Derek Shepherd was never really a cat person. A painfully thin ginger cat used to roam the streets outside his New York apartment and he would often feed it but he never had one himself and he certainly never planned to. Not when dogs existed. Cats were cute...but dogs were cuter.

Growing up, Meredith Grey wasn't any kind of person when it came to animals. Apparently, looking after Meredith was enough for her mother. If she often couldn't be bothered to even pick up Meredith from her afterschool clubs, she certainly wouldn't have been willing to walk a dog or even present a bowl of food and a loving hand to a cat. She could only really answer that question through indirect experience. If someone asked, she supposed she was a nice-friendly-pet person rather than a dog or cat person. Doc was her first and only real experience with a dog, so she supposed she was a dog person.

Until now.

Because, apparently, she was getting a cat and a dog.

Or nothing.

"So..." Meredith trailed off, looking at the creatures. One she now saw in a new light. The other was completely new to her eye.

"They've grown up together. They were brought together when they were babies." The owner of the shelter explained. "It's a Siberian cat, by the way. Generally requires quite a lot of grooming, but she's hypoallergenic and trained well."

Derek nodded, watching the cat. She even had the same near-black fur as the dog.

"Why weren't they in the same cage?" Meredith posed. In her mind, surely if they hadn't been in the same cage since they got there, then, her theory was, they could survive apart. Then again, she had no experience with pets.

"The other dogs don't like the cat and the other cats don't like the dog. So, they get their own time, an hour a day." He elaborated with a sympathetic kind of smile. "I'm so sorry. You should have been informed before you met the Shepherd."

"Have you tried to separate them?" Derek asked, examining the pair. The cat was sat half on and half besides the dog, purring away contently with her eyes closed. In fact, it was so content that the trio could actually hear it from a good two metres away. The dog had collapsed its nuzzle into its paws, closing his eyes too.

"We managed two days, then they both started to go a little mad."

"So are you saying we need to get both or neither?"

"I mean, they would get used to being apart soon enough. I just thought you should be aware." He answered.

Both members of the couple took that the same way. The real answer was that they were allowed to be apart; but they'd be horrible human beings and get a miserable dog. Like twins split at birth. That was basically what it felt like they would be doing to the currently content creatures.

"Well...cats are- okay." Meredith said with a shrug. She couldn't help but smile at the way the cat was curled up besides the dog, eyes closed and body vibrating with happiness. They were rather cute.

Derek silently agreed with his wife. "I had a pet cat in med school, kind of. She was very nice. Very good company."

She smiled lightly. At least Derek didn't despise cats, she supposed. She turned back to the cat that they were focusing on. And the dog. The adorable pair that were just begging for a home, which they could give them instantaneously, if they decided to. "And they don't fight?"

"All they seem to do is this." He answered, gesturing to the pair. All they did was be cute, was what Meredith and Derek heard, because that's all they were doing.

"You can say no Mer." Derek reassured her, sliding his hand into hers. He could tell that she wasn't convinced from the second the word 'cat' dropped from the owner's mouth.

"No, no- I want to- uh-" She sighed. It was all so damn perfect. Until it wasn't. Why she thought they could go out to a shelter and adopt a drama-free dog, she had no idea. She should have been prepared for some kind of slap in the face, even if it wasn't this specific one. "-we can get both if you want."

"Do you actually like cats though?"

"Sure." She shrugged.

"Thing is, 'Sure' isn't very reassuring to me." He returned pointedly.

"Cats are okay. Cats...yeah. Yeah- we could do this, right? I just- a lot of thoughts going on in my head right now."

He sighed. "Well, it's either a perfect dog and disliked-by-Meredith cat...or angry, impatient why-didn't-we-get-a-dog-for-Christmas children. So, which one do we want?"

Meredith didn't greet her husband with words anymore when she walked into a room to find him or met him in a corridor. That was boring and a waste of time. So, they kissed instead. Because that was far, far nicer than a murmured 'hello'.

A quick meeting in the hospital corridor was a regular kiss. Short and of the standing-sitting variation. Then she'd rest her hand softly on his shoulder or touch just some little part of him so they could feel physically connected as they talked for a quick minute about their day's most interesting surgery.

