Reaching Forward

23

It was around midnight and the day before Meredith and Derek were to take Evan home from the hospital. As Meredith slept, Derek had snuck out and went to the nursery to spend time with his son. Picking his son up from the hospital bassinet, the sleeping baby started to cry from being awakened but the soft 'shhs' coming from his father accompanied with some rocking soon quieted the infant. Sitting down in a rocking chair, he couldn't help but study every feature of this tiny boy. The doctor had been right as he was being born; he didn't have Derek's hair. In a way Derek was almost thankful the boy didn't. Sure, he had heard all over the hospital about what great hair he supposedly had but what they didn't realize that it had taken years to get it where it looked like this. When he was younger if he had let it grow out at all, it usually went everywhere.

Everyone who had seen Evan commented that he had Derek's facial features but Derek didn't see it. He thought the baby favored Meredith more but Meredith also disagreed. Needless to say, his son was probably the most popular person in the hospital right now. Not only with his and Meredith's friends but, it seemed liked everyone had come out of the wood work to see 'McBaby.' It was almost as if the nurses in the nursery had purposely put him in the front of the nursery window so everyone could see. Of course, he wasn't surprised when he would see a crowd huddled around the window looking at his son. His and Meredith's relationship had always been a source of gossip around the hospital so it would only be natural for them to come see the baby.

As Derek sat alone in the hospital nursery with his son, his mind drifted to his family. He really wished that his mother accepted his new life more than she did but that wasn't the reality. But, that fact didn't stop the creeping feeling of wanting to, just for a moment, forget about all of that and call her and his sisters to tell them that he had a son. Derek wanted them to come out and see Evan but that seemed like it would just present a myriad of problems. He hoped that when they finally saw his son that they would at least be able to put whatever issues they had with his new life behind them for the sake of Evan. Of course, he'd have to discuss this with Meredith. But right now he was just content on basking in the presence of his son.

_____________

The next morning a certain someone waited until Derek went out for coffee before going in to see Meredith. Slowly opening the door as not to startle her, they walked into the room to see Meredith holding Evan. Her eyes widened as she saw who it was, "Mark Sloan."

Flashing one of his McSteamy smiles at her, he nodded, "The one and only." Pulling something from behind his back, he placed a neatly wrapped present beside her on the bed.

She looked at him quizzically, "What's this?" She asked as she gently placed the sleeping boy back into his hospital sanctioned bassinet.

"Well, seeing how I was so rudely not invited to your baby shower like the rest of the hospital seemed to be, I wasn't able to give you a gift." He sat on the edge of her bed.

She started to rip through the wrapping, when Mark scoffed, "I spent good time on getting that wrapped."

Raising an eyebrow, she questioned, "You wrapped this?"

"No, I said I spent good time on getting it wrapped. I managed to charm the gift wrapping girl into doing it for free." He smirked.

Laughing, but not too loudly as to wake the baby, she replied while opened the box. Taking the light blue onesie out, she looked with utter amusement at the writing on it and she read aloud, "Ladies' Man." Looking back at Mark, she said, "You have got to be kidding."

"And, when he's old enough, I will offer my services on how to woo women." He said with a smug grin on his face.

"First of all, I'm so not letting you near my son at that age for those reasons. Secondly, what makes you think that Derek can't teach him how to 'woo' a woman?" She replied while folding her arms against her chest.