Elizabeth sat alone in the cold dark kitchen. She watched the clock turn to 3:01 AM as she tapped her fingers along the countertop. Three weeks. She thought before she shook her head. Three weeks since Mark died and I still feel like he's here. She sighed before standing up and heading up the stairs in a vain attempt to get some amount of sleep. She had called Robert the week before and told him that she expected to be back that day, but she was starting to question if she'd even be able to stay awake through even a half day of surgeries. She heard a quiet babbling coming from down the hall and she smiled before quietly making her way into her daughter's room. "Hello Ella." She said quietly to her daughter who sat wide awake in her crib.
"Daddy." Ella replied indignantly.
Elizabeth looked at her with tears in her eyes. "Should we look at some pictures of daddy Ella?" She asked softly as she pulled Ella out of her crib.
"Daddy!" She replied, just as insistent as the first time.
Elizabeth nodded as they walked down the hallway to Mark's office. She cracked open the door and was assaulted by a scent she didn't know she had missed. Mark had always smelled like a combination of the hospital and their home which left a very clean vanilla scent behind. She quietly sat down at his desk chair and flicked the switch on his computer.
"Daddy!" Ella insisted this time tears beginning to fall.
"Hey now." Elizabeth said comfortingly as she kissed Ella's cheeks. "There's no use crying Ella." She said, trying to convince herself as well. Finally Mark's computer screen flickered to life displaying a background picture of their small family from the day Ella was born. "Look it's daddy." Elizabeth pointed at the screen, speaking in an almost reverent tone.
"We go?" Ella asked intently.
"Where do you want to go Ella?" Elizabeth asked her, trying to encourage her knowing that conversation from her daughter was increasingly rare these days.
"Daddy." Ella pointed at the picture as she rubbed her eyes which were pouring out tears.
Elizabeth sighed and pulled her daughter to her chest. "I'm sorry Ella, we can't go see daddy." She said softly as she stroked her daughter's blonde curls. "But your daddy was the best man I've ever known." She whispered as she kissed the top of Ella's head. She could feel Ella's breathing start to slow as she fell asleep.
Elizabeth carefully stood up, making sure not to wake up her daughter. She then walked down the hall to her bedroom where she laid Ella down in her bed before proceeding to lie down next to her daughter. "Goodnight Ella." She whispered before drifting off to sleep herself.
Elizabeth was woken up by a combination of screams and music. "Ella it's okay mummy's right here." She assured her daughter as she reached across the bed to turn of the alarm clock. "Do you want some breakfast?"
"Yes." Ella replied firmly as she grabbed onto her mother's neck.
"Alright then sweetie." Elizabeth replied awkwardly as she tried to stand up despite the child hanging onto her. "Do you want some banana bread?" She asked her daughter hopefully, completely aware that there were at least four loaves people had brought over in the freezer.
"No pancakes." Ella replied, wrapping her fist in her mother's hair.
"Ella absolutely not." Elizabeth replied, suddenly feeling very cross. "We do not pull hair." She said as she untangled her daughter's fingers from her curls. "I don't have time to cook you pancakes so banana bread or cereal are your options." She said as she set Ella in her high chair.
"NO NO NO NO NO!" Ella screamed in response.
"Alright banana bread it is." Elizabeth said to no one in particular as she pulled a loaf from the freezer and began to defrost it in the microwave. She moved across the kitchen and pulled out the coffeemaker from the cabinet as she continued to ignore her daughter's screams.
Five minutes later they were settled at the kitchen table, Ella with a slice of banana bread and some grapes cut in half, Elizabeth with two slices of toast, a banana, and a cup of hot coffee. "Eat Ella, your babysitter will be here in twenty five minutes and then mummy's going to work."
Ella looked up, but didn't respond other than putting half a grape in her mouth.
Elizabeth was just finishing her breakfast when the phone rang. She went across the room to answer the call, "Doctor Corday." She said more crossly than was absolutely necessary.
"Lizzie, good to know you're in a good mood this morning." Robert Romano's voice rang through the phone.
"Robert." Elizabeth said, sounding more surprised than anything.
"Just wanted to make sure you are actually going to show up in an hour." Robert said matter-of-factly.
"Assuming I get off the telephone in the next few minutes, of course." Elizabeth replied, feeling annoyed that her tight schedule was being interrupted by an unnecessary phone call.
"Alright then I'll see you soon." Robert said swiftly before hanging up his line.
