THREE

Effects Of Waves

It was 1pm on the day after Meredith had rushed into Seattle Grace with a crying boy in her arms. Today she walked in with the dark blonde haired boy smiling. The child laughing at some nonsense he'd just spoken, and hanging on to his mothers arm.

"So, we have to go find Derek, you up for that Luc?"

"Yes Mummy! I like Derek. We play?"

"Sure, if there's time. But you have to remember Derek is a Doctor like me so he might have to go."

"To fix somebody?"

"Yep. To save a life. But we are a little early so do you wana meet some of Mummy's friends?"

"Yeah!"

"Ok."

They stepped out of the lift onto the surgical floor and immediately spotted Dr Bailey standing with a chart by the nurses stations. Meredith lifted Luca in to her arms and walked over to introduce her son to her boss.

"Doctor Bailey." She smiled at the woman who was a tough but fair boss to her.

"This is my son. Introduce yourself like I taught you." Meredith smiled at Luca who instantly did what he was told.

"My name is Lucas Thatcher Grey. P'eased to meet you" He smiled. For a two year old, well, 2 year 4 month old kid he had pretty good speech.

"Hi Lucas." Bailey said, entranced already by the smiling boy, the spitting image of his mother except for his blue sparkling eyes. Turning to Meredith she continued "I didn't know you had kids?"

"I don't. I only have Luca. That's all."

"Why didn't you say?"

Meredith avoided Baileys gaze, looking at Luca instead. "People already made assumptions about me, with my Mum being Ellis Grey and my step-father being the Chief of Surgery here. I didn't want people to make exceptions for me, or judge me cause I had a kid."

"How have you had time to look after him with the long shifts?" her boss asked amazed at the honesty of the intern, knowing what she said was true.

"I have a friend called Elaine who looks after him for me, and then Cristina does, and of course Dad. I just, juggle things around and it works ok. Luca always comes first obviously. But, works important, I want my career."

"What about his Dad?"

"There isn't one."

Bailey nodded, there was no pain or remorse in Meredith's eyes when she said there was no dad, just acceptance so Miranda didn't press the issue. "Well, it was nice meeting you Luca, see you soon." she said smiling before walking off to catch up with her patients.

Meredith looked at her watch and then the OR board, none of her friends were scrubbed in and it was lunch time so she headed down to the hospitals cafeteria to find them and also grab a snack for Luca before he got hungry and grumpy.

As she walked through the hospital, nurses stopped and stared, Meredith ignored the whispers, used to them from her first weeks as an intern when whispers of her mothers name and the fact of chief being her Dad had followed her through out the hospital. She had ignored them then, and was ignoring them now. Knowing that her friends would support and understand and the people that didn't, well, they didn't matter.

She held her head high walking into the cafeteria, softly laughing at Lucas' ramblings about Derek. She was pleased he was so excited. It meant he wasn't scared. Looking round the café she saw her friends sat at their usual table, Cristina got up and walked towards them.

"Hey stinky," she said to Luca, to others she might think she was being mean but Cristina loved Luca, the nearest thing to a nephew she had, and she said Stinky as a pet name not with malice. Not looking at Mer she continued "I explained to the guys and they all understand. They're surprisingly fine with it. Even Evil Spawn, he just said that he'd punch Mark out if you ever see him again."

"That's good.. and.. uh.. nice.. of Alex. I guess." she said uncertainly. She looked down at her son who was staring at her "Lets go meet mine and Auntie Cristinas' friends yeah?"

"Fwiends!" He grinned happily, content with being carried over in his mothers arms.

By the time Derek Shepherd had finished his first morning surgery it was lunch time. He was starving so he headed to the cafeteria, as he neared his destination he noticed a crowd of nurses and others standing by the door. He pushed his way through the crowd and saw what everyone was staring at. Meredith was sat on her usual table with her friends laughing as they watched Luca running through the food hall, between the tables with Derek's scrub cap on his head.

As soon as Luca saw Derek he sped towards him, surprisingly swift on his little legs, and jumped at him. Derek chuckled, "Hey little man." He tugged the scrub cap up as it was way to big for Luca's little head, and had a brief look at the stitches. "How are you today? No more accidents?" he asked as he carried Luca back to Meredith and sat down in a spare chair.

Luca ignored his question as he turned to Meredith and said "Mummy. Derek's here!" Meredith smiled, and the interns looked on bemused.

"I can see that Lucas. I expect he wants some food. Do you want some too?" When both nodded Meredith went to the queue as Luca sat in Derek's lap. He looked up, blue eyes meeting blue, and asked "Suprwise?"

"Yep. I got you a surprise. But you'll have to wait till we go to my office. Okay? After we eat, and you get your tests done. Deal little man?"

"Thank you Derek!" The two year old grinned and slammed himself into Derek in a hug, and the interns laughed at the sight of their boss getting winded by the little boy. Derek grinned bashfully, putting one arm round Luca and the other stroking his hair. Meredith returned to the table, and throughout the meal all were aware that the rest of the people in the café were staring at them. What they didn't know was the rumours flying round, due to Derek's eyes and Luca's being so similar, bets were being made on Derek having had an affair whilst he was married with the intern and producing the child, and them not telling Luca Derek was his father. A hundred nonsense rumours were started in the half and hour it took for the group to eat their lunch.

