96. Surprise!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Happy 2011!

Meredith stood in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom and frowned. Her body had officially been overtaken by her belly, which is why she tried not to look at herself naked that often. But now, while she was trying to find something to wear for her lunch date with Derek, she couldn't help but stare.

"Lilly, how would you feel about being an only child?" she joked. "Because I don't know if my body can handle another spin around the pregnancy wheel."

The bathroom door opened and Derek smiled at her nakedness. "I know you don't think so, but you look gorgeous," he said as he wiped the excess shaving cream off his face with a towel.

"We had sex three times last night. You're not getting lucky right now," Meredith laughed, reaching for her cocoa butter so she could rub some on her skin.

"I didn't say it to get lucky. I said it because it's true," Derek replied. "I'm gonna miss you being pregnant."

Meredith smiled down at her belly. "I know I haven't been pleasant the entire time, but I am too, actually. I like sharing my body with her. Feeling every kick and roll, knowing she's all safe and warm and protected." She shrugged embarrassedly. "I know that's corny, but…"

Derek wrapped his arms around her from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. "No, it's not. You're just… a mom. You have a bond with her."

"I can't wait to see her for the first time," Meredith said, leaning into him.

"Three more weeks."

"It still feels like we just went to Alex and Izzie's wedding, and you held my dress while I peed," she giggled.

"Twice."

"Twice," she echoed. "And we found out I was pregnant. I didn't think I'd be peeing on a stick that day…"

"Me either," Derek chuckled. "How'd you know?"

"That I was pregnant? I don't know. I just felt… different. Which probably makes no sense, but I did. And it wasn't because of any symptoms or anything. I just had a feeling that we'd finally done it."

"Sometimes, I look at your belly, and I still can't believe it." Derek kissed her shoulder and smiled against her skin. "God, you're beautiful."

Meredith spun around in his arms and narrowed her eyes playfully. "I think someone is trying to get into my big, pregnant pants…"

"You're not wearing pants," he smirked.

"I know. I'm not wearing anything." She pulled back from his embrace and opened her panty drawer, rummaging for a pair. "Tonight," she said, pulling a lacy, white pair up her legs. "Tonight, you can take these off."

Derek's breath nearly caught in his throat at the thought of it, and he had to turn his head away to keep the blood from soaring straight to his groin. Thinking dirty things about his wife right before going to a baby shower probably wasn't a good idea.

"What about this dress?" she asked.

When he turned back around, she was wearing a bra, too, which made it easier to keep his cool. "You'll look beautiful in that."

Meredith held the light blue sundress up to her body and bit her lip as she contemplated. "Okay, I'll wear this," she said.

"I'm gonna go let Charlie out before we leave. Meet you downstairs," he said, kissing her cheek.

She tossed the hanger onto the bed and smiled. "Okay."

Once Derek was safely on the back patio, watching Charlie run around the yard, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Izzie's number. "Hey, Iz. It's me," he said as soon as she answered. "We'll be leaving here soon." He checked his watch. "Call my cell in ten minutes or so."

"Okay," Izzie agreed on the other end, dumping a large bag of pretzels into a pink bowl. "She doesn't suspect anything, right?"

"No, I don't think so. If she does, she's hiding it pretty well," he chuckled. He could hear Meredith's flip flops clacking against the tiles on the kitchen floor as she entered. "Okay, I have to go before she sees me on the phone. Ten minutes."

"Ten minutes. Got it."

Derek walked back in the house and grinned at Meredith, taking in her pregnant glowiness. "Wow."

"I know," she sighed, drinking a glass of water. "I look like I stuffed a beach ball under my dress."

"That beach ball is our daughter," he laughed. "And no, it doesn't."

"Thank you," Meredith said, smiling a little at him. She ran her hand over her belly when she heard her stomach growling. "I'm starving."

Charlie ran back into the house and Meredith knelt down to kiss him. "We'll be home later, okay buddy?" She scratched under his chin, then stood upright again with a grunt. "Ugh. Even kneeling for thirty seconds is a workout," she giggled.

