Chapter 4 – Friends

Something tickled her nose and Meredith rubbed it, annoyed with the disturbance. Sleep was fading and she stretched her body, getting ready to wake up.

As she opened her eyes, Meredith let out a squeak and jumped upright. Damon was standing beside her bed, watching her with a deep gaze through narrowed eyes.

"Freak!" she managed to breathe once she got over the scare.

Damon folded his arms and kept staring. "McDreamy is cooking in my kitchen. Cooking my breakfast."

Meredith's heart was still beating madly inside her chest. She neat the blankets around her and leaned against the headboard. "You mean my kitchen. And I don't think he's cooking for you."

Damon shifted his weight on the other leg and kept his arms folded.

"Are you practicing something there?" Meredith asked him. "Are you pouting because another boy invaded your territory?"

Damon let a loud sigh and relaxed his body. He crawled in bed next to Meredith, crossing his legs. "So how was last night? Was he good?"

Meredith pulled back and looked at him with an amused face. "We don't talk about sex, so why are you asking?"

Damon just shrugged, rolling his eyes. "If Danny wasn't there with him, he would be whistling and you know what whistle means."

"We didn't have sex," she answered. "We talked."

"How did that go?"

Meredith shrugged. "It was uncomfortable. A little."

"Is he moving here?"

"No."

"Does he want Danny's custody?"

Meredith looked at him with a terrified expression. "I hope not."

Damon patted her arm, reassuring. "You have me if he does. Is he forgiven?"

Meredith shrugged again. "I guess."

"Will he be back?"

"I don't know. I guess. Maybe."

"You don't trust him."

"Completely," she added. "It's just…" she sighed and refused to voice her thoughts.

"You still like him," he noticed.

"It's not that," she said, but also didn't deny it. "He came back and… he's the same man I met years back. I should be angry, but I am not. Everything he does or says makes me… giggle. It's frustrating. And embarrassing."

"Is he married?"

"No."

"Still engaged?"

Meredith sighed, "Yes."

"You still can hope. Has he been talking a lot on the phone, since yesterday?"

Meredith was confused with his question. "I don't know."

"Did you see or hear him talking on the phone?" asked Damon.

"No."

Damon nodded understandingly and didn't say anything more.

"Now would you translate it to me, please?"

Damon just patted her arm.

"Now can you tell me what's happening to you?" she asked him.

"I can't, because we don't talk about sex. Remember?"

"Who did you spend your night with, Damon?"

Damon gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You have Derek back, so you don't get to be jealous of other women in my life. You know what? I am going to see if he makes good coffee." He got out of bed, stretched his body and turned to Meredith. "Are you coming?"

Meredith got out of bed and her eyes narrowed as she met the white outside her window. "It's snowing. We have snow," she noticed. She smiled as she couldn't imagine a better way of spending her day off with her son.

"Mer?"

"I am going to shower first," she answered, without turning from the window.

---

"Did you write Santa a letter?" Derek asked Daniel.

Daniel was sitting at the table, wheeling a motorcycle on the surface of the table. When Derek asked him that, he stopped to look at him. "No," he shook his head. "But I told mommy and she wrote everything. I put it to box!" he said, very proud.

"You put it to the mail box?" Derek pretended to be surprised.

Daniel grinned and nodded just as proud.

"And what did you ask Santa to bring you?" asked Derek as that was a good opportunity to make an idea what to buy him for Christmas.

"3 things," Daniel answered and carefully counted 3 fingers to show to Derek.

"Wow. Can you count?" that impressed Derek, indeed.

"Only until 3," Damon answered as he walked into the kitchen. "He's 3," he explained Derek, with a shrug, and headed to the coffee machine.

From the simple reason that Damon was spending a lot of time with Daniel, Derek couldn't like him very much. He chose to ignore him and continue his talk with his son.

"And what did you ask Santa?"

"Uhm… a car, a ball and a…" he put his finger under his chin to help him remember better. "A tennis."

"Do you like tennis?"

Daniel wasn't very convinced but he answered with a 'yes'.

"Really?" Derek asked Damon.

Damon sipped from his mug, shrugging.

"You're not very friendly," Derek muttered.

He startled when Damon put the mug on the counter, with a loud thud. "I am Danny's best friend. Right, kid?"

"Uh-huh," Daniel approved from the kitchen table.

Damon leaned over the counter, which was next to Derek's stove, and grabbed a hot pancake, joggling with it to get cold. He took a bite and nodded appreciatively, "Not bad." He ate the rest of it and licked his fingers. "You and I," he told Derek. "Not friends, because I don't know you that well and the little I've learned about you… sucks."

"You don't have to like me," Derek replied bitterly.

