I made quick updates this week, right? I had trouble with my e-mail account or I would have updated even yesterday. I was just too pissed off to edit anything. Anyway, I wish those problems will resolve quickly, in the mean time, chapter 26.

'Love is a cure' is the second line of Kate Havnevik's song Timeless and I thought it was a good title for this chapter. It's a little bit of a go-between till the end of this story. Yep, YSCM is getting to an end and I'm sorry to say it. I managed to finish both the stories I published and I'm kind of proud. I'm gonna miss posting, but don't worry, I have lots of new stories in the editing/creative phase. We'll see what can I get out of the ideas before I'll post again.

I warn you that I will be on a hiatus after I'll finish with this story, due to exams, but I'll try to be back as soon as possible.

I stop rambling now, I'll leave it to Meredith. Thank you for still reading I really appreciate all your feedback!

Part 26 – Love Is A Cure

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

William Shakespeare

When I saw Derek in the lobby cradling Alice on his hip, I realized it was morning and I hadn't slept a wink my whole shift. I'd monitored Lisa all night and she woke up groggy and able to twirl her toes. Her mother had started hugging me, but I thought Derek was the one who deserved the hugging.

"Dr. Grey, thank you so much," the woman was in tears.

"Oh, that man over there is the one to hug," I pointed at Derek, who was now juggling to keep Alice on his hip with his briefcase in the opposite hand and at the same time put his keys in the pocket of his jeans. He grinned at me, pleading for help with his eyes.

"Excuse me Mrs. Halling," I smiled at the woman in front of me. She picked a tissue out of her bag to wipe away her tears of happiness.

I walked towards him calmly, noticing that Alice still looked half asleep and he looked like he hadn't gotten much more sleep than I did. Handsome as always, but tired nonetheless.

"Good morning," he greeted me, kissing me softly on the lips, unable to do anything more because of his hands were full.

"Ma-ma," Alice babbled, holding her arms out to me and raising her head from Derek's shoulder. I scooped her into my arms and she rested her sleepy head on my shoulder just like she had with Derek. I balanced her on my hip, trying to help Derek.

"We missed you," he smiled widely, softly kissing me again.

"I missed you too. Both of you," I said, kissing Alice's forehead as well, before she could complain over a lack of attention. "Mrs. Halling wants to hug you."

"I assume Lisa's fine," his smile brightened.

"She twirled her toes," I replied with the same excitement.

Derek smiled proudly and looked at me with a look that almost made me forget that I was holding our daughter in my arms, that we were in the lobby, and that I had been up all night working.

We walked back over to the woman, who was patiently waiting for us in a chair. Her whole stature was a hundred times more relaxed than she'd been the whole night, hovering over her daughter's bedside. I couldn't even try to hide how much this case had affected me, because every time I went into Lisa's room I wondered what it would be like to be in Mrs. Halling shoes, and have to watch your daughter have a life-saving surgery when she was barely three years old. The mere thought was more than scary.

"Is that your daughter?" the woman's voice reached my ear

"Yeah Mrs. Halling, we're married," Derek said proudly, before I could speak, placing his hand on the small of my back.

"She's a beauty. Now I get why you've been so caring with my Lisa." She turned her attention to me, probably reminding herself of every attempt I had made to make Lisa comfortable in the last few hours. "I'm sorry I kept you here all night instead of being with your beautiful family."

"It's my job," I replied calmly. It was hard though, to be away when I had to deal with cases like those.

"Thank you again Dr. Grey and you Dr. Shepherd, I'll never stop thanking you," she said, finally bear-hugging Derek.

I smirked at her gesture and saw how comfortable Derek looked when people hugged him. I noticed Alice dozing off on my shoulder and I just wanted to do the same and go home with her, snuggling up on the couch all day.

Mrs. Halling went back to Lisa's room and I went with Derek to his office.

"She just didn't want to go to sleep yesterday night," he mumbled when he finally settled in, looking just as tired as me.

"It's the water. She gets upset when you bathe her before bed, lately," I recalled, absentmindedly, still trying to figure out when that had actually started.

"Since when?" he asked, concerned to have done something wrong while I was away.

"Couple of days, maybe four," I frowned, trying to recall the exact day.

"Oh," his scowl was eloquent, his eyes darting over my shoulders and avoiding mine. They screamed guilt and all reminded me of all of the sad things we were trying to get over.

"I'm sorry," I tried to make things a little easier on him, but it didn't seem to work.

"Its fine," he cut me off sharply, using my brand line for avoidance. None of this was fine with him.

"Are you checking on Lisa?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm taking Alice to daycare, then I'll change and I'll visit her."

