"Daddy when can we go to the spinny horse?" asked Ellyse.
"The spinny horse?" Derek chuckled as he looked at his daughter sat swinging her legs from the stools.
"Yeah, the ones at the spark with the lights and the music."
"The carousel?"
"Yeah!" she clapped her hands.
Derek laughed as he watched the excitement take over her face at the thought of going on the carousel. His day was clear and so was the sky so they had decided that whilst Meredith was working a 20-hour shift, they would have a daddy-daughter day. He adored spending time with his daughter and from the smile on her face, she loved spending time with him just as much, the thought made his heart burst with pride. However, he couldn't help but feel incomplete even as his daughter sat opposite him. When he woke up this morning, Meredith had already left for work and wouldn't be back until the early hours the next morning so he hadn't got to see her or talk to her yet, he was surprised that he didn't wake up when she left or want already awake but he knew she'd call whenever she could.
Today he would focus on spending time with his daughter and appreciate the time he got to spend with her because, with his job, he didn't get to do it as much as he would like. As soon as they were both ready and had their shoes and jackets on, they left. Derek decided that they would walk rather than drive because it was a nice day and he wanted to savour their quality time together.
"Will mommy be here too?" Ellyse asked as she held his big hand with her small one.
"No honey, it's just the two of us today. We'll see mommy tomorrow after work." he smiled.
"Cause she's being a surgeoner?" she asked innocently.
"That's right Ells." watching as she nodded, her brow furrowing ever so slightly that one wouldn't even have noticed.
"You okay?" he asked gently.
"Do I have to be a surgeoner too daddy? Cause you're my daddy and you're a surgeoner and mommy is, and gg."
"Do you want to?" he knew it was a stupid question to ask a 6-year-old but he was curious as to what was going on in her mind.
"I want to help the puppies and the cats, and the horsies."
"A vet?" he inquired, her confirming his question.
"You can be a vet Ells, you can be anything you want to be."
"That's what mommy said."
"Mommy's right."
"And I want to be a singer..and work at the ice cream shop." she chuckled as she began to skip.
He just laughed at her crazy, impractical but innocent thoughts, he wished she would stay this innocent forever.
"I think I can see the carousel." his eyebrows rising as he looked at her with a grin.
"Where daddy?! Where?!"
"There." he pointed behind the trees teasingly, knowing that she wouldn't be able to see that far.
"I can't see it!" she stomped her foot, she was definitely her mothers daughter he thought.
He picked her up to help her see the carousel in the distance watching as she shouted and pointed in the direction towards it. his daughter reminded him so much of her mother, which sounded silly but she did, they were much more alike than anyone noticed. God help him in 10 years, he thought.
Once they reached the carousel and Derek paid for Ellyse to go on, he stood in-front and watched her, taking photos to show Meredith later on.
Meredith was having the day from hell at the hospital, she had lost both of her surgical patients before 1pm, was drowning in post-op's and was being paged what seemed like every minute by the nurses. Every time she got a moment to herself, the ring would go off and she'd be back in the chaos.
Her second patient from this morning was a little girl, 8-years-old, suffering from leukaemia. She was one of Meredith's favourite patients but during surgery she started haemorrhaging and there was nothing they could do to stop the bleeding. She died at 12:02pm, and if that wasn't the worst part, she was responsible for telling her parents. It made her think of Ellyse and how her whole world would fall apart if she lost her but she quickly shook that thought out of her head when she felt her stomach turn at the thought. Her daughter was healthy, and she was so grateful.
Taking her phone out of the pocket of her scrubs, she entered an on-call room only to walk straight back out as it was... occupied. She grimaced before going towards the elevator and down to the entrance of the hospital, where she took one of the seats and pulled out her phone, instantly relaxing when she heard his voice.
"Hey you."
"Hi." she breathed.
"How's your shift going? Any good surgeries to tell the junkie intern?" he joked.
She scoffed, "I lost both my patients."
