163. Sea-Tac to JFK

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd give Meredith and Derek way more screen time than what Shonda gives them.

Thank you, as always, for your continued patience and support. It means so much!

It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and what should have been a time of transitioning into holiday mode was anything but relaxed. Back-to-back surgeries kept them busy at work much later than either Meredith or Derek anticipated, and now they had only a few hours left to finish packing and manage to get some sleep before leaving for New York in the morning.

Meredith sat on their bed, drying Lilly off after her bath, while Derek gathered their toiletries from the bathroom to pack in their suitcases. "Let's see what he comes out here with, Lillybug. All of his hair products are the reason why I can no longer share a suitcase with him," she said as she fastened a new diaper around Lilly's waist.

"I heard that!" Derek called out.

"Still true!" Meredith reminded him. She shimmied Lilly's legs into her Snow White pajama bottoms, then pulled the matching shirt over her head. "Are you excited to go on the airplane tomorrow?"

"Airpane," Lilly echoed, settling into Meredith's lap, so she could comb her wet curls, wild after her bath.

Meredith smiled as she gently ran the comb through Lilly's hair, breathing in the soft scent of her baby shampoo. "Yeah. You, me, Daddy, Uncle Mark, Aunt Bridget, and Lolo are all going to New York on the airplane to see Gammy."

"Gammy?"

"Yep, Gammy and everybody else. I would name them all, but that would take me three hours, and it's already past your bedtime," Meredith teased.

"Alright, all that's missing from the toiletries is your makeup stuff. I think I packed everything else we need," Derek said, setting the large duffel bag on the foot of the bed.

"Okay, good. Lilly's bag is packed, too. She wanted some input, so we picked out her outfits together. Are you sure Amy doesn't mind letting us use Adam's port-a-crib?" Meredith asked.

Derek shook his head. "No, not at all. She offered it to us last year, too, but Lilly was still too little and needed the bassinet."

"I big," Lilly chimed in, pulling down the comforter on the bed. She crawled into Derek's spot and settled her head on his pillow as though it were her own. "I seep," she said with a yawn.

"We have the most self-sufficient child ever. She picks out her own clothes and puts herself to bed. You could probably potty train yourself, too, huh?" Meredith said, kissing her daughter's forehead.

"That reminds me: how many diapers are we bringing? We can squeeze more into our toiletry bag if we need to," Derek said.

"I put two packs in her suitcase, and I have a stack of them in my carry-on. Probably way more than she'll need, but our kid is a master pooper, so I wanted to be prepared," Meredith replied as she rested her head next to Lilly's on Derek's pillow. "You can finish packing, right? Pregnant lady needs sleep."

Derek nodded, zipping his suitcase closed. "You can sleep. We're pretty much done anyway. I just want to load the bigger bags into the car tonight. All of your clothes are packed, right?"

"Yeah, everything is ready to go. Lilly's suitcase is in the hall," Meredith said. She hugged Lilly closer to the middle of the bed, reveling in the warmth under the covers when Charlie jumped up and joined both of them. After making sure Lilly was accounted for, he planted himself in Meredith's spot, his head on her pillow.

"Where am I supposed to sleep now? The bed is full," Derek chuckled.

"He wants to spend quality time with Mommy, since we won't see him for a few days. Right, buddy?" Meredith said, reaching over and scratching under his chin. "Speaking of that, is his stuff packed?"

"Yeah, I packed it this morning before work. Food, bowls, toys, and treats. Karev is coming by tomorrow morning to pick him up," Derek said.

Meredith yawned, her arm cuddled around Lilly, who was already dozing off with her thumb in her mouth. "You're a good husband. If I weren't so tired and our bed weren't so crowded, I'd give you S-E-X."

"Hmm, I'll take a rain check, then."

"Tomorrow night in your race car sheets, you're getting lucky," Meredith promised.

Derek leaned over the bed and kissed Lilly's cheek before kissing his wife. "That sounds wrong on so many levels, but I'll take you up on the offer."

...

