Bright and Shiny

Chapter 179

"Well that wasn't that bad." Meredith said to Derek as the lights were back on looking at him while trying not to start laughing.

Nancy had just announced coffee on the patio and the room kind of cleared after the slide show. Mark instead made a beeline back towards the bar with Addison hot on his heals trying to get him the coffee.

He had laughed and done color commentary during most of the start of the slides until Addison kicked him with her Jimmy Choo heals which probably hurt Addison for having to do more than it hurt Mark with being jabbed with the three inch pencil heel.

After she kicked him and he yelped, she instantly took the shoe off her foot to make sure the heel was undamaged before sighing in relief and putting it back on.

Derek just glared at Meredith's comment and didn't say a word which caused Meredith to not be able to hold back anymore and start giggling.

The slide show had been exactly as Derek predicted, embarrassing pictures of him as a child and as a teen and as a college student. Tons of bad pictures of him until the point of him meeting Meredith. Meredith's early photos then followed, pretty pictures of her posed and proper taken by professional photographers every year from her private schools. Derek squeezed her hand in support seeing that all her pictures were basically of her alone, no family and not the love that she was surrounded with now.

Then the pictures changed into moments where they both couldn't help but love and beam at. A picture of them at Coney Island playing an amusement park game, her high school graduation, their engagement morning on Christmas, Derek's first day as an intern, a picture of them at the beach, pictures of them in the city at Central Park, restaurants, carriage ride, skating at Rockefeller center, shopping, family snow ball fights, family dinners and events, their wedding, honeymoon, vacations, a picture of them with Mickey Mouse at Disney World. Then finally towards the end a photo of them that Derek had the contractor take of them in front of their finished house in Seattle.

How far they both had come since being together and how happy the other made them, how both their lives changed for the better since meeting and falling in love was evident through the photo transition and caused both to tear up and soak it all in.

"A room full of people saw the worst childhood pictures ever." Derek mock glared before continuing. "BUT I could see the change in me when you came into my life." He told her sweetly rubbing his thumb across her cheek, "You made me a better person and a happy person."

"I don't need to even say what you brought into my life and how you changed it, I went from posed pictures of me at brunch with a bunch of debutants to family group shots eating cotton candy at Coney Island." She told him tearing up again, "I love you." She whispered before gently kissing his lips and resting her head against his.