A/N: Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews! Jury duty is now over (after all that time, we ended up as a hung jury), so once I get caught up with all the work I missed while being out for three weeks, I'll hopefully be able to get updates up at more regular intervals.
"Hi Lexie," Meredith said as she flipped open her phone and closed the door to the bedroom she was sharing with Derek. After having finally convinced Beth to take her daughter back, Meredith has slipped upstairs to answer her phone and freshen up before dinner.
"How's Connecticut?" Lexie asked.
"It's interesting," Meredith said. "How's Oregon?"
"Interesting is one word for it," Lexie said. "Pierce's sisters are driving me insane, though."
"They don't like you?" Meredith asked. "Do I need to come kick some ass for you?"
Lexie laughed. "No, I think I can handle them," she said. "It isn't that they aren't nice. No, I actually think I might prefer mean but still intelligent to very sweet but just plain stupid."
"Stupid?" Meredith asked in confusion. "Isn't that a bit immature, Lexie?"
"I kid you not, the two of them have a combined IQ of fifty, maybe a little less," Lexie said. "You know those blonde airheads they always have in TV shows? The ones who you always look at and think that women that dumb cannot actually exist? Well, they exist, they live in Portland, and they're my boyfriend's younger sisters. The worst part is they aren't even blonde!"
"They can't be that bad," Meredith tried to reassure her sister.
"There was broccoli on the counter while their mother was making dinner last night, and one of them asked Mrs. Greene why she was cooking unripe cauliflower," Lexie said.
"Unripe cauliflower?" Meredith repeated as she tried to hold back her laughter.
"I thought I was going to die laughing," Lexie said. "I can't have a conversation with them because every other sentence out of their mouths makes me want to burst out laughing, but I can't, because they don't realize that they're idiots. I just don't get it, because Pierce is so smart. I mean, he had a full ride academic scholarship for undergrad and graduated first in his class at Cornell Med. How can he have sisters who are so clueless?"
"His parents poured all their IQ genes into their first child and didn't have any left for the others?" Meredith guessed.
"Something like that," Lexie laughed. "So, how are McBitch and the wicked witches of the east?"
"You've been spending way too much time with Cristina," Meredith said, shaking her head at her sister's description of Derek's family.
"Actually that one came from Izzie," Lexie said. "Seeing as she's the only one who actually met the nasty sister when she visited, other than you, of course."
"Of course," Meredith said. "Still, you probably shouldn't call them that."
"Have they been nice?" Lexie asked.
"Nice probably isn't the word I'd use for it," Meredith said. "Kathleen is great, obviously, but you've met her. Abby's a little quiet, but she's been generally nice. I think Derek had to have a stern conversation with his mother and the other two, though."
"What did they do?" Lexie asked.
"Well, Beth called me a whore in front of the entire family," Meredith said. "And Nancy backed her up."
"You're kidding," Lexie gasped. "I can be on a flight in an hour, two tops, Mer. I've been working on my right hook. I'll bet I could snap the two of them without breaking a sweat."
"I appreciate the offer, Lexie," Meredith said. "But I think this is something I have to handle on my own. Whatever Derek said to them seems to have at least had some effect. Mrs. Shepherd's just stopped speaking to me, which isn't all that bad, actually. I haven't really seen Nancy in a few hours, so maybe she's avoiding me. And Beth seems to actually be coming around, although that could have something to do with the fact that her baby likes me."
"Her baby?" Lexie asked.
"She's got seven kids," Meredith said. "Including two and a half month old boy-girl twins. The girl apparently doesn't like people, and screams her head off when anyone except Beth holds her. Well, actually, now it seems that it's anyone other than Beth or me."
"You're the baby whisperer," Lexie laughed.
"Shut up," Meredith giggled. "And don't you dare tell Cristina that nickname."
"Oh, I think it's cute, Mer," Lexie said. "We could get it embroidered on your lab coat: Meredith Grey, Baby Whisperer."
"How's Lexie?" Derek asked as Meredith once again entered the living room, where Derek was sitting with Abby, Beth, Kathleen and their husbands and new babies.
"She's good," Meredith said. "A little frustrated with the Greenes, but she's dealing."
"Who's Lexie?" Abby asked. "And who are the Greenes?"
"Oh, um, Lexie is my sister," Meredith said. "The Greenes are her boyfriend's family. She's visiting them for a few days for the holiday."
"Does your sister have the same last name you do?" Beth asked curiously.
Meredith smiled, knowing exactly where Beth was going with that question. "Yeah, she does," Meredith said. "And yes, the nurses call them the 'color couple' because of their names."
"They do?" Derek asked in surprise. "I hadn't heard that."
"Seriously, Derek," Meredith laughed, shaking her head. "I'm not even there most days right now and I hear these things. Sometimes I wonder if you work at the same hospital the rest of us do."
"He's generally rather clueless," Kathleen pointed out. "But I'm sure you've figured that out by now."
"I thought you were supposed to be the nice one," Derek pouted.
