A/N: Okay here we go. This chapter picks up right where the last one left off and is still having a ton of the plot stolen from that old episode of Friends (The One Where Everybody Finds Out). This is basically it for the plot of this fic. I'm planning one more short fluffy chapter and that will be all. Enjoy. : )

Baby Daddy 13

"I still can't believe that Derek managed to keep this from me for so long," Meredith said to Cristina as the two of them sat in the Skills Lab. "I mean really, it's sweet, but what if something bad had happened. There are things that pregnant women have to that I just wasn't doing." Meredith wasn't actually doing anything productive at the moment, she was just watching while Cristina prepared for a surgery she had with Teddy later.

Without looking up from her work Cristina just shrugged her shoulders, "Really Mere, I hate to admit it but he actually did a pretty good job of keeping track of you. He's been obsessed. I didn't think he had it in him to focus that much on anything besides his hair."

"But still, he couldn't have been doing everything. I mean what about that lotion you're supposed to rub on your stomach to keep from getting stretch marks," She was grasping at straws a bit, but she was in the mood to be indignant, "Or you know, prenatal vitamins. I should have been taking those this whole time and I haven't. You know how important folic acid and iron are to developing babies." She was starting to get a nervous look on her face as she finished speaking.

Lexie decided to chime in from a few tables over where she was working on her own project. "Actually you don't really need to do the lotion thing until your stomach gets bigger and he has been sneaking prenatal vitamins into your food," she said casually.

"He's been what?" Meredith asked. "How could he have been slipping me prenatal vitamins without me noticing?" She sat up in her seat and called over to Lexie. Luckily they were the only three people in the room.

"Well really Mere, I think this whole situation is proof that you aren't always the most observant person in the world," Cristina laughed a little as she kept working.

"Most of the time it was in pancakes," Lexie started to explain, "Derek figured out pretty quickly that they were about the only thing you could keep down in the morning so he would crush the vitamins up and put them in the batter."

"That's why he's been making pancakes all the time!" Meredith was amused as she started to work through the last few months, "I've been trying to figure out why my health nut husband suddenly insisted we have pancakes every day!" Then she paused for just a second, "Wait, we shared most of those pancakes. Has he been taking prenatal vitamins with me?" She asked with amusement.

Lexie just laughed and said, "Why do you think Alex wouldn't touch them?"

Before they could get any further into the conversation Alex came bursting through the doors, "Hey Mere, there you are," he said a little too quickly, "I've been looking all over for you," he seemed to struggle a bit with what to say next, "I…uh…really need your help with something at home. Like right now. So can you come with me? I'm sure Derek won't care once he knows why."

Meredith laughed out loud because she finally realized why Alex had been acting so crazy lately, but she still didn't know what he was up to now, "What's wrong Alex?" she asked with an innocent look, "I'm in the middle of my shift. I can't just leave."

"Yeah, Karev what's your deal?" Cristina asked, finally looking up from her work.

"It's just a thing," Alex started to say to Cristina, "that's happening," he paused and tried to communicate with his eyes, "right now."

The three women just stared at him blankly until Reed Alderson burst through the door. "Hey," she said as she took in the scene around her, deciding how bold she dared to be in this crowed. "Dr. Grey, you haven't by chance seen a pregnancy test lying around here somewhere have you? I think I lost mine," She smiled and tried to act natural, "Not that I think I'm pregnant or anything. I just think it's a good idea to take one every once in a while as a check. Do you ever do that?" she paused for a second as Meredith just stared at her blankly, "You know, I actually have an extra if you want to try it with me," she smiled, "It could be fun." Reed nodded encouragingly.

Meredith just looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "Oh yeah, that sounds like a great time," she said with sarcasm dripping from her words, "Unfortunately I have work to do so I think you're on your own."

"But…" Reed started to say before Alex cut her off and grabbed her arm.

"That's enough, get the hell out of here," he said in a way that told her she had very little choice in the matter. She looked like she was about to protest but he just opened the door and glared at her so she left quickly.

"What it the hell was that?" Meredith asked with equal parts shock and amusement.

"Oh my god is it 4 o'clock on Wednesday?" Lexie asked as her eyes quickly searched for the nearest clock. "The pool's gone active? Is that what you were trying to get her out of here for?" Lexie asked but it was clear that she had already figured out the answer.

"What pool?" Meredith asked as realization started to sink in.

"The one to pick the time you'll finally notice that you're pregnant," Cristina said casually.

"Oh my god Yang!" Alex yelled. He couldn't believe she just did that. Then he looked at Meredith to see how she was taking it.

