A/N: Okay here's Chapter 2. It's still supposed to be inside of the ep "Sympathy for the Parents". Just a little added conversation between Alex and Derek. Oh, and I kind of mention Alex's brother, Aaron, who randomly showed up in this ep needing surgery and ended up getting in a fight with Alex in the middle of the hospital.

Chapter 2

To say that Derek was surprised to see his wife watching Alex Karev in the shower would certainly be an accurate assessment. But really, he knew he should give Meredith more credit. He knew she wasn't watching Alex in the shower. She just had no regard for the idea that it might be considered inappropriate to have major life discussions with her naked male friends.

He was surprised to see it, but not confused because as soon as he saw her in there he could play the events out in his head. Obviously Cristina had been too wrapped up in her Owen drama to answer the phone, and Izzie was gone, and George was dead. That only left Alex for girl talk. He smiled to himself as he tried to decide whether the term "girl talk" seemed more out of place when applied to Alex or Meredith or Cristina.

Derek recognized that Meredith would, of course, need to work this through with someone and was actually glad that it was Alex and not Cristina. He knew that Alex had been ready to step up when he thought Rebecca was pregnant, and that he had fertilized eggs to be frozen for Izzie so at least Alex wasn't completely opposed to the idea of kids. Still, he decided he had better have a talk with Alex about it. If only to make sure that he wouldn't just end up freaking Meredith out even more. With that end in mind Derek had paged Alex to his office for a chat.

As he waited for the younger man Derek wondered when it was exactly, that they had become friends. He supposed that it had been inevitable after years of living in the same house, being married to women who were friends that they would be fairly comfortable around each other. But he had witnessed Alex's friendship with his wife and his loyalty to her and Derek knew that if he ever stepped out of line Alex wouldn't hesitate to kick his ass. And for some crazy reason, that really made him like Alex all the more. Derek liked that Meredith had Alex around to be a sort of brother type in her makeshift family, even if it did make him a bit jealous at times.

Alex walked into Derek's office without knocking and immediately started talking, "Look, I know what you're going to say, and I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have been fighting with my brother in the middle of the hospital and I swear it won't happen again." he threw himself down on one of Derek's visitor chairs.

"You got into a fight with your brother?" Derek asked with a blank look on his face.

"Crap," Alex paused, "No," he tried to backtrack, but after seeing the skeptical look on Derek's face he gave up, "Yeah, but I swear he started it. Or well, I started it but he really pissed me off."

Derek just laughed but decided to let him off the hook for now. "Actually I called you in here for a more personal reason," he found himself suddenly a little self-conscious.

"Oh," Alex sat up a little straighter a bit confused but then had a look of understanding. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened in the bathroom. I swear she just came in to talk. You know how Meredith is with other people's personal space…"

"Hey, Karev, don't worry about it. I know Meredith, and it's fine. I was just caught a little off guard this morning, that's all," Derek reassured him.

"Oh. Well good. Then what's up?" now Alex was just confused.

"It is about Meredith actually and kind of about the shower thing. But not what you think." Derek started. He wasn't really sure how to continue but decided that bluntness would be the easiest way to go "She came in to freak out about the baby thing right?"

"Uh yeah," Alex was getting a little uncomfortable, "Look man, if you want me to talk her into having a baby then you are totally on your own. I mean I know she'll be a great mom when the time comes but that is totally your guy's business. I mean, I'm a little skeeved out just thinking about…"

"She's pregnant already," Derek blurted it out just to get Alex to stop talking.

"What?" Alex was taken aback, "That's great. Congratulations. It's kind of weird that she didn't mention that when she was talking about it this morning."

"Well actually, she doesn't exactly know about it yet," Derek started. This was that part that he wasn't looking forward to. The whole thing was going to be a bit tough to explain.

"What do you mean she doesn't know? How do you know if she doesn't?" Alex looked at him dubiously.

"Well I've been around enough pregnant women in my life to know it when I see it. She's been exhibiting a lot of the symptoms and just, well, I don't know… She just is. I'm sure of it. I think part of the reason she hasn't noticed is because it is still early. But really I think it's mostly because…"

"Because if avoidance were a sport, Mere would be an Olympic athlete," Alex cut Derek off, a look of comprehension forming on his face. "But why are you telling me and not her then?"

"I haven't told her because I decided that it would be best if she came to the realization on her own. You know, in her own time." Derek paused, "And as for why I'm telling you, there are a couple of reasons; mostly to do with needing your help."

"Needing my help with what?" Alex asked with apprehension.

"Well first of all, she came to you for advice about idea of having a baby and I know you said you didn't want to get involved, but I think with Meredith a little bit of reassurance goes a long way, and I just thought maybe if you could point her in the right direction that would be enough. I know she wants this. She does; she's just afraid of it." Derek stopped and looked at Alex expectantly.

"I don't know. She's got a mind of her own. I don't see what I could do to help her." Alex looked hesitantly at Derek.

"Anything would help, even if you could just avoid being overtly negative about the issue." Derek tried to reassure him.

"What else is there? You said there were a couple things." Alex wasn't sure what he was going to do, but decided that getting more information was his best bet at that point.

"The other thing I need your help with might be a bit more complicated. I have been trying to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't do anything that might, you know, be bad for the baby. Thankfully she isn't as reckless as she used to be anyway, and she hasn't been drinking much lately. But still, I can only watch her so much and I was just sort of hoping that you could help me out a little on that front. Just you know, try and keep her from drinking or lifting heavy objects or other things she shouldn't be doing."

"Don't you think it would be easier to just tell her? I mean she's gonna get pretty pissed if you follow her around babysitting her all of the time" Alex said, and Derek knew he had a point.

"Well, I'm sure it will just be for couple weeks at most and I really think she'll take it much better if she has a chance to work it all out by herself." Derek was hoping that Alex wasn't just going to go tell her himself now.

"Well, okay. I'm gonna go along with this for now. But only because I don't really think it's my business to tell her and I'm not going to sit around and let her unknowingly do things that are bad for her baby."

Alex was annoyed but he was going to go along with it; at least for now. That was enough for Derek. The conversation was over for the moment, and not a second too soon either. Just as Derek was thanking Alex, his pager went off and he had to go.

TBC