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The night turned out a little bit more fun than either of them thought, making Natalie's doubts vanish for a bit. And that night made Natalie a little bit more irresistible in his eyes.
It was after midnight when Mark drove Natalie back to her house. He said that he wouldn't let her get a taxi back. She had left the car at home that day.
"I'm so tired" Natalie complained when Mark pulled up in her house. "But I had fun." She turned her head to the left so she could look at Mark. She smiled at him and Mark only looked back at her when he had parked the car. Right outside of her house. "Thank you."
"So I guess, I can take you out again?" Mark asked hopeful. "Or in, you know, either one works for me." He gave her a sly smile. "Okay, I'll try again." He sighed when Natalie rolled her eyes at him. "I loved walking with you. You look amazing. How was that?"
"Better." Natalie nodded her head reassuring him. "You can try again, though." She teased him.
"I'll try." He leaned closed to her, his eyes never leaving her lips. The natural reddish tone of her lips, made them so kissable.
"Step back Sloan." Natalie spoke in a warning tone. She took her seat belt off.
"Why? You don't kiss on the first date?" Mark teased her.
"There will be no kissing. Or anything similar for that matter." Natalie smiled widely when Mark frowned. She then opened the door, getting out of the car.
"You love torturing me, don't you?" Mark followed her towards her porch.
"I slightly enjoy it." She confessed.
"I've slept with you and you won't let me kiss you just for goodnight?"
"Well, I recognise that it shouldn't have happened, not like that. Not that I regret it, don't get me wrong. But well, every time I say something, you take it the wrong way and-"
Mark kissed her lips, slowly and briefly, just to make her stop talking. "Hearing you rambling was cute but also kind of weird, so I had to do something to make you stop." Mark spoke when he pulled back.
Natalie smiled, her eyes still closed because even though she wanted to take things slow, she still enjoyed the feelings he gave her by just a touch. "I just want to take it slow." She looked at him this time. "Because everything else has been going a little too wrong, a little too fast lately and I need to be sure. And I need my space to get Amber back."
"And I want to be here for everything you need."
And in that very moment Natalie was oblivious of everything that was happening in the other side of the town.
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The next morning Natalie was walking through the hospital's hallways, after a small meeting with her new lawyer. She started fresh about the custody case. And her new lawyer seemed a little more confident about winning the case. So that helped Natalie get back to her confident self. That and the excitement Mark made her feel. "You seem happy. That's odd." Derek spoke when Natalie entered the attendings lounge and put her white coat on.
"The appointment with my lawyer went well. And I'm pretty confident I am going to win the custody of my child back. And I promised her that I'll try to be more cheerful. So you know I am trying." Natalie explained.
"And that has nothing to do with the fact that you went out with Mark last night." It was probably half an hour ago when Mark was in that same spot Natalie was standing and he was sharing everything with his friend.
"How do you know that?" Natalie asked annoyed. She wanted to keep things quiet until she was sure.
"I just saw him. But you know I can't believe everything Mark says, so I gotta hear it from you."
"I did not sign a contract to give you a report about my personal life." Natalie rolled her eyes and got out of the room, Derek following after her shortly. Natalie checked her pager and she saw that she was been paged in the E.R.
"How many times do I have to say this? Being friends means sharing." Derek was then being paged.
"You share and I bless you with my sarcastic remarks." Derek gave her a look. "Fine. We went out. I-I don't know how this will turn out and he knows that my priority is getting Amber back. But I like spending time with him."
"Spending time with him in which room of the house exactly?" Derek mocked her.
"I give the sarcastic remarks, not the other way around."
"Oh come on, you slept with Mark and I said nothing. I thought you were going through a phase, but now you're going out with him, so what's going on?"
"I am starting to go out with him, that's what's going on, Derek." Her pager went off. She checked it out seeing 911. "What will happen, only time will tell." And then her pager went off again. "What the hell happened? It's 8 am."
"Dr. Turner" Cristina ran up to the doctor.
