A/N: Okay here is chapter 8. This chapter is pretty self explanatory. It's told from Mark's perspective and takes place the day after the last chapter. Also, I'm changing the summery of the story to reflect the fact that I have basically included every character in the show and not just Meredith and Derek like I had planned. (The whole thing kind of took on a life of it's own... oops) Anyway, without further ado...

Chapter 8

Mark Sloan had many skills; many many skills in fact. Unfortunately secret keeping was not one of them. He was a gossip through and through. That's why it was killing him to keep Meredith's super-secret pregnancy to himself. He wanted to talk about it and joke about it and hell, he wanted to dish. That's why he was really excited to hear the halls of Seattle Grace buzzing about Derek and Meredith's impending parenthood. He was a little worried, at first, that the news may have somehow gotten out without Meredith actually figuring it out herself but then one of the guys from the lab told him it had been confirmed with a blood test so he was pretty confident that Meredith already knew.

Mark was having a great time. He was in his element. He was just telling a group of nurses the story of Derek buying all of the decaffeinated coffee in Seattle when Derek showed up in person. "Can I talk to you?" he said in a voice that left Mark knowing that he had very little choice in the matter.

"So what's up?" Mark asked once they were alone in a secluded hallway.

"What are you doing Mark? I thought I could trust you with this." Derek asked him with an accusing tone.

Mark was thrown off by Derek's angry expression. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything." he tried to defend himself.

Derek just sighed and looked Mark in the eyes, "I told you about Meredith in confidence. You weren't supposed to go and tell the whole hospital."

"What?" Mark was genuinely surprised by the accusation, "I didn't tell them."

"Mark I just saw you out there telling a whole group of people and it's all anyone could talk about as I was coming in this morning. Thank god Meredith has the day off or she would have found out about her own pregnancy through the hospital rumor mill," Mark found himself getting more baffled with every word out of Derek's mouth.

"Meredith doesn't already know?" Mark asked with wide eyes. "Man I swear I didn't tell. I just came to work today and it was everywhere. I thought she must have finally figured it out on her own. Apparently there was a blood test?" Mark crossed his arms and stared at Derek with a furrowed brow.

"A blood test?" Derek paused to think about that for a moment. "Oh my god Mostow!" Derek waved a hand in the air.

"What?" Mark asked, he was getting more confused by the second. "Are you speaking in some kind of code?"

"Steve Mostow. The resident." Derek still seemed to be working out something in his head.

"The twitchy kid with the dopey hair?" Mark asked. "What about him?" Mark had been wondering for a while now if Derek was losing it. This was starting to look like a confirmation of that theory.

Derek just went on talking as if Mark hadn't said anything. "Yesterday Meredith came home with a Band-Aid on her arm and said that she woke up from a nap with Steve Mostow standing above her taking her blood. She said that he had done it by mistake…" Derek trailed off for a second, "She may have used more colorful language than that though." He let out a short laugh, "She was pretty pissed."

"So you think Mostow ran the test?" Mark asked, perplexed.

"Well him or someone else," Derek started, "The question is, why would he do it?" Derek paused again.

After a moment their eyes met, "Yang," They both said together.

"What do you suppose possessed her to do that?" Mark asked trying and failing to sound sympathetic instead of amused.

It didn't look like the humor was registering for Derek. It looked more like he was getting ready to panic. "It really doesn't matter what the reason is. We have to fix this before Meredith figures out what's going on and kills me!" Derek said. Mark could see that Derek was really starting to crack under the pressure, "What was I thinking? How could I let this get so out of control? I just wanted this to be right for her, and now it's all falling down on my head!" Yeah, he was definitely freaking out.

"Man you gotta calm down," Mark tried to talk some sense into him. "We just need to figure out a way to keep everyone from talking about it around Meredith. At least until you tell her what's going on.."

"Oh yeah?" Derek scoffed, "Is that all? Thank god I have you, because I had no idea it would be that simple. Just stop the hospital from gossiping. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Okay that was a lot of sarcasm for one person," Mark crossed his arms and looked at Derek for a moment before shrugging, "You know, besides Yang."

"What?" Derek asked; a little annoyed.

"I'm just saying, you know, because Yang is a pretty sarcastic person so it wouldn't be too much…."

"Mark?" Derek interrupted him.

"Yeah?" Mark just looked back.

"Shut up," Derek said. Mark didn't really think that was called for but he understood that Derek was under a lot of pressure.

