And Then There Were Two

This story was originally posted in 2014, but was revised for a final time in 2017.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the brilliant characters on Grey's Anatomy, nor do I claim to be the incredible Shonda Rhimes. I do, however, love the people that are written about here. And thus, this fanfiction was born.

Author's Note: This story takes place about six weeks after the season six finale. The only difference is that Meredith did not lose the baby. She's about eleven weeks pregnant here. This story was originally written and published years ago, which is why it follows from season six.

Because this is a story, there may be some medical inaccuracies along the way. I do my very best to keep things as accurate as possible, but I am not perfect and I'm not a doctor. Sometimes it's just a mistake on my end, but there are a couple of times where I admit I just choose to do it my way. :)

So that said, I hope you'll be forgiving and understanding of that.

*WARNING* There will be character death and heavy subjects in this story. I will make up for it later, but I do want all readers to be warned now. If you're concerned about subject matter that may be included, feel free to message me for details!

When you're a child, you read the fairytales. You hear stories of castles and princesses, knights in shining armor, and love at first sight. You're taught that everyone can be the president of the United States, that dreams really do come true, and that life is just one big playground where you can run and jump and play until your heart's content. You're taught that your prince will come, that money grows on trees, that the hollywood scene of the white picket fence and the perfect little house with the perfect little children is something that comes to everyone. You're told lies. And you believe them, until you wake up and realize that they aren't true. Hospitals aren't a place where people get well, they're places where people die. They're places where people can go in one day, and not come out the next; places where psychotic and grieving husbands can destroy friends and take away lives with a single bullet. Dreams don't come true. Nightmares do.

"Meredith...you okay?" Derek's eyes were soft and concerned, his hand slowly reaching over to take hers. She had been quiet, offering no answer to his question the first six times it had been asked. He didn't blame her. This is where it had happened, where he had almost lost her. Where she had almost watched him die. Where...he couldn't think about that now. It was over, done. Life had to go on. Lives had to be saved. Surgeries had to be on the boards. Chiefs had to resume their jobs.

"Huh?" She finally looked over at him at the feeling of his skin against hers. "Yeah, fine." A small smile crossed her lips, and she unknowingly moved her other hand to rest on her abdomen. "Just, thinking." About you. About how you died..almost died. About how not everyone can be the president. And how we don't all have that bases loaded, grand-slam, world-series kind-of life.

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. It didn't matter what she said or how many times she tried to convince him. She was fragile. Not as fragile as she used to be, and not because she was necessarily going to break, but because she was Meredith. Pregnant Meredith. Hormones were wreaking havoc on her, turning her into something that...well, she had always been a little on the fragile side. But now, after all that had happened, well...he just wanted to make sure she was okay. He couldn't let her slip away. He couldn't let her slip under the water in the bathtub, not again. "You're going to be late for rounds." Despite the fact that she already was late and that he was her boss, he went on. "How are you feeling?" Meredith having his baby was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him, he was convinced, and there was no way he was going to let anything happen to her or the child she was creating.

"Well enough to be thinking about how much I can't wait to be able to sneak into this office with you again, close the blinds.." She grinned, turning her body towards him. After his near-death experience and life-saving surgery, sex had been put on hold. Not that it really mattered with her being sick all the time and him just trying to learn to put one foot in front of the other, but it was a restriction all the same. Her morning sickness had subsided over the last few days though, and she was hungry to be with him again. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, she figured, that made her so horny. It didn't matter though. The point was, she was tired of being a wife with no hot, dirty sex. Work was boring when you couldn't sneak around and sleep with your boss.

"Okay, now you're just torturing me." Derek laughed, glad to see a smile on her face. God, she always looked so beautiful when she smiled. She was hard to resist, which is probably why he was standing there contemplating just getting naked right then and there. Doctor's release could wait. Rounds could wait. He was a doctor anyway, right? So he could make his own rules about when he had sex with his wife. And if she was late to rounds, that just meant she would end up in trouble. And trouble meant his office. He grinned at the thought. "Go, Mrs. Shepherd. Go, to work." He gave her a soft, gentle kiss before playfully patting her rear. "Take care of our baby."

"You're no fun." Meredith stuck out her bottom lip, pouting playfully. "Maybe I don't want to leave you here..."

He chuckled. "Maybe I need to get caught up on this mountain of paperwork." He kissed her again. "Eat something. You can't go all morning without anything in your stomach."

Meredith held up her hand, "I'll eat. Scout's honor." She reluctantly headed out of his office. Truthfully, she didn't know how he did it. She had no idea how he just went about his day as if nothing had ever happened there. He had almost died on the tile floor, the floor under her feet, and yet he acted like it had never happened. He came into work with that same charming smile on his face and that same flirty sense of humor. That was Derek though, she figured. He was just that great. Just a man who was so full of life and love and courage, and he was hers. And now, together, they were having a baby; they were healing from almost having a funeral and a broken life, and having a baby.

