A/N: 'Guest', great minds think alike. :)

"Well, that was-" Meredith started as she shut the pen door behind her husband, taking a quick glance back to the dog. He was still running back and forth with the tennis ball, almost hitting into the wall with the desperation that he was trying to stop the ball at.

"You know how most of 2015 was the worst year in existence-" Derek started when Meredith failed to finish her own sentence.

Meredith nodded with a little downturn of her lips. That year would live in her mind for the rest of her life. "Yeah, I remember. Not like I could ever forget, is it?"

"Then we had Elle and she was the most perfect thing. She was...I mean her birth was not fun but everything else about her was- is just-"

"This dog is an Elle?" Meredith concluded from the quick gush about his daughter. He could go on forever about his kids, she had to stop him somewhen.

He grinned. Another McDreamy grin. "This dog is so another Elle."

"Well, I agree. Of course I agree. I mean, that wasn't even a dog. That was some robot-dog that was built to be the perfect companion in literally every single way."

"Except he is a little mad." Derek diffused.

"Devoured a whole bowl of food in ten seconds. Hungry. Greedy." Meredith noted.

"Oh- he also ran into the wall. Twice. Bad spatial awareness when he's playing catch."

"And he was a little too curious about your chair." Meredith added. Not so great then, really. They were just excited about the dog and ignored it for that adrenaline-fuelled freak out. "But as imperfections go, I'd say he's still pretty great."

The dog had found the concept of a wheelchair rather interesting, sniffing it for about ten minutes and nuzzling against it every once in a while. Eventually he stopped, either deciding he had concluded what it was or giving up. It had been fine when he entered. Then he moved. Apparently, that's what made it so entertaining.

Derek knew German Shepherds were sometimes used in medical therapies and as support dogs. Obviously, he would have had to be trained to be able to do that kind of thing but the dog certainly had a built-in instinct to inquire about why this man was using such a strange contraption instead of standing and walking like the woman who had accompanied him.

"Oh, well that was just funny." He replied back. That was true too. All they did was watch the dog as he basically went round in circles, breaking into laughter whenever he would do something amusing. That really was quite often.

Meredith agreed with a smile. "I think the kids would love him."

"Yeah. Well- I think they'd love any kind of dog, really, but yeah.

She smirked. That was definitely true. "So...we're getting a dog?"

He pushed himself back to the cage to watch the creature, now lying on the floor, relaxing after all the excitement of meeting new people had diffused. He looked back to his wife, eyes doing their sparkly thing as they did so often when he was filled to the brim with joy. "No. We are getting this dog. This perfect, kinda mad dog."

"So, normally we have you take him to the vets a week after adoption but seeing as he only arrived, the vet never actually got a chance to see him in the first place. Would you mind taking an extra hour out of your day today so our in-house vet can check him over? Of course, we'll do it ourselves if you're not available, but seeing as he'll be your dog's vet, you might as well if you have the time. Meet the guy, learn some more about your new dog!"

"Sounds fine. We've got nothing else planned." She confirmed, smiling at that last exclamation.

"Right. So, as I said, it's a vet we have around the sanctuary. He said he's free in ten minutes so if you could just follow the sign to the main entrance, that's where you'll find Dr Dandridge."

Meredith almost choked on her own breath. "Sorry, what?"

"Uh- our vet's office is by th-" She started, confused. Why was the woman so startled?

"Finn Dandridge?" She interrupted, although, realistically, she doubted there would be any other Dr Dandridges who were vets working in Seattle.

"Yeah...why?" She asked, eyebrows creasing as she observed the woman.

"Oh- nothing, nothing." She dismissed, signing one last piece of paper as she finished reading it through.

Meredith swallowed as she stepped out of the reception, dog lead (and by extension, their new dog) in hand. The paperwork only needed one signature and Meredith had seen her husband's interest in the rest of the centre so let him look around some more of the pens and cages himself. There were also a few horses in a field opposite the reception, a large cattery, as well as quite a few cages with smaller animals like rabbits and hamsters. She was just begging that he wasn't going to return and beg for a house chicken or...something. He was an odd man sometimes.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked the moment he saw her swallow nervously. She had also written the word 'conflict' across her face in permanent ink. He pushed himself from where he was waiting to her side. "Mer, is there something wrong with him? Can we not take him home? Has he already been reserved for someone else?"

"No, no. We can take him home...as soon as we are ready, in fact. Just need to pop by the vets first." She explained, scrubbing the dogs head with her knuckles.

"So...what's with the look of horror?"

"Finn Dandridge is their in-house vet." She explained, looking up from the dog to look at her husband. "Finn Dandridge- he's our dog's vet."

"Oh. Right. I uh...I get the look now."

"Meredith- oh, god, hi. Long time no see."

She smiled awkwardly as she shut the door behind her. "Hi. I uh- I'm getting this German Shepherd. I'm supposed to come and- talk to you or something?"

"Yeah, of course. Abagail just emailed me about a prelim check-up. You can place the end of his lead on that hook there if you'd like." He offered, gesturing to a metal hook on the wall. She nodded and placed the handle through it so the dog couldn't flee.

