My Never
Chapter 10

I just looked at the promo pictures for the big crossover thing coming up in Feb, and I'm really excited. Unfortunately, after I post this I have to study for finals. Bleh. Disgusting. :P
Anyway . . . Derek and Meredith have problems, both in the past and present, Derek adjusts to being a dad, and part of the story is told from a new point of view.


Derek ~ Meredith's house ~ 1 year ago

Derek heard Meredith come in and set her keys on the counter. He was sitting on her couch, reading a medical journal. Izzie was in the kitchen, baking one thing or another. Alex, George and Cristina were probably somewhere around the house, although he wasn't sure where. The couch slumped slightly as Meredith sat beside him.

She started to snuggle up to him, but then pulled back abruptly. "You're reading that again, Derek? Seriously?" she asked incredulously.

"What? It's interesting," he said, keeping his eyes on the page, searching for some bit of hidden information that just wasn't there.

"You've read it at least five times, Derek."

"What, exactly, is the problem, Meredith?" He knew what the problem was, though. The problem was that the article he was pouring over featured Addison. The problem was that Addison was on the cover of the journal, the first time he'd seen her in three years. The problem was that he could not seem to put the article down.

"What could you possibly have missed the first four times you read that, Derek?" Meredith demanded, her voice rising in anger. Izzie glanced at them from the kitchen and then carefully put the cake in the oven, as if making a lot of noise would set one of them off.

"Meredith, it's about a baby with two heads. The doctors on the case removed one of them. So what if one of them is my ex-wife? It's a really cool case, but this article isn't very informative."

"I've read it, Derek, and it's plenty informative, in the medical sense. It's just not informative in the sense that you'd like."

Derek sighed, trying to convey that he thought she was being ridiculous without taking the time to say the words. Meredith went upstairs after a minute, but Derek felt Izzie's eyes on him. Internally, he groaned in frustration. There was no more information to find in the article about Addison. There were several quotes from her about the case, and she explained the procedure precisely, but there was nothing about her life, no details about how she was doing, no little snippets for him to treasure. It was strictly medical. The only information Derek gleaned was from the picture on the cover, and that was that she still liked to wear designer clothes to work and her hair was still impeccably styled. He wouldn't have expected anything else. He threw the article aside, it was useless.


Derek ~ the trailer ~ present

"Okay, Dev, what shoes do you want today? Wait, let me guess. Your purple crocs?"

"Yes!" she said, laughing delightedly. "You're smart, daddy."

"I beg to differ, Dev. You're just predictable," Mark said, laughing. He ruffled her hair as he passed her on the way to the tiny fridge.

"Daddy, can we play princesses?" Devony asked him.

"No, baby, we've got to get to the hospital. When we get home, we'll play, I promise. You can eat your pop-tarts in the car, okay?" He quickly scooped the pop-tarts out of the toaster and wrapped them in a paper towel. He was getting better at the dad thing. Then he, Mark, and Devony walked quickly through the light rain out to his car.

"Hey, you poked me!" Devony squealed from the back seat.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about," Mark said innocently.

"Yes, you do, Unca Mark. I know you did it."

"Look, a bird!" Devony gasped and looked out the window, and Mark prodded her side again. Devony poked him back. He frowned, and poked her arm. Devony retaliated quickly, and soon a poke-war had broken out.

"Alright, children, settle down back there," Derek said fake sternly from the front. Devony started laughing as Mark began tickling her.

"Stop it, Unca Mark, that tickles!" she giggled.

"And . . . we're finally here. Thank god," Derek said. "I can get away from your infernal racket. I know why me and Addison never had more kids in New York. We were too busy taking care of you," he said to Mark. "You were our child. At least until you slept with her; that changed things."

"Funny, Derek," Mark said sarcastically.

Meredith met them in the entrance. "You didn't call me last night," she said to Derek.

"Sorry, Devony had trouble going to sleep," he told her.

"You could have at least called, Derek," she said petulantly.

"I said I was sorry. But being the best dad Devony could have is the number one thing on my list right now, Mer."

"You're doing this for her." Meredith said disdainfully. "We both know it."

"I'm doing it for my daughter and Addison, Meredith." Derek found himself wondering how much longer they were going to last. Were they going to survive this? Did he even want them to? Had Devony woken him up to what was really important to him?

All he knew was when they found Addison, no matter what state she was in, he was going to want to be there for her every minute of the day, except for those he needed to take care of Devony.

He cared about Meredith. But was that enough? He wasn't sure. Was it love? He didn't know that anymore, either.