Damon snorted and left from the counter to move to the table. He caressed Daniel's head and then took a seat in a chair, leaning back in it. "You can't take him, you know. I am a lawyer and you're an easy case," he told Derek, watching Daniel and without turning to Derek.

Derek put the pancake on the plate and took a pause from cooking, surprised with what Damon had said. "I don't want to take him from his mother," he said, indignant with Damon's presumption.

"Smart, then," Damon replied with calm. "We can try and be friends. I could teach you a few things to help you with Meredith and Danny." He turned around with the chair, making it screech against the floor, and told Derek without waiting for his reply: "You know you have no authority here. You can't make decisions; at least not decisions that contradict with Meredith's; you can't put rules or discuss her rules; you can't criticize Meredith for her errors with Danny, but…" he was ready to announce something important. "You can ground Danny for mischief."

"Who are you to barge in our private life?" Derek asked, extremely irritated with Damon's presence in the room.

"Two weeks ago, Danny had fever and I am the person who cooked him soup and cheered him," he answered matter-of-factly, knowing that Derek couldn't comment to that.

Derek couldn't comment that, indeed; he didn't know how and besides that, he started to feel uncomfortable again. He couldn't be Daniel's father, right away; he had to be friend with him and Meredith, first.

"I have the same rules to respect, you know," Damon said. He nodded at him, lifting the mug.

"What's going on here?" Meredith asked as she entered just then, her instinct telling her that boys could get wild.

"Breakfast," Damon smiled crookedly.

Meredith shot him a disapproving glare, before she walked to the cupboard. "Morning," she told Derek.

"Morning," he smiled back. He took a mug for her and filled it with coffee.

"Thanks," she smiled, taking the coffee. She went to the table and took the seat beside Daniel. "Don't play on the place you eat," she told him.

Daniel did as his mom told him, without any comment, and put the motorcycle beside him on the chair.

"Are they misbehaving?" Meredith asked him.

Daniel looked up, surprised with the question. He looked at Damon and Derek and, as neither of them had raised his voice in his previous talk, Daniel shook his head to his mother. "No."

Meredith looked at the two of them and relaxed.

"Did you see the snow outside?" she asked her son.

"Yes!" Daniel shrilled. "Can we go out?"

"After we eat."

"Of course. Someone has to clean the driveway, because Damon has to go to work," Damon cut in.

Daniel giggled. He lifted his hand, pointing with his finger, and squeezed his eyes as if he was trying to remember something.

"He's not going to fart, is he?" Damon laughed.

"No," Meredith laughed, too. "Are you objecting, Danny?"

Daniel smiled at his mom and nodded. "I… object." He carefully spelled the word.

Damon chuckled and told Derek. "I am going to take an excellent lawyer out of him. I'll mentor him."

Derek couldn't like that either, but meeting Meredith's smile as she looked at him, he understood he had no serious reasons to worry.

---

While the men removed the snow from the driveway, Meredith and Daniel made sure they cleaned Damon's car without forgetting to throw snowballs at them.

"Some of us need to work for the rent and to buy stuff for the refrigerator." Damon picked Daniel and kissed his red, cold nose.

"'Bye," he giggled.

Damon waved at the others and jumped into his car.

Derek knelt at Daniel's level, putting his arms around him and bringing him into his arms as they watched Damon's car leaving the driveway.

"I don't know what to do," he told Meredith.

"What do you mean?"

"Should I like this guy?" he asked her. He smiled as he knew the answer again.

Daniel turned around and smiled at him. "Like him, Derek. He's a good boy."

"Is he?" Derek laughed.

"Yeah," Meredith laughed, too. "He never stops surprise with the things he says."

"Mommy, can we go home?"

"But you're home," Derek answered, amused.

"He means the other house. We haven't found a name for it, yet. So he calls it 'home'. We can't go there, now," Meredith told Danny. "Derek came to play with you and he has to leave at noon, so we don't have time to get there."

Derek couldn't tell exactly what to feel about Damon, but he knew for sure that he had a great time in Meredith and Daniel's presence. Maybe he didn't have to go that day; or maybe he couldn't.

"I heard at the news…" he told Meredith, "The snow is serious. I should call and see if everything is ok at the airport."

"Of course," Meredith nodded.

Derek let Daniel play with his mommy outside and he went inside. He went upstairs into his room, to look for his phone. For the first time since he got there, he took it out and turned it on. A few messages beeped, most of them coming from Addison. He scrolled through the contacts and stopped to Chief's number. He pressed dial and the phone rang soon.

"Shepherd?" a throaty voice asked from the other end of the line.

"That's me, Chief."

"How's Seattle?" he asked.

"Seattle's great. Snowy.

"Oh," his boss sounded disappointed. "Does this mean you can't come today?"