An early morning spent in an airport terminal was far less appealing than the comfort of their own beds, but thanks to Lilly's usual cheerful morning spirit, courtesy of Derek's genes, she was making the time spent waiting for their flight more enjoyable.

"Airpane. Airpane, Ma!" Lilly shrieked, jumping up and down with delight when she saw a plane ascend into the sky outside the large glass window.

"Yeah, there goes the airplane. Isn't that cool, Lillybug?" Meredith smiled.

"She has so much energy for seven in the morning," Mark said in awe before taking a sip of coffee.

Derek grinned at his daughter, who was still proudly displaying her Snow White pajamas from the night before. "Yeah, she's a morning person. One of my genetic gifts."

"Jellybean got it, too. Kicking me as we speak," Meredith giggled. She took a bite of her cinnamon bun, her traditional airport breakfast, and rubbed a hand over her belly. "I'm eating, sweetpea. Food's coming."

"Baby's stubborn like Mer. When he's hungry, he lets her know until he's fed," Derek teased.

"So, are we thinking it's a boy now?" Bridget prodded, Charlotte sound asleep on her chest.

Meredith shrugged. "All last week, I thought boy. Now I'm back to girl again. It's kind of nice to get away from the envelope that's been staring at me for the past three weeks. Out of sight, out of mind," she said.

"Any more names added to your list?" Mark asked.

"We have more names on the vetoed list than the contender list. And once Mom and the girls give us their input, we'll have even more vetoes to add," Derek predicted, scooping Lilly into his lap when she walked over. "What do you think we should name the baby, Lilly?"

Lilly pondered seriously for a moment before answering. "Benny."

"Benny, huh? I like Ben, actually. Good choice, Lilly," Derek said.

"Where did she get that from?" Mark asked.

"I don't know. That's a good one, though. Usually when we ask her for name suggestions, she gives us Dory or Nemo," Meredith laughed, breaking off a piece of her cinnamon bun and feeding it to Lilly. "Is that yummy?"

"Ummy," Lilly echoed, her lips covered in icing. "Mo?"

"Here you go," Meredith said as she gave Lilly another piece.

Derek watched as Lilly munched happily on her snack, and he reached for the pack of baby wipes in her diaper bag. "Filling you up with sugar before a six hour plane ride across the country. This should be fun."

"All part of my plan. I want her to get out all of her energy now, so she'll sleep through most of it," Meredith replied.

"She was so good last year. I'm sure she'll do great. And hopefully, Charlotte will follow her example," Bridget said.

"We can send Lilly up or you guys can pass Charlotte back. They can keep each other entertained the whole time," Derek suggested as he wiped the sticky icing off Lilly's hands.

Mark nodded. "That'll work. I mean, as long as you two don't sneak off to have a quickie in the bathroom..."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "No mile high quickies," she said, choosing to press her luck with a counteroffer. "But I did promise Derek S-E-X in his old bedroom, so if you could watch Lilly for an hour tonight, we'd appreciate it."

"Oh, jeez," Derek murmured, his face heating in a red blush.

"Fine. As long as you do us the same courtesy and watch Charlotte, so Bridg and I can do it, too," Mark leveraged.

"Oh, my God," Bridget said with equal mortification that Derek was currently experiencing.

Meredith extended her arm and shook Mark's hand, finalizing the agreement. "Deal."

"You two are unbelievable," Derek said, unable to hide his amusement.

"Hey, I just bought us an hour of uninterrupted nakedness in the race car sheets. You should be thanking me," Meredith defended.

"Oh, I'm thankful. A little weirded out by the S-E-X deals in exchange for babysitting you and Mark just shook on, but still thankful," Derek assured her.

Mark held up his cup of coffee in a toast. "That's what Thanksgiving is all about."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what the pilgrims hoped for," Bridget joked.

"Attention passengers of Flight 417 bound for JFK airport in New York, your flight will begin boarding momentarily. Please gather your belongings, and have your boarding passes available for scanning," came the flight attendant's chipper voice over the loud speaker.

"Airpane?" Lilly asked as she bounced on Derek's lap.

