Title: Loud And Clear
Authors: Sara And Lizzie
Rating: T for language, mild sex
Disclaimer: we don't own grey's anatomy, or any anatomies but our own at that.
Summary: Sequel to One Hell Of a Racket. Babies, weddings, and rain. Seattle at it's finest. Babysitting for the ex wife, meeting the family, planning the wedding and fending off the intern. All in a day's work.
Author's Note: The final story in our trilogy. We're staring two days from where 'Racket' left off. Also, we made up all the names and details of Derek's family, save for Nancy, who we adore, by the way.
WOW. Amazing response to the first two chapters. We hate this chapter. We really wanted to have the thing with the whole group, and Mark and Derek's little scene, but it came out rushed and not as good as we'd hoped. So bear with us.
COMING UP: Meredith stands up to the Shepherd women. The new residents get interns, two of whom make plays for taken men (Derek and someone else), Addison has baby complications, wedding plans, etc.
Enjoy. REVIEW.
After her shift, Meredith drove back to her house alone. Derek had left the hospital before her to take Nancy to her hotel, a fact that proved that there was in fact, some sort of higher being watching over her. Derek was sitting on the porch when she arrived at her house; their house, smiling. "There's my girl." He said, putting an arm around her as he sat down next to her. "She's in that big hotel by the water. Addison took the afternoon off to shop with her, so she's happy and has agreed there will be no interruptions tonight." Meredith stood and pulled him to his feet, pushing him against her front door.
"Thank God for Addison." She murmured before kissing him. His lips parted instantly, granting her tongue access to his. They kissed until she was dizzy from the lack of oxygen, and broke away grinning. She opened the door and tugged him inside, and they kissed their way to the stairwell. "Upstairs?" she asked, pinning him against the wall. Before he could answer, or pull her up the steps, or start taking her pants off right there, a crash from the kitchen caught their attention. George came into the hallway, drink in hand and surveyed them.
"No, no, no." he said shaking his head. "Please wait to start the shout and moan fest until I'm drunk enough to pass out."
Meredith cocked her head at him, not bothering to disentangle herself from Derek. "We have alcohol?"
George nodded. "And food?" At this declaration, Meredith finally moved away from her fiancé and headed for the kitchen.
"Hey!" Derek said indignantly. Meredith turned around and pouted at him.
"I'm starving." She said. "And we have food. Won't take long." Derek had no choice but to follow her into the kitchen.
"Since when does food trump sex?" he asked, stepping over the threshold. Burke eyed him.
"For me, it doesn't." he said smirking. Derek looked at him and Cristina, George and Callie, Alex and Izzie and Mark and Addison who were still unpacking bags of food.
"What are you all doing here?" Derek asked. Izzie and George pointed at Addison and Mark. Addison cleared her throat.
"We brought food. And alcohol. It's an olive branch."
"An olive branch for what? Directing Nancy to us, or helping my mother manipulate the chief?"
Addison smiled weakly at her ex-husband and reached for the scotch in Mark's hand and extended the drink to Derek. "Both?" Meredith grinned and reached for the bottle of Jose Cuervo next to Cristina.
"Thank you guys," she said. "Olive branch accepted." She surveyed the kitchen table where a huge spread of take out and snacks had been spread. "Olive branches of food are always accepted. There's soda and lemonade in the fridge, Addison." She said. Addison smiled gratefully at her, and placing a hand on her stomach, extracted a diet coke from the refrigerator.
"We also thought, maybe we could give you some advice. You know, how to charm the clan." Mark said with a smile and a wink. Meredith's head snapped in their direction and she finished piling food on her plate with alarming speed and crossed the room to them in two huge steps.
"Advice? Yes. Living room now."
Derek scoffed at them, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. "She doesn't need any advice. They're going to love her."
Meredith shot him a warning look. "Oh yes, it'll be easy convincing them I'm not the slut that ruined the perfect marriage with the perfect wife. Advice please." She said, herding Mark and Addison into the living room. Derek rolled his eyes.
"They're going to love her." He repeated to the remaining group in the kitchen.
"Sure they are, McDreamy. Just keep telling yourself that." Izzie said.
An hour later, Meredith had learned that Mrs. Shepherd was of the old money, aristocratic type, and she really liked manners. And Jenna was the sister most likely to warm to her first. And Michelle always sided with Jenna. Elizabeth and Nancy were much harder to convince, but they too, could be won over. They had gone over quirks and idiosyncrasies, and Meredith struggled to keep it all inside of her spinning head. She looked up from her drink and surveyed her friends. They liked her. Burke liked her. Even Addison liked her now. "They're going to hate me." She moaned. Alex laughed at her.
"That blows." He commented, before returning to stuffing food into his mouth.
Mark grinned. "Not as well as…"
Addison threw a hand up in the air. "Don't even finish that sentence. Derek smirked and opened his mouth, hoping to get out something so the opportunity wouldn't be wasted but Meredith glared at him.
