Hello!

I realize you all have been waiting much longer than I meant for you to have to wait for this chapter, but lo and behold, here it is! Finally!

I literally just sat down last night and popped out this chapter in one sitting (and I was up until 3AM just so I could finish).

I actually ended up really loving this chapter so I hope you all do too :)
And as a thank you for your patience, I tried to make this one a little longer than the past few chapters.

Enjoy!

Chapter 17

"Did I just hear Amelia refer to us as wolves?"

"And hello to you too," Derek greeted the three women in front of him.

Meredith stood semi-awkwardly behind her husband, looking over his shoulder at her three sisters-in-law. If she had to guess, the one that had just spoken looked to be the oldest, making her Kathleen. She had neat shoulder length hair that was the same shiny black color as Derek's. Her eyes were a warm brown color that she had clearly inherited from her mother.

The woman next to her was smiling playfully at Derek with sparkling blue eyes. Just like her other siblings, she was also blessed with the same fabulously black hair that was currently pin straight and flowing down her back. By elimination, Meredith figured that this must be Liz. All three sisters were dressed simply but in obviously high class clothing. And their choice of clothing wasn't the only thing that was stunning about them.

What the hell was in that Shepherd gene?

Finally, her eyes settled on the one familiar face in the bunch.

Familier? Yes.

Friendly? No.

While the other two were beaming at the sight of their little brother, Nancy was eyeing Meredith with a mixture of suspicion and contempt.

Oh goody.

"Oh hush, Derek, and let us in! Did you have to bring the rain with you?" Liz scolded as the sisters pushed into the house with their overnight bags.

"Hey, we got here a week ago and it just started raining today. You can't blame me for the unfortunate weather."

"I'm your older sister. I can blame you for whatever I like," Liz teased back with a good natured smile as she reached out to embrace her brother.

She had calming spirit to her and Meredith decided she could easily like the woman.

"My turn!" Kathleen declared, almost pushing Liz out of the way. "I can't believe I haven't seen you in almost five years! That's five years too long, Derek. You need to visit more."

"You know they have planes that go both ways, don't you?" Derek countered.

"Talk to me again after you try traveling with six kids," she replied with a challenging look.

Derek gave a chuckle and then shifted his attention to his remaining sister. "Nancy," he acknowledged with smile, reaching for a hug.

"Hi, baby brother," she replied with a matching smile. Now that her attention was on Derek, Meredith noticed her eyes seemed to soften slightly. She was just glad the glaring had stopped.

But Nancy's silent "greeting" to Meredith didn't go unnoticed by Derek.

"So much as utter the words 'slutty' or 'intern' and Meredith and I are leaving early," he warned quietly as he pulled his sister in for a hug.

He felt her stiffen slightly at the threat but otherwise made no other indication that anything was said.

"Okay," Derek began, beaming ear to ear as he walked over to stand by Meredith. "Mer, this is my oldest sister, Kathleen, the second oldest, Liz, and Nancy you met a few years ago. Everyone, this is my wife, Meredith." He wrapped his arm proudly around her waist as he finished the introduction.

"Hi," Meredith said timidly. 'Great, Mer. Real smooth. Way to be articulate,' she chided herself in her head.

"It's so great to finally meet you!" Kathleen exclaimed as she rushed to embrace her new sister-in-law. Taken aback at first, it took a moment for her to react but soon she was wrapping her arms around the older woman and returning the hug. With her bubbling excitement and persistent smile, Kathleen almost reminded Meredith of a slightly older version of Izzie. She decided she could see herself liking this sister as well.

"Kath, what is wrong with you? You're going to crush her. Calm down," Liz reprimanded as she walked up to hug Meredith as well.

"She's right though," Liz said with a smile. "We're all very excited to finally meet you. Derek's been gushing about you for forever so it's nice to finally put a face to the name."

"I'm really glad to finally meet you guys too," Meredith managed, at last finding her voice.

Nancy made no move towards Meredith and instead stayed put in her spot next to Kathleen. "Nice to see you again, Meredith," she said plainly in way of a greeting.

"You too," Meredith replied at a loss of what else to say. Derek eyed his sister carefully in response.

"Girls!" Carolyn called excitedly from the kitchen. She rounded the corner and into the front hallway as she dried her hands on a dish towel.

"Amelia and I just finished putting dinner on the table so I hope you're hungry," she informed the group as she hugged all her daughters hello.

"Smells great mom."

"Did you make pot roast? Oooh," Liz moaned excitedly, "my favorite!"

"Amelia hiding out in the dining room?" asked Kathleen as the group made their way towards the dinner table.

"I can hear you, ya know! And I'm not hiding! I'm waiting for you all to sit the hell down so I can finally eat!" Amelia called moodily from her seat.

"Awww," Liz cooed, mocking sweetness. "She's so happy to see her sisters."

Liz patted Amelia's head which caused her sister to immediately bat her hand away in annoyance. After chuckling at the rise she was able to get out of Amelia, Liz turned serious for a moment and gave her a quick hug and kiss on the top of the head before taking the seat next to her.

After everyone was seated, eating, and finished complimenting Carolyn on a delicious dinner, the table fell into silence. The only sounds being made were the clinking of silverware on china.

"So," Kathleen said, breaking the silence. "Meredith, Derek tells us you're in your 5th year of residency?"

"Yeah," she confirmed with a nervous smile.

"How's it going? You fly solo yet?"

"It's…fine," Meredith forced out. To be perfectly honest, her 5th year had been an ongoing mess from the very beginning. What with the trial, fighting with Derek, and all the stress with the adoption, she had only recently stopped feeling like she was constantly grasping at straws only to have them fall through her grasp in the end.

