Surviving the truth

17| the holidays

The holidays quickly approached and Halloween was first to come. Even though Emma is too young to go trick or treating, I did dress her up as a cute little kitten, with a cat ears headband, and drew little cat whiskers and a cat nose on her face. Let's just say Emma was the cutest little kitten that night.

Next to come was Thanksgiving, and Derek's family invited both him, me, and of course Emma to fly to New York to celebrate it with them. I quickly turned that offer down because there was no way in hell I was going to willingly see Derek's family. Derek didn't go either, and we ended up hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at the house and invited our friends over; Cristina, Izzie, Alex, George, the chief, Mark, Burke, and I even invited Lexie to come or not. Since she does have her own family, it was her total decision.

After Thanksgiving had come and passed, Christmas was next on the list. I decided to fly to the East Coast to spend it with my mother, and Derek tagged along to see his family, and possibly steal Emma from me. We both flew to Boston together, and then he took the train to New York since we wouldn't be staying together.

"Emma has grown quite a bit, Meredith." Mom said as she watched Emma play on the rug. "Since the last time I saw her."

"Well, the last time you saw her, I had just had her." I said. "So now that she's seven months, I'd expect her to be much bigger than she was at birth."

"And the dad's helping?" She asked.

"Yeah, Derek's good. He's an amazing father to Emma; couldn't have asked for someone better."

"I'm glad everything is working then, Meredith."

"Me too." I smiled. "Work is good; Emma's good; everything is just perfect."

My phone vibrated on my lap, and I glanced down at it seeing a new text from Derek. I was paying half attention to what my mom was saying to me because Derek had asked me if I would be willing to come to New York with Emma to see his family, and I had to basically yell at him through text the numerous reasons why I'm not. The main reason because the Shepherds' hate me.

I placed my phone on the arm of the couch and bent down clapping my hands together while I smiled at Emma. "Come on, Emma, show grandma you can crawl." I reached my arms out for her to come to me, but it seemed like Emma was more interested in playing with the new toy my mom had gotten her.

I think it's safe to say my mom is a better grandma than she is mother.

How is that even possible?

I picked Emma up from the floor and went up to my room when I was done talking with my mother. As I was laying in bed with Emma snuggled beside me with a bottle in her mouth, Derek called me and I reluctantly answered. Immediately he was trying to talk me into going to New York to see his family.

I hate him at the moment.

"Derek, shut up and listen. Your family hates me. I'm not going to spend a day or how ever long with people who hate me when I don't have to. Remember how our first meeting went when Emma was born? Because I do, and-"

"What if I promise they'll be good?"

"Your promises always break." I said.

"Well I think I've been pretty good at keeping them lately, and mom and everyone would love to see Emma. How is she by the way?"

"She's fine; currently having bottle so she can go to sleep."

"I miss her, and it's only been two days." He said.

"Do you miss me?" I just had to asked.

"Back to my family." I could tell he was smiling on the other end. "I told my mom and sisters they'd have to be nice if they ever want to see Emma again, so you don't need to worry about them."