"Cristina, I know I agreed to teach you, but please don't ruin my mood so early in the morning." Natalie rambled, not noticing the look on the resident's face.
"No, Dr. Turner. It's your daughter."
"What about my daughter?"
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Running was a usual part of Natalie's life as a doctor. Patients in critical condition. Incoming traumas. Patients coding. She ran and she was good at it. But she never thought that she would run because the patient was her own daughter. She couldn't even imagine the moment that it would happen.
And as she ran towards the ER, Amber was not the first person she saw. It was Isaac. Laid unconscious and bloody. Big cuts and bruises on his body. And the first shock came, but she couldn't stop running. Not before she could find out in what condition Amber was at.
"Amber." She breathed out the moment she entered the trauma room. Her daughter was sitting down on the gurney, fully awake, with few cuts on her face and arms. One of the residents, Alex Karev, had already started stitching her up. "What the hell are you doing?" She freaked out when she saw an none certificated doctor ready to fix her daughter.
"Mom." Amber whispered, her mouth trembling. Her eyes were red. Her face was dirty. But there was nothing else she could say. She hadn't explained what happened.
"Stitches." Alex said like it was obvious.
Natalie took few steps close to her daughter making Alex step back and hugged her tightly until Amber let out a cry because of the pain she felt by the strong grip. "What happened?" Natalie pulled back and started the questions while she did some routine examinations on Amber. Checking her pupils, her heartbeat and stealing the X-Rays from Alex's hands. "Is it your arm?" Natalie asked noticing the fracture in Amber's arm. She then looked at Alex. "Did you give her any painkillers? You can't give her an aspirin. She's allergic. Get me Mark Sloan. You are not going to touch my daughter. Not taking any chances of her having a scar on her face."
And just like that Mark entered the room. "Karev, they need extra hands in trauma room 2. I got it from here." He ordered and the resident left the room, with Mark taking his place. "That's a big scar you got going on. Don't worry, I am pretty good at my job. Almost as good as your mom is."
"Honey, did he give you any painkillers? I need to know." Amber tried to speak, but nothing came out, so she shook her head instead. "Okay, did you tell him your medical history, like I've told you? This is important."
"Hey, why don't you check out the chart and add anything needed?" Mark suggested. Natalie nodded her head and Mark handed her the chart. "And while you do, I am going to finish up the stitches. And she's going to be just fine, okay?" Mark was so calm, as he could see how freaked out Natalie was. And he wanted to be her comfort in that moment of need.
Natalie started checking out the chart as Mark started talking to Amber. "Tell me if it hurts, okay?" He had tried to approach her and get her to talk, but Amber was scared. And she was shocked.
"Okay." Amber said quietly, her eyes never leaving her mother's figure as she was going through the chart.
"You won't even have a scar, okay? And your arm will be just fine in few weeks." He spoke and stayed concentrated on doing everything right on Amber's face. Not that there was any chance that Mark Sloan would do the wrong stitch. But that was Natalie's daughter and he didn't want to take any chances. "You want to tell us how it happened?"
"I-I" Amber stuttered.
"It's okay honey. Take your time. It's okay. You're going to be fine. I am right here." Natalie never knew how she could keep her cool in moments like this. She was always the calm one. The one who reassured her family. Maybe she had learnt to be like that in the years she was a doctor. But she never imagined that if she saw her daughter like that, she would be calm.
"W-we" Natalie squeezed her daughter's hand as she started talking to give her some courage. "We were having a fight. I didn't want to go back to San Francisco. I-I wanted to stay here, but he didn't want to understand that. He-he was yelling and... he was going fast. I wanted to get out of the car. I kept asking him to slow down because I was scared." Amber was already in tears, making it hard for Mark to stitch her face. So he was only cleaning it instead. "We were in the middle of nowhere. The road was too dark and narrow and all I remember is waking up with the car crashed on his side. He fell on this huge tree. I tried to get him to wake up, but he wouldn't wake up. I remember trying to get out of the car. It was so hard. But I had to, because he wouldn't wake up. And I remember walking down the street all by myself, trying to find someone. And when we did, I asked them to bring us here."
