She met his eyes and saw that he was being serious. "That's so sweet. You're really a good person. I wish there was something I could do to thank you."

"I have an idea," Derek said, smiling.

Meredith looked at him and giggled. "Sex?"

"No, although that would be fun. I have another idea."

She looked at him puzzled.

Then the doorbell rang.

"That must be the pizza," said Derek, as he took out his wallet on the way to get the door. He went to the door, and sure enough, the pizza had arrived. He paid for the pizza and gave the deliverer a tip. He turned to Meredith and announced, "Pizza time. Let's go into the kitchen."

They went into the kitchen. Derek quickly took out two places and silverware, and he poured two glasses of water and served the pizza. They sat down and began to eat.

"Do you think we could help Darla and Alice?" asked Meredith. She realized she was changing the subjected, but she couldn't help thinking about Darla and her absent dad. Meredith knew what it was like to be abandoned by her father.

"Alice seems to have accepted that there's nothing to do about Darla's dad. She seemed to think it was easier to have him not involved at this point."

"Her little girl asks for her father every day. I think she wants her daughter's wish for her dad answered. I'd like to give the father a piece of my mind and drag him to the hospital to see his daughter."

"Do you think that it would be effective?"

"Can't hurt. I know what it's like to be abandoned by your father. At least mine gave me a great step-mom and two sisters even if he can't be bothered to visit me and my sick daughter. Your mother flies across the country to spend months taking care of Chrissy, a granddaughter that she had no idea about. She is a wonderful grandparent." Meredith paused. She found the contrast between Thatcher and Carolyn very sad. Even her mom would have done better than Thatcher, sad, as it was to think about Ellis. Ellis at least would have thrown herself into finding the best doctors for Chrissy, even if she wouldn't have taken care of her the way Carolyn did. Or maybe Ellis would have learned from her mistakes with Meredith and would have done better with Chrissy than Meredith, if she had not gotten Alzheimer's. But she did get sick, and she was not available for Chrissy through no fault of her own. "That little girl deserves to see her dad before she dies."

"You'll have to talk to Alice and get his contact information. I don't know how he would react to being approached by a stranger. I'll come with you if you go."

"Okay. I'll talk to her tomorrow. I'm going to be working anyway."

"You'll tell her you're a doctor?"

"Yes. I'm both a doctor and a mom, and I'm also a daughter who was abandoned by her dad. I didn't need to say anything tonight, but if it comes up, it comes up."

"That's fine." Derek smiled. "I have cheesecake for dessert."

"You planned on bringing me back here?"

"Sure. Mom said I should take you out for dinner, so I told her I'd bring you here, and I asked her to pick up some cheesecake. I know it's your favorite dessert."

"That's great."

Derek went to the refrigerator and brought out three pieces of cheesecake.

"Three pieces?" asked Meredith.

"One for me and two for you; I want you to have the last piece of cheesecake."

She looked at his eyes, which were smiling.

"And I'm happy to play your favorite music, if you want," he said, as he put his ipod into a doc. "Duran duran?"

Meredith smiled. "That's okay. We can play the Clash, if you want." She remembered that moment in the scrub room when she told Derek how much she loved him. "I love you in a really, really big, 'pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window.'" She was impressed that he appeared to remember what she had said, even if he had gone on to choose Addison.

"So I was saying earlier that I had an idea."

"Yes. What is your idea?" Meredith became nervous. She couldn't imagine anything bad, but one never knows.

"I want to marry you this coming Sunday. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I think Sunday would be a great time to get married." He smiled his McDreamy smile. "Our little matchmaker would be a great flower girl, and it would take everyone's mind off the bone marrow transplant."

Meredith laughed. "Marriage as a diversion?"

"No, that's not why. I love you, Meredith Grey, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I have loved you every since I met you at Joe's. My first marriage was over the moment I saw Addison in bed with Mark. I was foolish to try again with Addison. And I realized that soon after we went back to New York. I had lost my heart to you. And we divorced. I was just too embarrassed to show up here, begging for you to take me back. Believe it or not, after Addie remarried, she kept pestering me to call you. She knew I loved you, but I was worried that you had found someone else."

"Just Chrissy."

"I want you to know that my love for you is not because of Chrissy. After I divorced, I didn't date. You can ask my mom. She despaired of me marrying again. She thought she'd never have any Shepherd grandchildren. She knew there'd been someone in Seattle, so she told me to go to Seattle. I probably would have given in ultimately. I did think about calling Richard to see how you were doing and angling to get a call to consult. I just didn't do anything about it. I wish I had. I wish I had flown here immediately after signing the divorce papers, so we could be together."

Meredith looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Chrissy could die, you know."

"She won't, Meredith, but I know she could. If she did, we would need each other."

"Do you think she would think it would be okay for her to die if we were married?"

"No," Derek said emphatically. "She's going to want to be with us. And I think she's going to be after us to give her siblings. She'll want to be a big sister."

"I don't think I can handle being pregnant now." Derek smiled. At least she was thinking about it.

"That's okay. We can take precautions."

"You have a job in New York."

"I'm here for another two months, maybe more, and Richard has already offered me a job. And my boss in NY told me that he'd have a job for you."

"I can't leave my friends here in Seattle right now."

"That's fine. We can live here. We can live in your house." Derek smiled. "But once we're married, I'm not going to sleep in the trundle bed."

"So this is a play to get out of the trundle bed?"

"Chrissy suggested I sleep with you. We could do that now, if you want. But I'd rather wait to move into your room until we're married on Sunday night."

"Izzie will probably go crazy. I'm not a poufy dress bride."

"All I ask is that you wear some clothes. You should choose your own dress, but maybe let Izzie help Chrissy choose a flower girl dress. They could have a lot of fun doing that, and then you'd have time to do everything else the way you want."

"We'd have to do it at the house."

Derek smiled. Meredith was really considering the proposal. He had been afraid she'd reject it out of hand. "Yes, it would be small. Maybe we could have Bailey marry us, and my mom, Izzie, Alex, George, and maybe Richard could come. You might want to invite Susan. I'd like to ask Mark to come. But that's it."

"What about your sisters? Nancy already hates me. They won't like being excluded from your wedding."

Derek had thought about this problem. He had come up with a simple solution. "That's easy. We can have them present bb an online internet video link, so they can see the ceremony. They're all doctors; they know we have to take action to prevent Chrissy from getting an infection. And we can have a big party with them once Chrissy meets the six month mark."

"I'd want to wait a year."

"That's fine with me." Derek took the ring out of his pocket. "I have a ring for you."

"She looked at the ring. "It's beautiful."

"It was my mother's."

"What about Addison?"

"It wasn't Addison's type of ring. I got her a 3 carat ring at Harry Winston's. This ring is for you."

Meredith smiled. "Okay. But let's tell Chrissy first, tomorrow at dinner."

"That's fine by me. So we're getting married?"

"Yes, Derek, I said yes. Please take yes for a answer."

"Well, then I'm kissing the bride," Derek said as he turned to Meredith and began to kiss her.