Can't Help Falling in Love

44

"Where's Meredith?" Kathleen demanded as she walked through the door to her parents' kitchen, pushing Derek out of the way as she made her way towards Meredith. "Let me see the ring," she demanded as she collapsed onto a chair beside Meredith, a hand resting on her swollen belly.

Meredith giggled as she held her hand out to show her future sister in law. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Wow," Kathleen breathed. "It looks beautiful."

"Thanks," Meredith said, smiling softly at Derek from across the room as he poured two glasses of wine.

"Hi, Kath, nice to see you too," Derek rolled his eyes as he moved to sit down beside Meredith, placing a glass of wine in front of her.

"Don't be dramatic, Derbear," Kathleen rolled her eyes. "I'm the last one here because of my stupid morning sickness, and I wanted to see Moms's ring on Mer's finger. Which makes it Mer's ring now, I guess."

"It's six o'clock at night."

Kathleen raised her eyebrows as she looked closely at him. "Well, one thing you should definitely learn before you knock Meredith up is that morning sickness lasts all day and night."

Meredith frowned. "All day?" she asked.

"Yeah, and that's not the worst of it," Kathleen nodded. "Factor in the forgetting everything you hear and the waddling, morning sickness is hardly the worst part of pregnancy."

"Oh," Meredith frowned, looking down at her hands.

"Do not turn my fiancé against pregnancy," Derek said pointedly at his sister. "She's going to give me babies."

"I'm just telling her the facts," Kathleen shrugged. "It's not my fault that all you men are stupidly obsessed with babies. You don't care that it makes the women you claim to love have heartburn for nine months."

Meredith frowned as she turned to Derek, her eyes wide with fear. "Derek..." she started.

"You promised me babies," Derek said firmly.

"I didn't realize it would be this bad," Meredith replied, fear taking over her eyes. "I don't know..."

"It's not," Derek rolled his eyes. "Kathleen's a drama queen always had been. She's overreacting."

Kathleen laughed as she leaned forward to squeeze Meredith's hand. "It's not really that bad," she said. "Especially when you finally get the end result. You forget the awfulness."

As if on cue, Meg raced into the kitchen, Emma following closely behind her. "Aunt Meredith! Aunt Meredith!" she cried. "Grandma says Uncle Derek gave you her 'gagement ring!"

"He did," Meredith smiled, pulling Meg to sit on her lap and holding her left hand out for inspection.

"Wow," Meg breathed, reaching out to touch the diamond reverently. "It's really pretty, Aunt Meredith."

"It is," Meredith agreed. "And you know what me wearing this ring from Uncle Derek means?"

"That you and Uncle Derek are getting married," Meg exclaimed. "And you'll be my aunt forever!"

"We are," Meredith nodded. "And you know what? We're going to need you to do something for us."

"What?" Meg asked.

"We're going to need a flower girl," Meredith whispered. "And we want you to be our flower girl."

"Really?" Meg asked, her eyes wide with excitement. "A flower girl? With a pretty dress?"

"Really," Meredith nodded. "And if it wasn't for you, I never would have met Uncle Derek. So we thought that you should have a special role on our special day."