All Along The Watchtower - Part 28.3B
Title: All Along The Watchtower
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Mer/Der
Rating: M
Summary: S6 continuation. Immediately post Sanctuary / Death and All His Friends.
All Along The Watchtower - Part 28.3B
She blinked. Well, that wasn't that hard. “General,” she replied.
He grinned and placed the card face up on the table. The word general was listed at the top, followed by army, rank, star, Tso, and hospital, the five words he wasn't allowed to say.
“See?” he said. “That wasn't so bad.”
“You started easy,” she said.
He shrugged. “This is the whole game. You saw me shuffle.”
Which, well, he had a point.
“Both a compression bandage and one of five items necessary for a royal flush in poker,” he said.
Compression... elastic... Ten, jack, queen, king, “Um... ace?” Meredith said.
Derek grinned, and he put the card down so she could see it. Ace was the top word, followed by the taboo words: highest, card, tennis, serve, flying. She stared at it. Another easy one. Maybe, Derek was right, and they were all easy.
Maybe.
The chair beside Meredith squawked as Rachel stood, beer bottle clasped in her hands. She clapped, and her sparkly diamond wedding ring hit the butterscotch-colored glass. “Go Meredith!” she shouted. “Woo, woo, woo!” Like she was at a Seahawks game or something. “See, you got this.”
Mark sighed. “You're cheering on the enemy!”
“We didn't decide Team Neuro for sure, yet!” Rachel said.
“We agreed on a handicap,” Steve said.
“Well, what would that make the leftovers, anyway?” Rachel said.
“A plastic surgeon, a forensic pathologist, a stockbroker, a high school student, and a painter,” John said with a wry grin. He took a swig of his beer. “Sounds like a punchline.”
“The Punchline Posse,” Steve suggested.
“Oh, that's good,” said John.
Derek grinned at them. “Congratulations,” he said.
“What?” Rachel said.
“You guys are now officially more cheesy than me.”
“I think we have a long way to go before that happens, Der,” Steve replied.
“That sounds like a bet,” Derek said, eyes gleaming.
Kathy pounded the table with her hand. “Less trash talk,” she said. “More Taboo.”
Derek laughed, rich and boisterous, and the sound of it made Meredith shiver. His sister had slammed the table so hard it shook, and Derek had laughed, not flinched. Meredith looked at him, amazed. This rivalry stuff seemed to have invigorated him, and he'd finally, truly relaxed. Or, well, maybe not relaxed, she decided, looking at the competitive gleam in his expression, his buzzing-with-excitement demeanor, but... he'd fixated on something that didn't involve being afraid. On purpose or accidental, he didn't even seem to realize what he'd just accomplished.
“Charlatan without a medical degree,” Derek said as he read from the next card.
Meredith frowned. “Fraud?”
He shook his head.
“Phony?” she said.
Derek shook his head again.
For a moment, her mind was blank. She couldn't get herself to think of anything except the fact that Derek had just laughed happily at a startling noise. She kind of wanted to hop out of her chair. Dance. Or hug him. Anything. Sentimental Meredith made her eyes water, but she wiped away the evidence.
“Also the noise made by a type of water fowl, such as a mallard,” Derek prodded, oblivious for once.
“Um.” She shook her head, getting herself back in gear. Later. Later, she could mention what he'd done. Mallard. Like a duck? Duck. Noise made by a duck. Charlatan... “Um, quack!”
With a sly grin, Derek placed the card on the table. The word was indeed quack. He picked up the next card.
“You drive a green one of these,” he said.
“Oh! Jeep!”
Another grin. Another card on the table.
“Meredith's last name,” Derek said as he read the next card in the thinning stack.
“Grey!” Meredith replied.
Derek put the card down on the table. Gray was the word at the top, and it was followed by white, black, area, matter, and old.
“My last name isn't spelled like that,” she said.
“Doesn't matter,” Derek said. “As long as you get the phonetic equivalent.”
“Huh, okay,” she said.
He flipped to the next card. “Meredith's favorite black shoes,” he said.
“Converse!”
“No--”
“Chucks!” she corrected herself before he could add another clue. “It's chucks!”
“Singular,” he prodded.
“Chuck!” Meredith said, and she bounced. In her seat. Bounced when he grinned. This was actually sort of fun. Derek was grinning at her infectiously. And she was bouncing, and there was shouting, and he didn't seem to mind a bit, and that was just...
“High as a--”
“Oh! Oh, kite!” she said.
The next card with the word kite, followed by fly, wind, string, tail, and Charlie Brown, fell to the table.
“Contrary to what Meredith said that night on the cliff, she's definitely not a stupid, lame ass--”
“Loser!” she exclaimed.
The next card fell to the table. Loser. Uncool, unpopular, unsuccessful, winner, two-time.
“Mmm,” Derek purred. “Smells like lavender.”
“Conditioner,” she said.
Derek shook his head. “You put it on before that.”
“Lotion. Soap. Shampoo!”
The card listed shampoo at the top, followed by wash, hair, suds, conditioner, and rinse.
“If, along with sharing the last piece of cheesecake, and pretending to like my taste in music, you were to actually hold a radio over your head outside my trailer, you'd be doing what?” Derek said.
“S... serenading.”
He nodded, but prodded her for a correction with, “Present simple tense.”
“Serenade,” she said.
The card fell to the table. Serenade was the word, followed by sing, outside, window, boom box, and Lloyd Dobler.
He read the next card. “I wrap my presents with paper and surgical--”
The entire table around her said in cheerful chorus, “Tape!”
Scotch, sticky, masking, duct, and red were the taboo words for that one.
Derek read the next card and grinned slyly. “Having sex with a virgin is called popping a blank.”
“Cherry!” Meredith said without hesitation to the relative silence of the table. “Wait. What? Seriously? Is that allowed in a family game?”
Everybody laughed as Derek threw the last card in the stack onto the table. Cherry was the word. The taboo clues were red, fruit, blossom, pie, and Washington. She supposed the game creators hadn't really thought anyone would go the virgin route as a clue.
“Told you Derek gets raunchy in these,” Kathy said.
Derek kissed Meredith. “You okay?” he said.
“Feeling less typhoid-y,” she replied. “That was sort of fun.”
His lips curled into a relaxed grin. “Good,” he said. “I knew you'd rock it.”
“This is how Team Neuro starts,” Mark said. “Then they start talking at each other with just their eyeballs, and it's even more disturbing.”
“Relax,” Rachel said. “This wasn't even timed.”
Mark threw up his hands in defeat. “Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you.”
Derek winked at Meredith. “So, Team Neuro versus?”
John nodded. “Team Neuro versus Punchline Posse. Let the games begin.”
Meredith watched, mystified, as everybody got up from the table and started trading seats like they were at a swap meet. John, Steve, Mark, Chloe, and Rachel sat together. Team Neuro, which apparently included Kathy in addition to Meredith, Abby, Amelia, and Derek, coalesced surrounding Meredith and Derek on either side. Beer bottles clinked and upholstery rustled as everybody re-settled.
Steve shuffled the card stacks still in the box, and John took out the sand timer and placed it mid-table.
Meredith stared, open-mouthed, as Derek stood, leaned forward, and met eyes with Steve. The two of them looked at each other, unblinking, grave, for a long march of seconds. Then, they whipped out their hands and snapped in unison, “Rock, paper, scissors, go!” while bobbing their fists with each syllable.
Derek held his palm flat on the downswing, signaling paper. Steve made what looked like a peace sign sideways, the symbol for scissors.
“Hmm, best two out of three?” Derek said.
