Not surprisingly at all, Olive was grounded. A combination of factors, such as hiding a crow's nest under her sister's crib, throwing vegetables on the floor when her parents weren't looking, drawing on her bed's wood, putting the baby's pacifier on the cat, or cutting up Arleth's clothes to dress her dolls; had resulted in her being deprived of everything she loved to do. She couldn't go out to the garden, watch TV or play on the computer, use her parents' cellphone, eat any Halloween candy, or go to her friends' houses. She couldn't even eat pizza or french fries for a month. Basically, she couldn't do anything.

It was Wednesday afternoon, her father hadn't returned from work yet, and Addison had fallen asleep after putting Arleth to sleep. Lately, it was always the same, her mother spent the majority of her time with the baby. Sometimes she wondered if she wasn't a tick or an extension of her body, since she was always attached to her, literally.

She watched the baby sleeping between two pillows in the middle of the bed with annoyance. Arleth was the one to blame for everything, yet she was the one being punished. Arleth spent her time screaming, crying, getting dirty, making her parents argue, or preventing them from sleeping well. But who got punished? Her. It wasn't fair.

"Mom..." she said, moving Addison's arm. She was hungry and already knew that she would get punished again if she got up to find something in the pantry.

"Hmm..." Addison said without opening her eyes.

"I'm hungry."

"I'm coming..." she responded automatically. In reality, she fell asleep again as soon as she finished speaking.

Olive sighed impatiently, knowing that she wouldn't wake up.

Arleth was starting to wake up again, maybe not even twenty minutes had passed since she last fell asleep and she was already awake again. Didn't she ever get tired of always doing the same thing?

Olive looked at her without saying anything. She knew that if Arleth called her, Addison would respond. Because she was the only one her mother paid attention to. But to her surprise, her mother didn't wake up. It was as if she didn't hear her sister's cries. Or she was ignoring both of them or... was she dead?

She was a little scared at first, so she opened one eye and when Addison removed her hand from her face, she realized she was okay. Just so tired that she fell asleep again.

"Arleth, be quiet. Mom wants to sleep and you don't let her. You never let anyone sleep, you're unbearable."

The baby didn't care about what her sister said, she kept crying anyway.

Olive put her pacifier in her mouth and she stopped sobbing. But she was still awake and looked at her annoyed, wanting to be picked up.

"I can't pick you up, Mom will get mad..."

She looked at her mother again and in the state she was in, she deduced that she wouldn't notice if she picked her up. So she grabbed her by the torso and lifted her up.

She was much heavier than she remembered, but she hugged her tightly and got off the bed with her in her arms.

"It's okay, let's go to the playroom. But you will have to be patient because you weigh too much."

Olive sat on the edge of the first step, knowing that she wouldn't be able to go down the stairs with the baby in her arms. So she went down one by one, sitting and holding onto the handrail without letting go of her little sister.

It took a long time to get downstairs. And once there, she took her to the playroom. Arleth looked at everything in silence as if she knew she had to be her sister's accomplice.

"We can play Mommy," she said, placing her in a toy stroller that she used for her dolls. "Let's go for a walk, baby."

She started to walk around the room, singing lullabies or Disney princess songs that she loved, and once she got tired of that, she went through the rest of the house. The movement made Arleth calm and at no time did she threaten to cry. Olive was grateful for that because she didn't know how to calm her when she screamed.

"Are you hungry? Because I am. I'll go see what's in the fridge."

She opened the door and took out orange juice and a yogurt for herself and, as she had already learned her lesson, she also took one of Arley's reserve bottles with breast milk that Addison kept. She closed the door and returned with her little sister.

"I brought your bottle," she said as she removed the top and placed it in her mouth.

It was too cold for Arleth, she always took it at room temperature, so at first she was scared.

"Shhh, don't cry. You like milk, right?" she whispered softly as she held the bottle with one hand and her juice with the other. She squeezed the bottle firmly, not allowing her to spit it out.

Maybe it wasn't the way Arleth would have liked the milk, but she ended up drinking it. A bit because she was forced and a little because she got used to it. And once Olive had both hands free, she took a spoon and ate her yogurt.

"Oh, no. I can't give you that. Mom will ground me again if you die. You can only drink milk."

She put the pacifier in her mouth and watched her as she finished eating.

"Mom took away the remote control and we can't watch cartoons," she said, sitting on the sofa in the living room and placing her next to her. "What do you want to play? I spy...? Yes? Hey, don't fall asleep... Arley!" She opened her eyes once they had closed, and the baby started to cry.

