Okay… Okay, I can do this.

Meredith placed her hands on opposite sides of the closed stroller and pulled as hard as she could. Again. And still, nothing happened.

She groaned as she sat down on the bottom step of the staircase to get a better view of the stroller resting in front of her. Refusing to give up, she grabbed it from a different angle and tugged for a fourth time. She tightened her grip, got to her feet and practically climbed onto the stroller. With all of her strength, Meredith pushed the sides in every direction possible. But still…

Nothing happened.

"You. Will. Open!" she growled to herself through gritted teeth.

She knelt on top of the stroller, with her death grip still intact and shook the thing for dear life. Finally, she realized that wasn't going to work. She shook her head in disbelief that she was fighting… With a stroller.

She sighed in disgust and thought of the picture she had painted of herself, had anyone seen her in her current state. As she started to climb off, her foot caught onto the side and she fell the two feet to the ground, using her hip to break her fall; the stroller following after, landing on top of her.

Meredith groaned again, more so from the pain, and shoved the stroller to the side. "What was that? Payback?" she mumbled as she sat up and rubbed her hip. She gave the stroller another push with her foot.

Sneakers squeaked against the wood floor, taking Meredith's attention away from the offensive stroller and onto the children present in the room.

The stroller started it, she thought about saying, but stopped herself once she remembered her audience consisted of three small children and with her luck, they'd take her literally. So instead she went with, "Everyone use the bathroom?"

They all frantically nodded their heads. Meredith locked eyes with one of the twins as his head abruptly stopped moving. She was about to question his reaction when the boy quickly turned around and rushed down the hall. "I gotta go again!" he yelled along the way.

"Okay then," she said while getting to her feet and replacing the stroller to its upright position. "You guys good?" she questioned the remaining kids.

"Can we gooooo now?" the waiting twin replied, ignoring her interrogation.

Meredith lifted the hem of her shirt and checked her hip to see if there was any evidence of the bruise she was sure would come. "You don't want to wait for your brother?" she asked the boy.

He frantically shook his head and started stomping up and down. "No. I wanna go now. I wanna plaaaaaay!"

Meredith cringed at the whining. He knew they were going to go; yet he was still fighting to go. He was just being so difficult.

She tried to shrug it off. He's just excited, she thought. That's all…

"Why don't you guys put your jackets on, I'll get Leah, and by that time your brother will be back and we can all go."

That ought to distract him.

"I don't want to wear a jacket!"

Yeah... Maybe not.

"You have to wear a jacket, it's cold outside."

"PIRATES DON'T WEAR JACKETS!"

Pirates?

Meredith looked down at the boy's attire, noticing for the first time that he was wearing a red cummerbund around his waste with a sword slung through it and a black three pointed hat gripped in his small hands.

"So, you… you're a pirate now?"

He never had to answer. The expression of "duh" was written all over his face.

"Right," she nodded quietly. "Okay…" She was trying to stall until she could come up with some way to make him put his coat on.

Beth beat her to it.

"Robbie," she said to her brother, "why don't you put your green sweater on instead? You could put it on first, your sword would be on the outside and you could still be a pirate."

Meredith looked back and forth between the kids. Stunned.

"Okay," Robbie happily replied nodding his head in agreement. He walked over to one of the bags in the hall and began digging through it.

Stunned… Meredith was stunned. She locked eyes with Beth. "Thanks."

"Yep," Beth replied as she moved past Meredith and dropped to her knees behind the stroller.

Following her actions, Meredith watched as the young girl put her hand under the stroller, clicked something, and let it magically unfold.

Stunned.

"Momma said it's a safety lock," she said to Meredith, "so we don't get our fingers pinched." With that, Beth got up from the floor and got her jacket off the coat hook on the wall.

"Thanks," mumbled Meredith, still in shock.

It wore off quickly, though, as Matthew came hurdling down the hall at warped speed. He plowed into Robbie, causing them both to collide with the floor.

Meredith braced herself for the fight she saw coming.

…But it didn't come.

Robbie laughed hysterically as Matthew stood and helped him to his feet, laughing as well.

That can not be the same kid…, Meredith thought.

