Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. I just don't. Simple as that. Because if I did...well it wouldn't be in hiatus right now. Because I'm going through major withdrawals and it sucks. So yeah, I definitely don't own Grey's Anatomy.

Sorry I didn't update last night...it's that wonderful time of month and my brain just didn't feel like functioning in any creative way. I did try to update but what I wrote...well it sucked. And because it sucked I'm kind of sort of changing my plan on what I'm doing. I was going to have one more chapter that was a letter during that last month, but it just wasn't working out at all. So it's changed.

So this chapter...it's not an email. Or a letter. Or an IM. It's a month after the last IM. Yes, a month.

Enjoy!

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Okay, she had to be here.

I had been back on American soil for less than an hour. I had gone to the hospital, I had gone to her house, I had gone to my trailer, everywhere. When all I really wanted to do was sleep. But I had to find her first, because sleeping without her just didn't seem like an option, not after all this time.

The last place I had thought to look was a bar.

Of course, she was my Meredith. Why wouldn't she be in a bar, even 7 months pregnant.

And there she was. In all her beautiful pregnant glory, sipping on what appeared to be a coke, sitting in her favourite stool, laughing hard at something someone said. She was glowing in a way that the webcam had failed to pick up, she looked so happy. So beauitful. So pregnant. I used to silently laugh at men who talked about falling in love all over again, but in that moment, in the moment it was like the first time I had seen her, sitting in the same stool, the first time I had fallen in love with her. In that moment I fell in love with her all over again.

In that moment I'm pretty sure my heart stopped.

"Are you going to stand her all night and stare at her? Or are you actually planning on going over and making her happy?" a snarky voice said from beside me.

"Miranda," I greeted the shorter woman standing beside me.

"Shepherd, glad to see Africa didn't smarten you up any. You're still an idiot," she said, but she was smiling at me.

"Miss me?" I asked, quietly laughing at her, hoping my voice wouldn't carry across the bar to Meredith.

"Like a brain tumour," she snidely remarked. "Now, why are you standing here having a conversation with me, when you could be making her so happy?"

I looked over at Meredith, who was smiling brilliantly now, listening to something Cristina was telling Joe. "She looks happy to me," I said with a shrug.

"You so damn stupid," Bailey answered me, rolling her eyes and walking away.

I looked back over at Meredith. She did look happy enough, she hadn't stopped smiling since I had seen her and only happy pregnant woman glowed like that. She was happy. But her eyes, they weren't happy. They looked haunted, empty. Sad and lonely. Her face was full of smiles, but her eyes were aching. I recognized the look far too well, having seen it myself in the mirror for nearly 6 months.

But I was home now.

I walked up beside her, to the side she wasn't facing and my senses were assulted with lavender. I took a deep breath and smiled, motioning Joe, who has seen me approach not to say anything.

"Double scotch, single malt please," I ordered.

I felt the air around Meredith change, from relaxed to tense. She had recognized my voice. Actually more accurately, she was probably thinking that she had recognized my voice but as she hadn't been expecting me home till next week, she probably thought she was hearing things. But she tensed, didn't turn around, just tensed.

"So is this a good place to hang out?" I asked, looking at the back of her head. The line sounded lame on my lips, just as it had the first time, but it fit. It felt right to say it again.

Her head whipped around. Her eyes weren't empty anymore, they didn't look sad and lonely. The second her eyes met mine they were full of happiness and unshed tears. Shock filled her face, as she silently whispered my name, a single tear running down her cheek.

"You're home," she finally said, what felt like hours later but was probably just seconds.

"I am now," I responded, giving her what had to be my best McDreamy smile.

And then it didn't matter what I said, or how I smiled. Before I had time to say anything else, before I had time to think anything else she launched herself off the stool and into my arms. My Meredith was in my arms. Her lips pressed hard against mine, her mouth demanding entry into my mouth, which I easily gave, loving the familiar taste that I had missed so much. I pulled her close against me, feeling her expanded belly fit unnaturally against mine. As her fingers tangled through my hair, I found myself briefly missing my Meredith, the one that fit so closely against me. But then I remembered that she was carrying my child, our child, and it all felt right again, as I pulled her even closer and moved to deepen the kiss.

Someone cleared their throat.

"Meredith, Derek, not that I'm not happy for you, I am. But this is a public place, do you think you could..." Joe said, smiling awkwardly.

Joe didn't get a chance to finish whatever it is that he had planned to say, not that I think I wanted to hear it, as it probably wasn't telling me to remove all of Meredith's clothes and take her right there on the bar.

But Alex cut him off. "Yeah, they have washrooms for that kind of stuff."

Meredith and I laughed, me still holding her close, and wondering how wrong it would look if I dragged her towards the washroom right now. I imagined not so good, and with the look Joe was giving Alex, it might have left his him less than pleased.

"You're not supposed to be home," Meredith said, turning her attention back to me.

