A/N: Thank you for all of your feedback! This one is a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it :D

Chapter Twenty Five

Alex walked into the locker room, pulling open his locker and tossing in his messenger bag and coat. Izzie, Cristina and Meredith were changing into their scrubs, and he asked, "Did you guys hear the news?"

"What news?" Meredith asked.

"Kepner got fired."

"What?" Meredith said, eyes wide.

"She didn't get fired," Cristina corrected, voice laced with irritation. "She was let go. It's completely different."

"Well, either way she's out of a job," Alex said. "Man, I would hate to be her right now."

"That's awful," Meredith said, shaking her head.

"Well, maybe she has other options," Izzie said hopefully. She liked to see the best in situations, unlike the rest of her Seattle Grace cohort.

"I doubt it," Alex said. "She didn't pass her boards. A bunch of people are interviewing for these fellowships, and what hospital in its right mind would take a surgeon who isn't board certified over one that is?

"Maybe she could go the research route?" Izzie suggested. "Get some articles written up."

"She'd be better off developing her skills," Cristina said. "The boards committee doesn't give a crap about articles. They want to know that you can do your job."

"Yeah. I don't know. It's a difficult spot to be in," Izzie said.

Just as a lull hit the conversation, April walked into the locker room. The silence stretched longer than usual and April glumly said, "You guys know, don't you?"

"Know what?" Meredith asked innocently.

April shook her head, stuffing her bag into her locker. "You guys don't have to tip toe around me. Yes, I have been let go of the Seattle Grace staff, but this isn't the end for me. There are many more opportunities for me out there."

"Like what?" Cristina muttered, sounding more snide than she intended.

"Cristina," Meredith chastised softly.

"No, I'm serious," Cristina said, glancing up at April. "What other opportunities are out there for you?"

"Well, there's research," she said, pulling her scrubs out of her bag. "I could interview at some other hospitals, too. I don't think I cast my net wide enough that first round. I could try some smaller hospitals. The VA too, maybe."

"You'll find something," Meredith said, taking a page out of the Izzie-Stevens-optimism-book.

April nodded, responding in the same vein as she said, "Yeah. Sure."

BBBBB

Miranda Bailey stood at the foot of the main Seattle Grace staircase, rocking back and forth on her heels as she glanced at her watch. It was 9:50, and according to the board, Meredith Grey was supposed to join her at 9:45. Punctuality was important to Bailey, and she felt her blood pressure raise with each passing minute. At a cool 9:51, she saw Meredith rushing toward her in the hallway, winding her hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. She began to launch into apologies, but Bailey silenced her quickly with a raise of her hand.

"I don't want to hear it, Grey. You're late."

"I thought I was with Dr. Weber today."

"And why would you be with Dr. Weber?" Bailey asked, planting her hands on her hips. After a second, she shook her head, raising her hand again, and said, "No. I don't' want to hear it. Let's go. It's not fair to make this patient wait any longer."

They walked into the room and Bailey handed Meredith the chart. Meredith flipped it open and read, "The patient is Mike Wallowitz, 37. He was admitted for…" she paused and then read aloud,"...swallowing paperclips."

"Do you have any pain in your stomach?" Bailey asked, stepping forward.

"No," Mike said. "I could use some water, though."

"Oh, you want some water," the woman beside his bed said. "You swallow an entire container of paperclips, and then want some water."

"Carol, please," Mike said, shaking his head.

"You are ridiculous!" she accused, throwing her hands up in the air. "Absolutely ridiculous!"

"No, ridiculous is being let go of a job you've been at for 10 years, and then watching one of the new guys who can barely use a fax machine get ready to move into your office. That is ridiculous!"

"So you swallow all of the paperclips?"

"Did you see the pension plan they gave me?" he threw back. "They deserved me eating all of those paperclips."

"We're going to want to take a scan of your abdomen to make sure they aren't perforating anything in there," Bailey said. She glanced at Meredith and said, "What would you recommend past that, Dr. Grey?"

"A round of laxatives," Meredith said. "The paperclips should pass through your bowel, and you'll be good as new, Mr. Wallowitz."

BBBBB

It was another morning and Lexie found herself in the bathroom again, bent over the toilet. This was the third morning in a row, and she was beginning to think that maybe she did need to be checked out. It could be an infection or some sort of virus. A round of antibiotics would be helpful and-

"Oh," Lexie breathed out, remembering something. She had a photographic memory, which meant that she never forgot what she saw. Plainly in her mind, she saw on the calendar the last time that she had-

But it couldn't be. It wasn't possible, because they always were careful. Every time her and Mark were together they were-

Birth control wasn't one hundred percent, and for a doctor she really was awful at taking her pill, and-

"Oh boy," she murmured.

