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Your child is missing. Your child is hurt.
Those were sentences Natalie never wanted to here. Those were the words that haunt her dreams since the day she found out that she was going to be a mother. The constant fear of something happening to her daughter started the day she found out she was pregnant. And it was going to end only when she let out her last breath.
Your child sneaked out.
That was the sentence she never expected to hear. Not from Amber.
"I can't believe this." Natalie said back at the bar once she hanged up the phone with her mother. She started picking her stuff up. Her purse, her jacket. Her movements fast and messy. Her hands trembling.
"What happened?" Mark asked and stood up ready to go with her if he had to.
"My daughter sneaked out of her room. Like I had grounded her. I have never grounded her. Maybe I should tho. I've been trying to be a good mom, a cool mom. A person she wouldn't be scared to talk to. And this is what I get huh? Her sneaking out of her house like she is a prisoner. Unbelievable. Just..." She let out a muffled yelp and drank the rest of her scotch. "I have to go home. I have to look for her and... god... what if something happens to her? It's the middle of the night."
"Let me help you, yeah?" Mark touched her shoulders trying to calm her down. He had no idea what it was like to worry about your child, but he sure wanted to help Natalie. "I can drive you to some of her friends' houses, see if she's there, alright?"
"You don't have-"
"I'm driving." Mark interrupted her. "You're in no state." Natalie nodded her head, not feeling like fighting with him. "Hey." He softly took her hand in his, stopping her as she tried to get out of the bar. Natalie looked at him, the worry so clear in her face. "I'm sure it'll be fine."
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Two hours and four houses later, Mark and Natalie had nothing. Nothing at all. Natalie was trying to get in contact with her on an old cell phone she had bought her for emergencies like this one, but Amber was not getting back to her. So they returned home, knowing that there was nothing left to do in that moment but wait. They couldn't even go to the police yet.
"Is there any boy she would want to hang out with probably? Or maybe even a girl?" Mark asked as they were driving back to her house.
"I-I don't know. It's midnight Mark, what if something has happened to her?" Natalie cleared her throat when her voice got stuck and the words wouldn't come out. Amber didn't have so many friends just yet, and they hadn't been there long enough for Natalie to know her favourite spots. She had no clue about where she could be.
"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."
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"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.
"I think he's right." Amber whispered. "Wait who are you again?" Amber looked at Mark. She hadn't seen him before and she was wondering how he ended up in their house.
"I'm-"
"It doesn't matter." Natalie interrupted Mark. "Do not change the subject."
"Natalie honey, we can talk about it tomorrow, when there won't be a stranger in our living room." Cara gave Mark a subtle look.
"You're right, I should go. I just... I was with Natalie when you called her about Amber and I just wanted to make sure that everything is okay." Mark looked at the three females in the room awkwardly.
"What exactly where you doing with my daughter so late at night anyway?" Cara began the interrogation.
"Mom, seriously, this is not the time" Natalie groaned. "I am more interested in knowing if sneaking out of her room is going to be a regular thing for Amber." Natalie looked back to her daughter. "This is so unlike you. You don't do things like that Amber."
"Well, I guess I got that from you." Amber finally snapped as she was getting mad that her mother wouldn't believe her about where she was and making such a fuss in front of everyone. "It's unlike you mom to pack everything up, move to another city and tear your family."
Natalie was a very forgiving person, especially when it came to her daughter. Amber had blamed herself for far too many things, but she always knew she didn't mean it. But that was the one thing that pained her the most.
"So I'm the bad guy now." Natalie scoffed. "Do you want me to be unhappy and pretend that nothing has happened? Well, pack your things Amber we're going home to our little happy and fake lives. Is that what you want? Go upstairs and pack your things. We can go right now. Pack your things Amber!" She yelled again.
Amber clenched her jaw trying to control the tears that were threatened to escape. And a minute later of silence she ran upstairs with no further words.
Natalie breathed out deeply. She felt her whole body shaking. Mark reached out to her with his hand on her shoulder. She turned around to look at him. "I'm sorry you had to witness that." Mark noticed that her accent was thicker than usual. She usually tried to mask it because she wasn't fond of answering all the "where are you from" questions. But that happened in front of strangers. With people she felt comfortable with, she would let her guards down. And after what happened in front of Mark, she had nothing more to hide from him.
"Hey, it's okay." He squeezed her shoulder. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"It's fine, I'll handle it. You can go." Natalie reassured him and Mark nodded his head. Mark headed at the door and looked back at Natalie. "Go Mark, I got this."
"Okay." He finally agreed. "Good night Mrs O'Connor." He smiled at the older woman and walked back to his car, hoping that Natalie would actually figure everything out.
"Who was that again?" Cara asked when they were alone.
"A friend from work mom." Natalie sighed that on top of everything she had to deal with her mother's interrogation.
"He didn't seem like just a friend to me." She remarked.
"Please" She huffed. "I do not have time for this."
"Honey, there's always time for love." Cara smiled at her daughter. "Do you want me to talk to Amber?"
"No, I'll handle it." She repeated.
