All I want is this
Chapter 3- Meredith is my friend
From Meredith's lap, Alicia played with her Barbie doll while Meredith was braided her two ponytails.
"Meredith" Alicia called her as she continued to play with her doll.
"Yes Ally."
"Meredith, do you have a baby girl?" She asked her.
Meredith smiled a little surprised by her question. "No, I don't have one."
"But do you have a baby?" Alicia asked her.
"No, I am not a mother yet." Meredith answered.
Alicia continued to twist doll's leg captivated by her play, but also focusing enough of her attention on her chat with Meredith. "I don't have a mommy." She stated innocent.
Now that was a statement that took Meredith by surprise. She didn't know how to act: amused, sad or shocked. She felt a little from all three. "That was a very subtle proposal." Meredith joked laughing. Maybe it wasn't the most appropriate comment, but she didn't want to cause the girl a depression or something like that. She didn't know how the girl was feeling about her mother's absence.
Alicia didn't understand the meaning of 'subtle' but at Meredith's laugh, she looked back at her smiling. Then she returned to her doll picking up with its dance. "Meredith"
"Yes Ally"
"What kind of doctor are you?" She asked, same as earlier, without taking her eyes from her doll.
"I don't have a specialization yet, but I want to become a general surgeon." Meredith explained in terms too mature for Alicia; therefore, Alicia looked back at her curious as she asked "What are you fixing?"
Meredith giggled as she realized her mistake. "I will be able to fix on many parts of body; like... your father fixes faces or skin, I will be able to fix what is inside our body." She tried a easier explication.
"You are smart." Alicia stated as she got to her own conclusion and returned once again to her play.
Meredith smiled very impressed at Alicia's compliment. "Thank you, Ally!"
"I want to become a dancer or a doctor like you and daddy." Alicia stated.
"You have enough time to decide over this." Meredith answered. "Done" She finished with Alicia's last tail and then she arranged them over her shoulders.
Alicia put her doll down and touched her tails with care.
"Are too tight?" Meredith asked her.
Alicia looked back at her with a big smile on her face and shook her head. "Thank you, Meredith!"
"You're welcome sweetie!" Meredith smiled and gave her a kiss on cheek.
Alicia giggled happy in Meredith's arms as she returned two kisses to her.
None of them noticed Mark's return until he stopped in front of them clenching his fists and looking at them with a deadly glare. "Who are you and what in the hell are you doing with my daughter?" He yelled at Meredith and made her jump up from her chair scared with Alicia in her arms.
"Uh... I'm... I'm doctor Grey!" Meredith introduced herself as she tried to recover from the scare that Mark's yowl.
"Okay dr. Grey, and can you tell me where that idiot fellow of yours is?" Mark yelled at her, but not as loud as earlier.
Mark's offending attitude made Meredith recover fast from her scare and became angry with him. Alicia leaned over her arms to go to her daddy, so Meredith put her down to go to him. She didn't have to make a single step, because Mark picked her up. "Daddy, she is Meredith!" Alicia informed him a little scared unable to understand his angry burst.
"Okay, sweetie!" Mark told her without taking his glare away from Meredith. It was obvious that he didn't pay too much attention at Alicia's words.
"You must be dr. Sloan!" Meredith said; now her voice and attitude were as bitchy as Mark's were. "Well, I don't know where my idiot fellow is, but I found your daughter sitting alone in here. All I did was to stay here with her until you would get back to her."
"Couldn't have you looked for me and bring her?" Mark asked her sharply. He wasn't yelling anymore, but he was still nervous at her.
"I wasn't sure where to find you, so I thought it would be better to stay here with her." Meredith explained herself. "It wasn't very smart of you to leave her into a hospital with a foreign person. We have a daycare downstairs in case you haven't found out yet."
"Listen dr... Grey!" Mark snapped at her surprised by her new attitude. "What I do with my daughter is not your concern and please watch your tone because I am one of your bosses now."
Meredith rolled her eyes annoyed and that made Mark even angrier than before. "Keep rolling your eyes and we'll have an interesting cooperation at work. Apparently my daughter can be in more safety with some strangers than with staff from this hospital."
His last statement offended Meredith and brought her patience to over the edge. "You don't have any reason to offend me, dr. Sloan! As you can see, Ally was fine with me."
"Alicia! She is Alicia for you, not Ally!" Mark snapped at her.
"Daddy" Alicia dragged Mark by his sleeve to get his attention. When Mark looked at her, Alicia pleaded him with her eyes and not only "Please daddy, don't yell at her!"
Mark faked a smile to calm her down and then he looked again at Meredith. His smile for his daughter tricked Meredith, so she proposed kindly "Do you want me to take her to daycare for you?"
Mark frowned and a new glare showed up in his eyes. "Are you an idiot, Grey? Didn't you hear a word from what I said or do you need a translator?" As he spilled his last venom over her, Mark shifted Alicia on his other arm and walked away, leaving a shocked and angry Meredith.