After leaving Meredith, Derek once again ran into the police. Holding Devony's hand tightly, he asked quietly, "Do you know anything, anything yet? It's been two and a half weeks since I found out she was missing, and a month since she was reported missing. She was gone for two weeks before that. Please tell me you know something."

"It's been on the news and everything, Dr. Shepherd, but nobody knows anything."

Derek was about to make an angry retort when he got an emergency page. "Shit. I mean – um, shoot. Devony, you didn't hear that, okay?" He looked around desperately, trying to figure out what to do with Devony. Mark was probably already in surgery and nobody else was there yet. It was too late to take her to the daycare.

To his relief, Cristina came around the corner at that moment. "Here, can you watch her?" he asked, handing her Devony's small backpack. "Thanks," he said, without waiting for an answer.

"Wait, but – I don't know anything about kids, except where surgery is concerned!" Cristina yelled after him.

"You took care of Bailey's baby, didn't you? How hard can it be to watch a three year old?" Derek asked, walking off.


~ Cristina ~

Why did she always get stuck with everyone's kids? She didn't even like kids. Cristina sighed in extreme annoyance and met the eyes of the three year old staring at her.

Normally kids didn't really like her either, but Devony wasn't afraid of anybody. Cristina had already heard horror stories about this child from Meredith. Izzie, George, and Alex had told her things too, although they made Devony's crimes sound endearing rather than nightmare-worthy.

Cristina glanced at the child once more before walking off. Would she follow her? Whatever. It didn't matter. There were probably extremely interesting cases hiding around somewhere, and she wasn't going to miss them just because Derek had dumped his kid on her.

Devony, it turned out, did indeed follow her when she walked away. Cristina was forced to go slower than usual in order to compensate for Devony's short legs, and it did not endear her to the kid. Her fellow residents were probably getting all the good surgeries right at that moment.

Finally Cristina reached the room of her first patient. She wasn't really sure where her interns were, but she knew they weren't getting into any more trouble after what she had nicknamed 'the Sadie disaster,' so she didn't really have anything to worry about.

"How are you feeling this morning, sir?" Cristina asked her patient.

"Is he sick?" Devony asked.

"He has a problem with his heart. Now, please, either be quiet or go find someone else to annoy." Cristina worried the second after she said the words that they were too harsh and Devony would start crying. But she didn't. She just watched Cristina carefully, her face full of insatiable curiosity.

"What's wrong with his heart?" she asked after a minute.

"What did I say?" Cristina growled.

"Hey, cut the kid a break," her patient told her.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you don't know this kid," Cristina said, gritting her teeth. "Devony, I don't have time to explain to you what is wrong with the people in this hospital, and most of them probably don't want you to know anyway."

"Why?"

"Because it's private," Cristina explained.

"Like mommy's treasure box? She keeps my surprises in there. I know. I found my Christmas presents in there last year."

"No wonder you're a devil-child," Cristina muttered. "You're Satan's kid. What did I expect?" She sighed. "Sort of like that, I guess," she said a little louder. "It's a secret. Now can you be quiet for a few minutes so I can finish?"

Devony followed Cristina to the rooms of the next five patients before getting into trouble. Cristina was beginning to get creeped out. Every time she turned around, the child's perfect little face was staring at her. It didn't help that she looked like Addison Montgomery. That just made it even weirder.

When Cristina reached the room of the sixth patient, she realized Devony was no longer behind her. Swearing loudly, she turned around and walked back the way she'd come. Now she would have to waste even more time looking for the troublesome little girl. She was tempted to just go on without her, but her conscience wouldn't let her. Addison had saved her life a few years ago, and the least Cristina could do was find her kid.

After half an hour of fruitless searching, she found Devony in the cafeteria with Derek. "I thought I told you to watch her," Derek said, frowning when he caught sight of Cristina.

"I did, Dr. Shepherd, but then she ran away and-"

"How hard can it be not to lose one kid, Dr. Yang?" Derek asked. Luckily they were interrupted by Dr. Bailey, who needed Cristina. Devony, apparently, had snuck down to the cafeteria and gotten into the chocolate pudding.

Hmm, what am I going to call that child? Cristiana thought. Evil Spawn is already taken, although that would have been perfect, considering she is the spawn of Satan. Satan's spawn, maybe? It's a possibility.


If you liked it, or didn't, or are just feeling like it, please right me a little something about what you thought. It may motivate me to work on this even though I have finals . . . :D :D :D