Chapter Sixty-Four: Hook, Line, and Sinner
"I can't get over it. It's not fair." Cristina shook her head as I sat on the couch in her and Callie's living room. Joel was out with Jackson, the later having wanted to take his nephew out for lunch, just the two of them. "I mean, you- You're related to the Harper Avery. First Meredith and now you, the world just isn't fair."
"Remember, I was just the result of an affair." I reminded her.
"Quit trying to cheer me up." She rolled her eyes as the doorbell started to ring, followed by loud knocking. "Just a minute. Just a minute! What?"
"Yang, you got a suture kit?" Mark walked into the apartment as soon as Cristina had opened the door, looking panicked.
"Uh, yeah." Cristina nodded.
"Where's Robbins?" Mark asked as Callie came out of her bedroom.
"Uh, in there." Callie nodded back at the bedroom door.
"Robbins!" Mark yelled.
"What's going on?" Hunt asked, just as lost as the rest of us.
"Wait, two. I need two suture kits!" Mark told Cristina. "Beth, do you have any suture kits in your apartment?"
"Why is he screaming?" Arizona asked as she came out of the bedroom, neither of them giving me the chance to answer Mark's question.
"Baby. Now!" Mark took the suture kits from Cristina and hurried out of the apartment, into his across the hall.
"Why are you-" Callie began. She was interrupted by the sound of a woman screaming, sending all of us rushing out of Cristina and Callie's apartment and over to Mark's.
"Oh, God. He's serious." Arizona said as we found Sloan laying on the floor of Mark's apartment, Teddy knelt down in front of her, a newborn baby in her hands.
"Holy mother-" Callie began.
"Get my bag. Get my bag." Arizona told Callie.
"Get me a clamp." Teddy told Cristina and I as we both hurried over to help her.
"Oh, God." Sloan whimpered as Teddy cut the umbilical cord.
"All right. Another clamp." Teddy said and I quickly handed her one. "Scissors."
"How is he? Is he okay? Is he good?" Sloan questioned through her labored breathing.
"He's great. You did great." Teddy assured her.
"Oh, Dad." Sloan looked to Mark.
"All right." Teddy handed the baby over to Arizona.
"Any sounds?" Arizona asked in a whisper.
"Not yet." Teddy whispered back.
"Come on, baby boy. Come on." Arizona cradled the baby boy in her arms, getting back to her feet to head back towards her own apartment. "Beth, come here."
"Hey," I smiled at the quiet baby boy in her arms. "Come on, baby boy. Come on. Come on."
"Come on. Come on." Arizona whispered nervously to the baby as we stood in the hallway, well aware that the others were listening for the sound of a baby crying. After a minute a cry came out of the little boy, bringing smiles of relief to our faces. "Okay. That's my boy. Okay. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Here you go, Grandpa."
I smiled, standing back as I watched Arizona hand the baby over to Mark, Callie standing by his side as they both smiled.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey, the baby's sleeping." Mark told Arizona and I later that morning, finding us in Sloan's hospital room. He glanced between both of us, a slightly nervous look in his eyes. "Um... Thank you for... everything."
"I'm happy to help." Arizona told him.
"We both are." I nodded in agreement, offering him a small smile.
"Dad." Sloan spoke up from where she was laying in her hospital bed.
"Hey." Mark smiled as he walked over to her bedside. "Everything's fine. The baby's doing great."
"Hey, can you grab my bag?" Sloan asked me.
"Yeah," I grabbed it off the tray at the end of her bed and gave it to her. We watched as she pushed herself up into a sitting position and poured her bag's contents out on the bed.
"What is all that?" Mark asked, noticing all the baby toys. "Did you buy all this for the baby?"
"Yeah." Sloan nodded, taking one of the toy cars in her hands. "I figured he was gonna need stuff, and I was already in the store. I mean, I know it's lame. All the girl's stuff was way better. But boys like army crap, right? You have a boy, does he like this crap?"