Olive held the pacifier firmly in her mouth so she wouldn't spit it out, but her sister kept crying worse.

"It's okay, if you want to sleep, you can sleep. But stop crying..." She looked quickly towards the stairs in case her mother came, but no. Addison apparently was still asleep.

Olive got off the sofa, went to the playroom, brought a bunch of colorful stuffed animals, and placed them one after another next to her sister, so she would stop crying. At first, it seemed like it wouldn't work, but when she brought a lion with bells, the baby was hypnotized looking at it and had forgotten that she was crying.

"Do you like it? Dad gave it to me when we went to Disney... we'll go back someday, he said. And you'll be able to go on the rides... I couldn't go on all the rides because I was too short... and Mom didn't let me either. Mom is boring sometimes, she never lets me go on the most fun ones. But with Dad, we got on a train that went on the water... and then with her, we got on another train...it was a roller coaster, but it wasn't the biggest one. That one Aunt Amy rode... she said that when I'm 13 she would ride it with me..." she told her without stopping showing her the plush.

Olive loved to tell stories, she had no problem talking for hours, while Arley gradually closed her eyes as she listened to what her sister was saying.

~•~

"Trauma 2's available" Owen said to Derek. There had been a serious accident with multiple injured people arriving in several ambulances at the same time.

"What happened?" Derek asked, walking quickly into the emergency room.

"Restaurant roof collapsed," Callie said to Derek. "Yeah, so far penetrating abdominal injury, a sucking chest wound and a massive head wound. Also there's an open fracture on the way. Do you want me to-…"

"Chief Shepherd!" April said, quickly approaching him.

"Kepner? Oh, you're still here" Derek said.

"If you're here, I'm here," she said. "There's an OHSA investigator waiting for you in the lobby, and there's also two TV crews who are asking for a statement. I told'em to wait for you. They're setting up outside."

"We cleared the OR board," Callie interrupt her, approaching quickly, "Also, I paged Bailey, Amelia, Altman, Hagan, and Sloan,"

"As soon as I have all of the numbers… I'll look for..." April said nervously.

"Do you want to get anybody else?" Callie asked at the same time.

"Stop! Who do I see first?" Derek said.

"The OHSA guy," April replied.

"Skull fracture, trauma one," Callie said at the same time.

"Chart, please" Derek went in that direction. He requested the medical history, examined the patient, looked at his images, and made his diagnosis.

"Try to get as many people as possible off the backboards! Clear C-spines clinically, but if you're not sure, wait for X-ray no matter how backed up they are!" shouted Owen.

"Hey, hold the elevator!" Bailey asked.

"Uh, bring the chart, please! It's a depressed skull fracture with a subdural hematoma. All right? Let's book an OR," Derek exclaimed, taking off his latex gloves and throwing them into the trash can.

"Chief!" Arizona said as soon as she saw him leave the room.

"Yes?"

"I need you to sign a transfer authorization for a child to Seattle Pres."

"Okay," he said, signing while hurrying along.

"Dr. Shepherd, the reporters are waiting for a statement!" April approached with a clipboard in her hands.

"I have a surgery."

"Well, actually, Dr. Amelia Shepherd said she can take care of the skull fracture. You've got the trustee's breakfast in the morning, and when the trustees turn on the 11:00 news, it's your face they'll want to see"

Derek sighed tiredly.

"Watch it! Clear the hallway!" a voice was heard shouting from outside. Then a paramedic entered with an unconscious patient on a stretcher.

"Careful, excuse me! Coming through!"

"I got the arm!" Jackson yelled.

"What do you got?" Owen asked.

"Traumatic amputation through the left distal humerus, controlled through pressure. Got ten of morphine. Vital signs are stable." a paramedic woman said.

"Ok, let's get him in trauma 3! Put him on a monitor and push two of O-neg! Grey, Avery, you're with me" Owen said.

Derek listened to the voices of all the staff working in the emergency room and started to feel dizzy. It was a chaos of people coming and going, shouting, moving severely injured patients, intubating, sedating, and injecting. Too much for his tired brain to process.

Arleth had been up all night with colic, and Addison was not the only one who had slept badly. He was also exhausted and dazed by the situation.

"Chief Shepherd?" April said, snapping him out of his trance.

Derek looked at her, took the black blazer she offered, and quickly put it on to go speak with the eager press waiting at the hospital exit.

