☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
𝟘𝟛𝕩𝟘𝟙
Things were working well at Seattle Grace hospital for Natalie. Mostly because the head of cardio, the great Preston Burke, was shot in the shoulder and she stepped up in all the cases. She was doing well with all her colleagues, the interns and residents liked working with her, she was a likeable person. She gave out the kind of person that people always respected. But she was also somehow distant, keeping her cautious. She didn't feel like getting her heart broken again by anyone.
There was only few exceptions. She had found a friend in Derek Shepherd, both of them bonding over their cheating partners. Until she ended up liking his cheating wife. Addison Montgomery was a lot like her in so many ways. She was strong, she was confident and she independence in every sense of the word. Natalie needed new friends in her life, and as much as she tried to keep her distance she was with them for the better half of her day. It was bound to happen and it did.
That morning Natalie was at home, talking with her ex husband on the phone. Her soon-to-be ex at least. Isaac had no interest in getting a divorce with her. He had been trying to make things work, again. He wanted to fix everything, but there was nothing left to fix for Natalie. She needed all the strength she had left for her daughter and some of it for work, but mostly for Amber. "My lawyer said that you haven't sent her the divorce papers yet." Natalie clicked her tongue in annoyance when Isaac's reply was that he wasn't going to sign the papers. "Okay, I don't care what you want. I have no interest in being with you. No one in the history has ever hurt me as much as you had. I wanted to keep things civil despite everything, why can't you just show me some respect for once?"
"Mom." Natalie's loud voice had worried Amber and she walked slowly into the kitchen of their brand new house. Amber loved it a little bit more than her old house, but she didn't want to admit that. It had a garden and she had a beautiful view from her room's window, plus there was a cute neighbour that was going at the same school as her. But there was no way she would tell her mother that.
Natalie looked up at the daughter, her eye's widening a bit. She did't want her to get caught in the middle of this so she quickly hung up the phone, despite the fact that Isaac was speaking. But she couldn't care less about being rude, not to him at least. "Good morning, what are you doing up so early?" Natalie smiled at her and started preparing breakfast acting like she wasn't fighting on the phone with Isaac a minute ago.
"School?" Amber made a 'duh' face and starting helping her mother with breakfast. One of the cons of having a surgeon mother was the fact that Amber had to learn to take care of herself at a young age. And that also meant that she had to make sure she was going to get up for school on time because her mother could be on-call or because she was literally so tired that she couldn't even remember that her own daughter had school. Natalie didn't do any of it on purpose, she just trusted Amber and she showed her in every possible way. Amber appreciated that but she somehow liked it better when her mom was at home, being on a full mom mode. But she also admired her for everything she had achieved and continued on achieving. It was complicated. But in the end of their day they had a great relationship.
"Okay, um," Natalie took a breath, not liking the way her day started. "I thought that maybe we could go out for dinner tonight? I know I haven't been home much lately and I don't like that I am leaving you alone so many hours and I am sorry-"
"Mom, it's fine, you don't have to apologise. We can have dinner tonight." Amber reassured her as the set the table for their breakfast. Natalie put the omelette in front of Amber's seat, adding some pancakes next. Amber sat down and started eating as Natalie only poured more coffee on the mug. Amber made a face at her mom. "Your breakfast is going to be only coffee? Okay, eat something. You're supposed to be the adult. Jesus, mom."
Sometimes you don't need much to describe a person. And Natalie's addiction to coffee seemed just the right thing to describe her to someone who didn't know her. That and the fact that she never accepted any crap from anyone, not matter who they were.
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That day the paramedics had brought in a premature newborn in the hospital that was found in a trash can at a high school. The same high school Amber had started going at. Addison had been working on the case, and when she was ready to go talk to the girls that had found the baby, she was surprised to see her new friend's daughter there. Not many people had met Amber in the hospital, but Addison was one of them. Amber was out of luck that morning. Not only Addison was about to see her involved in the situation. But she was caught up in the middle of this with three other girls she didn't even know. And there was nothing she could do.
Addison walked in on the teenagers and their parents, who were bickering to each other. Amber was sitting there looking around terrified that her mother was going to pass by any minute. And her fears were bigger as she saw Addison. "Amber?" Addison questioned.
"Please don't page my mom." Amber whispered, but her voice got lost as the parents continued fighting.
"Shannon gets straight A's." A mother argued.
"So what my daughter gets a B in math and suddenly she's birthing babies in toilet stalls?" Another girl's father said back.
