After her night with the kids, Meredith woke up the next morning with a smile on her face. It had

been too long since she last woke up that way. She looked to her side checking for Derek and frowned when she didn't see him there. Her frown quickly changed when she saw him peek into the room.

"Good morning," she whispered so to not wake the sleeping children next to her. Derek gave her his McDreamy smile and whispered back.

"Good morning. How was your evening last night?"

Meredith's face lit up as she reflected on the previous evening. "Well, we had a very fancy tea party, put a puzzle together and we came in here and read ourselves to sleep. How is Ellie?"

"Perfect," Derek answered with a smile on his face. "Arizona says she could be coming home today instead of in a few days."

Meredith beamed at the news, something she had not expected to hear first thing in the morning. She looked at Derek with tears in her eyes. "She's really okay?"

Derek smiled, "she's perfect." When Derek spoke, Meredith slowly worked herself out of bed so to not wake Zola and Bailey and made her way to her husband. As she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and did not realize that she was crying until she felt the dampness of his shirt.

After losing two babies, one of which she had only known about for a day the other she had carried around for a few months, Meredith was constantly worried over her newborn daughter. But knowing that Addison feels her care is no longer needed and that Arizona is giving them the green light for the newest Shepherd baby to come home, she began to relax more.

Derek, sensing her thoughts hugged his wife tightly. Secretly, he was happy that she was finally showing emotion—that she was no longer shutting her family out. He loved seeing the smile on her face when she spoke about her evening with their oldest two children. It was the gleam she once had in her eyes when Janet showed up at the old house with Zola in her arms.

…

When the kids woke, they were given the news that their baby sister would be coming home from the hospital that day. Bailey didn't quite understand, but Zola did and was very excited that she would have a baby sister in the house. Meredith was thankful that neither asked about their brother, as she would not have been able to handle that.

While the kids played in the living room after breakfast, Meredith went about in the nursery making sure everything was ready for Ellie when she was finally home. She grabbed the bassinet that sat in the corner of the room and carried it over to the room she shared with Derek. She felt his eyes on her and turned around to look at him before continuing.

"I want her to stay in our room for a while. We've been apart long enough, I want her to feel loved," Meredith explained.

Derek nodded his head. "She already knows she's loved, but I think it's a good idea to have her sleep in the room with us. We can make sure that Zola doesn't wander in in fascination for a while," Derek smiled as he spoke.

Meredith laughed with her husband knowing very well what he meant. Though she was younger when Bailey was born, they had caught their daughter looking for him in the nursery when they first brought him home, Zola not knowing that her brother was currently occupying their parents' bedroom. Meredith continued on to the bedroom to place the bassinet close to the bed.

She sighed. She knew it was going to be weird having another baby in the house, but it was not that fact that induced her sigh. It was knowing that there were supposed to be two babies in the house. But she had failed them. Of course, she knew it wasn't exactly her fault that her children were born early and that her youngest son was not able to stay with them. A very small piece of Meredith still felt that she had some sort of responsibility in the event.

Shaking off the thoughts, Meredith went downstairs to join the rest of her family. Zola and Bailey were still playing together in the living room, something that caused Meredith to smile. She could not wish for anything more than the relationship her children had with each other. Meredith frowned with that thought though, thinking of the way she treated Lexie when she first found out about her. She wished that she had treated Lexie with much open arms as Zola did Bailey.

Derek watched his wife standing between the kitchen and living room as she looked at two of their children. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Meredith walked over to Derek and shook her head. "I was just thinking of how bad I treated Lexie when I first met her and how grateful I am that Zola was so welcoming of Bailey. I'm glad she hasn't picked up that asset from me."

Derek hugged Meredith as he spoke to her, "You were a great sister to Lexie. Do you know how much she gushed about you? That first year she tried so hard to get me to get you to talk to her. Of course Yang got through to you…"

"She didn't give me a choice. She showed up at the frat house with Lexie in tow."

"But still, Mer. You invited her in to your life that day, and I know how happy that made her. She was so excited when she found out I was going to propose to you. Even helped set the elevator up with Richard."

Meredith smiled at the night that had become their engagement night. She was frustrated with Richard for not letting her take the first elevator but that went away quickly when she entered the elevator with Derek. "I didn't know she helped with that," Meredith spoke softly. "She didn't think I wanted her at the wedding when we had one planned. She had the biggest smile on her face when I told her that she was my sister, of course she was going to be not just at the wedding but in the wedding."

"Any regrets?" Derek asked her.

Meredith turned in his arms, "only that I didn't treat her better when I first met her. And not staying with her in the woods," she finished in a soft voice. "I just hope Zola remembers her, because Lex loved her like crazy; I wish Bailey and Ellie would be able to meet her. Hell, I wish I had my sister here with me."

"I know. I miss her everyday too. She was part of my family, and I'm sorry that you weren't with her in her final moments because you went in search of me," Derek admitted to Meredith for the first time ever.

Meredith shook her head, "Derek…please don't feel that way. Cristina told me to go, that everything would be handled. Deep down, I knew she probably wasn't going to make it out if the woods. When Mark was in the hospital, you know during the surge…he told me that some of Lexie's last words were for him to tell me that she loved me and that I was a great sister. I wish I had felt that way. For the longest time I felt like a failed her; that is something I hope none of our children ever feel. I want them all to be chatty and happy, not dark and twisty."

"They are chatty and happy, Mer. They're so happy with each other that Bailey is over there willingly putting a pink fuzzy crown on his head," Derek said with a laugh to lighten the mood.

Meredith glanced over and laughed. If only her son knew that his sister would tease him later in life about this just as the Shepherd sisters did the Derek. That thought eased her mind, knowing how close Derek was with his sisters even with all the teasing.

…

Alex came over to the house to watch Zola and Bailey while Meredith and Derek headed to the hospital to bring Ellie home. She wouldn't lie, Meredith was nervous about bringing Ellie home because they wouldn't have the wonders of the hospital at their hands if something happened to her daughter at home. Derek tried to ease the tension he felt radiating through Meredith with a reassuring hand on her back.

They had made their way up to the nursery and found Arizona in there standing next to their daughter, playing with her toes. She looked up when she saw Meredith and Derek enter the room.

"Well, she is all ready to go home and be with her family," Arizona announced. "Her numbers are great, she is thriving. Passed the carseat test. You guys got this," she said as she began to help them get the young girl ready to go home.

In the car, Meredith sat in the back with Ellie watching over her like a hawk. The young baby looked around her eyes wide at the new surroundings. She had a tight grip on her mother's finger.

Meredith happily gave her daughter her index finger and smiled as the baby clung to it. She gently brushed her right hand down the baby's face taking in the softness of it. "I'm so happy we get to bring you home," Meredith whispered to the baby as she leaned over and placed a small kiss on the hand that held her finger.

Hello my lovely readers,

I must apologize for the long, unexpected hiatus. So much has happened in the past two years. Not only did I graduate and start a new job, but I also suffered two close losses in my family. Rather than writing fanfics, I've been writing poetry to release my emotions. However, I am back, and I am planning on finishing every story I have started because I don't want to leave them abandoned.

Thanks for being patient with me, and please bear with me as I work on finishing the stories one at a time :)

~~ writerin-newyork