153. Moving On Up

Disclaimer: I don't own TV shows.

Three weeks in a row! It definitely won't be like this once school takes over in a few weeks, but for now, enjoy the frequency! And happy early birthday to SingCindyLouSing! This one's for you! :)

It was July 12, the day that marked their third anniversary as husband and wife. It was a day that should have been full or romance, spent having sex and enjoying fancy restaurant food, followed by more sex.

But for the HR department of Seattle Grace, it was the day set aside for updating employee files. So for at least half the day, Meredith and the rest of her friends would be updating emergency contacts, medical and immunization records, getting a standard physical, and taking new photos for ID badges, all menial tasks that were mandatory for getting the dark blue scrubs and official attending wings.

And because Derek had an early surgery, Meredith decided to bring Lilly along with her. If anyone could turn an otherwise boring day into something fun, it was her daughter. Meredith and the others sat at the table in the conference room with piles of paperwork, while Lilly twirled in circles to entertain herself.

Meredith watched as Lilly spun, her little laugh echoing in the room every time her skirt bloomed outward. "I wish I was having as much fun as you are, peanut," she said.

"This is how they reward us for surviving our boards? Making sure we've had the chicken pox, and asking us who they should call if we croak?" Alex asked as he scribbled his signature on one of the forms.

"Today is my anniversary. I should be home having orgasms and eating waffles," Meredith pointed out.

"Well, at least Lilly is having fun," Izzie said. "Love her Full House t-shirt, by the way. I told you it would look cute on her."

"Yeah, it does," Meredith admitted.

"Is Derek still conducting your admittance interview for your neuro fellowship today?" Cristina asked.

Meredith nodded, writing her employee number down on a time card slip. "Yeah. As head of neuro, he's required to, even though he's my husband. We would probably just end up having sex on the table, except Lilly will be there with us."

"Dada?" Lilly asked.

"Dada's still in surgery, Lillybug. We'll see him a little later," Meredith explained. "I really need to come up with a code word for S-E-X. I'm surprised she hasn't said it yet."

"Well, she's probably heard it going on. Why not just say it, too?" Cristina joked.

"If you'd like, Derek and I can have some anniversary fun behind a locked door while Aunt Teetee watches her," Meredith said, referring to Cristina by the nickname Lilly had recently given her.

Cristina shook her head. "Oh, no. Aunt Teetee isn't babysitting just so you two can bang one out in the linen closet."

"She calls you Teetee?" Alex asked in amusement.

"She has a nickname for all of you. Come here, baby girl," Meredith said, pulling Lilly onto her lap. She pointed to Cristina, who sat next to her. "Who is that?"

"Teetee!" Lilly answered.

"And who is she?" Meredith asked.

"Zeezee," Lilly replied, pointing to Izzie on the other side of the table. "A Gege, a Yex," she continued, naming George and Alex respectively.

"Good job," Meredith praised her. Lilly wiggled her way off Meredith's lap, and toddled under the table for privacy. "What're you doing under there?"

"I poo," Lilly announced.

Alex laughed. "Your kid is awesome."

"Last night, Derek and I were... celebrating our anniversary early, because we knew we wouldn't have time this morning, and right in the middle of it, Lilly told us she pooped over the monitor," Meredith disclosed, able to laugh now, though it wasn't as funny at the time.

"Who had to change her?" George asked.

"I did. I always have to do it, since Derek has an... well, you know," Meredith said.

Oh God, please stop," Cristina requested, holding her hand up.

"Just sharing a gem of motherhood," Meredith laughed as she stacked her papers into a neat pile.

Lilly emerged from her hiding spot and smiled up at her mom. "I do," she said.

"All done? Okay, good. Mommy's done her boring paperwork, too. So let's go change you, get the physical, and then go find Daddy," Meredith said, gathering her papers into one arm, and letting Lilly grab onto her hand. "Say bye-bye."

"Bye-bye," Lilly told the group, waving at each of them, all of whom waved back.

