Strumming his fingers on the arm of the sofa in the doctor's lounge, Derek stared at his cell phone screen with his mother's name scrawled across it, ready to be dialed. Sighing, he pressed the send button and put the phone to his ear. One ring, two, three, he was praying that his mother wouldn't pick up and it was about to seem that way when after the fourth ring her voice answered, "Hello?"
"Mom." He said hoarsely. Almost not sure if it was him, she questioned, "Derek?"
Clearing his throat he replied, "Yeah, it's me."
"Well, well, well, I know I said that you should call me more often but I didn't expect it so soon." She said rather cheerfully. Cringing, he knew that her chipper mood would soon change. Being the woman that she was and even though her relationship with her son had become distant, she knew that he wasn't calling her just to chat, "So, Derek, what do you have to tell me?"
He hated the way she knew when something was going on. Deciding that it would probably be better to drop the bomb rather than dancing around the subject, he took a deep breath and let the cat out of the bag, "Mom, I have something to tell you and I want you to let me finish before you say anything. Ok?"
She was thoroughly confused, "What is this about?'
He motioned with his hand as if she was really there, "You have to promise, Mom, that you won't say anything until I'm finished."
Derek could here the annoyance and irritation in her voice as she responded, "Alright, I promise. What is it?"
"Meredith is...Meredith and I are having a baby." He waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to say something.
"Let me get this straight, Derek. First, you move off to Seattle without a word. Then, you don't even come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. And, you go and divorce Addison for this intern and now you're having a child with her. Did I get all of that straight?"
"Yes." He breathed into the phone.
"Well, it's noon here so that means it's 9 am there. I'm going to call the airline and get the soonest flight out there. I think I should meet this girl that's going to be the mother of my grandchild." She said eerily calm.
"Ok, just call me when you get your flight time." With his heart pounding, he waited for her to confirm.
"Alright, see you then Derek." With that, she hung up.
Flipping his own phone shut, he leaned his head back and breathed out a long sigh. This was going to be a long day.
Walking down the hallway, he spotted Meredith at one of the nurses' stations filling out charts. He approached the station and leaned against the counter waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. It didn't take long for her to realize that someone was standing in front of her, "Derek, I thought you had a surgery at 10?" She glanced up at the clock on the wall in front of her.
"I do but I talked to my mother." He was still apprehensive about his mother finding out earlier and how she would get along with Meredith.
She let out a deep breath and looked back down at the chart she was working on, "And?"
Derek folded his hands together and said, "She's getting the first flight out from New York."
Looking back up from her chart in surprise, Meredith questioned, "Already? I figured we'd at least have a couple of days." She was suddenly regretting saying that she was prepared to meet his mother.
"Well, that's my mother for you."
So, if she wasn't already dreading this, she was now. Meredith had been at least expecting some preparation time and now his mother was probably taking off.
"I don't know what would be worse, having a mother like yours or if mine was lucid and having her telling me how I've ruined my life and never speak to me again." Derek was a bit taken back by this comment; he didn't really know how to reply to it. Sure, his mother could be overbearing sometimes – ok, overbearing was an understatement. But, he knew that his mother would eventually get used to the idea and he was positive once the baby came she would be the doting grandmother he was used to seeing. Derek almost couldn't fathom the scenario that Meredith described about her mother's would be reaction. He hated to say but maybe it was almost a blessing that Ellis Grey had Alzheimer's. Especially, since Meredith had enough stress on her as it was.
Deciding to change the subject, Derek looked back at the clock and said, "Well, I have to go into surgery. I figure we can take my mother out dinner tonight, to lighten the mood."
Merely nodding her head, Meredith went back to work and started filling out more forms on another patient's chart.
As the hours ticked by after he last spoke with Meredith, Derek had finished up his surgery and was going out to tell the patient's family that everything had gone as planned and the patient was in recovery. However, before he arrived in the waiting room, his cell phone vibrated. Looking at his watch, he figured it could be his mother getting into Seattle so answered it only to find another familiar female voice shouting through the line, "Derek! You got your slutty intern pregnant!?"
Making a mental note to himself to never answer his cell phone again without checking the caller ID first, Derek groaned and answered, "So, I guess Mom told you, Nancy."
Completely ignoring his response, his sister questioned, "How far along is she!? Was she pregnant when I came out there and if so why didn't you tell me then!?"
The questions seemed to go on and on until Derek interrupted her, "Nancy! Yes, Meredith is pregnant. She's about ten weeks along and yes she was pregnant when you came out here if you haven't done the math already. Look, Nancy, as you probably know already, Mom's probably about to be here so I'm going to have to let you go. Bye." He hung the phone up and sighed. Sometimes, he really did hate having four sisters.
And no sooner than he got off the phone with his sister, the phone rang yet again. Making sure, he checked the caller ID; this time it revealed it was an actual a Shepherd woman he was prepared to hear from. Answering, he said, "Mom, have you arrived yet?" He heard the noise in the background of a lot of different muffled voices.
"Yes, Derek, I just arrived I'm waiting on my bags to come around this filthy trolley."
"I'm coming to pick you up just give me a few minutes."
