Friday morning Derek whistled as he approached Chrissy's room with his mother. He was in a very good mood; in fact, he was feeling better than he had been in several years. He thought it odd he was so happy given that his daughter was fighting for her life. But he was thrilled that he had a wonderful, sweet, smart little girl, he had hope that she would recover, and he was happy that Meredith had not rejected his proposal. And today he was going to do a surgery at Seattle Grace for the first time in more than four years.

Carolyn and Derek entered Chrissy's room, and both enjoyed seeing Meredith reading to Chrissy. It was a good morning if Chrissy was up to listening to a story. They both had seen morning when all she wanted to do was sleep, and they had also seen mornings when she was feeling so ill that she just wanted to be held.

"Hi Daddy, Grandma, Mommy's reading me about Officer Buckle. I love that story."

"I'm so glad you like the story. I'm just stopping by to say good morning because I have a surgery today."

"I thought you worked in New York," said Chrissy.

"I was able to move this case to Seattle. My patient lives in Portland, so Seattle was more convenient than New York."

"Are there brain doctors in Portland?"

"Yes, but I have a new technique for this kind of spinal tumor that has worked really well."

"Is a tumor cancer?"

"Many tumors are benign, that means not cancer. This patient's tumor is malignant, which means it is cancer."

"So you are a cancer doctor?"

"Only for cancers that involve the brain or the spine. Not for leukemia. And even if I were a leukemia doctor, I couldn't treat you. There's a rule that parents can't be doctors for their children."

"But mommy gives me medicine when I'm sick."

Derek laughed. "All mommies and daddies give their kids medicine when they're sick because their mommies and daddies."

Derek turned to Meredith, "My mom can stay with Chrissy today. If you want, you can scrub in with me."

"Does that mean mommy could surgeon with you?" asked Chrissy.

"Yes."

"Mommy, do you want to be a surgeon with daddy?" asked Chrissy with a smile. "You can if you want."

"I like staying with you."

"Grandma can stay with me and read to me. You should help daddy."

Meredith smiled. "Why do you want me to help daddy?"

"I just do. You can help get a cancer tumor out of a person. I'd like that"

"It might be good for you to do some work," said Carolyn. "I'm very happy to hang out with Chrissy."

"And it's just a four hour surgery. And Mom can page you if Chrissy needs you."

"You can go, Mommy. I'm feeling good today."

"Okay," said Meredith. She was glad that Chrissy was feeling good, but she knew that she might feel worse later in the day, after receiving the chemo. But also she knew that Carolyn was an experienced nurse and grandmother and was great with Chrissy. And Meredith missed surgery. And Chrissy wanted her to do the surgery.

"Mere, let's go meet the patient," said Derek.

"I haven't been in an o.r. for more than nine weeks," said Meredith as she walked out of Chrissy's room.

"It will be good for you," said Derek as the entered the elevator to go to the surgery floor.

As soon as they left the elevator, Cristina spotted them. Derek went ahead to meet the patient while Meredith stayed to talk briefly to Christina.

"Great to see you on the surgery floor," Christina greeted her.

"Derek invited me to scrub in with him," said Meredith. "And Carolyn is with Chrissy. Chrissy wanted me to scrub in with Derek."

"I think my goddaughter is a little matchmaker."

"I think you're right about that. I'm not sure what to do about that."

"Maybe I should tell her about the betting pool."

"I'll use a scalpel on you, if you do. Don't encourage her matchmaking."

"Okay," said Cristina with a smile.

"Nice to see you here," said George, as he saw Meredith. Meredith heard similar greetings from every doctor and nurse she passed.

When she walked into the patient's room, she noted the patient was a woman who appeared to be in her 40s, and another woman, who looked to be about five years younger.

"Meredith, meet Michelle Swenson and her partner Ginger Parks; Michelle and Ginger, meet Dr. Meredith Grey, the resident who will be assisting me on this case."

"I'm glad to see you know the staff here. I was a bit worried when you asked me to switch hospitals."

"I thought Seattle would be very convenient for you than New York."

"Yes. That's very kind of you, but I'm sure there must be some other reason for you to be here."

"I have a personal reason for being here," Derek said, refraining from going into details.

"I hope it's a happy reason."

"Well, I worked here four years ago, so I'm happy to have the chance to work with old friends like Dr. Grey and other members of the staff."

"I'm glad to know that you know the staff here. I was a little concerned that you might find it hard to work with strangers." said Ginger.

"It's not a problem. Dr. Grey is going to run some labs and take you for an mri before the surgery. We should be ready to go in two hours. As we discussed, you will be under general anesthesia, and the surgery should last about three hours. Ginger, you'll need to go to the waiting room once Dr. Grey takes Michelle to the mri."

"Okay," said Ginger.

Meredith ran the labs and took Michelle to the mri. It felt good to be working again. She went to the room where the scans were displayed. Derek pointed out the tumor.

"Wow, that's a big tumor," said Meredith.

"Yes, but it is well defined. We should have no problem removing it. I'll see you in the o.r. It will be like old times," said Derek with his trademark smile.

"See you there."

Meredith finished prepping Michelle for surgery, and she brought her to the o.r. "Don't worry, Michelle, Dr. Shepherd is the best."

"I know. That's why I was willing to go to New York from Portland. I did the research. I'm glad that I only had to go to Seattle."

