AFTERMATH

AN: OK, so now I'm going to set a whole chapter on George and his daughter, maybe ending with the birth of Christina's. We'll see. And the whole Derek thing has been figured out. By influence of my friends, who also read this fic, he won't be slugged, but hit in some funny way. You'll see.

CHAPTER NINE

- San Francisco General Hospital, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 2016 -

"Hey baby," George whispered to his infant daughter, tenderly stroking her hand through the hole in the incubator.

"You all right, O'Malley?" Addison asked softly from behind.

"Yeah, Addie, thanks," George replied, his eyes not leaving his daughter for a second. "But she needs a name."

"How about Carolyn?" the neonatal specialist suggested. "Carolyn Hope O'Malley."

George turned around to smile at his friend. "Carolyn. I like that, almost a tribute to her mother."

"Carolyn it is then," Addison softly agreed. "Do you want me to call the gang in Seattle?"

George sighed. "No, that's something I have to do myself. When can we take my baby home?"

Addison Montgomery-Sloan opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the sudden alarms of the monitors surrounding Carol's incubator.

Pushing George to the side, Addison took action immediately, opening the lid of the plastic cradle to access the baby more easily.

"She's going into cardiac arrest, get a crash cart!" she muttered, pointing George in the direction of the NICU attendants.

George stepped back, watching his friend save his daughter's life yet again.

"I just want to bring her home alive," he whispered, his eyes not leaving hers.

"Carolyn, do it for me, for your mother."

- Seattle Grace Hospital, Maternity Wing, 2016 -

"Christina?!?!"

Alex, Miranda, Derek, and Preston all ran into the delivery room they had been called to so suddenly a few minutes before.

"About time you finally dragged yourselves up here," Izzie said, crossed arms showing off a fake sense of anger.

"Izzie, Izzie, Izzie," Alex said, walking over to hug his fiancé. "Don't get yourself so worked up, it's not healthy for the baby."

Izzie shook Alex off good-heartedly. "It's not always about me, Alex, now it's about Christina."

The occupants of the room diverted their attention from Alex and Izzie and over to the hospital bed behind them.

"Christina?" Preston questioned.

Christina Burke sat in her bed, half underneath the covers, holding a tiny bundle in a pink blanket in her arms. Meredith was standing behind the pair on the other side of the bed.

"Hey, Burke," she whispered, still staring down into her daughter's eyes. "Meet your daughter Phoenix. Phoenix Miranda Burke."

Preston stared at Christina, his face lit up with joy.

"Any reason her name is Phoenix?" Derek asked Izzie quietly.

Though Izzie Stevens still disliked Derek Shepherd with a passion, she answered him out of obligation.

"Christina had a hard pregnancy, and the birth wasn't that much easier. She felt that the baby had risen out of the ashes, almost out of guilt. We almost lost Phoenix a couple of times, so that's the reason behind the name."

Derek looked over to the happy family. Preston was sitting next to his wife on her bed, holding their daughter in his arms. Around them, Meredith was still watching and Miranda and Alex were cooing at the newborn.

It was a picture perfect situation; one Derek would love to have of his own.

- Seattle Grace Hospital, Elevator, 2016 -

Derek entered the elevator, still marvelling at what had happened in the delivery room. Who would have ever thought that Christina Yang would settle down with Preston Burke, and that they would have three gorgeous children?

"Hold the lift!"

A shout from down the hall interrupted Derek's reverie, bringing him out of his thoughts and back to reality.

"Thanks," a puffed Meredith Grey accepted as she stepped inside the lift, enclosing the two of them inside the car, on their own, and both heading towards the first floor. Maternity happened to be on five.

"What are Christina's kids named?" Derek suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"Pardon?" Meredith was confused. Derek had been gone for ten years, and now he was interested in the not-so-private lives of the then-interns.

"Christina and Burke have three kids. I know Phoenix, but what about the other two?" the neurosurgeon was becoming slightly impatient.

"Oh," Meredith understood. "You mean Bailey and Adam?"

Derek nodded.

"Well," Meredith began. "Adam Preston Christopher Burke was born in 2007, about nine and a half months after prom. He's nine now, very gifted and is Miranda Bailey's son's best friend. You remember William, don't you?"

Derek nodded again. "William George Bailey Jones, born during the code black situation, I remember him."

Smiling Meredith continued. "Yeah, well Adam and Will are best friends. Anyway, when Adam was five, Bailey Melissa Burke was born, two days after her best friend Carly Grace Sloan, Mark and Addison's youngest daughter."

Derek turned to look at Meredith. "I thought Addie and Mark had three kids, and I heard gossip that she's pregnant again?"

The younger neurosurgeon gasped. "Addie's pregnant again? Not that I'm aware of. But, yes, she and Mark have three kids, nine year old twins Arizona Meredith and Atlanta Christina Sloan, born about a month and a half before Adam Burke. And they have four year old Carly, who is Bailey's best friend. At the moment, Izzie is five months pregnant and two weeks away from being married to Alex, and me, I'm single. Still single. I've been single for ten years."

After her last statement, Meredith Grey was screaming. The lift had stopped on the fourth floor, which was surgical. The passenger, sensing the situation happening inside, decided he would wait for the next one.

"I never stopped thinking about you," Derek said as soon as the doors had closed. "Even imagining you all fat, swollen and ugly, I still thought about you, every day."

Meredith turned with a grimace plastered across her face.

"Well, I never reached the fat, swollen and ugly stage thank you very much," she said, playfully hitting him on the arm.

"Is that the best you can do?" he challenged, seeing Meredith really needed to let off some steam, still fuming from her hangover.

"What about this?" she asked, playfully hitting him again.

Catching a glimpse of the look on his face, Meredith continued her 'surgeon bashing'. She hit him again, and again, and again, until a bright red welt speared on his arm. Letting her anger out, she kept hitting him until she was forced to stop, her charismatic face covered in tears and smudged make up.

"Hey," Derek whispered, wrapping his arms around her shaking body and holding her close. Surprisingly, she didn't pull away, but snuggled into Derek's protective embrace.

He silently rocked her body until the elevator stopped once again, this time revealing the only two occupants to the entire ground floor nursing staff.

OK, so I hope you liked chapter nine. Anyways, this may be my last update for about a week, unless something is posted on Monday, Australian Eastern Standard Time, because on Tuesday morning I fly out to Vanuatu for a week! Yay! And I don't plan on really updating anything, just focussing on some well earned relaxation!

Oh, and any ideas for Alex and Izzie's wedding will be welcomed. I already have one idea, but that will be for something different.

Please read and review, because reviews are my stimulation!