Dubenko had picked his daughter up at the airport late the previous night, after spending the evening working with Susan Lewis on their joint research project. He wasn't surprised that it was well into mid morning before the petite teenager made her way groggily into the kitchen where he was reading the newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee.
"Morning sleepyhead." He smirked as he watched Sophie shuffle over to the coffee pot and search fruitlessly for a coffee cup. "Cabinet over the sink, baby."
"Mmm," was the only response he received from Sophie until she managed to finish the first cup of coffee and bring the second with her to the kitchen table. "Morning Papa. What ya readin'?"
Lee Dubenko sat his newspaper on the table and looked at his daughter, "What are you reading? That would be the way we phrase the question in English; and to answer your question, the metro section. How much sugar are you planning to put in that coffee Soph? It has to be the consistency of syrup by now." She had been spooning copious amounts of the white substance into her cup as Dubenko was speaking.
"I like it sweet. Besides, you make it too strong for us mere mortals to drink any other way." Just because she knew it would irk him, Sophie poured another heaping spoon of sugar into her cup.
"There is nothing wrong with the way that I brew coffee you heathen." Standing up to get another cup himself; Dubenko brushed Sophie's wild tangled hair off her forehead and placed a kiss on her brow before he made his way to the much debated coffee.
"Nice shirt Papa." Sophie grinned as she finally noticed just what her father had been wearing. Along with the usual plaid pajama pants she had always seen her father wear around the house he was sporting a tee shirt that simply said "Surgeons do it with Skill."
"Hmm, you think so? Some impertinent little whelp sent it to me for my birthday this year." Grinning, Dubenko took a sip of his coffee; black.
"They obviously have superb fashion sense and possess superior wit and intellect."
He snorted into his mug. "Might be more apt to say that my daughter has delusions of grandeur and requires a lesson in appropriate gift giving."
"But you're wearing the shirt, Papa. You must like it."
"I thought it would hurt your feelings if I used it to wax my car." He gave her a sympathetic look.
"You wouldn't!" Sophie screeched indignantly and rolled the newspaper into a tube to swat her father with.
"See? As a parent it's my job to sacrifice my desires for the welfare of my offspring's mental well-being. Even if it means I'm debasing myself by wearing this crude tee shirt. Really, Sophie, where did you find something this lowbrow?" Dubenko tugged on the hem of his shirt for emphasis.
"The internet is a beautiful thing Papa. And get down off that high horse before you hurt yourself. You know it's funny. Admit it." Sophie gently hit him with the newspaper.
"I might have chuckled when I first saw it" He laughingly conceded.
"Might?" Sophie made a motion to indicate she'd hit him again.
"If I admit that I considered wearing it to work, I'd be encouraging your behavior. I can't do that and be a responsible parental figure. And stop hitting me."
"You are such a—"
"I'm your father and as such I still have certain monetary advantages, control to phrase it succinctly, over you. I'd be careful about how I'd finish that sentence if I were you."
"Wonderful, fantastic, amazing, kind, generous, outstanding—"
"Can it Soph, I'm getting nauseous."
Sophie blew him a kiss in response. "You know you've missed me, Papa."
"Until this morning I thought I did. Now I'm not so sure. Perhaps it was the idea of you I missed. The quiet, well behaved little girl I used to know…" Dubenko trailed off as Sophie rolled her eyes at him.
"Yeah, I purposely waited until you moved to Chicago to grow up and turn into a smart-assed teenager. And you said I'm the one who's delusional." She moved across the kitchen to the refrigerator. "Food. Need food. Starving. Ah, no food. Wait, what's this? Fuzzy food. Gross. God, Papa, don't they have grocery stores in Chicago?" Sophie mumbled as she searched the nearly empty appliance. "Oh! Yogurt…and it is three months past its expiration date. Dare me to eat it anyway? " She shook the container at her father as she closed the refrigerator door. "Yes? No?"
"No." Dubenko took the food in question and tossed it in the garbage can.
"Well then, I give up. I'll simply wither away into nothingness. Starvation can't be a pleasant way to go. Thanks, Papa."
Dubenko merely stared at his daughter and her melodramatic performance. "Are you finished?"
"Yes, quite. Still hungry though."
"There's cereal in the pantry and don't tell me there isn't any milk in the fridge. I know better."
"Guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon."
"What's that?"
"Hmm let's review what we've been discussing, shall we?" Sophie made herself a bowl of cereal as she teased her father. "Grocery shopping. Buying of the food. You know, stuff to eat? Chow? Grub? Yum yum?"
