The Seventh Sense is Love

Derek's Surprise

"Why in the world do you need this stuff?"

"You'll find out when I'm done," Meredith replied as she took the cork board and push pins from her sister.

"Okay," Lexie said, definitely puzzled.

"Are you sure you don't need any help with," she paused and shook her head before continuing, "whatever it is that you're doing."

"I'm sure but thank you. And don't mention this to anyone, please."

"Mention what?" Lexie giggled.

"Exactly," Meredith grinned.

Once Lexie left the conference room, Meredith locked the door and shut the blinds. Then she sat down and pulled the ultrasound pictures of her and Derek's little son from the file folder she had them in. She sat there for several moments, letting her eyes scan his heart, foot, brain and face yet again.

Meredith's eyes filled with tears and she put her hand on her stomach and rubbed gently.

"Hey in there," she began and giggled. "So, you're a little boy. Not that that means anything to you but it's nice for Daddy and me to know. I promise that I'll do my best by you. We are lucky that we have your Daddy. I may as well warn you that's he's going to be the natural with you - not me. That's not because I don't love you. I do. I love you so much already, but I have very little experience with children. So, I'll try my best not to screw you up but like I said - it's a good thing we both have Daddy."

Meredith could have sat there talking to her son longer, but she wanted to complete her project before Derek's lecture was done. So, she spread out all the ultrasound pictures and got to work.

Meredith jumped at the sound of her cell phone ringing. She picked it up and answered without looking at the display. "Hello?"

"Hey, where are you?"

She smiled at the sound of Derek's voice. Then, she glanced at her watch and said, "Oh crap. I completely lost track of time. I'm sorry. I'll -"

"Mer, it's okay," Derek interrupted. "Miranda's here and I was just wondering if you're ready to go home. Or did you get pulled into something?"

"I'm in the conference room on the fourth floor. Can you come here?"

"Sure," he answered. "See you in a minute."

"See you," she answered and shut her phone. Then she quickly slid the last few push pins into the cork board while she waited for Derek and Miranda to arrive. When they did, she was nervously chewing her lip.

"Hi," she said to both of them as she grabbed Derek's hand.

"Are you okay?" Derek asked.

"What are you doing?" Miranda asked at the same time. Then she noticed Meredith's project and she gave a little but audible gasp.

"What?" Derek asked as Meredith shook her head frantically at Miranda and put her finger to her lips in a hushing motion.

"I'm leaving now." Miranda said quickly. To Meredith's surprise, the woman who had once been her Resident - but was now her very pregnant friend - hugged her.

"Meredith?"

"Everything is fine Derek," she quickly assured him as she shut the conference room door behind Bailey. "Come here," she said, taking his hand and leading him to sit down where she had been. "I have a surprise for you."

"All right," Derek said hesitantly, a small frown creasing his brows.

Meredith pulled the cork board closer to them and then took Derek's hand in hers. She placed his fingers over the board and said softly, "I want you to be able to see our son's ultrasound pictures."

Very slowly, Derek traced his fingers over the heads of the push pins, feeling the pictures of his son's heart, brain, face, foot, femur and arm. By the time he was done going over them - twice - his hands were shaking. He pulled Meredith down into his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. He couldn't say anything at first. Derek just held her, breathed her in and thanked God for her and their son.

"Thank you," he finally said, his voice hoarse and heavy with emotion. "Meredith, thank you for showing me the first pictures of our son."

"I know it's kind of cheesy," she giggled and was cut off by his lips on hers.

When their kiss broke, Derek emphatically stated, "It's not cheesy. This is loving, and thoughtful and so not cheesy. I love you."

"I love you too, Derek."

"Let's go home."

"Okay," she agreed and got up from his lap. While Meredith was gathering their stuff the conference room door burst open and Lexie came inside.

"What did you do that has Bailey crying?"

Meredith actually blushed while Derek told Lexie and let her look at what Meredith did. Naturally, Lexie got teary-eyed too. "Oh Meredith -"

"No, no," Meredith waved her arms. "This was for Derek. No need for a big scene."

Lexie laughed around her tears and said, "You made Bailey cry. There's no way this isn't getting around, Little Sister."

"Oh crap," Meredith mumbled.

Derek and Lexie laughed and then he said, "I still love it, Mer."

"You better," Meredith replied. "Since I apparently am going to lose my reputation as a hard-ass."

Lexie wisely stayed quiet, but the truth was, Meredith had lost that hard-ass reputation when she'd fallen in love with Derek. And discovered that there was a lot more to life than surgery