"Absolutely not!"

"But why?" Bailey whined as his mother made her way around the kitchen island.

Meredith shook her head in frustration as she tossed the rememenants of their dinner in the trash and loaded the dishwasher.

"Because your dad and I are busy with work, you and your sisters are at school most of the day…"

Zola and Ellis trailed behind with plates and placemats in her hand ready to side with her brother, "But we're all home on the weekend!"

"Mom please, we promise we'll take care of him or her!"

"Pleaaasssseee," Ellis chimed in as she looked up at her mother. Sometimes she gave her the same look Derek did when he wanted something but Derek swore that her look was inherited from Meredith because it got him to submit to everything she wanted.

Bailey turned to Derek as he walked towards them with dirty wine glasses and cups in his hand.

"Dad, you said it was a good idea!"

There it was. Meredith should've known, he cooked dinner and poured wine as soon as she walked in through the door. He had her all warmed up and ready before the kids brought up the topic of getting a dog.

"So you had already told them yes?"

Derek shot a look at Bailey, "Uh no, I think I said you should bring it up to Mom first."

Meredith shot him a look, "Derek!"

"Don't blame me, I said we had to ask you."

Lies. The kids brought it up to him last week when he picked up the kids from school and Bailey shared that a friend at school had a new dog. He asked Derek if they could get one and the girls agreed they needed a dog. The whole ride home was pleading and reasoning why they deserved a dog and how they would take care of it. After enough begging, he was convinced. Since then, they'd been hatching up a plan to tell Meredith.

Derek smirked, "Remember when we had Doc? You can't tell me you didn't like having him around even if he wasn't house broken!"

Meredith scoffed, "Oh yes, when Doc lived with you in your trailer and I still called him our dog? Who could forget that!"

"Well he was 'our' dog-"

Zola's ears perked up at the mention of Doc, "Wait, you and mom had a dog?"

Bailey's jaw dropped, "That's not fair!"

"How come he's not here anymore? Did he run away?" Asked Ellie

Derek turned to the kids,"No, Ellie, he was very sick."

Bailey continued to stare at his parents and pleaded,"But you and dad had a dog, why can't we get one?"

The girls echoed, "Pleaaaaasssseeee?"

Meredith stared at her kids and lightly shook her head. She turned to her husband, "Derek..."

Derek turned to the kids from the fridge, "Okay, okay. You tried, let's give momma some space."

Meredith smiled at her kids. They were cute when they wanted something and they were usually pretty good at getting it.

"Showers, PJs, and bed. I'll be right in to say goodnight. I'm gonna take a shower," Meredith smiled as she made her way into the hallway.

Derek waited until she walked out of earshot before turning back to the kids and whispered, "I'll talk to her tonight"

At the sound of their father taking their side, they cheered.

"Shhhhh! She can't know I'm your wingman here. "

Zola rolled her eyes in a very Meredith-esque way, "She's going to say no Dad"

Derek looked at her incredulously, "Zo, you underestimate my powers."

"You don't have powers," Bailey retorted back.

"Yes I do! My superpower is convincing mom. I'm pretty good at it."

The kids giggled.

Meredith brushed her teeth furiously as she walked to the bathroom door, "You put them up to this."

"No, I simply told them to ask you," replied Derek as he continued getting ready for bed. He settled in bed and watched as Meredith approached him and sat across from his side.

"And they did, so now you're trying to convince me. And you know I'm going to say no. Now, I am going to be the bad guy here and you get to be the good guy. "

Meredith moved to lay on her side of the bed and adjusted herself under the covers.

"You're not going to be the bad guy," Derek chucked, "But you really should say yes. Having a dog is going to teach them about responsibility-"

Meredith turned to look at him as she rolled her eyes.

"Do you remember what it was like when we lost Doc?"

"We loved Doc but that was a totally different circum-"

Meredith let out a laugh as it suddenly hit her, "You're in cahoots with your kids! Admit it! They convinced you! They got to you! Now you're here trying to convince me! You're such a softee!"

Derek was a sucker for all three of his kids. The girls had some kind of power over him and Bailey was his buddy. They would say jump and he would jump-with caution. He was annoyingly a very doting father, the kind she always imagined he would be.

He laughed knowing he had been caught,"Zo is old enough that she can take on a few responsibilities and Bailey can help. Ellis - well she'll probably not be much help yet- but they'll get the hang of it. They're good kids."

