Apologies for the lack of posts. I had a chapter ready to put out but then decided to change it up a little.

Hope you enjoy, and thank you so much for all your comments and kudos as always! :)

"Jeez. That was so much food."

"We should not have had desert." He agreed with a sigh as he pulled himself backwards away from the table. The desert was so damn good though, to be fair.

"Not gonna be able to stand up- my stomach is-" She groaned as it did. "...not doing good."

"Don't think I'm going to be able to stand either."

She giggled. "You're not funny."

"Looks like you're laughing to me." He pointed out as it subsided.

She braced herself, grabbing onto the table before eventually standing with a sigh. "I hate you."

"No, you don't. I know you don't." He disagreed as he started to follow her out the restaurant. Luckily, they were near the door.

"You're right. I don't." She agreed as the pair exited the building. She held her hand out to him.

"I'm not doing that."

"C'mon." She begged. Meredith had spent a lot of time researching the very minimal information she could find on the more personal side of spinal cord injuries. She knew all of the medical stuff there was to know with the complicated names and the fancy theories, but she wanted to know more about what it was actually like for him, as well as what it was like for other people who were the able-bodied half of an interabled relationship. And then, on a blog, she discovered hand-holding, chair style. "You know you want to try it."

"I know you want to try it because you don't shut up about it."

She smiled as she put on her best pleading puppy dog eyes. "Please."

He smiled reluctantly and grasped her hand. "Pre-warning, I've never done this before, so it probably won't go well."

"Well, there's a first time for everything." She said as she walked, pulling him behind her.

"Stop, stop, stop!" He exclaimed through a laugh as she dragged him and practically pulled his arm off. They'd barely moved a single metre.

She paused and turned around. "You're right. You suck at this!"

"You're the one who just ran off!" He rebutted, still grinning.

"Okay." She agreed, thinking. "You start first and I'll just try to figure it out."

"You always have to figure it out with me."

The corners of her lips rose. "Mmm. Now, off you go."

He sighed, and reluctantly smiled. "Fine. But I'm only trying this once more then I'm done."

"Hi, Dr Grey."

She pressed the emergency stop button the second the doors were completely closed and broke into a smile at the sight of her boyfriend. "Hi, Derek."

"How are you doing?"

"I'm bored." She sighed as she sat down on him, at an ever-slight angle.

"Bored?" He repeated, surprised as his hands snaked round her waist and engulfed her. Life as an intern wasn't often boring, unless it was filled with scut. Doing endless IVs and X-rays without the possibility of a surgery was most definitely boring.

"Cardio."

"Valve this, valve that. Right?" Derek kidded, making her smile.

"It's not boring-boring, it's just not great, you know? I just...well, I suppose I just miss neuro. Do you know when I'm on your service again?"

"You miss neuro or you miss me?" He pondered with a cheeky smirk.

"Neuro. Not you; I basically live with you."

He moved her hair over to her other side and kissed her bare neck. "Are you sure it's not me?"

She turned her head to look at him. "Okay. Maybe it is. Just a little. But we get elevator cuddles so that makes up for the time apart, right?"

"Mmm." He sighed. It didn't really. Preferably, he'd be with her all day every day.

"Well, I mean, if we could hang out somewhere like a hallway where we could practice our hand-holdi-"

"Oh, Meredith." He chuckled. "Stop with the hand-holding."

"But it worked! And we got to be a cute little couple. You know I love being with you the way you are, but it was nice to be more like a conventional couple for once."

He smiled. "Well...yeah, I suppose. But you get free seats wherever you are with this non-convential couple thing we have going."

She kissed him. "Or, seeing as you can do both, I could just get both, couldn't I?"

"I suppose."

"You suppose correctly. But now I have work to do, and there may be a dying patient waiting for this elevator so I better get going-" She said as she stood and removed the emergency stop button.

Derek, however, wasn't so happy with the split and grabbed a hold of her hand. He was pouting when Meredith turned around and looked at him.

She smiled, and squeezed it a little tighter.

