A/N: Okay so this chapter is actually sort of a little break. It is just some merder fluff cuz I really heart them so much and they haven't been cute and together in this fic as much as I planned. It's with the story and has a bit of plot progression but really I wrote it to fit exactly between the last chapter and the next one which I already wrote so it's not entirely like plot intensive. I Hope you like it. : )

Baby Daddy Chapter 6

When Derek finally got home from work the house was dark and quiet. He knew it was silly since he had just seen her a few hours ago but he was really disappointed that he didn't get to go to sleep with Meredith. He loved just lying in bed with her as they both fell asleep. Really, that was just one of the many many things he loved about being married to Meredith.

Hope fluttered into him as he saw light peeking out of the bottom of their bedroom door. When he opened the door a smile pulled across his face. Meredith lay on the bed sprawled over what looked like it had once been folded laundry with one arm over her eyes while she snored softly. He could certainly add unwitting adorableness to the list of things he loved about his wife. Not that he'd ever dare say that to her face of course.

He shook his head and walked over to the bed. He started picking up the laundry and folding it as he set it back in the basket. He was pretty much done when she started to stir. "Derek?" She mumbled while squeezing her eyes shut to keep out the light.

He smiled and reached down to run his fingers through her hair while he kissed her cheek. "Shh, go back to sleep Mere. I'm just getting this laundry picked up and then I'll sleep too." He couldn't help it. He was glad to get to talk to her, even just a little. It had been such a long day and she was the only bright spot in it.

As he whispered to her she reached up and hugged him; bringing him down next to her and burying her face in his neck to block out the light. He knew he should get up and finish getting ready for bed but he was just so exhausted and right there in her arms was exactly where he wanted to be. So he snuggled further into the bed, pulled her close and just laid there with his wife; completely comfortable, really for the first time since he left her that morning. Just one minute, he told himself as he cuddled into her. Before he knew it he was asleep too. The two of them in each other's arms on top of the covers with the lights still on.

The next thing Derek was really aware of was cold. He shivered as he realized he was alone in the bed. No more Meredith in his arms. He was only confused for a second though because then he heard the sounds of her retching in their bathroom. He couldn't help the pang of guilt he felt as he ran into the bathroom to see if she needed anything. She'd been so tired all week and now she was up before the sun puking her guts out. It was at least half his fault and she was paying the entire price for it. It hardly seemed fair.

"Hey are you okay?" He asked as he reached her, trying his best to be soothing. He reached out with one hand and scooped up her hair which she had been messily holding away from her face and with his other hand he started rubbing her back.

"Oh Derek, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up," She practically groaned as she curled up against him; keeping her face pointed towards the toilet just in case. "You don't even have to work today. You should be sleeping in." She said the words but he could tell by the way she buried herself in his arms that she was glad to have him there.

"I would never want to be sleeping through you being sick." He said as he continued to rub her back and feathered a kiss on the side of her head. It was true too. He hated the idea of her being alone when she might be wanting him. "Are you okay though? Are you having any problems other than the vomiting?" His concerned doctor mode kicked in as she looked like she was about to start heaving again.

She just groaned and vomited some more. When she was done she laid back against him and said, "I don't know, maybe. It's mostly just the puking but I guess I'm kinda achy and my head hurts and maybe I have a slight fever. Most of that probably just has to do with waking up puking after too little sleep though."

All in all nothing she said seemed out of place for the first trimester of pregnancy so he wasn't really that worried. He just wished she could get a few more hours of sleep but it was almost time for her to get up for work anyway at this point. He perked up a little as an idea came to him. "You know," he turned to face her a little more as he spoke, "You should probably just call in today." He fought off a small smirk as. He knew that if she knew she was pregnant she would most likely be determined to go to work no matter how she felt but maybe this avoidance thing could really work for him. Maybe it could even get him a whole day off with his wife. "I mean really, you don't want to spread the flu in a hospital. All of those post-op patients and everything. In fact," now he was smiling just a bit, "As your boss I'm telling you that you are in no condition to work today."

She looked ready to argue but then, as if on cue, she threw up instead. "Okay, maybe you're right," She said as she fell back into his arms. "I wouldn't want to hurl on one of the patients or something. Or worse, an attending."

He chuckled a little as he rocked her back and forth slowly, "Okay well just don't worry about anything. I'll call and take care of it for you. Nobody will question me if I say you're sick. Then we can both get a couple more hours of sleep and see how you feel then."

"Yeah okay," She said, and then they just laid there in silence for a few minutes until he noticed her starting to dose off again.

"Hey Mere, are you feeling better enough to head to bed?" He asked as he nudged her gently.

