A/N: So, this is it. This is the end. I said I'd post within a week, but then I caught a cold and the weekend escaped me and my feverish brain. It's an end of an era for me, finishing this story...Thank you for all the love all throughout the years.

Epilogue

Meredith sighed deeply, stirring the spaghetti as she waited for Derek. She could hear Zola scribble on the kitchen island, while Evelyn was already comfortably sitting in her highchair and waiting for her food.

She turned to look at her girls, smiling as Zola held up her drawing to Evelyn, asking "Do ya like it, E-lyn?" and giggled.

Evelyn reached out for the drawing and almost crumbled it in her tiny hands, giggling loudly as she babbled happily "Soo!"

"Mama, when's Daddy home?" Zola asked again "I wanna show him my pony!"

"He's gonna be here any minute, Lovebug," she replied, plastering a smile on her face, just for the sake of her daughters. She knew that as soon as Derek arrived home he'd know that she was nervous about something, he knew her too well. Of course, the fact that she was shaking in anticipation wasn't helping matters.

"Daddy's here!" Zola squealed, and Meredith heard the car crunch the gravel of their driveway as well.

"Go wash your hands for dinner, then," Meredith encouraged, drying the pasta and adding the sauce, all the while she took mental deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Hey girls!" Derek called out from the foyer, the sound of the closing door right behind him.

"Dada!" Evelyn squealed as soon as he appeared in the kitchen, her hands already in the air to be picked up.

Derek obliged quickly, kissing her dark mop of curls as he cuddled his daughter close. "I missed you, Pigeon," he grinned, then looked up at Meredith with soft eyes. "Spaghetti?" he asked, wrapping his arm around Meredith's waist and kissing her temple.

"Hm, yeah." Meredith hummed, relaxing in his hold. Some of her worries dissipating, the weight on her chest lighter as he held her so close. "How was your DBS case?"

"Great. The guy was hugging his grandchildren so tight I thought he'd choke them." Derek chuckled, his stubble tickling her cheek. "Your liver transplant?"

"Full recovery," she smiled fully, and it was not a forced one. "You're just in time for dinner."

Zola interrupted their moment hopping back in the kitchen and shouting "Daddy!", then she launched herself towards him.

Derek crouched at her height and kissed her forehead, shifting Evelyn to rest on his knee.. "Hi, Zola, how was your day?"

"I played a lot at school, I had lots and lots of fun," she shrugged, a bright smile on her face. "Then I found Mama on the toilet playing with a stick and she told me I shouldn't get in the bathroom when it's oc'pied, but I needed to pee too and –"

"Alright!" Derek chuckled, amused that Zola had picked up so easily on Meredith's rambling. He looked up to see Meredith blushing crimson, her mouth slightly agape. "Flying solo?" Derek smirked, giving Meredith a smoldering look that made her groan.

"No, Mama was sitting, not flying!" Zola retorted with a huff, making the two of them laugh.

"Did you wash your hands?" Meredith cut short the embarrassing conversation, leading Zola to her seat after the girl had nodded, then placing Evelyn back in her highchair, serving the food for everybody when they were all sitting down at the table.

They were too occupied to talk, watching Evelyn make a mess with the sauce and Zola trying to wrap the spaghetti around the fork, failing most of the time. Derek kept throwing Meredith an odd look once in a while, his amusement still clearly in display. Zola ended up eating with her hands like Evelyn, slurping sauce all over her clothes, but they didn't care much.

Bath time was busy that night, but they managed to get the girls ready for bed before eight, which was always a success. They snuggled all together on the couch, Derek reading to Zola, who sat on his lap, Meredith nursing Evelyn like usual before her bedtime, enjoying these last moments of closeness, since Meredith was trying to wean her off breast milk now that she had passed the year mark.

Both girls drifted off after a few pages, tired after a day filled with games.

"So," Derek smirked, trying to suppress his laughter, but failing miserably, his eyes dancing. "Zola walked in on you, taking care of yourself."

"She didn't! I wasn't!" Meredith spluttered, mumbling quietly: "I was peeing."

"I thought I satisfied you enough." Derek faked offense, amusement blubbering in his tone and on display on his features.

"You do!" she spat, groaning and glaring at him.

"Playing with a stick, Mere?"

"I only play with your stick!" she growled, making Derek chuckle and pull her body closer to his, careful not to jostle their sleeping daughters too much. "I should probably stop playing with your stick, though," she mumbled, pouting.

"You like my stick," he grinned smugly, kissing the back of her neck, and she made room for him at the mere contact, despite she was trying so hard to resist him.

"Playing with your stick is the reason we're having this humiliating conversation!" she grumbled, shaking her head and slightly pulling away from him. "No more playing for you now, Derek Christopher."

"What?" he frowned, knowing he was supposed to understand something from her sentence and the use of his middle name, but having a hard time doing so. He just knew he was in some kind of trouble.

"Let's just get the girls into bed," Meredith sighed deeply, disentangling from him.

