A/N- this one didn't come up quite as long as usual, so it's a little padded with stuff, I didn't want to add anything after the end because it didn't feel right to do so. Thanks as ever for all of your reviews, especially those that I'm not able to reply to. It makes me really happy to know that you're enjoying the story, and taking the time to read. Without further ado, chapter 41.

It didn't take long before the buzz of the holidays began to disappear, being replaced by the dreary days of January, the weeks drifting by filled with victims of the cold weather and a lot of juicy surgeries to scrub in on. The residents were loving it, and Meredith was no exception. She'd barely been back at the hospital for two weeks, and she was drawing in on eighty hours in the OR alone, easily surpassing the eighty hour a week limit imposed by the chief. There was little cause for discipline though, the ER was busier than ever, and the hospital needed the surgeons. Derek was working more than usual too, the ice leading to many more traffic accidents than usual, leading to a lot of head injuries and a lot of surgeries to split between the attendings in the department. Despite his increased workload, he still found himself alone in bed more often than when Meredith joined him at any kind of reasonable hour. On that particularly cold Tuesday, he'd woken up next to cold sheets again, meaning Meredith had missed out on yet another night off in favour of working in the ER, so he decided that she needed a night to relax, and forget about the hospital for a few hours.

He waited until after rounds, and not seeing her name on the OR board, he wandered between nurses' stations until he found the petite blond charting on the desk. He sidled up behind her, wrapping his arms around her thin frame, kissing her neck lightly, his touch melting her.

"What are you doing tonight?" he murmured in her ear, his breath tickling her lobe.

"I was going to stay here, maybe in the ER, in case any good surgical cases come in, last night I helped remove a shard of glass from a woman's eye. Like her actual eye. And Cristina spent the night with Hahn, working on a guy from the same accident, who had like fifty holes in his chest. I never thought I'd say it, but I love this ice." She turned around in his arms, getting more and more animated as she spoke about the wealth of trauma rolling into the ER. He knew she loved surgery, and she was clearly happy at the extra chances to scrub in and that made him happy, but it had been at least a week since they'd even brought up sex and he was getting desperate. Adding insult to injury, each of his sisters had emailed him or texted him at least once a day to provide inspiration on venues and flowers, caterers, suits, cars and every other tiny detail about wedding planning, reminding him over and over about just how much he missed having his fiancée at home at night to wade through them with him.

"No," Derek said bluntly. "Not tonight. You have three days left in this week, and you're already at almost fifty hours. Tonight I am taking you out to dinner, and then we are going to go home and we will go to sleep in our bed and you are not going to mention the hospital or anything work related. It's just going to be you and me and we are going to have a relaxing night just the two of us." Meredith pouted a little before looking up at him, fluttering her eyelashes a little.

"Will you take a bath with me?" she smiled sultrily.

"I think that can definitely be arranged." He grinned back at her, her eyes sparkling at the thought of a night alone. "So will you come home with me?"

"I get off at six." He grinned and kissed her quickly before letting her get back to her charting.

"Perfect, I'll meet you in the lobby. I love you."

"I love you too, Dr. Shepherd." She purred as he walked away. She loved surgery, but she loved Derek Shepherd just that tiny bit more, and the promise of being wined and dined and pampered at home was one she couldn't say no to. All she had to do was make it to 6pm.

The morning was taken up with the many many post ops that had to be completed due to the increased number of surgeries that had been taking place. And with each patient came a chart that needed updating. So by lunchtime, the thought of actually going home had made Meredith anxious for the next few hours to be over with so that she could actually spend some quality time away from work with the man that would one day become her husband. She was beyond ready to be able to call him that officially, but the only time they'd spoken about the wedding was when Derek handed her a list of possible places that they could get married, that Kathleen had found. His sisters were nothing if not prolific. Her email had been full of gown ideas, table settings and cutlery designs, and she knew that Derek's was no different. They were supposed to look at it together and pick a few venues to look into further, but she'd barely left the hospital since the weather had gotten bad. If she didn't make the time to choose soon, she could guarantee that at least one of Derek's sisters would fly out and try and plan things for her. Having a little free time, and knowing that she'd actually have a chance to discuss it later that night, Meredith pulled the list from her locker, taking it to the cafeteria in the hope that one of her friends might have an idea on what the places were like. She might be a Seattle native but the most she'd seen of the city was during the weekend that Carolyn came to visit, and the space needle certainly wasn't her first choice of venue. She was thrilled to see Izzie sat at a table with her lunch, and quickly sat in the seat beside her, laying the list next to the tray. If anyone knew the best place for a wedding it was Izzie.

