Okay, so this is kind of a filler chapter, tying up some loose ends and what not. I hope you guys enjoy it anyways. Thanks for the reviews, you are all amazing :)

Meredith sighed as she turned over in bed that night, reaching lazily for Derek as she tried to fall back asleep. As she reached for him and found him thrashing beside her, she now realized what had pulled her out of her deep sleep in the first place.

"No," Derek whimpered. "Don't....No! Meredith!"

Meredith woke completely as she leaned over her husband, who was obviously panicking in his sleep.

Nightmares. He'd had them for months after his father had died, and now he was having them again. But he couldn't continue to toss and turn like this, because he would hurt his shoulder even more.

"Derek," she whispered, leaning over him and gently running her hands through his hair. "Derek, wake up. You're having a nightmare."

"Don't hurt her," he whimpered, tears streaming down his face even in sleep. "Me instead."

"Derek," Meredith whispered, tears filling her eyes as well. "Derek, please wake up." She knew he was dreaming about Dr. Brown and everything that they had been through the week before, and she wished she could make it stop. She just needed him to wake up, because he was obviously being tortured over this dream, and she hated seeing him like this. "Derek," she said his name more forcefully, shaking him gently. "I'm here. I'm here and I'm fine."

"Meredith...Mer," his voice suddenly became stronger, and his eyes fluttered open to look at her, confusion and fear mixed in his dark blue eyes.

"There you are," she smiled softly, running a hand through his hair as she leaned down to kiss him lightly. "It's okay, Der, you had a nightmare."

Derek inhaled deeply, pulling her close and burying his face in her hair. "You're okay," he whispered.

"I'm okay," she repeated. "Der, what happened?"

"We were back in the office," Derek whispered. "And he...he was trying to...he'd taped me to the chair and he was taking your clothes off. You were screaming, and I couldn't help you and I had to watch as he..."

"Oh, Derek," she whispered, squeezing his hand tightly. It seemed that she wasn't the only one afraid to have sex again. "I'm fine. He didn't hurt me. At least not like that."

"You were screaming for me," Derek whispered. "And I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything to help you."

"It was a dream," Meredith whispered softly. "A scary one, but...it didn't happen. And I'm sure if it had happened, you would have flown into one of your protective caveman stunts and busted through that duct tape."

Derek laughed softly. "You think you're secretly married to the Hulk?" he asked.

"Well, you do turn into a green monster every now and then," she giggled. "But don't worry. The jealousy's cute. Until it gets annoying."

Derek sighed as he tightened his arm around her. "Did I wake you?" he asked.

"Kind of," Meredith said. "I was half awake and then I felt you moving and got worried about your shoulder..."

"Oh," Derek nodded, looking down at his shoulder.

"Does it hurt?" Meredith asked, reaching out to lightly run her hand over it.

"A little," Derek said. "No more than it did when we went to sleep."

"Hmmm," Meredith nodded. "I love you, Derek."

"I love you too."

"Sleep now?" she whispered.

"Sleep's good," Derek nodded.

"Wake me up if you have another nightmare," she murmured as she closed her eyes again.

"Hmmm," Derek nodded, pressing his lips to the top of her head, doubting that he would go back to sleep again that night. Meredith's desperate pleas for him in his sleep were too much for him to bear, and he couldn't listen to them if he didn't have to. So he would just lie there, cradling his wife in his arms as she slept and make sure that he would do everything in his power to protect her.

XXXXX

"Alright, Derek, it looks good," the doctor said a week later as he looked closely at Derek's healing wound. "You're going to be in for a lot of physical therapy, but you should definitely be able to begin use of the arm again. You still shouldn't lift your arm above your head, and don't lift anything over a pound. You've got to work up to being able to fully use it again. It will hurt for a little while, but you've got to get the muscles strengthened again."

"Thanks," Derek said, flashing Meredith a relieved smile. "See, Mer? I'm fine."

Meredith rolled her eyes and ignored him, turning instead to the doctor. "He's not sleeping," she stated. "He pretends he is, but I don't think he's slept at all in the past week. So you should give him something for that. Because he's stubborn and pig headed, and he won't listen to anything I say, but he needs sleep. So you should give him something for that."

The doctor smiled slightly at Meredith's ramble, but turned to Derek quickly. "You're not sleeping?" he asked.

Derek shot Meredith a glance before he sighed, turning back to the doctor. "A little," he said. "I just...I'm not tired."

"Bullshit," Meredith muttered under her breath.

"Derek, you know that you're going to be expending a lot of energy in your recovery," his doctor said. "Simple things like raising your hand above your head to wash your hair and lifting a gallon of milk are going to require quite some effort on your part. You've got to make sure you're taking care of your body well enough to get a quicker recovery."

"Fine," Derek nodded. "I'll sleep."

The doctor glanced between the two of them for a moment before he asked, "Have either of you thought about talking to someone about what you went through?"

"We've talked about it," Meredith said softly. "We're just...trying to move on from that."

"I understand you want to forget it," the doctor nodded. "But you experienced quite the trauma. I'm going to give you the number of a specialist in the building, just in case you're suffering from any post traumatic stress. It might be useful for you to talk to him."

Derek frowned. "A shrink?" he asked.

"Thank you," Meredith quickly interrupted him. "We'll think about it. And um... Derek will be back in a few weeks for another check up."

"You can make the appointment at the front desk," the doctor nodded, handing Derek his chart. "Good luck to you both."

Meredith grabbed Derek's hand and pulled him out of the office. "Don't make a scene," she ordered quietly.

"I'm not going to a shrink."

"We'll talk about it later."

"Fine."

