Doc's Note: Another day, another chapter. I'm getting a groove going again, people. Tell me what you think, especially predictions on whose baby it is (or who you want it to be). I already have everything planned out, but I like to see reader preferences as well.

DISCLAIMER: If you notice, I slipped something in here about what someone was doing nine p.m. on a Thursday. I myself am plopped in front of my TV watching Grey's Anatomy, not owning it.

She wasn't really sure why she was here. It was basic instinct. Whenever she had a bad day, hell, whenever anybody at the hospital had a bad day, you went to Joe's. It was just the way things were at Seattle Grace. But Meredith wasn't an idiot. She might have been pregnant and hormonal, but she was no idiot. She wasn't about to drink her problems away. She was, however, looking to get out of the rain, and she didn't really feel up to listening to George's baby voice whenever she walked into a room anymore today.

So she came to Joe's. And, as usual, Joe was waiting behind the bar with a shot glass and a bottle of tequila when she sat down. "The usual, Meredith?"

She inhaled deeply and shook her head. "I'll just have a water." Joe nearly did a double take. This was Meredith Grey. Tequila was her poison. And here she was, sitting in his bar, asking for water? Was there something wrong with his tequila? Or was it Meredith who was acting strangely? She did have a very glazed over look in her eyes, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

A glass of water slid down the bar and stopped in front of Meredith a moment later. She traced a circle around the top of the glass before taking a long sip, and sighing in relief. "You okay?" Joe was cleaning a glass and staring at her with his head tilted to one side. Meredith cast a glance about. The bar seemed oddly empty tonight, only a few interns in one corner of the bar and some nurses shooting pool.

"Let's just say today wasn't my best."

Joe offered a smile. "Least it wasn't your worst." Meredith found herself chuckling in spite of herself. Somehow, Joe always knew the right things to say. She supposed it came with the territory, with having his bar directly across from a hospital. His main customers were the doctors of Seattle Grace. "Uh-oh. Spoke too soon."

Meredith turned to glance over her shoulder at his words, trying to see just what -or who- had switched her day from bad to worse. As soon as she'd looked, she whipped around, staring hard at the bottle of tequila resting behind the bar. Maybe Derek would just go off and order his double scotch single malt and leave her alone. Who was she kidding? It was Derek. Besides, it wasn't as if she was totally against his being here. Oh, God. Not again.

Derek couldn't be here, not in Seattle, not in Joe's Bar, not within a ten foot radius of Meredith Grey. It screwed up her ability to think straight, and now that she was pregnant, she thought she might need all the brain power she could get thank you very much. Meredith took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. The last thing she needed was to faint again, and rouse Addison Montgomery from whatever activity she might be doing at nine p.m. on a Thursday, just for another false alarm. She was slightly surprised when she looked behind her again, this time on the prospect of checking the clock (even though she already had a wristwatch plainly in view) to see Derek sitting a few feet down the bar from her, alone, sipping his usual double scotch single malt.

Was it possibly that he had changed in their month apart? Meredith looked contemplatively into her half-empty glass of water. Or had she simply chosen to forget that, hey, that was the guy she'd been in love with? He was still Derek. Even if Derek was -and might have still been- an ass, he was Derek Shepherd. McDreamy. And she was still Meredith Grey.

"Are you just a guy in a bar?" She opened the conversation. Why did she open the conversation in the first place? Well, there was the small issue that this could potentially be her baby's father, but that was besides the point. Meredith was in a bar, and even if she hadn't consumed any alcohol herself, the environment had a small effect on her. Oh, wait. That might have just been hormones. It was getting hard to tell.

Derek looked up, arching an eyebrow in question. "Guess that depends on if you're just a girl in a bar." He tilted his head slightly to one side. "We're being civil."

"You said we should," she responded with a shrug. He nodded.

"Yeah, but I wasn't sure if that civilness was going to be extended outside of the workplace or not." Derek took a long drawl from his drink. "Apparently, you haven't changed all that much, Meredith." His voice was the same it had been a month ago, but there was something different about him. She just couldn't pinpoint exactly what yet.