"What's this?" she asked looking up from the article she'd been reading in preparation for a surgery later in the week.

"Wedding venues. Derek gave it to me a few days ago, but I've been here so I've not had a chance to look at it. His sister sent it over and she highlighted the ones she thinks are nice. Do you have any idea what any of them are like? I barely know Seattle, let alone where the best place to get married is. I think I've heard of maybe three of them, and I have no desire to get married in any of them. I don't want to get married anywhere weird. But I don't want it all traditional either. Just somewhere simple, somewhere that's us." Izzie looked at the list for a second, scanning through the names.

"Some of these hotels are nice. The arctic club, Stimson-green and Sorrento's. Or there's always the art museum or the aquarium, they aren't exactly traditional, but at least people would remember it. Or you could just have it outside, at the park or on the land maybe."

"I don't know if the aquarium is quite the right place to commit myself to Derek. He loves it there but I'm not sure I want thousands of fish being privy to my wedding. And I don't think Derek or I have even been to the art museum willingly. So those are out. Outside might be nice, but I don't know if I want to get all dressed up just to get married next to the house or the trailer. We'd save on transport but I want to be able to drive by some day and point it out to our kids. Have wedding pictures that couldn't have been taken on any other day. Somewhere that's just a little more special. How about pan pacific, that's close by right? It isn't too horrible? Or ooh, there's a ferryboat. Skansonia. That has Derek written all over it."

"They're both nice places. One of them could be the place you want to get married in. The only way to decide is to go see them. Stand at the alters, and look down the aisle, imagine what it'd be like to recite your vows there. Aren't you off this weekend?"

"I have Sunday off, I don't know about Derek though. And after this week, all I want to do is sleep. I feel like I've been living in this hospital. I haven't had sex in over a week Iz, and I have needs. Derek has needs."

"That's more than I needed to know. And I am so glad I'm on call tonight. The way the two of you go at it after a sex drought, it's a wonder your neighbours don't think you're being murdered. As for the wedding, you have to make a list of all the places that you want to visit and then pick a day you're both free and visit all of them. Whichever ones feel special, and like somewhere you could actually see yourself getting married in then put yourselves on the waiting list. No commitment but if you decide that's the place then you're already halfway there. I can come if you like. I know these places. I speak the language. If it's one thing i know, its weddings." Izzie grinned, clearly way more excited than Meredith over the details of her big day.

"I'll talk to Derek, but I want it to be just us to begin with, if we can't decide then you can come and help us decide between them, deal?"

"Oh, definitely. Yay, I can't believe you're actually getting married. And properly. I was so scared you were just going to head to city hall and sign the papers, but you're actually having a wedding we can join in with. You have no idea how happy that makes me." The blonde was practically bouncing in her seat as she finished the rest of her lunch, gushing about dresses and wedding parties and colour schemes. Having seen it in her inbox every day since she left New York, Meredith did not want her lunchtime taken over by the wedding as well. She couldn't wait to be a bride, but it was a lot of fuss for just one day. For Meredith, it wasn't the most exciting part. That was everything that came after. Having a wedding was fun but the prospect of a marriage was even more exciting

"Calm down Iz, it could be weeks before we even get to visit any of these places let alone everything else. And I have to run it by the sisters and Carolyn. If they don't like it then we may as well cancel there and then, because they're not going to come all the way from New York if they don't like the venue or the food or the reception. It's just a lot to think about all at once."

"I know but aren't you totally excited for the end product. You get to marry Mcdreamy, and live happily ever after up on the cliff. You get to have a family and grow old together. It's a gift Meredith. It shouldn't matter what his family think. If they don't like it, no one is forcing them to come." Meredith smiled at the thought of her and Derek getting old together, their kids playing in the yard in the summer, building snowmen in the winter, and when they were at college or med school, it'd be just the two of them, together forever.

"I can't wait Izzie." She confessed. "I'd marry him today at city hall, but I want to have something special. I wasn't the girl who wanted to even get married. This is huge for me, and it blows my mind that anyone would want to spend forever with me. But you're right, it's Derek and he planned this beautiful, wonderfully cheesy proposal, and so I want it to be special for him. I want his family there and all the kids on the dance floor. I want to show everyone that this is more than just some fling between an intern and an attending, that this is it. I want photos that I can show my grandkids or whatever. It doesn't have to be huge, but it has to be ours. It just has to be special."

"It will be Meredith. It'll be perfect. Whatever you choose, it'll be the right thing. Talk to Derek, tell him what you want. Chances are he wants the same thing. At the end of the day you both just want to be married. Anything else that comes with it is just a bonus. And I'm always here for when you have no idea what you're doing. But just remember, that what his family think, what we all think isn't as important as what you both want. It's your day no one else's. Don't let the fear of doing it wrong stop you from even trying."

