AN: Hi guys thanks again for all the comments, likes and followings, it's the only way that makes me understand that you are enjoying what I write. Sorry for the delay of the chapter, but real life was pretty busy in these past couple of weeks, plus this chapter was sort of important and I wanted to do a good job. I was sure Meredith was going to have another baby, so I wasn't surprised at all by that turn of event, it was actually pretty cruel if you ask me, her having another baby without Derek's support, but at least Ellis is something to remember him by. I miss Derek like crazy; thank goodness for fanfiction world. Here is the third installment of the story.

All I need

Having Cristina back in Seattle was weird, in the sense that it wasn't weird at all, at least according to Meredith. In fact it made perfect sense for Cristina to be by her side in this rough moment.

"Are there any updates?" was Cristina's first question.

"Not really, he's still slowly improving and he broke his tibia and fibula, so Callie has him in a cast"

"How are you doing Mere? Are you taking care of yourself?"

"That's what I'm worried about as well" Carolyn piped in.

"I'm fine, I'm not the one laying on a hospital bed hooked up to hundreds of machines"

"Did you sleep at all?" Cristina decided to ignore the fact that Meredith had just said she was fine. In Meredith Grey's world, the word fine had just about the opposite meaning that it had for everyone else.

"A little last night..."

"And you are eating, right?"

"Yes, I am. Alex and Carolyn and the rest of them are making sure of it" she reassured her person.

"Okay..." she took a long look at Derek's sleeping form and she sat down next to Meredith "we'll just have to wait for him to wake up then" she added, taking Meredith's hand in hers "too bad your husband is pretty hardheaded"

"He's always been like that, even as a little boy" Carolyn smiled at them both " I remember this one time, it was Christmas Eve and he was five years old and adamant to stay up and meet Santa and his reindeers. His father and I kept checking up on him, but he was so stubborn that he only fell asleep, sprawled on the stairs at 4 a.m. We had to rush down and set out all the presents for the kids and take him to bed. I don't even remember how Christopher convinced his sisters to wait for him to be up and open the presents all together...that was just one of the many times he proved us how stubborn he could be"

"Wow, he never told me that… Zola tried to stay up and wait for Santa as well last Christmas, but she was out like a light by eleven o' clock" Meredith gave a weak smile back "I was pretty stubborn as a child as well, looks like our kids' teenage years will be like a ride in the park"

"I'm afraid so" Carolyn placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled again.

Later in the day Callie arrived in the room to update Meredith and Carolyn on Derek's leg, Owen hot on her tail "hey... is this a good moment to talk about his broken leg?" she asked not noticing Cristina at first.

"Yeah, good as any other"

"Oh my gosh, Cristina! You're here!" Callie went and hugged her.

"Torres, you know I don't hug" Cristina was quick to complain.

"That's just too bad"

Owen picked that exact moment to enter the room, coming face to face with his estranged ex-wife "oh, you're here..." his tone surprised, his eyes looked like they were about to pop out from his head.

"Of course I am..."

"Well, I was going to talk to you about the leg" Callie interrupted the awkward silence looking at Meredith and Carolyn.

"We'll give you some privacy" Owen was quick to jump at the chance and motioned for Cristina to follow him out of the door.

Once they were out in the hall the two shared an uncomfortable look. They hadn't seen each other in almost a year, they hadn't talked to each other since the last time they had been in the same city. Here they were, looking at each other after eleven whole months.

"So... how are you doing?" he finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Good, moving to Switzerland was definitely the right choice for me and my career. We're working on new techniques to improve cardio thoracic surgery and make it less invasive. I'm busy with cutting-edge surgery almost every day... the hospital is one of the go-to-places in the entire continent when it comes to heart surgery. Shane is also proving to be a great resident, he has a bright future ahead of him"

"That's good, I'm happy to hear that" he gave her a weak smile.

"I do miss this place, though..." she confessed after another pause "I miss Seattle, this hospital, I miss Meredith, Shepherd and the kids... I miss you, hell, I even miss Karev!"

"We miss you too... at least I know I do" he confessed.

"How are you doing?" she asked changing the subject.

"I'm good... busy, being chief is still a pain in the butt"

"I remember that... you never really liked it too much"

"It's not being chief per se... it's all of the paperwork, I feel like I'm spending all my time buried in paperwork, I did not go to med school for this" he grinned.

"I'm glad I don't have much paperwork to do, I can delegate a lot of it to my assistant, it can be pretty handy"

"I wish I could do the same" he lamented.

Just as they were both thinking hard about some other topic to talk about the door opened and Callie came out, effectively getting in between them "I'm done with the update and I gotta run into surgery... how long are you staying for?"