"What if you didn't?"

"Then I'd get fired for-" She paused when she was interrupted by a low voice.

"You guys suck at this secret thing."

"Aaron?" Derek said at the same times as Meredith said, "Dr Holton."

"This is the second time I've seen you being suspiciously together, and yet no one here knows?"

Their hands split, and she stepped away from him. "What are you doing here?" Meredith pondered, confused. Luckily, he was the only one waiting for the elevator, so therefore the only one who had seen them together, holding hands.

"Having a little peak about the place, you know?" He answered. "Your chief gave me privileges and I'm hoping to team up with your head of cardio for a surgery or two. See how it works around here in the land of ferry boats."

Derek smiled. He couldn't help it. The land of ferry boats. God, he loved Seattle.

"Oh- and do tell me if you have any good surgeries Derek, I'd love to watch you work.

He nodded. "Of course. My caseload is pretty standard right now but I've got a little boy flying in on Tuesday for a consult. Hopefully I'll be removing that tumour later in the day, barring any complicated results. And do tell me if you get offered anything good, I'd love to see you work too."

He smiled. "Yeah. Sounds great. Now- tell me, which is the OR floor?"

"Fourth." Meredith and Derek said in unison.

His smile because a smirk at that before he rolled his eyes. "Jesus Christ, how people around here don't know you're an item is beyond me." He muttered with a smile as he stepped into the elevator and the pair left.

"So what did you tell him about me?" Aaron asked as Meredith settled next to him at the table.

She shrugged. "Nothing, really."

"At all?" He pressed after swallowing his bite of sandwich.

"He doesn't tell people what happened to him, and apparently everyone who does who was sworn to secrecy. I respect that. So, when I said that there was something that had happened but that I didn't want to talk about it, he respected that and told me it was okay if I didn't want to talk about it." She explained. "Well, he said I had to tell him somewhen, but he wasn't at all pressuring. It's one of the things that makes him so great."

"So, basically, what you're saying is you're in a serious relationship with this man, despite the fact that neither of you know anything about the other one at all."

"We know plenty about each other."

"Just nothing about each other's past. At all."

"Um...yeah, basically."

"So, nothing about your mom?" He pressed.

"Nope." She disagreed. The only thing that Derek knew about her mother was the fact that she had treated her terribly, and that she was a god of a general surgeon. "Obviously, he knows who she is though."

"And you've told him nothing about what happened in second year whatsoever?" He asked.

"Well, you know I had to tell him I dropped out of John-Hopkins. But in terms of- the other stuff, he doesn't know anything."

"And you're okay with that? Your relationship is okay with that?" He pressed. He didn't mean to push her so hard, but he couldn't help it after all that Meredith had gone through before. Especially considering the fact that he would internally beat himself up for the rest of his life for not trying harder to help her before her whole universe collapsed.

"He doesn't need to know."

"Well, one day, for legal reasons, he's going to have to know, isn't he?" Aaron pointed out, doing his best to leave out anything that could hint at what he was referring to. He knew that there were other people within earshot, and gossip-obsessed nurses were a universal thing.

"We've been together for two months. I do love him and all, but all of that settling down stuff is a long, long, long way away."

"Do you know if he wants children?"

"We discussed it once, before we were together. He said he wanted a kid, but he wasn't entirely sure he would ever actually do it because he thought he'd be a bad father. I, of course, told him that he'd be a great father."

"Did he ask you about your stance."

"Yes." She admitted reluctantly, knowing what was coming next.

"And what did you say?"

"That my mother was terrible and I was worried I'd be like her. Which is the truth."

"So, Sebasti-"

"I don't want to talk about Sebastian."

"He's not a deciding factor anymore? Everything is just about your mother and that's it?"

"Of course he's a deciding factor. He..." She swallowed as her throat tightened. She hadn't heard his name in such a long time. "He will always be a deciding factor in everything that I ever do. You know that, Aaron."

"You can do whatever you think is right, you know more about yourself and Derek than I do but...what if your situation changed?"