'No, no, I'll just get a cab besides you have to work and I have to find a hotel and get settled in." Mrs. Shepherd insisted and was not going to have it any other way.
"Fine, but Meredith and I are going to pick you up when we get off work and go out to dinner."
"Why that would be lovely, Derek, eight o'clock?"
Even though she wasn't there Derek gave off a fake smile as he spoke, "Sure, Mom, see you then."
After finally getting off of the phone with his sister and mother, he thought he would have a little down time before any more stress came into his life. But, as things tended to go in his life, his pager went off. Seeing that it was a 911, he started jogging towards the emergency room.
Meanwhile in the back alleyway of the hospital, the five residents under the Nazi's command sat eating various snacks and studying for upcoming surgeries they were about to scrub in on. Well, sans Cristina since she was sort of on probation for the whole hand tremor situation. Instead she came barreling in and sat down beside Meredith and started complaining, "I can't believe that Bailey is making me dig through piles of shit. I am a surgeon! I am Cristina Yang!"
Glancing over to Cristina, Meredith decided to play the 'whose life is worse game', "At least you don't have Derek's mother arriving any minute ready to grill you and compare you to Addison."
"Shall I remind you how Burke's mother and I met, when I was half naked and on top of him while he was in the hospital?" Cristina folded her arms across her chest in victory.
"At least you weren't pregnant." Meredith replied thinking she now had the upper hand.
"Did you also forget about how my own mother found about my own pregnancy?" Cristina looked at Meredith in disbelief.
Their little argument was interrupted when Izzie interjected, "I think both of you should stop complaining. At least you don't have to have peer counselor Sydney and have to be a shadow. I'd rather dig through piles of crap any day."
"You brought that on yourself when you cut the LVAD wires!" Cristina snarkily said back.
"And like you didn't bring your 'shitty' situation on yourself by conspiring with Burke!" Izzie was pissed off. She couldn't believe that Cristina had the audacity to bring Denny up.
Rolling her eyes, Meredith yelled, "Stop it, the both of you. The two of you made mistakes; we've all made them and now's not the time to be blaming one another." Having enough stuff to deal with, she got up and left.
Managing to avoid Cristina and Izzie for the rest of the day, Meredith was both anxious and relieved when Derek met her in the waiting room. When he approached her, he smiled and sighed simultaneously, "You ready?"
Standing up, she put on her jacket and the two began to walk out of Seattle Grace. And, right before they exited the sliding glass doors, Derek reached over and took her hand in his. Instinctively, she wrapped her fingers around his; whatever his mother threw at her she knew that Derek would be there no matter what.
An hour and a half had passed since they left the hospital and Meredith was standing in front of the dresser in a knee length, black dress trying to put on her earrings. Just as she had placed the first one in, Derek came out shirtless and wiping his face for he had just shaved.
"What time is the dinner reservation?" She asked wanting to make sure that they weren't late to pick up his mother or miss the reservation because Meredith desperately didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with this woman.
Even though she was twenty seven years old, she had never met any of her prior boyfriend's parents. It's not that she hadn't had a serious relationship before it was just that meeting parents was definitely not her forte and she'd never ever let anyone meet her mother, even when she was lucid - especially when she was lucid. Not letting any of her boyfriends meet her mother was actually the end to a couple of those relationships. But, now was different. Derek not only knew about her mother and met her once he had helped put her in an Alzheimer's case study. So, now it was time for her to bite the bullet and meet his.
During this time, Derek had taken his perfectly ironed shirt off its hanger and put it on. Meredith had finished putting in her other earring as he was buttoning up his shirt and he finally replied to her question, "The reservation is at 8:30 and we're supposed to pick my mother up from hotel at 8:00."
Turning his collar up, he grabbed his tie and went over to the mirror where Meredith was and stood behind her to tie his tie. She was applying a last touch of blush. Meredith wanted to look perfect; well, as perfect as she could, considering everything.
After putting on his tie, he went over to the bed and grabbed his coat and put it around his shoulders and Meredith turned around to face him. He examined her and deduced that she was nothing less than beautiful but one thing in particular caught his eye. He noticed that there was a slight bump where her normally flat stomach was. If no one was looking for it, they surely wouldn't have noticed but he did. It left him in awe; it was the first tangible sign that she was really having his baby. Of course, if he told her that she would surely remind him of the countless morning, noon, and night bouts of morning sickness. But, this – this made it real.
Pulling her close by the hand, he kissed her and continued kissing her down the neck. She moaned in pleasure but quickly stopped it, "We're going to be late."
In between kisses, he responded, "I'm sure she won't mind if we're a little late."
Gently pushing him away, Meredith protested, "I want to make a good impression on your mother if I even can at this point."
Derek started to interject but she continued. "And the last thing I want to do is not only be late but look like I just had sex."
He just sighed and lied back on the bed and playfully said, "Well, I expect something when we get back."
She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, "Depends on how tonight goes."
Getting off of the bed, he opened the door to her bedroom and let her go first while he followed her down the stairs, "Then, I better be on my best behavior."
She teasingly swatted at him as they exited the house to leave to pick up his mother.