"It's okay" Natalie wiped her daughter's tears. "It's okay. You did great. I am going to check on him, okay? And Mark is going to help you, yeah? You stay here with him and I'll be right back, okay?"
"I got her, go." Mark whispered when Natalie wouldn't move, but only stare at her daughter instead. The one day she decided to be more bright, that's the day everything went down.
"It's all my fault, isn't it?" Amber asked Mark when Natalie had left the room.
"No, of course it's not. None of this is your fault."
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"What's his status?" Natalie asked when she entered the trauma room where her ex husband was at. She had her stone cold look face on. She couldn't figure out what she was feeling. She wasn't feeling sad, that's all she knew. She wasn't feeling sad seeing him like this. And that upset her. Because that's what she was supposed to be feeling.
But then, there wasn't anyone else who had hurt her the way he had. There wasn't a single person that caused her the kind of pain she had been going through the last month. So she wasn't feeling sad.
But there isn't a right word to describe anything she was feeling.
"Severe bone fractures and there is a liver laceration and kidney damage. We're taking him up in the O.R. right now." Callie replied to her and soon the doctors working on Isaac's case left the room.
But the Chief stayed back. "Natalie, go be with your daughter. We will let you know how it's going, okay?" Natalie nodded her head, not sure what to tell him.
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"Hey, we stopped the bleeding in his liver and I fixed most of his bone fractures." Callie found Natalie sitting alone outside of her daughter's room. Amber was doing better and after she got some painkillers, she fell asleep. And Natalie stayed out of her room, and left the door open just so she could stare at her. "Bailey and Webber will get back on his liver later, but he is out danger for now. He is lucky, I didn't think he would make it when they brought him in."
"Yeah, well, all the stars aligned the day he was born." Natalie said bitterly. "My daughter could have died because of him. Because of his recklessness. She is lying on the hospital bed, when she could have been home with me." Natalie bit her lip when she felt the tears rolling down her cheek.
"Hey, it's okay to feel like this."
"No, I should have been sad that he could die. But I wasn't. I am upset because I feel relieved by that. I feel relieved after everything he has done. I don't actually want him to die. But I find it a little bit easier to breathe. And that makes me as bad as he is."
"You're not like him. You're nothing like him. You're human and with everything that has happened you deserve to feel a little bit more than others."
"Can you stay with her for a bit?" Natalie asked as she stood up from the chair. "I need to go see him."
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To her surprise Isaac was awake when Natalie entered the room. Natalie stood in the doorway when he looked back at her. He didn't speak. She didn't speak. The room was dead silent. Natalie wanted to say something, but she couldn't, not when all her thoughts were messed up.
"They said I was lucky." Isaac finally spoke. Natalie stayed silent. She was angry and upset and she wanted everything to stop. Just for a second to stop. But Isaac continued talking. Coming so close to death had made him realise everything he had done.
Almost dying show him that he wasn't the person he wanted to be to Natalie and Amber. He wasn't fair. He wasn't a good husband or a good father. And seeing his life all over again, thinking it was his last moment, he wanted to fix everything. That's why he continued talking. "I'm sorry, I take it back. I take it all back. I am truly sorry."
Natalie huffed and entered his room in the ICU. "You can't take anything back Isaac. You can't take anything you've done back. You certainly can't take back the pain you've caused Amber. She could have died. You are her father, you're supposed to take care of her."
Isaac looked at her with sad eyes. It's not so simple to change in just a day. But it's simple to realise everything you've done wrong, when death knocks on your door. "I'll be better, I promise. I'll be better. Like I should have been from the start. And she is going to stay with you, like it was supposed to be."
"Nothing is like is was supposed to be." Natalie cried. "It was supposed to be the three of us. But now there are three broken people."
