Merder: Different Circumstances

Chapter Twenty Seven

"Mark!" Three different people shouted at once.

The room then dropped to silence, as Nancy stood there with a grin on her face and Meredith felt Derek's hand curl next to her. Ashley almost dropped her younger cousin as she realised who was stood in the door way and elected to wait for someone else to react before she did.

"Wow. Really Mark, you go from dating my ex-wife to my sister."

"I'm not dating Mark, I just didn't want to come without someone."

"You have four children Nancy, that's not quite 'on your own'." Derek retorted, knowing exactly why she invited him.

"We're going to go outside now." Carolyn addressed her grandchildren, walking them out of the room and helping them to put their shoes and coats on with the assistance of her son-in-laws. "Don't break anything kids." She shouted back to her children.

"No promises mom." Derek said.

Ashley was the last child to look back into the room and tried to hold back a laughter as Meredith mouthed 'help' to her, before her anger towards Mark, and her Aunt for that matter, returned. The room was filled with tension, no one quite knowing where to start and Derek knowing if he was to start, he would most likely regret his actions.

"Why don't we all sit down and say our emotions one at a time and then explain why we feel that way." Kathleen suggested.

"Kathleen!" Everyone but Meredith sighed.

"I think Nancy owes me an explanation as to why she brought him here."

"Well, you decided to bring her here." Nancy replied, nodding towards Meredith. "I just thought the two whores would be able to make conversation with each other."

Mark rolled his eyes at Nancy, but couldn't deny it being the truth. Whereas, Derek's jaw dropped at the comment she had made, unable to move when Meredith left his side and ran out of the room.

"I'll go." Amelia said, stopping him and following her.

"I cannot believe you Nancy." Derek said through gritted teeth. "Meredith is my fiancée and you have absolutely no right to talk about her like that. No right. You don't know her and you haven't even made the effort to, so until you know Meredith, don't you ever make such incorrect assumptions about her. I don't know what your problem is with her, besides the fact that she's not Addison, but I do know that she won't cheat on me with my so called best friend."

The end of Derek's rant was a dig at not only his sister, but also his ex-wife and ex-best friend. Nobody quite knew how to react, he was known to be the one who held the family and so his sisters had only just witnessed his loss of temper.

"Still, I think..." Nancy tried to justify.

"Nance, I think what Der is trying to say is that you bringing Mark makes him feel..." Kathleen begins in a calm tone.

"Kathleen, please just stop with the therapist approach. Derek you go and find Meredith and we have to just hope that Nancy hasn't scared her away. Nancy and Mark, for once just stop causing problems and at the least be civil." Liz said.

Meanwhile, Meredith was sat on the floor of the driveway, with her back against their hire car and tears streaming down her cheeks. It didn't take long for Amelia to find her, and once she did she silently sat down next to her. Upon receiving company, Meredith calmed her tears to the point where she just had stains left on her cheeks.

"Meredith, I am so so sorry. We all knew Nancy's a bitch but I would have never thought she would do something like that." Amelia apologised. "And I know this apology doesn't make up for what she said, but you make my brother happier than I've seen him in a long time. Don't let her scare you away."

"It's not your fault Amelia. Nancy has every right to act like that, if Derek hadn't started dating me then him and Ashley might have moved back to New York after a couple of months."

"I think what you just witnessed proves one of the reasons they aren't rushing back any time soon. Nancy's like that, Addison was the one person who had their life so put together and such high expectations for it, they were practically a clone of each other."

The two sat in silence for a little while longer, both wondering what was happening inside and listening to the faint sound of children playing in the yard behind the house. After some time, the door opened and although neither of them could see who it was, they knew it would be one of two people.

"Mer, god I am so sorry. Nancy has no right to say those things about you and you need to know they're not true and I would never ever look at you that way." Derek said as he came to sit on the other side of her, wrapping his arm around her waist.

A couple of months ago, Meredith probably would have got up and ran, not even taking into consideration that she was in New York, but instead she just nestled her body closer to his and letting her head fall onto his shoulder. In the moment of quietness, Amelia stood up and left them, going back into the house to assess exactly how the situation ended.

"Nancy said she will apologise, but I promise you that I will not leave your side for the rest of the night, or you know, you could take up my offer from earlier."

"Shut up, we're not bringing in the New Year alone in your room." Meredith said with a giggle. "Your sister doesn't have to apologise if she doesn't want to, I'd just rather she doesn't cause an argument with me."

"Well is 7pm now which means five more hours until the new year, how about a walk down the street and back?"

"Derek, we're trying to make sure I'm not accused of keeping you from your family again, lets go back inside and hope things are more civil." Meredith explained as she stood up off the ground and reached a hand out to him.

Although he was hesitant about going back inside so soon, Derek took her hand and got onto his feet, wrapping an arm tightly around her wasit as the two of them walked back inside in sync. As they walked inside, the sound of all the children being back in the house filled the room and Derek could only hope that Nancy wouldn't cause another argument.

"Meredith, I just want to say I'm sorry." Nancy said quickly, before receiving a glare from both her mother and her brother. "I'm sorry for saying those things about you without getting to know you first and making assumptions, I shouldn't have caused such a scene."

Meredith thanked Nancy and accepted her apology, before Derek moved them swiftly on and into the group of children, ignoring Mark on the way. The evening passed quickly, with music playing and games of all sorts amongst everyone.

When the time neared 11pm, the younger children who insisted on staying up suddenly began to become tired, dozing off in whosever arms they were being held in. Somehow, Meredith found herself holding Derek's three year old niece, Alison, who was sucking her thumb and nestling into her chest.

Derek's heart skipped a beat, or maybe a couple of beats, as he saw his fiancee holding the infant, and when their eyes met each other they shared a knowing look. Whilst they had never discussed having children, they both assumed it would happen after their wedding. Meredith continued to help Liz by taking Alison upstairs to one of the spare rooms and laying her down, before joining everyone downstairs for the ball drop.

Everyone's focus was on the T.V as the countdown began from 60. Once they got to the final ten seconds, the room was filled with people counting the final few seconds.

"Happy New Year!" Chorused through the year.

"Happy New Year Derek." Meredith said, catching his lips in hers and holding the passionate kiss, grateful that they were at the back of the group.

"Happy New Year Mer." Derek said once their kiss ended. "We're getting married this year."

"Yes we are." Meredith grinned.