"Look, I still have two hours of charts left. We can check on Lisa together. Then I'll finish my paperwork, and I'll go home. Alice doesn't need daycare today." I really wanted to spend some quiet time with her

"You should get some rest."

"I'll nap with her at home. It's fine."

He kissed me. Then he kissed the top of my head and Alice's, smiling.

"You look so beautiful this morning," he added, before walking away and leaving me stunned in the middle of his office. I just worked twenty hours straight and I looked beautiful.

Alice twisting around brought me back to the real world where I was just a tired surgeon, still in her scrubs, with a sleepy baby girl in her arms, and two hours of charts ahead. I sat in the residents' lounge to chart, and I ended up napping with Alice on my chest. She was actually the one who woke me up, with her lovely I've-just-woken-up prattle, slapping my cheeks and bringing a smile to my face even before I realized that I had fallen asleep in the first place. It was too late then to check on Lisa, so I texted Derek that I was going home and that I would see Lisa the following morning.

I've never loved our house in the woods more than after a night on-call. Everything was quiet and somehow, after an entire night of rushing, adrenaline and cold lights, the woods and chirping birds sounded simply perfect.

Alice was crawling, wide awake, on the kitchen floor, exploring the world underneath the table. She was still building up her strength, rolling onto her side to look at me every two pats, stubbornly focused on reaching the stuffed bear she'd thrown on the opposite side of the table from her highchair after lunch.

The sun was shining brightly outside, so I just picked her up from the floor and went outside, letting her crawl on the grass. At first she was a little afraid of the new sensation, carefully exploring the patch around her before crawling away. To make her more comfortable I took off my flip-flops and just enjoyed the summer sun with her.

She got bored quickly, so I took one of her books and sat on the swing under the shade of the porch and the huge oak in our yard and I began reading. Her hands were quick to point out the most colorful animals, learning names, and enjoying my poor, dramatic attempts to recreate their noises.

She was still laughing hard the third time reading it. Then she fell asleep, maybe more because of the rocking and the warm sun than the reading itself. I relaxed as well, taking in the beautiful scenery. When I reopened my eyes, the sun was setting, turning everything a shade darker and if possible even more beautiful. I loved our home.

Alice was still sleeping peacefully on my chest so I went inside, waking her up gently. She wasn't very happy about it, so I held her in my arms instead of putting her in the highchair for dinner. I balanced her on my hip as I mashed some potatoes and I mixed them with some meat. Then I prepared some pasta for me and Derek.

I had actually learned to cook a couple of things, following Derek's strict advice all over the cupboards. Finally, I had a nice kitchen and it was still intact after almost a year. Alice, on the other hand, was attracted to everything related to the kitchen and meals and she had always been eager to taste new food.

Someday she had to meet Izzie during one of her baking bonanzas, she would appreciate it for sure. Except that I don't even know why she stopped answering my phone calls and replying to my e-mails. I didn't even know if she knew Alice existed. If she did it was almost worse, because she had never even thought about visiting.

"I'm home!" a familiar, happy voice pulled me out of my wandering thoughts.

When Alice heard the sound of Derek's voice in the foyer, she turned away from the stoves to look at the door and, as their gazes met, a wonderful smile stretched across her face, and she clapped her hands. She was simply happy, and it fascinated me. She was perfect and still new to what pain and sorrow really were, so she was just happy to be herself. And somehow she managed to keep me happy as well. Derek took her in his arms and tossed her in the air a couple of times, resulting in giggles and some coughing.

"Sorry," he apologized after I reminded him that she'd just eaten dinner. He walked closer and kissed me deeply, finally putting an end to every thought in my head and almost sweeping me off of my feet. I wasn't so sure I could stand on my own anymore when he stepped back. If Alice was a few years older she would have rolled her eyes at that kiss. I giggled at the thought.

"What?" he smirked cockily and tilted his head to the side, making me want to just full on kiss him again.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about a six-year-old Alice rolling her eyes at that." He laughed too. "I'm glad you're home," I whispered, leaning on his free shoulder while he placed a tender kiss at the top of my head.

"I missed you today. Lisa kept asking about you, but she was happy to know that you'll be visiting tomorrow."

"Of course I will. I missed you too."

He kissed me again, his day-old stubble grazing my skin.

"How was your day?" he continued, changing subject.

"We enjoyed the sun together. Did she get any sleep last night?" I smiled sympathetically at him, knowing that his answer was probably going to be negative.

"Maybe five hours, I think she's teething again," he sighed.

"Yeah. She slept the whole afternoon with me," I added, before he began worrying too much. "Did you get any?"

"Couple of hours after lunch, between surgeries," he looked immensely tired though. Still handsome and sexy, but tired.