Meredith chuckled slightly. "Are you implying something? I'm drinking water now." She held up her glass to prove it. "I've changed since you."

"And yet you went after my ex-best friend who happens to have learned everything from me. Go figure." Derek chuckled to himself, shaking his head slightly. He lifted his glass in her direction. "Maybe you are the same. Maybe he's changed. In the end, he got what we both wanted anyway." He paused, looking thoughtfully into his scotch glass. "But I guess you got what you wanted, too. You're happy...aren't you?"

Meredith could just tell by the somewhat reserved tone of his voice in the last statement that he was referring to the baby. She unconsciously had one hand resting on her stomach. He caught that, and couldn't help but smile that smile of his, the one that to this day sent a shiver down Meredith Grey's spine. "I thought I was," she muttered to the counter top. Derek sighed.

"What's wrong now? Please don't tell me your life got more dark and twisty since I've been away, because I seriously couldn't take that right now." He'd moved from his own seat to sit on a barstool next to hers. Meredith felt the smile pulling at her lips, though she bit the inside of her cheek to keep it from getting out. The last thing she needed was Derek to see her grinning, because then, well, something would happen. She wasn't quite sure what that something was yet.

Meredith shrugged. "My life's no more dark and twisty then usual. I just found out I'm pregnant today, which you already know, so I've resorted back to water. The entire hospital is talking about me behind my back in front of my face and," she paused, taking a large gulp of water before continuing her voice shaking slightly, "And I'm not sure who the father is."

Derek stared. She stared back. He kept staring, and Meredith looked away. She contented herself by saying that she did the right thing in her mind. She could've always just told Mark it was his baby, and everything would've worked out fine. But she was Meredith Grey. And this was Derek Shepherd.

He took a few moments to digest the information, finishing off his drink and pushing it away. Derek rubbed his temples as if in deep thought, debating the obvious question. "When...are you due?" Yeah, apparently she wasn't the only one who remembered the dates (times, place,) they had sex.

She winced. "I don't know," Meredith muttered quietly, checking the pocket of her jeans for the slip of paper. It was still there. "I mean, I could know if I wanted to, but I'm just...not ready, you know?" She didn't expect him to know. He was Derek. And more then that, he was a man. Addison was right. Men did like to know when they had a part in making something.

But he nodded. "Okay." Derek had his elbow propped on the bar, chin on his fist. He was staring at her, but she didn't seem to notice. Meredith was too preoccupied by the fact that he'd accepted it. When she did turn to stare at him, she realized something. Two things, actually. First of all, he was Derek Shepherd, and he would always be Derek Shepherd, even after everything he'd done to her. That was just the way he was.

Secondly, there was a strange sparkle in his eyes, one she hadn't seen in a very long time. Meredith was sure she had seen it at least once before, but she didn't remember what it had meant. "Okay?"

"Yes. Okay. I understand that you're not ready, and I respect that. Take all the time you need. As long as you only need tonight. I don't want to wait forever, and I doubt Mark will, either." Derek stood at this point, shrugging his jacket over his shoulders. He dropped a wad of cash on the bar counter, much more then was needed for his single drink. Meredith cast him a glance. He smirked. Joe swooped by to collect it, and went back probably to collect change.

"Don't worry about it, Joe. You've always been around when I need to talk." Derek shrugged when Joe separated the wad, showing him just how much he was giving away. "It's not all for you. Meredith can buy any non-alcoholic drink she wants. Splurge, go for the Shirley temple."

Meredith stared from her half of a water glass to Derek and back again. "I have my water."

"And we all know you want that tequila. But you'll have to settle for something sweet." Derek slipped out of the bar as quietly as he had entered, leaving Meredith staring at her water glass. She sighed slightly, pushing it aside.

"Could you bring a Shirley Temple, Joe? Could you maybe just put a shot of Tequila in it? Fine..."