Steve smirked. “You wish.”
Derek collapsed into his chair in a disappointed heap. He looked at Meredith. “They go first.”
“I... uh...” Meredith began, trying to hold her laughter at bay, not quite successfully, “So, I gathered.”
“What's so funny?” he said.
“You,” she said. “I had no idea you took your Taboo so seriously.”
“He takes anything that involves winning seriously,” Rachel chirped.
“You should see him when we play capture the flag,” Kathy added. “He's like a drill sergeant when it comes to jail raids.”
“Only because when I lose, I have to deal with you people talking it up for eternity,” Derek replied, smirking. His voice cracked and slipped to falsetto, “Remember the time we kicked Derek's ass at Pictionary? Remember Charades? How about the Scrabble tournament of '02?”
“Cute,” Kathy said.
Derek grinned in response, but didn't retort. In the quiet moments before the game where everybody settled in, he rubbed his nose with his thumb and index finger and sighed, deflating somewhat.
Meredith leaned close to him. “Are you sure you're okay?” she said.
“Really tired,” he whispered back at her. “I'll make it a few rounds.”
She brushed his forearm with her palm and squeezed it. “Okay,” she said.
“All right,” said Kathy as she shuffled the deck, dragging Meredith's attention back to the game at hand. “Here we go.” Kathy gave the card stack to John.
Derek pulled out a little notebook out of the box that, from the number of pages he flipped past, they'd been using for years. She recognized Derek's handwriting in quite a few of them. He seemed to have alternated with three or four other people with distinct styles of their own. When Derek found a new page in the book, about halfway through, he drew columns in it, and labeled them TN and TPP, and he put a three in the column for TPP.
“Ready?” Kathy said when Derek had finished, and John nodded. She reached for the sand timer and flipped it over. “Go!”
John scanned the first card wildly. “Phoenix rises from the?” he said.
“Grave,” Mark said.
“Death?” Rachel offered.
“Jean Gray?” Steve said.
John shook his head, visibly frustrated. “Cremation results in?” he said, offering another hint.
“Ashes,” Steve said.
John nodded and moved on to the next card. “Um... Two words,” he said. He clenched his teeth and made a face like he was struggling to come up with something. “My name. Um. Um. A note that ends-- shit.”
He dropped the card and sighed. The card, which had Dear John at the top, was followed by letter, break up, end, romance, and ditch. Team Punchline Posse groaned collectively.
“Wait, what happened?” Meredith said.
“He said ends, which is a taboo word,” Derek said. And then his expression turned gleeful. “Which makes it our turn. Who wants to go first?”
“How about Meredith?” Rachel said from across the table.
Meredith's jaw dropped. “I...”
Derek turned to her and gave her a huge smile. “Yes,” he said. “How about Meredith?”
Meredith blinked.
“Do it,” said Kathy with a grin. “It's good for the soul.”
“Taboo is chicken soup, now?” Meredith said.
“Yep,” John said, pushing the stack of cards back across the table. “Eat up.”
Meredith stared woefully at the deck. Derek had convinced her she was decent at coming up with the answers, particularly when he was the one formulating the clues for her, but coming up with clues on her own for the entire team was an entirely different matter. “I take no responsibility if Team Neuro goes down in flames,” Meredith said.
Derek kissed her. “If we go down in flames, I take full responsibility. Clearly, it will be my failure at freakish marital telepathy.”
“Wow,” Amelia said, a teasing gleam in her eyes. “He's offering to take blame.”
Kathy giggled. “Quick! Somebody get a calendar to mark the day!”
He made a disgruntled face. “Hah. Hah.”
Meredith shook her head. If only they knew how much blame he really did take for himself. He was a guilt monger in his own head. Still... She bit her lip, staring at him. He really did seem to be going out of his way to both drag her kicking and screaming into the familial fold and protect her at the same time Why now? she wanted to ask.
He met her eyes. Despite his outward demeanor of cheer, exhaustion gripped his expression.
He'd kept saying he needed a break soon. Now, she could almost correct him. He needed to take a break right now.
But he squeezed her shoulder. And he grinned at her. And he winked in that cocksure, classic, Derek way.
Maybe, he wanted to make sure she was comfortable doing more than hiding behind him or Mark before he slipped out, she thought. And then it all clicked. That was exactly what he was doing, that sneaky, sneaky man. He'd brought her to New York to be with his family on Thanksgiving. He didn't want to leave her to fend for herself in a situation he'd created unless she was okay with it.
She glanced at the table. Everybody was being nice. John had just flunked out in two cards, and nobody was ragging on him, other than good-natured teasing. She could do this.
“Just start the timer,” she said.
She grabbed the first card. Rachel let out a whoop and flipped the sand timer.
Meredith stared at the first set of words. Handcuffs was the word, and she couldn't say cop, lock, wrists, metal, or arrest. Amelia, Abby, Kathy, and Derek were all staring intently, waiting for her to say something. The problem with games like this, she realized immediately, was that they encouraged personal word associations, personal being the keyword, and today, her head was in a Porny Pregnant Place.
Handcuffs. Padded. In her sock drawer. In another life, before he'd been shot, he'd let her try them on him, except he hadn't been able to stop laughing. But she couldn't say any of that.
Pink? Really, Mere? So not you.
They were out of black!
Meredith coughed. “Um. A type of restraint.”
“Zip tie,” Amelia said.
“Rope!” Kathy said.
Oh, I guess I've been bad, he'd said, trying for a sexy purr, except he'd ended in hysterics, and the handcuffs had rattled as he'd suffered paroxysms.
Her tight leather bodice had squeaked as she'd looked down at him. This isn't quite how I imagined it.
I'm sorry, he'd gasped. I can't do this without laughing.
Honestly, I'd call it giggling, not laughing, she'd replied.
His eyebrows had shot up to his hairline I'm not giggling.
I'm sitting on you in tight leather, and you're giggling.
The handcuffs had rattled as he'd tried to shift underneath her I have no complaints about the tight leather.
Shut up, she'd replied.
He'd snorted with laughter again. Yes, Mistress Meredith.
“Could be...” Meredith said. “Porny.”
“Ropes and zip ties aren't porny?” Derek said.
“They're all pretty porny,” Mark agreed.
“No cross-table talk!” Kathy scolded.
“Duct tape,” Abby said.
“A leash!” Amelia said.
“What kind of porny is a leash?” Abby said.
“What kind of porny is duct tape?” Kathy demanded.
Abby rolled her eyes. “Mom...”
Pink, Meredith thought. Pink, not black. Wait, she couldn't say that.
“Used by law enforcement,” Meredith offered instead.
“Handcuffs,” Derek said.
She glanced at Derek briefly, wondering if he'd thought of their brief flirtation with bondage. His face remained passive. Except then he winked at her.
“I do like pink,” he murmured, too low for the rest of the table to hear.
She laughed. At least, she was tied with John, now, and her porny handcuff thoughts could be squashed. She tossed the handcuffs card on the table for all to see and read the next one to herself. Stiff was the word, followed by rigid, hard, dead, body, and drink.
She swallowed. Stiff. Rigid. Hard. Penis, a tiny voice interjected.
Of course, her mind would randomly wander to penis and refuse to leave, as if giggly handcuff sex wasn't enough. She glanced at Derek, unable to help herself. Her gaze wandered downward. Briefly. Damn it, damn it. She was thinking about Derek's penis. Worse, Derek and his stupid freakish psychicness followed her line of thought as well as her gaze, from the sudden leer on his face. He even shifted in his seat, giving her a nice view of the way his jeans cupped-- that rat bastard.
