Caterpillar, my faithful commenter, has requested that I put these all up as fast as I can, so I will oblige. I need to read through them and format them correctly before I post them, but I plan on putting up the whole story by the end of this long weekend. I have to toot my own horn and say that I love this chapter. Meredith is going to meet the entire Shepherd clan and we could see by the end of the last chapter that she was a giant wreck. I've set this up as a dinner in the Russian Tea Room in NY. So we've got a fancy dinner with Momma Shep, the four sisters, and their husbands, Derek, and Meredith. Oh, and Mark. Ha ha. It was a real challenge and a lot of fun to think up separate personalities for each person and to have them interact with each other. Let's just say that it took a while. I'm going to stop blabbering so you can read it. Enjoy!
Meredith and Derek walk into the tearoom, and immediately the concierge knows who Derek is and leads them up the stairs to the second floor. Meredith is reminded of all of those people in Rome that knew Derek as the Duke and treated him accordingly. She had kind of forgotten about it to tell you the truth. At Dartmouth he is just another professor. A hot professor, but a professor none the less. No one could recognize him on site. She's not even sure if anyone even knows he's considered minor royalty.
But ever since they walked in the Tea Room, Derek has stood a little straighter and put on a much more regal air. She wonders if he even realizes that he does it. He's still holding her hand though. In fact, he has held onto it the entire walk from the hotel and refuses to let go. Maybe she's not the only one that is nervous. To support her thought, he tugs on his tie like it's choking him a little, but stops when he catches her watching him.
"What?" He asks with a teasing grin.
"Nothing." She says with a suppressed smile.
They move up the stairs into a foyer separated from the other room by a series of large double doors. The concierge goes to open the door, but Derek stops him with, "Just a sec."
He turns to Meredith and looks into her clear green eyes and knows that everything is going to be okay. All that matters is that they love each other. "You ready?" He asks with a huge breath, inadvertently showing Meredith that he is actually nervous about this too.
Somehow this makes her feel a little better about the whole thing, so she squeezes his hand and says with a confident smile, "Let's go meet your family."
Derek smiles warmly back at her, nods to let the concierge open the door, and suddenly they are there.
Derek looks into the familiar room of fantastic Russian décor added to by a bit of whimsy. Directly before them in the middle of a long room is a golden tree that stretches almost all of the way up to a stained glass ceiling. Hanging on every branch is a giant lit up pear in the many colors of the rainbow. On the far side of the room is a giant crystal bear sculpture stretching its body to the sky. Set in the midst of these two great works of art is a table set for eleven with five on each side and the place of honor for the birthday girl. The walls are lined with mirrors, refracting the entire scene in almost too-bright luminescence.
All of the activity seems to be occurring at the far end of the room, with people milling around at what seems to be an open bar. He leads Meredith along the length of the room, suddenly glad to be seeing his family again. He used to see them all of the time when he lived in New York, but with all of the traveling and moving to Hanover, the last time he had seen them all in the same room was at his father's funeral. He suddenly realizes that this will be his mom's first birthday without his father.
The first person he sees when they enter the fracas is Kathleen and her husband, Nick.
"Hey Sis. Did you save any for me?" He calls to her back, noticing the full glass of wine in her hand.
She turns around, followed quickly by her husband, and quickly embraces him. She hugs him hard, and he finds himself hugging her back just as hard. They both have tears in their eyes when they part, but both squelch them in favor of introductions.
"Nick, how are you doing?" He asks Kathleen's husband as they shake hands.
"Oh, same ole, sale ole. You know how it is." Nick answers good-naturedly. Derek always liked Nick. He was a good guy, and he made his sister happy. He was one of those god-forsaken lawyers, but he made his sister laugh and that's all that mattered.
Both Kathleen and Nick immediately look over at Meredith. Before he can introduce her though, she sticks out her hand and says, "Hi, I'm Meredith. You must be Kathleen."
Kathleen's eyes light up at the sparky greeting, and she slides a smile of approval over to Derek as she shakes Meredith's hand. "This is my husband, Nick." Kathleen tells Meredith, and Meredith shakes Nick's hand too.
"Nice to meet you, Meredith." He greets her warmly. "Don't worry, we don't bite. And if you put enough alcohol in us, we might even tell you some embarrassing Derek stories."
"Really." She remarks with interest, and looks up to see Derek having some slight discomfiture.