When her stay was a little more permanent, she'd sit across him like his lap was her seat with her knees bent to drop her lower legs over the side of one wheel. Then they'd kiss. He would wrap his hand around her waist and pull her a little closer, and, if she was tired or simply fancied it, she could rest her head against him.

And then there was what they did in private. They weren't particularly bothered with conformity and social standards in the hospital, but they still never did it with anyone else present. They would be perfectly willing to do it in the presence of their children, but apparently it was 'yucky' to be romantic with one another. Amelia and Maggie probably didn't want to see them making out like teenagers either, so they avoided it around everyone.

But now, they were alone. Derek was on his laptop, reading about dogs, and Meredith had just finished putting the kids to bed. So, finally, after a day of boring simple-kiss greetings, she could do her favourite.

She was sat on him, but they were facing each other directly. Like he had picked her up and she had clung to him like a koala, her hands around his neck and legs either side of his hips. But sitting. If she tried that now, she dreaded to think about what would happen. Probably a broken bone when they instantaneously collapsed to the floor. Or five.

This one was so perfect because it encouraged kissing, seeing as her lips were so, so close to his. Lots and lots and lots of kissing. It was a tad awkward to actually get into the position with her reaching over him, but they both ignored that.

She neared him before attacking his lips. One kiss. Two kiss. Three kiss. Pause.

"You okay?" Meredith inquired as he failed to encourage her. She had her hands all over him but, although he was gladly kissing her back, he didn't join in.

"Mmm."

"You don't look very okay." She sat back completely on his lap with a slight head tilt. "What's going on?"

He gave one long, pondering sigh as he put his hands on her thighs, thumbs running against them. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Derek. You are literally the one that pushed me to get a dog. To say yes to the kids."

"I know...nevermind."

"Hey, you can't 'nevermind' something about this. Pets are up there on the scale of...uh- things we aren't allowed to bury our feelings about."

"Are you sure it's a good idea for me to get a pet? Two pets, even."

Her eyebrows creased, then her pointer finger jabbed him in the thigh.

"Absolute genius." He muttered sarcastically, smirking. He would be alarmed if she couldn't figure out why he was so worried.

She smiled at the fact that she had managed to remove the frown from his face. "You're worried about-"

"When a family adopts a pet, you are supposed to have two adults doing things for them." He explained.

"And you can feed the pet. And pet the pet. And throw balls for the dog. And dangle that string thing at the cat." She returned with a reassuring smile. "And I will walk the dog. Simple. Besides, single people adopt dogs all the time and they're fine."

He sighed. "Do we really need more stress?"

"More stress? Don't dogs get rid of stress? I uh- think cats do too."

"Supposedly." He shrugged. "You...you know when we take the kids somewhere. And then they beg us to buy them a toy and we do it because we're made of freaking butter-"

"Hey! I always say no. You're the one who pulls out the wallet and caves!" She interrupted. "You're the soft one, Dr Butter."

"Okay-" He smirked. "When they beg us for a toy and I buy it for them and then they forget in like a week-"

"You think you're going to forget that you adopted a dog in a week?"

His chest jerked with a laugh. "I mean- what if I like the sound of a pet, and then, when it actually comes to it, I realize that I can't actually look after it."

"Derek. Shepherd. In hospital, you told me you were going to be the worst dad ever. You said the kids would hate you and you'd never get to be who you wanted to be or do what you wanted to do ever again. And you cried about that. And then, I told you I was pregnant, and you did it all over again. In fact, you told me to run off with the kids and leave you behind in some rehab facility because you were going to be so much of a burden, and ruin the kids' lives. Now look at you. You're the best dad our kids could have wished for. So, tell me, why in the world are you doing it again?"

"Mer-" He sighed.

"And you know, even if you were a sucky dad, which you're really not by the way, a pet is not a child. A pet doesn't care if you don't walk it, as long as I do. A pet doesn't care if you don't feed it, as long as I do. Pets are walking ids, Derek."

He smirked. "Walking ids?"

"I'm not saying they don't feel love or anything. They do. I'm just...I'm just saying that even after all this time, sometimes you're a right idiot, stressing about stupid things."

