He was a neurosurgeon, one of the the best. She was just starting off. He had been married with children before his wife left him before one day he received divorce papers in the mail. They had been alone ever since.
It was two months later, she was seven months pregnant and now on temporary leave and when the baby came, she would be on maternity leave.
They decided to wait until the birth to find out the gender.
They had broken the news to Michael about switching rooms. He was upset and threw a tantrum for about twenty minutes before he got over it.
On the bright side, he got a bigger room and a new toy that he had been wanting. They had almost finished with the nursery.
The crib was set up, they had clothes, diapers, wipes blankets, and pacifiers, they already had a car seat installed into the car and the diaper bag was packed into their bedroom closet for when she went into labour.
They had a list of names they liked but they hadn't picked one they wanted to name the baby. They didn't know the gender so they didn't have a name picked out.
They also hadn't told anyone in the family. He had only realized recently. They had been so busy they never thought about telling anyone else.
Meredith was at home the majority of the time she took the kids to school and picked them up.
There wasn't much to do during the day so she spent most of her days sleeping since she was pregnant and that took a lot of energy.
But she did admit to herself that it was nice not working and being on her feet all the time. Of course, she missed surgery and she loved her career but doing it pregnant was painful.
But if she had to she would still do it, except her boss had made her take some time off when she almost passed out in surgery due to her overworking herself.
Maybe around three and a half hours had passed when Meredith started to wake up. She wasn't fully awake but she wasn't asleep either.
She could hear Derek's car pull into the driveway but he wasn't supposed to come home until the kids were done school and she didn't think it had been that long.
She heard the front door open, then footsteps, then the bedroom door open. She could hear him moving around the room, getting undressed and then getting dressed again.
She could feel him getting into his side of the bed and turning on the TV. "What time is it?" She asked as she stirred a bit.
"I thought you were asleep," he said placing his hand on her stomach.
"I was for a couple hours I think," she said rolling onto her side facing him.
"We have about an hour before I have to go pick up the kids," he said.
"I can go get them," she said. "No, I can do it, you've been doing it for the past two weeks, plus, I put my papers in," he said.
"What, what does that mean?" She asked. "It means I quit. I called Richard and he offered me a spot as head of neuro," he smiled.
"So that's why he took down Nelson," she said. "How do you know? You haven't been to work in weeks," he said.
"Cristina and I text every day, she keeps me updated on everything so when I do go back it's not like I don't know the place," she said.
"You shouldn't be worrying about hospital gossip, the stress isn't good for you or the baby," he said lifting her pyjama shirt and gently stroking his hand across her swollen belly.
"The baby's fine, she kicks a lot," she said. "She?" He asked. "Or he, he kicks a lot," she said.
"That's good, that means he's active," he said. "Or it means she's trying to crack a rib," she said as she sat up, keeping his hand in its place.
"Baby's can't crack ribs Meredith," he said before feeling a strong kick.
"See? He's strong and it hurts, makes it hard to sleep sometimes," she said.
"You said it calms down when I'm here, maybe he'll stop," he said
"See, she's starting to calm down already," he said as the baby seemed to calm down.
"Yeah, until you have to leave, then I'm stuck with the kicking," she said. "Just until I get back. Maybe he'll go to sleep," he said.
"If the baby does to sleep the baby's dead," she said. "You know what I mean, Mer, you shouldn't talk like that," he said.
"I'm just saying. What if the baby has too many body parts?" She said.
"What do you mean?" He humoured her.
"Like what if it comes out with 13 toes? Or three arms, two heads?" She asked.
"We would have seen it on the ultrasound by now," he said.
"What if the baby's blind or deaf, when he learns to walk he'll bump into things and we won't be able to tell him not to go there because that's the fireplace?" She said.
"We already have the house baby-proofed. The fireplace isn't an issue, and seconds of all if our baby is blind or deaf we'll help him memorize the house," he said.
"What if her brain is underdeveloped and she's too stupid to remember anything and never learns to speak? She can't use sign language," she said.
"Okay, Mer, now you're overthinking it, I've had three babies before and none of that ever happened," he said.
"That was with someone else. I have Grey blood that carries Alzheimer's disease, my blood is cursed. You never know what could happen," she said.
"You're not cursed and the baby is going to be born healthy with all the correct amount of body parts. Stop worrying. Maybe you should try and go back to sleep," he suggested.
"Why, am I annoying you?" She asked. "No, but your mind is doing a lot right now and some rest might put it and ease," he said. "You and won't be able to sleep when the kids get here,"
"Fine," she sighed. She laid back down while Derek comfortingly stroked her back until she fell asleep.
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