"All that sex last night wore you out," Derek chuckled, putting his hand on the small of her back as they walked toward the front door.

"Well, we can't do anything missionary-ish anymore, which means I have to do most of the work on top. I could open jars with my thigh muscles," she said.

Derek smiled. "That makes me proud, Mer."

Ten minutes into the drive, and Izzie's phone call came, right on cue. Derek handed it to Meredith because he was driving, and let Izzie recount her fake emergency to her. After she hung up, Meredith handed him his phone back. "We have to make a quick stop at the old house. Izzie said the dishwasher is making this rumbling sound and Alex is at work, so she asked if you could come by to take a look at it."

"Right now?" Derek asked.

"Something might be leaking. And you know how OCD she is about keeping the kitchen clean. It'll probably only take a few minutes," Meredith said.

"Alright," he agreed, pretending to sound reluctant, but inwardly proud that this was going so smoothly, and that Meredith seemed oblivious to the whole thing.

They pulled up to the old house and into the driveway ten minutes later, Derek holding his breath as he scanned the block for cars that Meredith might recognize. But as promised, none were to be seen, all presumably parked on neighboring streets.

As they got out of the car and walked up to the door, Derek's heart hammered away in his chest nervously. Meredith hated surprises; he knew that. But this was her baby shower, a day she knew was coming down the pike for almost nine months now, so he could only hope she'd find the silver lining in the situation, and not feel bombarded with attention and pink ribbons and people touching her belly.

The foyer and hall leading into the kitchen appeared empty through the glass of the front door, and he swallowed thickly as he held it open for her. Meredith stepped up and over the threshold, and he followed in right behind her, prepared to catch her if she passed out from embarrassment, or felt the need to hit him for duping her.

"Iz?" she called out. She veered left for the living room and stopped in her tracks. "Oh my God…" Meredith murmured, dropping her face into her hands.

"Surprise!" Claps and cheers rang out from the group gathered together in the room, adorned in pinks and yellows with streamers and balloons and decorated with things that said 'It's a Girl!" and piles of presents. Meredith looked around the room, her mouth agape.

Izzie, Cristina, Lexie, Callie, Arizona, Bailey, Bridget, and Mark. A small group, but still, a group of people that had probably known about this for months and hadn't dropped a single hint.

She spun around and glared at her husband. "You knew all along."

"Yeah, I did," he confessed sheepishly.

"We got you so good," Cristina bragged, a beer already in her hand, a necessary commodity for her to survive a baby shower.

Meredith walked into the living room, still dumbfounded by being bombarded. Then it started. The waterworks. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm crying," she sniffled, brushing away the tears that slipped over her eyelids.

"These days, you cry when you see a kitten, Grey," Mark pointed out. "Oh! And that soup commercial... you know, with the brother and sister," he baited her.

"Stop it," Meredith said, her eyes burning even more when she recalled the corny commercial that never ceased to have her sobbing at the end of its thirty second run. "This is just… I don't even know what to say."

"We love you. And Derek. And Lilly. Of course we did this," Izzie said, wrapping her arms around her friend.

"The house is all decorated, and you all gave up your Saturday to be here," Meredith pointed out, smiling graciously at Callie when she handed her a tissue. She noticed one of Lilly's ultrasound pictures blown up to fit in an 8 x 10 frame sitting on the end table, one of Meredith's gifts, and the tears came twice as fast. "And you have one of the sonograms framed…"

"Yeah, that's a little weird," Cristina chimed in.

Meredith ignored the comment, unable to be detracted from her hormonally charged crying fest. "I really freaking hate surprises, but this is… I really appreciate this."

She swiveled around to Derek. "See, I told you we don't do lunch dates. I should've known you had something up your sleeve."

"Admit it, we outsmarted you, Meredith Grey," Izzie said proudly.

"Yes, you did," Meredith giggled. "Thank you."

"Come on, sit," Izzie said, taking her hand and leading her over to the couch.