"And it's all my fault. I'm sorry, I am really sorry."
"You think I can forgive you, like that? Because you're laid in a hospital bed? There was a moment I wished you would die. Just a split second, the idea passed through my mind. Because you would stop causing us pain. You would finally stop." She confessed. She shared everything that was on her mind that day. And that was the darkest thought she ever had and that messed her up on a whole new level.
"I'll stop. I promise. You deserve better. Amber deserves better." Isaac tried not to cry at Natalie's words. He tried to hold on. Because he knew he was the cause of the way that woman was feeling.
"Yeah, we do. And you can spend the rest of your life trying to prove that to Amber. Because I am done with you, forever. I am glad you're alive Isaac. I know it's hard to believe it after what I said, but I am glad. But if I never have to see you again, that's fine with me."
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Mark spotted Natalie leaving Isaac's room and he followed her, calling out her name. "Hey, I went to see Amber. She's still sleeping." He had finally found a moment to talk to Natalie privately. So he leaded her into an empty room, just because he wanted to check up on her. "I'm sorry you're hurting. Tell me how to help." Mark intertwined their fingers.
Natalie looked at the man in front of her. And she knew how things would turn out. "Thank you for taking care of her." Natalie gave him a weak smile. "That's enough."
"Of course, she's your kid. She's important to you." Mark caressed her hand with his thump and Natalie looked from him to their hands.
"You're really sweet." Natalie closed her eyes as tears were building up in her eyes. And she wasn't sure what she wanted to cry about this time. Mark wiped the tear that slipped from her eye and Natalie leaned into his touch. She opened her eyes again and looked at him. "I am going back to San Francisco for a couple of days. Isaac wants to be with his family. I'll stay there for a while to make sure that everything is okay."
"You'll be back, right?" Mark asked, scared that she might get back with Isaac. But Natalie was putting a closure to their marriage. She was going to take care of him one last time and then she would be done, for good. And all her focus was going to be on Amber.
"Yeah, of course. This is my home now." Natalie reassured him. "It's going to be just me and Amber. We will actually start fresh this time."
And then Mark knew as well. "How long do I wait for you?" He asked her.
"Don't. Don't wait for me. I need all the time in the world right now. And you don't deserve to wait, not for me or anyone else." And with one last kiss Natalie let him go.
And she walked back to her daughter's room and she laid down next to her. Finding all the comfort she needed to the only person that she wanted to protect with her whole life and for the rest of her life. Her daughter.
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ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ ɴᴀᴛᴀʟɪᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ʜᴀʀꜱʜ ᴏɴ ɪꜱᴀᴀᴄ?
ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇᴀꜱᴏɴꜱ ɪ ᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ ᴍᴀᴛᴀʟɪᴇ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ɪᴛ ꜱᴛᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ, ᴡᴀꜱ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴍᴀʀᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴀʟʟɪᴇ ʙᴏɴᴅ ᴀ ʟᴏᴛ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇxᴛ ᴇᴘɪꜱᴏᴅᴇꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴛ ɪɴᴠᴏʟᴠᴇꜱ ꜱᴇx. ꜱᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ.
ᴘʟᴜꜱ, ᴡᴇ ᴀʟʟ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɴᴀᴛᴀʟɪᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ɴᴏᴛ ᴛʀᴜʟʏ ʀᴇᴀᴅʏ. ꜱʜᴇ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ꜱʜᴇ ɪꜱ ɴᴏᴛ.
ᴀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴄᴏɴꜰᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴ. ɪ ᴡᴀꜱ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴋɪʟʟ ɪꜱᴀᴀᴄ, ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇɴ ɪ ᴅᴇᴄɪᴅᴇᴅ ᴀɢᴀɪɴꜱᴛ ᴄᴀᴜꜱɪɴɢ ᴀᴍʙᴇʀ ꜱᴜᴄʜ ᴛʀᴀᴜᴍᴀ.
ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ.