Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter fifty four - a father's day

Daisy let her feet swing from where she was sat on the kitchen barstool, mindlessly picking apart the crust from her toast as she rambled.

"I think bread should be a food group," Daisy explained the thoughts in her head, popping a piece of her toast into her mouth. "I mean, I know grains are a food group, and I guess that acts as an umbrella category for all the breads, and the pastas and the bagels. But they should have their own food group, you know? Bread is good. Carbs are good."

Callie only smiled, eating her breakfast too. Daisy had been talking all morning about topics ranging from her hatred for middle school to her slight fear of balloons to the importance of bread and carbohydrates.

The scattered topics were Daisy's attempts to get her mind thinking about something other than the sad holiday, and Callie knew that. Daisy missed her dad, and Callie had no problem discussing carbohydrates rather than dead fathers.

"There are carbohydrates in fruits, too. Not just the breads and pastas."

Daisy nodded at that, peeling the outside of her banana back. "I like carbs. I think they're sort of my new favorite thing."

The girl glanced at the clock strung up on the kitchen wall as she took a bite of her banana. Daisy and Callie had to leave in five minutes for the hospital, so that Daisy could go to psychiatry and Callie could go to work. And Daisy would have a good session, and leave with Mark who was already at the hospital working.

It was such a good routine they'd built up. Daisy was so comfortable with it.

Callie cleared her throat as she took in the sight of Daisy eating. Daisy didn't eat when she was nervous, so Callie thought that was a good sign. Daisy's body was eased rather than tensed, the girl's legs swinging mindlessly as she sat upright. Daisy wasn't physically closed off at all, and Callie thought she was in the right mood to have a more serious conversation.

"I bought you a card."

Daisy was only used to receiving cards on birthdays, and the girl felt slightly confused. Daisy's birthday was in October, not June.

"It's not my birthday."

"I know that," Callie smiled, shaking her head slightly. "I bought it for you to give to Mark."

"It's not Mark's birthday, either."

Callie only let out a quiet laugh as Daisy sat confused, biting off another wad of her banana.

"For Father's Day."

Daisy stopped chewing, ceasing the swinging of her legs. She furrowed her eyebrows as she struggled to talk with a full mouth.

"What?"

Callie immediately noted the rigidness in Daisy's posture. She wasn't swinging her legs happily and eating her breakfast at a mindless rate. Daisy sat upright and stiff with a mouthful of food she was too distracted to swallow, wide alarmed eyes staring back at Callie. Callie had panicked Daisy, and she attempted to backtrack.

"You don't have to give it to him," Callie immediately clarified, pulling the white envelope and tiny card from her bag. "I just saw it in the store and picked it up, I thought it would be easier to get it when I saw it instead of us running around trying to find one. You do not have to give it to him. I just...wanted you to have the option to give it to him, if you wanted to."

Callie pushed the card to the girl across the glossy countertop, Daisy swallowing her breakfast slowly as she picked up the thick stationery before her.

On the front of the card was a tiny drawing of a green creature in white robes, small black letters sprawled underneath.

YODA BEST DAD