A/N: Okay here's the next chapter. It picks up basically where the last one left off.

Disclaimer: A friend of mine recently went to a conference on publishing and new media and there was a whole forum dedicated to fanfiction where they said these disclaimers had absolutely zero legal basis. But they're kind of fun anyway so... These characters aren't mine and I'm getting nothing but entertainment out of them so please don't sue me.

Baby Daddy- Chapter 4

Derek was pushing his empty shopping cart through the aisles of the grocery store with a specific goal in mind. Coffee. Or more specifically decaffeinated coffee. He didn't have everything a hundred percent worked out yet, but he did know that phase one of his plan would involve a ridiculously large amount of decaffeinated coffee. He smiled to himself as he walked. It might be crazy but he was completely in love the way his life was going. Well his personal life at least. He hadn't really let himself be excited before because he was worried about where Meredith stood with the whole kids issue but she seemed to be coming around very nicely and he was over the moon. Normally he would be a bit embarrassed to be so giddy (what with references to school girls and all) but how could he be embarrassed when his wife was going to have a baby? It was perfect. Beyond perfect. And happy. And every other word that could mean either of those two things. Perfectly happy. Okay, now he was starting to get embarrassed.

He saw the sign that said coffee and turned down that aisle. He was momentarily thrown by all of the different kinds of coffee available. What kind did they normally drink? He was just starting to get concerned when he saw it. Seattle's best. Perfect. It fit them exactly. He was Seattle's best neurosurgeon… She was Seattle's best wife… They were having Seattle's best baby… He actually laughed out loud at that. Not too loudly, but loud enough that the woman standing a few feet away from him gave him a strange look. It made him laugh a little more before he gave her a small wave and returned to his coffee.

He had pretty much put the stores entire supply of Seattle's best decaf into his cart before he decided he had enough. He was a bit embarrassed as he pushed the cart back to the front of the store and saw the quizzical looks on everyone's faces as they snooped through his cart with their eyes and saw nothing but coffee, coffee and more coffee. Then he decided to just forget about them. What did it matter what a bunch of strangers in the grocery store thought of his shopping choices. He was doing this for Meredith and their baby. Their baby! It sounded perfect even in his head.

"Dude, you are way too excited about that coffee." He heard Mark's voice before he realized that his best friend was standing right in front of him.

"What?" Derek asked. Really smooth.

"You're just standing there, grinning like an idiot, over a cart full of coffee. Seriously. What that hell man?" Mark was holding a basket full of groceries, wearing his very cool leather jacket and in general attracting the attention of every woman who walked by him.

"Oh I'm just thinking about something." Derek tried to act nonchalant as he blew off the question. "Actually, you know what? I could use your help. I need to do something at the house without anyone noticing and I know Alex and Mere won't be home but if you're with me I know Lexie won't come anywhere near us either." It was mean to say, he knew, but he just couldn't help picking on Mark sometimes.

"Oh, okay. What are we doing?" Derek could see that Mark was trying not to look too eager and he felt a twinge of guilt that his friend still felt like it was a special occasion when he was invited to do anything with Derek.

Derek glanced around the store quickly before deciding it was safe to say, "Meredith's Pregnant." He couldn't seem to help the proud look on his face as his chest puffed up a bit.

"What? Oh my god! Congratulations! When's she due?" This is why Derek liked Mark. Aside from the whole sleeping with Addison thing he had always been a good friend. Mark was a good guy to have in your corner. He was always quick with congratulations when things were going good in your life and he was ready to lend a hand in times of trouble. As Mark continued gushing he shook Derek's hand and reached over to slap him on the back turning it into more of a hug than a handshake. "You guys are gonna make great parents. I can't believe I haven't heard anything about this through the rumor mill. You guys must be doing a really good job of keeping this a secret."

"Oh, you have no idea," Derek looked around again to make sure the coast was still clear. "But seriously it is a secret so don't tell anyone." Derek gave his friend a stern look before adding, "So I need your help with this thing. Do you want to just ride to my house with me and I'll explain on the way?"

