48. Meeting the Family

OH. MY. GOODNESS. Elevator Love Letter was beyond everything I expected it to be. That proposal was absolutely beautiful. I cried for joy into the wee hours of the morning. There's no way in heck I could have dreamt that up. And I just read that they're getting married on May 7th! Again, OMG!

"I think I'm gonna throw up," Meredith said as they drove down Applewood Lane, a small residential street located in a quiet New York suburb. When Meredith pictured New York, she saw tall buildings and taxis and the hustle and bustle of the city. But being here, in Derek's hometown, she never would have suspected she was in the same state. The little suburb was so...Derek.

Derek laughed, pulling their rental car into the large driveway. "Mer, relax. I promise you, it's going to be fine," he assured her.

"I should have saved my air-sick bag from the plane in case you needed it," Mark said jokingly.

The three of them got out of the small black sedan and Derek popped open the trunk. "Mark, shut up," Derek shot back amusedly before kissing Meredith's cheek. "Do you trust me?" he whispered.

Meredith nodded. "Of course," she replied. "Just...don't leave my side..."

"I won't," he chuckled. The three of them grabbed as much luggage as the could in one trip, and Derek took hold of her hand. "Ready?" he asked as they walked up to the front door, painted a burnt red color and decorated with a autumn wreath.

"Guess so," Meredith said, letting out a breath.

With his free hand, Mark turned the knob and pushed open the front door. The smell of fresh baked cookies filled the air and they could hear talking and children's laughter ringing through the home. "We're here!" Mark announced.

Meredith bit her lip nervously as a crowd of people swarmed to the foyer to meet them. She felt slightly relieved when Derek's mother's voice could be heard approaching them. "My boys! And Meredith!" she exclaimed happily, pulling all three of them in for a huge hug. "How are you, dears? How was your flight? Are you hungry? We have cookies..." Linda said, pressing the back of her hand to Derek's cheek. "It's chilly out there. Come in and get warmed up," she ordered, waving them into the house.

"We still have suitcases in the trunk," Derek replied. "We'll be back in a minute, Mer."

Before Meredith could protest, the rest of the family began speaking to her all at once. "Hi, Meredith. I'm Robert--"

"Kathleen's husband," Meredith finished before blushing in embarrassment.

"She knows our names. I love her already," Rob joked. "Nice to meet you."

Meredith smiled. Derek's family was actually...nice. Not that she thought they'd be mean. She just had no idea what to expect. Being an apple on the Grey family tree, feeling apprehensive came naturally. "You too," Meredith said softly.

"Alison, Timmy, no wrestling!" a female voice called. A tall brunette woman walked into the living room wearing an apron. "Sorry about that," she laughed. "My children seem to think that because they're at grandma's, they can get away with murder. Hi, Meredith. I'm Kathleen."

"Hi," Meredith said meekly. The brothers-in-law were one thing, but the Shepherd sisters raised the stakes.

Luckily, Derek and Mark walked back into the house with the rest of the bags and set them by the stairs to be taken up eventually. "Hi," a small girl's voice said sweetly. Meredith looked around for the source, but turned her head downward when she felt a hand tugging on the pant leg of her jeans.

"Oh. Hi," Meredith said with a smile, kneeling down to greet the small blonde girl. "Are you...Morgan?" Meredith asked.

The small girl nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm Meredith. It's nice to meet you, Morgan," Meredith said with a kind smile.

"I'm three," Morgan said, holding up three fingers.

Meredith giggled. "Wow, such a big girl!" she said enthusiastically.

"Can we play hairdresser later?" the little girl asked excitedly, bouncing up and down in her little pink shoes.

"Sure, sweetie," Meredith laughed as Derek knelt down next to her.

He smiled when he saw his niece. "Hey Morgan. Remember me?"

The little girl whose eyes matched Derek's smiled slightly. "Uncle Derek."

"That's right," Derek laughed, pulling her in for a hug. "The last time I saw you, you were just a baby."

"I'm three now," Morgan repeated. "Not a baby."

"That's right," he agreed, kissing her cheek.

When another one of the Shepherd children called her over to play, Morgan scurried off into the family room. "She's adorable, Derek," Meredith smiled, taking his hand as they stood up. "Please don't leave my side."

"Promise," he whispered, kissing her softly.

"There's our baby brother," Kathleen and Nancy teased, hugging him.

Derek rolled his eyes. "Nice to see you, too," he laughed.

After they pulled back from their hug, Nancy looked to Meredith. "Hello, Meredith. How are you?"

"I'm...great. How are you doing?" she asked politely.

"Good," Nancy nodded, crossing her arms over her chest.

Meredith was thankful when a group of children ran up to join them. "Uncle Derek! Uncle Mark!" they exclaimed excitedly. Mark and Derek quickly fell into the uncle role and began talking and laughing with the little kids, gasping when they told them of their accomplishments at school or soccer goals, and promising to play with them during their visit.

