Sorry about the delay. I would have updated earlier, but I was out of town until Tuesday and didn't have my computer with me. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 10: Father

"Izzie, what happened?" Meredith asked frantically.

"Meredith, I'm so sorry. I fell asleep on the couch and I didn't watch him..." Izzie started rambling.

"What happened?" Meredith asked again, sensing the fear in Izzie's voice. She was starting to become really scared.

"He... he fell on the stairs."

"He what?" Meredith was now properly scared.

"He fell on the stairs." Izzie said.

"Is he OK?" Meredith asked worriedly.

"He might have broken his hand. We're bringing him to the hospital."

"Oh, God!" Meredith said more to herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. "OK, um... get him to the ER. I'll meet you there."

"OK. We'll be there in about fifteen minutes." Izzie said and hung up.

Meredith leaned against the wall. She was trying to suppress the tears that were threatening to fall. She closed her eyes and pressed her palms to her face. The thought of her son being hurt was too much for her. And Derek didn't know anything about it. And she wanted him to know, now more than ever.

She began wandering where Derek was. He might be at the trailer by now or he might have been paged somewhere. No matter where he was, she wanted to find him and tell him that he has a son.

"Hey, are you OK?" she turned around startled and saw Derek coming from the gallery.

'Perfect timing.' she thought. "What are you still doing here?"

"I came to watch you. I was in the gallery."

"Oh." she looked up at him and took another deep breath in. "Can I talk to you... um... privately."

He looked confused, but didn't even had time to respond before she began pulling him towards the nearest on-call room.

They stood quietly, facing each other. Meredith was wrecking her brain trying to figure out a way of telling him about Michael without him getting angry, but that looked impossible. She turned around and sat on the bed.

Derek was beginning to get worried. He had already seen her cry that day and she looked as if she was close to doing it again. "Meredith..." he began but she interrupted him.

"I know you will yell and get angry for not telling you, but you have to at least listen to me."

"OK." he said rather unsure.

"Um... I have a three year old son. He fell on the stairs today and he's going to be here in about ten minutes." she said in one breath, because she thought that taking a breath would allow her tears to fall and she didn't want that, not now.

Derek was just staring at her, taken aback by her news. "Why didn't you tell me? I mean, ar... are you OK?" he asked slowly.

Meredith realized that he didn't fully understand what she just said. "What I'm really saying is... he's your son too."

Derek's eyes widened and his words got stuck in his throat. He was half expecting her to tell him this was a joke, but she didn't. Instead she looked at him with pleading eyes. "Is this some sort of bad joke?" he said almost in a whisper.

"No." she said shacking her head. "He is your son. I found out I was pregnant almost immediately after I left."

Derek felt his heart beating faster. He turned away from her and leaned against the door. He was angry with her for not telling him. He was anxious to see him and make sure she was really telling the truth. But he was nervous at the thought of meeting his son. "Why didn't you tell me?" he repeated his previous question, only a lot harsher and without looking her in the eyes. It was all he could manage to say.

"I called you hundreds of times, but you never answered. I called you when I found out I was pregnant. I called you while I was in labor. And I called you every day for at least three months after your son was born. You never bothered to answer any of my calls, so don't blame everything on me. You are just as guilty as I am. "

Derek remembered her calls which he turned down and knew she was right. But he was too angry to think straight and couldn't accept the fact that she was right - not in this situation anyway. "I was..."

"Angry?" she finished for him. "For what? For me leaving because I didn't want you to hurt me anymore?" She paused a little to look at her watch.

Derek was feeling more and more annoyed, without any particular reason. "Well you could have told me when you came back, or the day we kissed." he said bitterly.

"Well, I... I was nervous. You ignored my calls for so long..."

"So what? Didn't you think that maybe I wanted to know that I have a son? Or that I wanted to be part of his life? I missed three years of his life because you kept him away from me!" he was really angry now.

"I agree I should have tried harder..." Meredith started but was interrupted by Derek.

"And yet you didn't." Meredith didn't know what to tell him anymore, so Derek continued trying his best to seem calmer. "What's his name?" he needed all the calm he could muster to ask her this simple question without sounding even angrier. He still wasn't looking at her.

"Michael Christopher." she said, being thankful that he at least tried to look calm, although she could tell he was angry.

Derek's eyes flung wide open when she said his son's middle name - his middle name. Even though she didn't say he was sure his last name was Grey. He felt most of his anger returning. "I wanna see him." his voice was shaking slightly from trying to keep calm.

"You will, but not now. Not today."

He finally turned towards her. "So your keeping him away from me again?"

"No. You can come visit any time you want. Just not today. He had a long day already and he needs to rest."

"I'll come by tomorrow." he said after a time and stormed out of the room.

Meredith sighed deeply and put her head in her hands again. She felt tears forming in her eyes and closed her eyes shut to keep them from falling. Luckily, her pager went off at that very moment. She saw Izzie's name and figured they arrived in the ER.

