132. Holiday Season Kickoff

Disclaimer: I don't own TV shows. The board review questions were borrowed from HCPLive. com and notes I found on Scridb. com, because there's no way I could have made them up myself.

So, so sorry for the wait! Please forgive me and enjoy the update!

Thanksgiving was over and so, too, were the relaxing few days spent at Derek's mother's house. And now, it was December, one of the busiest times of the year with work and the upcoming Christmas holiday. Today was Saturday, and while they usually spent the day sleeping in, Meredith was determined to make the most of it, even if it meant dragging herself out of bed early after a night of naked fun with Derek.

Meredith stood in the shower, letting the warm water beat down on her back while she closed her eyes. She was fairly certain that if she were to snuggle up on the floor of the tub, she could easily fall asleep. But instead of risking drowning just to take a quick catnap, she reached for her soap. Just as she was about to squirt some onto her loofah, the bathroom door opened.

"Mer?" Derek said loud enough so that she could hear him over the water.

"Yeah?"

"There's poop everywhere!" he said.

This caught her attention, and she poked her head out of the curtain. "What?" she asked. "Uh oh."

"I went to change her diaper, and she decided to roll over. The damage was done before I could stop it," Derek said amusedly, holding a very messy, naked Lilly at arms' length.

"Lilly, what did you do?" Meredith asked, setting her sponge back in the caddy. "Let me take her. It'll be easier than getting her tub set up since I'm already in here. I'll just rinse her off."

Derek passed Lilly into Meredith's arms, and she held her away from the water spray. "I don't know if it's too warm for her. Can you turn the knob a little?" Meredith asked, unable to keep from smiling as Lilly smiled at her. "Oh, you think this is funny, huh?"

"I think she does," Derek chuckled as he made the water slightly cooler for Lilly's sensitive baby skin. Afterward, he got clean washcloth from the shelf and put a dollop of Lilly's soap on it. "Here, I'll leave this in the caddy for when you're done rinsing her off. I'm gonna go clean up her changing table."

"Okay."

Meredith held Lilly under her tiny arms and spun to face the water. "Okay, we need to clean the icky-ness off of you," she said, letting the water spray rinse off the back of Lilly's body. Lilly looked around with curiosity, knowing she was safe in her mom's arms.

"Is this fun, Lilly?" Meredith asked, making sure no water dripped into the baby's eyes. "You know, when you're a teenager, you're going to be mortified when Daddy and I reminisce about stuff like this," she giggled.

Once she was satisfied that Lilly's back and bottom were clean, Meredith gently lathered Lilly with the sudsy washcloth Derek had given her. She noticed her razor holder sitting near the opposite corner of the tub, which had probably been knocked off its suction cup base last night when she and Derek were doing the bendy thing. Meredith laughed in spite of herself. Ten hours ago, they were having wild, steamy sex; and now, she was in that same shower, washing off her messy baby.

Meredith leaned in and kissed Lilly's nose. "You make life so interesting, peanut."

"How are we doing? All clean?" Derek asked as he reentered the bathroom a few minutes later.

"Yeah, just washing the soap off of her," Meredith said, smoothing Lilly's wet hair off her forehead. She turned Lilly from front to back in her arms to survey her work before pulling back the shower curtain slightly. "Here you go. One squeaky clean baby."

Derek wrapped a towel around Lilly and kissed her cheek. "That's much better," he said. "Okay, let's go get you dressed so Mommy can finish her shower."

"Thank you," Meredith said with a smile, which only grew when she noticed Derek tracking her wet, naked body from head to toe. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you have me pinned against the shower wall with my legs wrapped around your waist," Meredith said. "This shower is actually about showering."

Derek tucked Lilly's feet into the towel, smirking as he walked toward the bathroom door. "Maybe right now. But last night? Last night was hot."

Meredith laughed, closing the shower curtain. "Yes, it was."

...

