107. Settling In

Disclaimer: Not the owner; just a fan.

Once again, sorry for the delay. It's been a busy few weeks. But college is finished now (yay!) so I'm hoping to have more writing time. Also, depending on how this season finale goes, I might be writing a 'fix-it' one shot, maybe more than one. But we'll see. Enjoy!

The blissful lull of sleep lasted no more than an hour before Lilly started fussing, wriggling around between them. Derek woke up first, and scooped her tiny body into the crook of his arm, leaning against the headboard.

Meredith's eyes opened and she yawned. "Is she okay?" she asked, brushing her hair away from her face.

"I think so. She probably just needs some help falling back to sleep," Derek said. He smiled down at Lilly, who was curling into him, her cheek against Derek's shirt. "Daddy's got you. Go back to sleep, princess."

Meredith smiled at him, watching as Derek gently bounced the baby in his arm. "She feels so safe with you."

"I always want her to feel that way," he said softly. Lilly's eyelids fluttered closed, and Derek kissed the top of her dark head of hair. He carefully laid her back down on the safe sleeper and when she didn't budge, they both nodded in satisfaction.

"Nice work," Meredith said, stretching her arm across Lilly to pat Derek's shoulder.

Derek took hold of her hand and laced his fingers through hers. "Thank you."

They both fell back to sleep before they could say anything else, even though it was only 10:15. Sleep when the baby sleeps, advice found in every baby book, and given by Derek's own mother. Not only that, but the end to an exhausting weekend finally caught up to them, so sleeping effectively trumped conversation.

It was just after one in the morning when Lilly woke up again, her soft cry alerting both of them immediately. Meredith could tell just by the fullness of her breasts that Lilly would need to eat, and she flicked on the portable nightlight on her end table. A soft, barely there yellow light flooded the room, making it easier to see. Meredith reached for Lilly and patted her bottom soothingly.

"Are you hungry, peanut?" she asked.

"I'll take her," Derek said, swapping Lilly from her arms to his while she set up to nurse.

Meredith set a pillow on her lap and lifted her shirt, making sure to sit up against the headboard so it would be easier for both of them. "Okay."

Derek handed her to Meredith again, and she hugged Lilly to her, and guided the baby to her breast. "That's it," she cooed after the baby latched on with relative ease. "Wow, you really were hungry, huh?"

Her little lips sucked with determination, and Derek laughed. "Not bad. She only woke up twice in the past six hours, and the first time, she went back to sleep in under five minutes."

"She has doctor DNA. She might be ready to start her day at six in the morning," Meredith pointed out playfully. "You can sleep in, Lilly, as late as you want."

"If she wakes up early and isn't hungry, I'll take her downstairs with me. We can make Mommy breakfast and let her sleep in," Derek told the baby, fixing the footie on her pajamas.

"I'll get up, too. It's only fair," Meredith shrugged.

Derek kissed the crown of her head after she leaned on his shoulder. "Breastfeeding burns up a lot of energy. If you want to sleep, you should sleep. Plus, you gave birth two days ago. I think you've earned it."

Meredith yawned. "'Kay, I'll try. But eventually, my boobs will wake me up. And that's when Lilly will want to eat," she said, combing Lilly's hair with her fingers. "Funny how mother nature works, isn't it?"

"You two are already in sync," Derek said.

"We totally are. Like..." Meredith paused before laughing. "I'm too tired to think of a metaphor."

"Me, too."

Lilly looked up at them, her blue eyes wide and her long, dark eyelashes fanning over her cheeks every time she blinked. Meredith smiled and turned to Derek. "Is it just me, or does she not look tired?"

"A full belly is supposed to make you sleepy, princess," Derek said, trying to stifle a yawn.

"I would turn the nightlight off, but I want to be able to see her so I know when she's finished," Meredith said.

"Is she still eating?"

Meredith looked down and saw Lilly's lips only gently sucking, not as eagerly as she was when she started. "I think she's getting full."