"You calling me an idiot stresses me out." He returned pointedly with upturned lips.

She sighed, and kissed him. "Are you reassured that I still love you?"

"Definitely." He purred.

"Find anything interesting online?"

"Well, this cat breed looks good. Good with kids, other pets, blah, blah. Nothing that looks like she's going to be a problem. The centre sent over her profile thingmabob, that looks good too."

She smiled. "And the dog?"

"His profile is good too, did a quick re-read as well as a scan through uh- our vet's notes. Nothing on there that he didn't mention."

"How about Shepherds, I don't know much about th-" She paused as she looked at his smirk. Was she actually going to say she didn't know anything about Shepherds? "Derek, really?"

"German Shepherds-" He started, smirk remaining. "-are dogs." He said with finality, as if nothing could ever follow his statement.

Apparently, that finality could be counteracted with a playful slap to the cheek. Not quite as nice as a kiss.

"Hey!" He exclaimed.

"Don't tell me that hurt." She sighed with a roll of her eyes. Her palm barely even hit his cheek.

"Kiss me better?" He suggested hopefully, forming a kissy face.

She looked at him in disbelief for a second before succumbing to the request. Again. And again. And again. And again. Until neither of them could quite breathe. Until his hair was spiked up from where her hands had fought its way through his jungle of curls.

"Mer-" He whispered as she stopped, hands undoing the buttons of his shirt.

"Mmm?" She hummed, pulling her t-shirt off of her head.

"What are you doing?"

"What are we doing Derek? Not me. And the answer, is having sex."

"No." He chuckled. "No we're not."

"Why not?"

"We're sat in the living room, talking about dogs. And cats."

"Take me to the bedroom then, stop talking about dogs. And cats." She suggested extremely quickly, as if she already had her whole idea planned out.

He sighed and sat forward a little to pull his breaks off. "Did you sit here because you wanted me to carry you to the bedroom?"

"A good husband would carry me over the threshold."

"Good job I'm a good husband then, isn't it?"

"Where is that blow-up snowman thing?" Derek asked, dumping the cardboard box that was on his lap onto the floor. His was full of santa hats and stockings and fake santa beards. The latter were from Meredith, gifted to him thanks to his lack of shaving. She said he'd look like that soon and thought trying them on would discourage him from actually testing the look out. He laughed, but it wasn't that funny. She wouldn't have been able to shave either on the amount of sleep they were getting with a new baby.

Amelia sighed and opened a box while her brother watched hopefully. It had to be somewhere, and they didn't have many left to open. "Nope."

"Ah!" Maggie exclaimed as she pulled out what looked like a crumpled mess of plastic. "I have it!"

Derek smiled. "I have the pump, can you do it?"

"I've got a tree to assemble." She denied, throwing tinsel onto the sofa as she pulled it out of the box like some kind of never-ending rope magic trick.

He smirked, and held up what he had found. "Foot pump."

"Right." She returned a smile, although she felt her cheeks heat a little. She always felt so bad when she said something like that, even when it wasn't her fault. "Sorry."

He chucked her the foot pump. "It's fine. I'll start on this now so wh-"

"Hey!" A fourth voice exclaimed.

"Zola-" Derek tried before being cut off again.

"Are you decorating the tree without me?"

Derek smiled, just a little, at her stroppy pout and the way her arms crossed over her chest. "No. No, baby, of course not. We're just getting all the stuff out of the boxes. The boring stuff. Then you and your brother can decorate the tree."

She smiled. "I like it when you do all the boring stuff and I do all the fun stuff. Nicer that way."

Amelia sniggered quietly at her niece, before getting an angry look and a Christmas decoration thrown at her by her brother.

"Last. One." Meredith said as she searched for the loop on the string of the blue ball.

"Woah!" Zola exclaimed as she looked up to the top of the tree. "So beautiful."

"No."

Her eyebrows creased. "No? Why no, Bails?"

"No star. Not finished." He explained, frowning.

"Oh, god, I almost forgot!" Meredith exclaimed, hands dividing into a cardboard box to search for the last ornament. The real last ornament.