"Mmm, open up, Lilly," Meredith said, waving the spoonful of pureed peaches toward Lilly, who sat in her high chair next to the kitchen table. Lilly opened her mouth and happily munched on her breakfast.

"I can't believe she actually fits in that high chair now," Derek said from the chair on the opposite side of Meredith's. "Remember when she couldn't even hold her head up, or would just flop over on the couch?"

"I know," Meredith said, frowning slightly. She wiped the excess peaches off Lilly's chin with the spoon and scooped them back into her mouth. "She's gonna be six months old on Monday. Do you know how much that makes me want to cry?"

"I know. Me, too."

"So you're sure you don't mind watching her today? I can bring her to Iz's with me," Meredith said.

"You and your friends all managed to get today off to study for your boards. I want you to be able to go," Derek said in support. "Lilly and I can entertain ourselves for a few hours."

"Thank you," Meredith replied, giving Lilly another spoonful. "And later on when we're both home, I was thinking we could decorate the fake tree we bought. The photographer is coming in a couple days for Lilly's six month-slash-Christmas pictures, and I want to have the house decorated."

"I still can't believe you talked me into buying that thing," Derek laughed, shaking his head. "We own twenty acres of beautiful Seattle land full of trees. Gotta tell you, it feels blasphemous."

Meredith rolled her eyes playfully. "I know; you gave me the same speech in the checkout line at the store," she reminded him. "But we can get a real tree, too. The fake one is really just for Lilly's portraits. If we put a real tree up now, it would die before Christmas."

"You want two trees?"

"Why not? We have the room. Maybe we can move the fake one into the dining room, and when we get a real one in a week or two, we can put that one in the living room. The real one can be our Christmas morning tree," Meredith compromised with him.

"We can do that," Derek agreed.

"See? Win-win," Meredith said, watching as Lilly opened her mouth for more food, then giving her another bite. "Lilly doesn't care about the tree situation. All she wants are these peaches."

"If she could talk, she'd be on my side about the tree. Wouldn't you, Lilly?" Derek joked, taking a sip of his coffee. The beeping of his pager interrupted the conversation, and he picked it up off the table. "Fourth floor nurses' station," he said, reaching for his phone in his pocket.

"Uh oh," Meredith told Lilly, as she waited to hear the news of whatever the nurse on the other end of Derek's phone was saying.

When he hung up the phone a minute later, he sighed. "I need to go in. Mrs. Rossman's shunt isn't draining, and I don't want it to get backed up and risk an infection," Derek said. "I would have a resident take care of it, but she has scar tissue from her last shunt placement, so I'd rather do it myself."

Meredith wiped Lilly's chin with her snowflake bib. "That's okay. I don't mind taking Lilly with me. How long do you think you'll be?"

"No more than a few hours, so I'll just meet you and Lilly back here and we can decorate," Derek said as he finished off the last of his coffee.

"Okay."

Derek kissed the top of her head before walking over to the counter. "Are you sure you don't mind? What about Lexie? If she's off, I'm sure she'd watch her for us," he suggested, putting his coffee mug in the sink.

"She's helping us study. Her memory is like a search engine, so we figured it might be useful having her around," Meredith said as she offered Lilly a sip from her bottle. "Really, Derek, I don't mind. You took time off from work so I could finish my residency on time. I don't want you to miss your surgery."

Derek looked at her hesitantly, and Meredith pointed Lilly's spoon at him. "Don't make me play the guilt card. I'll do it."

"Fine, I'll go in," he said, watching Meredith's lips curl into a smile. "So bossy, Mrs. Shepherd."

"Take that back," Meredith warned playfully.

Derek leaned in and kissed Lilly's cheek just as she turned her head toward him, getting her peach-covered lips all over his own. "Mmm, guess I deserved that," he chuckled.

Meredith smiled in satisfaction, handing him a napkin. "Yes, you did."

...

When Izzie saw Meredith walking up the front steps of the old house, holding Lilly in her car seat, she held the door open for her in welcome. "Hey, Mer," Izzie greeted. "Hi, pretty baby."