"It's a little past 1:30. If she falls asleep soon, she probably won't be up again until after four," Derek assumed, chuckling lightly.

"What?"

"You know what we were doing at this time, three days ago?" Derek asked her.

Meredith bit her lip as she tried to think back to what they'd been doing on Friday night, then she laughed, too. "Having labor-inducing sex," she recalled. "Which, by the way, finally worked, because Lilly is here."

"And no more S-E-X for a while," Derek said, feigning disappointment.

"Yeah, you're on your own until mid-July. My hoo-hoo is off limits," Meredith smiled at him. "But we can still make out during her nap times. I'm still a hormone carnival, and you're still my hot husband."

Derek grinned. "I can do that."

"Good."

Lilly unlatched from Meredith's breast and smacked her lips together, her signal to them that she was finished. Meredith wiped the corners of Lilly's mouth, then handed her to Derek. "You're such a good eater," she praised as she cleaned up and readjusted her shirt.

"Alright, burp time again," Derek said, holding Lilly to his chest before patting her on the back. "A few good burps, then it's calm, sleepy time."

Meredith smiled when she saw Lilly staring at the headboard, her cheek on Derek's shoulder. "She's calm. But sleepy? Not so much," Meredith said, kissing the baby's forehead. "Maybe our headboard is too... visually stimulating or whatever."

"You picked it," Derek reminded her, laughing. "I wanted the simple, black wooden one."

"Well, we needed the padded one for... recreational purposes," Meredith said.

Derek smirked at her. "Hmm..."

Lilly interrupted the conversation with a burp, and they both looked at her. "Ooh, good one," Meredith encouraged. She smiled at Derek. "You're like the Baby Gas Whisperer."

"It's a gift," Derek said. "Well, that and the fact that I've been burping babies since I was in college. Uncle Derek spent many weekends babysitting when he could have been out partying with Mark."

"That's because you're that guy. The one that chooses your nieces and nephews over nights of random, drunken sex."

Derek laughed as he shifted Lilly on his shoulder so she was more upright. "Since when does partying equal random, drunken sex?"

"Clearly, you and I had very different college experiences..." Meredith said.

"Am I better off not knowing about yours?"

"Probably, yeah."

Lilly's little cheeks puffed out as she burped again, then she popped her tiny thumb into her mouth, resting her head on Derek's shoulder. A small sound left Meredith's throat and she leaned down to kiss her. "Good job, Lilly."

"No more?"

"Don't think so," Meredith said, smiling when she saw Lilly looking at her, a content yet awake expression on her tiny face. "How about we try to get some sleep?"

"Let's lay her down again. Maybe if you turn off the light and we keep things quiet, she'll get sleepy," Derek suggested.

He kissed Lilly's cheek, then laid her between them again. Once she was settled, Meredith flicked off the night light. Darkness flooded the room, and they both waited in silence to see if Lilly would get the hint and try to sleep. "All clear?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"I think so."

But as soon as they resettled, heads on their pillows, Lilly decided she wasn't ready to settle quite yet. She let out a small, fussy cry, and Derek laughed. "And we're up..." he said, picking Lilly up once again while Meredith turned on the night light.

"I read that newborns like to be swaddled when they sleep. Being wrapped up reminds them of the womb or whatever. I thought you spent enough time in there, peanut," Meredith joked.

"Why do you think she stayed seven extra days? Must be pretty nice in there," Derek said, smiling down at Lilly, who was lazily sucking her thumb, the fingers of her same hand splayed over her face. "Worth a try."

"Okay," Meredith said, reaching over to grab the soft, chenille blanket Derek's mom got Lilly from her yet-to-be-used bassinet.

After she spread it out on the bed, Derek laid the baby on it, making sure she was in the middle of it so they could wrap her up comfortably. "Want me to?" he asked.

"I'll give it another try," Meredith said. She bit her lip as she carefully folded, wrapped, and tucked, just how Derek so expertly did it last time. Once Lilly was swaddled into her tiny blanket cocoon, Meredith looked to Derek. "How'd I do?"