"Thanks Iz. You're right. I just need to sit down with Derek and make a plan. If I get stuck, I'll let you know." Izzie's pager sounded, and she ran off to get her patient's scans, while Meredith looked at the places Derek might like. Skansonia sat right at the top, with the some houses and hotels that she'd read about. Izzie was right. It was her and Derek's day, no one else's, and all they had to do was choose together. After all the wedding was just one day, they had the rest of their lives for everything else.

Derek was having a slow day. Once he'd left Meredith, he scrubbed in on his laminectomy patient, safe in the knowledge that he'd improve the quality of life for his patient considerably, once his physical therapy was done with. He had over an hour until he was scheduled to perform a craniotomy on his epilepsy patient, so he took the opportunity to make reservations at Il Terrazzo Carmine, knowing that Meredith loved the food, and deep down she liked having to dress up to go there. She'd been looking for an excuse to wear the jewellery that his sisters had clubbed together for and what better excuse than a date night. Once his patient was wheeled back to recovery, he updated the family and headed to his office getting in some research for his moyamoya article. He paged Mark, who he knew hadn't long come out of surgery, picking up a couple of sandwiches from the cafeteria and taking them to his office. He'd always been good with Derek's sisters, and he was bound to figure out a way to get them to stop with the torrent of emails on cummerbunds and top hats that his sisters had sent him over the last couple weeks. Mark appeared for a brief second, being paged almost as soon as he sat down to his sandwich, the ER needing plastics even more frequently than usual. Derek hadn't been needed down there all day. It seemed today was simply one of those days that Derek would easily be ready to go by the end of Meredith's shift. He was bored, and wanted nothing more than a nice bottle of wine, dinner and a hot bubble bath with his soon to be wife.

"Slow day," he informed Bailey as he went to check his post ops one more time.

"You did not just say that." She pursed her lips at the phrase that was deemed eternally unlucky within the walls of the hospital. It was like saying 'Macbeth' at the theatre; you just didn't do it. "Tell me he did not just jinx a slow day." She looked at Nurse Debbie, who looked as annoyed as Bailey.

"Oh he said it, so much for getting out of here on time." She sneered, tutting at Derek.

"There is not going to be anything just because I said today was slow." He scoffed "It's a total myth." As soon as he uttered the words, he instantly regretted it, as the echoing sound of pagers was heard from the area. He could feel Bailey's eyes on him as they descended to the ER. He imagined the many insults that were rolling through her mind as they descended, having their slow day ruined by Derek's inability to keep his mouth shut.

"I told you so." Bailey uttered as they got off the elevator. "Stupid brain man. Slow day. Pah. I could've been out of here on time."

"What do you have?" Derek asked as he was ushered towards a patient.

"Jenna Donnelly, 23, hit by a car that slipped on the ice. Was talking on scene but lost consciousness on the way over." Derek performed a quick neuro exam, grimacing at her eyes.

"Blown left pupil, let's get her to the OR. I need to relieve the pressure in her brain. It can't wait." He sighed as he followed the gurney to the elevator. So much for his slow day. He looked at the clock, there were three hours left of Meredith's shift. If everything was routine, he could be out in time to make the reservations if he could get her to meet him at the hospital once she was ready. Just as long as everything was routine. Maybe he hadn't jinxed everything after all.

Meredith was charting when Cristina's intern found her, slightly out of breath, but clearly itching to say something important.

"Um, hi." She said, giving him an odd look as he caught his breath. "Do you need me for something, Dr. Mostow?"

"Dr. Shepherd had to perform an emergency surgery, so he can't make the reservations for dinner, but he said he would meet you at home, and he's sorry and he loves you. And also that you should still have the evening at home, because as soon as he's done he is coming to pamper you. So you shouldn't get in the bath without him." Steve looked at her expectantly, being a messenger high on his list of useful jobs that day.

"Oh, okay." She grinned a little at the fact that Steve had clearly not wanted to miss a word of what Derek had asked him to tell her. "Tell him if he's coming home after eleven not to wake me up. And not to worry about dinner, I'll pick up some pizza on my way home. Oh, and I love him too. But he owes me a bubble bath." Steve ran off again and she chuckled, passing her chart to Olivia.

"Mcdreamy is flaking on his plans?" Cristina raised her eyebrows as she arrived next to Meredith, both running the clock until they could go home.

"No, not flaking. He just got a patient from the ER. His name wasn't on the board all afternoon, and so naturally, now he'll be here for hours. The universe simply didn't want me to go out to dinner tonight."