He wasn't quite sure what she said back but it sounded something like, "Hmm bed, so far away." Which he took to mean she was feeling better but too exhausted to walk the twenty or so feet back to bed.

"Alright, I think I can take care of that," He said as he stood up with her still in his arms and headed for bed.

Carrying her around was not something she normally let him do (unless it was in some way directly related to sex) but ever since she had given Thatcher her liver she had been more excepting of the idea, especially when she didn't feel well. She had been on restricted movement for quite some time while they waited for her liver to regenerate itself and a lot of her ability to get places that she wanted to be depended on him carrying her there. "Besides," She'd told him at the time, "You're just Derek. What do I have to be embarrassed about in front of you?" She had pretty much just been joking but it made him happy nonetheless.

He set her down so that she was sitting up just a bit in the bed and then ran back to the bathroom. He came back with the bottle of mouthwash. He handed her the bottle and said, "Swish," then picked up an empty cup from her nightstand and said, "Spit," while she did as directed.

As he walked back to the bathroom to return the mouthwash to its place by the sink she called after him, "Derek, I'm fine. You don't need to carry me around and bring me mouthwash in bed. It's just the flu or something." Derek smiled to himself. If she was scolding him for hovering then she must already be starting to feel better.

He came back into the bedroom and started heading to the hallway. "Okay, I promise I'll stop right after I get you something to drink because you just vomited quite a bit and dehydration will only make you feel worse."

She seemed to weigh her options for a couple seconds before nodding her head, "Okay, but you better come finish sleeping too when you're done because I know you have not gotten enough sleep either." She leaned back against her pillows and sighed as he walked out of the room.

As he was heading down to the kitchen he shook his head at himself. It was a good thing she didn't know what had gotten into him because he was pretty sure that he was acting way too hovery. It was stupid and cliché and cheesy of him but he couldn't help it. His wife was having his baby. His wife he loved more than anything had their child inside of her. The huge smile that covered his face at the thought made it clear to him that he was definitely going to need to get this out of his system before she figured him out.

After he called the hospital for her and brought her some water and some Tylenol they both went back to sleep and it was a couple hours before Derek woke up again. This time it was too a knocking at their bedroom door. He was just getting up the ambition to respond when the door creaked open and Alex and Lexie stood on the other side of the threshold looking just about ready to go to work. "Hey," Lexie started speaking quietly to Derek, noticing that he was the only one awake in the room, "Isn't she coming in to work today?" She gestured toward Meredith who was snoring softly next to him.

"Oh, right, actually she wasn't feeling well and decided to call in," Derek saw the concerned looks on their faces and quickly clarified, "She was throwing up this morning. She thinks she might be coming down with the flu." He was slightly smirking at this as he explained it to her friends.

"Oh, so no Mere at work all day then?" Derek almost laughed at the relief clearly plastered on Alex's face. Watching out for her had definitely been taking its toll on him.

"Nope, she's staying home." Derek responded as he sunk back down into the bed and started cuddling against Meredith again.

"Um, alright. See you later then," Lexie said as the two of them made a hasty retreat. Derek just laid there staring at Meredith's sleeping form until he fell back to sleep again himself.

It was much later in the morning when they both finally woke up for real. The sun was streaming in through the curtains and they were both just lounging in bed. Derek was watching Meredith as she seemed to be deciding whether or not to open her eyes when she finally peaked them open and asked, "Do we have anything that we need to do today?"

"Well, I have one errand that I need to run but you can just stay home and get some rest if you're still not feeling well." He responded to her question as he reached out to touch her face.

She thought for a second before saying, "I actually feel much better I just must have needed some more sleep I guess," then they mostly just got lost in cuddling for a few minutes before she asked, "What kind of errand?" As questioned him she rolled into him and kissed him on the mouth while running her fingers through his hair.

"Well all I have to do," he started to detail his plans for the day between kisses, "is to go out to talk to the contractor for the new house." he pushed her back and rolled on top of her, careful not to crush her under his weight, "Then we don't have anything else. We could spend the rest of the day in bed if we wanted." He smiled and pulled her legs around him.

"Oh so we definitely better get that done quickly." She responded to him in a flirty tone that made him wonder if she was actually listening or not, but also made him not really care one way or the other. After that the conversation pretty much ended.

It was almost noon by the time they got out of bed, showered, ate breakfast and finally made their way out the door. It was a gorgeous spring day and as they took the ferry out to Derek's land, they sat on the deck to feel the warm breeze coming off the bay. "God there's nothing like a long cold winter to make you love the Spring." Meredith sighed as she leaned into Derek. Derek was glad to notice that she didn't seem as twitchy as she had been the day before.