She was thinking about Derek's penis.
In the middle of a family game. At Thanksgiving. Except, Derek had talked about popping cherries, so maybe...
“Time,” Meredith said. “Timeout. Rule question.”
Rachel tipped the sand timer to the side. “What is it?”
“Before I completely stick my foot in my mouth, exactly how porny is this game allowed to get?” Meredith said.
“I think if it can go in an R-rated movie, it's okay,” Kathy said. She glanced at Chloe. “We're all mostly adults, here.”
“Yeah,” Steve said, “and we get pretty raunchy sometimes, anyway.”
“So, like, Terminator is okay, but Naughty Nurses IV isn't?” Meredith said.
Rachel laughed. “I guess that's a good description.”
“I'm dying to know what word that is,” Derek said.
“Well, we know if it was in your head, it'd be part of a porny thought,” Amelia offered.
Derek laughed. “Any word can be part of a porny thought in my head. The key here is that it's porny in Meredith's head.”
“Okay, I'm ready,” Meredith said, ignoring him. “Um.” She glanced at the card one last time. And then at Derek. Who peered back at her lecherously. Oh, whatever. “Slang for... an erection.”
“Rod,” Kathy said.
“Member,” Amelia said.
“Oh!” Abby said, bouncing in her seat. “Throbbing manhood!”
“If only they'd made a card for throbbing manhood in this family game,” Mark said, deadpan.
“It could also be a corpse,” Meredith offered weakly.
“A penis or a corpse?” Derek replied with a laugh.
Meredith scowled. “You're not helping, Mr. Porny Pants.”
Which only made him laugh harder.
“Bone?” Amelia said.
Derek leered. “Stiffy.”
“Shorten it,” Meredith said.
Derek snickered.
“Shorten the word, Derek,” Meredith said.
“Stiff,” he said.
Finally. She threw the card onto the table so everybody could see and picked up the next one, only to sigh. Maybe, she had a pregnant porny pornstar mind, but this was ridiculous. “Did one of you guys stack this deck to mess with me?”
“I shuffled it six times or so,” Kathy said.
“And I shuffled it before that,” Steve chimed in. “Why?"
Meredith glowered at the card. Sack it said, followed by bag, hold, potato, plunder, tackle, as words she couldn't say, but those restrictions didn't even begin to touch where her mind leaped to. Balls, her dirty hormonal mind said. Balls, balls, balls. Derek likes it when you pull them really gently. Having sex in the sack. So. Much. Dirty. Slang.
Worse, Derek caught her gaze drifting south again. He was hanging right today. Oh, god. Stop. Stop, she told herself. Thanksgiving. Why did there have to be porny taboo cards?
“Another word for scrotum,” she said.
“Balls,” Derek said, his tone in that lower register he often reserved for the bedroom, not that anybody at the table would have known that. He was definitely on the same wavelength as her. He shifted evilly in his chair.
“Gonads,” said Kathy.
Abby rolled her eyes. “This is so wrong that I'm playing this with my mother.”
Kathy laughed.
“Nuts!” Amelia said.
“Junk,” Derek said.
“Family Jewels?” Amelia said.
“How about sack?” Abby said.
“Got it,” Meredith said, and she put the card on the table.
“It's good you're learning important things in college,” Kathy replied, peering at Abby.
Meredith looked at the next card. Seriously? Lap was the word, followed by sit, top, computer, swim, and victory as words she couldn't say. At least with her brain doing dirty word associations, the taboo words didn't create a lot of obstacles.
Don'tcha take no chances, she remembered as she'd danced for him, and he'd stared back at her, smitten. Keep your eye on top.
“Umm...” she said. “Blank dance.”
“Break dance?” Kathy said.
“Flash dance?” Amelia said.
“Porny blank dance,” Meredith clarified.
“Lap,” Derek answered in a heartbeat, and Meredith moved on to the next card.
The universe was setting her up. She was convinced at this point. “Porny,” she said. “Bump and blank.”
“Grind,” Derek said before anybody had a chance to think about it, and Meredith put that card on the table.
Next up, Meredith laughed. Finally, something not porny. Though it was a bit more challenging, since she couldn't say two, male, friends, man, or crush.
“Mark and Derek have this,” she said.
“Are we still on balls?” Derek offered.
Meredith snorted. “It's a platonic relationship between guys. Combines a word for guy siblings and a love affair.”
“Oh, oh, bromance,” Amelia said.
Derek made a face. “Really, people call Mark and me a bromance?”
“Brothers and romance, smashed together,” Rachel said, grinning. “I like it.”
Mark frowned. “I don't.”
Meredith read the next card and smiled. She looked at Derek. “Batman lives there.”
“Gotham,” Derek said without pause.
By night, they call me The Batman, he'd told her with a throaty growl.
You are so freaking corny, she'd replied.
The next card made her jaw drop, and the moments ticked away. There was no way all the porny stuff and this could be a coincidence. Except the only person with enough knowledge to organize the cards like this would be Derek. Except his sister and brother-in-law had both shuffled. She tried to think of any other times he'd handled the cards and came up blank.
“Okay, seriously, Derek, did you stack this deck?” she said.
“Hey,” he replied. “You saw Kathy shuffle. Maybe, it's fate.”
“Then fate is a dirty, dirty whore,” she grumbled.
He grinned. “Oh, is it?”
Meredith sighed. “You promised to eat one if I got the conception date of the baby correct.”
“A fluffernutter,” Derek said.
“Wait,” Mark said. “How does a fluffernutter make fate a dirty, dirty whore?”
“No reason,” Meredith said.
Derek nodded. “None at all.”
“The fluffernutter was consumed at the table,” Meredith added.
“We even had a place mat,” Derek said.
Meredith nodded. “Totally couth.”
“I'm not sure I want to know about this,” Kathy said. “Mark, you'll have to live in wonder.”
“Good plan,” Meredith said. She reached for the next card.
“Wait,” Rachel said, and everybody looked at her. “I just realized. We never flipped the timer back after the time out.”
“But I was on a roll!” Meredith said. She put the card back in the unread pile since she hadn't had a chance to look at it.
“I think that whole round should still count,” Derek said. He glanced at Meredith winked. I told you you would be good at this, said his smirky smirk.
“I was the time keeper; it's my fault,” Rachel said. “I was too busy laughing at balls.”
“That's fine,” John said. “We'll give them the points.” Derek nodded and scribbled Team Neuro's score of eight into the appropriate column. “Team Punchline Posse has some ground to catch up.”
Meredith shifted in her chair. Derek wrapped his arm over her shoulder. She leaned against him and whuffed a heavy breath. Despite the invasion of Porny Meredith, she'd kind of kicked ass. And she was kind of having fun. A lot of fun, phantom Derek corrected. Okay, a lot of fun, she amended with a schmoopy sentimental smile that made her want to punch something. And she was kind of... full. The air didn't quite fit in her lungs, and all her organs felt smooshed. And somewhere, despite the compression, the stupid bubbles found enough room to take another lap. It didn't even feel like gas, really. There wasn't any pain. It just felt... weird.
She let her eyelashes rest low over her eyes. The light of the overhead chandelier smeared into a white-gold blur. Derek was warm. And soft. She snuggled closer against his sweater as the other team chatter-boxed, trying to figure out who would be their next clue giver. TPP couldn't figure out which would hurt them more, having Mark guess, or Mark come up with clues. Which made her snort. Poor Mark.
Steve clapped, snapping time back into place at its regular pace. “Okay, guys, let's do this.”
