Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter twenty eight - goodbyes

Daisy found the most comfort and safety in hiding in her room all day, and Mark hated it.

A couple days had passed since everything had gone down. Mark was under the impression that him and Daisy were alright, but that didn't seem to be the case. That was made apparent in the fact that Daisy avoided Mark every chance she got.

He honestly didn't understand why, though. Mark didn't ground her or anything. He didn't lash out. He had kept the yelling to a relative minimum. For Daisy and Calypso having wandered off the premises of the hospital and walking across Seattle by themselves, Mark thought he underreacted.

And yet Daisy still acted like Mark was the worst person to have ever graced her presence.

The littlest one was okay with Mark though, and that made him feel a bit more at ease. That's just the way it always was, though. Daisy hated Mark, and Calypso didn't.

Calypso had been a tiny bit wary of Mark after everything that had gone down. But after everything had been talked out, Calypso was as comfortable as ever.

Presently, the girl was coloring a picture at the kitchen counter, taking her work very seriously.

Snow White's gown notoriously consisted of only primary colors, hues of blue and yellow and red all mixing together.

That was boring, though, and Calypso decided to make Snow White's gown a mix of purple and orange.

While Calypso colored her picture, Mark worked around the kitchen. He was waiting for his batch of cookies to come out of the oven, and he decided to flip through the mail on his counter as he waited.

Mail was incredibly boring to Mark. The only time Mark found the task fun was around his birthday when his mail pile was littered with birthday cards. Other than that, Mark found the task tedious. There was nothing fun about flipping through envelopes that passive aggressively told Mark to pay his bills.

"Newspaper came." Mark spoke, placing the black and white print beside where Calypso was coloring.

Calypso ignored Mark's words, continuing to let her crayon glide across the white paper. She was in her own little world with her Snow White drawing, she certainly wouldn't let something as stupid as reading exercises ruin her joy.

"Just because you ignore it doesn't mean it's gonna magically disappear."

Calypso was hoping that was exactly what would happen, though. Those reading exercises that Mark made her do with the newspaper was always so difficult for Calypso. Everything was just so mashed up, she couldn't make sense of it. Not to mention she felt like the biggest idiot whenever she stuttered or messed up a line.

"I don't wanna read today."

"That's unfortunate."

Calypso sighed at Mark's statement, continuing her coloring. "I'm making a picture, though."

Mark nodded, sifting through the endless assortment of oven mitts to prepare for the extraction of the cookies in the oven. "We can read it later."

Calypso was hoping to not have to read the newspaper at all. But she supposed she should be grateful that she didn't have to stop her coloring to read.

Mark placed the cookie sheet down on the counter to cool, using his oven mitt to waft the smell of freshly baked cookies down the adjacent hall.