"Nice to Meredith," Kathleen countered. "No one said I had to be nice to you, baby brother."
"Speaking of not nice, has anyone seen Nancy this afternoon?" Sean asked, realizing that they were missing a sister.
"Nope, but I can found out where she is," Beth said confidently.
"How?" Sean asked.
Beth smiled and walked to the back door. "Hey Karl, get your butt in here!" she shouted before returning to the room.
"Do you have to be so loud?" Beth asked.
Sean shook his head and laughed. "And you wonder where Bridget gets her lungs?"
"What's up, Aunt Beth?" Karl asked as he came into the room.
"Where's your mother?" Beth asked. "No one's seen her since just after lunch."
"She said she wasn't feeling well, so Nick took her home," Karl said. "He said they'd try to come back in time for dinner."
"Well, this is nice," Abby said, trying to break the awkward silence that had descended on the group as soon as soon as they had all sat down around the dinner table. "It's been a few months since we had everyone all together."
"We're not all together," Beth pointed out. "Mark's not here yet."
"Wasn't he supposed to be here at five?" Nancy asked.
"He called while you were gone," Abby said. "His flight got delayed. Apparently it was raining in Seattle. Which, of course, we know never happens."
"Hey, we don't get any more rain that the rest of the country," Meredith said. "Our rain is just spread out over more days than it is in most places. And enough rain to delay a flight is very unusual in Seattle."
"Well, I personally think that was just an excuse and Mark met some girl in the airport bar, like he did last summer," Beth said. "That's probably the real delay."
"Beth, cut the man some slack," Abby said. "It's possible he really was delayed by the rain."
"How do you two handle all that rain?" Beth asked.
"You'd be surprised how quickly you can get used to it," Meredith said. "There's an old joke in Seattle that if you live there long enough, you'll eventually get to the point where you won't need an umbrella because you'll learn to walk between the raindrops."
"Did you grow up in Seattle, Meredith?" Maggie asked, finally breaking her hours-long silence and speaking to the woman her son had brought home.
"For a little while, yes," Meredith said. "I was born in Seattle, but I moved to Boston when I was five. I only came back home after I joined the residency program at Seattle Grace."
"You're in your third year now, right?" Beth asked.
"Not exactly," Meredith admitted. "I'm actually on leave from the hospital right now, so because of the time I've missed, when I start back I'll be a second year resident again."
"What'd you do to get yourself suspended?" Nancy asked.
"Nancy," Derek said in a cautionary tone. "I wouldn't go there if I were you."
"I think it's a legitimate question," Maggie defended her daughter. "People don't just up and leave their residency programs, that much I've learned with all of you being doctors. I mean, Beth only got four weeks when she had Ben, remember? And when she had the twins, it was hardly any better, they only let her take eight weeks."
"I think this was a little different, Maggie," Matt said. "Meredith wasn't suspended."
"And just how would you know that?" Nancy asked.
"Because he helped with her case," Abby said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, before looking at the confusion on the faces of her mother and Beth and Nancy. "Did I not mention that when it happened?" she asked sheepishly. "Oops."
"Her case?" Beth asked curiously.
"I was in an accident," Meredith said. "Matt helped one of our orthopedic surgeons at Seattle Grace with an experimental surgery on my leg. The surgery was a success, but it's been a long recovery process and I still haven't been cleared to return to work yet."
"How long have you been out?" Sean asked.
"Since the mid-January," Meredith said.
"That's quite a long time to be not working," Maggie commented. "It must be difficult for you, financially speaking. I guess it helps that you've managed to find a well-off man to take care of that for you."
"Mom, that is completely inappropriate," Derek scolded. "I thought we discussed your behavior?"
"It's a simple observation, Derek," Nancy said. "No need to jump down Mom's throat. We all know what it's like to have med school debts, to have expenses, to be scraping by on a resident's salary. To suddenly have no income at all? I guess we all have our reasons for staying in relationships."
"That's more than enough, Nancy," Derek said, throwing his napkin onto the table and standing abruptly. "I will not sit here and listen to the two of you go on like this. Meredith, come on, we're leaving."
Meredith sighed as Derek stormed out of the room. Shooting an apologetic smile at Kathleen and Abby, Meredith stood up and followed Derek upstairs.
"Derek, you need to calm down," Meredith said as she walked into their room. "Just give them some time."
"Give them time?" Derek asked. "This is ridiculous, Meredith, absolutely ridiculous. I've told them what you mean to me, I've told them that they can't behave like this. Why can't they get the message?"
"I don't know," Meredith sighed, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and motioning for Derek to join her. "But you can't control what other people do, Derek. Believe me, if there was a way, I would have figured it out a long time ago and spared myself a lot of pain and heartache over the years."
"How can you be so calm about this?" Derek asked as he flopped down next to Meredith on the edge of the bed. "They're being horrid to you and it's bugging the hell out of me. How can you just let it slide?"