"Are you complaining?" I teased her, she quickly shook her head, pulling herself closer to me, resting her head in the crook of my neck. "There was an earlier flight out, and I was allowed to take it. I was going to tell you...but I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I'm happy," she responded, pulling back slightly. And she was. She looked so happy and so beautiful. God I had misssed her, god I loved her.

"So this is BabyShep," I said, surprised to hear that my voice sounded a little choked up, as my hands moved from her back to her belly.

"No, that's my fat belly," she said with a happy giggle.

I laughed myself and bent forward, gently kissing her lips and leaning even more over, kissing her stomach gently. "I'm home BabyShep," I whispered to the stomach, "I told you I would be," I said, gently rubbing her stomach.

I looked up to find Meredith looking down at me, her eyes filled with tears. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," I whispered back, feeling in awe of the beautiful woman that stood beside me. "I love you too," I whispered to her stomach, feeling a bit foolish talking to her stomach in the middle of a bar. But dads were supposed to talk to the stomachs. It wasn't my fault that my pregnant girlfriend thought a bar was a good place to hang out.

I heard Cristina groan from the other side of Mer. "Joe, he's talking to the uterus and his spawn that's still inside it. Please kick them out...or something," she said, not having changed a bit in the last six months.

"What? They're cute, I'm happy for them," Joe said shrugging and passing me a drink. "It's on the house, Dr. Shepherd."

"Thanks," I answered, but didn't bother looking at him. I was too busy staring at Meredith, who was too busy staring at me.

My hand rested on her stomach and suddenly I felt something push against it.

"She kicked!" Meredith cried out smiling. "She finally kicked. I can't believe she kicked. I mean, she hasn't kicked ever, and she kicked, wow. Der, she kicked."

I laughed. "He kicked because he's happy there is someone who finally gets his sex right."

"Girl." Meredith said, smiling at me, looking confident.

"Boy," I argued back.

"Girl."

"Boy."

"Seriously, stop. Find out. He's home, go across the street and find out," Cristina said, sounding annoyed.

"We're waiting," I answered her, smiling at her.

"That's stupid," Alex argued with me.

"I think it's cute," Izzie said with a huge smile.

"I think it's stupid, everyone else knows, Montgomery told us all," Cristina argued rolling her eyes.

George piped in with his opinion of our decision to wait to find out the sex, but I had stopped listening. Meredith's hands had found the spot on my back where it fit so well and I couldn't help but look at her. And looking her, all glowy and pregnant, after so much time being apart, what others were saying about us or anything else, just didn't matter that much. In that moment the only people in the room were Meredith and I, and that's all that mattered. And she looked back at me, in a way that made me breathless, in a way that made it clear that she was in the same place as I was, not even realizing that people around us were talking.

Cristina hitting Meredith in the back of her head, pulling us back out of our place.

"You haven't heard a word we've said, have you?" George complained.

"No," Meredith said, sounding kind of out of it, giving me a sly smile.

"You guys are so cute," Izzie gushed.

"Thanks," I responded, smiling slyly back Meredith.

"Enough with the eye sex, get a room," Cristina said. "Hell you have a house, use it."

Meredith went to say something in response but I decided not to give her a chance to let the words escape her mouth, I leaned forward and capture her lips in my own, kissing her far too passionately for a public place, but there was some things that were worth feeling the wrath of Joe for. Not that I was planning on staying around that long anyway. I grabber her legs in my hands and lifted her up, my hands grabbing her bottom as I started to make my leave. The baby had made her heavier, but she was still such a tiny little thing, and she felt so good in my arms.

I pulled my lips away from her. "Good to be home guys, we'll have to catch up...later," I choked out as Meredith's lips started exploring my neck.

They just laughed as I turned away, Meredith lips briefly meeting mine, before I began to carry her out of the bar, her mouth exploring every part of my neck with every step. We ignored the catcalls that followed us. We ignored Cristina's comment about wanting to McVomit. We ignored Joe's comment about how it was all eerily similar to the first night we met.

None of that mattered anymore.

I was home.

We were home.

Derek's back! And as McDreamy and caught up in Meredith as ever. And she's all caught up in him. And they're both so happy to have eachother to hold on to and look at again, they just don't care. And I don't know why I made the reunion so public, why everyone was there, it just happened that way. Derek wasn't supposed to come home that day, he came home earlyish to surprise her. So she was out with her friends and they were there. I liked them there, it made it all...I don't know. Derek's home, lol. It's sad that I'm excited about Derek being home, right?

Next chapter is the last chapter...unless you count the epilogue. It will be later that night...maybe the next morning. Not sure when it will happen but sometime when they are still just back together, and no one will be there, just them. And it's from Meredith's perspective. And might be up later tonight...going to start working on it and see if I get it done.

Here's the other news. If it's not up tonight...well it won't be up till Wednesday night probably. I'm headed to my boyfriend's for the night tomorrow, so nothing will be updated. At all. But don't worry, Wednesday night when I'm back around there will be lots and lots of updates that I've spent the day working on but didn't post. And well a new story possibly. We shall see. Probably no new story...but possibly an update on Season 3. Have to see how the day goes.

Okay enough rambling.

Read. Love. Review.