BBBBB

Cristina stood in the cafeteria, fixing herself a salad for lunch. Burke stepped beside her, smiling amiably as he fixed himself a similar meal.

"No sandwich today," he noted, referring to her usual lunch. "That's quite different for you, Cristina."

"They only have tuna salad right now," she said. "Just the thought makes me want to gag."

He laughed. "Yeah, I was never much of a tuna salad fan myself."

He reached forward to pick up some tomatoes when she noticed the tremor. It was subtle, so much so that she wouldn't have noticed it had she not been looking directly at his hand. He dropped the tomatoes on top of his salad and then returned the tongs to the small container. He hadn't seen her notice, and when he looked down at her, he was confused by the troubled look on her face.

"Cristina?"

"I'm going to grab a coffee. I'll see you in our surgery this afternoon," she said hurriedly, turning away quickly and heading toward the coffee cart. She could feel his gaze on her back.

BBBBB

"So, I have a guy who swallowed an entire container of paper clips because he was angry about being laid off," Meredith said, taking a bite of her tuna salad sandwich. She was seated in the cafeteria with Alex and April. Jackson was still in line waiting to pay for his lunch.

"Paperclips? That's his revenge?" Alex said, snorting. "Seems sort of petty to me."

"I don't know," Meredith said. "I mean, I get wanting to have revenge and all. But there's got to be a better way than taking down paperclips."

"What are you going to do, Kepner?" Alex asked.

April looked up from her sandwich and asked, "What makes you think I'm going to do something?"

"Come on, you have to," Alex said. "It's practically a rite of passage. So, let us in on your plan."

"I'm not going to do anything," April said. "I'm going to be mature and handle it like an adult."

"Bol," Alex said, shaking his head. "You just haven't thought of something yet. Jackson sat down next to April and Alex said, "Hey Avery, if you were laid off, what would your payback be?"

Jackson glanced at April, wanting to make sure she wasn't upset, and said, "How did we get on this topic?"

Meredith piped in with, "My guy was laid off and swallowed a container of paperclips in retaliation."

"Ouch. Seems like that's more trouble for him than the company."

"Exactly," Alex said. "Total rookie move."

"I'd probably raid the supply closet," Jackson said. "Go in when most of the staff has cleared out and take whatever I wanted."

"Not bad," Meredith said appreciatively.

"I might do that without getting laid off," Alex said. "I'm out of bandaids."

"They wanted to know what I'm going to do," April told Jackson. "And I told them nothing. I don't need to retaliate or get payback. I'm alright with it."

"Sure you are," Alex said sarcastically. "I'll remember that the day after you leave and no one has staplers."

BBBBB

Meredith. Lexie needed Meredith. She was the only person she trusted to help her and not spill the beans, but she couldn't find her anywhere. She must have been in a surgery or somewhere off-campus, and the longer she waited the more paranoid she got. When she saw Izzie Stevens coming toward in the hallway, Lexie decided that Izzie would do just fine.

"Hi Izzie, how are you?" Lexie asked a bit too eagerly, intercepting Izzie on her way to a consult.

"I'm fine, Lexie. Um, how are you?"

"Great. Really great. Do you, uh, think you could do me a favor?"

Izzie glanced around them, wondering what was going on. "Um, sure? What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to take my blood for me."

"You need me to take your blood?"

"Yeah," Lexie said, her fingers nervously plucking at her scrubs. She saw Mark down the hallway and she grabbed onto Izzie's arm, pulling her into the closest room. It turned out to be a closet, and she realized how ridiculous she must look as she pleaded, "Please take my blood. I know this sounds weird and you're probably marginally freaked out because I just pulled you into a closet, but there's something that I need to know and-"

"I'll do it," Izzie interrupted, smiling encouragingly. "Come on, let's get you over to a bed."

"Okay. Good," Lexie stammered, following Izzie out of the supply closet and over to one of the beds. Izzie took a blood test kit from one of the nearby supply carts and then pulled the partition closed around the bed to give her and Lexie privacy.

"So, what is this for?" Izzie asked softly, tying the tourniquet on Lexie's arm. The veins pushed to the surface and Izzie gently felt for the most viable one for blood.

"I missed my period," Lexie admitted in a quiet voice.

Izzie looked at her with wide eyes. "Well, that doesn't automatically mean…"

"I've been getting sick every morning this week," Lexie said. "Nausea. Temperature fluctuations. I had my head in a freezer a couple days ago."

Izzie looked at her strangely. "You had your head in a freezer?"

"I'm a mess," Lexie said helplessly. Izzie grinned, directing her attention to Lexie's arm again as she slid the needle into the vein and drew blood out.

"You're not a mess," Izzie said. "So, I'm guessing it's with Mark? If there is an it, that is."

"Yes," Lexie said decisively. "It's with Mark."

"He'd be beside himself," Izzie said. She quickly added, "In a good way."

