A/N (08/06/16): Hello friends! As hard as it is to believe, it's been nearly four years since I last updated this story. My sincere apologies to all of my loyal readers for essentially dropping off the face of the earth, and thank you to everyone who kept reading, reviewing, and messaging me while I was lost in "real life", whatever that is!

I am working my way through this story, tweaking it slightly to take it in a direction that will better bring it to the conclusion I always intended it to reach. I'll be posting the updated versions of the existing chapters in batches until it's all caught up and we get back into new material. Most of the changes are minor in the first 15 or so chapters, but there are a few slightly more substantial changes in the later chapters of this new version. So even if you've read the story before, I encourage you to start at the beginning and work your way forward - I'll date all the updated chapters as they go up, so that it is clear what has been updated. Thank you all for your patience!

It took all the energy Meredith had left that evening just to pull back the covers on her bed. With a heavy sigh, she sat down on the edge of bed and slumped forward, resting her upper body on her knees. Between the conversation with Derek at lunchtime, an emergency surgery in the afternoon, and coming home that evening to find her two younger children at each others' throats again, she wasn't sure she even had the energy it would take to fall backward and pull the covers over her head.

"Mom?"

Turning her head toward the door, she smiled at the sight of her son standing there, his worn out teddy bear - the one he'd swear he never touched if any of his friends questioned its presence - tucked into the crook of one arm.

"What are you doing up, Jack?"

Jack shrugged and took another step into the room. "I can't sleep."

Meredith nodded and with great effort, reached behind her to pull the covers back on the other side of the bed. "C'mon in, buddy."

Jack grinned and ran to the side of the bed, crawling in and pulling the covers up to his chin as Meredith lay down and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "So, what's on your mind?"

"Just can't sleep."

"You want to talk about it?"

Jack shook his head and rested it on Meredith's shoulder, wrapping his arms around her waist. With a sigh, Meredith kissed his forehead and leaned back against the pillows.

"Mom?"

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"Will you tell me a story?"

Meredith cracked open an eyelid and stared down at her son in surprise. "What, like a fairy tale?"

Jack shook his head. "I'm a boy, Mom, and I'm way too old for fairy tales."

Meredith laughed. "Then what sort of story did you want?"

Jack shrugged sheepishly and buried his head in her shoulder. "One about Dad."

"You want me to tell you a story about your father?"

"Dr. Paul says its good to talk about him. He says maybe it'll make you feel better too."

Meredith cringed inwardly at the mention of the child psychologist Lexie had finally convinced her to send Jack to see. The fact that they'd been talking about her only furthered her conviction that once the first round of sessions her sister had paid for were done, her son would not be going back to that quack.

"Mom?"

Meredith sighed and nodded. "Okay…you want to talk about your dad. I can do that."

"Tell me the one about when you told him about me."

Meredith smiled wistfully. "You like that one, don't you? Okay, well let's see…it was October, if I remember right. The week before Halloween. Suzie was six, and the twins were eleven. After Suzie was born, your dad and I had tried very hard to have another baby."

"'Cause you wanted a boy?"

"Not exactly. We loved your sisters so much that we thought another baby would be perfect for our family, boy or girl. But we tried and tried, and nothing worked. The doctors thought that I couldn't get pregnant again."

"You mean like how Aunt Lexie can't have a baby?"

Meredith frowned and stared at her son. "How do you know about that?"

"I heard her talking to Aunt Molly one time. It makes her sad, Mom."

Meredith nodded, remembering the string of painful miscarriages and difficult fertility treatments that had led her sister to give up on the idea of children of her own. "I know, sweetie."

"I think Aunt Lexie would be a good mom," Jack said. "And I want another cousin."

"Oh sweetheart, I'm sure Aunt Lexie would have loved to give another cousin," Meredith said. "But sometimes, no matter how much you want something to happen, it just doesn't."

"Like how no matter how much I want Dad to come back, he can't?"

Meredith sighed and kissed her son's forehead. "Yeah," she said sadly. "Something like that."

"So did you have the same Aunt Lexie has?" Jack asked. "Is that why you didn't have another baby right away?"

"Not quite, sweetheart. But for a long time, your dad and I did think that we weren't going to have any more babies."

"But then you had me."

Meredith smiled. "But then I had you. I remember when I told your dad, he was so happy, he couldn't stop smiling for a whole week."

"Really?"

