Life and Death-1

Never Again

This will be a slightly emotional chapter.

Mark's POV

"You can see it, right? The resemblance?" I ask Derek as we look over my handsome grandson.

"It's a newborn." Derek replies. "It resembles other newborns."

"Okay. All right. Fine. But you want incontrovertible proof? Here we go." I undo the diaper and let Derek see the full resemblance. "Look at that."

"Oh. Well, it's impressive. I'll give you that. Well, I mean, a lot of the swelling is from the birth. It will go down." Derek informs me but it doesn't stop me from being proud.

"He's a Sloan. My wife did amazing delivering him and..."

"Wait? Your wife?" Derek cuts me off. "When did you and Gen get married?"

"Dude. Gen is going through IVF. We are buying a home together. She is my wife paper or not."

"Wow, I..."

"I'm going to be married before you." I declare to Derek.

"I am married." Derek says proudly.

"On a post it. I'm going to have that big wedding where everyone comes to celebrate us. It's going to be damn awesome."

"You and Gen are..."

"I have the ring being made as we speak and I'm just waiting for the perfect time to ask her the biggest question in my life."

"Really?" I pull out my phone and hand it to Derek. He looks and his eyes widen. "Wow, you...you're getting that made for Gen?" I nod my head. "She's a lucky woman."

"Hell no. I'm the luckiest man to have her love me." I look back at my grandson. "I believe that no other woman could deal with my shit and still find room to love me. I mean how many do you think would have agreed to take in their boyfriends pregnant teen daughter. Gen is...Gen is amazing and I know I've made it."

"I'm happy for you both."

"I'm going to have my own family Derek. Gen and I are going to have children of our own and...now I have a grandson and my daughter is in my life. It's all coming together."

"You deserve it Mark." Derek pats my back. "I'm happy for you. I really am."

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"Hey, the baby's sleeping." I come into Sloan's room where Arizona and Gen are tending to Sloan's needs.

"Hey." Gen comes over to greet me.

"Thank you both again for everything."

"I'm happy to help." Arizona smiles at me.

"Dad." Sloan mutters and I move to her side.

"Hey. Everything's fine. The baby's doing great." I smile feeling happy that she is finally back.

"Hey, can you grab my bag?" Sloan asks.

"Here you go." Gen hands the bag over to her. Sloan takes the bag and dumps all the contents on the bed.

"What is all that? You...did you buy all this for the baby?" I ask her feeling proud she is growing to enjoy the idea of being a mom.

"Yeah. 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?" Sloan holds up the tiny army man.

"Uh...no." Gen takes the toy from her shaking her head. "This is all a choking hazard for the baby. And he's too young for these."

"Well, whatever. It doesn't really matter anyway. He's gonna be getting a lot nicer stuff soon. Here." Sloan hands me an envelope. "Uh, this is the number for the people that are gonna adopt him...Trish and Keith. Can you call 'em?" I just stare at the envelope before me not knowing what to do.