"Looking for something?" Derek asked, holding it in his hand with a smug smirk.

She took it from him, a tad frustrated. It wasn't the first time something had magically appeared in his hand when she called out, looking for it. "How do you find all these decorations so quickly?"

"Because I packed the tree decorations away last year, which means it wasn't a total trainwreck, unlike the other boxes that someone packed."

"It was the day before our flight, we were in a rush to get them down before January the- well, whatever day it is that means it's bad luck."

Derek sighed. He hated it when she was right. "Good point. So..." He started, silently agreeing with her by not making a rebuttal.

"So what?"

"Who is putting the star on the tree?"

"Oh-" She breathed, looking between her kids. "Who wants to put the star on the tree?"

Neither spoke for a moment, looking at each other to try and figure out who would be blessed with the task.

"Daddy."

"What?" Derek asked.

"I fink Daddy should do it." Bailey elaborated, pointing at him.

"Me? You want me to do it?"

"Yeah! Daddy do it!" Zola exclaimed. For once, her brother actually had a good idea. She was a little shocked, if she was honest.

"No, no. One of you should do it. Really, Daddy doesn't want a go." Derek refused.

"Well, I don't take no as an answer." Zola said, not realising that it would make her parents smirk.

Meredith looked from her, apparently now sassy, daughter to her husband, slid her hands behind his knees before pulling them until they were on the floor infront of him.

"Mer, no."

"I don't take no as an answer either." She denied as she offered him her hands.

He sighed as he sat forward, and grasped one of his wife's hands as the other pushed himself up with the side of his chair.

Zola and Bailey watched in awe of the scene. Seeing their dad stand, nevermind walk, was a peculiar sight. He never did those things. Ever. And that was fine, they both knew their dad was perfectly okay the way he was, it was just interesting to witness.

Meredith handed him the star with her free hand, the other behind his back, just incase he collapsed backwards, before wrapping her hands around him, and pulling him up. Really, really hard. He wasn't overly heavy; she was just extremely petite. Although, since his accident, she had gained quite a lot of muscle.

"Ow- squish-" Derek muttered as he just about managed to place the star on the top of the tree, her hand squeezing his abdomen tightly.

"Sorry about that." Meredith whispered, dropping him until his feet touched back onto the floor, her hands then simply hugging him around his waist.

"Yay!" Zola exclaimed as Bailey shouted. "It so beautiful!"

"It is, isn't it? But let's not ask Mommy to pick up Dad again because he ate far too much Christmas Eve dinner." Meredith joked as her husband dropped back into his chair.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, DADDY! Wake up! Wake! Up! It's Christmas! Christ-mas!"

Derek groaned as his eyes crept open to see the wide eyes of his daughter, and feel his arm being practically pulled off.

"Daddy! Get up!"

"What's the time?" He muttered, pushing himself up with one hand.

"I uh-" She paused. "Dunno."

He sighed, and reached for his phone.

3:14.

"Baby, it's the middle of the night. You need to go back to bed."

"But Santa! Has Santa come yet?"

"You know if Santa sees you up, he doesn't give you presents, right?"

"No. No, no, no. Santa- Santa has to give me presents!"

"Maybe if you run back to your room now and stay there until nine, he won't even know you've left."

She nodded, and hurried out of the room.

"Just one last present now."

"Who it for?" Bailey pondered.

"Uh-" Derek started as he reached for it before flipping over the tag. His eyebrows raised. "-to Zola, Ellis and Bailey."

"Share?" Zola sighed, looking at her brother with disgust.

"Oh- look, there's a little instruction. Santa says you have to open it outside."

"Outside?" Meredith asked, astonished. Well, fake astonished. "Where outside?"

"I guess just in the garden." Derek answered with a shrug.

"But it's cooooold!" Zola exclaimed. It was cold enough in the house, and the heating was on.

"Well, it's just a good job someone invented the coat then, isn't it?"

"So, who wants to open it?"

Zola shrugged, and pointed at her brother. She wasn't being nice; she just thought the small circular present looked boring. It certainly wasn't anything on her wishlist.