"Yeah, he does." I chuckled as she held up a toy army man. "But that's a choking hazard."
"He's a little young for that, and that." Arizona took the army man from Sloan and another small toy from Mark.
"Well, whatever. It doesn't really matter anyway. He's gonna be getting a lot nicer stuff soon." Sloan shrugged before handing Mark a paper. "Here. Uh, this is the number for the people that are gonna adopt him- Trish and Keith. Can you call 'em?"
"Mark," Arizona gave him a small nudge when he stayed quiet, only staring at the paper Sloan was holding out to him.
"Yeah." He nodded, snapping out of whatever state he'd been in.
"Do you want me to handle that call?" I offered, knowing that Mark didn't want Sloan to give up this baby.
"No, no." He shook his head. "I'll take care of it."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You okay?" Arizona asked me as I stood at the nurses' station down the hall from Sloan's room, updating her chart. I looked up from the papers and at my friend, finding her standing beside me with a worried look on her face.
"Yeah," I nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure this is the most time you've spent around Mark since you broke up." She pointed out. "I could get an intern to take over for you. I heard that Bailey has a surgery planned for later, Shepherd, too."
"Really, Arizona, I'm fine." I assured her before heading down the hall, needing to take Sloan's baby for the newborn checkup.
"Look who it is." I heard Mark say as I grew closer to the open doorway of Sloan's room. I glanced inside, finding him handing Sloan the baby, a smile on his face.
"Hi, baby." Sloan cooed.
"Look at that." Mark grinned at his daughter and grandson, all of them oblivious to me watching them. "You're a natural."
"It's up to you." Sloan glanced up at her father. "If you think we can do this, raise him... together... If you think we can, then..."
"Hey, guys." I greeted the little family. It was obvious what Mark was trying to do, how he was trying to convince Sloan to keep the baby when she'd already made it clear that she didn't want to. "He really needs to go to the nursery to be monitored and get his newborn checkup."
"I'm monitoring, and I did the exams." Mark told me. "He's all good."
"Mark, when you get a minute, I'd love to have a quick word." I said, making him glance over at me, giving me a small nod. I watched as he whispered something to Sloan before following me out of the her room. I led him down the hall so Sloan couldn't hear us.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Tell me that you called the parents." I got right to the point.
"Sloan's having second thoughts." He shrugged.
"Sloan picked those parents. She asked you to call them." I reminded him. "She was very clear."
"Well, now she's not clear." He insisted. "By law, she's got forty-eight hours before the court terminates her parental right."
"Sloan changed her mind?" Callie asked as she joined us.
"Maybe." He nodded.
"That's great." She smiled.
"No, it's not." I shook my head.
"What, she can't change her mind?" Callie frowned at me. "People change their minds."
"This baby needs parents, not an eighteen-year-old child and a father who she met five minutes ago." I narrowed my eyes at Mark.
"Shut up!" He glared at me, his voice hard, defensive. "It's better than what Joel had when you had him. You were only eighteen, but you didn't have your mom or dad there to help you. You didn't have his dad either."
"Mark-" Callie began, giving him a warning look.
"No." He shook his head. "You know, you don't get to tell me what to do here. You're no better than Sloan. Why should you be allowed to have your son but she can't have hers? This is my grandson, I'm not just gonna give him up to strangers."
"Well... Good luck with that, Mark." Without another word, I walked past him and headed down the hall.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Mark is a fucking asshole." I swore as I sat down in the cafeteria with Meredith and Alex. At my words they both looked up from their food with raised eyebrows.
"What happened?" Meredith asked me.
"Hey. Have you, uh, seen Evans?" Cristina asked as she walked over to our table, not giving me a chance to answer Meredith's question. "It was amazing. Who saw?"
"Dude, you're like a kid with trading cards, except with heart surgeons." Alex took a bite of his watermelon.
"Yeah." Cristina nodded, not offended in the slightest. "I gotta have 'em all."
"I thought Teddy was the love of your life." I recalled.
