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"Oi!" A voice he was extremely thankful for shout-whispered through the door. Christmas Eve meant anyone could be knocking at the door. Although Bailey and Zola both knew what the number nine looked like and had digital clocks, they still tended to burst into their parent's bedroom at five in the morning. "I need Santa now."
"Good job Santa is here then." Derek whispered back, only to be met with his wife's open mouth as the, thankfully creakless, door opened wide enough for her to see him.
When she said she wanted Santa, she meant she wanted Derek to help her with setting out presents. But of course, because her husband was absolutely mad, she opened the door to Derek in a whole freaking Santa costume, fake beard and belly and all. "Seriously?"
"Good, isn't it? I bought it yesterday so it was half off." He replied as he followed her to the garage from their occasional bedroom. According to Meredith and Derek, their lift had 'broken', so their kids would be waking them up from the other bedroom instead. Really, they just knew that there was no way Derek would be able to sneak up and down the stairs without waking anyone. Probably from an ambulance, knowing how horrendous he was at stairs, even with help.
"Okay- you take these-" She muttered, gesturing to a pile of presents on the floor as she picked up a larger one, tucking two smaller ones in her dressing gown's pockets.
“Are you sure they’re all asleep?” Derek pondered as he grabbed the presents that she had gestured to and settled them on his lap. Unfortunately, his wonderful - it was definitely wonderful, despite Meredith's eye roll - Santa costume meant that he had less lap space than he would normally.
“No. Not really.” She shrugged.
“Helpful!” He replied sarcastically.
“Hey, hey, hey-“ She scolded him at a whisper. “That’s one way to wake them up!”
"Right- sorry." He muttered back, forgetting they were supposed to be akin to mice. "To the lounge?"
"Mmm mmm." She agreed.
They repeated the same cycle three times and, finally, the presents were all set out. There were a lot of them, even when they factored in the fact that they had three kids.
"Okay...now are you going to sleep like that or get changed into some pyjamas?" She asked, walking towards the downstairs bedroom.
"I see mistletoe." He stated out of the blue, ignoring her.
She looked up at the statement, and he was right. Mistletoe. The force-two-people-to-kiss plant. When her eyes returned to Derek, he was McDreamy smiling at her. She couldn't actually see it with the fake beard, but she had known, and loved, him long enough to recognise which smile was which through just the way his eyes creased.
"So, kiss?" He recommended.
She sighed as she pushed on the breaks for him before moving to sit on his lap. A face-to-face sit, because it was her favourite. "Jeez-" She placed a hand on the pillow that Derek had stuffed under the costume as she settled on him before patting his rotund false belly. "-Santa has eaten a lot of mince pies this year."
"I know right." He muttered. "Santa needs to work out a little."
"Well, Santa will get lots of...exercise. In bed. With me."
"Tomorrow night." Derek clarified.
"Why not tonight?" She asked with a pout, a little offended.
"Because the kids break into the bedroom at the weirdest times on Christmas, and I don't want to explain what sex is on Christmas day."
"Good point." She agreed. "Anyway, I believe we were supposed to be-"
His lips engulfed hers before she could even finish the suggestion. They kissed. Again. And again. And again. Now it was a snog. And again. And again. And again. Now they were an annoying face-eater couple. And again. And again. And-
"Pleh-" Meredith spat, pulling away from him.
"What?" He asked, concerned.
She stuck her tongue out a little, only to pull off a tuft of fake hair with her fingers. "Just ate a little bit of your beard..."
"Mmm. Nice." He muttered sarcastically.
"Yeah...but kissing is nicer." She replied before they returned to their previous mistletoe-induced task.
Zola and Bailey came running - or rather, sprinting and screaming - into their bedroom at seven o'clock. It was better than five but not as good as nine. They accepted that their kids would never go back to sleep, and submitted to their fate. Meredith collected Ellis, and the present-opening began. As always, it was over quickly, seeing as Zola and Bailey ripped through presents like wolves scavenging for food.