"My situation changed?" She repeated. "What's going to change?"

"Okay, say-" He paused, thinking. "Right. Say you found out you were pregnant-"

"Aaron-"

"You'd have to tell him. All of it. About Sebastian and what happened to you in med school. Literally all of it. Plus, when you consider the fact that a lot of people propose when they find out they got their significant other pregnant-"

"You can't just throw unlikely scenarios at me like that. I can't live my life on buts and ifs."

"Okay but-" He paused when he saw her face change. "Meredith, are you okay?"

She swallowed, and shoved her plate away from her.

"What's wrong? Is it the food?"

Without a word, she stood, and left the cafeteria, leaving him staring at the door in disbelief.

"Oh my god." Derek couldn't help but mutter at the sight of his girlfriend.

"I think I might need a towel."

"I knew it was raining, but- Jesus."

"When I went to the shop, it wasn't raining. When I came out, it was. And, of course, I parked the car ten blocks away from the shop."

"Okay uh-" He didn't really know what to say. Meredith was just stood in his hallway, dripping with rain. "Just put the shopping down there and get your shoes off while I get you a towel."

"Right." She agreed. She removed her shoes, and then her hoodie, both of which felt horrendous against her damp skin. Even her socks were drenched-through.

"Just dry yourself enough that you don't flood the house as you walk to the bathroom." He recommended.

She smiled as she took the towel. "Might be here a while then."

"I'll put the shopping away-"

"Oh. No. Don't bother. I'll do it. You go back to your-" She prompted, trailing off when she realised she didn't know what he was occupying himself with before. "You're making something?"

"Mmm. Just a little cat. Lucky was sat on my stuff for quite a while though so I haven't got very far."

She smiled. That sounded like Lucky. "Well, you do that. And I'll do the shopping- now, I think I'm just about dry enough."

"Do you have a change of clothes left?"

"I think I have underwear, cause I always at least double pack, but I'm not sure about anything else."

"Just take something from my wardrobe then."

She nodded. She loved his clothes. "Will do." She agreed as she disappeared into his bedroom, luckily not leaving a trail of water behind her as she walked.

He smiled as she disappeared before turning round. He picked up her shoes and put them on the rack, hung her hoodie up as far away from all of the other dry clothes as he could, then picked up the shopping bag and placed it onto his lap.

Before he could move anywhere, Lucky was beside him, looking at the floor in confusion.

"No night walkies for you. There's a big thunderstorm." Derek said as he brushed her fur. He didn't know whether it was because she had never been over bothered with walking or because of her missing limb, but the creature had never been the walking-obsessed type. Besides, she got plenty of physical activity from chasing her balls around the house, most conveniently when he was trying to have a romantic evening. "And I know that you would just shake your rain all over me, so I'm definitely not trusting you."

She sniffed the floor, then decided she was done with her investigation, and headed back to the sofa to curl back up into her ball.

He smiled at the creature - she truly was an adorable dog - before moving to the kitchen. He removed one item at a time from the bag on his lap, moving to place each one in its required area before returning to the bag. A carton of orange juice. A loaf of bread. A carton of milk. A block of cheese. A box of Lucky's treats (which he had to remove and store away very quietly). A packet of tomatoes. A bag of carrots. One- no, two- no, three packets of toothpaste.

He paused when his hand pulled them out and he read the packaging.

That wasn't toothpaste.

Crap.

Or not crap?

Maybe crap?

No, definitely crap.

Or...maybe not.

Okay, not crap, but not not crap either.

"Derek?" Meredith breathed, clearly seeing what was in his hand.

He didn't look at her for a long moment. He couldn't. He was too busy staring at the not-toothpaste.

"Derek." She repeated.

"Now I see why you wanted to do the shopping yourself." He uttered, his voice low and airy. He looked so dumbfounded, but she totally understood why. If the situation was reversed, she'd probably freak out just as much, if not more.

She swallowed. "Okay, I can explain-"

"You're pregnant?"

