Alive

Fifty One

|Meredith's POV|

"Hunt" Derek comes over beside me, placing his hand on my now showing baby bump "needs to know where we are on Boston and I gotta let Harvard know what I'm doing by the end of today"

"We're not going" handing the charts to a nurse "anything else you need to know?"

"You know" he looks at me amused, but I'm not amused "I may have told you I have family on the East Coast"

"A few times" Yeah, he's got family there but so do I here "and I may have replied that my sister lives here and if Cristina chooses Stanford it's a two hour plane ride and Demetri is here. Zola's father"

"I am Zola's father" Derek corrects me "and if we have more to offer Zola than he does, a two parent family household with another" placing his hand on my belly again "child on the way and if Cristina chooses Columbia it's only a two hour train ride"

"We're not going" firmly saying

"They want me to run the entire neurosurgery department" Derek shakes his head "at Harvard"

"Webber loves me" snapping at him "and Bailey loves me"

"I will be teaching the best fellows in the world" he calmly says

"We're staying" pulling away from him

"We're leaving" he orders

Shaking my head storming away from him, running into Demetri who catches me when I was about to fall "Meredith? Are you alright?"

"No" shaking my head no "Derek is ordering that we leave, he's already taken a position on the East Coast"

"Then have him go" Demetri says "you stay"

Looking around not seeing anyone, I kiss Demetri. He kisses me back after a moment then pulls us into a supply closet.

By the time we leave, Demetri and I part ways in opposite directions. When I find Cristina, she looks my way "Cristina, I've made a decision"

"Oh?" She asks "you have?" She stops us and looks at my scrubs "your scrub shirt is inside out" my eyes widen and I pull Cristina aside "where are we" I fix my scrub shirt "wait—were you and Night" she lets out a shocked laugh and I shush her.

"Derek cheated one me" her eyes widen in shock "a few weeks after the courts decided what they did and...you're going to Stanford"

"What?" Crossing her arms confused "wait, I thought you and Night was a one time thing?"

Shaking my head no "The worst thing, I don't regret it. Maybe at first but now? I don't regret it and you need to go to Stanford for the fellowship because there's no way you're going to Columbia and Mayo's in Minnesota" scoffing at that "please and since you're staying here, Stanford's only a couple of hours away. You'll come up and I'll bring Zola down, we can get drunk one weekends—wait, maybe I shouldn't bring Zola if we're getting drunk"

"I haven't decided where I'm going" she sighs "it's a big decision, but what about you? What happens when Derek finds out?"

"He's not going to find out" beginning to pace around "what do I do Cristina? Derek and I are on different pages. He has all but decided on going to Harvard without even discussing with me, he is completely dismissing the fact that Zola has two dads and she feels more comfortable with Demetri and his family when I'm not visiting"

❄️

Looking around the house that Derek built "The view is beautiful, amazing" Derek stares at me hopefully "but it doesn't mean I'm going to just go and move to the East Coast"

"I'll build you a dream house in Boston" Derek smiles

Giving him a look crossing my arms "What about this one?"

"Mark will buy it" shrugging his shoulders "his dreams have always been my dreams" going over to the kitchen and checking out the cupboards "Harvard is offering me a ten million dollar endowment, they're setting me up with an entire research team" looking at Derek who looks at me hopeful "that's my dream not this house, you're making this choice with Cristina"

"She's not the only factor" I say

"I'm your husband" he complains "this decision should be made with me" we look over seeing Demetri here "what are you doing here?"

"I invited him" Looking around the place "this is the house I was telling you about, do you think we could have Zola's on the weekends?"

Demetri is silent looking around the place, he goes to each of the empty rooms "Well" Demetri comes out of the house "if you guys do stay in Seattle...Zola can begin with staying here on the weekends"

"We've already decided" Derek wraps his arm around my shoulder "on living in Manhattan"

"No" giving him a look "we haven't but you're saying that Zola could live with us on the weekends?"

"Yes" he nods his head