"Yeah okay man," Mark started before pausing for a moment and then adding, "Why don't we just try telling them the truth? Tell everyone that she doesn't know yet and ask them not to say anything," It wasn't great but it was the best he could come up with.

Derek let out a groan before saying, "I guess it's the only shot we have at this point. Can you work on that while I go talk to Yang? I need to see what the hell happened and also get her to distract Meredith. It may be her day off but that's never really stopped her from coming in to troll for cases before."

"Alright, I can do that," Mark said and the two men went their separate ways.

Mark really didn't have any idea where to start. How did you ungossip something? It seemed a bit like unringing a bell. Impossible. But Mark Sloan was not a man who gave up easily. He was wracking his brain trying to come up with an idea for how to proceed when he saw her. Like a shining beacon of hope. Dr. Bailey.

She was standing alone at a computer that stood off to the side in a bustling hallway. "Dr. Bailey," Mark said in the most nonchalant voice that he could muster.

"Dr. Sloan," she responded in a no nonsense voice without actually looking away from the scans that she was studying on the computer.

"You are looking particularly lovely today Dr. Bailey. Did you change your shampoo?" he tried to butter her up.

"Did you need something Dr. Sloan? Or did you just come over here to waste my valuable time?" She snapped, not giving him the time of day. She still hadn't looked up from the computer.

"I was just wondering if you'd heard the news," He paused and when she didn't respond he decided he had to elaborate further, "That Derek and Meredith are having a baby." He almost hoped she hadn't heard yet. He wanted to at least get to tell one person.

"I heard," she said in a way that told him he better get to his point and fast.

"Well see the thing is she hasn't," He paused, "Meredith I mean," another pause, "hasn't heard that she's pregnant." This was really hard to explain. How had Derek managed to do it so many times without anyone taking him to the psych ward? "She doesn't know. Derek figured it out and was waiting for her to realize on her own but now everyone knows except Meredith and it's a really big problem." Once he got going he found it hard to stop.

"And this has what to do with me?" Bailey asked, sounding more annoyed by the second.

"Well I was kind of hoping that you would… you know, talk to everyone and tell them not to tell her. Because you know, people listen to you. You're Dr. Bailey." Mark could tell by the look on her face that this probably wasn't going to end well.

Bailey finally turned her head away from the computer. He still held hope that she might help him until she started to speak. "Does this look like a middle school?" She asked sharply.

"I'm sorry?" Mark knitted his brow.

"Do I look like your guidance counselor?" She paused for just a moment before continuing. "No. I'm a surgeon. This is a hospital. Serious work goes on here. We save lives here. Is there some reason why you feel the need to talk about everyone behind their backs?"

Mark could tell that she was just getting started so he just held up his hands and started backing away and said, "No ma'am. I'm very sorry Dr. Bailey."

Mark took the opportunity to run in the opposite direction. As he hurried away he heard her mutter under her breath, "Damn fools. Not telling a girl she's pregnant…"

After the Bailey idea fell through Mark was pretty much back to square one. After a little internal deliberation Mark decided the best thing he could do was throw himself on the mercy of the court. He would just tell everyone the truth and ask for their help. These weren't unreasonable people… surly they would come around to his side if he asked nicely.

Boy was he wrong about that. He wasn't sure which was worse; the people who just didn't believe him or the ones that did believe him and made it their personal mission to be there when she figured it out. Even if it meant rigging it so she would find out in front of them. He was in trouble.

By lunch time his spirit was pretty much broken. There was no way he was going to be able to pull this off. He knew that it wasn't really his problem but still he had wanted to come through for his best friend.

He was staring dejectedly at his lunch when Callie came up and threw herself down beside him. She folded her arms and buried her face in them before groaning, "You look how I feel."

"I'm a failure," Mark said, practically pouting as he picked up his fork and started playing with his food.

"What's wrong with you?" Callie asked in a somewhat indignant tone. "I'm the one who is once again right back at the beginning of the dating game. You at least have Teddy."

"I'm actually starting to get a little bored with Teddy," Mark started, "She's just so… appropriate," he concluded with a shudder.

"Mark!" Callie started to yell at him before he cut her off.

"That's not really the point though anyway," He began, "I promised I'd help Derek try to get the whole secret pregnancy problem under control but so far all I've managed to do is make it worse," Mark explained with regret.

