"Morning, Sunshine," Mark whispered into my ear, trying to wake me up.

"No," I mumbled, pulling the pillow over my head.

"I have a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" I sat up immediately.

For the last few weeks, Mark had been a completely different person. He was constantly surprising me with little things at the hospital, or taking me out to dinner. One night, I opened the door to his place, and was greeted with the smell of Italian cuisine. He actually cooked. By himself! Granted, it was salad, spaghetti, and bread, nothing fancy. Before that, however, I'd never even seen the man touch a stove or oven. He was spoiling me, and it was nice.

"Yes, surprise. Now, get your lazy ass out of bed!" he swatted my backside before picking me up out his king size sleigh bed.

"Where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise!"

"Would you stop saying that already! You're worse than a kid!"

He carried me through the apartment and deposited me on the couch. I crossed my arms and pouted, demanding to be told what was going on. Mark simply rolled his eyes and muttered something about red heads not having any patience. Then he handed me a cup of coffee.

"I have to get ready for work."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do. Mark this has gone on long enough. What is going on?"

"Wait for it."

"I'm tired of waiting!"

"Listen up, you little fireball. You're going to find out in about…" The demanding tone of my pager cut him off.

"See. I have to go to work!" I stared at the number on my pager.

"Damn it, Addison. Answer the page."

After calling my chief at Mount Sinai, I turned to look at Mark who was grinning like a little boy on Christmas morning.

"Surprise!" he yelled, looking more excited than the Easter bunny on crack, on Christmas morning in Disneyland with a gallon of ice-cream.

"I have a day off? That's my surprise?"

"We both have the day off."

"What did you do?"

"I called the chief and told her you didn't feel well."

"Mark! You know I don't like to do that. I don't want to be punished by actually getting sick."

"Go with it, okay. I have a fun day planned. Starting with breakfast."

It was then that I noticed a wonderful smell coming from Mark's minuscule kitchen. I followed the scent to find freshly baked cream cheese and banana nut muffins, Chai tea, and organic milk.

"I even remembered to get organic milk!" he said, noticing my glance at the bottle.

"Thank-you. What are we doing after breakfast?"

"It's a surprise. How many times do I have to say that?" he replied, putting a piece of banana nut muffin into my mouth.

Then he pulled me onto his lap and continued to feed me bites of muffin. Instead of putting a piece into his mouth, I popped it into my own.

"No fair," he whined, kissing my cheek with a milk mustache.

"Eww."

We finished breakfast, and Mark rushed me through my morning routine. When I reached for my typical skirt, he put his hand over mine. Instead, he pulled out a Johns Hopkins t-shirt and told me to find a pair of jeans.

"You do own jeans, don't you?" he asked.

"It's too hot. Can I wear Capri pants?"

"As long as they can get a little dirty."

I pulled on a pair of jean Capris and pink Crocs. Mark grimaced at the sight of the Crocs and asked for the thousandth time why I liked them. Then, he pulled me out the door. We walked down the street and ended up at the zoo. I looked at Mark with raised eyebrows as he pulled out his wallet to pay for admission. For a couple of hours, we wandered through the zoo, eating ice-cream cones and enjoying not thinking about the hospital for a while. It was more fun than I remembered. I hadn't been to a zoo since about the seventh grade. We watched the dolphins splash and play. After that, we went into the reptile house, where I promptly closed my eyes and refused to look until Mark assured me we were back outside. We laughed at the monkeys, and I told Mark he looked like one of them. He swatted me on the backside again and said I had more grace than the dolphins. It was about five minutes after he said that, that I caught my foot in a break in the pavement and fell into the dirt, pulling him with me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded, trying to ignore the pain in my right ankle. He took one look at my face, and began checking me over. He noticed my slightly swollen ankle and picked me up off the dirt.

"See, I told you we might get dirty. How about I give you a piggy-back ride for a while?"

"It doesn't hurt too much. I'm okay."

"Are you ready for lunch?" he maneuvered me so that I was riding on his back.

"Yup."

We made our way out of the zoo, stopping in the gift shop for some rock candy and a stuffed monkey. After lunch at a delicatessen near the zoo, we went horseback riding in the park and flew kites. When the kites had gotten tangled for about the tenth time, we gave up and lay down on the grass. For a long time, we lay silently, holding hands and looking up at the brilliant blue sky. It had been a perfect day, more fun than I'd had in a long time.

"This has been fun," I said with a sigh. "But I'm getting tired. I think I'm too old to pretend to be a kid."

"We only have one more stop before dinner at the apartment. Is your ankle up to it?"

"It's fine now. Just a little tender."

"Okay, then, we are going whale watching," Mark kissed my sunburned nose.

Usually I love ferry boats, but by the time we got on this one, I was exhausted. We hadn't been out to sea long when we spotted the first whale, but it was about that time when I began to feel a little weak. I tried to focus on the whales, but my head started feeling really fuzzy.

"Mark," I half whined, half cried before running toward the ladies' room.

"Addie?" he knocked on the door a few minutes later. "Are you okay?"

"Just a little motion-sick."

"You've been on boats dozens of times. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just really tired. Can we go home now?"

"Soon, sweetie," he replied, pulling me into his arms.

He held me (or my hair) until the boat returned to Manhattan Island. Putting his arm around my waist, he helped me walk to the waiting limousine. When we were back at his place, he tucked me into bed and kissed my forehead. Then he turned out the light.

"Let me know if you need anything. I'm going to put dinner away for tomorrow."

"Okay," I mumbled before drifting off to sleep, exhausted but still happy. "Thanks for the wonderful day."