Derek smiled at her excitement, and he kissed her cheek. "Yeah, we're about to get on the airplane, Lillybug. And after that conversation, not a moment too soon."

...

They were halfway to New York, and fully through Lilly's extensive book collection. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Green Eggs and Ham, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Goodnight Moon, Curious George, Elmo Loves Hugs, and a dozen more of the like. And now per Lilly's request, she was paging through a neuro journal and pointing out all the brain pictures she spotted.

"Bain, Dada!" she announced when she found one, pointing to it with enthusiasm.

"You're so smart, Lillybug. You know that?" Derek praised.

Lilly wiggled with delight on his lap, Dr. Squirrel, her cherished stuffed animal, tucked under her arm. "Bain, Ma," she told Meredith.

"You're finding all the brains, huh? Want to show Charlotte?" Meredith asked as she rocked Charlotte in her arm, watching over her while Mark and Bridget napped in the seats in front of them.

"Bain, Lolo," Lilly pointed again.

Charlotte studied the picture with her wide, blue eyes as she sucked eagerly on her pacifier. Meredith kissed the top of her strawberry blonde head of hair and hugged her close. "This whole 'family of four' thing is a piece of cake. Two parents to two kids. Kinda perfect," she said.

"Lilly's gonna do great with a new baby in the house. Right, Princess?"

"I do," Lilly agreed, too focused on her brain searching to look up from the page.

"She's so good with Charlotte. If Jellybean is a boy, we might be in trouble," Meredith giggled.

"He might pee on her by accident a few times, and ransack her doll house, but they'll love each other. Same goes if it's a girl. They'll fight over dress-up clothes, and who gets to host the tea parties, but at the end of the day, they'll be best friends. Win-win either way," Derek said.

Meredith smiled, rubbing a hand over her belly where the baby was thudding his or her tiny feet. "Win-win either way."

"Hungy," Lilly interrupted.

"So is your sister, the future lead in Stomp," Meredith said.

"Kicking again?" Derek asked.

"Yeah. Twenty-three weeks and the size of a grapefruit, and our baby already has your feet," Meredith informed him, reaching under her seat for Lilly's bag of snacks they'd purchased at the airport.

Derek smiled in amusement at the accusation. "What's that mean?"

"It means you have big feet," she said, setting the bag in the empty middle seat between them. "Lucky for me, your big feet are proportionate to another... well-endowed part of your body that got me pregnant."

"Lucky for you, huh?"

"One of the many reasons I keep you around," Meredith replied.

Lilly peered inside the bag until she chose her desired snack, oblivious to the vaguely dirty conversation her parents were having. "Teer-oh?" she asked.

Derek took the purple container from the bag and popped off the lid. "Good choice. Here you go, Princess," he said, handing her a Cheerio.

"What should Mommy feed Jellybean, Lilly?" Meredith asked.

"A gogo," Lilly answered as she plucked another Cheerio from the container.

"Gogurt it is," Meredith agreed. She took a strawberry flavored yogurt pouch from the bag, peeled off the tab, then took the first bite. "I know it's just a plastic tube of yogurt, but this is so good," she sighed happily.

Mark turned around in his seat to check on Charlotte when he saw Meredith nearly moaning over a Gogurt. "Jeez, Grey. Could you slurp that thing any more suggestively?"

"What?" Meredith asked before she realized what he meant. "Oh, shut up, Mark. It's a tube of yogurt. Derek will tell you I save my special talents for his... you know what," she said, censoring herself for the sake of the girls' ears.

"Oh, my God," Derek murmured.

"Nice," Mark grinned widely, much to Derek's further embarrassment. "Not to change the subject, but how's my daughter?"

Meredith ran her finger over Charlotte's soft cheek and smiled. "She's perfect. And no, you can't have her back yet. I miss when Lilly was this little, and I need my cuddly baby fix."

A familiar smell wafted in the air, and Derek scrunched his nose. "Lillybug, did you poop?"

Lilly shook her head as she chewed on a Cheerio. "No."

Meredith held Charlotte's bottom up to her nose, which confirmed the culprit. "We have a winner," she said, passing her off to Mark.