A few hours later, Meredith returned home, feeling somewhat exasperated and more tired then usual. That was expected after pulling a nice, long, shift. All she really wanted to do was collapse on her bed. But when Meredith finally opened the door, flinging her jacket and car keys onto the ground, she found she wasn't the least bit tired. In fact, she was wide awake.

And, just as Alex had predicted, she was hungry. With a groan, Meredith wandered into the kitchen and began rummaging through the refrigerator. Nothing in there seemed to satisfy her. She turned around to snatch something from the cookie jar, but paused, seeing a covered plate with a note attached to it. Without reading it, Meredith snatched one of the wads and shoved it into her mouth, earning herself an explosion of flavor. "Izzie," she muttered between bites, "These are good."

According to the note, these 'wads' as George had dubbed them, were a mixture of peanut butter, chocolate chip, and brownie dough sprinkled with extra sugar. Meredith took another and turned to pour herself some milk when she heard someone else enter the room. Thinking it was Izzie, she hastily hid her wad by shoving it into her mouth. When she turned around, Meredith saw George hovering in the doorway, with an amused expression on his face.

"I take it you found the wads?"

She tried to answer, but found her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth. Quickly downing a glass of milk, Meredith nodded. "How did she know what to make? They seriously satisfy my cravings..." She grabbed another one and broke it in half, handing him the smaller one and beginning to pop bits of her own into her mouth.

George shrugged, stuffing the cookie-thing into his mouth and swallowing hard. "Maybe she made 'em for Cristina." They both exchanged glances. "Or maybe she just threw in random ingredients. It sure looked that way when we were making 'em."

Meredith arched a brow. "She let you help her bake something?"

"Well, no," George admitted with a sheepish smile. "I kind of licked the spoon afterwards." Meredith shook her head slowly. That was so George. "So, where were you tonight?"

Meredith bit her lip. "Joe's," she answered honestly, not bothering to add in the small factor that Derek had been there. He hadn't asked who she was with, had he? Catching his stare on her, Meredith held up a hand. "I only drank water and Shirley Temples. You can ask Joe himself. Derek could be a witness, too." Damn it, she'd slipped.

"Derek?" George nearly growled, taking a moment to calm himself down by shoving another wad into his mouth. "What was he doing there? More importantly, why were you talking to him?"

"Because he's Derek," she stated lamely, as if that was the answer to everything. Meredith sighed heavily, toying with the slip of paper in her pocket. She withdrew it, crumpled into a ball and set it on the table, underneath her hand. George was seated across from her, awaiting more of an explanation. "And I had to tell him sometime, right? Now they both know."

"They both know that they might be a father," George assumed, staring at her with that look on his face. You know the one, the George look, the sort of kicked puppy look he got whenever he was hurting -or whenever he supposed one of his friends was being hurt. "And you know they...might be the father, too?"

She lifted her hand, revealing her crumpled slip of paper. "It's on there. I haven't looked yet." Meredith pushed the paper in George's direction. "I don't want to know."

"You seriously don't want to know?" George responded, not touching the piece of paper. It sat dead center between them on the counter. His attention was on Meredith, not the slip of paper. "You want to end up a single mom? Not that you would be. I mean, you'd have all of us. But, you really don't wanna know? How can your relationship with Mark -hell, any guy- isn't gonna get better that way."

Meredith lay her arms on the counter top, chin resting atop them. "I guess I want to know. I'm just scared to know, because either way I'm afraid of what their reaction will be. What everyone's reactions will be."

George's expression softened. "It doesn't matter how everyone else reacts. You know no matter what, Izzie, Cristina, Alex and me? We'll stand behind you whatever happens. If those guys don't, screw them. They're missing out. Right?" Meredith stared at him through her hair. He sighed. "You want me to open it?"

"Only if you don't tell me what you think of the result afterward." Meredith watched as he extended his hand, fist clenching around the slip of paper. "And don't say it out loud, either! Just...you look first, then I'll look." George nodded, pulling the paper closer and slowly unfolding the due date from the crumpled ball it had become. He squinted at it for a moment, pushing the paper away from him, and toward Meredith.