"Oh God, you're not gonna make me wear a sash or a ribbon hat, are you?" Meredith asked.

"I debated it, but decided on no," Izzie reassured her.

"Where are all the guys?" Derek asked, looking around the room.

"Uh, hello?" Mark piped up. "I'm here."

"Owen and George worked today, so we could all have the day off. And Karev got paged in right before you got here," Callie explained.

Derek laughed. "So it's just me and Mark?"

"Looks like it," Mark nodded. He took a swig from his beer bottle and pointed toward the kitchen. "Come on, let's go grill meat or watch porn or something. I can't sit in Baby-Land all afternoon."

"There's burgers and hot dogs in the fridge," Izzie said. "Make yourselves useful."

Derek leaned down and kissed Meredith, smiling against her lips. "Surprise," he chuckled.

"Hmm, payback's a bitch," she said in a sing-song voice.

"Looking forward to that later."

He and Mark disappeared into the kitchen, and Meredith bit her lip. She felt like a sitting duck without Derek there to save her from potential embarrassment. "So, uh…"

"Okay, what do you want to do first? We have 'Pin the Sperm on the Egg,'" Izzie suggested excitedly.

Lexie nearly choked on the chip she was chewing on. "Are you serious? That exists?"

"I found it at the party store. I had to get it," Izzie said in her own defense. "Or, oh! We can all guess when the baby will be born. We can save the sperm and egg game for later."

"Alright, uh, I say the baby will be born at this baby shower," Cristina began. "Just so she can escape this baby shower."

"Yang," Bailey warned.

Cristina shrugged. "What? She knows I'm kidding."

Meredith reached for a handful of chips. "I don't care what we play. Just don't mind me when I have to take a bathroom break every ten minutes," she giggled.

"Kicking you, huh?" Arizona asked.

"Kicks to the ribs, head-butts to the crotch. She's likes to remind me that she's in there," Meredith joked, munching on a chip.

Callie smiled. "How often do you feel her?"

"Not as much as I did a few weeks ago, because she's running out of room to move," Meredith said. "But a few times a day, depending on her mood. Derek loves it. He was hugging me the other day before he left for work, and she kicked so hard that he could feel it against his stomach. He freaked out, he was so happy."

Cristina snorted, running her piece of bread through the spinach dip on the table. "I bet it's not so cool when she kicks during you-know-what…"

Meredith blushed, and it didn't go unnoticed.

"What? What happened?" Lexie asked.

"Last week," Meredith said, before clamping her mouth shut. "No, I can't. Bailey is here. She doesn't wanna hear this stuff," she laughed.

Bailey smiled. "Actually, I do. That husband of yours is damn near perfect. It's always good to have blackmail to get him to do something for me."

"Bailey has a point," Arizona said.

"Go on," Bridget encouraged.

"You," Meredith pointed at her. "Cannot tell Mark."

"Damn, where is a notepad when you need one?" Cristina said, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

Meredith glanced into the hall to make sure her husband was out of range in the kitchen before speaking. "I feel bad sharing this," she giggled. "But whatever. I have to push a baby out of my hoohoo with people watching, and he just has to stand there and hold my hand. He owes me."

"What did he do?" Izzie asked.

"He didn't really do anything. It was more on my end. But yeah, he'd be mortified that I'm chatting about our sex life," Meredith said. "Anyway, last week, we were... you know. I was sort of sitting in his lap—that sex position book you got us is freaking amazing, Iz—anyway, we were…" She bit her lip, debating on her word choice.

"Connected?" Cristina offered.

"Oh, God," Meredith winced, along with the rest of the group. "But yes… connected." She shuddered. "And I had to sneeze. We were face to face and I didn't want to sneeze on him, so I was going to…"

"Dismount?"

Meredith smirked at Cristina. "Thank you, Madam Dictionary. Yes, dismount. But before I had the chance to, I sort of just hugged him to me and sneezed over his shoulder. All of the force from sneezing shifted the baby right on top of my bladder, and I peed. On him. During sex," she confessed.

