Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter thirty four - airplanes

Daisy had become anxious beyond belief, working herself up to a point of no return.

She wasn't quite sure why she felt so uneasy. Her brain was tied in knots and loops, thinking about anything hurt.

Dr. Sen had tried to offer Daisy something she could take with her to release her anxiousness. He brought out a bin of stress balls and small devices that made different sounds, hoping the girl could find some sort of tranquility.

Daisy didn't want any of that though, instead walking over to the pen holder on the psychiatrist's desk and taking a black ink pen, which Dr. Sen thought was incredibly uncharacteristic for the girl.

Daisy was a timid person, and she seemed scared of her own shadow. She didn't do anything or take anything without permission, so Dr. Sen found it interesting that she had no problem ignoring the man and taking his pen. He didn't mind, truthfully, because it seemed to ease her.

The psychiatrist's office was silent as the two sat there, the only sound cutting through the air being that of a ballpoint pen being frantically clicked.

Daisy clicked in rhythms, of course, because rhythms always helped. Numbers always help. God Daisy loves numbers. Fifteen, more precisely. Fifteen was good. Fifteen was a good, safe number.

"Daisy?" Dr. Sen asked as he observed the girl, her body language making it clear she was closing in on herself both physically and mentally as she was hunched in. "Would you...like to take a moment to talk? I think it would help you feel a lot better."

Daisy knew what made her feel better. Counting.

Counting was so great. Why didn't more people count? Counting in small increments was something you learned to do as a mere toddler, counting was something you built up and everyone eventually uses in everyday life.

Daisy loved counting. Daisy loved math, the wonderful magic of building numbers together like an architect. Why didn't more people like math?

Daisy had no true passion of what she wanted to do in life. She decided maybe she would be a math teacher.

Mark was a doctor, of course, and Calypso wanted to be a veterinarian seeing as the girl was obsessed with animals. A doctor, a veterinarian, and a math teacher. Daisy decided those three occupations weren't too out of touch with each other, Daisy wouldn't be too much the disappointment of the family.

Dr. Sen was appalled at Daisy's unresponsiveness, her eyes cloudy and blank, the only sign of life her trembling finger which clicked the pen rapidly.

"Would you feel better if I went and got Mark?"

Mark. Daisy didn't know how to feel about Mark.

Antagonist happened to be a big word. An antagonist was sort of like the villain of the story, the bad guy. Daisy had learned that in English class last week.

Daisy wondered if Mark was the antagonist. Maybe he happened to be the bad guy that was secretly plotting against Daisy.

Or maybe the story had already met its antagonist. Maybe Mr. Walter was the antagonist, and his actions happened to just still be plaguing Daisy's everyday.

Or maybe this was a red herring situation. Daisy had learned about that in English too. Logically speaking, comparing the two men side-by-side was as similar as comparing night and day. Maybe it was the logical thing to expect cruel Mr. Walter to be the bad guy, but maybe when Daisy was focused on Mr. Walter and least expecting it, perfect Mark Sloan would sneak up out of nowhere and become the bad guy.

The girl was deep in thought, so much so that her brain didn't even register Dr. Sen standing up from behind his desk and walking out into the hall.

"Can you page Dr. Sloan to psych?" Dr. Sen asked once he had reached the nurses' station outside of his office.