𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙎; 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙨𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙣

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"Nothing has happened to her, she's probably hiding somewhere away from everyone because what's happening is getting in her head. She will come back in few hours and she will be just fine. She's just not thinking right now." Mark tried to comfort her. "She knows she's lucky to have a mother like you. You care about her and I can see that you love her more than anything. And she knows that. Don't you think that she could've gotten scared of the threat to be away from you?"

"How do you do that? How are you so good at calming people down?" She wondered and then her phone went off. She saw her mom's name. "Hey Ma. I am coming home, I didn't have much luck anywhere."

"She's fine, she's here."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"Natalie." Cara opened the door when Natalie and Mark arrived. "I want you to stay calm, okay?" She warned her daughter about what was coming. "Yelling won't fix anything right now."

"I am very calm." Natalie said through her teeth and walked inside, leaving Mark by the door.

Cara looked away from her daughter and at Mark. Scanning him up and down. "I'm sorry, who are you?" She asked him.

Mark opened his mouth to introduce himself, but Natalie didn't let him speak. "He's with me." She said as she disappeared in the living room. 

"You don't have a name or something?" Cara asked, not satisfied with her daughter's answer. Natalie was an adult, but that didn't mean that Cara wouldn't run a test to whoever was close to her daughter. 

"I'm Mark Sloan ma'am, plastic surgeon." Mark offered the older woman his hand to shake. And with the way she was looking at him, he finally understood who Natalie got her famous glare from.

"Cara O'Connor." Cara shook his hand and continued looking at him suspiciously. Natalie had talked about most of her colleagues with her. But not Mark. Mark was not someone she talked about with her mother. "Natalie's mother." She added.

"Should we make sure that Natalie is not losing her tempt in there?" Mark suggested, even though he wanted to impress Natalie's mother somehow, tell her how great her daughter is and how much he cared about her. And stuff that would make Cara talk to Natalie about him. But he was worried about how she was handling everything.

And then they heard her yelling. "Where on earth have you been?" They walked inside the living room. Amber was sitting on the couch hugging her knees. She looked at her mother guiltily, knowing that what she did was way out of line. She didn't sneak out of the window because she wanted to make them worry, but because she needed to escape for few hours. So she somehow ended up on the rooftop of Tom's house; the boy next door that she had a crush on. "Do you know how worried we were? We were looking everywhere for you."

"I-I just wanted some fresh air and I knew you wouldn't let me leave after our fight. And I-I was just across the street with Tom, on his rooftop." 

"On the rooftop? Are you lying to me Amber? You are afraid of heights." Natalie pointed out and crossed her arms on her chest. "You better tell me the truth. Is this about the custody? I asked you what you wanted Amber, I needed to know what you truly wanted, but all I got is you giving me the silence treatment and sneaking out of the house like you are captured in here."

"I-I'm not lying mom, I promise." Amber sank in her seat, feeling more and more scared of her mother.

"Hey, why don't you sleep it off and talk about it tomorrow with clear heads?" Mark talked quietly, he knew that he shouldn't be in there but he wanted to make sure that things would be okay with Natalie.