Derek looked at the clock. It was already 5, and he hadn't heard from Meredith. It was her first day back working, and he had expected her to have a short day and be home by 4:30 p.m. at the latest. It was weird spending the whole day in her house without her and with his mom and Chrissy, not to mention Susan Grey.

Chrissy was watching watching Little Mermaid, her favorite movie, sitting on his lap.

His mother came into the room. "Dinner will be ready by 5:30 p.m."

"Mommy's not home yet."

"If you're hungry, you can eat before your mommy gets home," said Carolyn.

"I always eat dinner with mommy."

"Always?" asked Derek. "What about when your mommy is on call?"

"I always have dinner with mommy. I go to daycare at the hospital. When she works at night, we have dinner together in the cafeteria, and then I go home with Aunt Izzie or Uncle Alex or Uncle George."

"Doesn't your mommy sometimes go out to dinner with friends?" asked Carolyn.

"No. She always has dinner with me."

"Meredith will be home soon, Mom, so we can wait for her."

"It's up to you, Derek."

"We'll wait, Mom." Derek hugged Chrissy. He realized that having two parents involved in her life was going to be a big change for her. And he knew very little about her life before she was sick. It hurt to think that he had missed her first three years, when she was healthy. Now, even if she made a full recovery, she would always be marked as a cancer survivor. He would always worry about a possible relapse; every cold would scare him. He knew it was his own fault in many ways that he missed those three years; he should never have gone to New York to fight for a marriage that was already dead. And he should have come back to Seattle the moment he realized his marriage was really over. But Meredith should have told him when she discovered she was pregnant or after Chrissy was born. He missed so much. But Derek understood that this line of thought was not helpful. He was here with Chrissy now, and Meredith had let him stay in her house, so he was with Chrissy 24/7. Getting mad at Meredith could threaten their easy relationship now and his easy access to Chrissy. And right now their focus had to be on Chrissy.

He heard the door open and saw Meredith enter the house. Chrissy heard her, too, and shouted, "Mommy, you're home."

"Yes, I am," said Meredith, smiling.

"Grandma says dinner is ready."

"That's great. I'm hungry. I have to go wash up, and I'll join you in a few minutes."

"Okay, Mommy."

Meredith went upstairs.

"I'll go tell Grandma that Mommy is home," Derek told Chrissy. He moved her off his lap onto the sofa and went into the kitchen.

"Meredith is home, Mom, so we can have dinner soon."

"That's good. Meredith has spoiled her, having dinner with her every night."

"I remember having dinner with you every night."

"No, I had dinner with my book club once a month, and I had dinner with friends a couple times a month. It's good for adults to spend time with other adults."

"Mom, Meredith has lots of good friends."

"I know, but she is spoiling her daughter."

"Mom, I don't know that having dinner with your child ever night is spoiling your child."

"Well, I do. And I think we need to give Chrissy a more normal life."

"More normal when she's sick?"

"Yes. I think you should take Meredith out to dinner one night. Be two adults."

"We can go out one night after dinner with Chrissy, Mom. We only have a month or six weeks before the bone marrow transplant. I don't think now is a good time to change Chrissy's routine."

"Well, you should take Meredith out after dinner."

"She's probably tired tonight. Maybe another night."

"Okay, but do it this week when I can babysit. I'm going away on Thursday for a long week-end for your niece's graduation."

"That's fine, Mom. You've been a great help, especially when I was commuting back and forth to NY. But I think Meredith and I can manage for a week-end without you."

"I'm sure you can," answered Carolyn with a smile.

The next night, after Chrissy went to bed, Derek told Meredith that his mother had offered to babysit while they went out one night this week. He told her he thought it would be good if they could talk. She agreed to go out with him the next night, so after having dinner with Chrissy, Carolyn, and Izzie, they left, with Derek driving.

"I know a great place for viewing ferryboats," Derek said with a smile.

"Derek, you said you wanted to talk." Meredith remembered showing him her favorite place.

"We can talk and watch ferryboats," he said with his McDreamy smile.

"Remember, I came to talk," Meredith cautioned.

He drove to Meredith's favorite place. "I brought a blanket and a bottle of wine."

They sat together on the blanket. Derek opened the wine bottle and poured wine into two glasses. They sat together companionably for a while. "I'm really enjoying hanging out with Chrissy. It's so wonderful that she's home."

"Yeah. It's great."

"She's a really great child. You've done an amazing job."

"Thanks. What did you want to talk about?"

"I just wanted to let you know how happy I am to be spending so much time with Chrissy."

"You're her dad."

Derek didn't respond. He thought "I would have loved to know her from the moment you learned you were pregnant and certainly from her birth." But he decided it made no sense to anger Meredith.

"It's good that you're with her while I'm working. If you weren't here, I wouldn't work. And I'm enjoying the chance to work."

"That's good. I'm enjoying a break from working."

Derek's eyes met Meredith's and he bent towards her. His lips met hers, and they shared a long kiss. Finally, Meredith broke the kiss. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"I love you, Meredith. How could kissing be a bad idea?"

''I want to focus on Chrissy."

"You're entitled to a break. And she's sleeping now."

"I just think that a romance between us would be confusing for Chrissy. And I want to keep her happy."

"I don't think anything would make Little Miss Matchmaker happier than having her parents together," noted Derek with a smile.

"And then what when you go back to New York?"

"Who said I'm going to back to New York? Richard has offered me a job here. I might stay anyway."

"There's no guarantee Chrissy will survive," Meredith said softly.

"I know, and it pains me. But we have a lot of hope."

"Thanks to you and your bone marrow."

"Yes. I'm glad I can contribute something; you've done so much for Chrissy. My giving her marrow is nothing. I would have done the same for a perfect stranger."

"Still, it is wonderful that you are a match."

"Yes. But we can't put our lives on pause just because Chrissy is sick. You're working. I'm going to build my dream house on the cliff. We need to live our lives trusting that she's going to be okay. And, if something bad happens, we'll deal with it then. But for now, we have to focus on enjoying every day. And for me, kissing you would be a great part of enjoying the day."

"Derek, I know you, and you're not going to want to stop with kissing."

"You're right. And I have a beautiful bedroom that I'm not using now while I'm sleeping in Chrissy's bed. But we could go to my apartment while my mom is babysitting. We'd have the place to ourselves."

"Not tonight."

"But maybe another time?"

"I don't know, Derek."

"I love you."

"You say that now."

"It's true. I've been miserable since I left Seattle. I've missed you every day. And I want to make up for lost time and spend time with you. I want a future with you."

"Derek, we're in a bubble now, a happy bubble, with Chrissy home. I don't want to disturb that bubble."

"Kissing would only make it better."

"Let's go home. I'll think about it, but I have a busy day tomorrow, and I want to go home."

"Okay. But you'll think about it."

"Yes, I will. But Chrissy comes first."

"But she'll enjoy having us together."

"But I don't want to give her unrealistic hope."

"It's not unrealistic. I want to marry you, Meredith, and spend the rest of my life with you."

"I find it hard to trust you, Derek. That may be true now, but who knows if it will be true in a year."

"It will be true forever. There's no one else in my life. I'm divorced. I'm free, and I choose you."

"I'll think about it, but let's go home."

"Okay."