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"I think it's done." Meredith muttered, admiring the table. Somehow, they had managed to cook a table-full of food for a buffet, without burning a single item. Although, to be fair, half of it they didn't actually cook.
"So do I." Derek agreed before snorting, just once. "Or at least I hope it is. Remind me never to offer to host ever again; this was the most chaotic day of my life."
"You know, you say that every single year but, by the time Christmas rolls around the next year, you've forgotten all about how hellish it was, and invite everyone again." Meredith pointed out. "You keep doing it to yourself.
"Should learn from my mistakes. Next time, really tell me off when I suggest it."
"I did this year. Did you listen? No. Did you tell me to stop worrying? Yes. Did you tell me everything would be okay this year and last year was just extra busy because of this that and the other? Yes. Did you-"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I'm an idiot." He agreed, interrupting her. He didn't need to hear any more of his failings. Although, he wasn't really mad; he was smiling the whole way through her list.
"But a very lovable idiot."
His slight smile grew to a grin. "Well I-" He paused as the doorbell rang.
She turned away from the table that the pair had been staring at, and looked to the door. "Bailey and Ben. Oh- and I think Arizona and Callie are there too, actually."
"Right...let the fun-"
"Chaos, you mean." Meredith corrected, cutting him off.
"Right, yeah. Let the chaos begin."
"So-" Meredith started as she placed a stack of 5 large boxes on the table. "For the sake of my marriage, we're doing this as couples."
"For the sake of your marriage?" Arizona couldn't help but repeat.
"I'd divorce Derek if he beat me, because I'm really competitive." Meredith clarified.
"But I'm too competitive not to win, no matter how much I love her-" Derek continued.
"So we'd have to divorce if we went against each other." Meredith finished. "Hence the pairs."
"Well, sounds good to me either way. But, yeah, maybe let's keep you two together."
"Sounds good to me too." Derek half-joked as Meredith sat beside him on the couch.
"So...Monopoly first?"
"It's 450 monopolies, Mer." He pointed out as he looked at the board. Although it was a good choice because of the rent, he knew that, statistically, it was better to have two cheaper lots because it was more likely others would land there. That was always what help him back in the game, as someone who (behind the hair products, style and smile) was quite the nerd.
"It's a good investment, I promise."
"Well, you're master of Monopoly so I'm trusting you here." He replied. They must have played at least 100 games of Monopoly when he was in the hospital and, although he had improved, she was still an unbeatable master of the game. He still didn't understand how that was possible, considering the fact that it was a half luck, half strategy game.
"Thank you."
"That thing about divorce-"
She looked to him instantly. "What?"
"If I make us lose, does that result in divorce too?" He asked. "Because I would have disappointed you, you know?"
"Depends on how badly we fail, and the reasoning." She offered.
His eyebrows creased. "The reasoning?"
"Well, if you have a heart attack or stroke or something, you can be excused.
"Oh." He breathed. "Right. So...no pressure then."
"Nope. No pressure whatsoever." She replied with a sarcastic smile.
"The word is...juice." Bailey read. "Something juice."
April and Jackson exchanged a look. So far, they were doing well at this game, but they knew they had different preferences. He didn't know whether to choose his favourite or hers, and she didn't know whether to choose her favourite or his. The pair wrote their answers, and turned their whiteboards in unison.
"Damn-" April sighed as she read the word on his board. "I went with your favourite."
"And I went with yours." Jackson replied with a frown.
"Mmm...5 out of 10. Tied with Arizona and Callie on this round, and 1 below me and Ben." Bailey said as she wrote down their score on a chart they had created. She turned to the pair beside her, "You two think you can beat it?"
"Well...we won Monopoly so I think maybe if we-"
"Definitely." Meredith confirmed confidently, cutting him off, as she took the whiteboards from April and Jackson. She handed one to Derek, and they exchanged a quick look. Somewhen, Meredith had become more competitive than Derek, apparently.
"Okay- well, your first word is good. Good, blank." Bailey read out. She waited for them to write their words, "Good-"
"Boy." Both boards read.
"We say it at least ten times a day with Ace." Meredith explained with a quick smile. Luckily, neither their dog and cat had disturbed their dinner and board games. Acetylcholine consuming a Monopoly hotel would be one perfect way to ruin Christmas with an expensive vet bill.
"Right one-for-one. Let's see if you guys can keep up your 100% record and your first place spot."
"This next word is time. Blank, time." Bailey announced to the last pair to complete their match: Meredith and Derek.
"Well, I wonder what we might put here." Meredith muttered.
Derek smiled, and revealed his whiteboard. "Bed."
Meredith snorted. "Of course. I swear I say 'bed time' at least 10 times a night and-" She paused. Speak of the- well, she didn't want to call her child a devil.