By the time Meredith had been introduced to nearly every member of the Shepherd family, of course she was feeling a little overwhelmed, but at the same time, she felt relieved by how nice they all are. Sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews--everyone was so warm and welcoming. With the exception of seeing an aunt and uncle every so often as a child, Meredith really had no family of her own, besides her hospital family and her father's family. So having the chance to be part of the Shepherd family who hugged each other and laughed and baked and genuinely loved each other was amazing.

While Mark was being pulled into the family room by the nephews to play a video game, Mrs. Shepherd called Meredith and Derek over into the dining room. "I'm sorry if that felt like you were being bombarded, sweetheart," Linda laughed.

"Oh, no, it's fine. Everyone is so nice, Mom," Meredith said sincerely. Calling Derek's mother Mom should have felt weird, but it wasn't. Meredith loved her mother in her own way, but she loved Derek's mom too. Since the second they had been introduced months ago, Meredith felt such a warm presence and knew immediately why Derek was the person he was.

"Good, I'm glad," she smiled, squeezing Meredith's arm gently.

"Where's Amy, Tom, and the baby?" Derek asked.

Linda grabbed the plate of cookies off the table and held it out to them. "They'll be here in a bit. Kyle was fussy this morning, so he's napping now. Amy called a little bit ago and said they'd be here for dinner tonight."

"Oh, good," Meredith smiled. "We saw the pictures. He's just adorable."

Linda smiled. "He is. He looks just like my Derek when he was a baby," she said proudly. "Same dark hair and blue eyes."

"Of course they did," Derek laughed. "Every Shepherd has blue eyes...except Nancy. I'm convinced she was adopted," he joked.

"Derek, that's enough," his mother scolded, unable to hide her smile. "Okay, why don't you two go start getting unpacked in Derek's room. I'm sure you could use a little quiet time, especially after your flight."

Derek nodded and kissed his mom's cheek. He and Meredith walked through the living room towards the stairs and managed to carry up all of their bags with one trip. On the way up the steps, Meredith smiled when she saw the wall covered in pictures of the Shepherd children. She giggled a little when she spotted one of Derek at his first birthday party. "Derek, you're adorable in these pictures..."

He smirked. "And I'm not adorable now?" he asked jokingly as the reached the hall. "There's pictures everywhere. I'm surprised my mom doesn't just wallpaper the house in them."

"I think it's sweet," Meredith grinned. "Oh, is this your room?" she asked excitedly when Derek stopped in front of one of the wooden doors.

"Yep," he replied, turning the knob and allowing her to enter first. "It's like I never left," Derek laughed as he set the bags down on the floor.

Meredith shut the door so they could have a little privacy, then dropped down onto the full sized bed. "Derek, this room is so...you."

"Why is that?" he asked, forgetting all about the suitcases as he lay down next to her.

"The awards and trophies and family pictures...and The Clash poster," she giggled. "Very, very you..."

Derek pulled her up against him, wrapping his arm around her waist and kissing her. He hadn't been able to kiss her the way he wanted to all day, and now, when they finally had some privacy, he was going to take advantage of the opportunity. "I love you," he murmured against her lips.

Meredith smiled and ran her fingers through his hair. "I love you, too."

"You know...I've never had a girl in my bed before," he mentioned casually, pulling her on top of him.

"What about Addison?" Meredith asked.

Derek laughed. "Bringing up my ex-wife while I'm trying to seduce you? That's cruel..." he sighed. "Nope. Addison and I never spent the night here. We only lived a half hour away, so we just drove back home the same day whenever we visited."

"You never had any of your high school girlfriends over to...study or anything?" she continued playfully.

"We usually studied in the kitchen. My mom would never have let me up here with a girl," Derek chuckled.

Meredith smirked. "Well, that doesn't seem right...I may have to do you a favor and take your bedroom virginity," she said seductively as she kissed his jaw line.

"I thought you said no sex," he reminded her. He knew that if he tried hard enough, there would be sex. And Meredith didn't seem to be protesting all that much anyway.

"Well, I might change my mind. We'll see how things go..." Meredith said nonchalantly, rolling off of him.

Derek ran his fingers through her hair and rested her hand on the back of her head. "Deal."

"I'm glad we came here," she said quietly, wrapping her arm around his waist.

He erupted into goose bumps when she slipped her hand under his shirt so she could rub his back with her fingers. Derek smiled at her. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Everybody is just...they're all so great," she breathed. "I probably shouldn't have been surprised though. They're your family, after all. Can't say you'd be saying the same about my relatives..." she giggled.

"Crazy aunts and uncles?" he asked with a laugh.

"Something like that. I much prefer your side of the family," Meredith smiled, leaning in and kissing him again. "Should we go back downstairs?"