Meredith just threw her head down on the table and said, "There's a freaking betting pool?" more embarrassed than anything else.

"Yeah it's actually pretty funny how it came about," Cristina started to explain but was cut off by Alex.

"Wait, do you already know?" He asked in shock.

"Oh yeah, she's known for days now," Cristina shrugged.

"Days?" Alex practically yelled, "And no one thought to tell me?"

"Not days," Meredith tried to defend herself. "I suspected yesterday and then just took the test this morning." She paused before adding, "Besides, we're kind of trying to keep it under wraps for now. Keep it quiet that I know I mean. Obviously everyone in the world already knows that I'm pregnant," she added with a roll of her eyes.

"Why wouldn't you want everyone to know that you finally clued in?" Alex asked before adding, "I mean really, this only gets more embarrassing for you the longer they think you don't know." He smirked at her.

"She's got some weird revenge plan with Cristina," Lexie said as she went back to her table to work.

"Revenge on who?" Alex asked, "And for what?"

"Revenge on McDreamy for driving her crazy for the last two months when she could have been…" Cristina paused for a second, "wait what would you have been doing differently if you had known?" she asked as if the thought had just occurred to her.

"I don't know," Meredith said with an annoyed shrug, "I would have known what the hell was going on with me and everyone around me, and," she paused while she searched for words. "It would have been better," she finally added.

"You really think it would have been better?" Alex asked.

"I don't know," Meredith shrugged, "Maybe."

"I think Shepherd had it right when he said you needed to be ready to hear it," Alex said, "Face it Mere, if you would have found out two months ago you would have totally freaked out, but instead you found out today and you look like you're handling it okay to me." He gave her a look that told her he was sure he was right.

"Whatever. The point is, we're getting revenge for the secret keeping and if you don't want to be a target you'll keep your mouth shut," Meredith responded as she crossed her arms and glared at Alex.

"Whatever. Just keep me out of it. If I don't have to save you from the hospital gossip mongers anymore then I'm gonna go back out there and actually do my job," he spoke harshly but he really was glad to see that she wasn't freaking out, and he knew that she knew he was happy for her without him having to actually saying it out loud.

After Alex left, Meredith let out a small huff of annoyance before turning back to Cristina and saying, "Men," with a roll of her eyes, "always thinking they know what's best for us when they're the ones who are too damn chicken to tell their wives that they're pregnant," she continued to grumble as she resituated herself back into her chair.

She was going to keep talking, but just as she opened her mouth to continue her phone signaled that she had a text message. She furrowed her brow and reached into her pocket to check her phone. "It's from Mark," she said as her eyes scanned the message and a confused look came over her face. "He says he'll do my surgery and that I should come to his office at six for a private pre-op assessment…" She trailed off as she thought of the implications of that message.

"Wow, that sounds like code for doing the nasty if I've ever heard it," Cristina said with wide eyes.

"I just can't believe he would even think about doing that to Derek again…" she paused for just a seconds before turning to Lexie, "Wait a minute. Lexie, do they know that I know?"

Lexie just looked at her hands with a guilty expression, "No," she said quietly.

"Lexie," Meredith said in a way that told her sister that she meant business.

Lexie just sighed before reluctantly saying, "They know you know."

"Oh I can't believe those guys!" Meredith said indignantly.

"They thought that they could mess with us?" Cristina asked at the same time. "They thought that they could mess with us?" she asked again before Meredith interrupted her.

"But wait a minute!" Meredith said, "They don't know we know they know I know!" she continued triumphantly. Then as an afterthought she said, "And Lexie you can't say anything!"

Lexie just let out a small laugh and shrugged before saying, "I couldn't if I wanted to," because this was really starting to be a lot to follow.

Meredith wasn't really concerned about Lexie at the moment and so turned back to Cristina, "But what are we going to do about it?" she asked.

"Hmm I don't know," Cristina thought for a minute before an idea came to her and she jumped up and said, "I got it," while she grabbed Meredith's phone. She quickly typed up a text message and hit send before handing the phone back to Meredith with a laugh.

Meredith looked at Cristina quizzically before scanning the message on her phone. "Oh my god! Cristina!" She said when she read the message. "I can't believe you just did that! They're going to think I sent that!"

"Well that's kind of the idea," Cristina said like she was talking to someone who was a bit slow.

Meanwhile, back in Mark's office, he and Derek were sitting and talking while they waited for Meredith to respond to the text Mark sent her. "I don't know," Derek said, "Do you think we've taken this a bit too far? I mean really, isn't the best way out of this whole mess for her to feel like she beat me here?" His original impulse to fight fire with fire was starting to seem like a bad idea. He didn't know whether Meredith was really going to be mad at him or not, but he was pretty sure that if she was actually mad she would have just come out and yelled at him. This seemed more like something she would just do for fun; to get back at him for having this information for so long without telling her.