"I'm Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd." Addison greeted them. "I've been treating the newborn. He has an emergent blood condition. And I need to know whose baby it is I'm dealing with."
"We'd all like to know that. Sarah, talk." Sarah's mother ordered her daughter.
"I don't know anything about any baby, mom."
"Well one of you must know something, otherwise you wouldn't be here." Addison pointed out.
One of the mothers sighed before starting to speak. "Look, Our girls... the principal said they were the last people in the bathroom before the baby was found. So we just thought, before the police show up..."
"One of you knows and you better confess. I don't want my Lisa messed up in this. The police will be here soon. Can't you just do some sort of DNA test so the rest of us can get out of here?" Someone else added.
"DNA results take days and frankly I'm not concerned with the rest of you out of here. If this baby isn't treated, he's going to die. Now I can do vaginal exams on each of the girls..."
A mother interrupted Addison at the suggestion. "My daughter is 14 years old. She's not sexually active. And I won't have you violating her body."
But someone else found that the only solution. "You won't have it cause you know it's your kid. Listen you have my consent to do whatever it takes to prove my Lisa's innocence."
And this time Amber's eyes went wide as she realised what she got herself into.
Addison raised her voice. "A child's life is in jeopardy here. And it's not your consent that I need."
"We didn't do anything wrong."
"Yeah just cause we were in there doesn't mean it's our baby."
"Do we look like the kind of girls who get pregnant and throw their kids in the trash?"
The girls said the one after the other. And this time Amber just wished her mother was there to knock some sense into everyone. She was good at that.
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Addison obviously let Natalie know about the situation. At first she freaked out and then again she knew her kid, she knew that she had nothing to do with it. Amber always shared everything with her. She couldn't keep secrets, she was really bad at it.
Addison had gathered the parents in a conference room. They were all waiting for Natalie to finish her surgery so they could talk. One of the nurses had inform her about the situation. She arrived at the conference room and saw Amber sitting outside with the rest of the girls. Amber looked at her mother guilty. "Amber? Care to explain to me?" Amber stayed silent, not wanting the other girls to get in trouble because of her. "Are you serious right now?"
"Natalie come inside." Addison called out from inside the conference room. Natalie shook her head disappointed and walked inside, closing the door behind her.
"Sorry for getting you in trouble with your mom, and thanks for not saying anything." One of the girls told her.
"It's fine, my mom is cool." Amber replied and looked inside the conference room. Her mother already yelling at some parent. Probably knocking some sense into the parents that wanted to do the vaginal tests on the girls.
"I've given you permission to do this, so what's the hang up?" One father told the redhead doctor.
"The hang up sir, is if your daughter doesn't want to do it, we can't force her." Natalie replied to him, trying to stay calm at them that they thought they just owned their kids.
"They're 14. They're minors. We still have a say." A mother argued with her.
"No, we don't." Natalie argued. "If someone doesn't want to submit to a vaginal exam they don't have to. It's the law. And the law isn't the only thing in play here. If she does the vaginal exam and the girl's a virgin, there could be bleeding undue trauma, not to mention emotional stress. And I am not putting my daughter through that."
"Well if I had to take a guess as to who's kid won't have to worry about that..." A mother gave a pointy look at Natalie resulting her to scoff in reply. "I am just saying, she's the new girl, does anyone know anything about her really? Or what she was doing before she got in Seattle? Not to mention you."
"I am well aware of who my daughter is and what she was doing before we got in Seattle. And I don't need you to question mine or my daughter's dignity."
Natalie Turner was protective and she would fight you until the end, especially since it involved her daughter. But they didn't know her. They didn't know that they should have never messed with her.
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The meeting was unsuccessful and Natalie was discussing with the chief and Addison about what to do. "Safe haven laws - all those girls would have had to do was to drop that baby off at a fire station, or a hospital. Now... it's a mess." Addison commented.
"What are our options here?" The chief questioned her.
"Blood typing. We take a sample from each of the girls. The baby's blood type is double O. If the girls are A or B it means the baby's not theirs." The redhead suggested.
"Do it." The chief gave her persmission.
"Amber is A negative. I mean, I would have also noticed if my daughter was pregnant." Natalie rubbed her face in distress. "I just don't understand why she's not saying anything. if it's true that she was there at the wrong place, the wrong time."