After Meredith changed Lilly's diaper, she dropped off the updated personnel forms to HR, went to the clinic for the routine physical, then swung by the cafeteria to pick up lunch for the three of them. If the hospital was requiring her to have one last interview for a job she'd accepted months ago, conducted by Derek no less, she figured she may as well turn it into an anniversary lunch.

Derek walked into the designated conference room just as Meredith was securing Lilly's bib, a manila folder tucked under his arm. "Hey. How are my two favorite ladies?" he greeted.

Meredith laughed, tilting her head up to kiss him. "Hmm, we're good. How was your surgery?" she asked.

"Good. It was just a routine laminectomy; nothing exciting," Derek assured her, taking a seat at the conference room table, Lilly in the swivel chair between them. "How about you?"

"Oh, loads of fun. Paperwork followed by more paperwork, then I got my new ID picture taken," Meredith said. She unclipped it from her shirt and handed it to him before he had the chance to ask, knowing he would.

"Jeez, are you supposed to look hot in your ID photo?" Derek asked.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. You're already getting lucky tonight."

"I'm serious. You do," Derek upheld. He kissed the top of Lilly's pigtailed head and smiled. "And how are you?"

"I pood," Lilly informed him, accepting the cereal puff Meredith gave her.

"You did? Well, that sounds like fun. I'm glad you're here today. You make a boring work day way more fun, Princess," Derek said.

"Of course she does," Meredith agreed as she slid his lunch container over to him. "Turkey sandwich with peppers, hold the mayo, a bag of pita chips, and an apple."

"My favorite combos. Thank you," he said.

"Am I a romantic wife or what?" Meredith teased. She held up her iced tea and clinked it against his water bottle. "Happy three years."

Derek leaned over Lilly, and kissed her again. "Happy three years."

"So, how do we do this? Do you need me to swear allegiance to the neuro program, or learn a secret handshake?" she teased.

Derek pulled stapled sheets of paper from the manila folder, a white, pink, yellow, and blue, all to be sent back to various departments around the hospital. He scrawled his name on the line at the bottom of the page, then slid it over to Meredith. "Sign your name above mine," he said, handing her the pen.

Meredith signed her loopy signature above his doctor scribble, and gave him the papers and pen back. "Now what?"

"Welcome aboard, Dr. Grey," Derek said in his professional voice, extending his hand.

Meredith laughed in slight confusion, but still shook his hand anyway. "What? That's it?"

"That's it," he echoed. "If Lilly wasn't here, we could do something much more fun than a handshake that involved us on top of this table, but a handshake will suffice for now."

"Well, I very much look forward to working with you," Meredith said with equal amounts of professionalism.

"Good, because a patient with a basilar tip aneurysm was admitted this morning, and it's all yours if you want it," Derek offered.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," Derek nodded, giving Lilly a spoonful of her puréed bananas.

"Bain?" Lilly asked as she munched.

"Yeah, Mommy's the best at fixing brains," Derek smiled. "What do you say?"

"As long as someone wouldn't mind watching Lilly for a couple hours, I'm in," Meredith said, taking a bite of her own sandwich.

"Izzie already offered. I saw her on the way up here, and she jumped at the chance," Derek said.

"Of course she did," Meredith laughed. "Want to hang out with Zeezee while Dada and I fix a brain?"

Lilly clapped excitedly, wiggling in her swivel chair. "Zeezee!" she cheered.

"Alright, then. I'll let her know," Meredith said as she sent Izzie a text to confirm her babysitting opportunity. Seconds later, Izzie texted back an enthusiastic Yay! with a smiley face, which let Meredith know she was just as pumped as Lilly was. "She's in."

"Everybody loves you, Lillybug," Derek said. "I wish it wasn't against hospital policy to bring babies into the OR. I think Lilly would enjoy a good craniotomy. She could suction and hold clamps as well as any intern, probably better. They really should make an exception for gifted genius babies like ours. Maybe now with both of us steering the neuro ship, we can institute that policy."