"A couple of weeks at least, but it depends from his recovery" Cristina pointed vaguely at the room from which Callie had just gotten out.

"Good, then we'll have time to catch up"

"Definitely, how's Sofia by the way?"

"She's great... tell you what, we can have dinner together with the kids tonight, what do you say?"

"Sounds good, it might be the only way to get her out of Derek's room" she reflected.

"I agree... I can get the kids from daycare around six and we can go for pizza"

"Sounds good, I'll tell Mere"

"See you later" Callie waved as she sprinted towards the elevators and the other two went back to the sterile room.

"What did Callie say?" it was Owen who asked the question.

"He has a stable fracture to both bones, which is why she put him in a cast, he' s going to wear it for 12 to 16 weeks and then he'll have to do physical therapy to regain the range of ankle and knee movement and restore mobility and strength in the leg lost during the immobilization period, she's positive he will make a full recovery"

"That's great news" Cristina smiled at her person.

"It definitely is" Carolyn nodded.

"When is Amelia coming over to check up on him?" it was again Owen who spoke.

"She should be here after she's done with her craniotomy" Meredith's voice sounded tired as expected.

"Want me to go get you a coffee or something?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, I'd like that.."

"I'll go get something for all of you" he proposed, turning and leaving the room.

Just as promised Amelia was back to check up on her brother right after she was done with surgery; his values had improved some more and she told Meredith that if he kept on getting better she was going to be able to take him off the ventilator during the next 48 hours. After this good news Cristina and Carolyn were able to convince her to get up and go get lunch in the cafeteria, followed by a quick visit to the kids in daycare.

That evening, as planned, Callie went to get the kids and met up with Meredith and Cristina in the lobby a little after 6 o' clock; Carolyn was going to stay in Derek's room while they were out for dinner, since Meredith was going to spend another night watching over him.

"Auntie Tina!" Zola exclaimed excitedly running towards the two women as she spotted her mom's best friend, followed suit by Sofia.

"Hi girls! I missed you"

"So did we" Sofia was quick to answer as they both hugged the surgeon.

" 'member my brother? He's bigger" Zola pointed at the blond haired boy who was snuggling with his mom.

"Of course I do, maybe he does not though..." she closed the distance between them and smiled at the wide-eyed boy "hi Bailey"

"Hi" he said solemnly burrowing his head into his mother's neck.

"I fink he likes you" Sofia grinned.

They found Alex in the parking lot and invited him to join them, he agreed since he had absolutely no desire to go back to an empty house, as both Jo and Arizona were on call that night, and Meredith's kids would only get there later on with Carolyn once she had left the hospital.

Half an hour later they were settled at a long table in their favorite pizza place, Aldo's.

"Mama, can I have peperoni on my piza?" Zola was quick to ask, as soon as they were handed menus by their server.

"You didn't like them the last time you tried them" Meredith reminded her, settling Bailey in a high chair and handing him his sippy cup filled with apple juice.

"Mmmh, dat's right Mama... but I wanna try again" she smiled sweetly at her and Meredith found herself smiling back "here is what we can do, sweetie... your uncle Alex always gets pepperoni on his pizza, you can ask him for a slice, what do you say?"

"Good idea mama..." Zola grinned and she turned towards Alex who was sitting next to her, Sofia on his other side, "hey Uncle Alex! Can I have some of your piza?"

"Of course you can... as long as I can have a slice of yours" he grinned back at her.

"Can I too Alex?" Sofia was quick to add her request.

"Of course you can"

The waiter came back for their drink orders in that moment and everyone concentrated on the menu to pick out their pizza.

Cristina was updating the others on her life in Switzerland when their pizzas arrived "one definite plus sign about living in Switzerland is that it's exactly in the middle of Europe, I've already visited France, Italy, Austria, Germany and England since I've moved there"

"That sounds really cool, don't you agree Sofia? We should go visit Auntie Cristina in the summer, what do you think?"

"Yay!" Sofia's exclamation was greeted by a chorus of laughter.

"Can we go too, Mama?" Zola's question caught Meredith by surprise.

"I don't know baby girl... we need to see if Daddy can take time off in the summer" she tried to be as honest as possible with the little girl, she couldn't fathom the thought of telling her and Bailey that daddy was in a hospital bed at the moment and she didn't know when and if he was going to wake up.

"When is Daddy coming home?" asked Zola in a small voice.

Meredith was too shocked to answer at first, she quickly composed herself and tried her best to give Zola a smile "I don't know sweetie, you know he is working in Washington at the moment, right?" the girl nodded and her mom kept on going "We just have to wait for him" she said, hoping with all herself that her husband was going to wake up as soon as possible. She didn't want to take the kids to visit him while he was still unconscious.