Elizabeth sighed and set the phone on the receiver. "Alright Miss Ella, it's time to get dressed."
"NO NO NO NO…" Ella began as Elizabeth pulled her out of her high chair.
"You don't have a choice here." Elizabeth said as she made her way up the stairs and into her own room. She set Ella down on the floor and handed her a small duck stuffed animal to keep her occupied while she took a quick shower and got dressed.
Twenty minutes later Elizabeth was ready and she was struggling with Ella to get her dressed. Getting the clothes off hadn't been a problem, getting some back on was a bigger deal. "Ella!" Elizabeth called as the toddler raced out the door of her bedroom, naked except for her diaper. "ELLA GET BACK IN HERE OR SO HELP ME…" She began as the doorbell rang. Elizabeth sighed as she watched her daughter slam the door to the master bedroom. She quickly made her way down the stairs and to the front door. "Hello." She greeted the young girl standing at her door. "You must be Sandra, Adele says you're very good with children."
"Yes I'm Sandra." She smiled.
"Come in, come in." Elizabeth said as she stood out of the doorway. "I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to meet before today but I've just been very busy."
"It's really not a problem." Sandra said kindly. "I understand it's been a stressful time."
Suddenly a shriek came from up the stairs and the sound of small feet and giggled could be heard coming from above their heads. "Excuse me." Elizabeth said quickly as she ran up the stairs to find her daughter now stark naked running into her bedroom. Sandra followed, not too closely behind. "Gotcha!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she caught her daughter as she made a loop around her dollhouse. "Now you know you have to wear clothes today." She chastised her daughter as she located a pair of pants, a shirt, and a diaper.
Sandra came in, trying not to giggle at the exasperated look on both parties faces. "If you want I can get her dressed." Sandra offered as Elizabeth strapped on the diaper.
"That's quite alright, I still need to show you around the house." Elizabeth replied as she finally finished dressing her daughter, a task that took far too much time. "Robert will understand if I'm a bit late." Elizabeth said setting Ella down on the floor.
"Hello Ella." Sandra said as she bent down to Ella's level. "I'm Sandra." Ella replied with a swift slap to Sandra's face.
"ELLA!" Elizabeth exclaimed picking her squirming daughter up and placing her into her crib. "I'm so sorry Sandra, she's usually not this ornery. She was up quite late last night."
"Don't worry about it." Sandra insisted. "I understand sometimes little ones need a bit of extra attention some days."
Elizabeth sighed from relief. "That's good… Alright there's only a few things you need to know… Ella is allowed in any room in the house except for Mark's office, which is at the end of the hallway on the left, and Rachel's room which is just inside the front door also on the left. For lunch she'll probably want a grilled cheese sandwich. She'll ask for peanut butter because that's what Rachel used to eat, but don't give it to her, peanuts give her hives. It's not a life threatening allergy, but it's bad enough to get her quite cranky. If she complains about ear pain her eardrops are in the cabinet above the microwave, start with one in each ear, if it doesn't go away in about half an hour give her another one in each ear." Elizabeth said as quickly as possible as she grabbed her purse from the coatrack by the front door. "I did write this all down, it's on the notepad attached to the fridge… The keys to the van are on top of the fridge, if you need to get ahold of me try the main ER number first, unless it's an emergency I'd really rather not be paged."
"Alright I think I've got it." Sandra replied with a smile. "If I have any questions I'll leave you a message for when you're available."
"Thank you so much." Elizabeth said quickly before making her way out the door and to the EL station, just in time to watch the train take off.
"Lizzie I thought you said you were going to be on time." Romano chastised as Elizabeth made her way into the hospital nearly an hour later than expected.
"Robert…" Elizabeth began, beginning to feel extremely stressed out by all of the commotion.
"Leave her alone." Susan interjected as she took Elizabeth's bag from her arm. "Welcome back." She greeted her with a smile. "I'll take this up to your office, and not to add to the obvious stress but we've got a trauma coming in that we could use your help on."
"Alright…" Elizabeth said shakily as she got back into the swing of things. She quickly pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail and waited for instructions.
"TRAUMA ONE, FOUR NINE MILLIMETER GUNSHOTS TO THE CHEST!" Suddenly came from a paramedic as they slammed through the ER doors.
"It's good to be back." Elizabeth muttered under her breath before racing toward trauma one.
Author's Note: Hello All! This is the first non-NCIS fic I've posted so I hope you all like it. I've felt sort of stuck on my other stories so I'm trying to work on something else for a while. Please review!