Meredith smiled at his overzealous pride, though she knew she was guilty of the same thing. "I look forward to it, Dr. Shepherd."

...

Derek stood at the sink in the scrub room, opening a soap packet, when Meredith walked in, donning her navy scrubs and purple, lily-covered scrub cap for the first time. And when he saw her, he did a double take.

"Wow."

"What?" she asked, tying on a scrub mask.

"You. I'm liking the navy. It suits you," Derek complimented.

Meredith smiled, accepting the soap packet he handed her. "Thank you."

"Love the scrub cap, too. Lilly and I did a good job picking that one out," Derek grinned beneath his mask.

"Yes, you did," Meredith giggled. She bumped her hip against his and pressed her foot on the water pedal. "So I was thinking, if we get finished this surgery early, and Lilly is still having fun with Iz, you and I could go up to your office."

"Oh, yeah? And do what?" he asked, though he was already fairly certain of the answer.

"Celebrate... nakedly," Meredith shrugged.

"I'm in."

Meredith smirked at him as she scrubbed her hands. "Well, you will be."

"Very unprofessional, Dr. Grey," Derek joked.

"My dirty mind is one of the many reasons you married me," Meredith said.

"Yes, it is. And so is your ability to save lives," Derek added, leaning against the sink while she finished scrubbing. "When we go in there, I'm letting you take point. You're the attending now, fellow surgeon."

Meredith shook the excess water off her hands, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him over his mask. "Best anniversary present ever."

"Hmm, better than me wining and dining you at some fancy restaurant?" he asked.

"Hell yeah."

Once the surgery was underway, Meredith let herself relax, the initial nerves fading away with the thrill of getting to take charge of the OR. She stood over the patient's open brain, mobilizing the posterior communicating artery branches. He stood next to her with the suction, irrigating the pooled blood so Meredith would have a clean visual field.

"Placing the temporary clip on the basilar trunk," Meredith said, easily sliding the clip in place before Bokey handed her the Penfield 4 tool. "Now I'm going to follow the PCA back until I find the basilar tip."

"Good. Careful not to—"

"Nick the perforators, I know," Meredith said, laughing slightly. "I've seen you do this a hundred times."

"Right. Zipping my lip," Derek promised.

With the Penfield, Meredith carefully navigated the mess of perforators until she located the aneurysm neck several inches away. "Okay, I'm going to need continuous suction, and a... straight seven millimeter, please."

Bokey gave her the clip she asked for, and Derek watched with baited breath as Meredith secured control of the aneurysm before applying the clip to its neck. "Clip is on. Bleeding stopped," Meredith said, seeing a smile come over Derek's face, a smile so big she could see it even with his mask on.

Bokey handed Meredith the needle so she could ensure she'd sealed off the aneurysm. "Matador move," she announced, inserting the needle into the aneurysm dome. Only the expected trickle of blood seeped from it, and that's when Meredith knew she was in the clear.

"Okay, clip is holding. Taking off the temporary clip on the trunk. Can I get some suction in here?" she asked.

After Derek suctioned around the artery, Meredith released the clip, allowing for normal blood flow to resume. "Patient's BP?"

"Holding steady. 112 systolic. Heart rate is 82," said one of the scrub nurses.

"Perfect," Derek said just loud enough for her to hear.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Patient is stable. ICP is within normal limits. Dr. Landau, would you like to close?"

The fourth year resident nodded eagerly, walking toward the head of the table. "Absolutely," she said.

"Page with me with any neuro changes, and do a post-op CT once she wakes up," Meredith requested.

"Sure," Dr. Landau agreed.

"Thank you. Thank you, everyone," Meredith said graciously, just as Derek did every time after surgery.

The two walked into the scrub room, and as soon as they both had their masks off, Derek kissed her, unable to wait until they had more privacy. "That was incredible. You were incredible."