"Well, I'm glad to have the opportunity to work on your case," said Meredith.

"It must be nice for you to work with Dr. Shepherd again."

"Yes. It's great to work with the best," said Meredith, thinking that Michelle had no idea of the story.

"He's very handsome."

"I'm sure he thinks so," said Meredith. She did not want the patient to pry into her personal life. "I'll let you in a on a little secret. Dr. Shepherd is not modest."

"Well, you know what they say about brain surgery – it is brain surgery." Michelle laughed at her joke.

"Yes, it certainly is."

Derek entered the room, and Meredith left to scrub in. Derek told Michelle, "Now the anesthesiologist is going to put you under. When we see you next, the tumor will be gone."

"Good. I'm looking forward to that." The anesthesiologist put Michelle under, and Derek said, "It's a beautiful day to save a life."

Meredith smiled as she heard his catch phrase. She had missed it so much. She was amazed to find that she worked seamlessly with Derek; after four years, she could still anticipate what he wanted to do.

In the gallery, Christina and Izzie watched the surgery. "It's so good to see Meredith in the o.r. again. And it's great to see her work with Derek. They work together so well," said Izzie, "I may need to reconsider my bet. I originally predicted Christmas."

"I'm going to move mine up to, too. New Year's is way too late," said Cristina. "I hadn't figured on Chrissy and Mrs. Shepard playing matchmaker. Chrissy is responsible for Meredith being in the o.r. today. She wanted her parents to work together. And Mrs. Shepard had them eating together at the apartment last night. And Derek is responsible, too, as he invited her to join him in front of the little matchmaker."

"It's every little girl's dream, to have her parents together," said Izzie softly. "I would have loved having a dad in my life."

"My dad was great, but both my parents were happier after they got divorced. I liked having my dad to myself."

After the surgery was completed successfully, they went to scrub out. Derek turned to Meredith and said, "You did a wonderful job."

"Thank you. It was great working with you again."

"I have two more surgeries next week. You can scrub in with me then, if you want."

"We'll have to see how Chrissy is doing. She's my first priority right now."

"That's fine. I'm glad she is. You are a wonderful mother."

"Well, my mother was a model of what not to do. So I ask myself, what would mommy do, and then I usually do the opposite," said Meredith with a laugh.

"I'm sure your mom would have seen that you got the best medical care if you were ever sick."

"Yes, but she wouldn't have been by my bedside. She would have stopped by my room for a few minutes every day."

"Your mom did love you."

"I know she did the best she could, or at least that she thought she could. But I want to do more for my daughter."

"And you're succeeding."

"I just wish I could have prevented her from getting leukemia."

"No parent could do that. It was just bad luck."

"That's me, a magnet for bad luck." Meredith thought for a moment. "I guess I shouldn't say that. I'm very luck to have Chrissy in my life."

"And I'm very luck to have both of you in my life."

They walked to Chrissy's room, and they found she was sleeping and Carolyn was reading a book.

"How was she?" asked Meredith.

"Okay. She didn't eat much lunch, so the nurse gave her an I.V. for nutrition. She was nauseous after the chemo and tired; she's been sleeping since 2:15 p.m."

Meredith liked the fact that Carolyn always gave her precise, detailed information. "Thanks for looking after her."

"I'm glad I'm able to help. I love spending time with her."

"And she loves spending time with you," said Meredith, feeling guilty that she was responsible for the fact that they had both missed three years in which they could have spent time together.

"I'm sure we're going to have many years to enjoy together," said Carolyn, picking up on Meredith's guilt. "We need to focus on the here and now and the future, not worry about things that happened in the past."

"Thank you so much. I can't believe how nice you've been to me."

"You've given me a wonderful granddaughter."

"Thanks. You can have a break. I'm going to stay with Chrissy."

"I can stay, too," said Derek.

"Don't you both need some food?"

"I'm okay," they both said simultaneously.

"Okay, but I'm making pot roast for dinner. You can go to the apartment to eat it after Chrissy falls asleep. I'll come back."

"I want to stay here, with Chrissy. I was gone for five hours today," said Meredith. She was amused because she realized that Carolyn was playing matchmaker, just like her granddaughter.

"But even if you take two hours to have dinner, you will still be with her for nearly seventeen hours."

"You're counting time that she's sleeping and time that I'm sleeping. Leaving her for five hours was enough. I want to spend the rest of my time with Chrissy."

"I'll tell you what, Mom, you can bring the pot roast over her, and we can eat it in the cafeteria while you hang out with Chrissy. That way Meredith will only be gone about half an hour. Will that work for you, Meredith?"

"Sure."

"Well, I'll get going. I have to work on the pot roast."

"I'm looking forward to your home-cooking. I've eaten more home-cooked food in the few weeks you've been in Seattle than in the rest of my life. Mostly, I live on either takeout or cafeteria food." said Meredith.

"My mom's a great cook. And she keeps making my favorite meals when I'm here. Next week is my last week in NY before my leave formally starts." said Derek.

"I'm not promising to make you home-cooked meals every night."

"Derek, you should take your mom out to dinner. She's done a lot of cooking, and she deserves a break."

"That's a good idea. Maybe Izzie or Cristina could hang out with Chrissie, and you could join us."

"No. It should be a mother and son night."

"Okay. But we should do another dinner in my apartment. Last night's dinner was great."

"That could work."