"And that was just when I told him I was pregnant. You should have seen him when you were born…"

Meredith groaned into the darkness as she felt the searing pain in her abdomen. It felt as though someone had ripped open her stomach and gone rooting around inside. Slowly, her eyelids cracked open to let in the sterile light of the hospital room.

"Well it's about time."

Meredith turned her head and frowned when she saw her husband sitting next to the bed. "What happened?"

"You scared the shit out of me, that's what happened," Jackson said. "Good God, Meredith, do you have any idea how terrified I was when Lexie called and said that you'd hemorrhaged and were on your way to surgery?"

"Well, I didn't do it on purpose," Meredith protested, placing her hand on top of his and letting her one other hover over her abdomen. "The baby…?" she whispered fearfully.

Jackson smiled and nodded. "Our son is perfect."

"Our…our son?"

Jackson grinned. "Alex sends his apologies for that. Says it's quite the trick, though…apparently the baby had to be turned in just the right way for the ultrasound to be read wrong."

"Well, maybe Molly will have another baby and it'll be a girl so we can give her all those pink clothes."

"Speaking of your second favorite sister…"

Meredith laughed as Lexie walked in right on cue, pushing a plastic crib in front of her.

"I kidnapped this little man from the nursery, so bond quickly because Nurse Ratchet will be in here any minute looking for us."

"Thanks, Lex," Jackson said, reaching into the crib and gently cradling the baby in his arms before turning back to Meredith.

"You want to hold him?"

"Stupid question, Jackson."

Lexie hurried to Meredith's side to help her sit up. "Careful, Mer, you just had major surgery."

"No kidding," Meredith groaned, holding out her arms to take the baby. "Now give me my baby."

Jackson laughed and placed the baby in Meredith's arms. "I think he looks like you."

"Hi there, sweetie," Meredith cooed, running a finger along her son's cheek. "You sure are a surprise, aren't you? I thought you were going to be a little girl. Your sisters are going to be so excited to meet you."

"He'll just have to be patient while we figure it all out," Jackson said, taking a seat on the side of the bed.

"Figure what out?" Lexie asked in confusion.

"How to deal with a little boy," Jackson said. "We've got three girls, remember?"

"Just don't go giving him a girly name, okay?"

Meredith smiled. "You don't have to worry about that, Lex. We're naming him Jackson."

"Meredith…are you sure?" Jackson asked, a grin already forming on his face. "You weren't so hot on the idea when we talked about it."

Meredith shrugged. "Well, that was months ago. Look at him, he even looks like you, no matter what you say. Of course we're going to name him Jackson. Jackson Alexander Avery."

Lexie groaned. "Oh God, do you guys have to name him after Alex? He'll be insufferable after this!"

"Well, he did save my life," Meredith said. "And if it makes you feel any better, when we thought she was a girl, we were going to call her Alexandra."

"Really?" Lexie asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

Jackson nodded as he looked away from Meredith and the baby for a second to face his sister-in-law. "Well, you are her godmother, after all."

Lexie gasped. "I am?" she asked in disbelief.

"If you want to be," Meredith said. "No pressure, but this is definitely the last baby for us. Mark's already Annie's godfather, so if you…"

"Yes," Lexie interrupted enthusiastically. "A thousand times, yes. Of course I want to be his godmother."

Meredith smiled as she watched Lexie fight back happy tears.

"Well," Lexie said, shaking her head. "I'm going to let you three do some bonding before they make him go back to the nursery. Someone's got to go make dinner for your other little monsters."

Jackson and Meredith watched as Lexie smiled at them and practically skipped out the door of the room.

"You sure made your Aunt Lexie pretty happy there, buddy," Meredith said, kissing the baby's head as Jackson looked on.

"He makes me pretty happy, too," Jackson said, leaning forward to kiss Meredith softly. "You both do."

"I like that story, Mom," Jack said, stifling a yawn as he closed his eyes and snuggled closer to Meredith.

"Me too, sweetie," Meredith said, placing a final goodnight kiss on his forehead. "Me too."

She'd just closed her own eyes when she heard her bedroom door creak open again. Without opening her eyes, she stretched out the arm that wasn't currently wrapped around her son and patted the space on the other side of the bed. "C'mon, Suzie, there's plenty of room."

"How'd you know it was me?" her daughter asked as she quickly climbed into the bed and rested her head on her mother's empty shoulder.

"Mommy-vision, it's my sixth sense," Meredith said, shifting slightly so that her arms were around both kids, smiling as they both leaned in close. The two of them might behave like bitter enemies in the daylight, but at least at night, they were still her babies.