“Dad.” Bailey named as he walked up to his dad, his 'Spooderman' action figure in hand.
“Mmm mmm?" He answered a tad absentmindedly, seeing as he was pretty sure he knew what his son wanted.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Yeah, uh- of course.” He accepted, focusing on his son. He was expecting him to beg him to play with him so it took him by surprise.
“Somewhere else, not here.” He clarified awkwardly after a few seconds.
“Oh- right.” He agreed, his voice slowed with confusion. He wasn’t sure Bailey had ever requested a private conversation. This was...weird. Really weird. He followed the boy until he reached the downstairs bedroom and entered.
Bailey sat on the bed with a frown before letting out a serious sigh. “So...”
“So?” Derek pushed.
“Last night, I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” He blurted abruptly.
Crap.
There was two ways this could go: 'Sorry kiddo, Santa isn't real' ...or 'Oh my god, Mommy kissed another man!'. Neither of those options were particularly pleasant.
“Oh...uh-“ He stumbled, trying to say something, but failing miserably. Probably because he had no clue which option he wanted to go with.
“But he wasn’t Santa, was he?” He questioned. One thing, the fact that Santa could walk and his dad couldn't, gave it away instantly.
Derek swallowed. “Baby, I know last night I was-“
He shrugged. “It’s okay Dad. Just wanted to thank you for that football from ‘Santa’. Also, we need to be really careful because Elle doesn’t know yet. Zola does, because Zola knows everything but...Santa is still real to her, okay? Oh- and, by the way, you’re way cooler than Santa anyway. There's no way he'd know what I wanted...but you and Mom did. So, thanks. Love you."
Derek couldn’t reply to that and, by the time that he found the words, Bailey was gone, wandering back to the lounge to play with his presents.
Derek let himself breathe for a second before pushing himself out the room, down the hall and to the kitchen where his wife was attempting to make Christmas dinner. All she had done was put the turkey in the oven and cut up some vegetables (she'd leave the rest to the people who could actually cook when they turned up for lunch), but, with his wife's track-record, he was a little afraid she had messed the dinner up already. He wouldn't ever say it, but that's what his mind was thinking.
“Hey. What’s with the long face?” Meredith asked as she spotted his frown.
Derek swallowed. “We uh- we have a....problem. I uh- it's not really a problem but-"
“What is it?” Meredith asked, concerned. She hated it when her husband rambled.
He pushed himself right to her side before whispering, “Bailey saw Mommy kissing Santa last night. The charade is up for kid number two.”
She stared at him, open mouthed for a second. She had three kids - three - and only one of them still believed in Santa. One out of three. “Why in the world did you let him believe it was you? It could have been Santa!” She asked in an exclaimative, but very quiet, voice.
“Well, for starters, I don’t think Mommy cheating on Daddy would be a nice Christmas gift and uh-“ He trailed off as he looked at his legs.
“Oh- damn it. Forgot about that.” She replied as she was slapped in the face abruptly with her mind. As odd as it sounded, she forgot so often that anything had even happened to her husband because that was her normal. Derek did too. “So what do we need to do? Did he cry? Does he need a hug? Do we need to get some extra presents because I have some presents for people we don't see until the New Year's party so maybe-"
“No.” He denied as he shook his head. He had a slight smile too.
“No?” Meredith echoed.
“He...he was completely fine. Thanked me for his present and said I was cooler than Santa, in fact. And he...he’s a really good brother, isn’t he?”
She smiled. "Bailey...he's the sweet one. Well, Elle is too, but that's the you're-adorable-because-you're-a-baby thing."
"Mmm, I mean- he's a much better sibling than Kathleen. You know she’s the one who told me he wasn’t real, right? That’s the actual reason I-“
“No way!” Zola gasped from behind them before smirking as her parents looked at her. “Just kidding, I knew from like age- six, I just didn’t want to ruin it for Bailey.”
Derek smirked as he scooped up his daughter. She was far, far to big for upsies, but he didn’t care. “You know what? I’m not even surprised Zozo.”