The room jumbled as Derek flipped the timer for them, and her headrest moved as a result. Meredith wiped her eyes and sat up. Mark picked up the first card and stared at it impassively.
“Meredith is going to be one of these in less than five months,” Mark said.
“Mother,” Rachel said.
“Mom,” Steve said.
Mark shook his head. “Say it like a baby would.”
“Ma?” said John.
“Mommy?” Chloe said.
“Like John's but more syllables,” Mark said.
“Mama!” Rachel said, and then she grinned. “Meredith's going to be a mama!”
Mark nodded and tossed the card on the table. Meredith rubbed her belly and shifted in her chair.
Mark looked at the next card.
“Um...” he rumbled, considering, and then said, “pregnant women often compare themselves to this giant aquatic mammal.”
“Mark!” Rachel snapped.
“What?” he said.
“You can't say that when Meredith is pregnant!” she said.
“But--”
“Not cool,” Rachel said. “Massively not cool.”
Meredith froze, hand on her stomach, mid-rub. “Holy crap,” she said. The bubbles coiled in her lower body. This wasn't gas. There was no way this was gas. She was full, but she didn't hurt beyond the fact of having no room left inside. Eighteen weeks, a little voice said. You're eighteen weeks. It's the right time.
“What's the matter?” Derek said.
“See?” Rachel said. “You pissed her off.”
“Holy crap,” Meredith said. “Holy crap!” She slammed backward into her chair and stood up. Derek moved in unison with her, his eyes wide. He put his hands on her shoulders like he thought she needed steadying. Maybe, she did need it. Because... holy. Freaking. Crap.
Mark frowned. “That sounds more like an orgasm than pissy, to me.”
Meredith stood, gaping. Everybody in the room stared back at her, but they all fell away from her like white noise amidst a kaleidoscope of color. There was only her in the room. Her and Derek. And Baby. “Meredith,” Derek said, his voice creased with a hint of panic, “what's wrong?”
“Nothing's wrong,” she rushed to say. “She's moving. Baby is moving.”
“It's a girl? I knew it!” she thought she heard in the background somewhere, but her attention lay solely on Derek.
He blinked. Silence stretched. “Really?” he said.
“It's like a little butterfly or bubbles or...”
He pressed up close behind her. The scent of his cologne wafted against her nose. She leaned back against him. He pushed his arms underneath her shoulders, and she waited, pliant, as his palms came to rest high over her womb near her navel. The heat of his hands radiated through her blouse. She wrapped her hands around his wrists and moved his touch a few inches lower. How she could have mistaken this for gas was, in this moment, beyond her ability to comprehend.
“Can you feel it?” she said. The movement was so light. She could barely detect the flutters inside her body. He likely wasn't going to be able to feel them outside her body, yet. But that didn't stop her from hoping.
“Hmm,” he said, the syllable a rumble against her ear. His hands pressed against her firmly, and he waited for a stretch of moments. He shifted his hands and waited longer. “I don't think so.” His voice was thick and deep with emotion, but he didn't sound disappointed.
Meredith laughed. The bubbles moved in faint, popping line across her lower body. Like Baby had decided to turn over. Or was kicking just to say hello to Mom and Dad. “It kinda tickles. I thought it was indigestion or something. I was trying to figure out how to get out of eating the pie, but... I don't feel sick, and it doesn't hurt. It's...”
“Like a butterfly, you said,” he murmured.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“That's amazing,” he said. And then the rest of the room wasn't just white noise. It was gone, because he'd wrapped himself around her. “That's really amazing,” she heard in the crush of his body. His limbs were shaking and his words were low and torn, like he couldn't manage much else. A flash of tears in his eyes disappeared when he wiped his face.
“I think that's an automatic win for Team Neuro,” Rachel was saying as the world came back into focus.
“They win because the fetus moved?” Mark said.
Kathy snorted. “Yes. Shut up, Mark.”
“It's still kicking!” Meredith said to Derek's family. She felt freaking high.
In the moments when Meredith's head had been in the baby-is-kicking blur, his sisters had all gotten up. They hovered a few feet back from Meredith and Derek, like they wanted to collapse into a big family hug, but there was an invisible wall holding them back. Derek was a happy, glorious wreck in Meredith's arms. He'd been smashed up against his limits for the last hour, and he didn't seem to have any composure left whatsoever.
“I can't right now,” he said, and he took a few stumble-y steps back from the crowd to hover nearby. “I need a break.” But he didn't budge, yet. He hovered in the corner. Like he wasn't ready for this moment to end, even if he knew he was done with touching people right now.
His family didn't rib him. They let him get safely away. And then they collapsed around her. Congratulating. Hugging. Somebody ran to get Carolyn. Meredith's eyes watered as Sentimental Meredith took over. “I hate crying,” she snapped.
Kathy groaned. “I remember that. I do not miss it.”
“I don't usually cry!” Meredith said.
“It's pretty amazing, isn't it?” Rachel said. “I remember when Cody first gave me some kickboxing lessons.”
“I don't think I'll be able to focus on the game anymore,” Meredith said. She rubbed her eyes.
Kathy shook her head. “Oh, forget the game.”
The kids and Carolyn filled the room to bursting.
“I hear little Anne or Adam said hello?” Carolyn said.
“Yeah,” said Meredith. She blinked tears. “Still saying, actually. It's more like hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi.”
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Carolyn said, turning to Derek, who'd shrank into the corner with the arrival of the kids.
“Oh... it's...” He swallowed. “It's good crying. Honest. I just...”
“You can close the door and lie down in my room if you want,” Carolyn suggested without pause. “I put clean sheets on the bed this morning.”
“Okay. Okay. In a min... minute.” He wiped his face and grinned brilliantly. He still looked like a disaster. Hell, his teeth were almost chattering. “I want a pic... picture, first, though.” He took a deep breath. Attempted to compose himself.
Meredith wasn't sure he'd accomplished much in that attempt. “We both look like train wrecks,” she said.
“Happy train wrecks,” he said. “And I want to save this moment.”
“Somebody get the camera,” Carolyn said.
Meredith moved away from Derek's sisters, back into his orbit. She wrapped her arms around him. “This picture's going to look pretty silly,” she said with a wry, tearful grin.
“I don't care,” he said. He pressed his shaky hands over her belly. He was a trembling, tearful mess. In front of his family. And he didn't seem to care. “I want to save it. I love you.”
“I can't wait until you can feel it,” she said.
He grinned. “You're good with words. I think I have a mental picture.”
“You think I'm terrible with words,” she said.
He laughed. His eyes twinkled. She was glad that, if he was going to hit his limits, this was how he was going to do it. By being too happy. “You might not be the best at Scrabble,” he said, “but I think even your made up words are pretty functional.” He kissed her. The kids all made gross noises. One shrieked. Even in this state, Derek didn't flinch.
The camera flash snapped with white brilliance as she leaned to kiss him in return.
“I really need to lie down,” he said when he pulled away, and the stars of the flash faded.
She grinned at him. “Go,” she said. “I'll be fine.”
“You're sure?” he said.
She nodded. “Yes. It's not that scary anymore.”
He pulled his fingers through his hair. He swallowed. “Thank you,” he said in a soft voice.
For what? a normal woman in a normal couple might have asked, but she supposed she and Derek were weirdly psychic, because she knew what he meant without words.
For everything, his expression told her.
He left the room under his own steam, not fleeing, but walking with purpose. He didn't flinch, nor did he try to hide his need for respite. His family wished him well, but didn't linger on his departure. Only Meredith saw his toothy, dumbstruck grin as he began his ascent to the second floor
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Mer/Der
Rating: M
Summary: S6 continuation. Immediately post Sanctuary / Death and All His Friends.