"Perfect. I couldn't have done it any better."

"Really?"

"Really," he said, picking Lilly up and putting her between them. "How's that, Lilly? Remind you of your days in-utero?"

"She was only... in-utero thirty-six hours ago."

"I know. That's why she should remember it," Derek smirked as they shuffled around and got comfortable in bed again, too. "Okay, let's try this again."

Meredith propped herself up on her elbow. "You okay, Lillybug? She doesn't seem to mind it. Do you think she's hot?"

Derek chuckled. "Babies like to be warm. Plus, we have the air on. She's fine. And if she's not happy, she'll let us know," he said, leaning over to kiss Meredith before she turned off the night light.

"Hmm, okay," she murmured against his lips, watching as Lilly's eyelids fluttered back and forth between open and closed. "I think we did it," she whispered.

Derek smiled in satisfaction when he saw his daughter yawn widely, her little mouth stretching into an O shape. "We're very impressive."

"We are," Meredith agreed, finally turning off the night light.

"Love you, Lilly," Derek said, catching Lilly's yawn then kissing her cheek.

Meredith kissed her other cheek. "Love you, sweetpea," she said.

"We should be good until sunrise."

She smiled into her pillow. "Fingers crossed."

...

Lilly only woke once more to eat around six o'clock, and to their surprise, she actually fell back to sleep before she was even finished nursing. The swaddling kept her calm and happy, and there weren't any meltdowns, from either Lilly or her parents. Meredith opened her eyes and yawned. The time staring back at her from the clock on her nightstand said 8:17, which was far later than she expected to wake up. She rolled over and saw that the other side of the bed was empty.

She quickly made the bed, went through her morning routine, and walked downstairs. When she reached the kitchen, Meredith stood in the doorway and smiled. "Hey."

"Morning," Derek greeted, Lilly cradled in one arm, while he made breakfast with the other. He skillfully flipped the French toast with a spatula, then held out a glass of orange juice. "Juice?"

"Thank you," Meredith said. She sat down on a stool at the island and took the glass from him. "When did you get up?"

"About an hour ago. She started to fuss, so I brought her down here before you woke up. We watched some TV and she fell asleep while I was holding her. I figured you'd be up soon, so I wanted to get a start on breakfast. We were having some Daddy-Lilly time, weren't we?" Derek said, kissing Lilly's cheek before handing her to Meredith.

"Yeah?" she asked as she peeked into Lilly's diaper.

"Already taken care of," Derek said, sliding a plate of French toast in front of her. "She pooped about a half hour ago. All clean."

Meredith cocked her head. "She pooped, and you didn't wake me?"

Derek laughed. "Why would I wake you for a dirty diaper? I took care of it; no biggie."

"She peed, too?" Meredith asked, biting into a piece of her toast.

"Yes, number one and two. Her plumbing works," Derek assured her.

"Just making sure."

He lowered the flame under the frying pan when the washer and dryer buzzed, signaling that the cycles ended. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go throw some more laundry in."

Meredith smiled down at Lilly, letting her hold her finger. "Did I mention I really love Daddy?" she said to the baby.

Derek reentered the kitchen and set a basket of clean clothes down on the table, then returned to the stove. He cracked a few eggs into a bowl and whisked them with a fork, looking up when he felt Meredith's eyes on him. "What?" he chuckled.

"You. You're all... Super Dad," she said, laughing. "Do you know how hot and bothered that makes me?"

Derek grinned smugly. "Really?"

"Really."

Lilly turned into Meredith's chest and yawned, then put her thumb in her mouth once again. "You are so cute," Meredith said, combing Lilly's hair with her fingers. She turned to Derek. "Thank you for letting me sleep today."

"I wanted you to. How are you feeling? Still sore?" Derek asked.

"A little, yeah. But I feel good," Meredith said, laughing when Derek loaded her plate up with a pile of scrambled eggs. "What're you doing?"