They quickly checked out of their appointment and walked onto the street, Derek dead set on getting home so he could rant about not needing help. He strode quickly down the street, stopping after a few moments when he realized that Meredith wasn't next to him anymore. Panic filled his brain as he turned quickly to look for her. "Mer?" he frowned as he walked back towards her as she sat on the sidewalk, holding her leg close. "What's wrong?"

"It hurts," she whispered. "Derek, I don't...it's been feeling fine, back to normal, even, but it hurts."

"Okay," Derek swallowed hard. "Um, let me see it."

He lifted her pants leg, wincing at the purple skin surrounding the scar that was beginning to form where she'd been cut. The scar was pink and fresh, and the area was more swollen than it had been the night before. "I think you've just been walking on it too much," he said gently. "Come on, let's get a cab home."

He pulled her to her feet and allowed her to lean heavily on him as he made his way towards the edge of the sidewalk. He knew her leg was going to be fine, but he hated seeing her in pain. And now he had to take care of her, just like she'd been taking care of him all week.

XXXXX

"Do you want some ice cream?" Derek asked as he walked towards the bed, an ice pack in his hands.

"You can't scoop it," Meredith replied. "Derek, I'm fine. Really. And you need your rest."

"No," Derek shook his head. "Your leg's swelled up because you've been running around taking care of me all week. I shouldn't have let you, but you didn't say anything so I figured it was fine, but I shouldn't have figured that because you wouldn't have told me even if it did hurt..."

"Derek," Meredith giggled. "You're rambling."

"I..." Derek frowned as he realized she was right. "Fine, I rambled," he rolled his eyes. "It seems we've been married too long."

"We've been married for six months," Meredith pointed out.

"So imagine how alike we'll be by the time we've been married sixty years," Derek smiled as he pulled her close.

"I don't think I want to become like you," Meredith sighed. "I mean with the idiocy and the obsession with the hair...I'd much rather ramble and have daddy issues."

"I'd be insulted if I didn't know that you love my hair and you don't really think I'm an idiot."

Meredith smiled as she turned to look up at him. "I do love the hair," she admitted softly. "But...you really are an idiot."

Derek sighed as he pulled her closer. "Well, that's your fault for falling in love with an idiot," he laughed.

They were silent for a moment before Meredith whispered, "Derek?"

"Hmm?"

"Things will go back to normal, right?" she whispered. "My leg will get better and your arm will too. And then you'll start sleeping at night and we can have sex all night and go out to dinner and just...be us?"

Derek smiled as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I promise," he whispered. "We're both well on the way to recovery. And I'm going to try to sleep at night. The nightmares about Dad went away, so these should too. And we can do whatever we can to make life normal now. We'll go out to dinner, go visit Mom. And as soon as you say the word...we can spend as much time as you want having sex."

Meredith giggled. "You know Beth told me that she and Nathan are finally able to sleep through the night," she said. "She requested that we buy a padded headboard."

"Hmmm...not a bad idea," Derek nodded. "That way we won't traumatize the kids."

Meredith smiled as she laced her fingers through his, her head on his chest. "What do you think they'll be like?" she whispered softly.

"Our kids?" Derek asked. "I want a boy first. So I can teach him to fish, like my dad taught me."

"That's cute," Meredith smiled. "I can imagine having a mini Derek running around. Except he better not have your nose."

"Haha," Derek rolled his eyes. "Yes, we all know, Meredith hates her husband's nose."

"I don't hate it," Meredith protested, leaning up to press a kiss to the tip of it. "It would just look funny on a baby."

"Well, my nose didn't always look like this," Derek protested. "It only does now because I'm friends with Mark. And I still don't know why."

Meredith smiled as she settled back against his chest. "So you want a boy," she stated. "How many?"

"I don't really know," Derek sighed. "I don't want as many as my parents. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Caitlin's only around because my mom's a strict Catholic."

"And we use birth control," Meredith nodded.

"But I want one of each," Derek smiled. "A little girl with eyes like yours. And that smile...with two of you running around, I'd never even have a chance at getting things my way."

"It's not like that happens now anyways," Meredith giggled. "All I have to do is pout...and then kiss you just the right way," she paused to press her lips gently against his, opening her mouth only slightly before she pulled back. "And then, if it's something I really want, all I have to do is take off my shirt."

"You know me too well," Derek smiled, pulling her closer. "I'm going to have to start building up some defenses."

Meredith giggled against his chest for a moment, savoring the closeness she felt to him at that point in time. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he sighed into her hair. "Does your leg feel better?"

"Yeah," she whispered. "Thanks."

"I didn't do anything," Derek shrugged.

"You did," Meredith nodded. "You distracted me. From my leg hurting. And I like talking about our kids."

"They'll be amazing," Derek sighed. "I wish we didn't have to wait so long to have them."

"Speak for yourself," Meredith sighed. "I am not going to be the intern with the baby. Besides...I like having you all to myself for a while. Because after med school we'll have internships and residencies, and after that I'll be ready for kids but...we won't really have time to be just the two of us. Which makes me sad. So we have to enjoy it now."

"We'll make time for us," Derek nodded. "I promised you when we started med school we wouldn't lose each other. And we won't lose each other during residency. Or when we have kids. I promise."

"Good," Meredith nodded, settling back against his chest. "But still...ten years before kids."

"Ten years," Derek nodded, squeezing her tightly. "Sleep, Mer. It's okay."

"You sleep too," she mumbled into his chest. "No more...nightmares."

"I'll try not to have any nightmares," Derek whispered.

"Nightmares...stupid."

Derek smiled as he watched her drift off to sleep. He closed his eyes and tried to will himself to sleep as well. She was right, as always. Nightmares were stupid.