¹ 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹𝘀, 𝐝.𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐝

lviii. the shepherd method ¹

lviii. the shepherd method ¹
5.05

"BABY!" Atlas yelled extremely loud, his voice carrying from the bottom of the stairs he stood at, all the way to his and Derek's bedroom where Derek was.

Derek who heard the yell, panicked — Atlas very rarely yelled that loudly, and when he did something was wrong. "Yeah! Atly, you okay?!" He yelled just as loud as he tumbled out of his shared bedroom and towards the top of the stairs.

"Derek!" Atlas screamed once more.

Derek rushed down the stairs, only to see Atlas standing a few feet away with something held tightly in his hands. Derek rushed forward, discarding whatever Atlas held, and took his fiancé's face in his hands.

"Are. You. Okay." Derek questioned, his eyes searching Atlas's face for anything — brushes, cuts, baggy eyes, tears, anything.

Atlas jumped. "The Shepherd method! Your on the cover of a national journal!" He held up the the magazine like article up for Derek to see.

"I thought something was wrong." Derek sighed ever so slightly.

Atlas let out an eee kind of sound before he rushed forward and threw his arms around Derek, almost bringing him down in the process. "I'm so proud of you baby!" Atlas then gasped, "We need to celebrate! Can we celebrate?" He gave Derek some puppy dog eyes.

Now, don't thing wrong. Derek was happy, excited that he was on the cover of a medical journal. But he didn't want to celebrate with all his friends and people he worked with. All he wanted was to maybe had a nice bubbly bath with Atlas sitting across from him, maybe some alcohol too.

It seemed like Atlas wanted to do something big, or that's at least how it felt to Derek.

Derek only sighed, "We can celebrate, love."

Atlas clapped, "Yay!"

╚═ ☆ ═╝

There were two, maybe three things on Atlas's mind when he dropped Star off at daycare.

One was actually making sure he got Star to day care, and didn't stop in the gift shop to buy her yet another teddy bear that she would point at.

And he did that. He had gotten Star to the day care with no stops and no stop at the gift shop to buy a teddy bear. It was a job well done, and this time Star didn't cry either.

Two would have to be the celebration he had planned for Derek. He had so many details planned out and there was just so much he wanted to do. And Atlas was going to make sure Derek was happy with it.

He knew Derek would like what he had planned out. He had this planned out ever since he had been told Derek had his own method, that he was told his fiancé was going to be on the cover of a medical journal.

Three was the fact that his mother was coming home today and requested that she and Atlas had a nice lunch out. Yeah... Atlas was nervous for that, that's for sure.

He had a feeling she was going to talk wedding, and future. Oh gosh, there was definitely going to be some wedding talk. There might be some talk about work, maybe the odd "how is work?" — Lilla was a mother of three surgical children, she knew how their day to day surgical lives worked.

"Atlas?" Bailey asked as she bumped into the zoned out man. She waved a hand in front of Atlases face. "Atly?"

"Yeah, hi?" He blinked.

"You okay?"

"Sorry, yeah." Atlas paused. "Oh my gosh! Your doing a domino surgery! Im so proud of you Bails!"

Bailey smiled. "Thank you." 

Atlas grinned and bright Bailey into a hug, the woman wasn't a very touchy- huggy-person but Atlas's hugs were different, they felt like family most days. Not on the day they had gotten drunk and thought that the ice cream police would show up, the crying hug was definitely not good.

"Did you know your siblings — both of them and their little friends wanted kidneys and organs in jars? That's what their surgeon minds what." Bailey shook his head in disbelief.

"Really? That would be so cool! Do you thing Derek would get me a liver or kidney? Maybe a heart!" Atlas gasped. "A heart would be so awesome."

Bailey shook her head again. "I don't know how I put up with you." The resident started to walk away.

"Bails! No don't leave me!" Atlas cried out and placed a hand on his chest.

"Goodbye, Atlas."

"I love youuuu!" Atlas called out before he turned away to go and find Derek — be really wanted something in a jar.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Atlas held a bundle of flowers in his hand as he walked up towards the restaurant his mother had told him to meet her at. He wanted to get her flowers — okay, he figured that she might not be so wedding crazy if she got pretty flowers before.

"Ma." Atlas waved happily as his mother stood from her chair, her arms out reached for a hug. When the two pulled away Atlas held out the flowers, "These are for you."

"Aw, thank you sweetheart! Their beautiful." Lilla smiled brightly, her hand grasping the flowers and bring them up to her face so she could smell them. She sighed, "They smell lovely."

"Thanks ma."

"Sit. Sit." Atlas's mother gestured to the chair across from her. "How are you, how's little you?"

Everyone referred to Starlee as little Atlas. Star took after Atlas and Derek in so many ways. They had gotten the little girl in a situation that shouldn't have happened, but it did and they were so happy that they could be the parents the little girl needed.

"Star is great! We watched Lilo and Stitch for the first time the other day and she loved it. Uh, oh! Derek got his face on a medical journal magazine thingy." Atlas told his mother.

"Awe, that sounds wonderful. Has she pointed to the Lilo and Stitch dvd case yet and tried to get you to start it?" Lilla rose her eyebrows in a questioning matter.

"She tried too last night." Atlas nodded sheepishly.

"You did it didn't you."

"Whaaat... no."

"Atlas!"

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hi! im trying to finish act two before i start to work on some of my other fics. so some updates are coming!