Perfect strangers

Chapter 45

The next few weeks, Meredith and Derek fell into a comfortable routine. They would spend a few evenings together, sharing their ideas for the nursery as they sat around eating dinner. But today, today they would be heading off to Noah's birthday party together.

"Mer come on otherwise we are going to be late!" Derek shouted from the bottom of the stairs, were he placed the presents and card down so he could put his jacket on.

"Alright, I'm coming!" She shouted back as she appeared at the top of the stairs. "But your daughter is using bladder like a trampoline and I have to pee every 5 minutes." She grumbled as she held her dress up and walked down the stairs.

"Love that she is only ever 'my daughter' when she does something wrong or to annoy you." He laughed.

"Yeah, well she seems to get that from you..." Meredith stopped herself when she saw his face drop. "I'm sorry, that was out of order."

"No, it's fine." He plastered a fake smile on his face and stuck his hands in his pockets as he turned to face her. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah." She smiled as he picked up the present. "How's your hand?"

"Oh yeah it's good, should be able to back to work soon." He said, wiggling his fingers and hand that was now free from the cast.

"Good, you look good." She gave him another smile as their eyes met and they started to get lost in one another's eyes. "We should go." She shook her head and walked pass Derek.

"Yeah." He couldn't take his eyes off of her as she moved pass him, she had never been so beautiful to him. There was just something about the way she glowed now she was carrying their daughter.

With the help of Derek, Meredith was able to climb into the car and get herself comfortable before he climbed into the drivers seat and they set off.

"We need a middle name." Meredith said suddenly out of the blue.

"Have you got any ideas?" Derek kept his eyes on the road, occasionally stealing a glance at her.

"Well, I was thinking...that, well..." she rambled and listened as Derek laughed at her. "I was thinking about Carolyn, after your mom. Annie Carolyn Shepherd."

Meredith sat there and waited for Derek's response and started to panic as she met with silence.

"Alright, never mind... it was just an option..." she stopped when Derek reached out and placed his hand on her thigh, giving it a squeeze.

"I love it." He finally said as he parked the car on the street outside Mark and Lexies house. "I just wasn't expecting it that's all." He said as he wiped away the tears from his eyes.

Meredith placed her hand on top of his and gave it a squeeze before they finally climbed out of the car. Meredith walked a head with Derek following closely behind with the presents in his hand.

They walked in and Meredith was immediately overwhelmed by the large gathering of sisters that crowded her and asked all kinds of questions, most of them just trying to get the name out of her.

"So you came together?" Mark asked as he walked over and handed Derek a beer.

"Yeah, I'm surprised at how well she is taking it all, I mean I honestly thought that she was going to kick me out an refuse to see me again. I got lucky." He said before taking a sip of his beer.

"Hmm." Mark hummed in response as he knew it was too good to be true. "Meredith looks like she's going to kill someone over there."

Derek looked over to where everyone was crowding her, their hands going to her bump as they bombarded her with question after question.  He moved away from Mark and pushed his way through his sisters.