She walked out of the room and ran into Dr. Bailey. "Why is Shepherd so angry?" Bailey asked her.

"I told him about my son." she paused a little. "Um... can you come with me to the ER? Izzie just brought him there and he might need a X-ray."

Bailey's small smirk was whipped off her face, as she looked into Meredith's pleading eyes. "Yeah, sure."

They made their way to the ER at a quick pace. Bailey was trying her best to keep up with Meredith, which was walking faster and faster. Meredith ended up running just before she burst into the ER.

Izzie and Alex were sitting on a bed with Michael between them. He started crying now that the effect of the adrenaline wore off and Izzie was doing everything she could to try and calm him down.

Meredith stopped in the doorway to take some deep breaths before she ran over to them and picked Michael up. She held him tight to her chest while he hid his face in the crook of her neck. She sat down on the bed, trying to calm him down.

Bailey came over to them and talked to Michael slowly. "Hi. I'm Dr. Bailey. What's your name?"

He slowly turned his face towards her. "M-Michael." he said.

"OK, Michael. Where hurts?"

He showed her his right hand on which he now had a big, dark purple spot. "It h-hults a lot." he managed to say.

Meredith couldn't even look at his hand, fearing she might cry too if she did that. She turned her head slightly, while Bailey was examining him.

After she finished, Bailey looked turned her attention towards Meredith. "His hand is definitely broken. We'll take him to X-ray."

Meredith nodded and got up to carry Michael to X-ray. She let him with Bailey and waited outside with Izzie and Alex.

"Meredith I am so sorry." Izzie kept telling her.

"I told you to watch him on the stairs." Meredith told her with a tone that sounded like a combination of anger and concern.

Alex, who was leaning against a wall looking at the ground, pushed Izzie away and approached Meredith. "Mer, it's my fault. I told him to hurry because I didn't want to go to the kitchen with him, I wanted to go to bed sooner. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me." he told her.

Meredith paused a little, being taken by surprise. She hasn't really noticed him because he sat aside everyone. Then again, she didn't pay too much attention.

Alex moved even closer to her. "I'm sorry. I really am."

"It was a mistake. We all make mistakes." Meredith told him. She didn't want to fight anyone anymore or be angry with someone.

Bailey came out with Michael and Meredith picked him up again. "You'll have to wait a couple of minutes." she told Meredith. She went back to wait for the scans to develop.

As soon as she got them, Bailey made her way to the nurses' station and asked them to page Callie. "She's probably in surgery." the nurse said.

"Page her anyway." Bailey said.

The nurse obliged and, sooner than Bailey had expected, Callie came. "Did you page?" she asked Bailey.

"I thought you were in surgery."

"The guy died." she said in a bored voice. "Why did you page?"

"I need you to look over these scans. I don't know if I should put a cast or... "

Callie looked over the scans. "How old is the patient?"

"Three." Bailey replied simply.

Callie took another look at the scans. "I think a cast would be enough. You need to adjust his bone slightly there, but given his age his bones should heal pretty fast." She handed Bailey the scans. "Tell his parents to bring him for another X-ray in two months. I've gotta go get some sleep now." she finished and walked away.

Bailey returned to Meredith, who was waiting anxiously. Michael was still crying on her shoulder, but his sobs were quieter now.

"Both of his bones are broken, but the good news is that we can just put his hand in a cast. I'll have to adjust his ulna a little just to be sure the bone is straight."

Meredith nodded and carried him to a room, where she sat on a bed and slowly pulled his hand towards Bailey. "It's gonna hurt a little, but it'll be over soon." Meredith was whispering in Michael's ear.

Bailey pushed slightly on his hand and he began sobbing again. Meredith held him closer to her chest and ran a hand through his hair. Bailey decided to put his cast on. She then put a bandage around his neck to support his hand. "That should do." she said more to herself. "You can go home now.

"Dr. Bailey, thank you so much." Meredith told her as tears began forming in her eyes. Seeing her son hurt was too much for her.

"You're welcome." Bailey said with a warm smile on her face. She felt bad for her former intern, even though she denied to have any more feelings for any of her interns.

Derek was standing outside the room, watching Bailey putting a cast on his son's hand. He couldn't see his face, because he was burying it in Meredith's neck. He wanted to be there, in that room and comfort his son. He wasn't even sure why he didn't enter the room already.

He saw Meredith getting up to leave and quickly walked away to avoid her.

Alex drove Meredith home as quickly as he could. Michael had fallen asleep in the car. Meredith carried his limp form upstairs to her bedroom where she put him on the bed and lied next to him.

She wanted to make sure he was OK. She held him tight to her chest and listened to his slow breath. She was comforted by feeling his breath against her skin, but couldn't fall asleep. She stood up all night to make sure he was fine. She whipped a few tears that fell from her eyes and ran her hand through his soft curls. She was a little nervous about Derek meeting him, but for now she was happy Michael was OK.

Well, took me a little longer than I expected, but here it is! Hopefully you liked it. Let me know what you think!