"So you managed to get a blue one?" He observed, crouching down to do a quick observation of the dog.

"Blue?" Meredith repeated, eyebrows creasing.

He looked up to her, unsurprised by her shock. "Yeah, I know the dog looks grey, but we call them Blue German Shepherds. Just to be confusing, I suppose."

She nodded slowly. He wasn't a Grey (German) Shepherd then, he was a Blue (German) Shepherd. "Right."

"So, got any dogs between this one and Doc?" He asked as he offered the dog his hand. He didn't shake it, but did sniff it.

"No. I mean- we've briefly discussed getting another dog before. But you know, life is quite distracting sometimes. We just- uh, finished getting through some not-so-nice stuff-"

"Oh, I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "It's okay. We're fine now and everything just...anyway, Derek agreed t-"

"Derek?" He asked, cutting her off completely. He wasn't sure whether he should expect that name of not. Just because she had picked the man over himself, that didn't mean that she was necessarily going to stay with him forever. For all he knew, a new guy could have arrived five minutes after he left and swept her off her feet, crushing the remaining competition.

"Mmm mmm." She confirmed, feeling a little awkward. More so than she was before, somehow.

"How long has it been now?"

"Uh- married for about seven years." She answered. "You?"

"A wife called Isla. Married six years. Two girls: six and five. They're such cuties." He replied with a proud smile.

She returned the joy. He really did sound happy. "I'm glad you're happy now."

"Derek busy cutting brains in half today then?" He asked, standing back up from the dog.

"No, no. He's just outside." She answered. They had booked this day off together last week specifically so they could find a dog together but, from the looks of it, they had no need to do that. Either one of them could have gone by themselves and realized that that gre- no, blue German Shepherd was the dog.

"Did you know I was the vet here?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Obviously, he assumed that was why he was waiting outside. The problem was, that wasn't the real reason.

"Not until the reception lady told me when I was leaving." She said with a shrug.

"Is he not coming because of what happened all that time ago? Because he could come in you know."

"He- uh, can't." She admitted, although she knew he wouldn't understand the correction until she gave a further elaboration. "He can't come in because there are st-" airs. She was trying so hard to shove the sentence in before he spoke again, and she failed.

"It's not awkward Meredith." He interrupted as he stood up, stepped away from the dog and headed to the door. "I've got a wife and two kids. I know we were a thing and we had that whole triangle going on but that was a very, very long time ago. It's not weird, he-" He continued as he pulled open the door, not witnessing Meredith's face as it cringed at what she knew was going to come next.

He paused as he looked out of the door.

"Finn." Derek greeted, looking up from his phone at the sound of the door opening. He was half-way through sending Amelia pictures that he had taken of Meredith and their new dog.

"Derek...uh- hi." He said from the doorway. His eyes dipped to his chair for a second before pulling them back up again, feeling rather rude about the quick stare. He couldn't help it. No one ever could. "There's uh- no stairs if you use the side entrance, I'll show you the way."

Derek nodded, thankful he was able to absorb that...news so quickly. "Thanks."

The veterinarian led him round the side of house in silence, neither of them quite sure what to stay each other. In what felt like a previous life, they were rivals. Derek had left corpus-callosotomy-shaped bait out for her to chase in favour of her having coffee with him. She did take it and, in the end, she did settle on him. Perhaps she regretted it once or twice. Finn was kind and nice and helpful and considerate but Derek was- well, Derek. That wasn't a list of adjectives to describe why she loved him. He was just Derek. The love of her life.

There was a quick grunt of 'Alright?' at the door by Finn, but that was it for talking on their whole journey until they met the front room, where he found Meredith making funny faces at the dog.

"He's not a baby Mer." Derek replied to her face with his own smile.

She looked up, surprised. Clearly, she didn't realise there were people watching her performance. "When you look at this dog, I know you are going to do it too."

"Mmm, mmm. Sure I am, I bel-" He started, just before the dog got up and ran to him, face nuzzling against his knees. He smiled at the animal, placing a hand on his head and rippling his fingers through his short fur. "Well, hello there. Thank you for not jumping on my lap. You are a very good boy, aren't you? Yes. Yes, you are."

The dog paused and looked at him at the mention of his lap, almost as if he could hear him before abruptly looking away. Then, he was gone, walking round his chair and placing both his paws and his nuzzle in between the spokes of his chair. Apparently, it was extremely intriguing even after his previous ten minute investigation.

"I must say, you picked one nice looking dog."

"New in, must have been lucky." Derek murmured, still observing the dog as he sniffed his shoe. What he was searching for in terms of the smell department, he had no idea. Those shoes had barely ever even touched the ground, they have most definitely had never stepped in anything with a stench. Perhaps that's what the dog liked. New shoe smell.

"Good with children. Have you got children? A child?" He asked, realizing that he had mentioned his own children without giving her a chance to talk about her family.

Meredith smiled at the mere thought of her kids. "Three."

He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at that. "Well, bet you are glad you picked one that's good with kids then."

"And he seems well behaved." Derek noted. "Maybe."