The relaxed mood continued to stay with them as Derek drove them through the rough uncut terrain of his land. He was surprised to see how much the area had changed since he saw it last. There was now a clearly visible dirt path leading up to where the house would be and even more interesting was the enormous hole that would one day be their basement. Seeing the dirt and destruction that was everywhere on his once pristine property almost made Derek feel a bit guilty. This had been perfect and basically untouched by man and now it was a total mess. He almost felt guilty, but not quite. He and Meredith were going to raise their family on this land. They were going to grow old together right on this spot. Something about that just made it magical.

"Oh wow I guess my house of candles was a bit on the small side," Meredith joked as she took in the sight before her. Her eyes were big and she craned her neck to get a better view. Derek was glad to see her interest in the house, he sometimes worried that his desire to move out to his land was not something she shared with him. She seemed perfectly content at her frat house in town and to tell the truth he was pretty happy there too. He certainly wanted more privacy and loved the idea of living on his land but he didn't want to force her into something she was unhappy with. He was in love with a woman who liked to be surrounded by a lot of people all of the time; it wasn't something he really had a problem with anymore. It wasn't his favorite part of their life together but he had already proved to himself that he could live with it.

They pulled up to where there was a trailer that looked like it was set up to be an office and they climbed out of the car. Before they made it all the way to the building the man Derek was there to see stepped out to meet them. "Hello, Dr. Shepherd! Thanks so much for coming. I just have a little bit of paperwork for you to sign for me. It should only take a few minutes and then if you like I can give you a tour of what we've got done so far." He was a very pleasant man with a muscular build and a good head for business. Derek had become quite fond of the contractor while they were in the planning stages of the house.

"Mr. Jones this is my wife, Meredith. Mere, this is our contractor Craig Jones," Derek introduced them and they shook hands.

"Mrs. Shepherd it's really good to meet you! Your husband has nothing but wonderful things to say about you." Derek couldn't help the smile that came to his face when Mr. Jones called Meredith Mrs. Shepherd. He almost laughed outright at Meredith's raised eyebrows, but she didn't correct him; she just let it slide. He hated to admit it, but he was a little pleased by that.

Derek signed the papers and then the three of them went on a walk around the property. It was mostly just a foundation and some stacks of wood and brick that would one day be their home. Derek felt his excitement bubbling up at the sight of it all. He watched Meredith as she took it all in. She had a look that he couldn't quite identify as she kept her eyes on the house. As the contractor left them to look on their own at the end of the tour. Derek turned to Meredith and pulled her into a light embrace. "What are you thinking about in there?" He asked as she put her arms around his waist and rested her face against his chest.

Without taking her eyes off the house she just smiled slightly and said, "We have a foundation."

Derek laughed at her simple statement and said, "Yes, that we do." He pulled her closer and buried his nose in her hair, it still smelled like lavender from her shower.

"We have a foundation," Meredith repeated before adding, "and all of the materials we need to build our house."

"Well we are still waiting for the marble for the kitchen floor," Derek interrupted with a smirk.

Meredith laughed a short laugh before picking up where she left off, "It's just that we're really here. This is it. I feel like we've arrived or something. Our very own grown up non-frat house in the woods."

"Is that a bad thing?" Derek couldn't help the old insecurities creeping up on him.

"No it's perfect. It's everything. We have a foundation Derek. We have a foundation and soon there will be walls and a roof and then it will be unbreakable. We really are in the happily ever after part." She stayed in his arms and he smiled and hugged her closer.

He wasn't sure if it was a good idea but he felt the need to add, "And maybe someday we'll have some kids running around in the yard."

She sighed and for a second he wasn't sure if it was a good sigh or a bad sigh but then she said, "Yeah, kids." He lit up. It was amazing how those two words yeah, kids could mean so much coming from her. Then she continued, "I've actually been thinking about that a bit. I know you brought it up last week so it's not entirely out of the blue that I've been thinking about it but I just thought you should know that I'm thinking maybe soonish. Not right this second but you know, soonish." She looked up at his face and he saw a slightly insecure smile on her face.

"Oh Mere. Soonish is great." He smiled and kissed her hard and momentarily forgot where they were until he heard cat calls coming from some of the nearby construction workers. He pulled back a little smiled and said happily, "We have a foundation." With that they made their way back to the car and drove back to catch the ferry.

TBC

Okay that's all I've got for now. I hope that they didn't seem too gooey. It's been a while since I slept and I'm sort of in a lovey dovey mood I guess. Let me know how you liked it. : )