Is Forever Enough?

Chapter 42

"So I take it this is your new favorite piece of jewelry?" Asked Derek as he watched her twirl the necklace around and around her fingers out of the corner of his eye. They were stopped at a red light, traffic was fairly heavy for a weeknight and it was taking them longer than he expected to get to the mystery destination. He hadn't told her his plan for the rest of the night, as far as she knew they were going home, and he wanted to keep it that way as long as he could.

"I love it." She gushed, in a moment of pure girlyness that made his heart fill with happiness. He liked seeing her happy, it had been a long time, perhaps longer than he thought. "When did you do all this?"

"Well, I ran a lot of errands yesterday..."

"Huh...so that car wasn't broken after all, I knew that was a lie" She slapped his leg to make her point and he grabbed her hand before she could take it away.

"Yeah...well I figured I'm allowed a little white lie here and there. It makes up for all your 'I'm fine's' over the years."

He was right and she knew it, but she dug her nails into his hand anyway. "Shut up Derek. I am fine!" She teased, and focused her attention to her purse as she dug for her vibrating cell phone.

He listened to her one sided conversation with interest. He assumed it was Lexie, from the way she was asking about Ava. "Did she like it?....She fell asleep in the car?...Wow did she go crazy at the concert?"

Derek waited for the conversation to end, even though the curiosity about her evening was getting the better of him. He didn't want to admit to Meredith how much he really dreaded the idea of Ava going off to a concert. Just something about the word concert made him think of teenage boys...with baggy pants and metal chains.

"So she's made out ok?" He asked as cool and calm as he could and fought the urge to rip out his phone and call Lexie right back to get the scoop. His act wasn't working, and Meredith saw right through it and took it to her advantage.

"Well...aside from the belly ring and tattoo...I think she had a great time. You don't mind ankle tattoos right? I thought it was a little classier than a tramp stamp..." Came her mocking tone and his lips set into a frown at the thought.

"Hmm..." He replied with his trademark throaty noise. "Well, I guess I'll have to lock her up till she's 30 then..." He was trying so hard to have fun with the joke, but imagining his 4 year old with any rings or body ink was fist clinch worthy.

"Too late, Lexie said she already met a boy named crazer and eloped." She enjoyed teasing him, it was fun listening to
his throaty "hmmms" get louder and louder.

"Crazer...now I know you're making it up..."

"Well, she's sending us a post card from Las Vegas so I guess we'll see." He was almost almost chuckling from the ridiculousness of her words, yet she still noticed his hands death gripping the steering wheel.

Meredith turned towards him to alleviate the unease he was skillfully trying to hide from her. She failed to notice as he turned the car in the opposite direction of their house.

"You know, I'm actually warming up to the idea of Ava knowing Lexie... not saying her and I will ever be sisterly...but I guess there's no reason Ava can't know her." Her words surprised him, and were enough to allow his fingers to relax on the hard leather.

"I'm glad you are. I think it'll be good for you. It will be nice for Ava to have a family out here too...I know our friends are...but someday, that may not be enough for her. I think we need to make some rules though." He glanced at her every so often, but kept his eyes on the road.

"Rules?" She questioned, thinking he was insane.

"Yes. Well just one really, I don't want Thatcher anywhere near Ava."

"Oh.." She hadn't even thought of Thatcher. They had never spoken again after Susan's death and she wanted it to stay that way. No good would come from him knowing her daughter. Derek would never forgive the man for hitting her,
his overprotective nature wasn't about to let it go."

"I didn't even think of that. But...I'm sure Lexie assumes that...I guess I should have told her...what if..."

"Meredith, it's fine. Trust me." He assured her, pulling her attention back to him just as she was about to look out the window.

"Maybe I should call back and ask, I don't know her that well...you never know."

"I told her today." He shrugged, and felt the nervousness from earlier come back as he drove further and further away from Seattle...no where near the ferry that would take them to their land.

He figured if he kept her preoccupied long enough he could get away without her realizing it. Ava and sex were just about the only things that would do it...and clearly, sex was not an option.

"It kind of worried me from the start so I talked to her nicely about it. She wasn't offended."

"Oh...that's good. I should have thought of it..." She felt guilty, like she should have checked into the almost stranger who was currently taking care of her daughter.

Almost like he sensed her self guilt he added, "You've got a lot going on, I figured I'd do it before you had too...besides, I had Mark run a full child abuse record anyway.."

That got a squeeze of his leg. "You what?"

"I just had to! You said it yourself, she could have been a serial killer for all we knew."

