Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter twenty four - a hard day's night

Daisy and Calypso were usually in bed by the time Mark got off of his late night shifts.

That's the way it always was. The girls were far too sleepy to ever stay up past 10:00, so it was a no go for when he got off at midnight.

Naomi was always in the living room either watching TV or studying for her classes by the time Mark got home. Tonight it was the latter, her textbooks sprawled out on the coffee table.

Naomi looked incredibly tired as she watched Mark enter through the apartment door. She wasted no time in packing up her textbooks. Mark figured she was just eager to get home and get to bed.

"Everything good today?"

"Mhm. Perfect." Naomi confirmed as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "Er...slightly not perfect. Daisy has a cough."

Mark nodded as he made his way over to the kitchen, not finding the news even slightly surprising. "She got her flu vaccine yesterday, she might just be having a reaction."

Naomi was silent for a moment as she watched Mark. "It's a bad cough. I didn't want to give her medicine or anything because I wasn't sure but, um...it's a bad cough. It's a really bad cough."

You said that already, Mark wanted to chide.

He decided it was better to keep his mouth shut though. He knew that Naomi was just being protective, and he appreciated that. He didn't need to give her a hard time.

"I'll give her medicine, thank you." Mark nodded as he flipped through the mail pile sitting on his counter. "Goodnight."

Naomi echoed a goodnight back as she left for the night, shutting the apartment door behind her.

Everything was going the way that it usually did. Naomi had left for the night, the girls were in bed, Mark was flipping through his mail. He had grown so comfortable with the routine that they had established.

Something that wasn't apart of their routine though was Daisy's bedroom door creaking open, and Mark frowned. He hoped he hadn't woken her up by talking too loud.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway. Rather than coming and entering the kitchen like Mark thought Daisy would do, the footsteps ended fairly quickly.

Daisy let out some sort of horrible sound, something that made Mark put down the envelopes in his hands.

Mark followed the sound of Daisy's groans all the way to the hall bathroom, the vanity lights brightly illuminating an image of Daisy keeled over the toilet.

Mark frowned, taking note that Daisy was definitely vomiting. "Uh...are you good?"

Daisy's vomiting ceased momentarily as she narrowed her eyes, slowly turning to Mark with the most contemptuous look on her face. "Do I look good to you, Mark?"

Daisy didn't look good in the slightest. Her face was pale and incredibly flushed, her forehead matted with sweat.

"I guess not." Mark grimaced, Daisy groaning as she lowered her head for round two.

Her stomach was tearing her apart, and the cough she'd had for the past couple hours had seriously convinced her that she was about to hack up one of her lungs.

"Do you want water? Or, uh...I don't know, medicine?" Mark was trying his best to be helpful, but Daisy only groaned again. She couldn't possibly listen to him talk a second longer as she sat there.

Daisy sat back on her knees, her eyes shut tightly as she reached up to wipe the perspiration from her forehead. "I'm...hot. It's hot. Can you turn the temperature down? I feel like I'm baking in here."