"I am not sure, yet. I'd like to ask you for one more day off, though. I'll be back in New York tomorrow."

There was a short pause at the other end of the line. "Ok. And you know what… you can take as many days off you want. You deserve it."

"Are you sure?"

"This is a hospital, Shepherd, so don't act surprised because I might change my mind."

"I only need one day," Derek reassured him, glad of having his boss' understanding. "I'll talk to you about the other days off when I get back," as the Christmas was due in a week.

"Alright. As you want."

They talked a little bit more about Derek's patients and who would take over them while he was gone and then Derek hung up. He let out a sigh. The next call was a little more difficult to make. Addison's number was selected now.

"Hey, Derek," she cheerfully greeted him. "Do you need a ride from the airport? I have some time off in the afternoon."

Derek sighed again. "I can't fly to New York today. There's a lot of snow here, so I talked to the Chief and I will try to be there tomorrow."

"Oh Derek," Addison sighed disappointedly. "But I guess it's ok because you get to spend more time with Daniel."

"That's right," Derek smiled. "He's great. We woke up with snow this morning and he finally has the chance to play outside. You should see him! You should hear him, too. He sounds a lot like Meredith. And…"

"Derek," Addison stopped him quickly. "I got it. You're having a blast there," she didn't sound very happy, maybe because he mentioned Meredith, but she kept courtesy in her voice. "When do you think you will be back?"

"Tomorrow in the afternoon."

"Ok, then. I had a hard night at the hospital," she sighed, ready now to talk about her problems and look for some comfort at Derek.

Derek wasn't in the mood for that. He knew how to listen to Addison each time she was worried or had a bad day; he was there for her, always, but today… he had other things on his mind; bigger.

"I am sorry, Addie," he apologized. "They're waiting for me outside."

Derek heard her sighing. "Ok. I will see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye, Addie."

"Bye."

Derek took a deep breath. He felt a little guilty for this call, but she had to understand the situation and support him, too.

He found Meredith and Daniel wrestling in the snow. That was a beautiful sight, he smiled. When he came to Seattle the first time, 4 years ago, Derek lived with Meredith to her place, and 3 months were enough for them to become friends. He didn't know how much he missed her, until today when he stood there on the porch of her house, watching her play with their son.

To make his presence noticed, Derek made a snowball and threw it at Meredith, hitting her ear.

"Hey!" she whimpered. "That's not fair!"

"Everything is allowed in war," he chuckled as he climbed down the steps from the porch.

Meredith turned towards him with a knowing smile, "Are you sure you want to start a war?"

"No," he smiled, shaking his head.

"So?" she asked, referring to his call.

"I can't go," he lied. "My flight has been cancelled."

"Oh," she didn't look surprised or disappointed. "We can go then. I just have to lock the house."

"You're not packing anything?"

"No. We have everything we need there. We just have to make a short stop at the store for some food."

That being said, Derek took Daniel and helped him get into the car, while Meredith locked the house. While she fastened her seatbelt she told Derek, "You don't have to lie to be here."

Derek looked at her, surprised. She just glanced and smiled at him while she turned the engine on. "Sorry," he muttered. He knew what she was talking about; there wasn't that snow outside and there wasn't a snowstorm either. His lie had been lame.

---

The landscape awed Derek; even Meredith was mesmerized by the look of the place, though she had seen it like this before. Everything was white, the gray walls of the house was shining in the bright landscape.

"Wow," Derek managed to breathe out.

Meredith giggled and nodded approvingly.

"This place is amazing, Mer!" he laughed. "It's worth millions."

"I wouldn't go that far," she laughed.

Daniel's squeal in the snow distracted their attention. He clumsily approached to them and threw snow on Meredith's coat.

"Do you want to start a fight?" Meredith asked him, smiling.

Daniel grinned and nodded.

Derek quickly grabbed Meredith and knelt down in the snow. "Look how short she is now, Danny," he drew the boy in the fight.

Daniel laughed and started throwing with snow in his mother, laughing at her protests.

"Derek," she whimpered.

Derek held an arm wrapped firmly around her chest, holding her from fighting back and laughed in her ear, "It's winter!" then started burying her in snow, with Daniel's help.

"That's not fair," she whimpered when the boys got tired and took a short break for catching up breath. "You're two."

"Let's kick Derek!" Daniel suggested excitedly.

"Why me?" he pretended to frown. Immediately, a snowball hit straight in his face. It was Meredith's turn to take over him, mounting him and holding him to ground, while Daniel was throwing snow with his hands and feet.

"Without the feet. You can hurt him," Meredith stopped him.

Derek took advantage of the break and grabbed Meredith again, brought her into his arms and rolled over, so she was beneath him now. He grinned down at her.

"I was protecting you," she frowned.