Before she can say anything else though, a very virile and handsome man in a Grey Armani suit slides his up behind Derek and Kathleen and puts his arms around them both.
"What's shaken, bro? And who's the hot momma you brought with you?" He asks when he notices Derek holding Meredith's hand.
"This is my girlfriend, Meredith, but you aren't allowed to talk to her." Derek responds half good-naturedly and half not.
But before Mark can say anything, a brunette ducks under Mark's arm to give Derek a hug, and says, "Hey Bro. Who's Mark not allowed to talk to?"
"Amy, this is my girlfriend, Meredith. Meredith, this is the youngest of the Shepherd clan, Amy."
Amy immediately twirls around behind Derek and comes around to stand between Meredith and Nick. "Hi, I'm Amy." She says with a proffered hand.
Meredith is relaxing with all of the friendly greetings, until Amy says, "Hey, do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar. Did you go to school in the city?"
She flits a meaningful glance to Derek, but keeps it together and responds, "No, I grew up in Boston. My mom's the Chief of Surgery at Boston General."
Amy still looks a little determined, but they are interrupted by Mark intervening, "You're mom's Ellis Grey? Derek, how come you didn't tell us your girlfriend's mom was Ellis Grey." As he playfully smacks Derek upside the head.
"Hey." Derek immediately responds to the slap, but before he can intervene, Meredith explains, "It's alright. It's just not something I go around telling people."
Four sets of curious eyes stare back at her, while one set of eyes gives her courage. "So are you going to follow in her foot-steps, then?" Kathleen asks kindly.
"Well, I am going to medical school. But whether or not I'm going to be a surgeon…" Meredith answers with a shrug.
"Wait a minute, you go to Dartmouth?" Amy asks in excitement.
The little group goes quiet with that little piece of salacious news, but then Mark pats Derek on the back with, "You old horn dog, you. I didn't know you had it in you."
Derek looks embarrassed, and starts to say, "Well, actually, we…."
When Mark is unceremoniously shoved away to reveal what, yet again, must be a Shepherd sister. And standing not far behind, is a very handsome but brooding man with dark hair and dark eyes and an extreme amount of stubble.
"Mark, stop hogging Meredith. I want to meet her too." The dark-haired woman orders, and Mark obliges by moving back. Kathleen and Nick move over too, so that the circle widens to welcome the newcomers. But before Derek can introduce them, the last two remaining members of the room push their way in.
"Thanks for remembering us, Nancy." The remaining Shepherd sister cracks petulantly to the woman that pushed Mark aside.
"It's not like you didn't know where we were." Nancy answers with a little roll to her eyes, as only older sisters can do.
"Alright, alright, you two, stop it. I want to introduce you to Meredith." Derek intervenes good-naturedly. Even though Meredith thinks that Derek is probably only older than two of the sisters in the room, they all shut up to see what he has to say.
Meredith suddenly finds nine pairs of eyes on her. Meredith can only stare back, as Derek calls out, "Meredith, this is Nancy and her husband David, and the petulant one is Lia with her husband Jake."
She is never going to remember all of these names. Nancy looks back at her with ill-concealed superiority, while her husband just looks bored. Lia looks much friendlier though, and her husband is simply gorgeous. Not as good looking as Derek, mind you, but getting pretty up there.
"Nice to meet you, Meredith." Nancy says very culturally, almost like it is Meredith's privilege to be acknowledged by Nancy.
David just broodily nods over his glass of wine, but Lia comes across the circle and gives Meredith a big hug. Meredith can feel the warmth of Lia's personality in that hug and is glad for it. Lia disentangles herself from Meredith with a warm smile and goes back to her spot next to her husband. Jake places his arm around Lia and gives a Meredith a friendly nod from his place in the circle.
"So, am I hogwash or something? It is my birthday, isn't it?" An older female voice calls from outside the circle.
Derek immediately turns around with a huge grin on his face and bends down to embrace what must only be his mother. And now the real test begins, Meredith thinks as she wishes she had had time to down a glass or two of wine herself.
Katherine breaks free from her only sons embrace and immediately notices the extreme happiness that is evident on his face. She can't remember the last time he was this happy. His eyes shine with his happiness and a great weight seems to have lifted off of his shoulders. It's curious, but she never really noticed that there was a weight. But now that it's gone, she can't help but notice how much more alive and handsome he looks.
"Happy birthday, mom." He says softly with a grin, and she can't help thinking how much more he reminds her of Vittorio every day. So un-alike in their personal habits, but the same charm and bearing that makes every woman around stand up and take notice.
