And that he stayed until I got here was good. When do you play?" she asks.

"1:30pm. How was your night?" he asks.

"Long. No sleep, got 2 hours once I got home," she answers. "Had to help Teddy on a diaphragm and lung repair as well as help with a craniotomy as the fellow got scared."

"The new neuro fellow?" he asks.

"Yes. I've already reported to Amelia and Owen that his trauma training is very low. I ended up walking him through the procedure and having to take over half way through," she says.

"Why didn't you wait for help?" he asks.

"Neuro consult was over an hour away, and I didn't want to keep him under that long. Open brain on table, I'd done it before, just been a while, and I had my favourite scrub nurse," she answers.

"Bokhee was on? Didn't know you did neuro," he inquires.

"Yes. I focused on neuro for the first few years of my residency. Look up the Shepherd Method. That is my idea. It was a trail for inoperable brain tumours, during my 2nd and 3rd years. Tough year though as we lost the first 12 patients."

"Shepherd method? As in with Derek?" he asks.

"Yes and he got his picture on the journal cover, and named it after himself. Wouldn't acknowledge his resident assistant," she says, still with some of the bitterness of his actions.

"I saw your picture in the JSA in Yang's office," he says.

"Yes, I did get published for the abdominal transplant. I wonder how Megan is doing?" she wonders out loud.

"Megan?"

"The first patient was Megan Hunt, Owen's younger sister. She brought another patient up for Catherine and I to do a penile and abdominal wall transplant about a year or so ago. When she saw me at the coffee cart she lifted her shirt to show off her abs," she explains.

"Guess they were impressive?"

"Especially since she's working with Veteran's Affairs and keeping up her military fitness levels. So definitely better than mine."

"I haven't seen yours but they feel good when I cuddle with you. But I have seen your bare legs," he says blushing and thinking not only to her bare leg he was touching, but back to her bare legs he saw in the lounge. They sat watching the activity around them and eventually Liam brought everyone back.

"We need to get ready dad," Liam says walking back his arm around Amahle.

"Amahle, are you staying to watch with me?" Meredith asks.

"No, sorry. I have to head home for a family dinner with my ugogo, my grandmother," she replies.

"Enjoy, thanks for taking the kids to play," Meredith says.

"Not a problem. Have fun watching the game," she says and heads over to say goodbye to Zola, Bailey and Ellis who were sitting closer to the field. Cormac and Liam put on their cleats and then Liam walks with Amahle towards the edge of the field as Cormac gathers his water and towel.

"Hope I can keep up with them. Can you watch my phone, pager and wallet?" he asks.

"Hand me your pager. Put the rest in my purse," she says, clipping it with hers, thankful everyone has their name on their pagers.

"Thanks. Will you be OK?" he asks.

"I have snacks for the kids and their soccer balls. But first is getting sunscreen on my blondies. Do you need any?" she says holding up the bottle of sunscreen.

"I should probably put on another layer. I am Irish," he says laughing. Turning to the kids he says, "Ellie, Bailey, come put sunscreen on with me."

"Dr Cormac, should I put some on?" Zola asks.

"Did you put some on earlier?" he asks.

"Yes, but sunscreen helps protect from skin cancer," she answers.

"Correct. You are probably OK, but if you want another layer, I can add some," he replies, not wanting to discourage a kid from putting sunscreen on. He thinks of the times he took Abby and the kids to the beach and the only one burnt was him. Or skiing in Switzerland. His boys, having dark skin can get away with one application of sunscreen while skiing. His skin is quite fair so he usually burnt.

"Thanks, that was painless," Meredith says to him with relief as he got the kids to put on sunscreen. Meredith sprayed sunscreen on her legs, arms and chest and asked Zola to spray her back.

Bailey and Zola watch and run up and down the edge of the field chasing Cormac, Liam or Austin cheering, while Ellis sits with her on the blanket. Meredith is quite tired and finally gives into the need for sleep and lays down and falls asleep. Ellis, having been up a few times with Scout overnight, cuddles in and falls asleep too.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Cormac says as he returns after the game.

"Oh, sorry. Is the game over?" she answers yawning, noticing that Ellis is snuggled up to her sleeping.

"Yes. The boys and I are going to shower," he says.

"Good plan. We'll wait here?" Meredith says as she notices how sweaty he is. She looks over at Bailey and Zola who are now kicking their soccer ball back and forth.

"You still game for dinner?" he asks.

"Definitely. We're game for anything. Or at least anything family friendly," she answers. As he grabs his bag of clothes and heads off to the change room.

It wasn't that long before the three Hayes men came back from the change rooms. "Do you need to do anything to clean up?" Meredith asks organizing her stuff.

"No, I was on set up, and Austin did his volunteer hours before the game. But we could help others cleanup their garbage and recycling on our way to our car," Liam replies, noticing the amount of garbage left on the side of the field.

"That's a good idea. Why do people leave their garbage behind?" Zola says.

"I don't know, but it's not very considerate. Is it?" Liam replies. Zola and Bailey raced off with Liam cleaning up.

