A/N I changed the layout of my writing. Hope it's easier to read. Enjoy this chapter!

Surprises

Derek was scrubbing in with Meredith, but his mind was still on the distressed look on his best friend's face. He had no idea what was going on with Mark but he knew that it had to be something major for Mark to have that look on his face. Once he had his patient's brain opened up he remembered that he had plans for lunch with Meredith.

Without taking his eyes off of his work he spoke to Meredith who was standing on his left side holding the next instrument he would need.

"I am going to have to get a rain check on lunch with you after we finish up here."

Meredith was startled that Derek would just cancel plans on her like that. She wasn't about to tell him that she wasn't happy. Meredith looked out of the corner of her eye at Derek wondering why he was doing this. Derek wondered what he should say to her and then he realized he had nothing to hide from her because he didn't know what was going on yet.

"Mark wants to talk to me about something ."Derek explained to Meredith. He thought it was best not to speculate on the reason aloud.

When Derek and Meredith were finished with the surgery, they went to go talk to the teenager's family and they told the family that the surgery was a success and that they could go see him right now. After that conversation was finished, they went their separate ways. Meredith went to the cafeteria to have lunch with her friends and Derek went in search of Mark.

Mark had moved to his desk after he got tired of sitting on his leather couch staring at his Columbia Medical School diploma. Now he was sitting at his desk, but there were still papers and charts spread all over his desk. He hadn't even tried to work on them in the three hours he was sitting at his desk. His mind just kept replaying that moment when Callie told him that it was his baby. He had never thought that he would make a good father so he had never even considered what would happen if he did get someone pregnant. In the course of two years, he had managed to get two women pregnant. The first time was a less than desirable situation but this time wasn't as bad. Callie wasn't married and she wanted kids. Mark just wished he knew what Callie wanted.

He knew that she was likely going to keep the baby because she had talked to him about being as involved as he wanted to be. Then the question became, how involved did Mark want to be in this pregnancy and in the child's life. He didn't want the child to grow up feeling unimportant and like he or she was a burden like Mark had felt as a child.

Derek went to Mark's office feeling pretty confident that he would find Mark there. He was going to page Mark, but Derek suspected that whatever was going on, Mark would want to discuss whatever was going on in private. Derek knocked on the door several times without an answer from Mark. Derek knew that he was either with someone or whatever was going on had distracted Mark so much that he hadn't even heard the knocking on his door. Finally Derek just gave up on knocking and just opened Mark's office door. Derek was startled at how disheveled Mark looked. Mark's head was in his hands and the things on his desk were a complete mess. Mark finally looked up and when he saw Derek, he seemed surprised to see Derek standing in his office.

"I've been knocking on your door for at least five minutes Mark." Derek informed his childhood friend as he closed and locked Mark's office door so no one bothered them.

He moved to sit in one of the patient chairs in front of Mark's desk, his blue eyes never leaving his friend's face. He was curious to know what was going on. Mark didn't speak at first, he simply nodded and Derek was close to coming out and asking what was going on, but then Mark spoke quietly "Callie's pregnant."

At first Derek was confused as to why Callie would even tell Mark that she was pregnant, but the reason soon hit him like a freight train. Derek's eyes widened as he looked at his best friend. This explained Mark's troubled expression right before Derek had gone into surgery.

"You are going to be a father?" Derek questioned. He really didn't need confirmation, but he was hoping Mark would say more than one sentence to him.

Even after four hours of knowing this information, Mark was still numb. He could not believe that Callie was pregnant with his child. He was no closer to processing it than he had been four hours ago when Callie had first told him. He nodded in answer to Derek's question "She's a month pregnant." Mark informed Derek as he folded his hands in a desperate attempt to stop them from shaking. Derek was finding everything so hard to believe. He wanted to ask a hundred questions but he knew that was not appropriate right now.

"What are you going to do?" Derek asked curiously. Derek hoped that Mark wouldn't be upset that he was so curious about this whole thing.

Mark sighed heavily and said "I want to be there for Callie and the baby. I don't want to miss my chance to be a father." Mark had missed his chance with Addison because he wasn't as ready as he thought he was. Mark wasn't sure if anyone could ever be completely ready for a life changing event like having a baby. Mark knew that he could be a much better father than his father had ever been to him.

Derek could not believe that his best friend was going to be a father in eight months. Derek had been sure that he would be the first one to have children and he had just been proven wrong with Mark's announcement "Have you talked to Callie about what you want to do?" Derek asked quietly. Derek could only focus on what Callie and Mark were going to do or a million questions would come spilling out of his mouth.

Slowly, Mark nodded "As soon as Callie gets out of surgery we are going to talk about everything." Mark explained.

Derek wasn't sure what else to say to his friend so he said "Look I know this is a total shock to you, but if you or Callie need anything. I am here. For both of you."

Mark was shocked at Derek's offer and he said "Thanks Derek. That makes me feel a little less freaked out."

Both men lapsed into a comfortable silence, each thinking of different things. Mark thinking about his unborn child and Derek thinking of his mother's reaction when she heard that her surrogate son was having a baby before her biological son.

Meredith was furious. She had been looking forward to having lunch with Derek all day and then he had blown her off. He had said that he couldn't make lunch because Mark needed to talk. Since when did Mark Sloan do talking? He didn't talk about his feelings or any other crap like that. Mark Sloan did surgery and had sex. She couldn't understand why Derek was so willing to cancel plans with her to talk to his friend. Meredith slammed her cafeteria tray down in between Izzie and Cristina.