"Hey, Iz," Meredith said as she walked into the house, then turned left toward the living room. "Derek got paged into work, so Lilly is going to help us study."

"Hi, Lilly," George said happily, waving to the baby after Meredith set the car seat down. He got up off the couch to unbuckle her. "Look how big you are. You look just like your Mommy. Yes you do."

Alex walked into the living room with a half-eaten donut, smiling when he saw Lilly. "Mini Mer is here."

"She missed you guys, so I figured I'd bring her by for a visit. That, and Derek is in surgery," Meredith said as she shimmied off her coat.

"Well, she would've been here on Thanksgiving, but you bailed to go visit McDreamy's perfect-haired relatives," Cristina joked.

"Yes, but you'll see her on Christmas," Meredith appeased her. "And hey, Alex, early gift for you. You're going into peds., so Lilly can be your pretend practice patient."

Alex dropped down on the couch and shoveled the last of his donut into his mouth. "Score," he said excitedly.

"Hey, no fair," Cristina protested.

"Sorry. I couldn't find any pretend cardio patients for you on the way over," Meredith said sarcastically, putting Lilly's coat in her car seat after George took it off of her. "But you can spend some quality time with your goddaughter."

Lilly reached her hand toward George's face and babbled at him. "Oh, you don't say?" George played along.

"Listen to that little voice! Does she do that a lot?" Lexie asked, sitting down next to George so she could make a fuss over Lilly, too.

"Yeah, she babbles all day long. We had a very interesting conversation on the way over," Meredith giggled as she pulled her prep books from her bag. "Sometimes, when she wakes up from her naps, Derek and I just listen to her over the monitor. It's so adorable."

Cristina rolled her eyes, already flipping through her note cards in preparation for studying. "Am I the only one who wants to pass my boards?" she asked.

"It's 9:30 in the morning, Cristina. It's also December. We have until June," Izzie reminded her.

"Fine, let's do this. I'll start. Lexipedia, find me a peds. case," Alex said.

Lexie picked up the stack of color coded papers with all the pediatric surgery cases, searching until she found an interesting one. "Okay, a three year old female is placed under anesthesia for a hernia repair. After ten minutes, the patient's temperature spikes to 104. She's becoming tachycardic, and has diffuse muscle rigidity. What would be the most effective treatment for this situation?"

"I'd dose her with dantrolene sodium to block the calcium release causing the symptoms, and I'd stop the surgery and go back in once she stabilized," Alex said confidently.

"Correct," Lexie said, giving Alex one point on the white board chart under his name.

"Okay, I'm next," Cristina said impatiently.

"What? Why?" George asked.

"We're going in alphabetical order," Cristina said, pointing to the board. "Don't blame me; blame Lexie. She's the one who made the chart."

"Sorry, I was just trying to be organized," Lexie said through her yawn. She took a sip of her coffee and set it on the table. "I was on-call until two in the morning. You're lucky I showed up at all."

"You're a walking medical library. We need you here," Meredith said. "Besides, just think of all you're learning. You get to start studying for your boards a year in advance."

"Exactly. You help us. We help you. Now give me a question," Cristina said.

"Fine. A thirty-six year old male comes into the ER after an MVC. His chest X-ray shows a widened mediastinum. An aortogram shows a descending thoracic aortic injury. He also has a grade II splenic injury. What would be the wrong approach in repairing the aortic injury?" Lexie read off the flashcard.

"I would want to avoid a total cardiopulmonary bypass with systemic heparinization because he would be at high risk of life-threatening bleeding. There are several approaches I would consider before operating, and would ultimately choose the one that was in the best interest of my patient," Cristina spouted off easily.

"Jeez, you're like a robot," Izzie said.

Cristina smiled, watching as Lexie gave her a point. "Thank you."