"I know," Lexie said, smiling slightly. "Have you seen him with Sophia?" Izzie shook her head and Lexie said, "He's a natural father. You'd never guess it after first meeting him, but he is one of the warmest and sweetest people I know."

Izzie smiled softly. "You really love him, don't you?"

Lexie blushed. "Yes. I do."

"That's nice," Izzie said, sliding out the needle and putting a cap on the blood sample. "I'm happy for both of you."

"Thanks."

Izzie put a cotton ball over the injection mark and then pressed a bandaid into the fold of the arm.

"There you go. All set."

"Thank you so much, Izzie," Lexie said, standing up. "This means a lot to me."

"I am more than happy to help," Izzie said. "But I have a consult to get to and-"

"Go!" Lexie said immediately. "I can take this to the lab."

"Great," Izzie said. "I'll see you later." She lowered her voice and added, "Good luck with that. Whichever way you want it to go."

Lexie nodded, her nerves building as she watched Izzie disapper down the hall. Lexie walked down to the lab and handed over the blood sample. In a few hours, she would know the truth.

BBBBB

Cristina watched Burke carefully during surgery. She was looking for anything. A tick. An unexpected movement. She felt herself doubly aware of what was going on as she poised herself to step in and repair damage if he needed assistance.

He didn't, though. Preston Burke was flawless as ever, executing a perfect graft and repairing the damage with a seamless stitch. As they scrubbed out, she told herself that she must have imagined the tremor. He had overcome it all those years ago, after all. It had been remedied, and there was no reason for it to suddenly reappear.

But then they were in the elevator and she saw him clenching and unclenching that fist. Just as he used to when he would feel a tremor begin. Setting her gaze on the elevator doors, Cristina tried to sort through what she had seen and just what exactly she would do about it.

BBBBB

Meredith remembered Cristina telling her how Bailey once made her go through all the feces of a young patient to fish out Monopoly pieces that he had eaten. A fourth year resident, Meredith was happy to skate past such remedial and plain nasty work. Instead, she was allowed to scrub into and take lead on the surgery when one of the paperclips shifted and perforated the bowel.

It was quick work, to ensure that the damage was repaired before the body became septic. Meredith went in elbow deep, trying to minimize bleeding as the tip of one of the paperclips tore through tissue.

"Clamp," Meredith said, guiding Bailey's clamp over to where the bleeder was. The cavity no longer filled with blood, and Meredith worked on repairing the perforation.

"Ridiculous," Bailey said, shaking her head. "He should have just stolen the damn coffee machine."

"The coffee machine?" Meredith asked, smiling a bit.

"That's what I did."

"That's what you did when?"

"I had an office job in the summer before medical school," Bailey said. "I wanted to make some money to put toward school so that I didn't completely bury myself in student loans. Well, I had a stupid woman as a supervisor, and one day I gave her a piece of my mind. She fired me on the spot. So, I took the coffee machine."

Meredith grinned, clipping the end of the suture. "How did you get it out of the office?"

"I had a big purse. I took a few coffee mugs, too. You know, I still have that in my basement. I should take it out. I bet you it still makes the world's worst coffee."

BBBBB

Lexie stood with the lab report in her hands, reading the results over and over again, although she only really needed to it once to remember. Her white blood cell count was a little high. She was borderline anemic. And she was pregnant.

At first she was shocked. It didn't seem possible, yet there it was in black and white. Her disbelief turned to acceptance, and that turned to anticipation. She couldn't wait to tell him – to see his face when he heard the news. She decided to page him, unable to wait until when he was finished or they ran into each other in the hallway.

She sent him the room number where they had slept together when both of them admitted that they loved each other. She sat on the bed, anxiously tapping her fingers on the mattress. What if he wasn't happy? What if Sophia was enough, and he thought that another baby would only complicate things?

Her mind whirred with these less than pleasant ideas, but they all drifted away when he stepped into the room. His eyes were worried as he said, "I got your page. Is everything alright?"

"Mark, sit down," she said softly, patting the seat beside her. His eyes tightened and he murmured, "Something really is wrong. Lex, what is it?"

"Just sit down," she repeated, smiling placidly. He sat beside her and she handed him the lab report, watching silently as he read. She noticed his hands began to tremble, and when he looked up at her, the obvious joy on his face made her eyes fill with tears.

"Lex?"

It was a question, and she nodded. Yes, this was really happening. Yes, it was real. Yes, it was what she wanted. What she never expected, but could never regret. He pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly.

"I can't believe it," he murmured.

"Me neither," she mumbled against his shoulder. "But it's there in black and white." She pulled away to see his eyes. "We're going to have a baby, Mark."

A/N: I ran out of room to squeeze in Crowen, but I'll do my best to do it next chapter! Let me know how you liked this one :D