"He needs to come back soon or he won't see Nana and Auntie Cristina" Zola's voice was so small that they almost couldn't make out what she had said.

"I know that sweetie" was her mother's only answer.

"I'll make sure to stay until he comes back and I'm sure your Nana will do the same… after all, your daddy is her son and I'm sure she'll want to see him" Cristina reassured the little girl who gave her a weak smile, when she saw that Zola was not entirely convinced she added "you can come visit me whenever you want, it doesn't have to be in the summer"

Zola finally gave her aunt a full smile "okay" she agreed, after Zola concentrated on her pizza once more it was Meredith's turn for giving Cristina a grateful smile.

"Hey, how do you like your pepperoni pizza girls?" Alex changed topic smiling at the two kids sitting next to him.

"I like it!" Sofia was quick to answer "I thought peperoni was s'posed to be spicy like chilly, but chilly is more spicy" she added.

"Yeah, I like it too" Zola added after she was done munching on a bite.

"Good! Next time I babysit you guys we can order one big pepperoni pizza just for the three of us" he proposed.

"What about mah brother?"

"I don't think he would like it yet, too spicy for him"

"Yeah sweetie, your brother is not even two years old, let's wait a little more to start feeding him spicy food" Meredith's explanation was both gentle and firm, accompanied by a smile and Zola was quick to agree.

The rest of dinner was fun, it passed by in between laughters and shared memories; Meredith forgot about her fears for a while and she found herself happy to have agreed to dinner out, the kids were clearly thrilled as well and that was the most important thing. Once they went back to the hospital the three kids were all asleep and she and Cristina went to call Carolyn while Alex was putting the kids in their car-seats.

"Are you sure you don't want to go home and get a good night of sleep?" Carolyn was insisting on being the one to spend the night at the hospital.

"No, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything, not even the kids, if I left this hospital room for the night... you go home with them, they love spending time with you and it doesn't happen that often, so they should cherish every moment" she reassured her mother in law.

"Okay, I'll be back first thing in the morning then... call me if there are any updates, even in the middle of the night, all right?"

"Yes, I will"

"Good night dear" she bid her farewell and started exiting the room, coming face to face with Cristina near the door "are you coming to Alex's place with us?" she asked.

"I wanted to stay here with Meredith, actually..."

"No Cristina, you just got here today, after a very long flight... you should go back with them and rest..."

"I don't want you to stay here by yourself" she whispered.

"I'll be fine, I promise to call if anything happens..."

"Even if it's 3 a.m.?" she challenged.

"Even if it's 3 a.m." she nodded.

"Okay then, I'm actually kind of tired and a good night sleep would do me good" she reasoned.

"I'll see you both tomorrow morning... I'm sure Amelia will be by as well, she's on call tonight, since there is a shortage of neurosurgeons"

"All right, we'll see you for breakfast, dear" Carolyn gave her a hug.

"Try to get some sleep" was Cristina's advice.

"I will, the nurses put in a second bed for me... I'll be more comfortable than the previous nights"

Cristina still didn't look convinced, but she was tired "okay then, we'll see you in the morning... call if anything happens, I mean it"

"I know and I will"

After this day Meredith entered a sort of routine. She spent her nights in Derek's room, alternating some sleep with watching over Derek, she then had breakfast with Carolyn and her kids before taking them to daycare for the morning, while she went back to her husband's room to get the latest updates. She went back to pick them up around 12 o' clock to have lunch with them in the cafeteria, usually along with Cristina and Alex. After taking the kids back to daycare for the afternoon and retrieving back to Derek's room, she organized for somebody to pick them up and they went out for dinner. Zola was still asking about her dad of course, but she still managed to stall her, wishing and hoping he kept on improving. Amelia had been able to remove him from the ventilator on the fourth day after the accident and he had been breathing on his own. His values were also in the norm and his skin color was getting better. These were the positive thoughts she was focusing on while sitting by his side on the seventh night after the crash.

"You need to wake up Derek... I miss you so much" she whispered feeling almost as silly as the time she had built the house of candles and he was late "Zola keeps asking for you and Bailey... well, he's just confused... we need you, Derek" she took his left hand in between hers and kissed his fingertips slowly. She was staring intently at his handsome face and she lost track of time, it could have been mere seconds or minutes, she wasn't sure. What she was sure of, was that she saw his eyes flicker, he felt him take a breath and then she found herself staring into his blue eyes.

"Derek... are you awake?" she felt tears in her eyes.

"Mer... Meredith" was his feeble answer as tears of joy streamed down her face.

Sorry for leaving you guys like that, but this chapter was pretty long and chapter four is being written already. I've decided that the best plan for me is updating once a week, more often if I have the time. Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Derek is finally awake, yay!