All Along The Watchtower - Part 28.3B
She blinked. Well, that wasn't that hard. “General,” she replied.
He grinned and placed the card face up on the table. The word general was listed at the top, followed by army, rank, star, Tso, and hospital, the five words he wasn't allowed to say.
“See?” he said. “That wasn't so bad.”
“You started easy,” she said.
He shrugged. “This is the whole game. You saw me shuffle.”
Which, well, he had a point.
“Both a compression bandage and one of five items necessary for a royal flush in poker,” he said.
Compression... elastic... Ten, jack, queen, king, “Um... ace?” Meredith said.
Derek grinned, and he put the card down so she could see it. Ace was the top word, followed by the taboo words: highest, card, tennis, serve, flying. She stared at it. Another easy one. Maybe, Derek was right, and they were all easy.
Maybe.
The chair beside Meredith squawked as Rachel stood, beer bottle clasped in her hands. She clapped, and her sparkly diamond wedding ring hit the butterscotch-colored glass. “Go Meredith!” she shouted. “Woo, woo, woo!” Like she was at a Seahawks game or something. “See, you got this.”
Mark sighed. “You're cheering on the enemy!”
“We didn't decide Team Neuro for sure, yet!” Rachel said.
“We agreed on a handicap,” Steve said.
“Well, what would that make the leftovers, anyway?” Rachel said.
“A plastic surgeon, a forensic pathologist, a stockbroker, a high school student, and a painter,” John said with a wry grin. He took a swig of his beer. “Sounds like a punchline.”
“The Punchline Posse,” Steve suggested.
“Oh, that's good,” said John.
Derek grinned at them. “Congratulations,” he said.
“What?” Rachel said.
“You guys are now officially more cheesy than me.”
“I think we have a long way to go before that happens, Der,” Steve replied.
“That sounds like a bet,” Derek said, eyes gleaming.
Kathy pounded the table with her hand. “Less trash talk,” she said. “More Taboo.”
Derek laughed, rich and boisterous, and the sound of it made Meredith shiver. His sister had slammed the table so hard it shook, and Derek had laughed, not flinched. Meredith looked at him, amazed. This rivalry stuff seemed to have invigorated him, and he'd finally, truly relaxed. Or, well, maybe not relaxed, she decided, looking at the competitive gleam in his expression, his buzzing-with-excitement demeanor, but... he'd fixated on something that didn't involve being afraid. On purpose or accidental, he didn't even seem to realize what he'd just accomplished.
“Charlatan without a medical degree,” Derek said as he read from the next card.
Meredith frowned. “Fraud?”
He shook his head.
“Phony?” she said.
Derek shook his head again.
For a moment, her mind was blank. She couldn't get herself to think of anything except the fact that Derek had just laughed happily at a startling noise. She kind of wanted to hop out of her chair. Dance. Or hug him. Anything. Sentimental Meredith made her eyes water, but she wiped away the evidence.
“Also the noise made by a type of water fowl, such as a mallard,” Derek prodded, oblivious for once.
“Um.” She shook her head, getting herself back in gear. Later. Later, she could mention what he'd done. Mallard. Like a duck? Duck. Noise made by a duck. Charlatan... “Um, quack!”
With a sly grin, Derek placed the card on the table. The word was indeed quack. He picked up the next card.
“You drive a green one of these,” he said.
“Oh! Jeep!”
Another grin. Another card on the table.
“Meredith's last name,” Derek said as he read the next card in the thinning stack.
“Grey!” Meredith replied.
Derek put the card down on the table. Gray was the word at the top, and it was followed by white, black, area, matter, and old.
“My last name isn't spelled like that,” she said.
“Doesn't matter,” Derek said. “As long as you get the phonetic equivalent.”
“Huh, okay,” she said.
He flipped to the next card. “Meredith's favorite black shoes,” he said.
“Converse!”
“No--”
“Chucks!” she corrected herself before he could add another clue. “It's chucks!”
“Singular,” he prodded.
“Chuck!” Meredith said, and she bounced. In her seat. Bounced when he grinned. This was actually sort of fun. Derek was grinning at her infectiously. And she was bouncing, and there was shouting, and he didn't seem to mind a bit, and that was just...
“High as a--”
“Oh! Oh, kite!” she said.
The next card with the word kite, followed by fly, wind, string, tail, and Charlie Brown, fell to the table.
“Contrary to what Meredith said that night on the cliff, she's definitely not a stupid, lame ass--”
“Loser!” she exclaimed.
The next card fell to the table. Loser. Uncool, unpopular, unsuccessful, winner, two-time.
“Mmm,” Derek purred. “Smells like lavender.”
“Conditioner,” she said.
Derek shook his head. “You put it on before that.”
“Lotion. Soap. Shampoo!”
The card listed shampoo at the top, followed by wash, hair, suds, conditioner, and rinse.
“If, along with sharing the last piece of cheesecake, and pretending to like my taste in music, you were to actually hold a radio over your head outside my trailer, you'd be doing what?” Derek said.
“S... serenading.”
He nodded, but prodded her for a correction with, “Present simple tense.”
“Serenade,” she said.
The card fell to the table. Serenade was the word, followed by sing, outside, window, boom box, and Lloyd Dobler.
He read the next card. “I wrap my presents with paper and surgical--”
The entire table around her said in cheerful chorus, “Tape!”
Scotch, sticky, masking, duct, and red were the taboo words for that one.
Derek read the next card and grinned slyly. “Having sex with a virgin is called popping a blank.”
“Cherry!” Meredith said without hesitation to the relative silence of the table. “Wait. What? Seriously? Is that allowed in a family game?”
Everybody laughed as Derek threw the last card in the stack onto the table. Cherry was the word. The taboo clues were red, fruit, blossom, pie, and Washington. She supposed the game creators hadn't really thought anyone would go the virgin route as a clue.
“Told you Derek gets raunchy in these,” Kathy said.
Derek kissed Meredith. “You okay?” he said.
“Feeling less typhoid-y,” she replied. “That was sort of fun.”
His lips curled into a relaxed grin. “Good,” he said. “I knew you'd rock it.”
“This is how Team Neuro starts,” Mark said. “Then they start talking at each other with just their eyeballs, and it's even more disturbing.”
“Relax,” Rachel said. “This wasn't even timed.”
Mark threw up his hands in defeat. “Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you.”
Derek winked at Meredith. “So, Team Neuro versus?”
John nodded. “Team Neuro versus Punchline Posse. Let the games begin.”
Meredith watched, mystified, as everybody got up from the table and started trading seats like they were at a swap meet. John, Steve, Mark, Chloe, and Rachel sat together. Team Neuro, which apparently included Kathy in addition to Meredith, Abby, Amelia, and Derek, coalesced surrounding Meredith and Derek on either side. Beer bottles clinked and upholstery rustled as everybody re-settled.
Steve shuffled the card stacks still in the box, and John took out the sand timer and placed it mid-table.
Meredith stared, open-mouthed, as Derek stood, leaned forward, and met eyes with Steve. The two of them looked at each other, unblinking, grave, for a long march of seconds. Then, they whipped out their hands and snapped in unison, “Rock, paper, scissors, go!” while bobbing their fists with each syllable.
Derek held his palm flat on the downswing, signaling paper. Steve made what looked like a peace sign sideways, the symbol for scissors.
“Hmm, best two out of three?” Derek said.
Steve smirked. “You wish.”