"Oh my God," Callie said, wide eyed. "While he was still, you know?"

"Yeah." Meredith shook her head and sighed. "I didn't even realize it happened until he started freaking out. He thought my water broke, so he—"

"Evacuated?" Cristina said without any hesitation.

Meredith laughed. "Would you shut up? Anyway, he… evacuated. And I was all flustered because I didn't know why he did it. One minute, I'm in the mood, and the next, my husband is looking at me in horror. When I realized what happened, I started laughing, and he wouldn't stop with the freaked out face, which made me laugh harder. When I told him that I peed, I swore he was gonna pass out in relief."

"Oh my God," Izzie said, shaking her head. "The things that happen in your bedroom… the stuff of legends."

"After we changed the sheets, I was still in the mood. He'd denied me an orgasm the first time, and I wasn't going to let it happen again," Meredith said. "But he couldn't, you know…"

Cristina smiled at this. "Rise to the occasion?"

"Oh my God," Meredith said, exasperated, glaring over at her friend. "He was still in shock, thinking that the sex caused my fake water to break."

"He blamed his 'Little Derek?'" Cristina assumed, unable to suppress the peals of laughter that rolled through her. "Oh. Oh, God. That is classic."

Meredith piped up. "Not exactly little. He keeps me very satisfied," she disclosed. TMI, but she wanted to defend her man. "Believe me."

Bailey raised her hand in a halting motion. "Okay, we believe you." She smiled in shock. "Shy, tiny Meredith Grey. I can't believe the story that just came out of your mouth."

"Pregnancy has stripped me of my verbal censors," Meredith admitted, biting into a cookie shaped like a bootie and sprinkled with pink sugar. "And apparently, my modesty."

"Kiss modesty goodbye. Giving birth? No such thing exists," Bailey told her, laughing.

"I'm sure you'll be awesome," Lexie assured her. "Are you nervous?"

"A little. Not excited for the pain, but I can't wait to see her. Honestly, I think Derek will be more nervous than I will," Meredith giggled as she reached for a napkin. "Every time I have a Braxton Hicks contraction, he practically turns white as a ghost."

Derek caught the tail end of Meredith's comment as he walked into the living room holding a beer, and he smirked. "Trash talking me in here?" he asked.

"No," Meredith denied, scooting over on the couch to make room for him. "Before you sit, could you get me some water?"

"Yeah."

"Where's Mark?" Bridget asked.

"He's manning the grill. I told him I'd be back," Derek chuckled, scooping ice into Meredith's pink plastic cup. "So what's going on in here?"

"Nothing. Just talking," Izzie said. "I figured you and Sloan might want to participate in the games, so we're waiting."

Derek sat down on the couch next to Meredith, handing her the cup. "Yeah? What kind of games?"

"'Pin the Sperm on the Egg,' 'Guess What Chocolate Bar is in the Diaper,' and 'Guess the Due Date,'" Izzie replied.

"Eww, that candy bar thing is gross," Cristina said.

"No one said you had to play," Izzie pointed out. "But there's prizes…"

"Wait, sperm and egg?" Derek double checked.

"You and Izzie were the masterminds behind this whole thing. You should've preapproved her itinerary," Meredith reminded him. "Sucks for you."

Cristina laughed. "Sucks for all of us…"

…

A pile of opened gifts were stacked beside Meredith, everything from onesies and bibs to teddy bears and tub toys. All of their friends had gone beyond the call of duty with buying presents, and Meredith was trying her best to hold back her tears. Crying in front of everyone for a second time would be mortifying.

"There's so much stuff here," Meredith said. "Really, this is way too much."

"Shut up and accept your presents," Izzie joked.

"Lilly's gonna be very spoiled. Thank you," Derek said, wrapping his arm around Meredith.

"Crap! I almost forgot…" Izzie hopped up off the couch and headed for the den. "There's more." She walked back in holding three boxes in her arms, setting them down in front of Meredith.

"Who are these from?"