Cristina looked up from her French fries and asked bluntly "Geez Mer, what is wrong with you?"

Meredith frowned and muttered "Derek cancelled lunch with me. He blew me off because Sloan needed to talk. Sloan doesn't talk. He does boob jobs and screws women. He doesn't talk about his feelings."

Alex rolled his eyes and Izzie just shook her head. Sometimes the way that Meredith treated Derek was not fair. Meredith was allowed to go get drunk with her friends and Derek wasn't allowed to cancel lunch plans in order to help out his childhood friend. It didn't make sense to Izzie. George personally didn't care. He kept eating and hoped no one would ask his opinion about anything. Cristina didn't say anything. She just kept reading her cardiothoracic magazine on silence.

Izzie could tell that Cristina knew something about why Derek had cancelled on Meredith so he could talk to Mark

"Cristina, you aren't sleeping with Sloan are you?" Izzie blurted out. Alex and Meredith looked up fast and waited for an answer. George suddenly looked green. He didn't want to think of another one of his friends having sex with her superior.

Cristina finally looked up from her magazine and said firmly "No I am NOT sleeping with Sloan."

Ordinarily that would have been satisfactory for anyone. Not for Izzie though. She was very persistent and she wanted to know what Cristina apparently already knew.

"So what's going on then Cristina?" Izzie asked eagerly.

Cristina knew that she would never get Izzie off of her back until she told Izzie the truth about what she knew.

"Sloan knocked Torres up."

The second those words came out of Cristina's mouth, the table was silent. No one had even suspected that Sloan had knocked Callie up. George looked green again. While Callie was no longer his wife, the idea of her sleeping with Sloan and then having his baby made him ill. Izzie was now grinning "God that baby is going to be gorgeous." Izzie pointed out, still grinning.

Alex shot Izzie an annoyed look at how excited she seemed to be about someone else' baby.

Izzie said "Oh come on Alex. Don't get grumpy. Everyone knows that Sloan is hot and Callie's like dirty hot. Even I know that.

George did not need his ex mistress talking that way about his ex wife. It made him want to leave the table and not come back as long as Izzie was discussing how hot Callie was. Sloan just humiliated all of the interns and quite a few of the residents.

"Sloan humiliates his subordinates." George muttered darkly, remembering all of the coffee runs Sloan had made him go on.

Meredith shook her head. She had seen things that the others hadn't. She attributed that to having to spend extra time with her boyfriend's best friend.

"Not Callie. Mark worships the ground she walks on. Derek makes me hang out with Mark sometimes. Sometimes when we go to Joe's and Callie's there, Mark hangs on her ever word and he has eyes for no one else."

Cristina shook her head and wrinkled her nose as she listened to the over the top romantic crap that Meredith was rambling.

"Ew since when did you became such a disgusting romantic Mer?" Cristina demanded.

Meredith laughed at Cristina's response.

"You should just watch Sloan sometime when Callie's around. He's hooked on her." Meredith insisted stubbornly.

Izzie's brown eyes were sparkling as he thought of the possibility of the baby bringing Torres and Sloan together.

"Maybe the baby will help them realize that they need to be together."

Cristina pretended to vomit and then she looked at Izzie and pointed at her.

"Barbie's the one that I expect to say cheesy over the top romantic stuff .Not you Mer." Cristina told Meredith as her eyes went to Meredith.

Meredith shrugged. She was still not the over the top romantic girl, but she wasn't as dark and twisty as she had been in the past.

Both George and Alex excused themselves, not really wanting to talk about how cute the baby would be or how much Sloan worshipped Callie.

Izzie was about to make another comment about the baby, when Cristina cut her off. Cristina was already sick of baby talk.

"The baby is the size of a pea right now. It's still an embryo Izzie. No one can say who the baby will look like yet. No one can say if the baby will make Torres and Sloan fall in love. Frankly I don't care if they fall in love. And I don't care what the baby will look like" Cristina finally exploded and voiced her opinion.

Izzie scowled at Cristina and ran off to the clinic. She hadn't spent much time in there and she really needed to get back into a routine of spending some time there.

Finally it was Meredith and Cristina sitting at the table. Meredith wanted to apologize to Derek, but a part of her was still pretty angry that he would blow her off. Mark could have told Derek at Joe's that night where it was so loud they wouldn't have been overheard. Derek didn't need to cancel plans with his girlfriend just so Mark could tell Derek he was going to be a father. Cristina shot Meredith a glance. She could tell that Meredith was still pretty pissed at Derek for blowing her off.

"I have to go check on Hahn's patient." Cristina finally said and she stood up. She looked at Meredith

"Stop being so selfish. He is being a good person for once and not thinking only of you. Grow up." Cristina told Meredith bluntly. She was sick of how Derek always seemed to put Meredith's needs before his own or before the needs of his male friends. This was the first time that he had been aware that his best friend needed him more than Meredith did and he had actually sacrificed his lunch date with Meredith to help his best friend. Maybe he wasn't as whipped as Cristina had thought he was.

Cristina walked off to the CICU leaving Meredith alone Meredith sighed, knowing that Cristina was probably right. She felt like a lousy person now and she hoped that Derek would forgive her for acting so selfish even though he hadn't known how unhappy she was when he cancelled on her. It seemed as though Mark really had needed his best friend to help him process and digest the news that he was going to be a father in eight months. Derek would have been a bad friend if he hadn't gone to help Mark out with this new information. Meredith left the cafeteria in search of her boyfriend so she could apologize for being so selfish.