For her, it just wasn't that simple. He was everywhere. Mr. Clark was in the hallway, the OR, the supply closet, and Derek's office. He lived in their house, in the car, at the grocery store, and in her dreams. She couldn't get his face out of her mind, couldn't get over what he had done and how much he had destroyed. So many people had lost their lives, and not just that. So many people had lost ones that they loved. She had almost lost the one person that held her life together. A sigh escaped her lips as she walked onto the unit where her interns were huddled around the nurses station, scrambling to finish up paperwork before she showed up. "Does anybody have an extra Starbucks?" She hadn't meant for it to be the first thing out of her mouth. It had just happened that way. So much for being the authoritarian. So much for keeping respect, being a leader. Great, now they think you're one of them.

"Are you supposed to be having that? I don't think people who are pregnant with McBabies are supposed to drink coffee. There are studies, you know."

"Cristina." Meredith was happy to see her, even if she had just reinforced the idea that her interns were now going to think of her as some sort of needy, broken boss who couldn't get enough sleep at night to stay away from the coffee in the morning.

"Look, I'm just trying to fulfill my duties as godmother. And I think that means making sure that you actually have a baby that you can screw up." She grabbed the stack of charts from her hands, setting them on the counter. "Two.." She snapped at one of the interns, pointing to the coffee in her hand. "Did you drink any of that?"

The intern shook her head and quickly handed it over to Meredith. "She's right, you know." Her voice was timid. "Caffeine is a huge no-no."

"Thanks." Meredith glanced at the coffee and simply handed it back without taking a sip.

"What, no coffee? I finally give my official approval, and now all of a sudden you're ready to fall in line with the rules?" Cristina rolled her eyes a bit, leaving Meredith to laugh.

"Don't want to mess up your chances to screw up my baby." She glanced at her interns as she yawned. "Get these charts finished and meet me here in an hour."

"No rounds?" The same one from before looked surprised.

"In case you haven't noticed.." Cristina rolled her eyes at the girl, looking at her as if she was a complete moron. "She's pregnant, and tired, and not really in the mood to deal with.."

"Come on." Meredith laughed before Cristina could finish, walking off in another direction down the hallway with her. "They do know things, you know. We're not too far from where they are."

"Seriously?" Cristina shook her head. "I saved your person, right? Do you think two could have saved your person?"

"You make an excellent point." Meredith couldn't help but smile. Cristina was right. She was the reason Derek was here. She was the reason that he wasn't buried and in a box, in the ground. Derek was alive. He was alive, and they were having a baby. Suddenly, facing the hospital and all that Mr. Clark had done didn't seem so bad after all.

"Well, of course. Now you see my..." Cristina stopped, a frown settling on her face when she saw the sudden change of expression in her friend's face.

"Ouch.." Meredith's hand went to her abdomen, rubbing it gently as she was caught off-guard by an intense cramping. The last thing she wanted though, was to draw attention to herself, so she simply took a couple of deep breaths. That was it. She didn't say anything, and beyond the subtle scrunching of her nose and eyes, someone walking by probably wouldn't notice anything was off.

"Ouch?" Suddenly Cristina's sarcasm was replaced by a rare case of worry, and she studied her person's face carefully. "Ouch, what?" She was already becoming impatient. Meredith had been through enough. She had been through more than one person could possibly take, especially a person who had Ellis Grey for a mother. There wasn't anything else that Meredith could take, not now.

"Nothing, it's nothing." She quickly forced a smile to her face, not wanting to give Cristina the idea that something was going on. It was true that Cristina used to be the person she went to about everything, but things had changed. Derek was her person now, and this was something that she just didn't want to handle with anyone but him. Not that there was anything to handle. Pregnant people could hurt, that was okay. Pregnant people didn't have to panic at things that were so trivial, right? There was something in those pregnancy books about this, she was sure of it. She tried to convince herself. It was just a little pinch, nothing major, nothing that was repeating itself. One pinch, one time, that was it.

"Meredith..." Cristina sighed, wanting more than anything to believe that she was telling her the truth. She figured though, since it involved the McBaby, that it had to be honest. Any other time she would have known that fine meant there was something wrong, but she just couldn't see her friend lying about something that might have to do with the little thing she had come to be so excited about.

"Seriously." Meredith smiled. "I'm going to go grab something to eat." Before Cristina even had a chance to respond, she had headed off down the hallway. Since she knew the smell of the cafeteria would make her sick, she opted to go to the vending machine that was around the corner, just outside of Derek's office. There would be something decent there, right?

Reviews are always appreciated! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!