As Meredith finished her lunch, and Luca had finished talking to Alex, Izzie, Cristina and George, Derek pulled the scrub cap he had forgotten he was wearing from his head. Luca turned from where he was standing next to Izzie, noticing Dereks movements, and said with eyes sad "We don't match no more."

Derek saw the sadness in his eyes and said "Sorry Little Man! You want me to put it back on." Seeing Luca nodding he put the scrub cap back on and Luca clambered down from his seat and walked over to Derek who lifted him back on to his lap. As Cristina muttered a not so quiet "McDreamy's whipped already." which McDreamy, Derek, ignored, Luca asked "What they?" pointing at the pictures on Derek's cap.

"Ferries. They're boats. Has Mummy ever taken you to see the ferries?" At the shake of Lucas head Derek turned to Meredith outraged, "You haven't taken him to see the ferries?"

She shook her head, eyes sparkling with mirth at Derek's mock outrage, Luca, joining in giggling. "Well ferries, are the coolest" he told Luca face deadly serious "They are big boats that you can take your car on and they take you from one side of a big river to another. There's lots of ferries in Seattle."

"Obviously" said Cristina. "We're surrounded by water on 3 sides." Derek ignored her looking at Meredith instead.

"When I moved here I was all set to hate it. I'm from New York, genetically programmed to hate everywhere except Manhattan. But then I found the ferries. I didn't know there were ferries. I have a thing." The rest of the interns groaned at the look of Derek's face as he looked at Meredith, the both gazed at each other. "Get a room" said Cristina, her usual tactful self. Derek continued glaring at Cristina "I have a thing for Ferries."

His attention was pulled back by Luca and as he started replying to another question Cristina and Izzie both leaned into Meredith saying "He wants you so bad." "Yeah," said Cristina agreeing with Izzie for once "He's got that McDreamy look on his face. He wants you." As Meredith blushed the 4 other interns all stood, breaks over and needing to get back before Bailey sent out a search party. They said goodbye grinning at the two adults they left behind and shoved their way through the still present crowd.

Now that Meredith had finished Derek turned to her and asked "Wana go to the office and do the tests?.. where there's not so much audience and staring." looking round with a bewildered expression on his face. Meredith nodded and picked up her trash chucking it in the bin. Derek stood, Luca in his arms, and the three were completely bemused as the crowd parted like the red sea for them. The continuous whispers they had heard whilst eating disappeared as the crowd silently watched the three walk out of the cafeteria. As they got to the doors they met the Chief walking in, the crowd quickly moved off into less obvious groups, as he greeted his daughter and grandson. He nodded at Derek before moving off allowing the three to leave.

An hour later, the tests were done, Derek refrained from prescribing anything, instead opting to watch how Luca was over the next month or so, in case he had another seizure but Derek found it unlikely that he would, saying it was a child form of epilepsy which Luca would probably grow out of.

"Lucas sit here with me." Meredith requested as he was quite hyper after Derek had said he was going to get hit surprise. Derek reached into his draw and pulled out the surprise. It wasn't amazing, but it was something he loved and thought Luca would want. He held it behind his back and walked over to the couch.

Before giving it to him he said "My Dad was a surgeon just like me, 'cept he fixed people hearts. Anyway, he and my Mum had my 4 sisters, but he really wanted a boy to become a surgeon just like him. I was born and he got a tiny cap made for me, each year on my birthday he gets me a new cap. I keep them all. When I was your age he gave me this one. I want you to have it." From behind his back he pulled a tiny scrub cap with pictures of little trucks on it.

"Wow! Thanks" said Luca. Grinning wildly as Derek took the overly big shark scrub cap off his head and replaced it with his new little truck one.

"very cool" Derek said, "Go look in the reflection of the cabinet over there," he pointing out for Luca.

As Luca ran off Meredith turned to Derek "You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to." he smiled, reaching into her heart. Both of them felt the attraction, the peck of a kiss last night had kept them both thinking about it all day, and every so often they would look at the others lips imagining. They knew they couldn't get in trouble for a relationship but it could make things hard, although Cristina and Burke seemed fine, and accepted.

Meredith looked away first. "But, it must mean a lot to you. If you want it back, it's ok."

"No" he reached out and put a hand on top of hers, "I want him to have it. It means a lot to me, hopefully one day it will mean the same to him."

"But you should.. if you have a kid, then ask and you can have it back for him."

Derek was shocked as the thought popped into his head, Why couldn't Luca be his kid. He didn't voice the thought, scared that in less than a day he was already enchanted by the little boy. In the last 4 months working with Meredith he'd become attracted to her, looking at her when she was working. That's why he was named McDreamy after Cristina caught him staring at Meredith with a dreamy look on his face.

Meredith was having a similar thought, but once again Luca pulled them back to the present. "We better head off, Luca will be get hungry." She picked her son up and Derek grinned as Luca whispered frantically in her ear. She nodded. and turned to Derek. "Luca wants to know if you'd like to join us for dinner. As a thank you. It'll be the three of us only."

Derek smiled at the kid, he answered "That would be great. I'm off now, If you give me your address, I'll run home get shower and come round."

Meredith smiled, Derek seemed genuinely pleased to be invited. She quickly wrote the address down and kissed his cheek before smiling and then leaving the office.