"Mommy- I need you." Zola requested. She was staying upstairs with Bailey and Sofia, which Meredith had felt a little bad about until she peaked in on them earlier and saw them having the time of their lives with their Christmas toys. After that, she decided the children could have an hour or two without constant adult attention (although she had walked past the room to check on them a multitude of times throughout).
Meredith smiled as she stood. "Well, duty calls. I'll be back as soon as possible."
This game was difficult. That's what everyone had decided. Guessing the same word as your partner with no more than a glance was practically impossible, seeing as everyone had got half marks or under. Except Derek and Meredith (after a long wine-filled wait as Meredith checked on Zola, who needed some assistance getting her new pens out of its very tough container).
"Lip, blank. What we going with for this one?" Bailey asked.
The pair exchanged a very quick look before writing their answers.
"Ready? Are we going ten-for-ten and breaking mind-reading records here today?"
"Lipstick-" Derek read as he turned his board.
Meredith breathed a sigh of relief as she turned hers. "Ten-for-ten. Still top of the leader board."
"Are you guys cheating or something?" April couldn't help but ask.
"Maybe they used their own board games on purpose." Jackson added, agreeing with his wife's suspicions.
"No. No cheating here. We're just amazing at board games."
"First you win Monopoly by three-hundred monopolies, then you win 'guess who' in all four rounds with less than four guesses, now you've won this. What's the secret?" Ben couldn't help but ask.
"Mmm...it wouldn't be a secret if I told you-" Derek winked. "Would it?"
Ben sighed. "No. Suppose not."
"Hues and cues." Meredith read out as she opened the next box. "Your partner describes the colour, called the clue, and you place a figure down on the hue. Pretty simple, I believe. It says we can set restrictions so...5 word clues I'd say."
"And let me guess, you're also masters of this game too, Derek and Meredith?" Callie asked.
"We've actually never played it." Derek replied truthfully.
"It came this morning in the post." Meredith continued. She was very thankful for that fact, because otherwise they'd only have 4 board games, and she decided that was more likely to cause problems with ties than a game with 5. "I just read the little paragraph thing online so I would know what we were doing."
"But the question is...do we believe them?" Bailey asked.
"We have three kids, a cat, a dog, and two big careers - plus this one's-" She poked Derek in the arm. "-complications with the chair and all - to deal with, and you think we've been practicing for the last three months just to beat you guys at a fun little gathering on Christmas?"
Bailey exchanged a quick look with the rest of the group and received a unanimous answer, "Yes, we do believe that. You two are alarmingly competitive."
"As someone who lived here for a little bit and observed them in their natural domestic environment as someone who works with them- " Callie started, reminiscing on the time she had spent in the Grey-Shepherd's dreamhouse. "I second that."
"Third that-" Arizona raised her hand.
Ben nodded in agreement. "Fourth-"
Jackson also raised his hand for a brief second before calling, "Fifth-"
"Sixth-" April confirmed.
Meredith sighed. Maybe she was getting just a tad too competitive about this.
"Right. I'm ready for this. So ready." Bailey sighed, rubbing her hands together as she stared at the pair.
"You gotta beat 8 out of 10 to win this round." Callie pointed out, proud of her score.
Derek sighed as he picked up the card. No pressure; their friends were judging, and Meredith had alluded to a divorce if they didn't win (providing that loss wasn't accompanied by a stroke or heart attack). "Right...Bailey's- um, son-Bailey's favourite football top."
"Hey, hey, hey- that was more than 5 words-" Ben pointed out.
"I was just clarifying which Bailey, that doesn't count."
"Mmm- Shepherd, I think that mightta lost you a point."
"What? C'mon! That's not fair. You're just mad because we're winning." Meredith sighed, only to pause as she found every pair of eyes on her. "Okay...fine, maybe I am getting just a little too competitive."
"I'm sorry, by the way-" Derek apologised quickly to his wife between the last guess of charades and April returning to her seat.
"For what?"
"The hue game. That first round didn't go well."
"Oh, no. It's fine, don't worry."
"Are you sure? Because I don't think I'm having a stroke."
"Well, one, that was for when we lost completely like- failed to attain first place and, secondly, you had a TBI and that's like a stroke so you can use that as your excuse anyway."
"So we're not getting divorced if we fail charades and lose the game? Because I really don't want to have to find a third wife."
"Oh, no. We'll still be getting divorced." She smiled. "You're up for charades next by the way, no pressure."
He sighed. "Great. Thanks for that."
"And in first place, believe it or not-" Bailey sighed. "It's-"
"No." Callie refused. "I don't believe it."
"Do you still think we cheated? Really?" Meredith pressed.
"I don't think anyone is that good at these games. You're both impossibly amazing at this. I call cheats."