She smiles back pleasantly, but then her eye-sight is drawn to the woman to his left. Ah, so this must be Meredith. The poor girl keeps twisting her watch around on her left hand over and over. She remembers how nervous she was when she first had to meet Vittorio's parents. She had been an absolute wreck. She had changed her outfit so many times that Vittorio had told her if she didn't pick something in the next ten minutes; she was going to have to go naked. The memory makes her smile.
"And this must be Meredith." Katherine says to Derek, but while looking at Meredith.
Derek turns to Meredith and takes her hand in his again. Katherine had noticed them holding hands as she had walked in the room. She thought it was cute. Derek had certainly never held hands with Addison in public. She starts to think that this girl must be the reason that Derek is so happy.
And her thought is justified when she catches a small secret exchange between them, before Derek turns to her and says, "Mom, this is Meredith. Meredith, my mother."
Meredith breaks her hand free from Derek's to hold out to her and says, "Hi Mrs. Shepherd, Derek has told me so much about you."
"There'll be no hand-shaking on my birthday. Give me a hug." She offers as she holds out her arms and embraces the person she's pretty sure is going to be her daughter-in-law someday. There's just something about the way that the two of them look at each other that makes her pretty certain of that fact.
The poor girl stiffens up, but then relaxes enough to give her a small pat back. You can learn a lot from the way a person hugs. This girl is not used to being hugged. There's got to be a story there, but it can wait until later. When she pulls away, Meredith is flushed with embarrassment, but her smile is brighter, and Derek is looking at Meredith with an 'I told you so' look.
Katherine suddenly realizes that the rest of the brood has been silently watching the little scene. She can't have that. Everyone is a little too quiet for her liking. "What're all of the rest of you staring at?" She tells the rest of the group. And then to Meredith, "We'll sit down and have a chat a little later, alright?"
Meredith stiffens up noticeably, but she squelches it quickly. "And you too, Mister. I've got a beef to pick with you." She tells her son, before she goes off in search of her own glass of wine.
As soon as Momma Shep, that being what everyone calls her, had gotten a glass of wine, she had herded everyone over to the table. Momma Shep had wanted her two boys next to her, since she hadn't gotten to see either one of them in a really long time, and everyone else just sort of sorted themselves out. Meredith properly took the seat to Derek's left, with Lia taking a seat next to her and her husband to her left. Amy had scooted in next to Mark, so Kathleen sat to Amy's right and her husband followed her. Leaving Nancy to Nick's right and Nancy's husband across the table and next to Jake.
Whew! Meeting momma Shep went over sooo much better than Meredith had thought it would. She seemed generally nice and obviously really loved Derek. That hug had caught her by surprise, but it had almost felt good. All of the Shepherds, well almost all, were really nice. They seemed to have such an easy-going relationship with one another. Something very different from the partially veiled hostility that was always brewing between her and her mother. There were just so many of them though!
She looks around at everyone gabbing to each other, when Lia taps her on the shoulder and asks, "Would you like a glass of wine, Meredith?"
Meredith looks up to see a waiter holding up a bottle of wine. Gosh, she hadn't even heard him walk up! "Um, yeah, that'd be great." She stumbles with a faulty smile.
She must see something in Meredith's smile, because Lia leans down and says, "It's going to be alright, you've passed the momma test. One's that's over, the coast is clear."
"The momma test?" Meredith asks a little dubiously, keeping her voice as low as Lia's.
"Yeah, as long as momma likes you, everyone else falls in line. Dad liked to think he was in charge, but we all know who ruled the roost." Lia says with a wink.
Meredith giggles and asks, "Has anyone not passed?"
"You see David down there? The brooding one?" Lia asks conspiratorially. Meredith just nods, so she continues with, "He's never been in momma's good graces, so he always gets delegated to the ends of the earth. Or the back end of the table, as the case may be."
Meredith outright laughs at that, alerting the entire table to their conversation. "What are you girls laughing about down there? Something you can share with the rest of us?" Momma Shep asks in a teasing manner.
Meredith giggles up into Derek's face, leaving Lia to answer, "No, I was just telling Meredith some of the Shepherd family rules."
"I didn't know there were any rules in this family." Mark comments silkily.
"Yeah, I want to know what some of these rules are." Amy adds on.
Derek silently asks with his eyebrows, but Meredith's only answer to the table is, "I promised not to tell."
