Here is the epilogue, I have been posting for about a year now, I have a list of people to thank who have helped me in the process of the fic. Fran, Heather, Kate, Jenny and Em, thank you so much for all your help, i appreciated it so much. Also huge thanks goes out to all of you who have read and reviewed, I loved and appreciate every single one of them, and 'lurkers' thank you for reading. Now on with the fic, this epilogue lives up to the fic title.

All Of Your Life

The years went by quickly for Meredith and Derek, they were married 18 months after he had proposed, and married on their land, surrounded by their family and friends. Ava at 4 ½ years old loved being the flower girl, and she would chatter on about it to anyone and everyone who would listen about her special role right up until the day her parents got married.

Meredith never believed that she would get married especially after leaving Derek in Seattle four years earlier. Meredith and Derek's wedding day was small and intimate, married by a judge of the peace rather than a priest despite the objections of his family. Like Derek told them, he had done the big wedding once before, because it was what his family had expected of him but this time their wedding would be about what him and Meredith wanted. It was one rare sunny day in April, when Meredith walked down the aisle to take her vows to the only man she had ever loved and dreamed of marrying and reciting their vows, they promised to love honour and cherish each other before the most important people in their lives.

Ten months after they married, Meredith gave birth to their second child, a daughter called Leigh-Anne, and Leigh was two years old when Derek was offered chief of surgery at Mass General. Meredith decided that she and the girls did not want to be separated from Derek; so she agreed to finish her final year of residency at Mass Gen and they moved to Boston, which also allowed them to be closer to the family. Meredith hated leaving Amy and Josh in Seattle, especially as Amy was her best friend but they kept in frequent contact, often flying out between each other's homes.

Eighteen months later, after Meredith had completed her fellowship; she fell pregnant once again and 8 months later she gave birth to their first and only son Nathan Derek Shepherd. Derek loved his daughters very much, but was thrilled to finally have a son. Derek had settled into chief of surgery very quickly, but Meredith struggled to find herself in the hospital that her mother had made her name. It took her months to earn the respect of the surgery staff, even more so than at Seattle Grace. But they soon came to realise that Meredith Grey was twice the doctor that Ellis Grey ever was; and not just the chiefs trophy wife, as Derek had heard her being called on occasion, he had vowed never to get in the way of his wife medical career, and he knew that she could look after herself.

When Nathan was 4 years old, Richard Webber announced that he was finally retiring and offered Derek; chief of surgery at Seattle Grace and also offered Meredith head of neurosurgery, Richard knew all those years ago after Meredith's first 48 hour shift that he would be offering Meredith Grey-Shepherd, head of neurology.

And before any of them knew it, 25 years had passed.

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Ava was waiting in her childhood home, for her mom and dad; she had promised everyone that she would get them to the Emerald City Bar, where her sister and brother were waiting for them to celebrate their 25th wedding Anniversary along with their family and friends. Ava was aware of how much her mom and dad had always and still loved each other, and she remembered very vaguely what things were like without her dad; she was always a mommy's girl, where Leigh was a daddy's girl and Nate never showed any preference.

"Ava, you okay?" someone said beside her and she looked over at her cousin and smiled at him.

"You shouldn't be here Josh, I am fine. I was just thinking…"

"About what?" he asked her, watching her and he couldn't deny that Ava was a beautiful woman, but they were also related.

"Do you think mom and dad will like it?" she asked her best friend.

"They will love it love it Ava" Josh promised her.

"I hope so Josh" she said smiling at him, and squeezing his hand.

"I will see you there" he told her, giving her a smile before leaving her alone in the house, Ava wandered through the rooms, smiling at the memories that was stored in that house.

"You ready Ava?" her mother asked from behind her.

"Sorry mom," she replied, turning around and giving her mother the smile that she had so clearly inherited from her father. "You look beautiful mom" Ava said, taking in the ankle length blue dress that Meredith wore.

"Thanks sweetheart. So, are you going to tell me where you are taking your father and I?" Meredith asked her daughter.

"Nope." she simply replied giving her mother a kiss on the cheek.

"You know I hate surprises Ava."

"Unless it daddy that gives you one."

"Ava...stop. So are we ready? It not every day I get to escort two of my beautiful girls somewhere." Derek said walking up to his wife and eldest daughter.

"Our cab should be here shortly." she tells them, noting that her father hadn't taken his eyes off of her mother since he walked into the kitchen, Ava walked out of the kitchen but not before seeing her parents in each other arms, kissing. Ava was so used to seeing it; it never once embarrassed her like it did Leigh and Nathan. Her parents had always been very tactile at home, from the slight brushing of hands, to holding each other, she could always see that her parents were in love and she hoped that she would find someone that she shared that kind of love with.

