𝟘𝟞𝕩𝟙𝟘
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"You're mad." Mark realised as Natalie drank her whiskey at Joe's. She had been silent since they left her house after Mark announced to Amber that they were going to live in the same house. And Amber pretty much kicked them out with a 'cool'. And Natalie had not said a word to Mark since then, mad at him and worried about Amber. Their date night was obviously cancelled and they ended up at Joe's just drinking in silent.
"You think so?" Natalie scoffed.
"I thought you would have told her by now. I'm sorry." Mark apologised as she motioned the barman for a refill, when Natalie's glass was empty.
"I've heard that word enough today. You know it was supposed to be just us tonight doing something I was really looking forward to. Yet we're at Joe's drinking a cheap whiskey like every other night. And that because you just wanted Isaac to know who had the Natalie Turner now." Natalie made a click sound with her tongue, emphasising how mad she was.
"I wasn't doing that..." Natalie gave him a look. "Okay fine." He admitted. "I can't just ignore the fact that he is living at your house. He could have said anything to you and..."
"And what?" Natalie interrupted him. "You think I'd cheat on you with him? Him of all people on this planet? He is my ex-husband for a reason, a reason I haven't really forgotten."
"You guys were a family once, the three of you and you're under the same roof... and do you know how that makes me feel?" Mark shared his worried with her and Natalie's face quickly softened. She intertwined their fingers together and squeezed his hand in the process.
"He is not my family." Natalie shook her head. "Amber is my family, and you are my family." Her other hand reached for his cheek and stayed there as she continued talking. "And maybe we can all be a family at some point. I love you Mark, just when I thought that I'd never be able to be with someone else, I fell in love with you. You've made me feel scared of losing you. And I love you and hate you for that, all at the same time." She chuckled softly.
"I'm scared of losing you too." Mark took the hand that was rested on his face and kissed her palm and then her lips. "But you don't have to worry about losing me, that I can promise you."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
Natalie returned home alone after, knowing that she needed to talk to Amber. Explain. Make sure that she was okay with everything. Because for Natalie, her daughter's opinion mattered more than what or who she wanted. And as she entered the house, she was surprised to find Amber sitting in the living room, watching TV. "You're up." She spoke.
Amber turned around to face her mother and gave her a soft smile. She had a few hours to think about everything. And her father surprisingly helped her be okay with everything, by just telling her that Natalie deserved to be happy after everything that he had done to her. "Yeah, you know I figured we were going to have that conversation, we might as well have it now."
Natalie sighed and got her coat and shoes off before sitting down next to her daughter. "Well, first of all I am sorry that you found out about it like that. I was going to talk about it when things quieted down with your father." Natalie started saying, but before she could continue Amber interrupted her. And Natalie was thankful that she was not going to say the whole speech that she had practise.
"Okay."
"Okay?" She asked surprised.
"I'm tired of fighting all the time." Amber admitted. "I'm tired of drama. I want some peace and quiet."
"Amber if you're not okay with Mark living with us it's okay. This is your house too and..."
"No, I want you to be happy." Amber cut her off. "And that's enough to break the awkwardness of the first days. Mark is also pretty cool and if it wasn't for him I couldn't have handled you being at the hospital at all. I like Mark."
Natalie smiled thankful to have Amber as her daughter. "Okay, we need to do this." Natalie got up from the couch and headed at the furniture that the TV was on. It had few shelves in which Natalie had put her CD and vinyl collections. She stayed silent for a second as she tried to find a CD to put on the stereo. And when she did, she turned around and gave Amber a playful look. "Screw 'em if they can't take a joke."
"Oh God, what are you doing?" Amber asked horrified as she realised what her mother was about to do. Something they did a lot when she was a kid and they had a silly fight.
Dancing Queen by ABBA started playing. The soundtrack from the movie Mamma Mia. Their song. Natalie grabbed the TV remote and used it as a microphone as she copied the moves from the movie scene. She remembered every little moment of it, it was Amber's favourite growing up and when she was younger they were usually replaying the Dancing Queen scene.
"Ooh. You can dance. You can jive. Having the time of your life. Ooh, see that girl. Watch that scene. Digging the dancing queen."
"Mom, you're really embarrassing!" Amber laughed and stayed in her seat, refusing to join her mother.
"Come on." Natalie grabbed Amber's hand, lifting her up from her seat on the couch. And Amber quickly joined her, both of them mimicking the moves Julie Walters and Christine Baranski did in the movie. "...With a bit of rock music. Everything is fine. You're in the mood for a dance. And when you get the chance..." They were using silly prompts that they could find on the living room. Both of them just laughing and singing.