Bailey smiled when he was offered the present, and took it gladly. He ripped off layer after layer and...

"Tennis ball." Zola stated as Bailey stared at it, confused.

"I know tennis ball. I'm not dumb." He retorted. He was just confused about why in the world he got a singular tennis ball for Christmas.

"Why did Santa get us a tennis ball?" Zola pondered.

"You don't like it?"

Bailey shrugged, but Zola shook her head.

Which was great, because that's the exact reaction he wanted.

He wanted them to be disgusted. He wanted them to think Santa had screwed them over. He wanted his plan to work.

"Give it here then."

"Why?"

"We'll throw it away if you don't want it." He elaborated, taking it out of his son's hand.

"Wait-" Bailey started, only for him to throw it across the lawn.

"Dad!" Zola exclaimed, looking back at him. The last thing she expected him to do was literally throw the ball away.

"What?" He asked. "You said you didn't like it, so I threw it away!"

"That's not what I meant!" She responded.

"Well, you can go and get it if you want."

Zola huffed, and turned around, only to find that her boring Christmas present was now being squished in the mouth of a dog at the end of the garden.

It wasn't cold anymore. Well, it was. It was freaking freezing. But neither child even acknowledged that it was winter anymore, far too busy with their fluffy sibling. Derek had taken Ellis back inside after just a few minutes of playing, and settled her down.

He was lucky that he got to take Amelia for the morning to perform the magically appearing dog trick (well, hiding behind her car and releasing its lead at his que), but she didn't want to stay. That meant that he had to deal with the cat that had been hiding away in the downstairs en-suit bathroom overnight, and a baby at the same time. Presenting both at the same time would have been far too difficult to figure out. So, he was hoping, that the cat would settle on his lap for when the children returned.

It didn't. It was terrified of the large space, and had no idea what to do. Luckily, it was the kind of cat that didn't mind being picked up and held for a while, so he did that, and texted Meredith.

"Daddy says you've got to go back inside. He found another present under the tree."

"There were no presents under the tree Mom." Zola said pointedly.

"Well he didn't actually specify that it was under the tree, he just found one."

Zola's eyes narrowed before she nodded, and the pair returned to the house, leaving Meredith to call over the dog and give him a quick stroke herself. This was, after all, a family present, not a kid present. Then, the dreaded leash. Although he didn't seem to mind too much.

"Look who I found!" Derek exclaimed as his children entered the house.

The pair paused. Cat. There was a cat. But there was a dog. They thought they got nothing, then they got a dog for Christmas, and their hearts exploded. And now there was a cat. A purring cat in their father's arms. And they wanted a cat. They wanted a fluffy. But they already had a fluffy. So. What. The. Hell?

"Kitty?" Bailey asked after a long second.

"Yeah. It's a kitty. Kitty cat."

She mewed softly as if she could hear them talking about her.

"We...we have dog."

"Do we have to choose?" Zola asked, outraged. And panicked. How could she possibly choose between that dog, and this cat?

"No, no. You get both." Meredith explained from behind them as she shut the front door with one hand, the dog's leash in the other. "You two...you've been so good these last two years and I know Christmas wasn't so great last year with the- uh, screaming baby through most of it. And we just...we wanted to give you a really nice present. Two really nice presents, even."

Bailey absorbed the statement for a second before practically running into his father's leg. He hugged it tight and squeezed his calf so hard the circulation was almost cut off. "Besteverbesteverbesteverbestever." He inhaled heavily before letting go and running to his mom, repeating the same leg-hug. "Besteverbesteverbesteverbestever."

"Oh, thank you Bailey." Meredith replied through a smile.

"Zozo, you okay?" Derek asked, examining the open mouth of his daughter.

"Two pets?" Zola asked.

"Mmm mmm. Two."

"You bought me...two...fluffies?" She repeated slowly, her mind still struggling to compute the plot-twist. There were no fluffies, and she was absolutely devastated. Then there was one fluffy. And now there were two. Multiple. A pair.

"Yeah, baby, two."

When she smiled, it wasn't just a slight ascend of her lip's corners, it was a full-on, bursting with happiness beam. "Best. Christmas. Ever!"