A/N: First of all, I am so sorry for taking so long to get this chapter up. Second, I want to offer another apology - this chapter is quite a bit shorter than usual, and I really don't think it's one of my best, so I'm sorry if it doesn't live up to expectations. I just really wanted to get something up for you all who have been so loyal to this story. This chapter is a transition, moving us into some of the really interesting things I want to get into starting with the next chapter.
And as a warning: updates will probably be slower than usual for a few weeks. I'm serving on a jury right now, and it's a very big criminal case, so I'm having to devote a lot of attention to that, and I don't have any of the downtime I usually have during the week to write!
"Okay, spill," Meredith said, walking up behind Cristina as she stood near the nurses' station one morning a few weeks later, startling her slightly.
"Good Lord, you almost gave me a heart attack," Cristina snapped. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"I wanted to talk to you," Meredith said. "And you wouldn't answer my calls, so I thought I'd just go straight to the source. So, tell me all about last night."
"No," Cristina said, quickly grabbing her charts and walking away.
"I don't want to have to do this," Meredith said as she hurried after Cristina.
"Do what?" Cristina asked.
"Blackmail you again," Meredith said. "I'm your person, you should be able to talk to be without a threat over your head, but if you won't, I'm not beneath it, just remember that."
"You've got nothing to blackmail me with," Cristina argued.
"So you wouldn't mind if I went over there and told Debbie and Olivia that you had a hot date last night?" Meredith asked mischievously.
Cristina sighed as she grabbed Meredith's arm and pulled her into an empty on call room.
"Are you trying to destroy my reputation?" she hissed.
"No, I just want to know how your date was," Meredith said. "I suppose I could just call over to Mercy West and ask Rick."
"There's nothing to talk about," Cristina insisted.
"So it didn't go well?" Meredith asked. "I mean, this was what, the fourth time you've been out with him in two weeks?"
"He's just too damn confusing for me," Cristina said. "I mean, the man spends his days working with snot-nosed brats, yet his motorcycle is more bad-ass than mine. And he has a tattoo, Meredith. A freaking tattoo. Not some sissy tattoo, either. The man has a cobra on his arm. What the hell? I mean, one minute I think he's just another sappy guy, an Izzie-type, and then the next minute he's all hard core again. I mean, did you know he doesn't even want kids? He works on them all day, but he doesn't want them? I don't get him."
"You've talked about kids?" Meredith asked incredulously. "In four dates, you've already talked about more than you ever talked about with Burke?"
"It's weird, right?" Cristina asked. "I don't think I'm going to see him again."
"Really?" Meredith asked. "So you don't already have another date set up?"
"Okay, so maybe one more date," Cristina said. "But then I'm done."
"You like him," Meredith laughed.
"I do not," Cristina insisted.
"But you're going to see him again," Meredith said.
"Only because I can't figure him out," Cristina said. "Then we're done."
"Sure you are," Meredith laughed as Cristina walked away from her. "You just keep telling yourself that."
Meredith smiled as she slipped into Derek's office. She knew he was still in surgery, but she figured she'd surprise him when he finished. She still hadn't let on that she'd found out today was his birthday – he'd refused to give her the date when she'd questioned him a few weeks earlier, other than to tell her it was soon, and he didn't want any big deal made of it. Meredith had quickly figured out, though, that there was an advantage to being on good terms with at least one of Derek's sisters, as it hadn't taken any more than a five minute phone call to get the information out of Kathleen.
Settling into Derek's desk chair, Meredith smiled to herself as she looked at the pictures sitting on his desk. She'd never noticed before, but she was in three of the four pictures sitting there. The fourth was a photo of Derek and his family at what appeared to be the wedding of one of his sisters. Picking it up, Meredith tried in vain to figure out who everyone was. Sighing, she wondered just how she was going to manage learning all those names when she met Derek's family the following month.
"Nice looking bunch, aren't we?" a male voice asked from the doorway.
Meredith smiled as she looked up. "Well, I wasn't exactly looking at you, Mark," she laughed.
"You wound me, Grey," Mark pouted as he flopped down on the couch. "So, you getting nervous about meeting the clan?"
"About meeting them, not really," Meredith said. "About remembering all of their names? Absolutely."
"There are quite a few, aren't there?" Mark laughed. "Good luck with that one."
"Which one is the one getting married in this picture?" Meredith asked, turning the photograph so Mark could see it.
"That's Beth," Mark said with a smile. "She's my favorite. You'll like her."
"She the one with the ridiculous number of kids, right?" Meredith asked.
"If by ridiculous you mean seven, then yes," Mark said. "She just had twins last month."
"I'm never going to be able to figure this all out," Meredith complained. "And then they're going to hate me because I mix up their kids' names."
"They're not going to hate you," Mark assured her. "But don't let Derek fool you, they might not be all that nice to you at first, either."
"What do you mean?" Meredith asked nervously.
"Well, the Shepherds are somewhat overprotective, especially Maggie. They tend to be a bit, um, harsh, when one of their own brings home someone new," Mark admitted. "They're really great people, I swear, they just might take a while to warm up to you."
"Great," Meredith sighed. "So, what are you doing in Derek's office, anyway?"
"I could ask you the same question," Mark replied.
"I asked you first," Meredith retorted.
"The couch in my office sucks," Mark shrugged. "So when I want to sit on a couch, I use Derek's."
"And you suddenly felt like sitting on a couch this afternoon?" Meredith asked skeptically.
"Well, I may have also wanted to give your boyfriend a hard time," Mark admitted. "You know, tell him how he's getting really old, things like that."