"Well, I'm not sure he's going to have time to misbehave if he's just going to be attacking your chair 24/7." Meredith murmured with a smirk before turning to Finn. The dog had discarded the new shoe smell, and had gone back to swiping his paw on the wheel's spokes. "He was doing this before, when Abagail let us into the room with him."

He smiled, although it was infused with a hint of awkwardness. He was trying his best to be contained, but it was hard after so many surprises in a row, each one getting more shocking than the last. "Well, I better have a proper look at him. Probably should stop him before he breaks that too."

"I'll take him back over in a minute. He appears to be perfectly healthy, perhaps a touch underweight." Finn announced when he finished his exam of the dog, allowing him to jump down from the table.

Meredith nodded as she crouched down to the dog, her fingers running through his soft fur. Derek's hands quickly joined her, scrubbing her back up and down. "Great. Can't wait to take him home."

"You know he's not a dog for uh-"

"What?" Meredith pushed when he trailed off, glancing up.

"He's not a service dog." He replied reluctantly, feeling his throat burn. He really didn't want to say that, but he had started the thought.

Although Derek's eyes and hand didn't leave the dog when he first spoke, he did at that. "We know."

"Not supposed to be a service dog." Meredith clarified with a light, short smile. "Just a- uh, dog-dog."

"Oh- right, sorry. I just assumed with uh- it's temporary then?"

"Permanent." Derek corrected, now looking at the dog again. He wasn't a person who generally hated eye contact, but he was when he was talking about his disability because that meant he could see the fear. The panic. The what-the-hell-do-I-say-to-that? look. The sympathy. He hated those things, but it wasn't the worst he got. The worst thing someone could express was disgust. Nothing was worst than that. Luckily, from his interactions with Finn over the last ten minutes, he knew he was the former. "Just, you know, there's not some storeroom of service dogs and a lot of people need them more desperately than me."

"Sorry." He said shortly.

Derek wasn't quite sure what he was sorry for. His assumption? Or was he just sorry because of what had happened to him and that's what people always seemed to say when they couldn't manage anything else? Or both? Derek shrugged. "It's okay. It was a car accident at the start of last year, by the way- just to answer your question."

"Oh, I uh- I wasn't going to-" He faltered, a little confused, seeing as he hadn't actually asked any questions.

"Facial expressions often ask questions." He elaborated, cutting him off. He was so good at reading those kinds of expressions that he wondered if he had discovered a new phenomenon. Like visual impairments causing better hearing. "Generally, an expression that tells me someone really wants to ask, but doesn't want to be rude. But then it's just awkward so...yeah- I was t-boned by a semi-truck. Not the best year of my life, if I'm completely honest."

"So...you're-" He prompted timidly.

"Paraplegic?" He suggested, knowing he didn't want to make another assumption after his last one. "Yeah. Incomplete paralysis from the waist down, but I also really screwed up my legs so walking was never going to be an easy thing. But it's all fine. And you can stop looking at me like that now because I don't bite-" He said with a simple smile as he ran his hand through the dog's fur. "-and I sure hope you don't either, fluffy baby."

Meredith snorted. "Fluffy baby? Seriously? What the hell happened to me being the weird one?"

"So...you two still want a dog?"

"Dog?" Zola repeated. She almost sounded...confused.

"Uh...yeah-" He confirmed slowly, wondering how such a loud and ecstatic conversation could have just fallen out of her mind like that. "You and Bailey said you wanted a dog or...or some pet last weekend."

"Fluffy sibling."

"What?"

"I. Want. Fluffy. Sibling." She stated with staccato attacks.

"Uh...okay then. Do you still want a fluffy sibling th-"

Then the screaming started again. So, the answer was most definitely yes.

"If the kids get a fluffy sibling, we get a fluffy child. That's how it works. They've already corrected me half a dozen times. Not a dog. Fluffy sibling."

"The number one rule of fatherhood is definitely to listen to your children's strange ideas." Finn agreed. "Are you uh- picking your fluffy baby up tomorrow?"

"Sunday, actually." She corrected with a slight smirk at their dog's new name. "We've both got work tomorrow."

"Right." He said with a short nod before the bell rung at the front entrance. Derek, Meredith, Finn and the dog looked up to see the woman that had presented the animal to them.

"Everything okay?" Finn asked his co-worker.

The bright woman swallowed. "Hi- I'm so sorry to say this...but there's a...problem. With you two adopting this dog. I'm so, so sorry. I shouldn't have-" She sighed, drowning in guilt. "I shouldn't have offered him without checking, he's new and- god, I'm sorry."

"What kind of problem?" Derek asked, looking at her rather worried face. "Is he not okay?"

"No, no, the dog is fine, I just-"

"A massive problem or like- a fixable concern?" Meredith pressed, her tone equally as concerned as Derek's.

"I uh- I'm afraid this dog is a little more than you bargained for. If you'll uh- come with me, I can explain...the uh- yeah, not very small problem."

A/N: Oh man, the dog doesn't have a name! What a shame! So upsetting that I'll have to pick someone's recommendation from the comments! Sarcasm aside, this dog does need a name. No limit on how many you want to recommend and feel free to suggest one that someone else thought of, it will help me decide on the fan favourite! :)