The entire table goes into a minor uproar at that, which gives Derek time to whisper into her ear, "You're going to tell me later, right?"
The waiters start to ladle soup into their bowls, as Momma Shep questions, "So Kathleen tells me you go to Dartmouth?"
Meredith sneaks a glance at Kathleen, but Kathleen just smiles back at her encouragingly. She knows that Derek has told Kathleen some things, but she's not sure how much. What can she say that won't give things away? "Uh, yes. I just started." She answers vaguely as she starts to ladle some of her soup into her mouth.
"Fresh meat, Derek?" Mark comments from his side of the table. "I didn't know you had it in you."
Derek starts to make a comment, but Momma Shep steps in and slaps Mark on the arm and tells him, "Be nice."
"Owe." Mark responds, and rubs his shoulder like she hurt him, but Momma Shep only laughs at his little boy antics.
This opens up the floor for Kathleen's husband, Nick, to ask, "So the Dartmouth job is working out for you then, Derek?"
All heads turn to Derek on that question. It is all something they would like to know, since it was this job that took him away from them. Derek is very positive though, and says, "Yeah, I really like it. The teaching is a bit new, and the hours suck, but I'm getting to see surgeries at the hospital that I never saw in private practice."
The topic inadvertently reminds the table of the other woman that usually sits in Meredith's spot at the table. The table goes a little quiet and everyone seems to take a moment to take a sip of their soup. Derek doesn't pick up on it though, and just puts his arm around Meredith and says, "Well, plus I've got Meredith there," before he scoots in for a quick kiss.
Meredith smiles at the public display of affection, but is startled out of her reverie by someone's spoon clattering into their bowl. She looks up to see Amy looking at her wide-eyed, barely noticing the splotches of soup on the front of her dress.
Meredith freezes, and her and Derek exchange a look, when Amy gets up from the table. "Um, excuse me. I seem to have…I'll be right back." She announces to the table, before kicking Kathleen in the leg and making Kathleen come with her. Meredith knows something is wrong when Amy looks back over her shoulder at her and Kathleen walk out of the room. It's a look that says she just recognized who Meredith is. And she doesn't look too happy about it.
Nervously, Meredith covers the exit by saying, "Yeah, Derek is a really good teacher."
"Oh, so you've seen Derek teach then." Nancy says with a barely concealed insinuation.
He had to count on Nancy for always bringing up the hard questions. He's pretty sure Amy just figured out where she has seen Meredith from. Crap. He watches Nancy and Meredith share a look, and then Meredith looks up at him like she wants him to do something.
He stumbles out, "Yeah, Meredith sits in my class all the time." God that sounded lame.
Meredith thinks so too, because she just rolls her eyes at him. All of the sudden Mark blurts out, "Oh shit, man." And starts laughing uncontrollably.
Derek glares at him, but it only makes him laugh harder. The servers provide a little distraction by clearing away the soup bowls, but Lia can't help but ask, "What's so funny, Mark?"
"Yes, please do share, Mark." Nancy adds from down the table.
"Yes, Mark, what is so funny?" Momma Shep adds.
"Yes, what's so funny?" Derek grits out with a well placed kicked to Mark's shin. He's not sure how he feels about Mark at this moment. They used to be friends. They used to be best friends. But there's just something about catching a man in bed with the woman that was supposed to be your fiancé that takes the word 'best' off of a friendship. He's not even sure if the word 'friend' is still there. Even though he had cheated on said fiancé before he had known about the Mark cheating. Which was beside the point. So they were somewhere in between friends and not friends, if that made any sense. Which is what worried him about the laughing. Mark would have no compunction about blurting out what he thinks Mark has figured out.
But Mark surprises him and just winks at him and says, "Nothing, nothing. I just remembered something funny that happened to me earlier in the day."
Everyone, except him and Meredith, looks at him like he has just grown a third head, but he just brushes it off like this is something he normally does. Which he doesn't.
Just then, the girls come saddling back from the bathroom, sans soup on Amy's dress, and they look very confused as they sit down. Maybe it's because the entire table is deathly silent and staring at Mark.
"What? What's going on?" Amy asks as she finds her chair.
"Yeah? What'd we miss?" Kathleen adds.
"Nothing. Just Mark going insane, that's all." Nancy remarks flippantly. "Nothing new for this family."