"Thank you," Meredith murmured against his lips.

"Such a high, right?"

Meredith smiled, letting out a breath. "Yeah."

"Still want to go celebrate nakedly?" Derek asked.

She pulled off her gown and gloves, swiftly tossing them in the bin. "I've been wanting to all day."

After scrubbing out and updating their patient's family, they managed to make it up to Derek's office without getting interrupted along the way, a miracle in itself. Derek kissed her again as soon as they crossed the threshold, and Meredith kicked the door closed with her foot, then reached behind her to turn the lock.

"Pull out bed or couch?" Derek asked, untying the drawstring to her scrub pants.

"Couch. It's quicker."

And when Meredith's hand snaked into his boxers, he had to agree that the couch was a better choice. He picked her up without warning and she wrapped her legs around his waist while he walked them the few steps over to the couch against the wall. "Mark's in surgery, which means we get to be as loud as we want."

"What if his diploma falls off the wall like last time?"

"It's a small price to pay for a screaming, wall-banging orgasm," Derek said as they both rushed to get undressed.

Meredith swung her legs over his lap, one on each side, and put her arms on his shoulders. Without another word, she raised up and dropped down onto him, smiling in satisfaction at the look on his face. "Hmm, can't argue with that," she gasped.

Derek swallowed, trying to remember what they'd been talking about a few seconds ago, but his groin was calling dibs on his blood supply at the moment. "What?" he asked blankly.

Her fingers tangled in his curls before she started moving. "I don't know. I forget, too."

"Doesn't matter," Derek choked out.

She laughed against his lips. "Sex first; thinking later."

And when the sex was over and thinking resumed, getting up off the couch seemed like an impossibility. Meredith lay with her arm draped over Derek's torso, her head resting on his chest. Her skin prickled with goosebumps when he trailed his fingers over her bare back. "I don't want to get up," she said.

"Me either. We can wait a few more minutes," Derek said, his nose buried in her hair.

"Okay."

Meredith closed her eyes for just a few seconds when her phone signaled a text, breaking them both out of their sated haze. She rolled over Derek and began searching through the mess of clothes spread over the floor. "Damn, which ones are mine? We wear the same color scrubs now," she said, checking the pockets of one pair of pants. "Not these."

She found the other pair by Derek's desk, and pulled her phone from the pocket. "It's from Izzie," Meredith said. "Lilly and I didn't want to interrupt the porno movie going on in Derek's office, so we're hanging out in the attending lounge across the hall. No rush. Consider it my anniversary gift," she read off the screen.

Derek pulled a pillow over his face and groaned into it. "Oh, God."

"Don't say that. She'll think we're going at it again," Meredith said as she shimmied her panties back on.

"We could. She said no rush," Derek joked.

Meredith laughed, hooking her bra in place. "Just get dressed," she said. She tossed him his boxers, but stopped him before he could put them on. "Wait," she said, sneaking one last peek at her favorite part of his anatomy before it could be concealed by clothing. "Okay, go ahead."

"Taking advantage of my nakedness?"

"Maybe," she admitted.

"Want to take advantage again... say later on tonight?" he asked.

Meredith smiled, the conversation they had six years ago in the stairwell echoing in her mind. But this time, her answer was different. She put a hand on his cheek and kissed him. "Yes."

"Okay, good."

Once they finished getting dressed, and Meredith smoothed her sex hair, they emerged from their office hideaway. They took the few steps to the attending lounge, Lilly's laughter audible even in the hallway.

"Sounds like someone's having fun in here," Meredith greeted after opening the door.

Lilly ran over to her parents and reached up her arms. "Mama!"

"Hey, Lillybug. Are you playing with Zeezee?" she asked, kissing Lilly's cheek.

"Pay Zee," Lilly said.

"Thanks for looking after her, Stevens. We really appreciate it," Derek said. He took Lilly when she reached for him, sitting her on his hip. "What have you guys been up to?"