"Oh, she is. She is." Cristian spoke with a full mouth. "But... Evans? Brilliant. I mean, brilliant. I mean, so is she. But... I love them both. I'm a cardiothoracic whore. What can I say? It feels so good."
"Now that the obvious is stated," Meredith turned her gaze to me. "What did Mark do to classify him as an asshole?"
"Oh, this has got to be good." Cristina grinned between bites of her food. "What happened?"
"I helped his daughter and grandson this morning. While his grandson was struggling to breathe, I was there helping him." I stabbed my fork into my pasta salad. "And he has the nerve to say that I had less of a right to keep Joel than Sloan has to keep her baby. I swear, I'm gonna kill him."
"Really, that's what you're gonna kill him for?" Alex scoffed. "I figured it'd be the fact that he thinks you're sleeping with Avery."
"Jackson?" I coughed at his words. "Everyone knows that Jackson's my brother, I mean, gossip spreads like the flu here."
"Apparently Sloan got the vaccine." Cristina hummed. "As far as he knows, you're a dirty little whore."
"Speaking of whores, has anyone seen the love-struck intern fawning over my husband?" Meredith asked, changing the subject.
"April's not an intern." Alex pointed out.
"You bat your eyes like that, you're an intern." Meredith insisted.
"Oh, don't worry." Cristina tried to wave it off. "That's not Derek's thing."
"Anymore." I added.
"I was the love-struck intern. It is his thing." Meredith shook her head.
"No, he's grown out of it." Cristina tried to assure our friend.
"Out of what, chicks who shave their legs and laugh at his jokes?" Alex scoffed. "Sure he's grown out of it."
"I shave my legs." Meredith laughed, causing all of us to look at her. "Sometimes."
"You could always call him Chief Shepherd." Alex suggested.
"Ew." Cristina and I both scrunched our noses in disgust.
"I don't make the rules. I'm just telling you, it's a thing." Alex said, ignoring Cristina and I. "Powerful guys like adoring girls."
"Oh, my..." Cristina snorted.
"Look, whatever. Do what you want." Alex shook his head.
"I will never look at Lexie the same." I muttered.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey," Callie gave me a small smile as she joined me. I was in the middle of handling some discharges that would be finished and carried out in the morning, wanting to make things easier for whoever came in after me.
"Hey," I gave her a small nod, focusing back on the paperwork in front of me.
"She decided to give it up." My head snapped back up at her words, I could feel my eyes widen.
"What?" I questioned, unsure if I'd heard her right.
"Sloan, she decided to give up the baby. Mark called the parents and they're on their way now." She explained, taking a drink of the coffee in her hands. "And, about earlier-"
"Beth." Mark cut Callie off as he came over to join us. I pressed my lips into a thin line as he stood in front of me, still upset about what he'd said earlier. His eyes darted between Callie and I, a nervous gleam in them. "Can we talk, alone?"
"No." I shook my head. "Anything you have to say to me, you can say right here."
"Look, I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier. I was out of line." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't mean anything I said, I was just upset. I knew you were right, but I didn't want to admit it, so I took it out on you. It wasn't fair. I don't know everything you went through when you had Joel. I know that your mother had died and your father walked out on you and your mom, you couldn't help that. Look, Beth, I'm sorry. I really am and I hope that you can forgive me."
"I'm sorry, Mark, but I can't forgive you." I pushed myself up to my feet, meeting his gaze. I could see the surprise in his features, as well as Callie's, clearly they had both expected me to forgive him, no questions asked. "I know you may not mean what you said before, but you still said it. And if you were willing to say any of that then that means that some part of you, no matter how small, really feels that way. You're right, you don't know everything I went through when I had Joel, how hard I had to work to put myself through college and medical school while also supporting my son. But what you said before, you pretty much said that my son was a mistake, that I didn't have any right to raise him myself. You can insult me all you want, call me a whore, but I won't let you say anything about my son. I want you to be happy Mark, I really do, but I don't want that type of attitude around me or my son."