"Jackass." She muttered nervous as she watched them leaving.
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After her father took her from Meredith, Alicia stayed quiet and pouted in his arms; she refused to play with her doll again or even to look at Mark. She turned her head away from him showing him how upset she was with him.
"Ally" Mark called her to make her look at him. His voice was tender again and all his anger from a minute ago seemed already forgotten. "Al look at me!" He asked, but Alicia refused to do it and shook her head.
"Look, I am sorry I yelled... I am having a bad day." He tried to justify himself. He apologized for the fact that he had yelled in front of Alicia's and not because he had done it at Meredith. For that, Alicia wasn't ready forgive him.
"Alicia" He tried to make her look at him again, but once again, he failed. He gave up on it for a while and headed towards elevators. They waited for it together in what for them looked as an awkward silence.
When an empty elevator got there, Mark stepped inside. They were the only passengers from it. Mark put her down and just then he noticed Alicia's tails. "Cute tails." He tried to cheer her up with a compliment.
Alicia crossed her arms against the chest and pouting, she turned her back on him. "I don't think I like you that much now." She stated.
Mark had heard that before. She used to say that each time Mark did something wrong and she was very upset with him. He knew that and he also knew that she always was pouting like this for a real reason. "I am sorry!" He said, although he wasn't very sure for what. Meredith was now already gone from his mind.
"Meredith is my friend." Alicia looked up at him with a frown. "You have to tell her you are sorry" Alicia warned him exactly how her father and her grandma told her to do after she had done something wrong.
Mark sighed annoyed to remember Meredith again and nodded. "I will, now please don't stay pouted, okay?"
"Do you like my tails?" Alicia asked him smiling proud as she showed him her tails.
"I told you already that I do." Mark smiled and caressed her tails. "You are very cute."
"Meredith made them." Alicia smiled very proud of her new hair style and her new friend.
Mark groaned silently in annoyance to have Meredith again in their talk.
"Daddy?" Alicia hugged his leg as she asked for his attention again.
"What?" He asked her.
Alicia smiled up at him and Mark knew she wanted something from him. He smiled back waiting for her new wish, a little worried. He always answered positive to her wishes, no matter how impossible or unpleasant they were for him.
"Can Meredith come to visit?" She asked him smiling monkish at him.
Now that was one of her wishes that seemed impossible for Mark. "You will make new friends at your new kindergarten. You have to play with girls at the same age as you. This Meredith is too old to be your friend."
Alicia frowned angry and once again, she crossed her arms against the chest as disappointment for her father's attitude. "Meredith is not old." She muttered angry. "You are old."
"Excuse me?" Mark laughed.
"You look older than Meredith." Alicia replied with the same anger in her voice and her face expression.
"Thank you!" Mark answered sarcastic and then he took her hand to led her outside the elevator. He looked confused around him trying to identify the place where they were. "Where is the daycare?" He asked himself.
Alicia was still upset with his answer at her wish, so she continued to stay pouted. "Ask someone." She muttered in silence; therefore, Mark didn't hear her.
"Let's go that way!" Mark said as he turned to right and start walking down the hall.
After a short tour of that floor, Mark stopped and picked Alicia up in his arms. "What am I going to do with you now?" He asked her after he had lost any hope to find the daycare anytime soon.
As answer, Alicia turned her head away from him, showing him that she was still upset with him.
"Now what's wrong with you?" Mark almost yelled at her nervous to see her attitude. His day hadn't been very good until then, so now his daughter's behavior was the last drop that filled the glass.
Alicia knew her father would never do more than yell at her, so she wasn't that scared to see him nervous. Contrariwise, she knew how to use his moods in her favor.
"I want Meredith to be my friend." She muttered upset.
Mark closed his eyes and tried to keep his calm. He took a deep breath and then he looked at Alicia. "Fine"
Alicia's face lightened up instantly as she heard her daddy. "Really?"
"Yeah, really." Mark faked a smile trying to hide his frustration of being so weak in front of his girl.
Alicia smiled brightly and hugging happy her daddy's neck, she also gave him a strong kiss on cheek. "We should find Meredith." She suggested.
"Why?" Mark asked her confused.
"Because she said there is a daycare outside the hospital." Alicia answered.
Mark sighed with frustration. "We don't need her to find it." He said as he returned to elevators. "I hate snooping women." He muttered pressing nervous the button to call the elevator.
"What's that snooping, daddy?" Alicia asked him curious.
"Snooping is that person who starts doing something for you without being asked to do it." He tried to explain her the term.
"So why don't you like snooping women?" Alicia seemed to have gotten the meaning of that word, so she asked him confused.
Mark looked at her, also confused by her question. The elevator got back to their floor, so he walked inside and pressed the button to get down in the main lobby.
