Can't Help Falling in Love

87

"Do you see the babies in the mirror?" Derek laughed as he sat on his living room floor, his baby girls giggling in front of him as they stared at the plastic mirror in front of them. "Those are some pretty beautiful babies, aren't they?"

"Aba no," Melanie smiled as she pushed her upper body off of the blanket, stretching to swat at the mirror.

"There's no baby behind there," Derek laughed. "That's you."

"Me ahhh!" Becky squealed, rolling onto her back and kicking her legs in the air.

"You're very cute," Derek nodded. "But play time's almost over. Daddy promised Mommy he'd get some laundry done. So you can come sit in your play pen and talk to Daddy."

"So na," Melanie frowned as she rolled onto her back.

"I know," Derek sighed. "And you used to be able to lay on the kitchen table while we did laundry but now that you know how to roll over, you can't do that anymore."

"Ma sa ba," Becky frowned as he reached to pick her up, then scooped Melanie into his other arm.

"Mommy's out with Aunt Lexie," Derek nodded. "I know she's your favorite, but you're going to have to deal with me until se gets home."

"Fa sa bala," Melanie sighed.

"I know, I'm a horrible mean Daddy," Derek laughed. "It's pretty obvious that you're both mommy's girls."

As he moved to place them gently in the play pen, the door bell sounded through the house, and both girls looked up at the ceiling curiously.

"Ba no?" Becky frowned.

"I don't know," Derek sighed as he placed a teddy bear in the play pen. "Tell the teddy bear what's going on in your busy lives while Daddy answers the door."

He moved to the front hall, frowning as he opened the door and saw Andrew staring back at him. "What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I...is Meredith here?" Andrew asked.

"What do you want with her?" Derek asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I just want to talk to her," Andrew said, holding up his hands in mock defense. "I know she's in love with you."

"She's not here," Derek rolled his eyes. "And I don't think you should come back."

"Derek," Andrew sighed as he stepped into the house tentatively. "I know that you hate me, and honestly, I don't blame you. Meredith's amazing and I would be completely uncomfortable with anyone who threatened that."

"Are you done telling me how amazing my wife is?" Derek snapped. "Because I'm pretty sure I knew that when I married her."

"I didn't come here to talk to you about Meredith," Andrew argued.

Before Derek could respond, he heard Melanie yell loudly from the living room and he sighed. "Come in," he said, turning and walking towards the living room. "What's wrong sweetheart?" he asked, his voice softening as he looked into the play pen. "Did you lose your pacifier?" He reached into the playpen to hand her the pacifier back, running a hand over her head before he stood, turning to stare at Andrew as he looked at the pictures on the mantel.

"Is this when you and Mer went to Europe?" he asked, pointing to a picture of them in Paris.

"Don't call her Mer," Derek snapped, grabbing the picture out of his hands and placing it back on the mantel. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to tell you that you shouldn't take this out on Caitlin," Andrew said. "She's been really torn up these past couple weeks, and she thinks you hate her."