"In that case, you're coming with me," Mark told Derek. "I helped you change a diaper on the plane last year; now it's time for you to return the favor."

Derek pressed a kiss on top of Lilly's head, then passed her over to Meredith. "Fine. I'll hold her; you change her," he said.

"Have fun," Meredith waved.

"Dada go?" Lilly asked.

"Daddy is helping Uncle Mark change Lolo's diaper. He'll be right back," Meredith said as Lilly put a Cheerio in her mouth. "Mmm, thank you, baby."

Lilly wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Bean baby," she said, pointing to Meredith's belly.

"You and Jellybean are both my babies. Forever and ever," Meredith promised.

"Dada?"

"I'll love Dada forever, too. And do you know why? Because he gave me you and Jellybean, the two best presents I ever got," Meredith said, kissing Lilly's forehead. "And knowing how fertile his Shepherd loins are, he'll probably give me three or four more surprise babies."

"Baybay."

"Yeah. Well, maybe not that many, because Mommy would never get anything done with all the chatty, perfect-haired babies around," she said.

The plane encountered some mild turbulence, which caused some jostling inside the cabin. And though it was only for a few seconds, it was enough to upset Meredith's stomach, and make her wish she hadn't eaten that yogurt. She clamped her hand over her mouth, taking a deep breath in the vain hope the nausea would dissipate. A few deep breaths later, she thought the queasy feeling had passed, but then Jellybean decided to kick, and the pending vomit was inevitable.

As quickly as she could, Meredith unclipped her seat belt and stood up, swinging Lilly over the row of seats and onto Bridget's lap. "Sit with Aunt Bee for a minute, okay? Mommy will be right back."

"You okay?" Bridget asked, awoken by the added weight of Lilly on her lap.

"Yeah. Bathroom break," was all Meredith could muster before walking swiftly toward the restrooms.

When she got there, the restroom on the left was occupied, so she had no choice but to interrupt the diaper change going on next door. "Gonna puke. Move," she said, shooing Mark and Derek out of the way as they changed Charlotte.

Mark buried his nose in his shoulder in preparation. "Great, like there's not enough smells in here already."

Before Meredith had a chance to yell at him for his remark, she vomited into the toilet, her germaphobic side on high alert.

"That's it. Let it out," Derek said softly, ever the supportive husband, even in an airplane bathroom.

Meredith ripped off a wad of toilet paper off the roll and dabbed her mouth. "Oh, God. Yogurt and turbulence do not mix."

"I'll go ask the flight attendant for a bottle of water. Be right back," Derek offered, handing Charlotte back to Mark.

"You okay, Grey?" Mark asked.

"Yeah. Feeling like I need to bathe in Lysol, but I'll live," Meredith assured him.

Derek reentered the small bathroom and handed Meredith the water bottle. "Here you go. Rinse and spit," he said with a smile.

"On that romantic note, Charlotte and I will leave you two alone. But no quickies," Mark teased, waving Charlotte's tiny hand.

Meredith swished her mouth out with some water and spit it into the toilet. "Yeah, that would be really sexy right now."

"We'll be right out," Derek chuckled. "Let Lilly know we're in here, so she doesn't get worried."

"Will do," Mark said before the door closed behind him.

"Be honest. If I didn't just puke and it wasn't illegal, you'd have hot sex with me in here, right?" Meredith asked, pulling her hair back into a messy bun.

Derek wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her shoulder. "Of course I would."

Meredith smiled at him in the mirror. "Thank you."

...

It was finally hour six of the plane ride across the country, and desperation had set in, which meant a full-fledged discussion on baby names had begun. Meredith sat with a sleeping Lilly on her lap as she paged through the baby name book, highlighter in hand.

"Ooh, what about Emma? That's pretty," Meredith suggested.

"Too popular," Mark interjected.

"He's right. There were three girls named Emma in my class last year," Bridget said.

Meredith refrained from highlighting the name and flipped to a different page. "Okay, then. Not Emma," she sighed.