"Yeah, sounds great man. I don't really have any big plans tonight anyway." Mark said, ready to help.

The two men went through the checkout line and were pulling out onto the street before Mark finally asked, "Okay, so what's the big plan? Something nice for Meredith and the baby?"

"Well it is nice for them but to explain I'll have to start from the beginning." He paused; this was still kind of weird to say. "Meredith doesn't actually know she's pregnant yet. She is, I can tell, but I've been around a lot of pregnant women and could probably spot one from a mile off. Meredith on the other hand has only had experience with the ones she's seen at work and that's a pretty limited amount of access in our specialty. Plus, naturally being Meredith, there has to be a certain amount of denial working for her too."

Mark jumped in here, "Wait so you're telling me that you know she's pregnant but she doesn't?"

"Yes." Derek said with a smile.

"And you didn't just tell her?"

"No." Derek smiled again.

"Can I ask why the hell not?" Mark definitely thought he was crazy.

"You can." Derek couldn't help it. This was kind of fun.

"Dude," was Mark's only response.

Derek drew in a breath before deciding to take pity on his friend and just spit it out, "Fine. Okay, so she's Meredith right? And that means there is always going to be a certain level of emotional baggage and but I think that this time it's working for her. She hasn't noticed she's pregnant yet for a reason. Don't get me wrong it is still very pretty and a lot of women go longer than this without figuring it out. But Mere needs the time to process it herself. To come to terms with it on her own. I'm going to give it to her." Derek just looked at Mark to see what he thought.

"Okay. Fine. Whatever. It's totally your business and I'm not going to argue with you even if I understood your logic well enough to disagree." Mark shrugged it off. "But where do I come in? What is it we're doing tonight?"

Derek sighed, "Well just because I think she should figure it out herself doesn't mean I'm content to sit around until she does and just let her unwittingly do things that could be bad for the baby. Plus, she would probably kill me if she found out that I had."

"So we're baby proofing Meredith?" Mark asked incredulously.

"Hmm, I guess so." Derek paused to contemplate that for a moment before continuing with his explanation, "So tonight the goal is coffee. I just need to switch all of the caffeinated coffee to decaf anywhere that Meredith might drink the coffee. I'm going to start at the house and then next will be the nurse's stations and the lounges at the hospital." This wouldn't really be that hard, it was just a matter of staying ahead of the game.

Mark laughed, "So you are going to inflict decaffeinated coffee on the whole hospital just to satisfy your own troubled mind? Man, it's true what they say about your ego."

"Whatever. Do you want to help or not?" Derek was a bit offended that Mark Sloan, of all people, was calling him arrogant.

"Sure. Why not?" was Mark's response as they pulled into the driveway at Meredith and Derek's house.

It was after they were in the house and they were done dumping out all of the old coffee and switching it for the new stuff when Mark asked, "So you're gonna be a dad huh? That's got to feel pretty good."

The two men were just sitting on the counter drinking a couple of beers trying to gear themselves up to go to the hospital and finish what they'd started. Derek couldn't help but smile as he thought about Mark's comment, "It really does. It's just so amazing. I'm going to be a dad. With Meredith. I'm so in love with the whole idea already and it's still so new. But you have to have some idea, right? With Little Sloan and all."

Mark sighed, "Well yes and no. I mean she's amazing and I can't even believe how much I love her but in a lot of ways it sometimes feels like it might be too late for us, you know? Like I missed my chance to really be her dad. It's great and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world but, I don't know, it'll never be perfect like it is with you and Grey."

Derek scoffed, "You think Meredith and I are perfect?"

"Well yeah. I mean you guys have your problems but you're like soulmates or whatever. Don't you? Think it's pretty perfect?" Mark seemed a bit less sure.

Derek smiled for a second before responding, "Yeah, I guess we kind of are." He paused, "Hmm, we didn't start out that way, but I guess we've gotten there somehow. A lot of the time anyway."