"Can we go to the park now?" Robbie asked.

Yeah. Never mind.

"Let me grab Leah, then we can go." She paused for a moment, looking at the identical costumes the twins were wearing. "Matthew, will you put your jacket on?" She sucked in a breath, dreading having to ask that again.

"Okay," the child replied cheerfully.

Meredith's eyes widened. "Seriously?" She didn't' mean to say it with the tone of surprise, but the shock value was back again. Either no one heard her or they simply didn't care, though, because Matthew walked over to Beth, who helped put his jacket on.

Standing in front of her now were three anxious children, dressed, ready, and waiting to go to the park like their Aunt Meredith said they would.

She bit her bottom lip. Stunned.

"I'll go get Leah," she quietly told them and departed down the hall towards the living room where the last child remained.

She looked back over her shoulder once and saw one of the twins… Err… Matthew, sitting on the ground fixing the Velcro on his shoes.

"What the hell was that?" she wondered aloud.

If that little episode was any indication of what the rest of her day would be like…

She closed her eyes and sighed. When she reopened them, she found herself looking down into Leah's big brown eyes.

Leah was standing in her playpen, gripping the edge with one arm as she extended the other up towards Meredith.

"I thought your brother was going to go postal on me," she muttered to the child.

Meredith rubbed the back of her neck. There was no reason to put off going to the park. That would only make the children more crazy then they were already.

Leah tilted her head to the side, watching everything. Her shaggy blonde hair, which was tied up into pigtails, followed the direction of gravity wherever she moved.

Meredith finally took notice as Leah gripped tightly onto the rim of the playpen and began to bounce in place, causing the little sprouts of pigtails to dance on top of her head.

She reached in to grab Leah, but stopped, slightly taken aback.

The French rose OshKosh overalls Leah wore were now partnered with a cream colored jacket.

"I didn't do that," she said to herself. Meredith stared at Leah, awestruck. When she put her in the playpen, Leah only wore the overalls with a long sleeved shirt hugging her underneath it. And socks…

Meredith looked down, realizing the child now also had sneakers on. Her forehead scrunched together, trying to figure out… "How did you do that?" she asked the child.

Her shoulders dropped and the feeling of shock subsided. "Beth," she sighed, "Okay." Meredith nodded and put her hands on her hips. She glanced towards the hall, hearing the commotion from the kids and quickly refocused on Leah.

"Okay," she said again as she took her in her arms. "Let's get going before they all decide to go crazy."

Leah made no motions, just looked on.

"Good. Agreed then."

Meredith carried Leah to the door where the other children were anxiously waiting their return.

"Can we go noooooow?" one of the twins asked, holding a bag full of toys.

"Yes," Meredith nodded. "We can go now."

She winced as the shrill of the children cheering took to her ears.

"Yeah, yeah," she said in a hurry, "let's go."

As the kids piled out through the door, Meredith strayed behind. She shifted Leah to her opposite arm and with her free hand flung Leah's diaper bag over her shoulder. She grabbed the stroller and lugged it behind her.

Meredith got about two feet out the door before the diaper bag decided to slip from her shoulder and its contents fell to the ground.

"Crap," Meredith sighed. "Okay…"

She stood Leah on the floor and began to clean up the mess, shoving item after item forcefully into the bag.

The sound of the children's voices slowly started to fade, gripping Meredith's attention. She jumped up and peered into the yard. "Hey!" she called out after them.

The kids, who had made their way onto the sidewalk, looked the twenty feet back at Meredith.

"Guys, don't go any farther! You know what," she second guessed her blunt demand, "come back into the yard."

Meredith pushed the stroller closer to the walkway, grabbed the diaper bag and sat it on top, before returning to the children. "We can leave in a second, I promise, just let me grab my –"

The door slammed behind her, cutting her off.

Meredith whipped around to face the house. "Keys."

She instinctively tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "Crap," she said under her breath.

Great. This is just what I need...Locked out with a ton load of stuff and three kids who want to run away.

…Wait.

THREE?

"Crap!"

She peered down through the glass door and saw Leah there, standing on the other side.