"You need protein."

Meredith rolled her eyes playfully then stabbed a forkful. "So, if Egg Mountain is only one breakfast course, what's for lunch?" she asked as she chewed.

"Mark called a few minutes before you came down. He and Bridget and bringing lunch over when they drop Charlie off and come to see Lilly. They have gifts, too," Derek said.

"They already got us gifts," Meredith said as she bounced Lilly gently in the crook of her arm.

"Lilly is Mark's pride and joy. And Bridget loves buying her stuff. Even if I said not to, they would anyway," Derek pointed out.

Meredith smiled down at the baby. "Hear that? Everybody loves you."

"We might have to buy another dresser for all her clothes soon," Derek said as he topped off her glass of orange juice.

"Well, lucky for you, all of your clothes are tiny, Lilly," Meredith told her.

Derek laughed. "Just wait until the next shipment from my mom and sisters gets here..."

"They're sending us more?" Meredith asked, her eyes wide.

"I'm the only son in the family. They spoil me even though I tell them not to. And Lilly's my daughter, so by proxy, she reaps the benefits... the frilly, pink benefits," he joked, biting into his own forkful of eggs.

"Mark wanted to get her a Giants cheerleading outfit, but I said no sports clothes unless it's the Red Sox or the Patriots," Meredith giggled, waiting for his reaction.

"Uh uh. No Boston stuff." Derek shook his head. "New York pride only. Giants or Yankees."

Meredith scoffed. "No freaking way. Right, Lilly? Tell Daddy he's crazy."

"Fine, we'll compromise. We'll root for Boston and New York, unless those teams are playing each other. Then we let Lilly decide," Derek said.

"Deal."

Lilly looked up at Meredith, her tiny forehead scrunched up in wrinkles. Meredith laughed. "You have no idea what we're talking about, do you?" she asked, feeling along her breasts. "Do you wanna eat, sweetpea? If I feed her now, I should be able to feed her again before Mark and Bridget get here. And I'd really rather Uncle Mark not make any comments about my huge, perky boobs."

"He means it as a compliment," Derek sighed, putting the orange juice back in the fridge. "I'll clean up and meet you in the living room."

Meredith carefully got up off the stool and smiled at him. "Wow. I need to give birth to your children more often."

"Taking advantage of me?" Derek smirked.

"Maybe."

Derek kissed her cheek after he walked around the island to collect her breakfast dishes. "Compared to what you did two days ago, the least I could do is cook you breakfast and do some laundry," he said.

"Thank you."

"Happy to do it," he said, kissing Lilly's forehead.

As Meredith walked into the living room, she looked down at the baby and smiled at her. "Think I could get him to massage my feet, Lilly? I think I could."

...

Derek opened the front door when he saw Mark's car pulling into the driveway. He could see Charlie wagging his tail in the backseat and he smiled. "Mer, they're here," he called upstairs where Meredith was getting Lilly dressed.

Meredith walked carefully down the steps with the baby, who was wearing a little pink dress and a matching pair of pink socks. "All dressed," she said as she reached the bottom.

"Very pretty. Both of you," Derek grinned, kissing Meredith's cheek as she leaned into him.

Derek held the door open and Charlie ran inside the house ahead of Mark and Bridget, walking in circles around both of them in excitement. Derek knelt down and scratched him behind the ears. "Hey, Charlie. We missed you."

"Guess who's here?" Meredith said, smiling when Charlie stood up on his hind legs and sniffed the tiny little person Meredith was holding in curiosity. "This is Lilly, your little sister."

"You two are gonna be good buddies," Derek said.

Bridget walked through the door holding a gift bag, and Mark trailed in behind her, clutching a handful of balloons and a plastic bag full of food. "Hey, guys," Bridget greeted, gasping in awe when she saw Lilly. "Hi, Lilly. God, she's adorable."