"What about Hannah?" Derek said as he popped a pretzel into his mouth.

"Hannah was the girl with the bomb before I became the girl with the bomb," Meredith reminded him. "Every time I hear that name, I think of her."

"Okay, never mind. What about Ella?" Derek said.

Meredith smiled, finding it in the name book. "I like that. I'll highlight it in here."

"Paige?" Bridget offered.

Derek and Mark looked at each other, shaking their heads. "No," they said in unison.

"What? What's wrong with Paige?" Meredith asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Just... bad memories, that's all," Mark said vaguely.

Bridget glanced at him in suspicion. "Nice try. Spill."

"Fine. Mark had this girlfriend in high school named Paige..." Derek began.

"Paige Porter. Part time French tutor, full time sociopath," Mark added, burping Charlotte over his shoulder. "I broke up with her two weeks before the senior prom. She was so pissed that she slashed my tires, tossed a brick through my window, and arranged for her older brother to beat me up. Poor bastard didn't stand a chance, though. I was captain of the wrestling and football teams. I walked away without a scratch."

Derek rolled his eyes at Mark's re-telling of the story, ignoring its arrogant undertones. "The point of that long-winded tale is that the name Paige makes both of us cringe to this day. I can't name my daughter that."

Meredith took a pen and drew an 'X' through the name. "Okay, not Paige. Let's give the boy names a try," she decided, handing the book to Derek.

"Alright, let's see here," he said as he flipped to a random letter. "Collin?"

"No," Meredith said.

"Okay, uh... Gavin?"

Meredith scrunched her nose. "No."

"Henry?"

"No."

"Ian?"

Meredith shook her head for the fourth time. "No."

"Jeez, Grey. It's a miracle Lilly even has a name," Mark teased.

"Hey, I'm the one pushing the baby out of my hoo-hoo, which means I need to love the baby's name," Meredith said as she combed her fingers through Lilly's curls.

"Book or not, when it's the right name, you'll know it," Bridget said.

Derek smiled, squeezing Lilly's little, socked foot. "That's how it was with Lilly. We said her name, she kicked in approval, and that was it."

"Jellybean kicks when Lilly calls him Nemo though, so that strategy might not work this time around," Meredith giggled.

"Gotta say, Nemo is better than Sebastian," Derek said, earning him a nudge in the arm.

"Sebastian? That's terrible," Mark winced.

"It's a good name," Meredith defended. "Handsome... manly..."

"Yeah, if you're a crab that hangs out with a mermaid under the sea," Mark finished.

Meredith tossed a pretzel at him and smirked. "The baby's name will not be Sebastian. Derek already vetoed it, so it's out of play. But keep in mind, Derek is the one whose last name prevents us from using Jack, a name I happen to love, by the way. But we can't have the LOST reference haunting the poor kid for life."

"Probably shouldn't mention LOST on a plane," Mark recommended as he looked out the small window. "It's like saying Macbeth in the theater, then all hell breaks loose. Never a good idea."

"Since when is Mark Sloan superstitious?" Derek asked.

"I'm not. Just... erring on the side of caution," Mark countered. "Maybe we've just been on this damn plane too long and I'm going crazy."

"Seriously. The high altitude and recycled air is messing with my brain. Plus, I'm dying of boredom," Meredith sighed.

"We should be landing any minute. I hope," Bridget said.

Lilly's eyes opened and she glanced up at Meredith with an urgent look on her face. "Go poo."

"Aah, I knew it was coming eventually. The grand finale of the plane ride," Derek chuckled. "Want me to take her to the bathroom?"

"It's okay, I'll do it," Meredith offered, handing Lilly to Derek, so she could maneuver her way to the aisle.

"See? You said Macbeth in the theater, and look what happened," Mark said with a grin when his point was proved.

"Lilly enjoys her privacy. She's a lady," Derek boasted. "I'm sure her little sister Nemo will be, too."

"Memo," Lilly said, pointing to Meredith's belly.

Meredith smiled at Derek, taking the diaper and wipes he handed her. "The more you say it, the more it grows on me."