"No," Derek chuckled. "Well, not yet. And the way you're rubbing my back...maybe not until morning."

Meredith giggled. "I just don't want your family thinking we're up here doing...porny things."

"Do you want to do porny things? Because we can," he responded.

"If--and I'm not saying I'm giving in--but if anything even remotely porny happens in this room, it's going to be when everybody is sleeping," Meredith said definitively.

Derek laughed. "You sure that's a good idea? We could probably get away with it now without anyone suspecting anything with all the noise downstairs."

"I know how to do quiet. Remember that time at the steakhouse? I was very quiet..." she purred, pressing her body closer to his.

"That was fun," Derek said softly as he kissed the side of her neck. "We should go there again."

"We should," Meredith agreed, tilting her head to the side for him. "I really really love you, Derek," she blurted out before blushing.

Derek just smiled back at her. "I really really love you, too."

"It's just...being here with you and seeing all of those kids...and knowing that we'll be back one day with our own, and how they'll all play together, it just...I don't know. I've never been to any type of family thing before, but this is...I'm glad I'm here with you," Meredith said quietly.

A stray tear rolled out of the corner of her eye and Derek wiped it away with his thumb. "I'm glad you're here, too."

Meredith raised her head, still slightly embarrassed by her crying and asked, "Does your mom has any more photo albums? I want to see more of your baby pictures later on."

"There's a whole bookshelf downstairs," he laughed. "We can bring them upstairs later."

"Okay," Meredith smiled, looking over to the nightstand. "Is that you and your dad?"

Derek rolled over and grabbed the picture. The two sat up on the bed and he handed it to her. "Yeah," he smiled sadly. "It's me and him when we went camping. I think I was seven or eight."

"You look just like him," Meredith said softly as she rested her head on his shoulder. "And you're the cutest little boy I've ever seen...I know you're positive about the "all girls" thing--and they'll probably be twins thanks to your gene pool--but if we have a little boy, I hope he looks just like you."

"Yeah," Derek said with a soft laugh, fighting back his own tears as he stared down at the framed photo.

Meredith kissed his cheek. "You miss him."

Derek smiled slightly. "Yeah," he nodded. "He would have loved you. When I was little, he always told me that I was growing up so fast. He died when I was nine. He never met any of my girlfriends or saw me get married. But I remember, when we found out he was sick, he and I would just talk. He talked to my sisters a lot too, but I guess he figured they had my mom for things like boyfriend talks and whatever else girls talk about," he chuckled, wiping a tear away from under his eye. "He told me to marry a girl that I really really loved...he said don't just get married because mom and the girls love her, but marry the girl that I'd give my life for in a split second without thinking twice about it."

Meredith bit her lip, feeling the tears well in her eyes again. She reached over and squeezed his hand supportively. Meredith knew a lot about Derek's past, but these little details are what she really loved. Pieces of Derek that made him who he was. "Like you did for me," she whispered, running her thumb over the back of his hand.

"Hmmm..." Derek hummed, pressing a kiss to her temple. "You know, back when Addison and Mark..." he trailed off. "I was so angry. I even got angry at my dad. And that's wrong but...I don't know, I guess I thought he should have been looking out for me. I didn't get it then. Mark and my dad were my best friends, and they both left me. Then I moved to Seattle. I could have went anywhere, but I chose Seattle."

"Where you met me," Meredith said softly, looking into the blue eyes of his she loved.

"Where I met you," he repeated with a small smile. "The weird thing is, as I was driving to Joe's that night, my dad's favorite song came on the radio. That annoying Beatles song...I Want to Hold Your Hand--horrible song, I know," he laughed. "But he always used to sing it to my mom as a joke. Anyway, as I pulled into Joe's that night, that song was on the radio. I sat in the car and waited until it was over before going inside. Just couldn't let myself turn the car off. And when I went inside, I met the love of my life," Derek said, smiling. "I think he was looking out for me the whole time. I think he knew about you way before I did. And I think he brought me to you."

"Derek," Meredith whispered, too many tears escaping her eyes to catch them all.

"He would have loved you--he does love you," Derek nodded, kissing her forehead.

Meredith sniffled and smiled softly. "Well, I guess I love him too. Without him, there'd be no you. So I'm as grateful to him as you are."

Derek set the picture on the bed and wrapped his arms around his wife. "I love you, Mer. I love you so much," he said softly into her hair.

"I love you, too," Meredith said, resting her head on his shoulder.

The two sat in silence for a few moments, holding each other in their embrace. Meredith ran her fingers down his back and smiled. Some time ago, she never thought she'd be in Derek's childhood room. Being here with him, she felt like part of a real family. She was a daughter-in-law, a sister-in-law, an aunt, and a wife. Meredith kissed his cheek and pulled back slightly. "Your mom probably thinks we're up here making a baby," she giggled.