"We went to the cafeteria with Alex, and shared banana pudding. Then we went outside and picked flowers, and she handed them out to people who walked in and out of the hospital. We watched Bailey remove an inflamed gallbladder from her patient's mouth, then we came up here and had a dance party while we waited for you guys to... finish," Izzie said.

Meredith decided to skip over the last part of what Izzie had listed, and looked at Lilly instead. "You watched a surgery, peanut?" she asked.

"She loved it. Her eyes were glued to the TV screen the whole time. I think you may have a general surgeon on your hands," Izzie predicted as she began packing some toys up in Lilly's diaper bag.

"Mini Ellis Grey in training," Derek said. He lifted Lilly higher in his arms to blow a raspberry on her stomach, and Lilly shrieked with endless peals of laughter.

"Lilly may inherit Ellis Grey's general surgeon talent, but her sunshiny personality definitely wasn't passed down from my mother," she said.

"That's because the bubbly cheerfulness belongs to the Shepherd end of the gene pool," Derek grinned.

Meredith was grappling for a rebuttal, but when Lilly laughed again, her blue eyes and wide smile identical to Derek's, all she could do was smile back at the two of them. "Yeah. But at least it's contagious."

...

Day one of being an attending, and Meredith had to admit, it was easy to understand the appeal. Starting work later and getting home earlier was worth the grueling pace of residency. And because of the late sunsets July offered, they decided to celebrate Meredith's first day and their anniversary with dinner on the back patio.

Meredith sat in one of the Adirnodack chairs with Lilly in her lap, both of them watching as Derek rotated the pizza in the brick oven. "You know, I wasn't sure I believed all the hype at first, but I have to say, you were right."

"About what?" he asked.

"All the perks that come with the navy scrubs. Picking my own hours and days off, not having to wake up at four in the morning for pre-rounds anymore, clipping aneurysms and having time for S-E-X afterward. It's a charmed life," she giggled.

"The light at the end of the residency tunnel," Derek mused.

"Exactly."

Derek dropped down in the chair next to hers and held up his glass. "You worked your butt off these last five years. You earned it," he said.

"Thank you," Meredith replied, tapping her glass with his.

"Pay Cha?" Lilly asked.

"Okay, go play," Meredith said.

She set Lilly down on the patio, and Lilly toddled into the grass where Charlie was running around. When the dog saw Lilly, he immediately walked toward her and stretched out on the lawn, giving Lilly a chance to climb on his back. When her little arms wrapped loosely around his neck, Charlie got up and started moseying around the yard, Lilly breaking out in a fit of giggles at the bouncing motion.

"I swear, she thinks he's a horse," Meredith said, she and Derek watching them from the patio.

"Maybe she could be a cowgirl for Halloween. We could get Charlie a saddle, and the two of them could trot along from house to house," Derek suggested.

Meredith laughed, leaning back in her chair and kicking off her shoes. "Oh, there's an idea," she played along.

Her phone chirped with a new email, and she picked it up off the table. She rolled her eyes when she saw the sender. "HR again. This is the fifth email they sent me today to confirm my paperwork," Meredith said as she opened it. "Incoming attending, the lab results from today's physical have been submitted to HR records, and a digital copy has been sent to you. It is recommended that you print the results found in the attachment, and that they be retained for your personal records," she read.

"Once you become an official attending, HR puts you on the email list. I get at least three a day. Mark gets all of it sent to his spam folder," Derek chuckled.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll be doing that by tomorrow," she assured him.

"I'm gonna check on the pizza," he said as he stood up.

"Okay."

Meredith opened the PDF attached in the email, and began scrolling through the results of her physical. As she suspected, her immunization records were up to date, her vision and hearing were near pristine, and no disease processes were found. She was about to close out of the email when a result from the blood work criteria caught her eye.

hCG level: 52Indicative of: Positive Pregnancy

All Meredith could do was stare at the screen. "Derek."