"Teasing him on his birthday is not nice," Meredith scolded. "Besides, you're older than he is, so you really shouldn't be talking."
"I can't believe he actually told you that today's his birthday," Mark said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"He didn't," Meredith said.
"And yet somehow you know," Mark pointed out.
"I asked Kathleen," Meredith said.
"You talk to Kathy?" Mark asked. "I didn't know that."
"I wouldn't say we're best friends, but yeah, I talk to her," Meredith said.
"So, what exactly did you get him?" Mark asked. "Or did you actually listen when he said he didn't want presents?"
"Oh, I definitely got him a present," Meredith said, smiling broadly. "And I suck at gift-giving, but I'm fairly certain I hit this one out of the park, so to speak."
"What did you get?" Mark asked.
"Like I'd tell you," Meredith scoffed.
"Tell him what?" Derek asked, standing in the doorway of his office.
"What she got you for your birthday," Mark told him. "But apparently it's good."
"Oh, it's good," Meredith assured them. "Now go away, Mark, so I can give it to him."
"It's that kind of present?" Mark laughed. "Are you sure I can't watch?"
"Pull your mind out of the gutter, Sloan," Meredith admonished him as he headed out of the room. "And close the door behind you!"
"So, what exactly is this big present?" Derek asked as he sat down on his couch and watched Meredith twirling in his desk chair.
"You want it now?" Meredith asked.
"Yes," Derek said. "And it's my birthday, so aren't I supposed to get what I want?"
"I suppose so," Meredith said, smiling as she stood up and walked over to the couch, pulling a thin white envelope out of the back pocket of her jeans. "Here it is."
Taking the envelope out of her hands, Derek glanced at it in confusion. "This is it?" he asked. "The big present is this envelope?"
"No, silly, it's what's inside the envelope," Meredith laughed. "You know, if you don't want it, I'm sure I can find a dozen people who'd be thrilled to have it just by walking out that door."
Derek laughed and ran his finger along the edge to break the seal. Reaching into the envelope, he pulled out four long, rectangular slips of paper. When Derek finally realized just what he was looking at, his jaw dropped.
"Meredith…" he muttered. "Oh my God."
"Do you like it?" Meredith asked nervously. "I mean, you said you hadn't been back…and I thought, well, here's your last chance, right? If you don't want them, I guess I can just send them to Kathleen and Tom…but I just thought it might be something you'd like."
"Mer, it's perfect," Derek whispered. "But how the hell did you manage to get World Series tickets? I mean, Kathleen said she and Tom stood in line for hours and couldn't even get nosebleed seats."
"Yeah, well, I called in a favor or two," Meredith said nonchalantly. "It wasn't that big of a deal."
"So what'd she get you?" Mark asked as he burst back through the door. "I couldn't hear from the other side of the door."
Derek smiled and held up the tickets for Mark to see.
"Crap," Mark muttered. "How…my God, Grey, what'd you do, sleep with the commissioner to get these? I mean, I enhanced the wives of two Yankee starters and even that didn't give me enough strings to pull to get tickets!"
"Guess I'm just better connected than you are, Mark," Meredith smirked.
"No, seriously Grey, how did you these?" Mark asked as he pulled the tickets out of Derek's hand to examine them. "Derek, did you even look at these? Home plate, man!"
"Home plate?" Derek asked in shock, grabbing the tickets back from Mark. "Meredith, these are…these must have cost a fortune!"
"Well, I didn't exactly pay for them," Meredith admitted. "As I said, I just called in a few favors."
"From who, Yogi Berra?" Mark asked. "Come on, spill it, Grey."
"Alright, fine," Meredith conceded. "My friend Mike is vice president in charge of public affairs at Major League Baseball. Those are his seats."
"He just gave you his seats?" Derek asked.
"What can I say?" Meredith shrugged. "I can be very persuasive, especially when someone owes me a few favors."
"I still can't believe you managed to get World Series tickets," Derek said, shaking his head as he and Meredith walked into her house that evening.
"What can I say?" Meredith grinned. "I'm very resourceful. It should be a good couple of games, too. I think you'll really enjoy it."
"You're…you're not coming too?" Derek asked.
"Derek, you're already taking a ridiculous amount of time off to drive me to Connecticut in November," Meredith pointed out. "I don't have any way to get there. You can take whoever you want, but I sort of thought maybe you'd like to take Kathleen? I mean, you don't have to, it's just…you said you two used to go with your dad, so I thought maybe it would be, I don't know, therapeutic or something to go back together."
"Therapeutic to spend time with my therapist sister?" Derek teased.
"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, seeing as it's your birthday…" Meredith joked.
"I think it'll be nice to go with Kathleen," Derek agreed. "I just feel badly that you went to all the trouble to get the tickets, and you can't even go."
"Don't worry about me, Derek," Meredith insisted. "Trust me, it's fine."
"You don't like baseball, do you?" Derek guessed. "That's why it's fine, isn't it? How do I not even know that you don't like sports?"
Meredith laughed at Derek's anxiety. "Derek, I like sports," she said. "Probably more than you do, actually. I'm not upset, though, because you and Kathleen, you've never been to a World Series game. Me, I've been, more than once, actually."
"More than once?" Derek asked. "Seriously?"
"'98, '99, 2000 and 2002," Meredith said, laughing at the look of shock on Derek's face. "Trust me, you're not going to see anything I haven't seen before. So I want you to have fun and not worry that I'm missing it."
"Well, I'll still miss you…is that alright?" Derek asked with a smirk.
Meredith giggled as he leaned in and kissed her. "That, Dr. Shepherd, is more than alright."