"She's the new girl," Webber told her. "She doesn't want to be a snitch. That's not how you make friends. Snitches are not welcomed in high school. Just go, take her home, and talk with her, okay? I give you the rest of the day off."
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Natalie hadn't said anything to her daughter all the way home. Amber kept glancing at her, waiting for her outburst. But it never came. She was going through enough with her parents' divorce, with moving to a different city, starting high school without her friends. Natalie didn't want to yell at her. Just calmly talk to her, that's why she hadn't said anything all the way, she was trying to find some nicer words to talk her.
But as they arrived home, Amber couldn't take it any longer. "Okay, I know you're mad. But I literally just wanted to go to the bathroom. I swear. And I heard who's baby it was, but I didn't want to say anything. She needed time to confess it, plus I get the scared of her parents kind of thing."
"You get it?" Natalie gasped. "Am I scaring you? I mean, if you were pregnant you wouldn't tell me?" She asked offended. She didn't think she was the scary type of mom. Sure, she was yelling from time to time, but she was also really supportive.
"Scared of her parents." Amber explained as she put her shoes on the entrance before she could disappear to her room. "You saw how those people were."
"So you would tell me." Natalie said, only caring about that part and not that she had been lying the whole day.
"I guess." She shrugged. "I am not planning to have a baby at 14 mom."
"No one is but you know..." Natalie pointed out. She wasn't planning to have a kid at a young age, but it also happened. And even though she didn't want to do it at first, Amber was the best thing that ever happened to her. "Things happen and when you're ready to take the next step you can always talk to me and remember to use protection because a baby is not the worse that can happen to you."
"Okay stop" Amber winced, not wanting to have that conversation with her again. "We've had that conversation once. It was humiliating, really embarrassing and it scarred me for life."
"You make me sound so bad, I am a cool mom."
"I guess." Amber muttered.
"You won't ever admit it but I know you think so too." Natalie gave her a smile. "So to be clear you're not sexually active, right? I think you can wait a couple of years you know?"
"Oh my God mom!" Amber walked upstairs, to get away from the embarrassment.
"So I guess, that's a no?" Natalie called out. "Well, that makes two of us." She said under her breath and walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner, since their night out was cancelled.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
𝟘𝟛𝕩𝟘𝟜
Few mornings later Natalie was walking at the hospital's hallways trying to find the chief. She had just found out about Dr. Burke's return to work and she started questioning her place at the hospital. He was the head of the department, it was clear that he was going to get all the cases and she was going to be left with nothing. And she was not used to being left with nothing. She was only getting more and more disappointed in her life. She was getting a divorce, she had to move because of her husband, she got a job that didn't truly fulfil her, because she felt like it was underestimating her abilities.
"Oh Chief Webber, I've been looking to you, there was something I'd like to discuss with you." She said as she walked up to the older's man office. But the chief was not alone that morning.
"Oh Dr. Turner" Webber looked at the woman, making the other doctor in the room turn around to look at her. Mark Sloan. He remembered their brief interaction for whatever reason. He wasn't sure why. Probably because when a beautiful woman turned him down, it scarred him for life. And Natalie was stuck in his head. He had no idea that he was going to see her again, but somehow he was glad. "This is our new plastic surgeon, Mark Sloan. I am hoping that you guys will have a good collaboration." The Chief pointed out the word collaboration, knowing that she and Derek had spent many days hating on their ex best friends.
Mark gave her a sly smile and put his hand out for her to shake. "Dr. Turner, I told you that we would meet again." Natalie looked at his hand and then she noticed Webber giving her a look. So she took his hand and shook it. "Firm hand shake you have there, I wouldn't have guessed." Mark commented when Natalie grabbed his hand a little too strong.
"Welcome Dr. Sloan."
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Later Derek and Natalie were having lunch together. The two of them had really hit it off since the very first day Natalie came to the hospital. It seemed like they were friends their whole lives. It also had to do with Natalie being a good listener because right in the moment Derek was ranting to her about Mark Sloan. "I'm not saying he's a bad doctor."
"Of course not..." Natalie reassured him, and tried to talk to him about her worries about Burke coming back. "Listen about Burke..."
But Derek just continued. "I'm saying he's a bad person. The man has no morality. No ethics."
"Is he coming back to the hospital soon?" Natalie asked him, trying to get anything as Derek was his doctor.
"The question is do we really want our interns learning from someone like that?" Derek wondered, trying to find any reason for Mark Sloan to stop working at the hospital. His former best friend.