Derek collapsed into his chair in a disappointed heap. He looked at Meredith. “They go first.”
“I... uh...” Meredith began, trying to hold her laughter at bay, not quite successfully, “So, I gathered.”
“What's so funny?” he said.
“You,” she said. “I had no idea you took your Taboo so seriously.”
“He takes anything that involves winning seriously,” Rachel chirped.
“You should see him when we play capture the flag,” Kathy added. “He's like a drill sergeant when it comes to jail raids.”
“Only because when I lose, I have to deal with you people talking it up for eternity,” Derek replied, smirking. His voice cracked and slipped to falsetto, “Remember the time we kicked Derek's ass at Pictionary? Remember Charades? How about the Scrabble tournament of '02?”
“Cute,” Kathy said.
Derek grinned in response, but didn't retort. In the quiet moments before the game where everybody settled in, he rubbed his nose with his thumb and index finger and sighed, deflating somewhat.
Meredith leaned close to him. “Are you sure you're okay?” she said.
“Really tired,” he whispered back at her. “I'll make it a few rounds.”
She brushed his forearm with her palm and squeezed it. “Okay,” she said.
“All right,” said Kathy as she shuffled the deck, dragging Meredith's attention back to the game at hand. “Here we go.” Kathy gave the card stack to John.
Derek pulled out a little notebook out of the box that, from the number of pages he flipped past, they'd been using for years. She recognized Derek's handwriting in quite a few of them. He seemed to have alternated with three or four other people with distinct styles of their own. When Derek found a new page in the book, about halfway through, he drew columns in it, and labeled them TN and TPP, and he put a three in the column for TPP.
“Ready?” Kathy said when Derek had finished, and John nodded. She reached for the sand timer and flipped it over. “Go!”
John scanned the first card wildly. “Phoenix rises from the?” he said.
“Grave,” Mark said.
“Death?” Rachel offered.
“Jean Gray?” Steve said.
John shook his head, visibly frustrated. “Cremation results in?” he said, offering another hint.
“Ashes,” Steve said.
John nodded and moved on to the next card. “Um... Two words,” he said. He clenched his teeth and made a face like he was struggling to come up with something. “My name. Um. Um. A note that ends-- shit.”
He dropped the card and sighed. The card, which had Dear John at the top, was followed by letter, break up, end, romance, and ditch. Team Punchline Posse groaned collectively.
“Wait, what happened?” Meredith said.
“He said ends, which is a taboo word,” Derek said. And then his expression turned gleeful. “Which makes it our turn. Who wants to go first?”
“How about Meredith?” Rachel said from across the table.
Meredith's jaw dropped. “I...”
Derek turned to her and gave her a huge smile. “Yes,” he said. “How about Meredith?”
Meredith blinked.
“Do it,” said Kathy with a grin. “It's good for the soul.”
“Taboo is chicken soup, now?” Meredith said.
“Yep,” John said, pushing the stack of cards back across the table. “Eat up.”
Meredith stared woefully at the deck. Derek had convinced her she was decent at coming up with the answers, particularly when he was the one formulating the clues for her, but coming up with clues on her own for the entire team was an entirely different matter. “I take no responsibility if Team Neuro goes down in flames,” Meredith said.
Derek kissed her. “If we go down in flames, I take full responsibility. Clearly, it will be my failure at freakish marital telepathy.”
“Wow,” Amelia said, a teasing gleam in her eyes. “He's offering to take blame.”
Kathy giggled. “Quick! Somebody get a calendar to mark the day!”
He made a disgruntled face. “Hah. Hah.”
Meredith shook her head. If only they knew how much blame he really did take for himself. He was a guilt monger in his own head. Still... She bit her lip, staring at him. He really did seem to be going out of his way to both drag her kicking and screaming into the familial fold and protect her at the same time Why now? she wanted to ask.
He met her eyes. Despite his outward demeanor of cheer, exhaustion gripped his expression.
He'd kept saying he needed a break soon. Now, she could almost correct him. He needed to take a break right now.
But he squeezed her shoulder. And he grinned at her. And he winked in that cocksure, classic, Derek way.
Maybe, he wanted to make sure she was comfortable doing more than hiding behind him or Mark before he slipped out, she thought. And then it all clicked. That was exactly what he was doing, that sneaky, sneaky man. He'd brought her to New York to be with his family on Thanksgiving. He didn't want to leave her to fend for herself in a situation he'd created unless she was okay with it.
She glanced at the table. Everybody was being nice. John had just flunked out in two cards, and nobody was ragging on him, other than good-natured teasing. She could do this.
“Just start the timer,” she said.
She grabbed the first card. Rachel let out a whoop and flipped the sand timer.
Meredith stared at the first set of words. Handcuffs was the word, and she couldn't say cop, lock, wrists, metal, or arrest. Amelia, Abby, Kathy, and Derek were all staring intently, waiting for her to say something. The problem with games like this, she realized immediately, was that they encouraged personal word associations, personal being the keyword, and today, her head was in a Porny Pregnant Place.
Handcuffs. Padded. In her sock drawer. In another life, before he'd been shot, he'd let her try them on him, except he hadn't been able to stop laughing. But she couldn't say any of that.
Pink? Really, Mere? So not you.
They were out of black!
Meredith coughed. “Um. A type of restraint.”
“Zip tie,” Amelia said.
“Rope!” Kathy said.
Oh, I guess I've been bad, he'd said, trying for a sexy purr, except he'd ended in hysterics, and the handcuffs had rattled as he'd suffered paroxysms.
Her tight leather bodice had squeaked as she'd looked down at him. This isn't quite how I imagined it.
I'm sorry, he'd gasped. I can't do this without laughing.
Honestly, I'd call it giggling, not laughing, she'd replied.
His eyebrows had shot up to his hairline I'm not giggling.
I'm sitting on you in tight leather, and you're giggling.
The handcuffs had rattled as he'd tried to shift underneath her I have no complaints about the tight leather.
Shut up, she'd replied.
He'd snorted with laughter again. Yes, Mistress Meredith.
“Could be...” Meredith said. “Porny.”
“Ropes and zip ties aren't porny?” Derek said.
“They're all pretty porny,” Mark agreed.
“No cross-table talk!” Kathy scolded.
“Duct tape,” Abby said.
“A leash!” Amelia said.
“What kind of porny is a leash?” Abby said.
“What kind of porny is duct tape?” Kathy demanded.
Abby rolled her eyes. “Mom...”
Pink, Meredith thought. Pink, not black. Wait, she couldn't say that.
“Used by law enforcement,” Meredith offered instead.
“Handcuffs,” Derek said.
She glanced at Derek briefly, wondering if he'd thought of their brief flirtation with bondage. His face remained passive. Except then he winked at her.
“I do like pink,” he murmured, too low for the rest of the table to hear.
She laughed. At least, she was tied with John, now, and her porny handcuff thoughts could be squashed. She tossed the handcuffs card on the table for all to see and read the next one to herself. Stiff was the word, followed by rigid, hard, dead, body, and drink.
She swallowed. Stiff. Rigid. Hard. Penis, a tiny voice interjected.
Of course, her mind would randomly wander to penis and refuse to leave, as if giggly handcuff sex wasn't enough. She glanced at Derek, unable to help herself. Her gaze wandered downward. Briefly. Damn it, damn it. She was thinking about Derek's penis. Worse, Derek and his stupid freakish psychicness followed her line of thought as well as her gaze, from the sudden leer on his face. He even shifted in his seat, giving her a nice view of the way his jeans cupped-- that rat bastard.