Amy looks a little more subdued and Kathleen a little more settled, so he assumes Kathleen gave Amy a talking to. Just what he needs, his sisters conspiring behind his back. But he must have been mistaken, because while the servers are placing out the main course, Amy asks over a server's arm, "So how did you two meet?"
He simultaneously glares at her while Kathleen kicks her in the shin. If he had been closer to her, he would have done it himself. "What?" She hisses at Kathleen. "It's a simple question!"
He looks over to see Meredith totally deer in the headlights. He puts his leg up against hers to let her know that everything is going to be okay. She doesn't look up at him though. Why does his family have to be like this? Why can't they just leave it alone? This is his life, for pete's sake. "I helped Meredith out of a very sticky situation." He responds vaguely, but just specific enough that it should make them shut up.
"Oh, so you were her knight in shining armor? That's so sweet, Derek." Lia remarks, totally incognizant of all of the under-currents flowing around the table.
"Well, more like a gentle stalker." Meredith remarks with a teasing grin up at Derek.
Derek smiles at the reminder of his unorthodox methods of getting to spend time with her. "It would have never worked if you hadn't been my bellezza di sonno." He says pretty much to her alone.
Her emerald eyes shine up at him, and she unthinkingly remarks, "You know I was jet-lagged."
Another gasp is heard from the end of the table. This time it is from Nancy. She starts choking on the sip of water she had just taken, and Nick has to pat her on the back to get her stop coughing.
"You're just figuring it out, Nancy?" Her husband calls to her from across the table. He says it almost evilly. That marriage must not be going too well.
"Did you know?" Nick asks Jake, one brother-in-law to the other.
"I knew the minute she walked in, I just wasn't going to say anything." Jake responds in kind.
"What? What's going on?" Lia says as she looks between the two of them in bewilderment.
Derek looks around the table at all of his siblings and siblings-by-marriage, and asks Meredith, "Can I tell them? I think most of them already know anyway."
Meredith looks like she's about to bolt. About the only think holding her there is his leg firmly planted against hers. She's shaking like a leaf. He hates to do this to her, but at this point it's probably better just to get it over with.
His mother, who has been abnormally quiet this entire evening, places a hand on his arm. He turns, and she says, "Derek, all that matters to me is that you are happy. If Meredith makes you happy, then I'm happy."
He almost tears up. Leave it to his mom to find what is important in a situation.
"Meredith makes me very happy." He tells her, while the entire table watches silently.
Her turns to Meredith and finds her almost tearing up too. He squeezes her hand, and says to the table at large, "Meredith and I met in Rome the week before I was supposed to marry Addison. You probably recognize her from the picture in the paper."
He looks around to see the entire table hanging on his every word. Surprisingly, it feels good to get the words out. His mother is right, all that matters is that they love each other. "I thank my lucky stars every day that I met Meredith when I did." He says to the table, but then turns to address the last part to her alone. "Otherwise I would have never known what real love felt like. A series of...misfortunes kept up apart, but fate was kind enough to intervene and put Meredith as a student in my class."
He hears a couple of gasps from that statement, but he doesn't care. All he cares about is the loving look in Meredith's eyes. He turns to look at the rest of the table, and says, "And now I think we're going to go."
He starts to rise, but Amy calls out in a contrite voice, "No, Derek, don't go."
"Yes, we promise to behave." Lia adds on with a pleading look.
"Lia, you always behave." Derek says in a loving tone.
"I know. I was just saying it for other people at this table who might have a hard time in getting the words out." She remarks sweetly, but with a meaningful glance toward Nancy's end of the table.
"She's right, Derek." Nancy adds, not quite able to say it, but alluding to Lia's statement.
He knows Kathleen is in his corner, so he doesn't even have to look up to see her supportive countenance.
It's really only up to one person. "Meredith?" He asks, her knowing exactly what he's asking with that one word.
She looks around the table at each of the sisters, especially at his mother, and with a soft smile says, "I think I'd like to stay."
And that settles it. Things are quiet for a little while as everyone absorbs what just happened. But then mundane conversation starts to pop up, sisters start to squabble over age old rivalries, and dinner moves on to dessert and after dinner drinks. Now that everything is out in the open, at least with his family, he feels like a weight that he didn't even know he had been carrying has lifted. And before the night is over, Meredith is parrying and jousting with the rest of them, just like she belongs. Derek looks heavenward, and even though he can't see the stars through the stain glass ceiling, he gives the stars their thanks anyway and could honestly die at that moment a contented man.