"Okay, George, you're up," Lexie said, choosing another card. "A fifty year old woman who has a lump at the base of her neck was found to have a two centimeter nodule in the right lower lobe of the thyroid gland. Needle aspiration showed follicular cells. What would you advise as the next step in her treatment?"

George bounced Lilly on his knee as he answered. "The cells may indicate either a benign follicular adenoma or a follicular carcinoma, so making a preoperative diagnosis may not be possible. I'd schedule a hemithyroidectomy to see what kind of cells were pulled from the aspiration, and then consider the surgical options if that's necessary."

"Very good," Lexie said, marking down a point for George.

He tapped his palm against the baby's. "High five, Lilly."

"Eww, she drooled all over your pants," Cristina said, pointing to the wet spot on the knee of George's jeans.

"Oops. Sorry. We think she's starting to teethe a little, so there's been drool everywhere lately," Meredith said as she handed George a few tissues.

"That's okay. It's just spit. And it's baby spit, so it's cute," George told Lilly as he wiped her chin. Lilly saw Meredith sitting on the opposite couch, and smiled as she reached her little hands out. "Okay, back to Mommy," he said.

"Come here, Lillybug," Meredith said, letting Lilly lay on her chest after George handed her over. "She got up early with Derek, so she's probably tired. And we had a poop emergency, so that made the morning extra eventful."

"Eww," Cristina repeated.

Meredith felt Lilly's warmth as she rested on her chest. "All part of being a parent. I don't mind the poop," she said, kissing the top of Lilly's head. "Okay, Izzie's turn."

"Okay, a football player injures his knee after being tackled and is taken to the ER. His anterior drawer test comes back positive, and the foot of his injured leg is slightly cooler than the uninjured foot. His dorsalis pedis pulses are palpable but still weak. What would you advise as a treatment plan?" Lexie asked.

"Knee dislocation is often associated with popliteal vascular trauma, so without prompt surgical treatment, the rate of amputation can increase by fifty percent. I would do an arteriogram to rule out popliteal artery injury," Izzie answered.

"Correct," Lexie said, giving Izzie a point.

"You really know your ortho stuff," Meredith complimented, trailing her fingers up and down Lilly's back.

"Ortho is the bane of my existence. It shouldn't even be allowed in board interviews," Cristina said decidedly before pulling out a handful of cereal from the box on her lap.

"You're gonna owe me a new box of cereal, Yang," Alex said, watching as she ate all the raisins in her hand, then proceeded to dump the brain back into the box.

Izzie rolled her eyes. "It's cereal. Don't fight," she said.

"Okay, Mer's turn," Lexie said, reaching for her stack of neuro cards. "Yours comes with a picture."

Lexie handed Meredith a CT print that had been reduced in size, and Meredith began studying it before Lexie even read the question. "Okay, Lilly. Watch Mommy kick some neuro A-S-S."

"A sixty-four year old man presents with left-sided headache and slurred speech. Based on the provided CT scan of the man's brain, what would likely be found upon a physical examination?" Lexie asked.

Meredith carefully reviewed the CT scan, going over it in great detail the same way she had since day one. She didn't speak until she was certain of the answer. "After completing a physical examination, I would most likely find that the patient has contralateral hemiparesis, as well as a restricted lateral gaze. These combined symptoms are most often found in people with Millard Gubler syndrome, which can lead to abducens and facial nerve paralysis, and in some cases, hemiplegia of the extremities."

"Damn it. Mer's giving you a run for your money, Lexie," Izzie said.

"Her mother is Ellis Freaking Grey. Were we really expecting her to not kick all of our asses?" Alex said, reaching for the cereal box Cristina had stolen.

"She's also sleeping with the professor," Cristina said.

"He's my husband. And yes, he helps me study whenever we have time," Meredith shrugged.

"Something tells me this story has a porny ending that I'd rather not hear about," Lexie winced, giving Meredith a point on the board.

Meredith laughed. "We have a six month old. Most of the studying happens while I'm nursing. Or when we're giving Lilly a bath. Or when we fold piles of baby laundry together. Not everything we do involves nudity."

