Disclaimer: Don't own any of it

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Chapter 3

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breathaway.

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So far today had been a day that her breath had been taken away numerous times and she was sure that that wasn't going to stop any time soon. Trish and Meredith got out of the car and walked towards one of the tents.

'It is so cold out here; I can't believe that they are going to get married outside in the middle of the winter in Seattle.' Trish thought to herself, but she wasn't going to say anything. This was her son's and future daughter's day, if this is the way they wanted to get married then this was the way it was going to happen.

They walked inside the tent and to Trish's surprise it was quite warm.

"Wow, it's so warm in here." Trish stated.

"Yea, I would hope so…the tents are insulated and have built in heaters. They are supposed to block out the cold." Meredith replied with a smile on her face. This was better than she had expected.

Across the room Christina, Callie and Lexie were working on the altar and Derek's sisters and Izzie were setting up the chairs.

"What do we need to do?" Derek's mom asked.

"Uh…candles." Meredith replied.

"More candles? What is it with you two and candles?" Trish laughed as she followed Meredith over to some boxes. She opened one box to reveal what must have been one hundred candles and there were six boxes of them. There were also six boxes of stands. "What are we doing with all of these?"

"We are going to line the walls with them." Meredith smiled.

"That's a lot of candles."

"Yea well we will need them all. You'll see, it's kind of going to be a surprise."

Meredith and Trish spent nearly two and a half hours setting up the candles. By two o'clock they all decided they had done as much as possible, the rest was up to the florist.

"Oh Meredith this is such an amazing idea…how ever did you come up with it?" Derek's younger sister Lacy asked as she and Derek's other sister came towards them.

"Uh funny story actually," Meredith replied

"Ah, the story," Meredith gave Trish a confused look, "Derek told me there was a story behind this."

"Uh well, we had this fight about a year ago, it was the day that Christina got married…before we left for the church Derek pulled me aside and told me that I was the love of his life and that he was in this for the long haul and I just…I froze, I was so scared of commitment and he knew that…so he asked me if I wasn't in it to put him out of his misery and end it…I just, I couldn't end it…I loved him too much. So we got through the ceremony and we talked afterwards during the reception, but then we decided to go our separate ways for the night…I got home and I, I just couldn't stay away from him, I had to see him…so I drove out here praying he would be here and that we could talk and work through this, but I got here and he wasn't here…I kept trying to call his cell phone but there was never an answer. So I decided that I needed a way to show him that I was committed, that I was in this for the long haul too…so I built a house, our house, out of candles and I waited till he got back and, well…here we are."

"You built a house out of candles?" Kathleen asked.

"Yea and I divided it up into rooms; our kitchen, the living room, and the room where our kids would play…I wanted him to know that I wanted everything that he wanted."

"That is so romantic." The Shepherd sisters said in awe at the thought of a house built of candles.

"Yea your McDreamy brother and Mer seem to have this fascination with candles…its weird if you ask me and its very un-Mer like." Christina tossed in.

Derek's family looked at Christina wondering what she was talking about. Un-Mer like? Meredith knew exactly what they were thinking; since she had met them she had been a bright and shiny person. They didn't know her as the dark and twisty Meredith like her friends did. And the whole house of candles was something dark and twisty Meredith never would have done. But Derek…well he was Derek. He brought out the good in her, he was the reason she was now bright and shiny, and she had no problem with it.

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After spending the afternoon doing nothing but relaxing, Meredith decided it was time to get ready. Karoline, the hairstylist, and a few of her colleagues, arrived at the house around three o'clock to begin a massive amount of updos. Meredith had decided on having her hair done half up half down. She wanted the top half to be nothing but lots and lots of curls and the tiara she had gotten of course. And the bottom half was going to be big corkscrew like curls.

Karoline finished her hair around 5:15 which meant in about an hour she would be driving down to the tent to walk down the aisle to the man of her dreams. She wasn't nervous at all.

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At the same time that Meredith was finishing with her hair Derek and Mark were walking into the tent for the first time. They stood at the entrance of the tent marveled by the sight in front of them. The florist had done a wonderful job with decorating. Each row of chairs had a bundle of flowers hanging on the ending chair. And the altar, there were no words to describe it. There were five large bouquets of mixed flowers all white and red and there must have been one hundred candles just on the altar alone. Looking around the room, Derek was very impressed with the way everything was coming together. It was then that Mark noticed all the candles.

"What's with the candles?"

"You'll see."

They went back to the trailer to finish getting ready; in thirty minutes they had to be back to the tent to start seating people. Derek finished getting ready quickly and stepped outside for a moment. This was the day he had been looking forward to for the past four years. He couldn't remember a time when he had been so happy. And to think nearly a year ago he was asking her to put him out of his misery and end it. Yet he knew that she loved him too much to just walk away. They had grown so much over the last year, not only independently, but as a couple as well. They were about to make all their dreams come true.

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AN: Once again I am so sorry that I take forever to write updates, my life has been a little on the hectic side with it being so close to the end of the semester!! But I truly hope you all enjoyed this chapter, just a little filler before the wedding!!