"Leah, open the door."

The only response that came from the other side was the sound of muffled giggles.

Meredith smiled brightly to the child. "Leah," she said calmly, "open the door, okay?"

Leah's head tilted the side.

"What am I saying?" Meredith stopped begging as she realized she was trying to convince an infant to unlock a door that she would never be able to reach, let alone comprehend actually unlocking it.

Okay, okay… Think…

"Oh! Okay." She pointed her finger at Leah, "Don't move."

Meredith rushed down the walkway and moved towards the second entrance at the front of the house, only to find that it was locked as well.

She slapped her hand on her thigh, frustrated. "Seriously? The one time the doors are all locked."

As if a light bulb went off in her head, Meredith realized that allthe doors hadn't been checked.

The children watched from the yard as Meredith rounded the corner again towards the side of the house, passed it, and moved through the brush at the back of the house.

When she reached the laundry room, the remainder of hope she had was ripped from her.

It was locked, too.

Meredith let out a small groan in disgust. "This can NOT be happening."

A whole flush of thoughts entered her head. She would have to call… someone. Who had an extra key? Well, obviously Izzie did. And Alex… But they were both at work, as was Derek…

Oh crap. Derek.

How was she supposed to explain this to Derek? Call him up, 'Oh, hey, how's the surgery going? What are we doing? Oh, well, your infant niece is locked in the house and we're all outside, you know, chilling and stuff.'

"Crrrrap." Meredith cried out. She smacked the palm of her hand against the door, trying desperately to will it to open with no such luck.

One way or another, though, she had to get in there.

Meredith turned to the window next to it. Expecting it to be locked as well, she planned on trying to punch in the glass and go from there. However, just by glancing at it, she realized she'd never be strong enough to do it.

She scrunched up her nose, deciding to keep that effort as a last resort and went with her first thought of seeing if it was actually unlocked.

She gave it a huge tug upwards and surprisingly enough it opened a crack.

Her eyes lit up in hope as she slid both hands between the frame and the sill and pushed.

With a good amount of force, she got it open almost twelve inches before it decided to stick.

Meredith knew she would never fit through the opening. She was small, but the window's gap was still too short and the width of it wasn't wide enough for her to maneuver through. So instead, she reached in with her upper body and worked on trying to get the door open.

She stretched her arm in through the window and tried to figure out the lock on the door.

The door is rarely used by anyone. And of course… it's locked. It's locked…

"With the freaking deadbolt?!"

Meredith retracted her arm from the door, knowing she'd never get it open now. Deadbolt. The deadbolt required a key – from the inside. Her one chance of getting in was shattered all due to the freaking deadbolt.

She leaned over the window and rested her head against the inside wall. "I can't call Derek."

I wonder…

Meredith picked up her head. "Leah!" she yelled through the room. If there was the slightest chance the baby would hear her name, maybe she'd come in there. Then all Meredith would have to do is grab her. "LEAH!" she yelled again.

"What you doin'?"

At the sudden questioning coming from behind her, Meredith lifted her head in a hurry, smacking it hard against the frame as she pulled herself out.

As she attempted to ignore the pain that was forming in her head, she tried to focus on the small boy standing in front of her. "Your sister is locked in the house."

"Oh," the boy said like it was no big deal, happened every day. "Can we go to the park?"

Meredith bit her lip. Seriously…?

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to relax. She didn't want to yell at him, but this was a big deal. Meredith was sure Leah was fine, that she would be fine even if she were stuck in the house alone for a while, but she didn't want to have to call Derek. She was really hoping that factor could be avoided. But she couldn't think. She couldn't get the door open, and she couldn't get inside…

"We can go to the park after we get your sister out of the house."

"How come you don't open the door?"

Meredith ran a hand through her hair and settled it on the bulge of throbbing pain. "Because it's locked," she spat out.

Wait…

Her eyes shot open.

"You're little."

The boy stood there, unmoving.

"You want to go to the park?"

He nodded his head.

"I need your help then. Come here."

The boy did as he was told and went to Meredith's side. She squatted to meet his eye level.

