I do not own any of the characters or storylines from the show etc, etc.
The Five Stages of Grief.
Prologue:
The day started out like any other. Michaela rose to the sound of the birds to see that the sun had already began to dawn upon a land covered in mist and dew drops, making it look like something she had once read in a fairy tale. Michaela got up with her usual energy because she knew that she would be spending the day with the one man who had been a constant in an ever-changing world, her father.
Her father had always been there. From the time she had her first knee scrape from mischievously sliding through the parlour, to being at her medical school graduation. Not to mention the countless number of times he had defended her in front of his colleagues, associates, and even his own wife.
While dressing in a pale green dress, Michaela thought back to the previous night, when another round with her mother was battled. Unfortunately Josef had to stay late at the hospital and could not defend her right then. Even so Michaela couldn't imagine what it would be like for her father to never be there.
The argument with Elizabeth had followed the usual paces; first Elizabeth's comment about her not being able to survive working in a mans world, then Michaela's willpower of trying to ignore, until once again it became a battle of the wills, only ceasing when Michaela had walked away. She quickly banished thoughts of the previous night's argument to the back of her mind when she realised that she was going to be late for breakfast.
Upon arriving into the dining room, breakfast was in full swing. After greeting the man she adored, she then went over to her mother to greet her, finding that the last night's winter had quickly become spring. Michaela was relieved even if the change was only temporary, which it usually was. Much to Elizabeth's chagrin Michaela started discussing the latest advances in medicine with her father as she did every morning while she consumed her breakfast. The good mood was too good to last Michaela thought upon hearing Elizabeth's exasperated and bored sigh during Josef's explanation of a new theory. When he had finished Michaela turned to her mother to tell her that she does not appreciate her mother rolling her eyes in annoyance, but before she had a chance to even open her mouth, she heard a loud thud on the table. Snapping her head around quickly she found her worst nightmare coming true, her father slumped over the table from a stroke.
Josef was taken immediately to the hospital, where he lay in a coma. The doctors at the hospital poked and prodded Josef for three days. Of course in that time they didn't allow Michaela one chance to try and help her father with her own medical knowledge because of her sex, leaving her feeling dejected and futile. Slumped in her chair next to the bed, she would stare at her father's motionless body for hours trying to will him to wake, using all of the willpower she could muster like she would as a child when she desperately wanted to make something happen, but like in the past it would just leave her feeling exhausted and frustrated, the only difference this time was that the cost was far greater. Michaela could only watch helplessly as her father's life slipped away from her grasp on the dawn of the third day, knowing that a part of her died with him.
The next two days passed with a blur as the day of her father's funeral approached. As soon as the sun rose she knew that it would take everything she had just to not break down at the service but also she knew that she would need all her strength to deal with Elizabeth who lectured Michaela the night before on what she expected of her. The winter had come again Michaela mused of her mother, but then chastised herself silently, because she knew that her mother was grieving the only way Boston society would ever permit. That night as she looked back on the funeral itself, it was a large one with the church filled to its seams; she had no idea that there could be that many people grieving for this one man. While Michaela found it humbling, at the same time when they spoke of her father and the life that was tragically cut short, she had to close her ears, she couldn't bear to hear them cheapen his life with their words. As she looked out her window she knew it would be another sleepless night and that the days to come would be terribly long.