"Good. I made dinner," I smiled widely.

"You what? You called in for dinner..." he mocked.

"No, I made pasta, I set the table and I didn't burn anything." I flashed a proud smile. "I followed your directions."

"God, I'm proud." He kissed me senseless again. Then he walked to the kitchen to find steaming spaghetti with tomato sauce already in front of him, while I was still standing in the middle of the kitchen, stunned, after his kiss.

"I have a surprise for you too," he grinned.

"Should I worry?" I found the ability to form words again, somewhere in the back of my mind behind the hazy veil of lust he gave me with his kisses.

"It's gonna be fun, I promise," he smiled widely.

"Hints?"

"You wanna guess?" he joked, but he seemed genuinely taken aback by my question.

"Of course, it's a surprise!" I smirked. I knew he was waiting for me to yell at him about how much I hated surprises and all of that. I just couldn't bring myself to yell at him anymore when he was being so McDreamy after a hellish night and a twelve hour shift.

"Then I'd say...off," he whispered, adding suspense to the hint.

"Off as out? Days off? You're taking us somewhere in September?"

"Hmm," when he hummed like that, it could only mean yes.

"It's about holidays anyway," I smiled, encouraging him to give away more details.

"Yes. But you'll never guess where," he mocked.

"Derek, you're taking us on vacation!" I cocked my head, tears forming in my eyes at the mere idea of us and vacation in the same sentence.

We have never been that kind of couple, with so little time, and so many things on our minds. The infamous forty-eight, uninterrupted hours somewhere in wine country was still on hold. But it couldn't be that, especially Alice had to be going; I couldn't leave her with someone for a weekend out of the blue.

He sat at the table, holding Alice in his lap and eating. I sat across from him and put my hand over his, my eyes glittering. Alice placed her chubby hand over mine and we burst into laughter. She looked up at us, perplexed, before grabbing a bunch of Derek's spaghetti and putting it in her mouth ungraciously. She splat her whole face with sauce in the attempt to find the right place to put it, but she seemed to enjoy the new discovery. Maybe she was still hungry. She picked up another one and gripped it with her hands happily, first turning it upside down and examining it as she twisted it around in her chubby, inaccurate fingers, trying to understand what it was. Then she brought it up to her mouth and clapped her hands when she succeeded in swallowing it all. She turned to Derek and slapped his face before he was able to clean her hands, so he was covered in sauce as well. The corner of his lips curled up and he tried to maintain some kind of composure while he faked his best upset face.

"Alice, you don't cover Daddy with sauce," I tried to stay serious, but I couldn't help but grin. She clapped her hands and held them out to me.

"Nope, not Mommy either," added Derek, unable to take the grin off of his face as well. I grabbed her hands and she reluctantly let me clean her, before beginning her ritual again. I prepared her plastic bowl and her fork with some spaghetti just for her, but she just ignored the fork, happily throwing her hands into the sauce.

I was glad I hadn't bathed her yet, and I hadn't showered either. Her bath time, in fact, turned out to be even funnier: it was one of the few times she had both me and Derek taking care of her together so she just marveled us with giggles and barely-teethed grins. When I wrapped her in the towel and I put her diaper on, she was already dozing off, the bath having had a toll on her. I put her onesie on and Derek rocked her in his arms for a second until she was completely asleep, clinging as always to his t-shirt.

When we climbed in our own bed, I did the same as she did, just kissing him first.

"That was a night," he chuckled, molding our bodies closely together as I laid my head on his chest.

"She's amazing, Derek."

"I know."

"She's our daughter."

"You still can't believe it either, can you?" he grinned and I just shook my head, before he kissed the top of it.

"We're actually going away for a weekend?" I asked, his words still ringing through my head.

"No kidding, we'll leave Friday morning and we'll be back at work on Monday at seven sharp."

"Friday?" my eyes widened. We weren't supposed to be off on Friday.

"I pleaded with Richard. Maybe I'll have to do his post-ops for years, but it'll be worth the trip," he smirked.

"You think?"

"That's a nice way to try and get some more information," he kissed me lightly, trying to divert my attention and he succeeded.

"Surprise me, Derek," I smirked wryly.

"Is that dirty or am I just imagining it?" he smiled and I couldn't help but grin back at him.

"It can be."

"If we keep it quiet?"

"Nope, if you're not too sleepy!" I hit his chest, kissing him. "I think your skin still tastes like tomato sauce..." we both laughed when we remembered the events of the night.

"Wanna try it?"

AN: This was pure fluff and I'm not ashamed. The story is winding down, just let me have some more fluffy moments here =D

Thanks for reading the chapter!