"She's in one of the best resident programs in the country, I doubt she's a serial killer..." She declared, realizing how odd it sounded to be sticking up for her sister.

"Well, it's better to be safe than sorry." He mused, right before pulling into a parking lot and stopping the car.

"I hate to think what you're going to do for her boyfriends. You do know we're going to have three girls soon right? I think your heads going to explode..." She didn't notice he had stopped the car at first, she was too caught up in his over protective dad routine. But all it took was for her to look out the window for a split second before her eyes were piercing his with a glare.

"Derek...where are we?" He knew it was coming and tried to play it off like nothing.

"At the ferry dock...are you loosing it or something?"

"I can see that..." Groaned Meredith as she grew impatient. "But, this isn't the ferry we need to be on...I think YOU have lost your mind."

He grinned at her, a stupid, sheepish, grin of joy and mischief that she knew all too well. He was up to something. That much she knew...but it was so unlike him that she hadn't even seen it coming.

"Well...this is the other part of your surprise." Her face went blank and she stared him down. For the first time he had no idea what she was thinking.

"What? Derek, you might as well just tell me seeing as we're just sitting here in a parking lot."

"You and I are going to San Juan Island tonight and tomorrow night. I thought we could use sometime away...before the babies come."

She thought he was kidding, and went to laugh...until the hopeful look on his face made her think better of it.

"You're serious...?"

"Completely. The last ferry leaves in ten minutes so we're going to have to get going."

"Derek...did you fall and hit your head? What about Ava? You don't expect me to just leave my daughter with two sisters I barely know!?"

"Well...I..." He tried to explain, but she cut him off in her rant.

"And what about bags? I'm not spending two nights in this dress...and if you dare say I'll be naked the whole time I'm going to slap you."

"Right...I wouldn't dream of it...I..."

"No!" She once again interrupted, causing his mouth to close abruptly.

"What about work? We can't just not go in..." Instead of letting her continue he opened his door and got out, leaving her wondering what was going on.

He never came back, and she realized he was digging around in the trunk. With a huff she managed to get herself out of the car and walked around to meet him.

"Derek?" She could barely make out his smile under the glow of the dim parking lot lights.

To her surprise he pulled to small suit cases out of the trunk and sat them at her side.

"If you would let me talk for a second...I would tell you that I packed while you were napping, right before we left." That surprised her into silence and he went about answering her questions.

"And...Ava is staying over at Molly's tonight with Laura. I had her checked out too.." He joked, yet it fell on deaf ears.

"But what about scho..."

"Shhh.." He silenced, taking both bags and leading her away from the car.

"Cristina is taking her to school tomorrow morning, and Izzie is picking her up early for some girl time and then she's spending the night with Mark..."

"Mark!?" She couldn't help but question. Mark couldn't even watch his own kid let alone hers.

"...and Addison.." He cleared his throat, clearly still not comfortable talking about her. Meredith stopped and arched an eye brow.

"Oh...did you finally admit defeat and talk to her?"

"Uhh..." He kept walking, taking her hand to lead her. "Not really, Mark set it up actually..."

"So...Ava's being passed around like a football...Addison's going to have our heads...and meanwhile...we're vacationing?" Her voice had a hint of annoyance, but it was the amusement he heard that kept him confident he had made the right decision.

"Ava, is having the time of her life at Hannah what's her name...Izzie is going to take her to the mall and most likely spoil her rotten and Addison loves Ava and Mark assured me it would win him some points because she misses her...so...I think it was a good deed."

They reached the boat and got on just before it departed. It was odd being on by foot, but a car wasn't necessary for where they were going. She was silent until the tell tale roar of the engine jostled the boat to life signaling it's departure from the dock.

"So...you really did all this?" Came her awed question as they watched the shore line fade away only to be replaced by a black abyss. It was a rare clear evening, and the glow from the stars was glistening off the water.

"I did."

"We haven't gone away alone since our honeymoon."

"I know." He sighed, and enveloped his body around hers.

"Do you remember the last time we went to San Juan?" He asked, knowing full well she did...but he needed the meaning to be clear to her. The whole night wasn't just about gaining her trust, or forgiveness, or buying her expensive things...it was about rekindling what they had lost. Finding that flame that still burned inside each of them, but was hindered by millions of water hoses threatening to extinguish it.

"The night you proposed." Came her reply, a barely audible whisper that was carried away by the wind blowing off the boat.

He didn't have to reply, they were both lost in the memories of that weekend. Memories that were so full of happiness that they alone were powerful enough to keep the fire burning.