"Wow so that whole thing is really true? I just thought the rumor mill had gotten out of control…" Callie responded with an awed sort of skepticism.

"Yup it's true," Mark was trying to sound like he was reluctant to discuss it but in reality he didn't think it could do anymore harm at that point and he was still excited to dish.

"I just can't believe she wouldn't realize!" Callie said with a little bit of judgment in her voice.

"This from you, who didn't realize you were attracted to women until last year," Mark challenged with a smirk. When Callie didn't have anything to say in response he went back to the subject at hand, "I just can't figure out anyway to make people stop talking about it. It's like the biggest news since Addison showed up!"

"Mark you weren't even here when Addison showed up," Callie said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah but I have still heard people talking about it," Mark said.

"You are such a gossip," Was Callie's only response.

"I know and the one time I want to use my powers for good and I'm completely stuck," Mark whined.

"This is only going to get worse Mark," Callie started, "I wouldn't be surprised if a betting pool cropped up pretty soon. Then you'll be in a lot of trouble if she finds out because of that…" She started to say when Mark cut her off.

"What did you say?" Mark asked with excitement.

"I said that Meredith will be pretty mad if she finds out about her own pregnancy because it's part of a hospital betting pool," Callie explained.

"Callie you're a genius!" Mark said as he stood up.

"What are you talking about?" Callie asked.

"I gotta go! I'll talk to you later!" Mark shouted behind him as he dashed out of the cafeteria.

"But Mark!" Callie called after him, "What did I do?"

It was a little over an hour later and Mark was very proud of himself. He was looking for Derek to explain to him what had transpired. Mark had fixed the problem. He'd fixed it because he was the master of gossip and there was no juicy secret that was outside of his domain. He was strutting down a hall on the surgical floor when he finally ran into a somewhat disheveled looking Derek. "Hey man why the long face?" Mark asked with a bit too much excitement.

"I would have enjoyed fatherhood," Derek began. "I think I would have been pretty good at it too," He continued, "Now Meredith's going to kill me before I ever get the chance to try." Mark thought this was being a little mellow dramatic. He didn't say anything, but instead just stood there smiling for a moment before Derek finally snapped and asked him, "What are you smiling at? You realize you only get to be godfather if I live to see the kid be born," he added with a huff.

"I, Mark Slone, have completely saved your neck!" Mark said as he puffed his chest out a bit.

"What? How?" Derek asked excitedly.

"A betting pool," Mark said with pride.

"What?" Derek asked. "That's terrible! Now everyone in the hospital is going to go out of their way to try and get her to find out during their time! What were you thinking?"

Mark wasn't deterred, "That's just it," He started to explain, "No one is going to want her to find out for at least a week."

"What?" Derek asked, "Why?" he pressed on, "How?"

"My godlike intellect of course," Mark said with a smug grin.

"Mark," Derek was clearly starting to get exasperated.

"Okay, okay," Mark decided that he better just tell him before poor Derek lost his mind. "I bought every time slot until next week," he said.

"What do you mean?" Derek asked with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"In the pool," Mark smiled, "I bought every space for the next week so everyone is going to be going out of their way to keep her from figuring it out until they have a chance to win," He concluded with pride.

"Really?" Derek asked, "You think that will work?"

"Of course it will work," Mark said. "Can't you tell that they've quieted down about it already?" He gestured around them, "You're practically in the clear. And if anyone does try to tell her the people who bet for next week will try to stop them! It's flawless!" Mark could tell already that he was much more excited about that idea than Derek was. "It'll work man! I know it!" he added with eagerness.

"Well I guess it's better than any other plan we've got…" Derek started speaking slowly as he contemplated the idea. "And really that means a lot more people to look after her until she figures it out," Derek added excitedly. "Not that she needs looking after of course," he added hastily.

"You mean you're not just going to tell her?" Mark asked. "You better make sure she figures it out in the next week because I've got a lot of money riding on this," He added.

"Don't worry, if she doesn't figure it out within a week I'll just tell her. I don't want her finding out from the hospital you know," Derek assured his friend.

"Okay so one week and this is all over?" Mark asked.

"No, one week until it all begins," Derek smiled.

"Okay well I've got a surgery to get to," Mark said as he started walking away.

"Me too," Said Derek, walking in the other direction.

"One week?" Mark called over his shoulder.

"One week!" Derek called back. Mark just smiled as he made his way to the OR. He even amazed himself sometimes.

TBC