"Daddy" Alicia took his face into her hands to make him look at her. She was still waiting for an answer.
"What?" He asked her as if he had forgotten about her question.
"Why don't you like snooping women?" She repeated her question. This time, they weren't alone in there, so the passengers smiled when they heard Alicia's question.
"Because I don't like them." Mark answered simply. "Because it's not nice to be snoopy."
"It's not nice to be nice and help people?" Alicia asked him with a puzzled look.
"What?" Mark was more confused than she was now.
"You said you don't like women who wants to help you." Alicia explained what she had understood from her father's previous lecture.
Mark remembered it too and smiled embarrassed as he noticed the weird stares from the others. "You know what? Let's forget about Meredith and let's find the daycare." Mark swifted her from one arm to another.
"Okay" Alicia agreed and put her head down on his shoulder. "Daddy?" She whispered after only a few seconds of silence.
"What is it?" Mark asked her calmly.
"Can Meredith come and play with me tonight?" Mark and her grandma taught her to ask them first when she wanted to invite one of her friends to their house and play. Now Meredith was her new friend, so she launched the question for her father's approval.
Mark sighed as he heard Meredith's name again. "You have to ask her if she wants. She might be busy tonight." He lied.
"I will." Alicia took his answer as a positive one and she was happy now that her father 'agreed'.
Downstairs, in the main lobby, Meredith had just returned from laboratory with some test results when the doors from elevator opened and Mark and Alicia stepped outside. Mark had put her down, so she was holding his hand.
"Meredith" Alicia gasped happy when she spotted Meredith not very far from her and her father. She ran from Mark squealing "Meredith"
Meredith stopped from her track and looked back from where the she was being called. She smiled when she saw Alicia running towards her and she sped up her footsteps to meet her half way.
"Hey Ally!" She knelt at her level to greet her.
Alicia stopped straight in her arms and hugged her tight. "Meredith" She was so happy to see her new friend again.
Meredith smiled overwhelmed by the affection that the little girl showed. "Why aren't you at daycare yet?" Meredith brought her in front of her and smiled as she rearranged her tails. It was a while ago when she last saw Mark leaving with Alicia to daycare.
"Daddy and I got lost." Alicia giggled.
When Mark saw where Alicia had run, he stopped and let her go to her. He wasn't very happy to see his daughter so excited for a foreign woman.
Mark hurried to them and stopped behind Alicia's overhearing her. "Let's go Alicia!" He demanded harsh as he grabbed her hand and ignored Meredith completely. He tried to drag his daughter away from Meredith, but Alicia opposed firmly hanging tight on Meredith's arm. "Wait" she asked trying to pull back her hand from Mark's tight grip.
"Dr. Sloan." Meredith took Alicia's hand and stood up when she saw Mark. She was still pissed off with his attitude from earlier and his new bitterness wasn't that pleasant either. "I can lead you to daycare; it's just a minute away from here." She proposed with coldness in her voice and eyes, almost ready to take another mean words from Mark.
"Thank you, but we don't need help." Mark replied coldly.
"Sure" She muttered with sarcasm.
Mark heard her, but he wasn't in the mood for more fighting, so he didn't reply.
"We need help." Alicia interfered right away. "Come with us, Meredith!"
Meredith looked at Mark for his approval, but she got her answer immediately as she met his glare. She smiled sympathetic at Alicia as she knelt down again. "I am sorry sweetie, but I have to return to work or my boss will be very angry."
Alicia understood and sighed disappointed. "Okay" She muttered.
"I will see you around, okay?" Meredith smiled tenderly as attempt to cheer her up. "Now go and have fun."
Alicia smiled and nodded. "Meredith, daddy said you can come and play with me tonight!"
That was something that took Meredith by surprise. She looked up at Mark questioning.
Mark shook his head as 'no'.
Meredith glared him as she realized that she had to do the dirty job for him and tell Alicia that she can't come and play with her.
"I am sorry sweetie, but I can't." She wasn't sure what to say to her so that she wouldn't get sad.
"Why?" Alicia asked her with sadness.
"I uh... I will have to stay and work tonight... maybe some other time sweetie."
Alicia shook her head disappointed. "okay"
"Now don't stay pouted and go and have fun at daycare, okay?" Meredith encouraged her and kissed her forehead.
"Okay Meredith." Alicia smiled a little and kissed Meredith's cheek.
Meredith stood up and let her hand go.
Holding her father's hand, Alicia turned around and together with him, she left to find the daycare.
"To the right you will find a small hallway and at the end of it is the daycare." Meredith shouted after Mark.
Mark didn't look back at her or said anything, though he had taken on the wrong way. He turned to the right and as Meredith told him.
"Like I said... a jackass." Meredith muttered nervous.
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This axle between Meredith and Mark won't last too long, because Meredith is now Alicia's friend and Mark loves his daughter.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