"Whatever," Mark interrupted his thoughts, "Meredith knows that this is all in good fun," then he paused and smiled before adding, "Besides, this will make an excellent story to tell my future godchild someday."

Derek just groaned in response. It hadn't occurred to him that the baby would be old enough to hear about this someday. Derek was saved from further contemplation on that issue when he heard Mark's phone alert that he had a new message. He waited while Mark opened his phone and read the message.

Mark let out an awed whistle before saying, "Wow that wife of yours doesn't mess around," he shook his head and handed Derek the phone.

Derek coughed as he read the message, "Well I think it's safe to say she's calling our bluff," he said as he handed the phone back to Mark with a shake of his head. He couldn't believe Meredith had actually said that.

Mark laughed before saying, "Yeah, she's definitely in it to win it." Then his smile faltered a bit as he asked, "What should I do now?" he hadn't really thought of this going on much further than it had already.

Derek wasn't really sure either, "Well I guess there's really nothing left to do at this point besides play it out," he stopped to think about what exactly that would entail, "She'll come here at six and you'll do her pre-op assessment and, I don't know, just somehow get her to crack and admit that she used her pregnancy to mess with us." Mark just stared at him dubiously until another thought occurred to him, "Hey what about the betting pool?" he asked at he looked at his watch. "It's four thirty and as far as the hospital is concerned I just lost, but I put a lot of money into that thing, and you and I both know I won. You're going to talk to them later and clear it up right?"

Derek just gave an amused smile and didn't say anything until his pager went off. "Oh, it's one of my post ops. This shouldn't take long. I'll be back in about an hour." Derek said as he checked his pager. Meredith wouldn't be there until six o'clock so he had a little bit of time before he needed to be back.

He was about to the door when Mark called after him, "Hey wait! You are going to back me up on that right?"

"Sorry, I gotta go," was Derek's only response as he headed out into the hallway. He laughed e as he headed to his patient's room. Of course he would back Mark up. He had, after all, only even placed the bet in the first place to help him out. Still, it was fun to mess with him about it.

As he walked he passed a very preoccupied looking Meredith heading in the opposite direction. "Hey Mere," he yelled after her.

She turned around and smiled, "Derek," she said with a relieved voice.

"What's up?" he asked, "Are you okay?" he put his hand on her arm and rubbed gently.

"Yeah, it's just," she paused for a second as she seemed to change her mind about what she was going to say. "Nothing," she finished lamely.

Derek knew that that probably meant it had something to do with the pregnancy, and he figured if it was anything really important she would just tell him so he decided to let it go for now. Then he realized that this was the first time that they had seen each other while they both knew she was pregnant (and both knew the other one knew). He couldn't help but smile and that idea and pulled her into a hug. "I love you," he said into her hair as she hugged him back.

"I um…love you too?" She responded, but it came out sounding more like a question. She was, however, very happy to be hugging him even if she wasn't quite sure why.

Derek just laughed. Meredith wasn't really one for big shows of affection in the hallway a work, but still she didn't protest. "Okay, I have to go check on a patient, but I'll see you later, and we should have something really good for dinner tonight," he smiled at her as he spoke, "Maybe even go out," to celebrate, he added mentally but didn't say it out loud.

Meredith watched him walk down the hallway and smiled slightly. He had made her feel better even though it was his fault that the whole hospital was driving her crazy. It almost made her feel a little bad for what she was about to do. Almost. She turned to continue walking down the hallway. She was done with her work for the day and on her way to the locker room to get changed.

The problem was, everywhere she turned there was some new person ready to harass her about her pregnancy. It was getting hard to pretend that she was still clueless. Reed had given up pretty easily but Jackson Avery had been relentless during the past hour; which was the time slot he'd purchased in the pool. He'd even gone so far as to bring her some "mislabeled" labs that said she was pregnant. At the start of the afternoon she'd been a bit worried she was taking this whole thing too far but now she was ready to make Derek, and anyone who helped him, pay.

She rounded the last corner to the locker room when she saw a group of nurses that looked like they were ready to pounce. She quickly made her way to the locker room and shut the door behind her. With that annoyance averted she went about getting ready to go home. She slowly got changed and put her stuff together and was just about to walk out when Alex came in. "Why is there a group of nurses staring at this door like someone's hiding a birthday cake in here?" he asked with his usual level of indifference.

"You mean they're still out there?" Meredith practically whined as she went back and sat down on the bench.

