Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter twenty one - a breakdown

Daisy would be lying if she said that she had the worst Christmas ever.

It had been relatively good. Happy even, a drastic turn-around from last Christmas.

Daisy was still guarded of course, waiting for Mark to drop a bombshell on the girls.

But Christmas had passed, and the new year was rapidly approaching. Daisy wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. The girls never made it to Christmas with a placement, much less after.

Everything felt happy for a few days. Calypso was very happy, of course, she always was. Even Daisy felt relatively happy.

But Daisy was not happy to find out that Mark was dragging the girls to a Christmas party a few days after Christmas.

Based off what Daisy knew, Christmas parties were loud and crowded and there was lots of alcohol. Daisy and alcohol were a big no-no because of her experience with Mr. Walter, and she sort of hoped Mark wouldn't purposefully drag her into that.

Daisy trudged along behind Mark and Calypso as they walked up the sidewalk of the Grey-Shepherd household.

Daisy had already tried to convince Mark to let her stay home, but the answer had been a blatant no. Apparently there would be other kids there, and it would be "good for her to socialize".

What did Mark know? Daisy socialized. Daisy socialized with people far more than she wished to. If it was up to her, she would hide forever from the rest of the world under her blankets.

The house that they walked up to was decked out with Christmas decorations. It was also incredibly large, and Daisy was convinced that it was less of a house and more of a borderline-mansion type of thing.

Another thing that Daisy noted as they walked inside of the house was that it was loud, and there were a lot of people.

Granted, she knew the vast majority of these people, but it still didn't change the fact that her anxiety instantly skyrocketed.

"Sloan!" Jackson was the first person to acknowledge Mark from across the room, holding up a glass filled with dark liquid that looked suspiciously like alcohol, something that made Daisy even more uneasy.

Mark held up a hand in a gesture that told the man to wait a moment as he led the girls upstairs.

The second floor was much quieter and much more peaceful than the first, and Daisy liked it.

They stopped when they reached a door at the end of the hall, a room that Daisy figured had to be Zola's playroom. It was littered with toys and dolls and all sorts of coloring pages.

Calypso had no problem walking right inside of the room and making herself comfortable. She seemed pretty excited about all the toys that she was spotting.

Daisy couldn't quite do the same though. There were only two other kids in here, one of them being Zola. Daisy knew the couple hours that they were here would drag on at the speed of molasses.

Zola was little, Calypso was little, the other boy in here looked to be little too. Daisy felt incredibly out of place as she stood in the doorway, she felt too old.

She also felt kind of offended that Mark was just sticking her here. It felt a whole lot like being stuck at the kid's table on Thanksgiving.

"Do I have to stay in here?" Daisy mumbled, surveying the room of children's toys.

"You'll have a blast." Mark spoke in an incredibly unconvincing manner, something that made Daisy question that statement. "Have fun, knock yourselves out. Don't take that into literal context. I'll be downstairs."