"I'm not saying it's okay, Derek, and I'm not saying I like it," Meredith said, placing her hand on Derek's arm to steady his nerves. "But maybe on some level I can sort of see where they're coming from."
"You can?" Derek asked in surprise.
"Try to look at it from their perspective," Meredith offered. "They know nothing about me. All they see is a woman who's dating her wealthy boss, someone who started seeing you while you were still married. Do they even know that I didn't know about Addison?"
"I don't know," Derek admitted.
"For all they know, I have no regard for marriage," Meredith said. "They know we were together after Addison came to Seattle, but do they know it was only once? They probably assume we were having an affair behind Addison's back for months before she caught us. And they don't know that I don't have med school debts, they don't know that I wasn't struggling to get by on a second year resident's salary. They don't even know that we weren't seeing each other during my recovery, so they have no way of knowing that you haven't been handing me rent money or something like that."
"Still, they shouldn't just assume that you're some gold-digger or whatever it is they're thinking," Derek sighed. "I just wish I could make them see everything that I see when I look at you."
"Mrs. Shepherd?" Meredith said nervously as she walked into the kitchen later that evening to find Maggie washing dishes in the kitchen. "Do you think we could talk for a minute?"
Maggie paused for a moment, her hands hovering over the sink full of soapy water as she seemed to ponder Meredith's request. Finally, she grabbed a dish towel off the counter and held it out for Meredith as she nodded. "You can dry," she said simply.
Meredith accepted the towel and quickly took the spot on the other side of the sink, falling into a silent routine as Maggie washed and handed the dishes off to Meredith for drying.
"I love your son, Mrs. Shepherd," Meredith said eventually. "I know you and Nancy don't believe that, you think I have some ulterior motive for being with him, but it's not true. I'm with Derek because I love him more than I've ever loved anyone."
Maggie sighed heavily. "I'm not stupid, Meredith," she said. "Derek's pushing 40, he's professionally successful and very well off. You think I can't see how that would attract you? I mean, you're what? Ten, twelve years younger than he is? You're barely two and a half years out of med school, you're probably still in massive debt. You can't tell me the idea of landing a nice rich man doesn't appeal to you. Not to mention the fact that he's your boss."
Meredith smiled slightly at the ridiculousness of Maggie's assumptions.
"You think this is funny?" Maggie asked incredulously.
"No, no, of course not," Meredith assured her. "I guess I can see how, not knowing anything about me, you might make those assumptions."
"And you think if I knew something about you, I would think something else?" Maggie asked. "Because if that's the case, please, by all means, enlighten me."
"How old do you think I am, Mrs. Shepherd?" Meredith asked.
"I don't know, 26, 27 maybe," Maggie guessed.
Meredith smiled. "I guess it's good that I still look young, but I'll be 33 in January," she said. "I'm only about 6 years younger than Derek."
"I see," Maggie said, a bit perplexed by how easily her basic assumptions of Meredith were being deflated. "That doesn't change anything else, though."
"I don't have any debt," Meredith said. "Not from college, not from medical school, not from any point before or after that. My mother paid my tuition, and I worked to pay my expenses. When my mother got sick, she gave me her power of attorney and everything she had passed to me. As a result, I own my house in Seattle free and clear, no mortgage or anything like that. I also own a house in Boston and two apartment buildings in Utah. The rent from those alone would be enough to support me while I'm not working at the hospital, not even considering the other sources of income that I have. I don't need Derek's money, Mrs. Shepherd."
Maggie nodded silently, scrubbing furiously at a skillet in the sink.
"And I didn't know he was my boss," Meredith continued. "When we met, I didn't know Derek was my boss, and I certainly didn't know he was married. After I found out he was my boss, I tried to stop seeing him, but Derek can be quite persistent."
"He pursued you?" Maggie asked.
"He did," Meredith confirmed. "And I still didn't know he was married. If I had known that, I never would have let myself fall in love with him like I did."
"And once you knew? What about then?" Maggie asked.
Meredith cast a confused glance at Maggie. "What exactly do you think happened when Addison moved to Seattle?"
"From what I've heard, while Derek was supposedly working on his marriage, he was carrying on an affair with you behind Addison's back," Maggie said.
"When I found out he married, I ended it," Meredith said. "If I could have transferred my internship, moved somewhere else, I would have. I was already in love with him at that point, but at the same time, I spent all those months hating him, wishing he would just go away so I could move on. There was no months-long secret affair. There was one moment of weakness, one mistake. I'm not saying that excuses it, I'm not saying I don't regret having hurt Addison like that. I'm just saying, it wasn't what you think it was."
Maggie nodded silently as she pulled the plug from the sink and watched the water drain out.
"I think that will do for tonight," Maggie said, setting her towel down beside the sink and leaving the room without another word, leaving Meredith to stand there, wondering whether she'd finally gotten through, or if she'd just managed to once again somehow offend Derek's mother. Sighing, she grabbed Derek's jacket from the bench by the back door and slipped out to get some fresh air.