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It took Natalie few minutes to calm down. She had never yelled at Amber before. Never fought like that with her before either. So all she wanted to do was hug her and make sure that she was okay. No matter how hurt she was by her words. She headed to her daughter's room and opened the door quietly. All the lights were off and Amber was pretending that she was sleeping.
Natalie always knew when her daughter was pretending to be sleeping. She could feel it. "Amby?" She waiting for a reply, but got nothing. She let out a small sigh and got inside the room, closing the door behind her. "I know you're not sleeping." She said and sat down at the empty space in her bed. "Honey, I am sorry. I was really worried about you. I just love you so much and I thought that something bad had happened to you and I lost it." Natalie stopped talking hoping that Amber would say something. "I know that all this is so messed up, but I also know that we are going to make it, you and I. We are a team, we don't work well when we are apart." Natalie caressed her daughter's hair.
Amber finally turned to look at her mother. "I'm sorry." Amber cried and Natalie quickly laid down and took her daughter in her arms. "I'm so sorry mom. I don't want to go back to San Francisco with dad. I want to stay with you. I can't be away from you." Natalie kissed her forehead and just let her talk and cry. Let everything out. "Why is dad doing this?" Amber sobbed.
"I don't know baby, but I am not going to let him take you away." Natalie made a promise that night. A promised she was planning to keep.
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The next day Natalie was working the night shift, so as she got out of her car, Mark was walking towards his. He smiled when he noticed her. He thought that she would look like a mess. But yet again she had a stone cold look on her face. A look that made everything looked normal. A look that made her feel like everything was normal.
It was just what she needed to go through the day without the constant 'what's wrong questions'. She didn't need anyone that something was wrong. Her brave and confident face had never failed her. It was her number one ally on the difficult days.
Natalie got out of her car and saw Mark standing there, ready to greet her. It seemed like the parking lot was their pace the last few weeks. She tried to give him a smile, but she wasn't sure how to smile in that moment. Because he didn't need to see the confident and brave Natalie. He had seen the wreck she was. She didn't have to pretend to him. "Hey, how are you? How are things going with your daughter?" He asked her.
Natalie just shrugged. "I'm working on it. It's a little bit better." She always ended up figuring things out, by herself.
"If there's anything I can do... Or just if you need someone to talk to. I am right here."
"Thank you Mark. I actually I never got to thank you for last night. So I... um... I really appreciated that you were there. So thank you." Natalie wrapped her arms around his neck taking him by surprise, but he didn't hesitate to hug her back. A hug was all Natalie needed in that moment. And Mark was there. Mark was always there somehow. She hadn't truly acknowledged that. She couldn't see it.
But as they pulled back and their eyes met in that very brief second that their faces were inches away from each other. She felt it. She felt the spark. And Mark could see all the sparks in her eyes, so he didn't control his hand as it moved from her back to her face, cupping her cheek. He looked at her, trying to understand if she was giving him a sign that he could finally know what she tastes like. Then she ran her tongue softly between her dry lips before parting them. Mark caressed her cheek with his thump, giving her his sign. And then their lips finally met.
And it was too good to let go.
It was too good to go back to the way things were before.
And it was different. They kind of different that you want to try again and again because it feels too good.
That first kiss that you only see sparks when you open your eyes again. And you wish you can relive again, and again... and... again.
None of them spoke when they parted. Natalie kept her eyes shut, too bewildered to dare to look at him. But Mark looked at her and he caressed her hair and a soft smile was created on his face. But Natalie opened her eyes and he thought he saw the regret in her. He thought that he had ruined everything. But it wasn't regret in her eyes. It was pain. Pain because of everything that was happening and pain because she kept holding back on everything because the man she was with all those years had wounded her. And it was pain because that kiss made her feel alive, for a brief second, she felt alive. But she would never put herself first for anything. Especially not when everything around her was falling apart.
And her following words confirmed what Mark thought he saw. The regret. "Mark we can't." She whispered.
"Why the hell not?" He asked her.
"Because doing anything with you would confirm that I always pick up the wrong men." Natalie started saying.
Mark shook his head. "What if I want to do everything right with you? What if I just want to be the right man, for once?"
But Natalie continued. "I have a daughter Mark. A daughter and a really fucked up excuse of an ex husband. I can't do anything more with my life anyway. You don't want to get involved with me more than you already have, I am a bloody mess."
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ɪ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ꜱᴏ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ᴛʜᴏ 🥺
ᴏᴋᴀʏ ꜱᴏ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪꜱ ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴀᴡᴀʏ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛᴡᴏ ᴡᴇᴇᴋꜱ. ɪ ᴀᴍ ꜰɪɴᴀʟʟʏ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴠᴀᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ! ꜱᴏ ɪ'ʟʟ ᴛʀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ᴛᴡᴏ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇꜱ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴡᴇᴇᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇɴ ɪ'ʟʟ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴏɴ ᴀᴜɢᴜꜱᴛ 29.
ꜱᴏ ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴘᴀᴛɪᴇɴᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ, ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ɪ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛʜɪꜱ ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ ᴠᴀᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴇᴠᴇʀ.
ʟᴏᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʟʟ! 💕