"Oh, Mer, I'm sorry." it was a horrible feeling losing a patient and she'd lost two 8 hours into her shift.
"Yeah, me too. A 22-year-old and an 8-year-old."
"I'm sorry."
"How's Ellyse?" she asked.
"She's good, we've been to the carousel in the park and now we've just stopped for some food."
"Do you want to talk to her?" He offered.
"Yes. Please." She said sighing.
Meredith heard muffing sounds over the phone, and heard him telling her that she was on the phone waiting for her.
"Hi mommy!" Ellyse shouted, Meredith could feel her grin through the phone.
"Hi baby girl, are you being good for daddy?"
"Yeah, we got McDonald's mommy and I got a book in the box!"
She feigned surprise, "you did? Wow, that must be a really special meal for big girls."
"Yeah." She then heard Ellyse talking to Derek.
"Daddy we need to watch the fishes... the one in the big building... no daddy, the water in the wall.. yeah! The accurium!" She mispronounced and Meredith's heart swelled.
Just as she was about to respond, her pager went off and she groaned, her heavenly moment interrupted.
"Ells, I have to go okay? Be good for daddy. I love you." She blew kisses through the phone.
"Love you mommy" she said loudly before ending the call.
Meredith quickly dragged herself up and headed to the pit for the emergency trauma she'd been paged for. The ambulance bay was filled as 3 ambulance with flashing flights pulled up and instantly everyone switched to doctor mode, she tied her trauma gown and got to work.
Her patient was a 43-year-old women, a splenic bleed and grade 3 concussion after being in a car accident with her husband and two sons. She didn't have the status of her family but after rushing her into surgery, she was certain that bar any post op complications, the woman would be physically fine, sore, but no long term complications. She scrubbed in with Dr.Brown, who the whole time was bashing the woman who reportedly wasn't wearing her seatbelt as she sat in the passenger seat.
"Have a little compassion." She muttered under her breath.
"Do you have something to say, Grey?" The older woman turned to her.
"No. Nothing." Meredith said, it wasn't worth the arguing or the lectures from her boss.
"Really? I could of sworn I heard your grating voice."
Meredith gritted her teeth, she wouldn't let her get to her. Dr Brown was a hardcore, grade A bitch, but she was a damn good surgeon, she reminded Meredith of her mother, minus the skill that Ellis had.
"Your lucky that your even in this programme, everyone knows why your here Dr Grey." She said emphasising her surname.
Stay calm Meredith, she thought to herself.
"And knowing that, I'd have expected you to do everything you can to stay in this programme, meaning your respect, or there lack off, for your superiors, should be superior, in exchange for what knowledge you have." She snickered.
The nurses in the scrub room were uncomfortable, it was obvious. The tension was ready to burst the room and no one wanted to move.
"My mother has nothing to do with why I'm here. I got here on my own, so in the future I'd prefer for you to keep your opinions to yourself, or at least fact check what you think you know about me, with me. Respectfully." She finally said, watching as the surgeon narrowed her eyes at her.
"You're done here Grey. Get out of my OR." she waved her hand towards Meredith.
"Gladly." Meredith muttered as she pulled her mask from her face.
Derek heard Meredith coming in at 2am the next morning and five minutes later she appeared in front of him at their bedroom door.
"Hey." He whispered, scaring her a little.
"Oh, your still awake." She whispered back, starting to undress for her pyjamas.
"Yeah, I heard you come in." He stretched.
"I didn't mean to wake you." She smiled.
"It's okay. I missed you." He pulled the duvet back for her to climb in next to him.
"I missed you too." She muttered snuggling into his chest and sighing.
His hands stroked the back of her head and his fingers began to play with her hair slowly, as she sighed in content.
"I got my ass kicked by Brown today." She said quietly.
"You what?"
"We had a confrontation during surgery."
Derek tried to lift her head up but she wrapped her arms around him tighter and refused to pick her head up from his chest.
"Tired. Talk tomorrow." She muttered before her breathing quickly relaxed and she fell into a deep sleep.