Reluctantly, Derek let her go, then carried Zola to bed and tucked her in. His daughter mumbled something that sounded a lot like "Love you, Daddy" before she fell again into a deep sleep.

He was back on the couch before Meredith, so he went over their whole conversation, trying to gather clues to why Meredith seemed a little off from the moment he had walked in, but coming up with nothing. His brain was slow at this point of the day, that was for sure.

She came back clutching something in her hand. Something white, that ended up in his hand as she muttered: "That's the stick I was playing with."

Derek opened his fist and two little pink lines stared at him from a little display.

It took him a moment to process the two things together, and when he looked at Meredith he was almost in tears.

"Mer..." he mumbled, unable to say anything more.

"Congratulations! You knocked me up again, Dr. Shepherd." She grinned, and Derek stood up to pull her in his arms, ready to never let her go.

They shared a long, tight embrace, his nose nuzzling in her neck as he tried not to break down in tears, before they parted, staring into each other's misty eyes.

"God, Mere," he smiled widely, at a loss for words.

"I know. It's..." she bit her lip.

"It's amazing Mere. It might be a boy this time," he grinned, clearly even more excited at the realization.

"You're getting tired of the pink and sparkly stuff, uh?" she giggled, hugging him again.

He let go of her, only to kneel on the ground and place a hand on her stomach, whispering. "Hi, Baby Shepherd number three."

He placed a soft kiss over the fabric of Meredith's t-shirt, his grin even wider. Meredith's hand tugged on his curls, forcing his stare up. "We can do this, right?"

"Of course," he smiled reassuringly, standing up swiftly to wrap her in his arms. "We can do anything together."

"We are going to be outnumbered, Derek."

"It will be okay," he smiled, his eyes sparkling more than she could ever remember.

"Evvie is not even fully weaned."

"Are you worried about your boobs?" he smirked, "Because I like your boobs a lot."

She hit him gently, smiling as well, then turning more serious. "I'm scared. I know I'm not supposed to be scared now that we have two girls and..."

"I'm a little scared too," he confessed.

"I never..." she swallowed. "I never thought I'd have one baby, let alone two. Adoption sounded like something only crazy people did. And now..."

"It is scary and crazy, but we love our girls so much I think we can spare a little bit of love for this little one too."

"I'm overwhelmed." Meredith bit her lip, hiding her face in Derek's chest and breathing in his calming scent. "It was one thing when we planned on having another baby, but now that he or she is actually growing inside of me..."

"Let's just sleep on it, take tomorrow off and figure out everything."

"Alright. But just the morning off. Just –"

"Sounds perfect," he hummed in her hair, kissing the crown of her head, sighing wistfully: "Mmm, I can't wait to meet our maybe little boy."

"I don't think it will be a boy." Meredith grinned, hearing his snort. "I was right with Evelyn, wasn't I?"

"You were," he sighed. "We'll have more babies until we get a boy, then."

He felt the daggers from Meredith's eyes before she even looked at him and said warily: "Derek Christopher Shepherd!"

"What? Three or four or five, what difference will that make?"

"The difference that I'll be a walking barrel forever!" she spat. "I'm gonna roll into surgery after pushing out your fourth dark-haired, blue-eyed baby, you know that? And I'll probably go crazy! Why are we still having this conversation?"

"Oh, I missed pregnant Meredith," Derek sighed, kissing her lips in amusement "She is a lot of fun."

"Pregnant Meredith is going to deny you sex until she's in menopause, honey," she said, her turn to smirk.

"I'm a patient guy, what can I say?" he smiled, before he burst into laughter.

Meredith bit her lip to keep from laughing as well, but she ended up laughing with him with unadulterated joy.

"We're having another baby," Derek smiled softly then, when they were calm again, his eyes filling with emotion.

"We are."

A/N: Clearly, this happily ever after can go on, right? :P

I have loose plans to keep going with this, set a story in a slightly distant future, let's say 6 or 7 years ahead. It won't be published tomorrow, nor in a month, because it requires more planning for it, but if you want a sequel, I can put it in the line, after IWBY, the Storm trilogy, GotP and Part 2 of 29 Years. I know it's a long line, but the story is still an embryo, it needs work. Basically, I only have the characters and a loose idea bout where it should go, so I need convincing.

So far all I can say is that the working title is Loud as Hope, it's set in the future, with Zola as an almost tween (!) and a grown Evvie, plus Baby #3. Also, there will be a trip, somewhere, and there might be a trailer involved. Might.

There's time for it, so just let me know in the reviews if you're interested in reading more, but also through Twitter works (I'm IreneB92 there). Send all the questions you want, though I won't always be able to answer them :P

Thank you for staying on this journey with me for so long, for your patience and love and enthusiasm. Every little review and comment and love message has been treasured. You are what makes a fanfic writer keep going and finish stories. Thank you!

Until next time, then!

PS: An IWBY update is in the works, don't worry! And Storm too! Keep the faith.