"Oh they're after you?" he asked, sounding slightly more amused as he made his way over to his locker.

"Yeah, it must be their hour to torture me," she lay down on the bench and covered her face with her hands. "I just wish someone would go out there and chase them all away."

Alex just laughed, "Are you seriously trying to pout at me to get me to go and get rid of them?" he asked as he changed his shirt.

"No," Meredith said, trying to sound pathetic. But then she lifted her hands off her face and Alex could see a slight smile on her face, "Why? Is it working?" she asked in an almost cheerful tone.

Alex just rolled his eyes and said, "Fine I'll go get rid of them but you owe me big. You know what happens to people who piss off the nurses," he grabbed his bag and headed for the door. Just before he walked out he said, "Give me two minutes and then you can come out. See you later Mere." Then he left her alone to wait.

Once she made it out of the locker room she didn't really know where to go. She still had about 20 minutes until she had to be to Mark's office. She decided she would just go wait somewhere close by so she wouldn't have to brave the halls twice. She was sneaking down the hallway trying her best to be invisible when someone reached out and grabbed her shoulder. She'd been concentrating so hard on herself that she was completely caught off guard and screamed a little in shock. When she turned around Cristina was looking at her like she'd lost her mind.

"Oh my god you scared the crap out of me!" Meredith said as she clutched her heart.

"Apparently," Cristina said with raised eyebrows. "I called your name like three times. What's your deal?"

"Nothing," Meredith said as her breathing normalized, "I'm just losing my mind. I really can't wait until this whole secret pregnancy thing is over."

"Whatever. You've been dealing with it for what, 12 hours? I've been dealing with it for months. You get no sympathy from me," her words were harsh but her slight smile told Meredith that Cristina was just teasing her. "Besides," she said as she looked at her watch, "You've only got like 15 more minutes until you have to be in Sloan's office and then this whole thing will be over."

"And thank god for that," Meredith said as the two of them continued walking down the hallway to Mark's office.

Meanwhile back in Mark's office Derek finally made it back from checking on his patient to find Mark pacing in front of his desk. "Hey what's up?" Derek asked, "You were fine when I left."

"Derek!" Mark said in surprise. "What? Oh, everything's fine," he paused, "Well actually I thinking that this might not be the best idea. I mean really, do you really want to watch me flirting," he shuddered involuntarily, "With Meredith." He stopped and looked at Derek for a second before adding, "That's kind of messed up."

Derek just laughed and said, "Well I had my doubts before, but now that I know how much you won't be enjoying it, I think I'll be fine." He laughed some more at the bewildered look on Marks face.

Mark wasn't deterred however and just glared at Derek for a second before continuing, "I mean what if," he paused uncomfortably, "What if," he could barely even say it out loud, "What if we get to the part of the exam where I'm supposed to, you know," he waved his hands meaningfully in the air.

Derek just stared at him for a second. Then realization hit him and he laughed, "Oh!" he said, "Yeah," he paused, "If you even think about touching my wife's boobs I'll beat the crap out of you," he told his friend with a look that told Mark to beware.

Just then there was a knock on the door, "It's her!" Mark said with a panicked expression. They both jumped slightly and looked at each other. Without any other means of escape Derek went and hid in the closet. He figured that at least this way he could keep a close eye on everything. Once Derek was safely hidden inside the closet, Mark went to open the door.

Meredith did her best to look confident as the door swung open revealing Mark alone on the other side. "Mark," she said trying her best to sound confident and alluring. No way was she letting Mark beat her at this; whatever this was. She heard Cristina snort back a laugh from where she was standing just out of view.

"Meredith," Mark said seriously, "Why don't you come in," he moved out of her way so she could enter his office. They just looked at each other awkwardly before Mark jumped and grabbed something off his desk. "Here," he handed her the exam gown, "Why don't you put this on," he paused for a second, "I'll, uh, be over here," he stood facing away from her in the corner.

She couldn't believe she was actually putting the gown on. She looked to make sure he couldn't see her and faced the wall away from him to change quickly. As she was changing she noticed the closet door was slightly open and almost thought she saw Derek in there. That made her feel much better. This seemed less bad if he was here. Plus, it would give him a front row seat for when she totally destroyed Mark. She left her pants on and just replaced her shirt with the gown "I'm ready," she said and turned around.

Mark turned from where he had been hiding in the corner and clapped his hands together. "Okay," he said, "First I just have a few of the basic questions I need to ask you," he got out his clip board and motioned for her to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. She sat down but then instead of going to sit behind his desk like she expected he came around and leaned against the front of it so that he was in her personal space. "Okay let's see. First of all, are you taking any medication?" Meredith almost laughed at the way he tried to make that question sound sexy.