"Shepherd!"

"What happened with the accident?"

"How many injured are there?"

"How many dead? Dr. Shepherd!"

~•~

Addison woke up still tired.

She looked at her bedside clock, and the hands showed 6:30 pm. Had she slept that long? She got up quickly and looked around, but couldn't find the baby. She remembered leaving her sleeping on the bed beside her, and she was no longer there. She wasn't in her crib either.

"Derek?" she called out down the hallway. Maybe he had arrived and had taken the baby, but he hadn't. "Olive? Olive are you up?" she kept shouting.

She walked to her older daughter's room, but nothing. Then she went to Arleth's room, but she wasn't there either. She was starting to get desperate.

"Derek? Amelia?" she shouted as she hurried down the stairs. "Derek?"

She turned towards the living room sofa and saw Olive reading a storybook and Arleth sleeping next to her, covered with one of her sister's blankets.

"Why is the baby here, Olive? Where's your father?" she asked, still agitated.

"I don't know."

"Hasn't he arrived?"

"Nope."

"And why is your sister here? Who brought her?"

"I did. She was crying."

"You carried the baby up the stairs by yourself?!"

"Yes, but I sat down."

"Olive! You cannot carry the baby without an adult supervising you! Especially not down the stairs! You could have fallen, both of you! My God..."

"We didn't fall."

"You barely avoided falling! What am I going to do with you, Olive? How can I make you understand that you can't do whatever you want? Especially if you involve your sister in your antics!"

"It wasn't an antic, we were playing."

"She's not even two months old! She doesn't know how to play. You should never have done this! You put her life at risk, again!"

Olive's eyes began to fill with tears as her mother scolded her. Why was she being scolded so harshly if she hadn't done anything wrong?

"But I gave her the bottle from the fridge and she fell asleep..." she said in a low voice.

"You can't give her a bottle straight from the fridge! It's too cold for her, she's not used to this temperature!"

"She drank it all and she liked it..."

"What else did you do? Did you bathe her? Change her diaper? Did you toss her in the air to see if she could fly?" she said angrily.

"No."

"You can't play with her as if she's a doll, do you hear me? Never, ever take her out of my bed without my permission again!"

"Okay."

"I don't know what to do with you. You have no limits, Olive. Isn't it enough to be punished every day of your life? What else do I have to do for you to behave? Do I have to tie you to the foot of your bed to control you?"

"I'm sorry," she said, now crying.

"It doesn't seem like you're sorry. Every day you do something new, every day. I don't even know what else to take away from you, I don't know what to do with you anymore."

They heard a key in the front door, and it opened, making both of them turn to see who it was. It was Derek, looking tired and sighing as he heard Addison scolding the girl again. Lately, it was the only thing he heard when he got home.

"What happened? What did she do now?" he asked.

"She took Arleth out of our bed and brought her to the living room, by herself. She went down the stairs with the baby as if she were just another toy."

Derek sighed and threw his coat and briefcase on the sofa.

"Your mother is right, Olive. You shouldn't do that. Go to your room."

"But Daddy!" she exclaimed, crying.

"To your room."

"Let me explain!"

"Your sister is not a toy, you can't do whatever you want with her. You're grounded."

"But I'm already grounded!"

"Congratulations then, you have another punishment to add to your collection," he said, with a more irritated tone.

"It's not fair!" she yelled as she went upstairs crying.

Derek rubbed his nose bridge with his fingers, tired. He had had too much at the hospital to deal with his daughter now. All he wanted was peace.

"I don't know what to do with Olive," Addison said, still upset.

"Where were you when she took the baby in her arms?"

"Excuse me? Are you accusing me of something, Derek?"

"I don't know, Addison. Should I be accusing you?"

"I was asleep! I thought Arleth was sleeping beside me and it turns out she wasn't. Now I can't even take a nap when I had the baby literally inches from my face?"

"Well, knowing that your other daughter is a walking disaster, no. You can't sleep and let her do whatever she wants. And I'm not just saying that for Arleth, I'm saying it because she could hurt herself or break something. Part of the neglect today was your fault. Just like the gummy incident, which wouldn't have happened if you hadn't left them alone."

"Go to hell."

"If I could, I would."

"I know, you never hesitate to leave when everything gets out of control." She picked up the baby from the couch and went upstairs with her.

Derek clenched his eyes with anger and went to the cabinet to pour himself a glass of scotch. He took two or three shots until he felt his body finally begin to relax.