Cormac offers Meredith his hands to help her up, and then lingers before letting go of her hand. Once the blankets are folded and put into the bags, Ellis grabs Cormac's hand and walks with him towards the cars. After she loads the back of her SUV, they finalize where they will eat dinner and he grabs a quick kiss out of view of the kids.

Liam thinks ahead and calls the diner for a table for 7 while they are driving over so they didn't have as long to wait once at the diner. During dinner, Austin starts talking about video games and superheroes with Bailey. Meredith looks over at Cormac and smiles, acknowledging that Austin is trying. Liam chats with Zola about school while Ellis chats away with Cormac nearly sitting on his lap. Her little cuddle bug had found a favourite new lap. Everyone ordered burgers and milkshakes, except Ellis who wanted vegetables, so she had a green salad, a piece of Meredith's chicken burger and mashed potatoes.

"You really like your veggies. Which is your favourite?" Cormac says to Ellis.

"Cucumber and carrots," she replies.

"Does she eat much else?" he asks Meredith, thinking about how tiny she is.

"She is very healthy. Fruit, vegetables, chicken breast, more fruit," Meredith says.

"Wow. What about traditional kids' foods?" he says.

"Vegetable pizza with very little cheese. Maybe mac & cheese. Quesadillas, but she wants ones with veggies, not just cheese," Meredith replies.

"That's amazing. No wonder she's so tiny," he says.

"And as long as she doesn't get my high metabolism, she'll be fine," Meredith replies.

"Do you struggle with your weight?" he asks.

"Yes, to keep it up. Gaining weight during pregnancy was tough. Losing after was easy," she replied thinking back to both her pregnancies.

"How much did you gain?" he asks.

"Maybe 15lbs," she says.

"That's not much. Did your OB give you a hard time?"

"Yes. Lots but I couldn't gain any more. I was eating constantly. When I was pregnant with Ellie, I would eat the kids extras and still wasn't gaining," she says.

"Well they both look healthy now, although a little on the skinny side," he teases.

"Going with genetics. Ellis was petite, and I have a high metabolism. Derek always ate healthy. 3 of his sisters are super skinny, and he was built like a taller version of Amelia," she says.

After dinner they separated and headed to their own homes. As they drove home Zola and Bailey wouldn't stop talking about Liam and Austin and their fun afternoon.

Cormac arrived home and threw their sweaty gear into the washing machine and then checked on both boys and their homework. "Austin, is all your homework done?"

"Of course," he replies without looking up from his video game.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes dad."

"Thanks for chatting with Bailey at dinner," Cormac says, thinking of how wonderful it was that Austin had opened up to Bailey at dinner.

"Bailey's pretty cool for a little kid," he replies. Cormac laughs to himself as he leaves the room.

Cormac heads to the kitchen putting on the kettle, then making tea and sitting down at the table with Liam. Liam starts talking to him in Irish and they discuss his homework and upcoming school projects. Cormac confirms that Liam is fine taking the bus to the hospital for his Monday afternoon classes.

"Good night, I'm going to have a hot shower and hope my body doesn't hurt too much tomorrow," Cormac says to Liam.

"Oíche mhaith, Codladh sámh!" Liam replies. [good night, sleep well]


Meredith wakes not feeling rested. She'd woken not only when Scout refused to go back down at 1AM, Ellis was up at 3AM and she'd fallen into a restless, fitful sleep until 6AM when she needed to get up. Her mind kept playing over some of the arguments at work between Andrew and Cormac, Andrew's insolence in a number of cases. Andrew was down right rude to Cormac and she wondered how things were going to be once they were both working at the hospital.

"Dr DeLuca, welcome back. Please meet me in the conference room by Dr Bailey's office after rounds," Meredith says, walking up to the group of residents and fellows standing at the surgical floor nurses station.

"Yes Dr Grey," Andrew replies. Andrew was looking great. He looked well reseted, and ready for his shift.

"Dr García, you have a meeting with myself, Dr Hunt and Dr Shepherd at 1pm in the same conference room," she continues. "2nd and 3rd years, you are in the lab this afternoon with Dr Webber."

"Let's get rounds done," Meredith says heading to the first room.

Cormac on the other hand slept wonderfully. Abigail visited his dream, reminding him to move on, that she was happy for him. He woke and his legs were a little sore from the football game the day before so did some stretches and went for a short slow run before getting Liam and Austin up and to school. Knowing Meredith was going to have a rough day of meetings and teaching and possibly no time in the OR, he grabbed two coffees on his way in and during rounds handed her a latte. She had started rounding on her paeds patients last so she could sneak into Cormac's office for a few minutes if she wasn't in surgery.

"Thanks for the coffee. I don't have much time," she says as he pulls her into his arms once the door closes.

"You look tired."

"Slept like crap. You look rested," she replies.

"I slept wonderfully and went for a run this morning."

"How about one kiss, then I have to get back to work," she says lifting her lips. He dipped his head down, lips capturing hers, gently, demanding, caring.

"Mm-mmm," she moans.

"Now you need to get to work. Maggie said she'd watch your kids Thursday night, so date night?"

"Sounds great," she places a quick kiss on his lips and reluctantly slips from his arms.