They were. They were smart, kind, responsible, a little on the mischievous side, but not too much that their parents couldn't handle it.

"They are good kids but we are barely home as it is. My service is packed, your service is packed, I'm chief of general, and you just took on director of medical research or whatever. You're overseeing all our projects and we're on the board. Bailey is literally on our ass every day at the hospital. The kids have school-and soccer and science fairs and dance class! We are in over our heads if we get a dog! Any free time we-"

Derek rolled his eyes as he interrupted, "We always spend it together. At home. With our kids. Amy slashed my service in half since I took on the new job. You're thriving in your field. We take time off together. We work hard on our marriage and our family- it doesn't even seem like work because we're so good at it and we know what we need. And we make it a point not to work on the weekends unless it's an emergency-which thankfully is rare. We make it work, and it works!"

She paused and stared at the door. He had a point. Ever since Ellis had started school, things around the house started to ease up. Their routines were a little simpler, the kids were more independent, and he felt comfortable taking up more responsibilities at the hospital without overfilling his plate. Things were looking up for the Grey-Shepherds.

Derek gazed at his wife as she looked down at her hands, "Remember our walks up Tiger Mountain Trail? With Doc? You can't tell me you didn't like that."

She scoffed at the mention and turned to look at him,"When you'd flirt with me even when you weren't supposed to because we were just friends?"

"You flirted back," he replied as he kissed her lips, "and you liked it," he kissed her lips again and began to make his way down her jaw then to her neck.

"I did like it," she giggled. Meredith let him continue to make a trail down her neck to that spot that rendered her senseless, "You are very good at trying to convince me."

"Mmhmm," he hummed between kisses.

She placed a hand on his chest and pushed him away as she glared into his eyes,"But it's not gonna happen!"

Derek wasn't sure if he was frustrated and his failure to convince her or his failure to continue what he had just started. He growled as he prepared to defend his position, "C'mon! We have so much land-"

"He can fall off a cliff if no one's here to watch him."

"Doc never did!"

"A bear could eat him!"

"Meredith!"

"I'm just saying," Meredith replied as she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

Derek shook his head and let out a long winded sigh, "We can fence in an area. Big enough where he can roam but safe enough he won't run. We can go on hikes every Sunday with the kids, they can take on some responsibilities, and they'll love it- you'll love it!"

Meredith stared at Derek. She wasn't going to win this one and she knew it. Not when he was giving her that look. The look that he gave her when he wanted one of two things; sex or to win an argument.

Meredith let out a chuckle, "Fine."

"Fine?"

"But if we're going on hikes every Sunday, you have to make waffles every Sunday too."

Derek raised an eyebrow, "Waffles and hikes?"

"Waffles and hikes," she nodded.

"Done."

"And you have to clean up after him when the kids forget because they will forget."

At this request he groaned, "Fine."

"And you have to train him. Definitely trained so this house won't get destroyed."

"Agreed."

"And we get a rescue from the pound."

"Okay, you got a deal. Anything else?"

Meredith shook her head with a smile.

Derek smiled back as he quietly declared victory.

Suddenly, she raised her hands in desperation and exclaimed,"Tell your little Shepherds!"

Derek was confused, "Little Shepherds?"

"Mmhmm. They're outside the door. Listening to make sure dad convinces mom, right kids?"

Just then they heard giggles through the door as Bailey yelled, "NO!"

"Bailey, shhhhhhh," Zola insisted.

Derek looked from the door to Meredith as she let out a chuckle. It still surprised him that she knew every little thing their kids were up to.

When Derek was trying to convince her with his kisses, she could've sworn she heard an eight-year-old boy say "ew", an eleven-year-old shush him, and a six-year-old giggle at her siblings' antics. Her motherly instincts had been on high alert since then.

She gave him a knowing look. "Yes! Tell the little Shepherds so they can go to sleep. They have school tomorrow."

Derek laughed and yelled to the door, "Come in, she said YES!"

The kids bursted into the room filling it with laughs and giggles. They jumped on their parents bed as they embraced their parents and made themselves comfortable.

As the kids hugged and thanked their mother, she looked back at her family.

This was everything she did not know she wanted but everything she needed.


Author's Note: I have all these little head-canons with this family and I just have to write them up. Hope you enjoy! Please leave a comment/review especially if you have any other little ideas that may inspire! The titles of each one-shot are inspired from the titles of Private Practice and the title is inspired by a line Derek says in season 2. (Characters and show do not belong to me!)