"So?" he shrugged, smiling crookedly.

"Derek, you and I don't play. Anymore," she smiled.

"This is safe," he shrugged. He slowly let his body weight press against her body. "And it's winter. We're having fun."

"Get off me, Derek," she tried to fight against him, but it was enough for him to prop his elbow beside her shoulder to block her from moving. She stopped fighting and smiled, narrowing her eyes. "This is getting dirty."

Derek chuckled and loosened her a little.

"Derek," Daniel also started to whimper. It was because he was all over his mommy; actually that was the cause as he was covering most of her body and Daniel didn't have places to cover Meredith with snow.

"Give me one good reason to let you go."

"Daniel wants to play, too," she pointed out.

Derek looked at Daniel and told him, "You're too little to have women beneath you."

Meredith gasped as she heard that and hit Derek with her shoulder.

He snickered at her. "Another reason."

"I am too hot and I will melt the whole snow," she replied.

"No!" Daniel whimpered as he heard that.

Derek and Meredith laughed.

"That's a good one," he admitted and lifted off the ground, helping Meredith get up, too. "Let's make a snowman."

"Yes!" Daniel liked the idea.

"I have to unlock the house and turn the heat on," Meredith said as she shook the snow off her coat. "I'll be right back."

---

Daniel couldn't eat much for lunch. The snow had worn him out and he his head fell on the table. Meredith and Derek didn't feel fresher either so a nap was needed.

Derek was lying beside Daniel in bed and Meredith was sitting by the window, watching the place where they had paddled the snow with their playing. She loved that place, but there was something missing that kept it from being perfect.

She leaned against the wall, folding her arms against her chest, and kept gazing outside. She let out a sigh.

Derek heard her meditating. He slowly stood up, though he could jump on the bed too because Daniel wasn't going to hear or feel him, and moved to the window, behind Meredith. They watched together the snow falling, for a while, quiet.

"I want to have more children," she stated and leaned back to Derek, continuing to mediate.

He put a hand on her shoulder and his nose smelled closely her hair; it smelled like winter. That was a perfect day to him.

"I want to have… 4 or 5 children," she voiced her thoughts.

"You're brave," he admitted.

She turned her head around to look at him with a smile. "You won't be the father."

Derek just smiled.

"Maybe I will adopt the rest. Do you think I can adopt a child if I am not married?" she asked Derek.

Derek was surprised with the question. "I don't know. You can ask Damon."

"Oh yeah," she remembered her lawyer friend. "Did you decide if you will like him or not?"

"That was the last thing on my mind today," he chuckled. "I tried to think about it at some point, but I found myself with the head buried in snow."

"Crybaby," she elbowed him, giggling.

"Are you serious about having more children? Or it's just because of the snow? It is fun to play with the children in the snow."

Meredith turned around to be able to look at him. "It is fun. And I am serious about having more children. I will retire at some point and then I want to have children around; grandchildren I mean… to keep me young."

Derek looked deep into her eyes. She was as serious as she was saying. "I admire your dream."

"That's a plan, Derek; not a dream," she assured him.

Derek couldn't break the gaze; he looked into her eyes and smiled. His hand cupped her cheek and his finger rubbed against soft skin. She pulled her face away, but just a little and her cheek stayed cradled in his palm.

"What are you doing?" she asked, dazed by the feeling of his touch.

"Nothing," he answered. His thumb traced the line of her bottom lip.

Meredith was losing her reasoning. She leaned to him, her hand on his chest, while he embraced her with his arm. His hand brought her face closer and their lips met. They weren't shy; they had met before and, same as earlier, Derek felt how much he had missed her. And she had missed him too. They kissed, embraced in each other's arms now, and nothing else matter. It was natural.

Meredith pulled away slowly, looking down at his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close to his body.

"I missed you, Meredith," he said softly.

Meredith bit her lip and held the words back. Instead of words, she breathed his scent in. She was the one who break the hug, too. "You're forgetting Addison," she said quietly, not looking at him anymore. She turned around to the window.

"Meredith," he sighed, troubled with the mix of feelings he was running.

"You can choose what room you want. They all have clean linens," she said. "I am staying here with Danny."

Derek let his hand slip off her arms just then. He couldn't ask her for anything more. He had to figure himself what he was allowed to ask from her.

He made a step to turn around, but stopped and looked at Meredith. "Are we still friends?"

She turned her head sideways, but still didn't look at him. "Yes."

He nodded, though she couldn't see him. "Sleep well."

Meredith nodded, "See you later."

Derek closed the door and leaned against it. He couldn't think about love right now; he still had to become Daniel's daddy.

---

N/A: Next chapter, Christmas will be here, together with Derek in Seattle. And a little Addek drama (something to start the end of their relationship).