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.
Meredith sat silently at the kitchen table as she listened to Derek and Michael bicker over the pregnancy.
He hadn't cared about their relationship or showed any negative feelings toward their relationship until now.
Derek had brought it into the conversation once Michael had finished speaking about school and his pride turned into anger.
It took them both by surprise but mostly Derek, Meredith had a feeling his true feelings about his father marrying another woman would come up sooner or later.
She knew she didn't have the right to say anything so she didn't. Michael was nine years old, it wasn't his decision and he would get used to it.
Even Madeleine had taken the news better than Michael had. They had thought it would be the other way around.
"Michael, there is no debating this. Meredith is already pregnant, there's no going back," Derek said sternly.
"Why do you need more kids? you already have three!" He said.
"That doesn't matter. I don't need your permission to have children. If you don't like it then you can keep it to yourself," he said, ending the argument.
The majority of dinner was silent after that. Meredith was the first to finish as she hadn't eaten much.
She didn't have a very big appetite with being nauseous all the time, it took away a lot of energy and most of her hunger.
She took her plate and brought it over the sink while rinsing it off and putting it in the dishwasher.
Slowly the kids finished leaving only Derek at the table. The kids put away their dishes in the dishwasher while Meredith cleaned off the rest of the table.
"That went well," she spoke. "I didn't know he was going to react that way. He hardly even made a face when we told them about the engagement," he said as Meredith removed the empty dishes in front of him.
"Engagement can be told off, a baby can't," she said. "Oh well... he'll have to get over it eventually," he sighed.
"You really shouldn't be doing that, Mer. Let me take care of it," he said standing up. He didn't want her to faint again like she had earlier that morning.
"I'm fine, I'm nauseous but I'm not going to faint," she said. She finished putting away the dishes in the dishwasher before turning it on.
"You should sit," he said. "I need to wipe the table off," she said wetting the tablecloth.
"You shouldn't be making your pregnancy harder than it already is, save your energy for the birth, giving birth is no joke," he said.
"I'll be fine, I plan on having a c-section anyway," she said as she quickly wiped the table down. She could feel herself becoming more nauseous the more she moved.
"Why would you want to do that?" He asked. "I don't want to risk a stillbirth. I see those kinds of things enough at work, I don't want to experience it as well," she said tossing the cloth into the sink.
"That's understandable, but our baby doesn't have an underdeveloped brain," he said as they walked into the living room.
"Would you rather watch me scream in pain instead of just watching me lay quietly on the operating table?" She said as they both sat down on the couch.
"There still are some risks with a c-section though," he said. "Yeah, but if any of them happen I'll already be open on the table and you can see immediately what is wrong and when it occurs so it's quicker to fix. And once the baby is out you can be with it until I'm fine," she said.
"As long as you're sure it's what you want. You'll always have a scar and the recovery process is a lot more painful than a vaginal birth. And we both know you don't like being bedridden," he said.
"It'll only be a couple of weeks and I'll be on maternity leave anyways, I won't have anywhere else to go but to tend to the child," she said.
"Speaking of which, which bedroom do you think we should use for the nursery?" He asked.
"I'm not sure. We're probably going to keep the baby in our room for the first three to four weeks before the nursery," she said.
"Even so, we should make sure it's ready for when the baby does come," he said.
"I guess whichever one is closest to our room," she shrugged.
"That would be Michael's room, there's a guest bedroom upstairs and downstairs that are bigger than his room, we could move him into one of those," he said.
"Derek, I don't want to make him switch his bedroom. He's had that bedroom since he was a baby, I don't want to make him move just because I'm pregnant," she said.
"We can't go to the other side of the house every time the baby cries, he'll get a bigger room and will be further away from the baby crying, it's a win-win," he said.
"He's already upset about the pregnancy," she said. "You won't be the one making him, I will. He won't be mad at you," he said.
"... fine," she sighed. "But maybe wait a bit before telling him. We can still buy things for the baby and store them in the guest room until the baby's going to come," she said.
"We should. It'll give him some time to cool off and come to terms with the new baby," he said pressing a soft kiss to her lips.
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