"A lot of it does," Cristina murmured with her coffee cup against her lips.

Meredith cocked her head. "Cristina."

"What? It's true," Cristina upheld.

"Fine. It's true," Meredith admitted, knowing it would be a futile attempt to deny it. "Now, can this conversation steer away from my sex life and back to surgery?"

Lilly smiled up at Meredith with her thumb in her mouth, and Meredith patted her little bottom. "You, me, and Daddy? Neurosurgical dream team."

When three o'clock rolled around, and the study session ended, Lexie had quizzed them on an upwards of two hundred questions. Meredith had outscored the others by nine points, and her brain felt like it had just run a marathon: sated, energized, and accomplished all rolled into one.

She walked through the front door with Lilly, letting Charlie run his usual circles around her legs. "Hi, buddy," she said.

"Hey," Derek said as he came into the foyer.

"Hey," Meredith echoed. "When did you get home?"

"Half hour ago," Derek said.

Meredith stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. "How was your surgery?"

"I fixed the shunt; no complications. Mrs. Rossman woke up smiling," Derek said, taking Lilly from Meredith and kissing her cheek. "How'd studying go?"

"Good. All of our hard work is paying off. You're a very good teacher," Meredith said.

"Making the boards your B-I-T-C-H?" Derek chuckled, recalling what she'd said to him a few days ago when he was helping her study.

Meredith giggled as she shimmied her coat off and put it on the hook. "Yes, I am," she said. "In fact, the others asked me to convince you to do a group tutoring thing for neuro practice."

"Seriously?" Derek asked, taking off Lilly's coat.

"I gave good answers. Detailed and thorough, like we practiced," Meredith said.

He leaned in and kissed Meredith's neck, smiling against her skin. "Hmm, it's good to be thorough."

"Yes, you're very good at that," Meredith couldn't help but moan. When Lilly babbled up at them, she quickly regained her composure. "You can be thorough later. You know, when our daughter isn't sandwiched between us."

"How thorough are we talking?" Derek asked, regretfully pulling away.

Meredith covered Lilly's ears with her hands. "We'll get naked, and you can do whatever you want."

"Alright, then," he grinned.

Meredith noticed the boxes of Christmas decorations on the floor after they walked into the living room, and she spun on her heels to face him. "You already brought the stuff upstairs?" she asked, smiling at him.

"Yeah, I figured I'd get a head start when I got home from work," Derek said, laying Lilly in her swing. After buckling her, he kissed her forehead. "There you go. Front row to watch us decorate. Which is basically just Mommy bossing me around like last time."

Meredith laughed, kneeling down and popping open one of the boxes. "Hey, I was pregnant last Christmas. And you were worried every time you saw me lift a laundry basket. You probably would've had a heart attack if I used the step ladder to string the lights," she said in her own defense.

"Fine. I guess you had a good excuse," Derek teased, peering into the ornament box Meredith had opened. He pulled out the tiny, pink Baby's First Christmas ball they'd purchased last Christmas and showed Lilly. "Look, Princess. We bought this for you last year. You even have a pink stocking that we hung up between ours."

"You were the size of this ornament, but you were already celebrating Christmas with us. Just from inside my belly," Meredith added. Lilly studied the Christmas ball with her curious blue eyes, making little suckling sounds with her thumb in her mouth.

Derek pushed the large tree box into the center of the living room with a grunt, dropping onto the floor next to it. "May as well set up the tree first. That'll probably take the longest," he said, finding a corner of tape and peeling it up from one end of the box to the other.

"Want me to help you assemble it?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah. You might need to sit on my shoulders when we reach the top," Derek joked.

"Would that help make up for the fake tree I suckered you into getting?"

"Little bit," Derek admitted.

Lilly reached for them from her swing, and Meredith laughed. "Do you want to join in on the fun?" she asked. She walked over to the swing, and took Lilly out, then scanned the living room. "Her boppy seat is upstairs. Can you hold her while I get it?"

