FIVE SILENT NIGHTS

Here it is ... the final Christmas where all the couples will be revealed. I really love how this story came out, and I didn't necessarily want everything to be tied up in a nice neat little bow, because all of the couples will have Christmases beyond this, I just won't be writing them. :(

5 (the last year)

She nuzzled her cheek against his chest, resting comfortably in his arms. She felt safe from, but not unaware of, the painful realities of life. She had almost let her inablilty to cope with tragedy ruin her life. She had wasted nearly two years. They both had.

They knew the time was gone and they couldn't get it back, they couldn't get the child they had lost back. But they realized that they could repair the shards of their broken hearts and they did.

She enjoyed the silence this year. No hiding at the hospital, no forcing herself to stay busy so she wouldn't feel lonely. They'd spent hours trimming the tree, drinking hot cocoa, listening to Bing Crosby. While sleep had come to him quickly, the thoughts of the past five years overcame her. But in the midst of her reflction on the past came a voice of the future.

The silence was broken by a small cry from a little girl only two days old. Alex and Izzie's little Christmas miracle.

She looked around at the dark office, wondering if coming here had been a mistake. One brought about by the thought of being alone on Christmas Eve due to his promotion to Chief. Her two children had long since fallen asleep on one end of the overstuffed sofa, while she sat there silently occupying the other end. She had intended this visit to be a surprise, but the emergency surgery he was in had taken much longer than anyone had thought.

The door finally creaked open, and she quickly held her finger up to her mouth to make sure that he didn't wake the sleeping boy and girl. The joy on his face that they were even there was apparent, but he kept quiet.

They were surgeons, and spending Christmas Eve in the hospital wasn't the worst thing that could ever happen to them. Derek sat down next to Meredith and wrapped her in his arms, counting their blessing in their minds.

There would be no trip to Seattle this year, she had known that for a while. They had visited for Thanksgiving and knew a second trip was out of the question. She had wanted to work, to get her hands dirty in the OR on Christmas Eve, but he had insisted that the day be about them. And she had agreed.

She wondered to herself as they lay in bed together if she had lost her edge, and if he had done that to her. No, it wasn't his fault. She knew he would never push her into something she wasn't ready for.

But was she really ready for this? And could she do it without her person there to help her through it. He seemed to be reading her mind even though she thought he was asleep. He leaned over, kissed her on the cheek, and placed his hand on her softly swollen belly, seeming to say with out words that she was Cristina and he was Owen and they could do this whole parenting thing. And they would kick ass at it, just like they did in every part of their lives.

Christmas Eve was different. Their usual anniversary celebration and Christmas party at her sister's house weren't in the cards. Instead, they had spent the day in a cold, snowy cemetery in New York. Holding an infant in her arms, she looked over at him as he held the hands of their two older children.

He wasn't sure why he was really here. He hadn't really been close to his father, but he it still broke his heart that the man was gone. Now that he was a father himself, he wished he had taken more time to learn from the man whose blood ran through his veins. He wished he could back track in time, but he knew that life didn't work that way.

He took one last look at the coffin and then turned back to her, tears falling from her face for a man she had never met. Her compassion was one of the things that had drawn them together so long ago, and he was grateful for it at that moment. Time stood still for a while, and they stared into each others eyes, and at that moment, Mark knew that he would survive this, and Lexie would make sure of it.