She was thinking about Derek's penis.
In the middle of a family game. At Thanksgiving. Except, Derek had talked about popping cherries, so maybe...
“Time,” Meredith said. “Timeout. Rule question.”
Rachel tipped the sand timer to the side. “What is it?”
“Before I completely stick my foot in my mouth, exactly how porny is this game allowed to get?” Meredith said.
“I think if it can go in an R-rated movie, it's okay,” Kathy said. She glanced at Chloe. “We're all mostly adults, here.”
“Yeah,” Steve said, “and we get pretty raunchy sometimes, anyway.”
“So, like, Terminator is okay, but Naughty Nurses IV isn't?” Meredith said.
Rachel laughed. “I guess that's a good description.”
“I'm dying to know what word that is,” Derek said.
“Well, we know if it was in your head, it'd be part of a porny thought,” Amelia offered.
Derek laughed. “Any word can be part of a porny thought in my head. The key here is that it's porny in Meredith's head.”
“Okay, I'm ready,” Meredith said, ignoring him. “Um.” She glanced at the card one last time. And then at Derek. Who peered back at her lecherously. Oh, whatever. “Slang for... an erection.”
“Rod,” Kathy said.
“Member,” Amelia said.
“Oh!” Abby said, bouncing in her seat. “Throbbing manhood!”
“If only they'd made a card for throbbing manhood in this family game,” Mark said, deadpan.
“It could also be a corpse,” Meredith offered weakly.
“A penis or a corpse?” Derek replied with a laugh.
Meredith scowled. “You're not helping, Mr. Porny Pants.”
Which only made him laugh harder.
“Bone?” Amelia said.
Derek leered. “Stiffy.”
“Shorten it,” Meredith said.
Derek snickered.
“Shorten the word, Derek,” Meredith said.
“Stiff,” he said.
Finally. She threw the card onto the table so everybody could see and picked up the next one, only to sigh. Maybe, she had a pregnant porny pornstar mind, but this was ridiculous. “Did one of you guys stack this deck to mess with me?”
“I shuffled it six times or so,” Kathy said.
“And I shuffled it before that,” Steve chimed in. “Why?"
Meredith glowered at the card. Sack it said, followed by bag, hold, potato, plunder, tackle, as words she couldn't say, but those restrictions didn't even begin to touch where her mind leaped to. Balls, her dirty hormonal mind said. Balls, balls, balls. Derek likes it when you pull them really gently. Having sex in the sack. So. Much. Dirty. Slang.
Worse, Derek caught her gaze drifting south again. He was hanging right today. Oh, god. Stop. Stop, she told herself. Thanksgiving. Why did there have to be porny taboo cards?
“Another word for scrotum,” she said.
“Balls,” Derek said, his tone in that lower register he often reserved for the bedroom, not that anybody at the table would have known that. He was definitely on the same wavelength as her. He shifted evilly in his chair.
“Gonads,” said Kathy.
Abby rolled her eyes. “This is so wrong that I'm playing this with my mother.”
Kathy laughed.
“Nuts!” Amelia said.
“Junk,” Derek said.
“Family Jewels?” Amelia said.
“How about sack?” Abby said.
“Got it,” Meredith said, and she put the card on the table.
“It's good you're learning important things in college,” Kathy replied, peering at Abby.
Meredith looked at the next card. Seriously? Lap was the word, followed by sit, top, computer, swim, and victory as words she couldn't say. At least with her brain doing dirty word associations, the taboo words didn't create a lot of obstacles.
Don'tcha take no chances, she remembered as she'd danced for him, and he'd stared back at her, smitten. Keep your eye on top.
“Umm...” she said. “Blank dance.”
“Break dance?” Kathy said.
“Flash dance?” Amelia said.
“Porny blank dance,” Meredith clarified.
“Lap,” Derek answered in a heartbeat, and Meredith moved on to the next card.
The universe was setting her up. She was convinced at this point. “Porny,” she said. “Bump and blank.”
“Grind,” Derek said before anybody had a chance to think about it, and Meredith put that card on the table.
Next up, Meredith laughed. Finally, something not porny. Though it was a bit more challenging, since she couldn't say two, male, friends, man, or crush.
“Mark and Derek have this,” she said.
“Are we still on balls?” Derek offered.
Meredith snorted. “It's a platonic relationship between guys. Combines a word for guy siblings and a love affair.”
“Oh, oh, bromance,” Amelia said.
Derek made a face. “Really, people call Mark and me a bromance?”
“Brothers and romance, smashed together,” Rachel said, grinning. “I like it.”
Mark frowned. “I don't.”
Meredith read the next card and smiled. She looked at Derek. “Batman lives there.”
“Gotham,” Derek said without pause.
By night, they call me The Batman, he'd told her with a throaty growl.
You are so freaking corny, she'd replied.
The next card made her jaw drop, and the moments ticked away. There was no way all the porny stuff and this could be a coincidence. Except the only person with enough knowledge to organize the cards like this would be Derek. Except his sister and brother-in-law had both shuffled. She tried to think of any other times he'd handled the cards and came up blank.
“Okay, seriously, Derek, did you stack this deck?” she said.
“Hey,” he replied. “You saw Kathy shuffle. Maybe, it's fate.”
“Then fate is a dirty, dirty whore,” she grumbled.
He grinned. “Oh, is it?”
Meredith sighed. “You promised to eat one if I got the conception date of the baby correct.”
“A fluffernutter,” Derek said.
“Wait,” Mark said. “How does a fluffernutter make fate a dirty, dirty whore?”
“No reason,” Meredith said.
Derek nodded. “None at all.”
“The fluffernutter was consumed at the table,” Meredith added.
“We even had a place mat,” Derek said.
Meredith nodded. “Totally couth.”
“I'm not sure I want to know about this,” Kathy said. “Mark, you'll have to live in wonder.”
“Good plan,” Meredith said. She reached for the next card.
“Wait,” Rachel said, and everybody looked at her. “I just realized. We never flipped the timer back after the time out.”
“But I was on a roll!” Meredith said. She put the card back in the unread pile since she hadn't had a chance to look at it.
“I think that whole round should still count,” Derek said. He glanced at Meredith winked. I told you you would be good at this, said his smirky smirk.
“I was the time keeper; it's my fault,” Rachel said. “I was too busy laughing at balls.”
“That's fine,” John said. “We'll give them the points.” Derek nodded and scribbled Team Neuro's score of eight into the appropriate column. “Team Punchline Posse has some ground to catch up.”
Meredith shifted in her chair. Derek wrapped his arm over her shoulder. She leaned against him and whuffed a heavy breath. Despite the invasion of Porny Meredith, she'd kind of kicked ass. And she was kind of having fun. A lot of fun, phantom Derek corrected. Okay, a lot of fun, she amended with a schmoopy sentimental smile that made her want to punch something. And she was kind of... full. The air didn't quite fit in her lungs, and all her organs felt smooshed. And somewhere, despite the compression, the stupid bubbles found enough room to take another lap. It didn't even feel like gas, really. There wasn't any pain. It just felt... weird.
She let her eyelashes rest low over her eyes. The light of the overhead chandelier smeared into a white-gold blur. Derek was warm. And soft. She snuggled closer against his sweater as the other team chatter-boxed, trying to figure out who would be their next clue giver. TPP couldn't figure out which would hurt them more, having Mark guess, or Mark come up with clues. Which made her snort. Poor Mark.
Steve clapped, snapping time back into place at its regular pace. “Okay, guys, let's do this.”
