One {Mark Sloan}

Hell Of A Life

"Ren, what's with Mark?" Derek asked as he joined her by the coffee line.

"His father is sick,"

"What happened?" 

"I have no idea, he won't tell me, he refuses to even visit the man,"

"I would understand where he's coming from," Derek said.

"What are you saying?"

"He was negleted a lot as a child, it was not that bad until his mom was alive but it went really bad after that, his father became a drunkard,"

"I don't know what to say to him, I can't force him to visit his dad but I know he's going to regret it if something happens to his father,"

"What are you going to say to a man who watched his father who forced him to smoke pot when he was only ten years old,"

Mark returned home that night to an empty apartment, his day had gone bad, he had patients yelling at him left and right and he messed up a couple of stitches on a very old prissy lady and on top of that his father had called him again to tell him that his condition was getting worse. He threw his coat on the couch, he had been spending a lot of his days in Renee's apartment that this apartment looked like hell compared to hers. But he liked her apartment more than his perhaps because it was more homey compared to his or perhaps it smelled like Renee all the time, he couldn't decided. His eyes were fixed on the storage room where he had kept all of his things, shoved all the things he hated and had vowed to never open it ever again, his steps were tentative and he was afraid that something might jump out of the closet and grab him. Perhaps the little child in him who was afraid of switching off all the lights, he was still there and he was still afraid.

He opened the door to the storage room and stared at a box at the other side of the room deciding whether to probe the past or not but he needed to to dig inside the past to get over with it.

"Okay," he said as he opened box and pulled out all the photographs and the little cards and stuff he had made for his parents on their birthdays or their wedding anniversaries which they didn't even bother to open and look.

He pulled out a frame which had a photo of his family, it was rare moment when his parents had agreed to have a photograph with him, he kept that aside and picked up another photo of the Shepherds and him, all of them giving different and weird poses. A smile crept on his face as he picked up another photo, it was their graduation day, Naomi, Sam, him, Derek, Renee and Addison all in their graduation robes and a huge smiles on their faces. He kept it aside and dig up deep inside the box and found an old teared photograph of his mother and father, kissing each other with him in their lap sleeping. It was probably one of the only times where his parents had felt love towards him, he didn't realize when his eyes started welling but he furiously wiped them not wanting to give them the satisfaction even if they weren't here. But his emotions betrayed him when he felt Renee hugging him from behind, he could her her breath on the base of his neck as she continued hugging him.

"I went home, you weren't there, I thought you went to Derek's," she said as she pressed a kiss to the base of his neck.

"I tried to forgive him, I tried to make myself go down and visit him....but I can't...I can't,"

"It's okay, you don't have to, you don't need to,"

"No, I have to, I don't want to make myself the smaller person, I am a bigger person than he ever was and I will....not become him,"

The subway ride to Mark's parental home was a long one, they had to change trains two times, they both were too tired to drive down to Long Island,by the time they reached Long Island it was late. Mark decided it would be better from them to take a cab to his parents home which would also give Ren and him some time to rest. He had held Ren's hand the entire ride and even when they reached, he refused to let it go.

"This is it," he said as they stood in front of a house, it was a huge house which wasn't a surprise as Mark's parents were from upper class and had a huge bank balance.

"It's..... nice,"

"It was a shit hole," Mark said as they walked away, Ren looked at him with confusion and they walked in the opposite direction.

"The Shepherds used to live here. They were originally from Maine but after Derek's father died they came to New York. Mrs S decided to move back home after all her kids moved out,"

"I spent a lot of time here, Derek and I, we used to play on that swing set," Ren kept a hold of his hand and leaned into him and placed his head on his shoulder.

"Let's go, let's meet Theo Sloan,"

Mark sighed before knocking on his father's door and after a couple of few an aged man appeared on the door, he was quite similar looking to Mark, especially the nose. The man had a glass of whiskey in his hand as he looked at Mark before raising an eyebrow.

"Dad," Mark said hostily.

"Mark, I am surprised you came and who is this young lady, she looks too good to be with someone like you," Theo said as he drank his whiskey. They were still standing on the front porch as the snow started falling.

"She's my girlfriend, Renee Foster,"

"Good evening, Mr Sloan,"

"Tell me girl are your standards so low to be with him?"

"I think Mark's a wonderful person, at least he's better thank you," Renee said as she grabbed Mark's hand and gave Theo a smile.

"I heard you were sick, dad,"

"I figured we could have a couple of drinks, play some poker, you know like fun times,"

"You lied to me and you expect me to play poker with you,"

"I just thought-"

"Shut up!! Fun times, what you and mom called fun were torture for me, you made my life hell, you should be ashambed to even call yourself my father,"