George didn't look at her as she read the answer. Silence fell between them after that. He broke off a piece of wad and chewed it slowly. He pushed the plate at Meredith. "Want another wad?"

GA

The next day, Meredith was assigned post-ops. Apparently, Bailey didn't think she was in a sound enough state of mind to actually hold a scalpel. She was probably right. Meredith had been through the hallways of Seattle Grace all morning, checking up on patients and talking with families. She hadn't seen Mark once, or Derek for that matter. Not that she really minded. She wasn't exactly looking forward to that confrontation. At least she wasn't in surgery with the both of them today.

She was, however, checking up on Liz Lioness, the patient the three of them had operated on yesterday. Meredith slipped into the room quietly, as it was dark. She was under the impression that Liz was probably asleep, but a pair of bright blue eyes stared out at her from the darkness. Meredith blinked in confusion. "Liz? Why are the lights off?"

"Meredith! I wondered when you were gonna see me." Liz cooed in a high-pitched squeal. "The nurses were bothering me," she stated simply, giggling lightly. "When I pretended to be asleep, they left me alone." Meredith gave a dull chuckle.

"Would you mind if I turned on the lights? I need to check you out really quick." Liz nodded, though Meredith couldn't see it through the dark. Somehow, though, she knew Liz wouldn't mind it. She flicked on the light and was slightly surprised by the lack of hair and the scars, but Liz was still smiling brightly back at her. "So how are you feeling?"

"Better," she stated seriously. "You look just how I imagined you would." Liz smiled thoughtfully as Meredith bustled about, checking her vitals. She nodded a few times, and jotted things down on a clipboard. Liz tilted her head to one side. "Whatcha doin'?"

Meredith looked up, momentarily immersed in her medical duties to be amused by Liz's obliviousness. "Oh, just checking up on your vital signs. They look good."

The little girl laughed again. "Is my brain better now?"

"Yep." Liz's eyes were focused on the stethoscope hanging out of Meredith's lab coat pocket.

Her eyes darted from Meredith's face to the stethoscope and she offered an innocent sort of smile. "I think my heart might be hurt, too." Liz's gaze lingered on the stethoscope. "Maybe you should check, Meredith."

The intern couldn't help but smile at the young girl's curiosity. Meredith pulled the stethoscope out of her pocket and sat on the edge of the bed, listening to the steady heartbeat. She frowned back at Liz. "I'm not sure. Here, how about you listen." She handed the ear pieces over to the seven year old, and Liz squinted in concentration. Her eyes lit up when Meredith held the stethoscope to her chest, and she heard her own heartbeat.

"I hear it! It sounds good!"

"Yeah, your heart's in perfect working condition." Liz frowned. "Something wrong?"

"Do all hearts sound the same?"

Meredith shrugged. "Most of them, unless they're broken. Why?"

Liz pulled her covers up to her chin, as if she was embarrassed. "Can I hear your heart, Meredith?"

"Sure." She held the stethoscope up to her own chest and awaited Liz's answer. The little girl giggled again.

"They sound the same."

"Good. That means my heart's working, too." Meredith stood, casting a glance around the room. "Have your other doctors been in to see you, Liz?" The patient nodded, then shook her head. Meredith laughed lightly.

"Doctor Mark was in here earlier. He said I'm gonna have a cool scar." Meredith rolled her eyes. That was just like Mark. "I haven't seen Doctor Derek since yesterday."

"Here you are, Mr. and Mrs. Daniels." Mark was hovering in the doorway with two blonde people. Meredith could easily see those were Liz's parents. In an instant, the little girl's attention was drawn away from Meredith and to her parents.

"Mommy! Daddy! You're here!" Meredith smiled warmly as the family was reunited, but couldn't help feeling slightly put out. Apparently, little kids could only focus on a maximum of two people at once. Of course, parents made the top of that list. She had only been the doctor after all. Meredith edged backwards, nearly ramming into Mark on her way out. She gave a sheepish grin, which he returned, however reluctantly.

"You got an answer for me yet, Meredith?"