Epilogue: 6 Months Later

Meredith's eyes popped open suddenly. Her groggy brain registered two things at once: it was still dark outside, and she was being watched. She turned her head to her right and her eyes met Derek's. He was propped up on his elbow and he smirked at her irritated expression.

"Will you please tell me why you woke me up at the ass crack of dawn?" She raised up to glance at the neon green numbers on her alarm clock and her glare intensified. "Five A.M. Are you serious? The only reason I should be up at five is if I have to work or DJ or Lily are screaming their little heads off. I am off today, and the twins are sleeping. So, I repeat why am I awake right now?"

He just smiled at her.

"I love you." He said simply.

She sighed. Damnit. How can you stay mad when the most gorgeous man on the planet says that?

"I love you too." She told him, yawning.

"I was lying here, thinking and I just had to tell you that." He explained further.

"What were you thinking about?" She asked, snuggling into him further and accepting the fact that she was awake for the day.

"You. Always you." He said.

"What about me?" She clarified.

"Do you remember what started all this…us?" He asked.

Meredith laughed throatily.

"How could I forget? You were being your lovely outgoing self as usual and I was being my normally bitchy self." She teased.

Derek chuckled.

"You made me feel things I didn't want to feel. You made me crazy."

"Um…excuse me. You were already crazy, if anything I made you sane."

"Ha! Is that what you call it? You challenging me at Joe's and then showing up in front of me two days later looking like a walking wet dream? God, I had a hard on for two days after that." He said, shaking his head as he remembered.

"I remember you pushing me to my limits while I worked for you." She said.

"It is not my fault you didn't eat." He protested.

She raised her head up to glare at him.

"It's not. I may have pushed you a little…okay, a lot, but I didn't make it impossible for you to eat."

"Okay, I will give you that one." She conceded.

"When I saw you hit your head though and go down…" He trailed off.

"Yeah, and then you came to me and I threw a bedpan at you." Meredith giggled.

"I was just thankful it wasn't full." Derek said.

Meredith laughed harder.

"It wasn't that funny." Derek said.

"No…no…I was thinking about what my face must have looked like when your mother informed me, I was your girlfriend." She gasped.

Derek groaned.

"I couldn't think of anything else to say. You just popped into my head. I didn't want to be fixed up with the airhead daughters of my mom's friends."

"So, fear of spending a few hours with an airhead made you blackmail me into going home with you?" She asked.

"No, anticipation of spending time with you away from work made me blackmail you." Derek explained.

"Hmmm…I loved going home with you. Meeting your family, playing twister, verbally smacking down your ex-wife, defiling your mother's dining room table…"

Derek laughed.

"That was so embarrassing." Derek agreed.

Meredith smacked his chest lightly.

"Embarrassing for who? I didn't know these people at all, and they saw everything, and I do mean everything."

"Then you walked up to my mom and apologized for fornicating on her table. I thought I was going to die laughing." Derek chuckled.

Meredith shrugged.

"Then you broke my heart." She said sadly.

Derek's breath hitched.

"Then I broke your heart. You get why I thought I had to do that, right?" He asked softly.

"Yeah. I get it. I didn't agree with it, but I get it." She said.

"I was so stupid and when I got that wakeup call…" Derek voice trembled with anger and sorrow.

Meredith looked at his face, so close to hers and saw the tears filling his incredible blue eyes.

"Hey. None of that. That wasn't your fault." She told him firmly.

"If I hadn't of been so stupid and pigheaded, I would have been with you." Derek said stubbornly.

"You can't be with me every hour of every day. He would have waited you out. And it doesn't matter now. I am fine. I escaped with a few scars and a whole new lease on life. Look at us now. We are a family. We are in love. I have a relationship with my mother. Do you know how blessed I am? My son and daughter are going to know both of their grandmothers. We have amazing friends and family. We have amazing jobs. We have an amazing love. We are…amazing." She said fiercely.

"You are amazing." He said reverently.

"You are biased." She teased.

"Maybe a little." He agreed. He got quiet.

"What are you thinking about now?" She asked, after letting him stew for a few minutes.

"I was just thinking what my life would be like if Addison hadn't of cheated on me." He admitted.

"Gah! Why the hell would you be thinking about that?" She exclaimed.

"It just makes me that much more thankful to her for doing that." He said.

"Hmmm…we should have sent her a Christmas card." Meredith teased.

"Eh…maybe next year." Derek laughed.

Meredith joined in.

They heard Lily and DJ babble over the monitor.

"Mama, Mama, Mama!" Lily called out

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" DJ yelled out.

"Oh look, they want to join our conversation." Meredith said.

"Let me go get them and we can snuggle." Derek said, getting up and pulling on his pants. Meredith admired his ass for a second before he turned around smirking at her expression of lust.

"Snuggle?" She said, making a face.

"Shut up Woman." He admonished teasingly before exiting the room to go get their son and daughter.

"Hey guys! Let's get you guys changed so you can come 'snuggle' with your mommy and daddy."

Meredith giggled as she heard him taunt her through the monitor. Two minutes later, her son and daughter were put in between them to 'snuggle'.

Meredith smiled at DJ and Lily, and lightly tickled them until she was rewarded with their giggles. They were nine months old now and every day they amazed and fascinated their parents. DJ's laugh, his funny expressions, his smile…all were reminiscent of Derek until you got to his personality. He is stubborn and bossy, already pointing his finger and grunting when he saw something he wanted. He was into everything, so nothing could be put in reaching distance or it would go straight into his mouth. He was funny, handsome, beautiful, and such a perfect division of both of them. It made her heart bust at the seams just looking at him. She didn't know how she could love someone as much as Derek, but it was possible. On the other hand, Liliana is the spitting image of her mother. She has honey blonde hair and emerald green eyes. Also, she is smaller and slender built. Lily tends to have the calmer personality. She is laid back, a good sleeper, and she loves the outdoors. Again, a perfect mixture of Meredith and Derek.

She glanced at Derek, who had the same love-struck expression on his face. These little babies had them firmly wrapped around their fingers with very little effort on his part. They seemed to know it.

"Guys, mommy and I were just talking about how perfect our lives were. Do you want to add anything to that?" Derek asked.

DJ gurgled and laughed which sent them into laughter.

"Daaaaaaaaaaa." Lily said happily.

"I hear you guys." Derek said, agreeing with whatever jibberish DJ and Lily were spewing out of their mouths.

Derek met her eyes and she swore that electricity flowed between them. It was that intense.

Suddenly they both knew, no matter what regrets they had, everything they had been through had led them to this moment…this perfect moment with their son and daughter…Products of their love and heartache.

"Mer?"

"Yeah?" She asked, her gaze never wavering.

"Merry Christmas." He said.

Meredith swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat.

"Merry Christmas." She choked out.

Yeah, her life was nothing short of amazing.

Let me know what you think, no holding back. If you haven't commented before, please feel free to take this opportunity to share your opinions with me. My co-writer and I will be adding the sequel to this story Against All Odds shortly.