"Yeah," Derek said, setting a tree branch aside so Meredith could put Lilly on his lap. When he reached over to grab direction booklet with one hand, he noticed how Lilly remained sitting up without leaning against his front, and he smiled. "Wow. This is an interesting development. Can you sit on the floor? Let's try," he said.

He sat Lilly on the rug in front of him, keeping his arms near her sides in case she wasn't steady enough and tipped. But when she simply sat there unsupported like it was no big deal, the grin on his face only grew. "Look at you! You're such a big girl!"

Meredith came back down the steps and into the living room holding the boppy seat, stopping mid-step when she saw Lilly. "Lilly!" she gasped. "You're sitting up all by yourself!"

"She was sitting on my lap pretty much on her own, so I figured I'd test it out. She didn't even wobble," Derek said proudly.

Meredith rejoined them on the floor, putting her hands on Lilly's cheeks and kissing her forehead. "What did I say about growing up too fast?" she joked.

"She likes to surprise us," Derek chuckled, handing Lilly her stocking to keep her entertained. "Now when she gets her pictures taken, we won't have to put something behind her. She can just model for us."

"Ooh, I didn't even think of that. Good timing, Peanut," Meredith praised.

"She has a surgeon's posture. Good for standing at the OR table and fixing brains one day, right?" Derek asked Lilly, tapping his palm against hers for a high five. "My nieces and nephews started crawling soon after they could sit on their own. I have a feeling she'll be crawling by January," Derek said.

"Yeah?" Meredith asked, her mommy instincts getting the best of her when he put the boppy seat around Lilly anyway. "You're still a big girl. I just don't want you to tip in case we can't catch you in time."

Lilly didn't mind, though; instead, she just put the fuzzy top of her stocking into her mouth and started chewing happily, watching as her parents removed all of the tree branches from the box.

By the time Derek noticed, all he could do was laugh. "Uh oh. Lilly has a stocking full of drool," he said. He gently took it from her and wiped the wetness off of it with his pants, then checked the tag on the inside. "Hand wash only. Should we just toss it in the tub with you tonight?" he joked.

"Poor baby. I think one of her bottom teeth is going to pop up soon," Meredith said, rubbing her finger along Lilly's gums. "I don't think it's hurting her too much yet. She's just been chewing on everything."

"I put a banana in the freezer this morning. I'll go get it for her," Derek said, getting up off the floor.

"We're never going to get this tree set up, are we?" Meredith giggled.

Derek turned around as he walked into the kitchen, smirking at her. "That's not necessarily a bad thing."

"It's going to look just like a real one! You'll see!" Meredith challenged. She tickled the bottom of Lilly's socked foot. "There's no reasoning with a stubborn, perfect-haired nature man, Lillybug."

...

Three hours later, with good teamwork and Lilly's cooperation, the house decorating was completed: tree, mantle, fireplace, and lights, all finished. Derek lay on the couch with his head resting on Meredith's lap, surveying their work.

"It looks like Whoville in here," he said, glancing up at her. "But I admit, the tree looks pretty. If I didn't know it was fake, I wouldn't know it was fake."

"Told you."

Derek smiled, looking at Lilly. She laid in her swing, mesmerized by the twinkling lights and how the tree rotated slowly. "Lilly loves it. She hasn't taken her eyes off the lights since we lit them."

"It is really relaxing to watch," Meredith said as she smoothed her fingers through his hair.

Derek closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling of her fingers on his scalp. "Between the lights and you running your fingers through my hair, I'm not sure I'll be awake long enough to have the sex you promised me."

"Do you want me to stop?" she asked.

"No."

"Once Lilly falls asleep, we could put her in the bassinet upstairs, then have sex next to the fireplace," she suggested.

"And we can still get naked, and I can do whatever I want to you?" Derek asked.

Meredith leaned down and kissed him. "You held up your end of the bargain and built the tree; so yeah, I think that's only fair."