Patrick POV

Ellen and I have been together for about 4 months now, I think I'm the happiest I've been in a while. The only people we have told was Tallulah, Jill, and the cast. My thoughts about our Christmas was caught off by her coming in. She looked extremely pissed and had a rolled up magazine in her hand.

"What's up love?" I looked at her.

"How the hell did this happen?" Ellen said throwing a magazine down on to the table in front of me. The front of it was a picture of us kissing at a restaurant and it read 'EXCLUSIVE: Patrick Dempsey and co-star Ellen Pompeo's love affairs'

"I don't know but we have to stay calm," I stood up and held on to her shoulders, her face was angry and her accent was extremely noticeable.

"How the hell am I suppose to stay calm when it is December 22nd and we can't step foot out of this apartment without the paparazzi swarming us!"

"I don't know, I get Christmas with Tallulah though so we have to figure something out," her face turned sad and I pulled her against me.

"We only have Tallulah 4 presents so we need to go shopping."

I groaned loudly, "I forgot about presents, this sucks."

"Yeah, maybe we shouldn't have kissed in public, it's all your fault," she pushed me away and crossed her arms. Her face said upset but her eyes were joking.

I put on my fake offended face and gasp, "well those lips are so irresistible," I raised my eyebrow at her then she raised one back. I leaned in and pressed my lips against hers and we made out for a few minutes before an idea popped into my head and I pulled away.

"I have an idea!" I said louder than I wanted.

"What?"

"How about me and you and T drive up to Maine for Christmas, we could stay with my mom or a hotel."

"Derek, we have been together for 4 months, it's about time I meet you mom, but how are we going to stop the paparazzi from following us?"

"I have a plan," she raised her eyebrow and I explained the plan. She went into the bedroom and grabbed a large suitcase and packed nearly two weeks worth of each of our clothes, she likes to be prepared, and toiletries all in one bag and set it in the living room.

I walked out on to the balcony and looked around to see if paparazzi was around and sure enough there were two guys outside the complex. I gave Ellen the ok and she came outside and we had a huge 'fight' that the paparazzi had pictures of. She stormed off inside and I stayed out and kept an angry look on my face. I waited a few minutes and Ellen drove by and winked up at me, which means they took the bait. One was following her and the other waited outside.

I grabbed my leather jacket and car keys and headed out the door. I kept the angry face on and called Jill and told her about the plan and she said it was alright to take T so I would go pick her up then meet Ellen at our location. I drove through back roads and finally lost the paparazzi then I headed over to Jill's.

I arrived and picked up Tallulah then made sure we didn't have any followers while making my thirty minute trip to one of brother's houses where Ellen was waiting. He agreed to drive her car to her house to make it look like she was there and he let us borrow his car so they wouldn't know who it was. He had a minivan that had lots of room for us to rest and everything.

"How are we going to do this?" I said putting the address in on the GPS.

"I don't know, maybe you can drive until you get tired then we switch?" She asked.

"Sounds good," I smile over at her and reach for her hand and interlock our fingers. She smiles up over at me and turns the radio up. She looks out the window most of the drive, falling asleep while leaning against my shoulder. I drive for about fourteen hours until we reach Denver then I pull off into a gas station. We get a few snacks and gas before Ellen starts driving.

Ellen POV

"T, can you hand me a water bottle," I ask looking back for a second and back to the road.

"Yes ma'am," she reaches into the cooler and hands me the water.

"Thank you, are you excited to see your grandma and aunts?" I take a sip of water and a loud snore erupts from Patrick and we both laugh.

"Yes, I especially can't wait to see my cousins," she said happily while watching Enchanted on the portable DVD player. She loved that movie, mainly because it was a princess movie but she was also happy it had her daddy in it.

"Tallulah, can I ask you something that is just between us?"

"Mhm," she mumbled munching on fruit snacks.

"Do you like me being at your house all the time and being with your daddy?" I looked into the rear view mirror where she caught my gaze.

"I love having you around Ellie, you are like my mommy except you aren't, your like my fairy godmother!" She gasp.

"But I'm not a fairy so I can't be a fairy godmother," I giggled at her expression. She was adorable and could always make me smile.

"Aw man," she pouted, "that would be so cool tho!"

"Yes it would."

I listened to her talk and the music while I drive for about 12 hours when we stopped to grab something to eat at a diner.

"How much longer do we have daddy?" Tallulah asked climbing into the back seat.

"About twelve hours, can you last that long?" He said, climbing into the drivers seat.

She let out a sigh, "I guess but we need to hurry! Santa won't know where to bring my presents."

I looked over at Patrick and he mouthed 'shit' to himself. He had forgot all about presents.

"Hey Tal, why don't you put on your headphones and watch another movie," I suggest.

"Ok, can I watch Enchanted Ellie?" She looked at me with the sad eyes and I gave in and let her watch.

After she got settled in I turned to Patrick.

"What are we going to do about presents?"

"I don't know, I didn't really think that part through," he reached over and grabbed my hand, our fingers intertwined themselves and I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss while Tallulah wasn't paying attention.

"Maybe when she falls asleep, we can stop and you go into a store and buy her some things."

"I don't know what I would get her so you would need to come inside with me," he glanced over at me and he gave me the same eyes she did but it doesn't work that well with him.

"Tal eyes don't work on me, and I have to stay and watch her to make sure she stays asleep."

"Fine, do you have her list?"

"I think so," I took my hand from his and grabbed my purse and dug through. I pulled out the folded up paper and handed it to him.

"Thanks babe," he took the paper and stuck it in his pocket and grabbed my hand again.

"Where would you be without me?" we smiled at each other.

"Completely lost," he winked at me and pulled my hand to him mouth and placed a kiss on the back of it.

We drove until about mid night when Tallulah was asleep and stopped at a Wal-mart. He ran in and basically came out with everything on her list except for the bike she asked for, he said he would wait until we got back to get her one. We drove for another 8 hours, I was asleep and I'm sure Tallulah was too.

"Babe, we are here," he squeezed my thigh a bit and I piped my head up. we were going down a long gravel driveway and we pulled up to a ranch type house on a farm.

"Wow," I looked around, the sleep seemed to disappear and replaced with surprise.

"What?" He smiled over at me.

The house was a single story ranch style house. It looked about three or four bedrooms. As we were pulling up, an older woman opened the front door in jeans and a sweater. Her eyes light up as she saw Patrick and started waving with a huge smile on her face. Patrick definitely had his mothers smile, and nose. We got parked and he looked over at me.

"Ready to meet my mom?" He smiled and I squeezed his hand tightly.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I gave him a smile and he quickly pecked my lips.

AN: as you can tell, I was suppose to get this up Christmas Eve but I got extremely busy and now I have to rush to get it up before the end of the year. I'll post the second part to this later today, I can assure you that!