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"SURPRISE" everyone shouted as Meredith and Derek walked into Joe's, Meredith instantly teared up and pulled her daughter into her arms.

"You sneaky girl!"

"We wanted to do something special for your 25th anniversary." she told her mother, whilst Derek hugged his other daughter and son.

"Thank you sweetheart." Meredith said, smiling at her eldest daughter, before giving Leigh a hug and then Nathan, but without Derek ever letting go of her waist.

Meredith was thrilled to see all of her friends, including all those that shared their wedding day with them. It had been the first time she had seen Alex and Izzie in over 10 years, and also their family, all of Derek sisters were there, including Kathleen who had been ill recently.

The entire evening was spent catching up with people that they hadn't seen for a while and Derek was watching his children. He could admit to himself that he worried about Ava who at 29 had never had a serious boyfriend, he knew that she was definitely her mother's daughter in every way, and he had never judged his wife for her past behaviour so he wasn't about to judge his daughter for it either. But deep down inside he wished that she would find the kind of love that she deserved the kind of love that he had found with Meredith. Derek watched Leigh with her new husband of four months, and even though he thought that she was too young to get married at 24, Meredith had told him in no certain terms that he either had to accept it or lose her. Derek could admit that he liked Damien, his son in law but he wanted so much more for his youngest daughter but he couldn't deny that she was happy and above all that was exactly what he had wanted for her. Derek watched mother and son together and he knew that she couldn't be more proud of her son, their only child that was following them into medicine. At 20 Nate was at Dartmouth, in his 2nd year of pre med. Nate was aware that he had a family legacy to live up to, with his grandmother, mother and father being surgeons; not to mention that his entire paternal side were all doctors, but he wanted to make his family proud. Ava was a lawyer; Leigh was a teacher so he was the only Shepherd to follow his parents into their profession.

"Der." He heard his wife say, sliding her arms around his waist.

"Mer." He said dropping a kiss on her lips.

"Happy 25 years." She murmured against his mouth.

"The best, I love you so much." He said, pushing his tongue into her mouth and explored the deep crevice that he knew so well.

"I love you too." Meredith told him.

"Mom, dad. Please." They heard Nate coming up behind them.

"You should be used to it by now son."

"Yeah but not in a room full of people."

"They are used to it and beside it is our anniversary Nate." Meredith told her son, reaching her hand out to ruffle his hair like she had always done.

"No touching the hair mom." He admonished her, just as Ava stood up on the stage and cleared her throat catching the attention of everyone in the room.

"I want to thank everyone for coming this evening; I know having everyone here means the world to mom and dad, some of you were here at the beginning, and some of you have joined them on the way. Mom and Dad have a love that cannot be described, growing up Leigh, Nate and I have been blessed to grow up in a house with so much love and with parents who were never afraid to show us exactly what love was. I hope one day that I can find the love that my parents have shared. I won't hold my breath because I know that you can wait all of your life for a love like theirs to come around. Mom, dad, from the bottom of my heart I love you both so much and congratulations, here's to another happy 25 years." She said raising her glass.

"To Meredith and Derek" everyone said, has they made their way to the stage, Meredith pulled Ava in for a hug.

"That was beautiful sweetheart." Meredith said choked up with emotion.

"Once my wife lets go of our daughter i will start my speech." Derek said, causing everyone to laugh, including Meredith and Ava, and Meredith moved to his side. "On behalf of myself and Meredith, i want to thank all of you for joining us this evening, especially since we knew nothing about it. Ava, Leigh, Nate you three have gotten too good at lying to your parents, it is a little worrying. But seriously thank you for organising this, I am thrilled with the turn out. These past twenty-five years have been the happiest I can truly say I have ever been. Meredith has I told you on our wedding day, you complete me in every way, and i don't care how cheesy that sounds but it is true. I mean it when I say I love you more today than i did 25 years ago when you became Mrs Shepherd, and I can't imagine my life without you by my side. I love you Mrs Shepherd and I am looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together." He said pulling her closer and kissing her hard, slowly dipping her to the floor.

I hope you enjoyed this epilogue and fic. I will be taking a break from writing, as I have mentioned several times finding the time to write is very difficult at the moment, with working, doing shows and my NVQ work, and also finding the time to have a somewhat rare social life. But I will be back with a new fic hopefully by the end of the year. I have ideas on my hard drive for 4 stories, and the most likely of these that I will start posting is either Insatible or Saving All My Love. Thank again for reading and reviewing.