"Thank you," Derek grinned, taking the bag from her before the four of them went into the living room. "And thanks for these, too," he said as he set the gift bag on the table.

"You really didn't have to do that," Meredith said.

Bridget waved it off. "Oh, stop. We wanted to," she said, sitting down on the couch. "Okay, hand her over."

Meredith laughed, passing Lilly over into Bridget's arms, then sitting down onto the couch next to Derek. She patted the other side and Charlie immediately hopped up and curled next to her, his head resting on her lap.

"She's so beautiful," Bridget said softly, rubbing Lilly's cheek with her finger. "She's even tinier than she looked in the pictures Mark showed me."

"You'd think that after seven days of extra cooking time in your uterus, she'd be toddler sized," Mark said, smiling at the baby.

"That's what it felt like," Meredith joked.

Bridget winced. "Rough delivery?"

"Pretty smooth, actually. Painful, but fast once I started pushing," Meredith admitted. "Could've been a lot worse. I'd do it all over again in a second."

"She pushed for under a half hour. She was incredible," Derek practically beamed.

Meredith leaned into him as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "And I didn't threaten to kill him, or cut off his penis, so all in all, it was a success."

"I'd say so. She's perfect," Bridget said.

"Well, we're biased, but we agree," Derek said, with a grin that reached his eyes. "She's such a good baby. Eats, sleeps, poops, cuddles. She's amazing."

Lilly stuck her thumb in her mouth, and Bridget awed out loud. "Okay, I'm in love."

"Me, too," Mark echoed, waiting impatiently for Bridget to give him a turn holding the baby. "Do I really have to share my godparent duties with Yang?"

Meredith rolled her eyes playfully. "Yes, you do."

"Fine, but let the record show that I babysat the dog while you two were at the hospital. That wins me more points than Yang," Mark clarified.

"It's a competition?" Derek chuckled.

"Everything's a competition with Yang."

"True," Meredith agreed. "How was he?" she asked, petting the top of Charlie's head.

"He was good. Didn't give us any problems," Bridget said before laughing. "He even hopped up on the bed with us at night."

Mark sighed. "Yeah, that was fun. He slept diagonally between the two of us. I was an inch away from falling off the edge."

"Yeah, he does that," Meredith smiled. "He likes to cuddle. Back when I was trying to get pregnant, we'd have to make sure he was occupied with a chew toy or a bone down here, then we'd go sneak upstairs to have sex..."

"Or we'd have sex at the hospital. We're still not sure if Lilly was conceived in our bed, my office, or the fourth floor on-call room," he admitted, kissing Meredith's temple. "Doesn't matter, though. We still made an awesome baby," he said proudly, untying the plastic bag and pulling out the containers of food so they could eat.

"I almost walked into one of those on-call rooms, but then I heard the moaning on the other side of the door, so I kept on walking," Mark informed them with a sigh.

Meredith laughed slightly. "That should embarrass me, but really, once you've had your legs in the stirrups and had three people watch you push a baby out, nothing fazes you anymore," she said as Derek kissed the top of her head, before he went into the kitchen for plates and drinks.

"So does that mean baby number two is up in the air?" Bridget asked, fixing Lilly's sock after she wiggled her feet.

"Actually, no. I mean, if the next labor and birth can go as smooth as Lilly's, I'd be happy to do it all over. We definitely want two, though. Lilly needs to have a sibling," Meredith said, smiling at her daughter who sucked determinedly on her thumb.

"And a cousin from you two would be nice," Derek said, walking back into the living room with four drinks, four plates, and four sets of utensils.

"We just got married three weeks ago," Mark reminded him as Bridget finally passed Lilly to him. He smiled at her. "Hey, beautiful. Yeah, you're good practice. Hands on, like one of those dolls that eats and poops and cries."

"She does all of those things well," Derek boasted.

"She was dry when I changed her into her outfit before you got here. She probably peed by now. How about you change her after we eat?" Meredith challenged Mark as he gently bounced Lilly in his arm.

