Chapter Forty-Seven: Mother I Never Had
Meredith quickly flitted around the house making sure everything was clean and organised. A month had passed since she had encountered Susan Grey and they were slowly getting to know each other. Meredith had finally had to cut back her hours at work. The chief and Dr Bailey both thought it would be for the best especially with the risk of her going into preterm labour which was common in multiples.
Meredith had invited Susan to have dinner at the house and to finally meet Mark. Izzie and Alex were also going to join them especially since Izzie had been kind enough to prepare the meal considering if it had been up to Meredith they would be eating take out.
"Izzie, when does the dessert have to come out?" Meredith asked waddling into the kitchen. Her stomach was now becoming very much hindrance.
"Not for another 10 minutes, the buzzer will go off, relax Mer it's all going to be fine" Izzie reassured her friend noticing how one edge she was.
"Mark isn't even home yet and she will be here in 20 minutes" Meredith stressed.
"He'll be here, don't worry, why don't you set the table" Izzie suggested trying to keep her occupied so she wouldn't stress. Izzie understood why she was so anxious, in the past month this woman had become a proxy mother to Meredith. She was even more mellowed about the pregnancy because she had someone to look up to and go to for advice.
Susan had been helping Meredith and Izzie with the nursery. Since they didn't know the sexes of both babies they had gone with creamy yellow coloured walls with a baby animals trimming along the edges. The cribs and all furniture was a dark wooden timber that almost looked antique. They had hung multi coloured mobiles above each crib and there was an abundance of soft toys for the babies to share.
Meredith jumped as she heard the front door open. She walked into the hallway to find Mark and Alex making their way into the house. Alex was ready but Mark had clearly just come from the hospital.
"You're late" Meredith snapped as he greeted her with a kiss. "Izzie is in the kitchen" Meredith said to Alex before diverting her attention back to her husband.
"I know babe, I'm so sorry I got paged just as I was leaving, I'm quickly going to go have a shower, what time will Susan be here?" he asked charming Meredith with soft kisses along her neck.
"In about 10 minutes so you better be quick" Meredith replied pulling away from him and heading back to her job of setting the table.
She had just finished as she heard the knock on the door. "She's here" Meredith called out so that Mark would here her upstairs and Izzie and Alex would hear her in the kitchen. She made her way to the door opening to reveal Susan standing there just as she had presumed.
"Hi come in" Meredith said greeting her with a hug. "Dinner is almost ready, I had nothing to do with it, Izzie made it all" Meredith told her leading her into the kitchen.
"Hello dear" Susan greeted Izzie, the two women had hit it off as quickly as her and Meredith had, they swapped recipes and shared their passion of baking.
"This is my boyfriend Alex, Alex this is Susan" Izzie said introducing the pair.
"Lovely to meet you" Susan greeted Alex. "Where is this mysterious husband of yours?" Susan asked Meredith.
"He is just upstairs having a shower, he ended up getting caught at the hospital" Meredith explained as Izzie set the food out on the table and everyone made their way into the dining room. Just as all the food had been placed out Mark made his way down the stairs dressed in a pair of good jeans and a nice button up shirt.
He immediately made his way over to Meredith wrapping an arm around her. "You must be Susan" he said greeting the older woman. "Meredith has told me some much about you, I'm Mark" he continued introducing himself.
"It's nice to finally meet you" Susan replied as they all sat at the table and began to eat.
"The nursery turned out great, thanks for your help" Mark said to Susan as the four continued to make small talk.
"It was my pleasure" she replied. "At least now it's all ready for when you bring those little joys home" she continued with a smile. "Not long to go now."
"We are only 6 weeks out from the due date so my doctor says anytime now would be safe for twins, but we want to keep them in there as long as we can" Meredith said.
"Have you decided on names yet?" Izzie asked. She was excited for the arrival of the babies.
"We are still throwing them around, we can't agree" Mark said rubbing Meredith's stomach, he could feel one of the babies moving around; one was always more active then the other.
"We can't just settle on the first name Mark, they have to live with what we give them for the rest of their lives" Meredith argued. She was having a hard time settling on names, there were too many to choose from.
"It will come to you dear" Susan said warmly. "Well I better be going I don't want to keep you guys up to late, the life of surgeons" Susan said getting up out of her seat.
After Meredith had seen Susan out and helped Izzie clean up she made her way into the lounge room where Mark was one the couch, she curled up next to him, snuggling in.
"So what did you think of Susan" she asked him.
"She's really nice Mer, and she seems to care about you very much. I'm glad you have that mother figure, especially with the babies coming so soon" he told her genuinely.
"I know, she's like the mother I never had" Meredith said softly as she huddled into Mark's warm body thinking back to her childhood and how different it would have been if she had of had a mother like Susan.