"You wanna go to Joe's instead? We can do shots and when you're drunk enough you can tell me what you really thing of Mcfamily." Meredith laughed at her friend.

"I think I'll pass. I've been PMS-ing all day, I really just want to go home, get in my sweats and eat ice cream on the couch with some crappy TV. That and the fact that if I get too drunk I'm going to have way too many opinions on my daily wedding planning emails from Derek's sisters. Rain check? You're welcome to join but I can't promise it'll be any fun."

"I'll pass." Cristina said, feigning rejection. "It's fine. Spend your evening with Ben and Jerry instead of me. But I will be cashing that check very soon. You haven't had a good night out since you were abducted by mcfamily."

"Noted." She smiled at her friend, who looked as tired as she felt. "I'm really gonna need a break from this wedding stuff before too long. It's exciting that I get to spend the rest of my life with Derek, but I don't care about cutlery choices or icing or seasonal colour schemes. I know what I want and it does not involve lace or morning coats or… Ooh gotta go." She said as her pager signalled a problem with one of her patients. Cristina watched her and laughed. Meredith may have been taken over by the Shepherd clan and their love of all things family, but deep down she was the same old dark and twisty surgical junkie that she knew and loved. If that's what came from having it all then maybe she'd agree to that date with the new attending. She'd turned him down twice already, her previous relationship with an attending being less than ideal. But maybe she'd just picked a bad one. Maybe Owen Hunt would be her own knight in shining whatever.

It was getting late when Derek finally arrived home. Meredith had sent him a message telling him that she was leaving around an hour after her shift ended, but he hadn't gotten it until after his surgery had finally finished. The pizza box in the kitchen told him that she'd already eaten, but she'd left him a couple of slices, peeling the cheese off so it was the way he liked it, just in case he was home in time to eat, which much to his annoyance he was not. The lack of lights on downstairs informed him that she was likely in their room, probably in bed, or at least getting ready to sleep. So he grabbed a glass of water and headed upstairs to find her.

"Meredith?" Derek called as he ascended, hoping she hadn't gone to sleep yet. His surgery had uncovered a brain tumour millimetres away from the bleed, which would easily have grown, costing her her life if he hadn't caught it then. He couldn't wait to tell her about his most recent save. The sex was always hotter when he impressed her with a save. "Meredith?"

He quickly climbed the stairs to their bedroom, frowning at the fact she wasn't in their bed before opening the bathroom door to make sure she hadn't fallen asleep in the bath the way she had several times before. It was always cute when she did, but he was terrified that he'd one day find her the same way he had done in Eliot bay, and the thought terrified him.

"Meredith?" he said again as he peered into the room, seeing her sat on the lid of the toilet, arms folded watching the timer on her phone.

"Hey," she greeted him, reaching up to accept the kiss he gave her when he entered before looking back down at her phone. He frowned at her, baffled by the appeal. He knelt down in front of her trying to make her look at him, with no avail.

"What are you doing?" he asked her, confused as to why his fiancée would be literally watching time go by.

"Waiting," she told him, as if it were obvious.

"What for?" He ventured looking for any clue as to why she was acting oddly.

"This," she replied nonchalantly unfolding her arms and showing him what she'd been hiding from a potential roommate invasion.

"What?" Derek gasped, totally stunned by her revelation. "You think you might be…"

"I think I might be pregnant." She grinned biting her lip to gauge his reaction. "My period's only a few days late, but I'm usually pretty regular, so when I drove past that pharmacy on the way home I went in and got a test just in case, so I'd know for definite. I splurged little, but I wanted to be sure. And so I did what it said and now I'm…"

"Waiting," Derek finished. "I wanna wait with you if that's okay?" Meredith nodded, grabbing his hand. The two watched as the seconds ticked by, perilously slowly until the tiny alarm sounded.

"It's time." Meredith whispered as she silenced the alarm, an eerie quiet descending over the whole house.

"Its time." he echoed as he freed her hand so that she could remove the tab, both staring avidly at the window, neither breathing as they read the information on the screen. A single black phrase. And one that would change their lives forever. A tiny window displaying the word: Pregnant.

Derek's jaw dropped as he looked up at Meredith, a huge grin on her face, tears streaming down her face.

"You're pregnant? We're having a baby?" he jumped up from his position on the floor, his hands rubbing his cheeks before reaching out for Meredith.

"We're having a baby." She confirmed as she let him pull her into his arms, swinging her around before setting her on her feet and kissing her with everything that he had. He didn't know when his own tears started to fall, but he didn't care. Meredith was pregnant, and they were having a baby, and in that moment nothing else mattered.

A/N- as ever let me know what you think