In my bones

Epilogue

And Bella, Bella was her little princess and looked a lot like Meredith and he couldn't be happier. She had soft tufts of blond hair and a toothy grin that had to be his, but the eyes were all Mer, that would get him in a lot of trouble too!

Right now though, he was watching them skate around, they seemed to be in the half pipe which really was just a giant hole and intermittently they popped up. Aiden was just learning to get all the way up the vertical sides without dying (which was apparently called a flyout) while Ethan was busy doing bri-flips. Derek wanted to watch properly, he really did, but sometimes he just couldn't face it, he had seen Ethan fall over far too many times before mastering tricks, but he couldn't always do it. There had been countless tears and ice cream to fix his bruises, but Ethan was as stubborn as both of his parents so wouldn't give up yet, Derek just prayed to God that he wouldn't suddenly trying to do backflips.

xxxxx

They had been there for an hour and a half or so and he found his eyes were glued to the two of them, trying to be their guardian angel like he was meant to be and had completely forgotten about basketball. He heard Mark groan but was not prepared when the ball was fired at his head at full force.

"Hey!" he remarked, rubbing his head.

"Stop trying to protect them with force or whatever the hell you're doing and just play. You dragged me away from my bed this morning, I could have had a lie in. At least try to be interested," Mark rolled his eyes.

"You don't have kids, do you know how injured you can get from this sport, you don't think it scares me?"

He didn't expect what came next though, Mark started laughing, bent over at his middle.

"Why is that funny?" he asked frustrated.

"Because..." he started explaining, "that's how Mer feels every time you step on the ice, every time Aiden steps on the ice, and every time Ethan picks up his scooter."

He was quiet for a second. "I hadn't thought of it like that. I guess I just can't help it. They're my flesh and blood Mark, I have to protect them."

"Okay but you remember when you were brought into the hospital that first time you were with Meredith? Do you remember how scared she was?"

"Yeah," he furrowed his brow, "But she didn't know me that well then, it was still new."

"Yes, but she couldn't protect you, she didn't know how serious it was, she didn't know what the hell was happening. She was scared out of her mind Derek."

"Yeah," he breathed, "I always tried to be more careful after that. But I still get hurt."

"That doesn't mean she has to like it," Mark rolled his eyes, "Get it into your thick skull Derek, Meredith cares about you, she loves you, and she loves her children just as much. Of course she worries about you, call it motherly instinct or whatever. You have fatherly instinct."

"Okay fine, I see your point, but it doesn't mean I can't try and protect them."

"Well that's fine if it means actually doing something, the outcome isn't going to just automatically change with you watching them, if anything it might make it worse, in front of an audience and all that shit."

"Fine, let's play basketball then," Derek scooped up the ball and ran to Mark's net, slam dunking it through the hoop.

"Now that's just rude Shepherd," Mark frowned.

"Don't get your panties in such a bunch Sloan, call it tactics." He laughed.

"Cheating."

"Tactics."