"How would we have cheated?"
"Derek, you're a neurosurgeon. Maybe you made something weird with BCIs to read her mind and that's how you knew all the answers."
"If I had, don't you think I would have patented it and made myself a billionaire yet?"
"Mmm. Good point." Bailey sighed.
"You were the banker in Monopoly, Meredith-" Arizona pointed out. "You could have given yourself more money each time you passed the board for all we know."
"No. It wasn't that." Derek shook his head.
"But you did cheat?"
"No. We just...you know, used our secret method. A while ago, actually."
"Since the games are over, are you allowed to tell us now?" Arizona pondered.
"Maybe." Meredith said with a smile.
"Maybe?" Arizona repeated, unimpressed.
"I'm not sure it's that helpful though, really." Derek replied.
"You averaged...9.5 out of 10 on every game, and won Monopoly; I'd say it's pretty damn helpful."
"Well-" Derek smiled. "I wouldn't advice it."
"Wouldn't advice what?" Callie pondered.
"Are you confessing to cheating here? Is that why you wouldn't advise it- because it's too unethical?" April pressed.
"No, no. I promise we're not cheating."
"Then what are you doing?"
"The secret well- it's very easy. Very, very easy. In fact, the act itself takes less effort than you would normally put into a certain action-" He said. He was enjoying this suspense.
"So what is it?" Bailey pressed impatiently.
He glanced to his wife for a quick second. She was grinning; she knew exactly what 'secret' he was referring to. "So...what you do is you go out in your car for a nice little drive. Go on a fast road, or just speed if you want."
"This is how you win board games?" Ben asked, confused.
"Mmm mmm. Because then what you do, is you crash your car into a tree. And then you go to hospital. And then you spend three months playing board games because there's nothing else to do."
Meredith couldn't help her snort at that. Although, it was a tried-and-true method (except Derek didn't crash into a tree specifically and, of course, had no intention of getting into an accident at all when he left the house). Meredith spent so many weeks playing board games with him, because doing something with any more movement was completely out of the window, and even things like reading had to be avoided for the whole day thanks to his new predisposition for daily headaches and migraines.
"It's very simple. But- you know, preferably you decide on a speed between staying in a hospital for long enough to get good at board games, and serious injuries because- yeah, trust me, having dud legs can really suck sometimes."
"Trust me too- I know." Meredith confirmed, making the whole room smile.
"But that's seriously it? Just all that playing you did in hospital?"
"Told you I wouldn't advise it."
"But...cues and hues, and charades, and blank slate- those aren't strategy games. How did you do those?"
"I don't know, we kinda just-" Meredith squeezed his hand as he looked at her. "-we just kinda...do them. I just...know how she thinks- how her brain works and I just...kinda...know, you know?"
"I'm going to be honest...no. I don't know." Jackson confessed.
"You don't just...like feel that you're so in sync-" Derek started.
"-so on the same level-" Meredith continued. "-so just..."
"...there, in each other's minds?" He finished for her. "You just understand everything the other one feels and thinks, and you know...just-"
"It's the click, you know?" She finished for him this time. "Like...puzzle pieces-"
"-slotting together after ten hours of being lost and it all...it just all makes sense after all that time, you know?" He continued, going back to finishing her sentences again.
No one spoke for a very long moment.
"They're so cute I think I might be sick." Callie said after she finished admiring the pair.
"What?"
"Well, you know- hashtag couple goals."
"I um...I don't think I know what that means." Derek confessed sheepishly.
"You're just...the perfect couple. You turn each other's worlds, you comprehend each other on every level, you just...you're adorable, is what we're saying." Arizona summarised. "Twin Flames."
"Twin flames? I'm really out of the loop here." Derek muttered.
"It means you're like...one person in two bodies, destined to be together. Like the whole puzzle piece thing you were going on about." Callie explained. "I'd say we're all soulmates with our partners here but...twin flames are rare. Well, rare that you find them."
"Oh. Right." He agreed. While he believed that Meredith was the one he was supposed to marry and the one he was supposed to be with for life, he didn't believe in any of those concepts he could really see. Star signs, rocks that gave off auras, destiny, fate- they weren't things he particularly believed in a lot of the time.
Meredith nodded too, and it helped Derek to know that he wasn't the only one who didn't know what that was. She too only really believed in real connections, not spiritual ones. Although she was sure she knew more than Derek about those topics, even if she didn't really believe in them.
"So...twin flames, what do you want as your prize?"
"Honestly?" Meredith sighed. "Well, it's a peculiar ask but we're super tired after doing all that cooking so-"
"-anyone fancy doing the dishes for us?" Derek finished for her, exchanging a smirk with her when she confirmed that that was her exact desire too. Maybe this whole twin flames thing wasn't such an out-there concept afterall.