"The two in the shiny pink paper are from your mom, Derek. And the white one with the pink polka dots is from Addison," Izzie said, wedging herself back on the couch between Lexie and Cristina.

Meredith smiled. "Addison sent something? That was really sweet of her."

"They got shipped here a few weeks ago. I forgot I stashed them in the other room," Izzie said. "Open them."

"Okay." Meredith set the present from Addison on her lap and tore off the gift wrap, then opened the clothing box inside. "Oh my God, these are adorable," she all but squeaked. "Derek, look."

"What is it?" Lexie asked.

Meredith held up a tiny, gray pea coat with black buttons, and matching boots to go with it. "I love these. We didn't buy much winter stuff yet because she's a warm weather baby, so now we have something for her winter wardrobe."

Callie laughed. "How very… Addison of her."

"Any Louboutins in there?" Mark chuckled, taking a bite of the ice cream cake with the pink frosting Izzie had special ordered for the baby shower.

"Your ex has nice taste, Shepherd." Cristina held up her beer in a toast then downed the last of the bottle.

Meredith bit her lip, smoothing her fingers of the soft material of the outfit. "I really appreciate this. This is… it was just really nice of her."

"Any idea what Mom got, Derek?" Mark asked.

"No idea," Derek said. "She told me she was sending something, but she didn't say what it was."

"You can open it," Meredith offered, sliding the two pink boxes over to him. She'd opened every present at his insistence – probably so she would be the center of attention, not him – so if there was one gift he should open, it should be the gift from his own mother.

Derek took the gift off the top and slid the other one back over to her. "How about we each open one?" he said.

"You just like every eye in the room on me," Meredith laughed, pulling the gift box into her lap, or whatever lap she had with her belly taking over most of it.

"I do, actually," he admitted, grinning at her. He unwrapped the first gift, tearing away the paper, and popping open the white box that contained the present. "I can't believe she kept this all these years…" Derek said softly.

"What is it?" Meredith asked. She peeked into the box and smiled. "Is that a music box?"

"Yeah." Derek picked it up and examined it in his hands. A tiny, wooden box with circus animals painted on it, with a wind up dial on the bottom, something he hadn't seen since he was a child.

"Was this yours?"

"Yeah. I got it when I was born. My grandparents gave it to me." Derek wound up the little brass dial and lifted the lid. When a soft, familiar lullaby starting playing, he smiled, trying to blink back the tears that stung in his eyes. "Still works. The little elephants still spin, too."

Meredith kissed her husband's cheek and smiled at him. "We can put it right in Lilly's room."

Derek looked over at her, laughing softly. "Yeah."

"You had a music box, Derek?" Arizona asked.

"A long time ago," Derek stressed, making sure to clarify that fact. "I haven't seen this since I was in grade school. He set it gently back in the box. "I'm surprised my mom kept it this long."

"Of course she did. She keeps everything from our childhoods," Mark pointed out. "I'm not even a blood relative, and to this day, she has one of my macaroni Christmas tree ornaments that she puts on the tree every year."

"She's a pretty great mom," Derek said, making a mental note to call her later and thank her for sending it all the way to Seattle for her granddaughter. "Open that one," he said, cocking his head toward the unopened box Meredith held.

For what felt like the hundredth time in the past hour, Meredith peeled off the wrapping paper and opened the gift box inside. This time, no matter how much she fought them, the tears came anyway. "Oh, Derek," she whispered. "This is beautiful."

She picked up the neatly folded pink chenille blanket from the tissue paper and held it in front of her to get a better look. "Her name is embroidered on it," Meredith sniffled, thumbing over the handwritten white letters stitched on the right hand corner of the blanket. Lilly Grace.

"Let's see," Lexie prompted.

Meredith passed it to her sister, then rested her head on Derek's shoulder. "I love your mom."

"Hmm, me too."

Meredith leaned into him and sighed contentedly. It didn't matter to them that there was a room full of people probably staring at them. "Three more weeks, Der."

Derek kissed the top of her head. "Three more weeks."