"Derek, okay, he is going to ruin your life only if you let him. Do not let him. He does not get to do that anymore." Natalie pointed her finger at him to make him stop talking. "Now tell me about Burke, how's his hand?"
"It's good. It's great. I cleared him for surgery." Derek finally answered her. "Are you worried about it?"
"Honestly, I don't get why Webber asked me to come if he doesn't need me. He has Preston Burke anyway." Natalie sighed and continued eating her lunch as Derek continued ranting about Mark.
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When Natalie ended up befriending both Shepherd and Montgomery, she expected that it would be hard to be with both of them at the same time. And that day they both needed to rant at her about Mark's arrival from New York. Addison had a distant look on her face when she found Natalie. She couldn't think clear, she couldn't function like a doctor. "Never would have figured Mark Sloan to be your type." Natalie commented.
"He's not...he's not!" Addison exclaimed. "What is he doing here? He's not supposed to be here. I can't have him here. He's supposed to be in New York. I can't...I can't function with him here. I'm professional here, people respect me here. But when he's here I'm just... I'm..." She stuttered and Natalie helped her finish her thoughts.
"A woman who gets the hots for man candy and cheats on her husband?"
"I should have expected that." Addison told her knowing part of her story. She was thankful that she still gave her a chance. "That is rude. And unkind, and completely true. What am I going to do?"
"For starters, you can keep your knees closed in his presence." Natalie remarked and Addison gave her a look. "I mean, what is it about him, really? You had Derek, good looking, very kind, great surgeon Derek Shepherd. What is it about Mark Sloan anyway?" What was it about Mark Sloan indeed.
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Natalie was finishing off some charts at the nurse's station when Mark walked up to where she was. He gave a nurse his finished charts and sighed, hating how his first day went. He couldn't expect more tho, after what had happened. Natalie gave him a side glance but didn't speak to him. Until he sighed again, trying to get her to talk to him. She looked up at him finding him already looking at her. "What?" She asked.
"Okay, so what have you heard about me, exactly?" He asked her.
"Words I use to describe my ex husband. Like dirty and bad and something else I don't feel comfortable even saying." Natalie gave him a sarcastic smile. She couldn't bring herself to even like him. He had that whole thing going on that really hit her nerve in a whole different level. Plus Derek had told her so many bad things about him that she had already an image of him in her mind and she had only spoken to him twice.
"Right. I guess there really is no starting over, is there? Like I can't ask if you want to get a drink with me and also tell you that you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen." Natalie raised her eyebrows at him and bit the side of her mouth annoyed. "Too far?" Mark challenged. It was all shameless flirting to him. With every woman he crossed paths with actually.
"No." She paused. "You can't." She added. "Good night Dr. Sloan." She said and left her finished charts on the desk, feeling ready to leave for the day. And as she turned around to leave she stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide, a furious look on her face.
"Changed your mind?" Mark asked her hopeful. But he then noticed her looking at a man that had just entered the hospital and stared right at her. And Mark being the being gossip he is, he asked quietly, "who is he?"
But Natalie ignored him and kept her look on the man, "what the hell are you doing here Isaac?" She asked harshly her husband. And just like that every good feeling she had about Seattle got crashed the moment she saw him in front of her again.
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ʜᴇʀᴇ'ꜱ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ!
ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴏ ᴍᴀɴʏ ᴛʜɪɴɢꜱ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ɴᴀᴛᴀʟɪᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴀʀᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴘᴀᴛɪᴇɴᴛ.
ᴀʟꜱᴏ, ɪ ᴀᴍ ʟᴏᴠɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ-ᴅᴀᴜɢʜᴛᴇʀ ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴛ'ꜱ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀ ʟᴏᴛ ᴏꜰ ɪᴛ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀɪᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ᴍᴀʀᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ᴀᴍʙᴇʀ ᴛʙʜ.
ᴀʟꜱᴏ ꜱɪɴᴄᴇ ɪ ꜱᴋɪᴘᴘᴇᴅ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ᴇᴘɪꜱᴏᴅᴇꜱ ᴀꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀʟɪꜱᴇ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀʟʀᴇᴀᴅʏ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴀᴍ ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ꜰᴏʀᴡᴀʀᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴘʀᴏʙᴀʙʟʏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴅᴇʀᴇᴋ ᴀꜱ ɴᴀᴛᴀʟɪᴇ'ꜱ ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴ.
ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ!