Conversation's in the Dark (Merhayes)

Kid's

Two weeks had passed everyone was out of the hospital and pretty much better. Zola had to be careful but they were all back in school. "Liam, Austin, Zola, Bailey, Ellis!! We need to be in the car driving in 3 minutes." I yell up the stairs. Zola comes downstairs ready to go "mom what if I get shot again." She asks about to cry. "Zozo that's not going to happen." I respond to her. "How do you know?" She asks. "Because Zola the guy who shot you got shot too, he died. No one is going to hurt you I promise. Guys let's go." I say. I was talking about Andrew. The cops had shot him 3 times. Once in the arm, once in the leg, and the third time in the chest. They couldn't save him. I was trying not to think about it. I was bring all 5 of the kids to school today but Cormac was picking mine up early because he 'has a surprise and needs to talk to them.' Whatever that means. I was glad Cory was spending time with them, Ellis loves him so much. I have to pick up the boys after my shift ends which I'm okay with. I need to spend more time with them. I know they love me but I feel like we don't spend enough time together. The boys spent the night at my house last night because cormac had to be at the hospital at 4 am. Cory and boys haven't moved in but it felt like they did. They are always at my house. I'm going to talk to Cormac about it today. "Alright guys let's go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! Got em all." I state as we all walk out the door. I drop the boys and Zola off then take Ellis and Bailey to the other school. "Bye boys have a good day. Bye bye Zo." I yell as the kids get out of the car. "Bye mom love you." The boys say back. That was new they have never said "love you" so I was caught off guard a little. "Uhh sorry I.." Austin says. "I love you too. Be good and please be safe." I reply. He smiles. "Bye mommy I love you." Zola nervously yells. "Bye Zozo I love you too. Everything will be fine." I drive away. "Okay goodbye Ellis bye Bailey, I love you be good." I wave as I leave the school. Off to work.

CORMAC'S POV/;/;/;

I watch Meredith pull in. I smiled because I missed her, I just want to hug and kiss her all day. She gets out of her car and walks over to me at the coffee cart. "Buongiorno bellezza." I say. (Good morning beautiful.) she smiles. "Buongiorno, mi sei mancato." (Good morning I missed you.) Replies Meredith. "I missed you too." I say grabbing her waist, turning to face me and kissing her. She kisses me back. "Guess what the boys said this morning." Meredith states. "Uhh what?" I ask. "They said 'bye mom love you' then Austin got all shy and started to second guess himself." She replies. "What did you do?" I question. "I smiled and said 'good bye Austin I love you too be good and please be safe.' Then he walked away." Meredith says. I smile. "Hm well I'm glad they like you." I say back to her. "Me too. Are you excited to hang out with my kids tonight?" Meredith asks. "Yes I'm excited and nervous because I've never really done this." I reply. We get our coffee and then start to walk inside. "My kids love you don't be nervous." She says. "Mm true Ellis has me wrapped right around her finger." I chuckle. "Yes she does." Meredith says. "Hey so I was thinking. Well there's really no easy way to say these two things so... here it goes I think we should move in together. I mean we practically sleep together every night. You practically live at my house the kids get along..." Meredith is rambling. "Yes." Shes still rambling and then she stops. "What?" She asks shocked "yes I will move in with you." I say and smile. "Oh okay." She says relived. "You said two things but that was just one. What was the other?" I asked "um well this one is kind of more serious. Cormac I want more kids and I'm getting to the age where that's not going to be possible." Shes rambling again which is not like Meredith grey. "Meredith, Meredith, hey." I say stopping her. "What?" She asks. "Wait till my surprise." I say as I take a sip of my coffee. "What? Why?" Meredith asks. "Because I said so." I reply smiling. "Okay." Meredith says skeptical.

MEREDITH'S POV/;/;/;

I leave work early to pick up the kids. I need to go get Zola and then the other two. I walk into the school to get Zola, I walk over the the lady and ask her to get her from her classroom. I see Zola walking down the hallway so I kneel down. "Zozo! How was school?" I say she starts to run to me. "Cormac! Good." Shes says hugging me. "That's good, are you ready for your surprise?" I ask. "Yes I'm excited!" She replies. We leave to go pick up Ellis and Bailey. Zola and I walk in to the school and over to the window. "I'm here to pick up Ellis and Bailey shepherd please." I say. After a minute I see Ellis running down the hallway "dad, dad, dad!" She says but she has never called me dad before. She gets to me and hugs me "hey sweetie how was school?" I ask her "good we got to play outside." She answers. "Ellis that's not our dad that's cormac." Zola says. Technically she was right but if ellis and Bailey wanted to call me dad I was fine with it. "That's okay Zola she can call me dad if she wants." I say. Then I see Bailey. "Hey bai" I say I called him bai it was our thing he called me Mac and I called him bai. "Hey buddy! How was school?" I ask giving Bailey a big hug. "Good." He says. "Who wants ice cream?" I ask. I hear 3 little "me" and then I say "okay well let's go then." And we walk to the car get all buckled up and then I drive to the ice cream place. I get out the kids buy the ice cream and while they are eating it I say... "hey guys I have a question. So you know how mommy and I kiss, and hug, and spend a lot of time together?" Zola nods "well yeah you're her boyfriend." She replies. "Yes I am. Do you guys know what it means to marry someone?" I ask. I'm trying to talk and speak the way they understand. "Yes it's when you love someone so much the boy buys a ring and they date forever." Zola says. I smile and shake my head "yes Zola you're right. Hey you guys know I'm not trying to replace your dad right?" I ask Zola stops for a minute and looks up at me "yes but I miss him a lot." She replies. "You know what Zola? That's okay. It's okay to miss someone. Do you guys know my old girlfriend died? Liam and Austin's mommy died just like your daddy." I was trying to lighten the mood a little and make sure the kids knew I was there for support and because I loved them and mer. Abigail as my wife but I don't think they knew what a wife was. "Really?" Bailey asks. I nod "yes. When the boys were really little she died." I say. Zola kind of frowns. "Okay so I have a question." I state. They all look up at me. "I love your mommy very, very much, and I love you guys very, very much." I smile and pull the small square box out of my pocket keeping it under the table we were sitting at. "So I wanted to know if you guys would be okay with me asking your mommy to marry me." I say and pull the box up on top of the table. All 3 of their face light up with excitement. "Really?" Zola exclaims. "Really. But only if it's okay with you guys." I reply. I open the box to reveal a beautiful ring. It was very expensive but it was worth it. "Woah." Zola says. I chuckle a little. "Yes! You can marry my mom." Zola replies. Bailey shook his head. Bailey doesn't talk much. Ellis wants to hold the ring. "You can't hold the ring because it's very special. Okay this is a surprise for mommy so we cannot tell her we talked about this. If mommy asks what we did tell her we got ice cream. Got it? Do not talk about the ring." I say very clearly. "Okay. Deal. Yeah." I hear all at the same time.

MEREDITH'S POV/;/;/;

I get to school to pick up the boys. I'm waiting for them outside of the car. "Hey guys." I say as they walk out. They both walk over to me and hug me. I love how the boys get along with my kids and with me. We feel like one big family. We get in the car, Austin sits up front in the passengers seat. "How was school?" I hear them both say good as I pull out of the parking lot. "That's good." I reply. "I asked that girl out." Austin says. I gasp. "What did she say?" I reply. "She said yes and then she hugged me. Can I take her to get coffee Friday after school?" Austin requests. "I'm okay with that if dad is." I reply. "Dad has been weird lately." Liam says Austin nods agreeing with Liam "why do you say that?" I ask "I don't know he feels distant. Maybe he's keeping a secret." Liam suggests. "I don't think he's keeping a secret I just think he's adjusting." Austin answers. I don't really say anything's "I don't know. He wants to hang out with us Wednesday, says he needs to talk to us." Austin states. "Yeah I know, he's getting us from school early." Liam replies. I don't know what cormac has planned for them but I'm sure everything is fine. We get home and cormac is already there with my kids. "Well hello." He says. "Hi, how were the kids?" I ask "perfect as always." He replies and pulls me in for a kiss. "Good." I say. "Boys I'm going to talk to you today instead of Wednesday." He yells in the house and then closes the door leaving us outside. "You ready for vacation?" Cormac ask "yes." I reply. He the kisses me again. The kiss becomes more passionate. I pull away "this is not a safe game to play." I say as he kisses my neck. "I'm not playing games." He replies and chuckles. "Yeah but the kids are here and we're outside." I say. "So we are just kissing." He protests. "No you're kissing my neck." I say back. "Mhm" he says. "Cormac." I say. He stops and looks at me "what?" I say "just kissing." I say he smiles and starts kissing again. "For now." He says. I pull away from him and sit down on our porch bench. "Are you staying the night again?" I ask. "If you want me to." He replies. "Of course I want you to Cory." I say. He smiles. "Okay it's getting late I should make dinner." I say but I don't move. "Yeah that might be a good idea." He says. I lay my head on his shoulder. "What did you do with the kids?" I ask genuinely curious. "We talked and got ice cream." He answers. "Thank you." I say back. "For what?" Cormac kisses my head. "For loving my kids. For being here for them." I say. I said love my kids but to be honest with you cormac hadn't even said I love you to me. "Well in that case thank you." Cormac responds. I smile and stand up. I go upstairs to my room to put on different clothes I was still in my scrubs because I left work quick to get the boys.

CORMAC'S POV;/;/;

Meredith walk's down the stairs in leggings and my green hoodie with her hair up in a ponytail. My hoodie was baggy on her, she looked adorable. I follow her into the kitchen where I just hang out and help her cook. She made rice, with grilled chicken and some grilled veggies on the side. The kids came down and ate dinner with us. I did the dishes while mer got everyone ready for bed. When she walks back downstairs everything is picked up and put away. Meredith smiles. "All the kids are sleeping, it's just you and me." She says walking over to me. I smile. I loved what we had. It was now 9:30 so we go upstairs. "Cuddles?" Meredith asks. "Definitely." I say. We both get in bed and she is lay with her head and hand placed on my chest. I move her hair out of her face and kiss her forehead. "Mer?" I ask. "Hmm?" She asks back. "I- i- I lov-"