"Derek, I will call this wedding off." She barked, looking miserable. Addison placed a hand on her arm and Mark moved over towards Derek.
"Meredith," Addison said gently. "It's going to be okay. I don't exactly have a perfectly clean record when it comes to the Shepherds, and neither does Mark, and they forgave us."
"They knew you before they knew you were adulterous sluts." Meredith grumbled. "That's my only claim to fame. And Derek thinks they're just going to adore me because he does." She looked over at her fiancé who was whispering conspiratorially with Mark. Meredith made a face. "Do you get the horrifying feeling they're comparing notes on our uh, blowing?"
Addison placed hands on her temples. "Meredith, you say things like that forgetting that I am pregnant, and can't drink." She looked at the two men and made a face similar to Meredith's. "They definitely are. Derek, come here!" she shouted. He ambled over chuckling. "Stop being so… Mark like and help out the future wife." She said, marveling at how she could say it now without feeling the twinge of pain she had felt earlier.
Derek sat down next to Meredith and Addison stood, whacking Mark on the shoulder and fending off teasing comments from Burke and Callie.
"They're going to adore you, Meredith."
"Why? Because you do? You have this utterly annoying habit of ignoring my flaws, Derek. They're going to hate me. And then…" she trailed off and looked away.
"And then what?" Meredith sighed, looking uncomfortable. This fear had been edging its way into her head since Nancy showed up. It started a just a little ping of apprehension, and was now a cold, hard fear.
"They're going to get to you." She mumbled. "And then you're going to see that I'm not, I'm not good enough for you. And then you're not going to want to marry me." Derek instinctively wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. He stroked her hair and squeezed her, and then moved away far enough to put both hands on her cheeks.
"You are better than anything I could have hoped for. And there is nothing anyone could say that would make me not want to marry you, okay?"
"Okay." She said, smiling, feeling reassured. "But they're going to hate me."
"Are not."
"Care to make a wager?"
"Depends on the stakes Dr. Grey." He said suggestively, grinning at her. She leaned in and whispered into his ear. His eyebrows shot up, and he grinned.
"Deal."
Meredith had forgotten how long it took to fly from coast to coast. The last time she had done it, she was in a coach seat, all alone, flying from Boston to start her new internship in Seattle. Now, sitting here in this first class cabin next to Derek, and two rows in front of his sister Nancy, it was almost unbelievable how much things had changed. She was starting her residency. She was marrying Derek Shepherd. She wasn't alone in the world anymore.
Derek placed a hand on her thigh and smiled at her encouragingly. He knew that she could do this. He loved her so much that his family would just have to love her too. She sighed and leaned over to kiss him. They had stayed up way too late last night, until finally it was just the two of them, Burke and Cristina and Mark and Addison in the living room. Meredith had woken up this morning with another hangover and sense of apprehension. Plus, they hadn't had sex in two days. "I miss sex." She whispered in Derek's ear, her eyes darting towards the bathroom.
He raised his eyebrows in an impressed smirk. "Meet me in five minutes." He got up to leave, and she entered the same bathroom he had five minutes later, giggling.
"How's this going to work?" she asked, grinning. He kissed her pushing her back against the tiny sink, and hoisted her up onto it. He reached down and unzipped her jeans with hand, the other one sliding up her shirt. "Oh that's working." She groaned, reaching for his zipper.
When they exited the bathroom, flushed and unkempt, Nancy only pretended to be sleeping.
When the plane finally arrived at La Guardia, it was six thirty in New York. Derek retrieved his and Meredith's bags from the overhead carry on, and they exited the plane with Nancy. Meredith spotted Derek's mother immediately. She had ash blonde hair and the same piercing blue eyes that Derek had. One of the sisters was with her. She had the hair, but her eyes were green. Derek ran up to them, exchanging hugs and kisses, and Meredith approached apprehensively, her hands in her back pockets.
"Diane Shepherd." His mother said, extending her hand. Meredith tucked a piece of hair shyly behind her ear and gave her hand. "You must be Meredith." She said, smiling, hugging her gently.
"Yea, I'm, um Meredith." She stammered, panicking. Derek circled his arm around her waist and smiled down at her.
"This is my sister Jenna." He said. "Michelle and Elizabeth will meet us at dinner, okay?" Meredith nodded and smiled weakly, and followed Derek's mother to her Land Rover. She climbed into the back with Derek and Jenna, who offered her a warm smile.
"How was the flight?" Diane asked, obviously trying to clear some of the tension out of the air.
"Fine." Derek and Meredith chorused together quickly.
Nancy snorted. "They did join the mile high club, it must have been fine." Jenna looked shocked and stifled laughter and Derek's mother furrowed her brow.
"The mile high club?" she asked politely.
"They sex in the bathroom on the plane, Mom." Nancy said. Meredith turned an incriminating shade of red and sunk down in her seat. It was going to be a really long weekend.