My little love

4

Meredith was slowly getting better but her body wasn't cooperating the way she wanted to. She still couldn't really walk on her own so she was being brought to the NICU by Alex

"Where's Shep?" Alex asked

"Surgery, they needed him." Meredith said, focussing on walking as stable as possible

"You sound unsure?" Alex frowned, knowing his best friend

"I don't know." Meredith shrugged and went quiet, only looking up as she arrived at the NICU.

"Do you want some time alone?" Alex asked her, Meredith nodded in response. He helped her sit down and placed a pillow behind her back

"I'll get her char, see how she's been doing." He smiled

He had been recovering as well, luckily except for blood loss there was not huge risk

Once he returned he saw how Meredith stroke her fingers over Ellie's incubator

"Mommy and daddy love you a lot." Meredith whispered softly. "Daddy's been in surgery. He's the best neuro doctor. I hope you got his curls." She chuckled softly

Alex stopped in his tracks, not wanting to disturb their moment of bonding

"You're doing so great, honey. Almost three weeks old now, you're just so perfect." Meredith teared up

"Hey." Alex rubbed her back. "Look at this, she's really amazing." Alex showed Ellie's chart

"She's been grasping." Meredith smiled

"Still weak but she's doing really amazing." Alex nodded

"Can.. Can I finally hold her?" Meredith looked at Alex as Derek had been able to hold her once so far

"I think you can. Are you comfortable like that?" Alex asked her, undoing her shirt because skin on skin would be best, but making sure she wasn't flashing

"Yeah." Meredith nodded and kept staring at her daughter as Alex carefully picked her up, making sure to not hurt her in any way possible

"We keep her attached to the oxygen mask of course. And we'll see when we can remove her feeding tube but that won't be before her surgery." He explained to Meredith

"When will Addie operate on her?" Meredith asked anxiously as Alex lifted Ellie out of the incubator and placed her down on Meredith's chest

"Probably next week." Alex said quietly, wanting to be quiet for the baby

"Hi honey." Meredith whispered, some tears escaping her eye

"Take your time." Alex kissed her head and quietly left again

"I'm so extremely proud of you, princess." Meredith tiredly said, enjoying every single moment with her daughter

Alex meanwhile paged Derek, really believing they should experience this together

Derek was on his way, clueless about why he was being paged. He hurried in case something would be going on

"Oh-" He gasped as he saw his daughter on his wife's chest, the two had their eyes closed

"Der?" Meredith asked as she heard him gasping

"Hey." He walked closer, talking really quiet as he kneeled in front of her, grabbing his phone to snap a picture

"I thought you were angry.." Meredith muttered, Ellie clearly reacted to her mom being in distress

"I- I'm sorry, it's just- it's a lot." Derek sighed, feeling horrible about all of this

"I know. It's a lot for all of us." Meredith carefully said. "I was also scared. I also lost friends."

"I know.." Derek sighed. "Seeing you getting shot-" Derek shook his head. "Mer.."

"I know Derek. But it's over now. We need to focus on Ellie, we need to wait until she'll be ready to come home." Meredith calmed down again. "And.. Did Alex tell you she gained a bit?"

"Addison told me." Derek nodded, taking a seat next to Meredith, stroking her back softly, only then to focus on her scar that was bright pink as it was so recent, the staple marks were even visible

"She's so strong." Meredith whispered, leaning into Derek as she felt herself getting tired

"She is." Derek reclined her chair a bit so she would have to spend less energy and could just relax with their daughter on her chest. "I feel so blessed."

"I'm just so scared. I wasn't able to keep her safe and she was born so early, Derek. I'm so scared she'll have problems because of this while I was supposed to keep her safe and carry her to term." Meredith whimpered

"Maybe it won't be too bad.." Derek carefully said

"You know that's not possible. They need to perform a surgery next week on her heart.. How- I-" Meredith stopped talking, scared she was about to start crying

"I know." Derek kissed the side of her head

"I don't wanna see our bean suffer." Meredith sighed sadly

"We'll do everything we can for her." Derek promised

Im looking for ideas of what to do with the baby. Do you wanna see how the family adapts to her possible needs, derek doing research,... ???