Let It Go

89.

Whoever invented hammocks deserved an award. That was the first thought Meredith had every single time she laid down in her hammock. Her hammock. In her backyard. At her house. On her cliff. Her cliff with the amazing view of the valley below and the mountains all around them. Well, her and Derek's backyard and their house on their cliff with the amazing view of the valley below and the mountains all around them. It was her hammock though. Derek had put it up just for her.

She loved laying in her hammock. It was the place she came when she needed to relax, needed to get away from her career. She closed her eyes and breathed in. It was the perfect spring day. It was warm, the sky was clear, and the smell of the numerous flowers she and Derek had planted all over their yard filled the air. She could pick out the distinct scent of lavender, proof in her opinion that Derek had planted too much of it if she could smell it above all the other flowers they had.

The faintest of giggles followed by a louder but still quiet 'shhh' drifted to her ears. Meredith opened her eyes and grinned. She slowly turned over in her hammock so she was on her stomach, eyeing the corner of her house where she was sure her husband and their two kids were plotting something. She strained her ears to hear what they were saying.

"You have to be quiet Sadie. We're sneaking up on mommy, remember?" came Derek's voice. "Quiet," came a sweet voice that made Meredith smile. She knew her two year old daughter well enough to know she was probably nodding in agreement with whatever her daddy had told her. She worshipped the ground the man walked on after all.

"Yeah, quiet Sadie," four year old Ethan repeated. Meredith laughed softly. Ethan was always repeating anything his dad said, insisting he wanted to be just like his daddy when he grew up. Except he was going to be a racecar driver instead of a doctor.

"Now Mommy is probably going to be relaxing. She'll never see us coming. We're going to creep up to her really slowly and when we get close, we're going to spray her with our water guns," Derek instructed them. Meredith scoffed softly. Her husband had a lot of nerve, employing their kids in his pranks. She noiselessly got out of her hammock. They weren't getting away with this so easily.

"Okay, quiet now," Derek instructed his kids. "But won't mommy be mad at us?" Ethan asked. Meredith smiled from her hiding spot. Of course her little boy was looking out for her. He knew who made daddy let him have an extra scoop of ice cream some nights.

"Probably," came Derek's voice. "But when she starts yelling, smile. And tilt your head just a little bit." "The MacDream look!" Sadie said excitedly. "Shhh!" Both Derek and Ethan replied. "It's 'McDreamy' not MacDream Sadie. And only boys can do it," Ethan informed his little sister. "Girls can do it too!" Sadie insisted. "Right daddy?" "Girls can do it too," Derek assured her. Meredith had no doubt he was giving Ethan a warning look to which Ethan would roll his eyes, a habit Derek swore he picked up from Meredith. "Mommy can't resist the McDreamy look. Do that and we'll be fine," Derek instructed. "Now let's get mommy!"

He walked behind them, watching as his kids - the most beautiful two kids in the world in his opinion - took their job of sneaking up on their mother very seriously. Ethan was the spitting image of him but with Meredith's eyes and hair coloring but Derek's curls. Derek had long since realized he had to be careful about what he said or did in front of Ethan because the boy was bound to repeat it. Meredith had nearly had his head a couple of months ago after Ethan had ran his power wheels jeep into the side of the house and let out an impressive string of cuss words, eerily similar to the ones Derek had let fly when he'd smashed his thumb with a hammer the day before. Sadie looked more like Meredith but had long, dark hair with curls and big blue eyes. She was tiny, like Meredith and a complete daddy's girl.

"Hey!" Ethan exclaimed, his water gun at the ready. "Where's mommy?" Derek looked around, his own water gun aimed towards the hammock. Meredith had been in the hammock minutes earlier. He'd took the chance to watch her from the bathroom window as he'd filled the water guns in their downstairs bathroom. "I don't know," Derek replied. "Mommy! Where is you mommy?" Sadie called out, her water gun swinging at her side.