"Okay. Your sister decided it would be funny if I had to call your Uncle Derek and pull him from surgery to come home, so she thought she would play a joke on me," she half told the truth," but the thing is, your uncle will think I did it on purpose, to get him home. Which I didn't. At all. And I'm handling this." She took a breath. "I can handle this. But Derek… he would never let me live it down."

The kid tilted his head to the side, much in the same way Leah did when she was trying to figure out what the adults were talking about. And Meredith wondered for a moment if he was even paying attention, kind of hoping he tuned out her rambling.

"I need you to climb through the window and go open the door for me, okay?"

He blinked. Blinked again. Stared at her like she was crazy, and he didn't move.

Meredith sighed. "I'll give you five bucks."

"Okay," he causally replied and moved past Meredith to the open window.

"Okay," Meredith echoed, shaking her head. She got to her feet and followed, standing behind the twin.

He began to pull himself up and Meredith boosted him from behind, helping him through and land safely on the other side. Meredith backed up a bit to make sure he was all right.

"You good?" she asked him.

"Yep."

"Okay. Okay, Good." Meredith backed away from the window. She pointed to the door in the back of the laundry room. "Kitchen is through there," she told him, "so just go out, through the kitchen, and I'll meet you at the side door. You know, the one we just went out?"

He nodded.

"All right. Now, go to the door and unlock it."

"Okay."

Meredith breathed in a sigh of relief as he disappeared into the kitchen. She pulled the window closed and quickly walked away, back to where she first started, rubbing the new bump on her head along the way.

"Ow," she groaned to herself as she rounded the corner back.

Beth and the second twin were sitting in the grass looking bored as ever.

"Are we EVER going to the park?" second twin asked.

Meredith glanced at the kids, but ignored the complaint. She walked up to the door and tried the knob.

Still locked.

She peaked in through the window, but Leah was nowhere in sight.

"Oh crap," Meredith said as she tried the knob once more. "Where is he? It shouldn't be taking him this long…" She started to knock on the door, hoping to get his attention. She was about to call out his name, but stopped herself when she realized she didn't know which twin she had been talking to. She was so freaked about leaving Leah in the house, it never occurred to her to pay attention to the other details of, say, whom the child is?

She took a shot.

"Robbie!" she called out.

"What?" came a questioning voice behind her.

Meredith turned around and faced the children. "Nothing," she said shaking her head. "Just… seeing if you're paying attention."

She swiftly turned back around and began banging on the door again.

"Matthew! Come open the door."

A few moments later, Meredith saw Matthew emerge from the kitchen with one of Leah's hands gripped in his own, the other holding a lemonade pouch.

Matthew unlocked the door and turned the knob.

Meredith pushed the door open and picked Leah up. "You okay?" she asked the infant.

Leah held the juice pouch with both hands and squeezed it, paying no attention Meredith and giving no indication that she was traumatized by any means.

"'Quishy," Leah giggled as she held up her new find for Meredith to see.

"She was crawlin' on the floor in the kitchen when I went in there. She wouldn't come with me so I got a drink from the fridgerator because she can squeeze it and she likes that." Matthew explained as he exited the house and sat with his siblings on the grass.

Meredith looked at Leah once more. She was fine. Happy. Perfectly content with her drink. "That's… That's good." She looked back at the kids.

Maybe it wasn't the best idea to leave the house after all. They weren't even out the door and they had already had had a mishap. A pretty big mishap, to say the least. But…

The looks on their faces…

Saying "no" wasn't an option now.

"Okay. Lets go to the park…"

The children jumped to their feet, ready to finally get out of there and get to the park.

Meredith was about to shut the door, but quickly remembered her keys. Or lack there of, rather. With Leah in her arms, she entered the foyer and grabbed her set that was sitting on the table by the door. Meredith turned the lock, closed the door, and pushed the stroller, diaper bag, and Leah down the walkway to meet up with the rest of the kids.

A/N: Just wanted to say thanks for all the reviews, keep 'em coming please ;) Also, thanks to everyone who is hanging in there with the annoying long breaks between updates. Classes are draining me and stealing the small amount of free time I do have. Hence the lack of time to write. More will come, though. I promise!