"And yeah, I did. I clipped an aneurysm by myself," she continued, poking at her food now rather than eating it. The sour memory seemed to have chased away her appetite.

"She was amazing," Derek murmured, sensing her sudden mood change. If their moment in the living room was any indication, he knew his wife was starting to feel the hormonal effects of her condition more lately, causing her to be more emotional than usual. Taking Meredith's hand, he gazed at her reassuringly until she finally looked away from her plate and met his eyes.

"She was perfect. I couldn't have done it better myself," he said proudly, still looking Meredith straight in the eye. He wasn't proud of his behavior that day. What should have been an amazing moment for the both her as doctor and him as her teacher, was now tainted with pain and regret. As Meredith stated that very night, there was no way they should have been in that OR together. But in the big picture, looking past the fighting, Meredith had been amazing. She was steady and sure of herself. So sure, in fact, that she didn't back down on her own intuition even when he was demanding she use another instrument. There wasn't a doubt in Derek's mind that Meredith was going to be an extraordinary surgeon.

"That's wonderful," beamed Carolyn. "Congratulations, Meredith."

"Thanks," she replied, pulling her gaze from Derek's to send her mother-in-law a small smile.

"So you're going into neurosurgery then?" asked Liz.

"Uhmm…" The awkwardness was coming back. "I had thought about it but I haven't fully decided on a specialty yet."

"Really? They haven't made you declare yet?" Amelia spoke up for the first time.

"I have to decide really soon. We'll see," she shrugged, trying to play off her uncomfortable feelings on the topic. She and Derek may be past their issues that came with her tampering with the trial, but the last thing she wanted was for his sisters to hear how she almost ruined their brother's life. "I'm really leaning towards neuro though, I think."

"I always knew I wanted to go into pediatrics," Liz threw into the conversation.

"You're a doctor?" Meredith asked, eager to steer the conversation far, far away from her.

"Liz is a pediatrician at a private practice in the city, Kathleen's a psychiatrist, and Nancy's an OB-GYN," Derek filled in for her.

"Wow, a whole family of doctors," she mused. "What are the chances of that?"

"None of us married doctors though, thank God," Liz added. "I don't know how we would have managed with the kids when one of us didn't have very flexible schedules in the beginning of our careers."

"Well Derek did. He married Addison," Nancy piped in, feigning nonchalance.

The clinking noticeably slowed which only added to emphasize the suddenly uncomfortable atmosphere created by the small statement.

"I, uhmm, I was just talking about trying to manage kids early on in residency," Liz offered with an apologetic smile towards Meredith. "It gets a lot easier later on. I would think that you and Derek would have no problem should you ever want to go down that road."

"Have you heard from Addison recently, Derek?" Nancy cut in again as if Liz hadn't even spoken.

"Nancy," Kathleen murmured with a low warning tone.

"What? He was married to her for 11 years. I can't ask if he's heard from the woman he spent more than a decade of his life with?"

"Nancy-"

"No," Derek cut in firmly. "We don't keep in touch. She came to Seattle when I pregnant co-worker needed help last year, we exchanged a greeting, and then she went back to L.A. We saw her briefly when we picked up Amelia, but 'hello' was about all our conversation consisted of."

Nancy was treading on thin ice with Derek and she knew it.

"I was just wondering. I just think it seems odd that you've totally cut her from your life."

"It's been four years. We're divorced, Nancy. That's generally what divorced people do. They move on from each other and live their separate lives. Which is what we are both happily doing." Meredith could see Derek's hand starting to clench his fork a little more tightly than normal.

"She was still our family, Derek. You can't blame us for missing her."

"Then call her! I don't care!" His voice was starting to elevate and so was his anger. "Just accept the fact that she's no longer a part of my life."

"And what exactly are you doing with your life, Derek? Because I swear I can't figure it out. You leave Addison for the starry eyed little intern you had an affair with and then none of us hear from you for almost two years. Thank God mom went to visit because otherwise we wouldn't have even known you were still alive! And after that, the next thing we know we're getting ridiculously last minute invitations to a wedding that none of us can attend because, go figure, we have lives we can't just up and leave like some people we know." Now the low blows were coming out. She was on a roll.

"Then we hear from mom that you didn't even go through with the wedding, but got 'married' on a Post-It note? Are you really even married yet? Is she even really your wife?"

Meredith didn't exactly appreciate Nancy's use of air quotes, to say the least.

"And then you just disappear again! You even got shot, Derek, and we still didn't hear from you. Are too busy playing house with your mistress to pick up the damn phone? Honestly, when is this little midlife crisis phase going to end?"

"He is my husband!" Meredith interjected firmly. "He's not some attending I'm using to get ahead and I'm not just some affair he had. He's the man I decided I want to spend the rest of my life with. The man I want children with. I'd give absolutely anything for him. If either of us were in this for anything less than a lifelong commitment, we would have never lasted this long. We have literally been through everything together and have somehow managed to come out the other side. He saved me from drowning in Elliot Bay. I stood in front of lunatic with a loaded gun for him. And yes, according to the state of Washington, we weren't legally married for the first year of our marriage. But what does it matter? We made vows, we agreed to them, we signed a piece of paper. From that moment on, as far as I was concerned, Derek was my husband and I was his wife. The only difference between what we did then and getting married at city hall was that there was a judge and a notary present."

She took a very brief moment to pause and take a deep breath before continuing, "I'm not asking you to like me or accept me as your family. But don't you dare ever question my feelings for Derek."

With that, Meredith pushed her chair from the table and walked briskly out of the dining room.

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