"I don't think she'd mind," Derek laughed. "Her grandchildren are her pride and joy."

"You're the last of the kids to give them to her," Meredith pointed out.

Derek smiled. "Yeah, but ours will be the best," he said playfully.

Meredith nodded, smirking at him. "Uh huh..."

"They will be," he said confidently. "Beautiful, amazing geniuses..."

"Well, I already knew that," Meredith giggled.

Derek kissed her cheek. "Wanna head back downstairs? Mark probably needs help beating the kids at the video games."

"Yeah," she nodded. "I already promised the girls I'd play hairdresser."

"Tell them to do something hot," he joked. "That way you can leave it in for tonight."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "You mean for the sex I never actually agreed on?" she asked as the two walked out of Derek's bedroom and headed for the stairs.

"Yep," Derek confirmed. "Steakhouse style sex."

"Derek!" she laughed. "That was dirty."

He just smirked, taking her hand as they walked down the steps. "Yeah, it was."

"Hey, you two. Christening the bedroom?" Mark asked with a grin as he walked by the two of them with a drink in his hand.

"No!" Meredith said, rolling her eyes. "Maybe later though...if Derek behaves."

The three of them reached the family room that contained several children and adults scatted about. "I always behave..." Derek said cockily.

"Uncle Derek! Will you play with us?" one of his nephews asked, sitting in front of the TV and holding a video game control.

Derek kissed Meredith's cheek. "Sure, buddy," he nodded. "Wanna play with us?"

Before Meredith could answer, she felt a small hand tugging at hers. "Aunt Meredith, can we play hairdresser now?" Morgan asked.

Meredith smiled down at the little girl. "Sure, sweetheart."

Derek looked to Meredith as she walked behind them toward the couch. "Something hot," he mouthed, pointing to her hair.

Meredith giggled and shook her head at him. "You can sit here," Sammy, Nancy's five year old daughter said, pointing to a pillow on the floor. "That's where the customers sit."

"Okay," Meredith smiled, taking a seat where she had been asked, thankful that Derek and Mark were only a few feet away playing video games.

"You have pretty hair, Aunt Meredith," Audrey said as the three girls brushed it out gently.

"Oh, thank you," Meredith said. She could get used to this fast. Having the three of them brush her hair was like heaven.

"Can we do pigtails?" they asked excitedly.

Meredith laughed. "Sounds good to me."

"Are you going to have a baby one day, Aunt Meredith?" Sammy asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, one day," Meredith replied.

Audrey's face lit up and she smiled. "Soon?"

"Well, Uncle Derek and I are busy doctors, so not quite yet. But eventually, we want to," she explained.

"Can you have a girl? Boys are annoying," Sammy said, scrunching her nose.

Meredith giggled, running her hand over her stomach subconsciously. "I'll do my best, hun."

"Are you friends with Aunt Addison?" Carly, Nancy's eight year old, asked from her spot next to them on the couch.

Somehow, Meredith knew this question would come up at some point, and it probably wouldn't be the last time. "Yeah, we are. She even came to our wedding."

"She used to play hairdresser with us too," Audrey giggled.

Meredith laughed a little at the thought of the young girls putting ribbons and clips and bows in Addison's hair. It takes a good aunt to let them do something like that.

"One time, Uncle Derek and Aunt Addison watched us while our parents went to the movies. That was fun," Carly smiled.

"Uncle Derek watched Cinderella with us and let us stay up late," one of the girls informed her. "It was sad when Uncle Derek, Aunt Addie, and Uncle Mark moved away."

"Do they live where you live?" Audrey asked as she secured the pink scrunchie in Meredith's pigtail.

"Uncle Mark and Uncle Derek both live in Seattle, where I live. But your Aunt Addison moved to California because she got a new job. But we all used to work together," Meredith explained.

Mark overheard the conversation from where he was sitting and whispered to Derek. "The girls are really grilling Mer about Addison."

Derek just laughed. "Nancy probably has them wired and is listening from the kitchen," he joked.

"Wouldn't put it past her," Mark sighed.

"You look pretty, Aunt Meredith," Morgan smiled when the girls were done with Meredith's hair-do. She handed her a mirror and Meredith smiled widely.

"You girls did a great job. I love it! Thank you," she said enthusiastically.

Derek turned his head away from the video game to admire his nieces' work. "She looks more beautiful than ever," he grinned. "Very, very hot," Derek mouthed to her.

"Shut up," Meredith mouthed back, unable to hide her smile. This family thing was nice.

This probably seems like a weird place to stop, I know. I originally had a little more, but as I was writing, I decided to just put the continuation in the next chapter. The Shepherd visit will take place over several chapters. This was more of an intro. to the family and for Meredith to get a feel for everything. Hope you enjoyed it. :)

Reviews make my day. :)