Mark tore his eyes away from the baby and looked at her. "I can do that."

"She peed on Derek last night before we gave her a bath," Meredith laughed, shoveling a few forkfuls of spaghetti onto her plate from the plethora of Italian food Mark and Bridget supplied. "It was so cute."

"Does that mean you'll pee on me, too?" Mark asked Lilly. "How about we just save that for your dad?"

True to his word, when they were finished eating a short time later, Meredith handed Mark a fresh diaper and a pack of wipes. "Here you go. Practice your parenting skills on my daughter."

Mark set the diaper and wipes next to him on the couch, then laid Lilly down on the cushion between himself and Bridget, covered with a changing pad. "Are you really gonna stand over my shoulder to supervise?" he asked, laughing.

"Mark Sloan changing a diaper? I want to see this," Meredith defended.

"Me, too," Bridget echoed, waving down at Lilly when the baby looked at her.

Mark lifted up her little pink dress over her belly, then peeled back the adhesive on the diaper front. "There's no surprises in here, right?" he asked the baby, pulling down the diaper. He sighed in relief. "Good, no poop. Not that I wouldn't have been able to handle it," he said, pulling a wipe from the pack.

"Wipe front to back," Meredith couldn't help but remind him.

Mark turned around and looked at her. "I'm not incompetent, Grey," he said, gently wiping Lilly clean before removing the old diaper from underneath her bottom. He carefully set her legs back down, holding each of her feet with his thumbs and forefingers.

Derek laughed. "She's not gonna break, Mark. You don't have to handle her like she's made of glass," he said.

"My fingers are thicker than her ankles. I'm afraid," Mark joked. He put the fresh diaper under her, made sure it was on right, then sealed the adhesive strips on either side. After fixing her dress, he picked her up and smiled. "Clean diaper. No fussing. And she's still alive."

"I'm impressed," Meredith said.

"I'd like to see Yang do that," Mark said.

"He has a point," Derek agreed.

"Oh, before we forget, open your gift," Bridget said, nodding toward the coffee table. "Mark picked it out all by himself."

"You?" Derek asked.

Mark nodded as he handed Lilly back to Meredith. "Yep. She's gonna look gorgeous in it."

"You open it," Meredith said to Derek, sitting next to him on the couch.

Derek pulled the pink tissue paper out of the gift bag and smiled as soon as he saw what was underneath it. "I don't think Mommy's going to let you wear this, Lillybug..."

"What is it?" Meredith asked. She watched as Derek took the outfit from the bag, a disapproving smirk coming over her face when she saw what was inside. "No way."

Derek held up a red, white, and blue baby-sized cheerleading outfit, the word GIANTS embroidered across the chest. "What do you think, Lilly? Giants fan like Daddy, right?"

Lilly scrunched her eyebrows together and pursed her lips, as though she disapproved of the outfit altogether. Meredith laughed at the tiny expression on Lilly's face. "Oh, God, Derek. That's your grumpy face."

Mark raised himself off the couch to get a better look, then he grinned. "She's right; it is. That's a trademark Derek face right there."

Derek frowned. "I don't have a grumpy face," he countered.

"When you're tired and moody in the morning? Same face," Meredith said. She pressed a few kisses to Lilly's cheek and smiled. "That was good, Lilly. Perfect timing."

"Clearly, she's not a fan of New York sports," Bridget teased. "For the record, the store also sold a mini bullhorn and pompoms, but I drew the line."

"I'm saving those for Christmas," Mark said.

Meredith shook her head, amused. "You know, you're lucky you're a good diaper changer; otherwise, I'd make you take it back and exchange it for a Patriots one instead," she joked.

"The Patriots? Oh, come on..." Mark interjected.

"She lived most of her life in Boston. Too late to convert her now," Derek said, setting the little outfit on the coffee table. "Which is why I need to get Lilly on my side as soon as I can."

Meredith patted Derek's shoulder in mock sympathy. "Yeah. Just try."