We'll get through this together

2.

Derek had ended up taking Charlotte home at around ten pm. She was barely awake when he got there.

Meredith was still stuck in surgery, she had been all day and hadn't been able to catch a break.

He had spoken to her briefly through the intercom that connected with her O.R.

She said she had another surgery right after and one after that one and one after the other.

He checked the O.R. board and she was right, she was booked for the the rest of the night until morning.

He was going to wait to take Charlotte home but when he found out Meredith would be done in the morning he left and took her home.

She had asked where Meredith was and she why wasn't coming home with them. Meredith usually drove with them, always. It was usually Derek who stayed late rather than Meredith.

Derek just told her Meredith was stuck and had surgery and would be home in the morning.

But even with the truth it still felt a little like she didn't make an effort to come home.

But he knew that wasn't true, he wasn't in the place to feel betrayed by Meredith for working overnight once since Charlotte was born since he had done it hundreds of times, especially when Charlotte was a baby.

He hated admitting it but it was nice to be in surgery instead of with a screaming and crying baby.

Meredith had known it wasn't by his choice but she also knew that he wouldn't have it any other since.

He was the one who convinced her to have children and he was the one bailing on the hard stuff.

But she had found a way to sort of get back on him. Charlotte would never sleep during the days, Derek and taken paternity leave but when there were huge accidents he would go without Meredith since she wasn't cleared from maternity leave and hadn't fully recovered from her c-section.

So she asked a pediatrician to help her be able to get rest without Charlotte crying and recover without tearing her stitches.

He gave her a weak dosage of melatonin. It wasn't very strong, it was just enough to put her to sleep for a couple of hours.

It was completely healthy and Charlotte could get the rest she was depriving herself of and Meredith healed properly.

So when Derek got home he was on night shift with the baby, Charlotte would sleep all day so she was up all night with Derek while Meredith got a good night's sleep.

She had resented him a little, he got the fun parts of parenthood and got a pass when the hard part came.

She had told him about it, they had a slight argument but they moved on.

Derek understood and handed the cases off to another Neurosurgeon without a young child and stayed at home with Meredith and the baby.

After a while Charlotte grew out of the phase and everything went back to normal.

It was now the next morning. When Derek had woken up he noticed Meredith wasn't next to him.

He checked the time and saw it was almost nine in the morning. He got out of bed and made his way into the kitchen to start breakfast.

"Where's Mama?" He heard Charlotte's voice from the doorway. Usually, Meredith would be the one to wake up Charlotte in the mornings, but not this morning.

"She's still at work sweetie, why don't you sit at the table and I'll give you some milk while you wait for breakfast, Hmm?" He suggested.

She tiredly nodded her head before going to sit down at the table. He poured her a glass of milk and placed it down in front of her.

Derek was expecting to hear from her the night before or in the morning to fill him in on everything and get an idea when she'd be home but she never did.

Usually, if she worked a late shift she would call a couple of times just to make sure everything was okay at home and speak to Charlotte for a couple of minutes.

Her behaviour had seemed off for a while now but he thought it just might be hormones or she had a bad day but it was getting more consistent.

He didn't think it was anything to worry about and didn't want to bring it up since it was probably nothing.

Once breakfast was finished and they both ate we told Charlotte to get ready for daycare while he went to get dressed as well.

That's when he noticed Meredith fast asleep in bed. He hadn't heard her come in, she didn't say anything, text or call, and he didn't even hear her car pull into the driveway.

She must have showered at the hospital because when he leant down to brush his lips against her forehead her hair smelt of lavenders.

He kept the lights off and made sure to close the blinds before getting dressed and ready for work.

They still had an hour or two before they had to leave so he cooked up something and put it in the fridge for Meredith when she would wake up.

He knew she'd be hungry and probably hadn't been able to eat at the hospital and wanted her to have some real food when she woke up.

He went back to check on Charlotte to make sure she was ready.

"Do you need help putting on your shoes?" He said watching as she struggled.

"Yes, please," she gave up. He sat her down on the edge of the bed before easily slipping her shoes on.

"Alright, grab your bag and we can go to the hospital," he said. She nodded and grabbed her bag.

They made it out of the house and helped Charlotte into the car before getting in himself and then they were off to the hospital.