"Um, no." She answered. On top of everything else she was also kind of experiencing a sense of deja vu because she had just been to the OB a few hours ago.

"Okay, is there a family history for anything I should know about?" He asked.

"Nope. Nothing you need to worry about at least." She answered more confidently.

Mark's eyes got wide as he read the next question on the list but he just smiled slightly at asked, "Are you pregnant?"

Meredith looked back at him and with a straight face said, "Not that I know of."

"Okay then next I'll have to examine your, um," he looked at her chest before thinking better of it and saying, "Blood pressure! I'll have to take your blood pressure!" he was very relieved that he'd figured out a way to avoid the inevitable for a little while longer, but he was going to have to step up his game if he was going to get her to give up first.

Meredith was as relieved as Mark was. She really had no plan. She was just going to play it out until something happened. She found herself wondering how she got this far without actually knowing what she was going to do. An uncomfortable silence loomed around them as he took her blood pressure. Both of them were completely on edge about the next step in their crazy competition.

"Alright, your um," Mark paused just for a second, "Your blood pressure looks okay so now I guess there's nothing left to do but," he paused again, "I'll, um, examine your…" he trailed off as he motioned with his hands.

"Breasts?" Meredith asked and was glad to see Mark flinch at the word.

"Yeah," Mark said and coughed a little.

Meredith had really hoped that he would have given up by now. "Okay," she said as she moved her hands to the ties that were holding up her hospital gown. "Here I go…" She said and closed her eyes; really hoping Mark would jump in and stop her.

When he didn't stop her Meredith wasn't sure what to do. She really hadn't planned on this going this far. She finally decided just to go for it. It wasn't like Mark hadn't seen thousands of breasts before. This wouldn't be anything special for him. She held her breath and pulled the ties. She stood there with her shirt open and waited for something to happen.

After a few seconds without a reaction from Mark she hesitantly opened one of her eyes, and almost laughed at what she saw. Mark was still standing in front of her but he was facing away from her and had a hand over his eyes. "Mark," she said to him as she tied her shirt back up.

"Yeah?" he asked, still facing the other direction.

"You know you have to look to do the exam right?" She asked smiling because she knew she had him. Even with her shirt back on there was no way he was going to look now.

"Yeah," Mark said as he turned back around to face her and slowly lowered his hand to reveal his still tightly closed eyes.

Meredith just laughed slightly and said, "You're still not quite there Mark. You have to actually open your eyes." She was being pretty bold but really, at this point even if he opened his eyes she was fine, so what did it hurt?

Mark stood still for just a moment before he finally sighed and turned back away from her while covering his eyes with his hand again. "Okay," he said, "Alright, alright. You win," he said while Meredith let out a laugh, "I can't give you surgery!" he said in defeat.

"And why not?" Meredith asked triumphantly as she pointed her hand in his direction.

"I can't do your surgery because you're having Derek's baby," He said reluctantly.

Meredith smiled widely. This was exactly the opening she had been waiting for. "Well actually you're only half right," she responded mysteriously.

"You're having someone else's baby?" Mark asked with a sort of undignified squeak to his voice.

"Nope," she said proudly, "I'm having Derek's babies." She held up two fingers while she said that.

"What?" Mark said at the same time that Derek burst out of his hiding place in the closet. "Hey you have your shirt's on!" Mark accused as he had inadvertently opened his eyes at Meredith's news. But he was pretty much forgotten as Meredith and Derek locked eyes.

"What?" Derek asked quietly, with a small smile playing on his lips.

"Twins Derek," She smiled back at him and whispered again, "We're having twins," as he pulled her into a hug.

"I went to see the OB earlier because I was nervous and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. And I'm sorry I went without you. I hope you're not mad because I'm kind of freaking out here and I really need you to not be mad," She said all of this while he was still hugging her.

Finally he pulled back a little and stared at her from arm's length. She could pretty much tell from his smile that he wasn't going to be mad at her but he said it out loud anyway, "Of course I'm not mad at you!" he laughed, "We're going to have babies!" he paused, "Twins!" he hugged her again and kissed her sweetly. Then his face got a little bit concerned, "You're okay though right?" he asked hesitantly, "You said you're freaking out." He looked her in the eyes.

She just smiled and said, "I'm great. I promise. Just normal amounts of freaking out." For reasons beyond her comprehension she was starting to cry just a bit and so she was glad when he pulled her in for another kiss.

TBC

Haha sorry I couldn't resist the twins thing! I'm a twin myself and think it's the only cool way to be! : )