Mer/Der pre-series: Mer/Der have been together since 1996 (Meredith 18, Derek 30) and married since 1998. The two met through Amelia (17), story starts with their lives in New York and into their new lives in Seattle.

A/N: I have been wanting to update my stories but I am in such a hard writer's block for them, so if there are any suggestions for story events, please feel free to leave them.

I've been rewatching Grey's (early seasons—I literally cannot do the newer seasons) and came up with this idea.

1996

Meredith Grey was going home for the holidays. Not to her family—Ellis Grey-Webber and Richard Webber always worked on the holidays which left Meredith on her own—but home with her roommate, Amelia Shepherd. She was currently reciting everyone's names in her head so to remember them all. And Amelia knew, it was easy to tell by the way Meredith was silent in the seat next to her with a concentrated face showing.

Amelia looked over from the driver's seat while stuck in stand-still traffic, "you know, Mer it's not that serious. Not everyone is even going to be there, two of my sisters went to their in-laws with their husbands and kids. It's just going to be the two of us, my parents, Liz and Derek. Probably Mark, too—steer clear of him…he will try and sleep with you. He can't help it…actually you might get along good with him, similar backgrounds and all."

Meredith knit her eyebrows together, "that's still a lot of your family, Amelia. I'm trying not to make a fool out of myself and not knowing anyone's names won't help that."

"They won't care, Mer. You're nervous, I get it but everything will be fine, I promise. And hey, at least there's going to be one familiar face around," Amelia said as she smiled her thousand watt smile at Meredith. Meredith let out a sigh before giving in to Amelia's words and sank down in the seat.

"If this goes wrong, I'm blaming you," Meredith told her with a smirk. Amelia just smirked back as they finally began moving again, continuing on their remains three hour drive to New York.

They pulled up to a decently sized house in the suburbs of New York just as the sun rose over the horizon. Meredith looked up at the house in front of her. The house was two stories of white siding, with large windows lining the walls of the house. Through the windows, Meredith could see someone moving about inside, and she assumed it was either Mrs Shepherd or Mr Shepherd, she couldn't quite tell through the curtains. In the driveway were three cars, making Meredith curious about who else was in the house.

Amelia made to unbuckle her seatbelt and hit Meredith's arm for her to do the same with her's. They proceeded to grab their bags from the car—Amelia having five and Meredith only have two since the two roommates were going to be staying with the Shepherds until after the holidays. Meredith went to grab a bag to help, but Amelia waved her off, "I'll make Derek get it," she said as if her brother had already agreed to take the bags in. Meredith shook her head at her friend's antics and followed her into the house.

What met them behind the door would change the trajectory of Meredith Grey. She stopped short just as Amelia sprinted toward a tall, young man. Meredith watched as her friend wrapped her arms around the man's neck in a tight hug. She knew then that this had to be Derek Shepherd—and never did she expect Amelia's brother to have such an effect on her. She was Meredith Grey—boys did not get to her.

But there was something about this boy specifically that would change Meredith. With one arm still wrapped around her brother's back, Amelia looked at her friend, "Mer, this is my brother Derek, Der this is my roommate Meredith. She's staying here during the holiday break."

There was a glint in his eyes, and a smile on his lips as he held his hand out for Meredith, "it's nice to meet you, and I'm sorry about your roommate," Derek said.

Meredith returned the gesture, and smiled at Derek, "she's not too bad once you get used to her."

Amelia watch the interaction with interest, realizing that there was something between her brother and best friend. They both immediately clicked as if they had known each other for years. That was not something that came easy to Meredith Grey, Amelia would know—it took two weeks for the blond to ease up and relax toward Amelia. And her new mission during the month long holiday break would be to get the two of them together.

Meredith Grey-Shepherd sat on the floor of her New York brownstone watching Derek sort through mail while she held on to a small blanket. Looking up on their mantle, she smiled as she recalled when they met and all that has happened since they met. Her gaze shifted back toward the floor as she watched their sleeping daughter gently sway back and forth in her baby swing.

Derek looked at his wife, watching as she kept watch over their months old daughter Mia. He had just finished going through the mail after getting home from his shift at the hospital and was trying to figure out how to bring up an important subject without upsetting her. As if she could feel her husband looking at her, Meredith turned her head from where she sat on the floor and smiled at Derek before getting up and walking over to him.

"I know I'm going to sound crazy, but I do not want to go back to work once my leave is up. She's too fascinating to leave," Meredith said with a smile. She had never thought she would be the type of woman to want to be married let alone being a mom, but meeting Derek Shepherd turn a light on in her head and she saw everything she wanted in her future for the first time. She sat down on Derek's lap sideways while wrapping an arm around his neck.

On instinct Derek placed a hand on the small of Meredith's back to support her, and he felt like she just gave him the perfect opening, "you know you don't have to go back right? We'll be fine, but what would you say about maybe leaving New York?"

She laughed at his second question, "and go where? We can't just pick up and move wherever, Derek. You actually have a job that you go to everyday, and I'm on maternity leave with mine."

He was relieved that she wasn't mad or freaking out. She was oddly calm about it. He looked up at her from his lap, "Richard called today," he stated slowly knowing the man could set his wife off, and continued as he felt Meredith trying not to stiffen up, "he's down a head of neurosurgery and asked if we would be interested in moving to Seattle."

Meredith's eyebrows rose into a perfect arch, it wasn't something that sounded fun. She felt that they were only contacted when something was needed, and at this point, she felt like part of the reason Richard called was so he and Ellis could see Mia. But, this would also be a big step for Derek with his career, and on the bright side, they'll be in the same city as Derek's parents. She sighed, "I mean…we can there's not really anything holding us back, but I have conditions."

Derek knew there would be at least one condition when Richard made the offer to him, but he was curious on the remaining conditions, "well, I'm assuming one of the conditions is that they see Mia as little as possible."

She smiled at how Derek worded his response. She knew he thought she would yell, "Never would be best, but I know that won't happen. Second condition? No crazy work schedule, I don't want Mia growing up like I did. I want her to know she has two parents, two parents who aren't workaholics and forget that they even have a child. No child deserves that, especially a baby. I know there will be times that it's inconvenient for you not to be home, but I need that promise, Der. Those are my two conditions."

Derek placed a soft kiss in her hair, "I promise, Mia will have two loving parents, and many loving siblings," he added as a joke.

Meredith lightly elbowed his stomach, "bite your tongue, Derek Shepherd. One surprise baby is enough for right now."

"So…Seattle?" Derek questioned as they sat and looked at their sleeping daughter. Meredith nodded, "I guess I'll call Richard in the morning and let him know. We should probably look into finding a rental until we can find something of our own." Before she could responding, Mia was beginning to fuss as she started waking up.

"I'll get her, it's time for her to eat," Meredith said as she got up and walked over to her baby. She watched as Derek got up and walk to the office, to look at houses she assumed, as she picked up Mia and began gently rocking her to soothe her before beginning to feed her, "so how do you feel about Seattle? At least we'll have grandma and grandpa there, I'm sure they've been missing you," she spoke was she stroked the baby's cheek with her index finger.

Hopefully this all makes sense. Going back to the 90s in the next chapter