Meredith laughed at the thought and looked out the doorway for some inspiration. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ethan's book on the table and the name just came to her. "Derek, she said. I know what to name him." Derek asked "What" and Meredith said……….
"Noah. That has to be his name. Noah Sloan Shepherd," said Meredith. Derek said "I love the Noah part, but Sloan really. Why?' "Well, when you were out of town for a conference, who was the one who got me my pickles and mint chocolate chip ice cream at 4 am in the morning? Well that was your ex-best friend who turned back again to your best guy friend who slept with your ex-wife and who you punched in the face. I think we owe him a little bit." After her speech was over, Derek just nodded his head agreeing, knowing not to mess with his wife and her raging hormones.
She had taken a trip down to the NICU after Derek had left for home to see Ethan and wash up a little. Her precious baby boy was only 1.5 days old and he was struggling. Last night, he had a bout of apnea in which he stopped breathing for several seconds. Now he was a ventilator, not even breathing on his own and from the doctor's words and her own opinion, her baby boy wouldn't be home for several months. Anything could go wrong in those months and how could she leave her tiny son alone her for nights and just leave to go back home to her firstborn and husband acting like everything was normal? How would it feel to leave the hospital empty-handed? How could she work downstairs knowing that her son was upstairs? Meredith couldn't imagine at all what all this would be like, and letting go of her sleeping son's hand hurt so much, she didn't know how much more she could take.
He was home for the night with Ethan and sleeping in his own bed felt great, even with the squirming three year old next to him. When he went to go pick up Ethan at the Sloan's and he told his son that they were going to spend the night at home, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. After settling the boy down though, and going to bed himself, hours later he heard a scream from his son's room and ran to find his son in tears from a bad dream. After taking Ethan into his bed, the child had settled down and fallen asleep in the satisfaction of being with his father, and Derek only wished that he could have both of his sons with him.
It was a new morning and Meredith used the shower in the room's bathroom to clean herself up a little bit. She sat in the bottom of the shower for a bit, crying but no one heard since the bathroom door was closed and the noise of the shower drained out her voice. She sat there until the water turned cold and finally getting out, she protested the hospital gown and put on her own sweatpants and baggy t-shirt that smelled like the home she longed to go back to with her baby boy in her hands.
Derek had taken the day off and had spent the whole day with Ethan. He had first cooked chocolate chip pancakes to start the morning off and after spending the whole day at the zoo, Ethan's favorite place, they had gone back to Mark and Lexie's with a pizza in hand. After forcing Ethan out of his arms into the arms of his Uncle Mark, Derek had left to set out towards Seattle Grace. Pulling into his spot at the hospital, Derek nodded curtly as he walked in passing the nurse's station and not talking anyone, heading straight for the elevator. He headed up to Mer's room, but stopped when he heard Dr. Jameson being paged to the NICU. He panicked thinking it could be Noah, and he ran through the doors and plastered himself onto the window seeing his worst fear. Doctors and nurses swarmed his son's incubator and he saw people running here and there. The parents that were inside were holding their children and watching the doctors. Mothers were holding their children tighter and the fathers put their arms around the them, grateful that wasn't their child. All Derek could do was watch and when he saw the charge paddles being brought near his son's bed, he began to bang on the glass, screaming "Save my son!"