Before either of them could say more they heard the front door open and Meredith and Alex come in talking. "I still can't believe you did that. I mean seriously, what the hell Alex," Meredith's voice trailed into Derek in the kitchen as he and Mark froze.

"Oops," Said Derek, "I guess we sat here too long." As he said it Meredith came into the kitchen with Alex trailing behind her sporting a very black eye. Derek's eyes got wide before he asked, "Karev, what the hell happened to you?"

"Oh, Mr. suddenly gallant over here thought the ball was going to hit me and so decided to jump in front of it," Meredith answered for Alex as she pushed him down in the chair and walked over to the freezer. "I mean really Alex, not only was that ball like nowhere near me, but who the hell asked you to jump in front of it even if it was?" Alex gave Derek a pointed look behind Meredith's back as she rummaged through the freezer. "And why the hell do we not own an ice pack? Like 20 doctors have lived here over the years!" She pulled out a bag of frozen peas and walked back over to Alex.

"Karev got hit in the face with a baseball?" Mark just laughed as Meredith put the peas on Alex's face and then felt around for fractures.

"Dude shut up. Mere I'm fine. Really, sorry I tried to keep you from getting hit really hard with a baseball. Next time I'll know better." While he was talking he stood up then walked over to the fridge and got a beer before heading to the kitchen door. "I'm going to bed," and then he was gone.

"Hey," Meredith smiled at Derek as if she only at that moment fully comprehended that he was in the room, "I thought you had to work?"

"Oh um yeah, Mark and I were working on it but we had to come get some files out of my office here." Derek covered. He was rather pleased with himself. That was about as smoothly as he'd managed to lie to her all day.

"Oh. So you're leaving again?" Meredith almost pouted.

"Oh, well actually Big Grey, I can finish it up on my own. Now that I've had Derek's help on the chiefly stuff." Then he paused and looked at Derek as he said, "I can go back to the hospital and finish up on my own but I'll need to take your car, since you were my ride."

"Oh, really? I mean, I can come. It'd be fine. You shouldn't have to do all that work by yourself." Derek was a bit taken aback. Mark was willing to go do the crazy coffee thing by himself. He really didn't give his best friend enough credit sometimes.

"No, don't be silly. Stay here with your wife. I mean what do I have going on anyway?" Mark seemed a little wistful when he finished up but Derek was really happy to get to stay home with Meredith. With their warring schedules sometimes if felt like he only get to see her at work.

With everything settled, Mark left pretty quickly, leaving Derek and Meredith alone together for the first time in what seemed like ages. Meredith looked at him with a smile and said, "Alone at last Dr. Shepherd. Whatever shall we do?" She walked over and kissed him hard.

"Oh I don't know. Wanna watch some TV? They're probably replaying the game somewhere." He teased her.

She slapped him lightly on the arm, "Really Derek, you don't get to kiss me like you did earlier and then make me go play baseball with my friends." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again, more slowly this time. Then with a low voice she added, "I couldn't get you out of my head the whole time. Alex really did have to save me from getting hit by the ball, because all I could think about was you." And with her mouth right next to his ear she whispered, "With your tongue in my mouth." Derek growled before pushing her up against the counter and kissing her thoroughly. "Mmm yeah, like that," She said with sparkling eyes. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs to bed.

TBC

A/N 2: Okay so it's now been a few hours since I wrote this and having established some editorial distance I think the whole tongue in the mouth this might come off as a bit weird. So I just thought I'd mention, for those who didn't catch the reference, that it is actually sort of a reference to an ep in like later 4th season (maybe 13 or 14) when Meredith tells her therapist that she needs some therapeutic tools so that she can stop imagining Derek's tongue in her mouth because she's having trouble focusing on work. I don't know why that stuck with me, it just always really cracked me up. So anyway, just wanted to mention that so maybe you guys would find that less weird... Although maybe writing a paragraph about it actually makes it weirder...