"Yum yum?"
"Sorry, my vocabulary is suffering due to a lack of proper nutrition."
Lee Dubenko simply shook his head at his daughter as he finished his coffee. "I figured you'd prefer to go shopping yourself once you got here. It's more or less pointless for me to keep the fridge full, Soph. I'm not home often enough to bother cooking. So are you going to enlighten me as to why you had this sudden desire to visit? I all but begged you to come for Christmas and you refused, why now?"
"I missed you and I love you?"
"Mmmhmm. And?"
"I really missed you? A lot?"
"What do you want Sophia?"
Sophie spoke with a mouthful of cereal, "I want you to have the Commonwealth release Mom's case files to me."
"First off, that is truly disgusting Sophia and secondly, no. I am not even going to ask why you'd want me to do such a thing." Dubenko sat his coffee mug in the sink and walked out of the kitchen without another word.
She wanted to come to the hospital with her father, to see where he worked, she had said. What Sophie really wanted was another chance to ask her father to reconsider her request. Sophie hopped in the drivers seat and held her hand out for the keys.
"Out." Dubenko jerked his thumb towards the house indicating that he wanted Sophie to vacate the car.
"Why can't I drive?" She gave him a forced pout and batted her eyelashes.
"My car. Stop that. Besides, you don't know where you're going."
"I would if you'd give me directions."
"Out now." He stared at her intensely until Sophie sighed loudly and climbed over the gearshift to the passenger side of the car.
"Are you mad at me, Papa?" Her voice was soft, defeated.
"Mildly annoyed."
"I'm sorry."
"It's alright," he relented. He didn't want to argue while he was driving, nor did he want to dwell on the subject of his late wife any longer.
"So, is Dr. Abby working today?"
"Lockhart, and I really don't know." He glanced sideways at his daughter. "Why?"
"Just curious." She reached over and fiddled with the radio knobs, settling on something loud and largely unintelligible.
"Once again, Sophia, I remind you: this is my car." He pressed a preset button and returned the radio to the classical station. "That means this is also my radio. Don't touch it."
"Grouch."
"Monster."
They half-heartedly bickered for the remainder of the drive, and Sophie continued to change the radio station until Dubenko was annoyed enough to simply turn it off. As they pulled into the staff parking lot at County General Sophie grinned.
"Oh la de dah, look who has his own reserved parking space. Who'd you have to bribe for that privilege?"
"Funny."
She simply smiled at him as they made their way inside. Dubenko nodded at greetings thrown his way from various staff members and ushered Sophie towards the ER.
"I have rounds and then I've got a scheduled surgery with Anspaugh so you're on your own for a couple of hours, baby."
"Will you at least make time to have dinner with me?"
"Lest you perish from lack of proper nutrition yet again today, I suppose I will." He winked at her.
He stopped Sophie as they reached the admittance counter and introduced her to Jerry, the daytime ER clerk.
The gregarious man grinned, "Yeah I can see the family resemblance. Cool. You can hang out up here and help me harangue the med students. Hey, Abby." Jerry nodded as Lockhart began writing on the transparent board.
Dubenko winced as he saw Sophie's face light up with what could only be described as malicious glee. Wonderful. The gods are smiling on me today. Oh Sophie, don't do it. Please, I beg of you, be quiet for once. He silently pleaded with his daughter, his hazel eyes connecting with her identical ones.
Sophie bounced on her heels for a moment as if thinking and then strode over to the intern who was purposely ignoring Dubenko. "Hi!" Her tone was almost too cheerful as she greeted the older woman.
"Um, hi—" Abby started uncertainly looking at Sophie then Dubenko, not quite sure to make of the pair.
"I'm Sophia Dubenko. Nice to actually meet you, Papa's mentioned you often enough and now I have a face to go with the name." She grinned at Abby and ignored the daggers her father was glaring in her direction.
"Oh, um…really?" Lockhart shot a look over Sophie's should that made Dubenko want to slink away and die.
"Yeah, you know he isn't capable of talking about much other than work so I get an earful about med student snafus and the like. He's mentioned how cool it is that you've changed careers midstream and left nursing to be a doctor. Impressive."
Abby's look of derision changed to one of bewildered confusion. "Ah yes. It's what I always intended to do. If you'll excuse me, I have patients to see."
Sophie laughed and turned to blow a kiss at Dubenko. "Had you scared, didn't I?"
"You are walking home." Dubenko left his daughter standing there laughing as he went upstairs to begin his shift.