"I know mom, I'm not stupid." Meredith rolled her eyes as Ellis lectured her down the phone.

"You may be an adult but I'm still your mother Meredith Elizabeth."

"Yeah, and you sound like it too." Her phone was balanced on her shoulder and pressed against her ear and she drained the pasta she was making for dinner.

"What time is dinner?" Ellis enquired.

"I'm not sure, soon? 6pm? It would be a lot quicker if you stopped calling me every 20 minutes." she scoffed.

"I'm just making sure you know what you're doing, you know, I'm surprised you even know what pasta looks like." her mom joked.

"You're so funny." Meredith rolled her eyes before tripping over.

"Ahh! Asshole!" she shouted as she fell, the pasta water splashing her arm as the food laid on the ground.

The boiling water had burnt her arm and the sounds from the kitchen caused Derek to run in to see what was going on.

"What happened?" he asked concerned as he reached his arm to help her up.

"What does it look like happened, I dropped the food genius."

If she wasn't in a bad mood before, she certainly was now and Derek knew better than to tease her if he cared for his life, so he compressed down his jokes and remarks. He quickly helped her up and ran her arm under some cold water to prevent worse damage.

"Tell mom that dinner will be later." Meredith told him as she pressed a wash cloth to her arm.

"What?" he asked confused.

"My mom. She's on the phone." she said, nodding towards to abandoned phone on the floor. He moved across the room and grabbed it.

"Needless to say she's no chef." Ellis joked, not realising that Derek had put her on loud speaker.

"You know what I-" Meredith began to rant because Derek cut her off.

"Okayyyy. Ellis, Mer has a small injury so we're gonna go and dinner will be around 7, maybe it will just be pizza." he slightly smirked but stopped immediately when he felt the glance from Meredith.

"Also, tell Meredith to watch her mouth and language." Ellis spoke, oblivious to the faces Meredith was making at her which made Derek chuckle before the call ended.

Derek put the phone on the counter and watched Meredith as she fidgeted with the washcloth on her arm, which was still bright red from the water. She caught him looking at her and rolled her eyes as she sighed deeply.

"What?" she snapped.

"Nothing. Why are you in such a bad mood today?"

"I'm not. Everyone is just being annoying like does she not know that I'm a functioning adult, I can take care of and cook for myself, I've been doing it since I was 18."

"That's what mom's do Mer." he chuckled

"Ell is lucky that I'm not like my mother." Derek just nodded not wanting to point out that they really weren't that different.

It was my 5pm and Derek had suggested that she take a nap, so she did. He made his way to her bedroom to found that she wasn't there, he was confused until he heard her grunt in the bathroom.

"Mer?" He knocked on the door.

"Derek. You need to go to the store." She sniffled.

"Okay, what for? Are you crying?"

"I need tampons." she cried.

Derek's mouth made an 'o' in realisation, that explained her moodiness and bitter personality. On the other hand, couldn't she get some herself?

"Okay. And you want me to go get them?" he questioned her behind the door.

"Seriously! Are you stupid?!" she shouted, opening the door enough the swing her head around as she sat on the toilet.

"I can't go can I dumbass! If I could go then I wouldn't be having this problem would I?"

Derek held his hands up and nodded quickly, she was scary when she was pissed.

"Okay, okay, i'll go. Which ones do you need?" he grabbed his jacket off the bedroom door.

"The purple box." she sighed.

"And hurry!" he heard her yell as he left her apartment.

When he arrived at the store, he located the 'feminine hygiene' aisle and secured what she needed, before checking out he also picked up some chocolate, ibuprofen and a new pair of pyjamas and some bed socks. He knew that she would be in some discomfort so he did what he could to help her.

Walking to the till, he heard a woman talking to who he assumed to be her partner about how some men do buy tampons for the girlfriend, he couldn't help but laugh at the guy's face who was clearly embarrassed to be getting lectured in the store by his significantly smaller girlfriend. He quickly drove back to her apartment and ran to her bathroom handing her the box of tampons.

"Finally. Thank you." she sighed in relief.

"It's not a problem. I left a bag on your bed, there's some more stuff in there." he said as he walked over and sat on the bed. He waited for her to finish.

"What do you mean? What else did you buy?" she asked as she dried her hands and came out of the bathroom.

"Just look." he smiled.

She hopped onto the bed and crossed her legs before grabbing the bag. A smile graced her face as she saw the contents, she turned to Derek with blushed cheeks and leaned in for a hug which he happily accepted.

"You didn't have to buy me this stuff so thank you."

He kissed her lips gently.

He told her to rest and that he would take care of the dinner, after he left the room she decided to take a shower to freshen herself up, of course before she did, she took some ibuprofen with some water. Ellyse had stayed with Carolyn the night before so she was due home soon for dinner. When she was freshened up and ready, she made her way to the kitchen where Derek was cooking some kind of chicken dish, she wasn't sure what I was but it smelled amazing and she wouldn't complain about eating it. She sat down on one of the kitchen stools watching as he cooked, they talked, made some jokes and before either of them knew it, it was 6:30pm and Carolyn had arrived with their daughter.

"Daddy!" Ellyse ran into his arms.

Meredith frowned, her mouth open as she quickly looked to Carolyn and then back to Derek and Ellyse.

"You've got a daddy's girl there Mer." Carolyn laughed.

"Yeah, so much for taking care of her all her life." she joked.

"Hi mommy." Ellyse hugged her leg.

She made a joke about how she didn't want to be her second choice before picking her up and giving her a big hug, she brought Ellyse into the living room to hear all about her night whilst Derek finished cooking the dinner.

"And me and grandma watched..." she stopped to think.

"The film with the fishes. The blue and orange fish!" Ellyse hinted for help.

"Nemo?" Meredith guessed.

"Yes! Nemo. But I got sad when the fishy got lost mommy because I'd be sad too if I couldn't find you."

"Aw Ell. Come here." she said bringing her into another hug.

"I missed you but i'm glad that you had a good time with grandma. Did she give you loads of ice cream?"

Ellyse chuckled and covered her mouth with her hand.

"That's our little secret." Carolyn whispered.

It wasn't a secret that Carolyn was the child pleaser, Ellyse adored her and she had her wrapped around her little finger. Each time Carolyn came to visit she always brought cookies or cakes with her which gained her grandma points with Ellyse, although Ellis had a few tricks of her own, and they often included sharing childhood stories about Meredith to her daughter, which is what she was doing now. Ellis arrived shortly after Carolyn.

Dinner was soon served and everyone enjoyed it, the topic of conversation at the table was Meredith's meal attempt which Ellis loved to tease her about before asking about her injury. Her arm was okay and after a few hours, the redness had gone away. They called it an early night as Meredith began to get restless and crampy, she made a hot water bottle as Derek put Ellyse to bed before going to bed herself, Derek soon joined her and they both fell asleep, tightly cuddled up together, his arm the perfect pressure around her waist.