"No, Derek, I'm-"

"Why would you buy pregnancy tests if you're not pregnant?" He asked, interrupting her. He couldn't help it. His head physically hurt at the shock.

"No. I mean- I don't know that I'm not pregnant. But I don't know if I am either. That was-" She sighed. "I wasn't saying no I'm not pregnant. I don't know. I could be. That's why I bought them."

"Right." He breathed.

"Remember the prom? Well um-"

"You were-" He couldn't say it.

"I was ovulating." She practically mouthed, not able to get anything else out. She only did marginally better than him. At least his words were words until he got to the one particular word that made her tense.

"Right." He breathed.

"And you weren't wearing protection and I'm not on birth control."

"Right."

"And that was seventeen days ago."

"Right."

"But I haven't had my period yet."

"Right."

"Can you say anything other than 'right'?"

He would have loved to smile and say 'left' as a joke, but he couldn't handle that right now. Meredith was...well, he didn't know what Meredith was, but Meredith could be pregnant. Freaking pregnant. "I don't think so."

She would have loved to smile and joke that that was something other than 'right' as a joke too, but she couldn't handle that right now either. "So um...a baby."

"A baby."

Well, that was progress, she supposed. "Like a child."

"That we made." He swallowed. "Together."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Are you okay?"

He didn't speak for a long moment, thinking, before finally opening his mouth, "Pee on the stick."

"What?"

"You should pee on the stick - sticks, actually - before we do anything else."

"Oh. Right." She breathed. "Forgot about that bit."

He gave three slow knocks on the door.

Nothing.

"Mer?" He called, his voice soft and gentle.

Nothing.

"Meredi-" He paused when the door opened. "You okay?"

"I peed on the sticks."

He swallowed. "You peed on the sticks."

She didn't move for a long second, and just stared at him with nervousness written all over her. The hand that wasn't holding the sticks was grabbing at the bottom of her jumper's sleeve and her lip was being bitten in half by her teeth.

"Do you want to sit down?" He asked.

"Oh. Okay." She breathed. She moved into the bedroom, and sat down on the bed.

"How long does it take for them to say something?"

"They're one minute ones. And they're ninety-nine percent accurate. But there's three of them. So it's actually two-hundred-and-ninety-seven percent accurate." She rambled.

"Okay, Meredith, you-" He paused when his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out, noted the caller as Richard, then declined it. This was not the time for a friendly catch up.

"If it's positive-"

"Yeah?" He said when she didn't continue her sentence.

"I need to tell you something. So just- just- Oh, oh my god." She breathed as she saw a red line start to appear. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Meredith." He named.

Nothing. He didn't get a single signal that she was still in there.

He understood; his brain was melting too. "Mer?"

It took her a long second to realize that she had been staring at him. "Huh?"

"Look at the tests."

"Oh-" She looked down. Three sets of single lines. Negative. Not pregnant. Not. Pregnant. She swallowed, and muttered a dropped, "Oh."

"So...you're not."

"No." She swallowed. "I...I'm not pregnant."

Derek was about to speak when his phone rang again. He cancelled it instantly this time, seeing as his phone was sat on his thigh and therefore easy to access.

"Are you okay?"

"Well- we didn't want to be pregnant." She stated.

His eyebrows creased. She seemed so...empty. "No. We didn't."

"So we're...happy, I suppose." She said. Although, she certainly didn't sound it.

"Are you sure you're oka-" He paused, again, when the phone rang, again. He picked up it up this time, hoping to just say one blunt sentence and then hang up. "I'm not on call and I'm in the middle of something here so can you stop-"

Meredith looked up when he stopped talking. Richard couldn't have talked for more than about ten second before he put the phone down, a frown on his face.

"What? Did something happen?"

"A uh- A patient shot Preston in the shoulder. The chief needs me to go into the hospital ASAP and assess him for possible nerve damage." He explained. "Which means I have to go."

"Well, I'll be here." She said, her eyes back on the sticks.

"Meredith, are you sure you're okay?"

She smiled. "Fine. I'm always fine."