All I Want Is This

38

Alicia slowly started opening her eyes, adjusting them to the dim light of the dawn. She rubbed the back of her hands against her eyes and let out a yawn before she stood up.

Doughnut, sleeping beside her in bed, lifted its head and looked at Alicia.

"It's today now," Alicia told him with a smile.

She rubbed her eyes again and looked out the window. As she was waking more, the smile was growing bigger on her face. Alicia crawled out of the quilt to the edge of the bed, muttering, "It's today now."

Landing on the floor, she swiftly slipped her feet in her slippers and ran out of the room with Doughnut on her tail. She crossed the hall and stopped in front of her parents' bedroom door. She smiled and grabbed the doorknob with her hands, twisting it quietly and entering the room. From there, Alicia ran to the big bed, grabbed two full hands of the blanket and crawled up in bed.

Her presence was immediately noticed by her father, who rolled onto his back, moaning. "Go to sleep, Al."

Alicia smiled and made herself room between Mark and Meredith, patting her father's stomach. "It's today."

"Hmm," Mark sighed sleepily. "What's today?"

"Today. Today is today," Alicia answered casually.

"Ok, but what's today?" Mark groaned, irritated with the disturbance at that early hour.

"Today is today," Meredith replied crankily as Alicia and Mark's odd chat woke her up.

Mark rolled over, facing Alicia, and grabbed her by a leg as he pulled her down beside him. "Go back to sleep. You're dreaming."

Alicia giggled and rolled over to face her father too. She grabbed his nose and laughed. "I am not dreaming. I am not sleeping."

"Yes you are," Mark protested and grabbed her hand off his face.

"No," she laughed, more amused now. "You're sleeping. I am not."

"Then go back to sleep," he groaned.

"We have to go. Today is today."

Meredith groaned too and turned her face away from them. "Make her go away," she grumbled.

"Go away, Al," replied sleepily, still holding his eyes closed.

"Today is today..." Alicia stopped briefly as Meredith groaned again at that expression. "When we go shopping for dress. That's what you said yesterday," she remembered him the conversation they had had on the bathroom floor two days before.

Mark opened one eye and looked up to see outside the window. He let his head fall back on pillow. "It's not even light outside. There's no sun on the sky."

Alicia struggled to sit up and looked out the window as well. She turned and looked down at her Daddy then, saying, "It always rains. It's never sun. But it's today, Daddy."

Mark opened his eyes and gave a stern look to his daughter. "As you can see, Meredith and I are still sleepy. Please go and do something in your room or stay here and go back to sleep."

Alicia stared at him for a moment as she considered her options. She crawled over Mark and then off the bed, saying, "I am going to do something... in my room," she hopped down and motioned for the dog to follow her outside.

Pleased with the result, Mark scooted closer to Meredith and brought her into his arms.

"Thanks," Meredith moaned sleepily.

Mark placed a kiss on her cheek and rested his forehead against her cheek as he drifted back to sleep.

With no alarm set, Mark was lucky he had the day off from work. The sun was shining brightly on the sky, sinking the room into a blindly light as well. He rubbed his eyes and rolled over, checking the time. It was half past 9 already. Closing his eyes back, his thoughts drifted to Alicia immediately. She must have been by herself for at least 3 hours already. Then he knew he had to wake up too. Besides, today was today- as Alicia had repetitively told him earlier- and he had a lot of things to do.