The room jumbled as Derek flipped the timer for them, and her headrest moved as a result. Meredith wiped her eyes and sat up. Mark picked up the first card and stared at it impassively.
“Meredith is going to be one of these in less than five months,” Mark said.
“Mother,” Rachel said.
“Mom,” Steve said.
Mark shook his head. “Say it like a baby would.”
“Ma?” said John.
“Mommy?” Chloe said.
“Like John's but more syllables,” Mark said.
“Mama!” Rachel said, and then she grinned. “Meredith's going to be a mama!”
Mark nodded and tossed the card on the table. Meredith rubbed her belly and shifted in her chair.
Mark looked at the next card.
“Um...” he rumbled, considering, and then said, “pregnant women often compare themselves to this giant aquatic mammal.”
“Mark!” Rachel snapped.
“What?” he said.
“You can't say that when Meredith is pregnant!” she said.
“But--”
“Not cool,” Rachel said. “Massively not cool.”
Meredith froze, hand on her stomach, mid-rub. “Holy crap,” she said. The bubbles coiled in her lower body. This wasn't gas. There was no way this was gas. She was full, but she didn't hurt beyond the fact of having no room left inside. Eighteen weeks, a little voice said. You're eighteen weeks. It's the right time.
“What's the matter?” Derek said.
“See?” Rachel said. “You pissed her off.”
“Holy crap,” Meredith said. “Holy crap!” She slammed backward into her chair and stood up. Derek moved in unison with her, his eyes wide. He put his hands on her shoulders like he thought she needed steadying. Maybe, she did need it. Because... holy. Freaking. Crap.
Mark frowned. “That sounds more like an orgasm than pissy, to me.”
Meredith stood, gaping. Everybody in the room stared back at her, but they all fell away from her like white noise amidst a kaleidoscope of color. There was only her in the room. Her and Derek. And Baby. “Meredith,” Derek said, his voice creased with a hint of panic, “what's wrong?”
“Nothing's wrong,” she rushed to say. “She's moving. Baby is moving.”
“It's a girl? I knew it!” she thought she heard in the background somewhere, but her attention lay solely on Derek.
He blinked. Silence stretched. “Really?” he said.
“It's like a little butterfly or bubbles or...”
He pressed up close behind her. The scent of his cologne wafted against her nose. She leaned back against him. He pushed his arms underneath her shoulders, and she waited, pliant, as his palms came to rest high over her womb near her navel. The heat of his hands radiated through her blouse. She wrapped her hands around his wrists and moved his touch a few inches lower. How she could have mistaken this for gas was, in this moment, beyond her ability to comprehend.
“Can you feel it?” she said. The movement was so light. She could barely detect the flutters inside her body. He likely wasn't going to be able to feel them outside her body, yet. But that didn't stop her from hoping.
“Hmm,” he said, the syllable a rumble against her ear. His hands pressed against her firmly, and he waited for a stretch of moments. He shifted his hands and waited longer. “I don't think so.” His voice was thick and deep with emotion, but he didn't sound disappointed.
Meredith laughed. The bubbles moved in faint, popping line across her lower body. Like Baby had decided to turn over. Or was kicking just to say hello to Mom and Dad. “It kinda tickles. I thought it was indigestion or something. I was trying to figure out how to get out of eating the pie, but... I don't feel sick, and it doesn't hurt. It's...”
“Like a butterfly, you said,” he murmured.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“That's amazing,” he said. And then the rest of the room wasn't just white noise. It was gone, because he'd wrapped himself around her. “That's really amazing,” she heard in the crush of his body. His limbs were shaking and his words were low and torn, like he couldn't manage much else. A flash of tears in his eyes disappeared when he wiped his face.
“I think that's an automatic win for Team Neuro,” Rachel was saying as the world came back into focus.
“They win because the fetus moved?” Mark said.
Kathy snorted. “Yes. Shut up, Mark.”
“It's still kicking!” Meredith said to Derek's family. She felt freaking high.
In the moments when Meredith's head had been in the baby-is-kicking blur, his sisters had all gotten up. They hovered a few feet back from Meredith and Derek, like they wanted to collapse into a big family hug, but there was an invisible wall holding them back. Derek was a happy, glorious wreck in Meredith's arms. He'd been smashed up against his limits for the last hour, and he didn't seem to have any composure left whatsoever.
“I can't right now,” he said, and he took a few stumble-y steps back from the crowd to hover nearby. “I need a break.” But he didn't budge, yet. He hovered in the corner. Like he wasn't ready for this moment to end, even if he knew he was done with touching people right now.
His family didn't rib him. They let him get safely away. And then they collapsed around her. Congratulating. Hugging. Somebody ran to get Carolyn. Meredith's eyes watered as Sentimental Meredith took over. “I hate crying,” she snapped.
Kathy groaned. “I remember that. I do not miss it.”
“I don't usually cry!” Meredith said.
“It's pretty amazing, isn't it?” Rachel said. “I remember when Cody first gave me some kickboxing lessons.”
“I don't think I'll be able to focus on the game anymore,” Meredith said. She rubbed her eyes.
Kathy shook her head. “Oh, forget the game.”
The kids and Carolyn filled the room to bursting.
“I hear little Anne or Adam said hello?” Carolyn said.
“Yeah,” said Meredith. She blinked tears. “Still saying, actually. It's more like hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi.”
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Carolyn said, turning to Derek, who'd shrank into the corner with the arrival of the kids.
“Oh... it's...” He swallowed. “It's good crying. Honest. I just...”
“You can close the door and lie down in my room if you want,” Carolyn suggested without pause. “I put clean sheets on the bed this morning.”
“Okay. Okay. In a min... minute.” He wiped his face and grinned brilliantly. He still looked like a disaster. Hell, his teeth were almost chattering. “I want a pic... picture, first, though.” He took a deep breath. Attempted to compose himself.
Meredith wasn't sure he'd accomplished much in that attempt. “We both look like train wrecks,” she said.
“Happy train wrecks,” he said. “And I want to save this moment.”
“Somebody get the camera,” Carolyn said.
Meredith moved away from Derek's sisters, back into his orbit. She wrapped her arms around him. “This picture's going to look pretty silly,” she said with a wry, tearful grin.
“I don't care,” he said. He pressed his shaky hands over her belly. He was a trembling, tearful mess. In front of his family. And he didn't seem to care. “I want to save it. I love you.”
“I can't wait until you can feel it,” she said.
He grinned. “You're good with words. I think I have a mental picture.”
“You think I'm terrible with words,” she said.
He laughed. His eyes twinkled. She was glad that, if he was going to hit his limits, this was how he was going to do it. By being too happy. “You might not be the best at Scrabble,” he said, “but I think even your made up words are pretty functional.” He kissed her. The kids all made gross noises. One shrieked. Even in this state, Derek didn't flinch.
The camera flash snapped with white brilliance as she leaned to kiss him in return.
“I really need to lie down,” he said when he pulled away, and the stars of the flash faded.
She grinned at him. “Go,” she said. “I'll be fine.”
“You're sure?” he said.
She nodded. “Yes. It's not that scary anymore.”
He pulled his fingers through his hair. He swallowed. “Thank you,” he said in a soft voice.
For what? a normal woman in a normal couple might have asked, but she supposed she and Derek were weirdly psychic, because she knew what he meant without words.
For everything, his expression told her.
He left the room under his own steam, not fleeing, but walking with purpose. He didn't flinch, nor did he try to hide his need for respite. His family wished him well, but didn't linger on his departure. Only Meredith saw his toothy, dumbstruck grin as he began his ascent to the second floor