"Oh move the table, I'm gonna jump like Meryl Streep did." Natalie exclaimed as she got on the couch, jumping up and down as Amber took the coffee table out of the way.
"You are the dancing queen. Young and sweet. Only seventeen. Dancing queen. Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah..." Natalie jumped up, kicking her feet in the air as high as she could and then she landed gracefully on the floor. She stopped singing and started laughing instead. "Okay, I'm done." She flopped on the couch and Amber turned the music off before sitting down next to her.
"I can't believe you did that." Amber giggled, the huge smile on her face had started hurting her cheeks.
"You know honey, I love Mark." Natalie spoke after she caught her breath. "I do. And I am happy with him. And I am happy that you guys are getting along so well. But I don't want you to ever worry that he or anyone else is going to come between us. Because in the end I will always choose you. You are the most important person in my life."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
It was a little bit before Thanksgivings when the porch of Natalie's house was full of boxes. "I thought you were only bringing few stuff for now." Amber commented as she tried to lift a box that was a little too heavy for her.
Isaac had moved out, he was staying at a hotel room since he was feeling better. He was trying to find a job at Seattle so he could stay, wanting to be closer to his daughter. And once he moved out, Natalie told Mark that he was welcomed to their house. For a little test drive. To see how things would go.
"Oh leave that, I'll take it. It's my medical books." Mark rushed on Amber's side, taking the box off her hands and putting it inside. "Hey Amber I think I left a bag in the car, can you check?" Mark called out, but when he got no reply, he walked back outside. "Am-" but Amber was busy looking across the street at the boy that she had been avoiding at all cost. Mark followed her eyes and saw the boy that he had given a ride to that night a couple of months ago. "Is that the guy that punched someone for you?" Mark questioned and Amber snapped out of the staring contest with Tom.
"Uh, yeah whatever, he is stupid anyway." Amber shook her head and tried not to look sad.
"He is still looking at you though." But Mark was still glancing at the boy who as looking at Amber with a sad look on his face. "A little creepy if you ask me, but whatever."
"Well, he can go back to his girlfriend and leave me alone." Amber cleared her throat.
"What if he doesn't have a girlfriend anymore and he wants you to be his girlfriend. Maybe I should wave him over."
"If you do that I'll tear all your clothes apart and then throw them in the mud." Amber threatened him and Mark pulled his hand down not able to do a move.
"Huh, those threats" Mark sighed, "like mother like daughter. It's gonna be fun living with you, scared for my life every step of the way." Mark joked, but he knew better than messing with Natalie or Amber.
"Well, you fell in love with the wrong woman." Amber shrugged like she was telling him 'your problem'.
"Or the right one you know, because your mom's amazing." Mark smiled.
"No argument there." Amber said as she picked up the last box. "Hey, is Callie and Arizona coming over for dinner on Thanksgivings?"
"Yeah..." Mark replied and followed her inside, excited to start his new life with Amber and Natalie.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
Thanksgiving Eve
That night started with Natalie in the O.R. working on a case she hadn't in ages. "Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Wow. That is the biggest pseudoaneurysm I've ever seen." Cristina exclaimed excited. Natalie had given her one more chance after what she had pulled off at the O.R. And so far they had be doing well and Cristina was completely in love with her attending.
"It's at the suture line of the transplant. The new heart is dying. Damn it." Natalie cursed.
Another resident was working with Natalie a lot lately, Jackson Avery, he was one of the Mercy West residents. Natalie's words at Arizona when she saw him for the first time were 'how is it possible for someone to be that good looking?' He had the no so typical combination of dark skin with green eyes and just generally someone with good genes. But she also thought that he was a nice guy, but as a doctor he had a long way to go and Natalie was willing to teach him, even if Cristina didn't really like it. "Poor guy that brought her in." Jackson commented. "I think they were on their third date. It doesn't even look like a heart anymore."
"That's because it's not." Natalie replied. "It's a chunk of useless flesh that has to come out right now."
"You're taking the heart out?" Cristina asked surprised. "What are you gonna replace it with?"
"I don't know. We're gonna have to figure it out as we go." Natalie replied and both residents got excited for the holidays.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
Thanksgiving Day
"Okay, wait. Let me get this straight. You removed her heart?" The guy that had brought in last night's patient asked.
"Yes." Natalie confirmed.
"A-And she can live that way? Like... Like what, like a-a vampire?"
"Usually you'd connect a ventricular assist device to the heart, but since she doesn't have a heart–" Jackson started replying, but he was soon cut off by Cristina, who was always trying to impress Natalie.
"Dr. Turner attached two, um, devices to her blood vessels. Now this machine pumps the blood through her body, which is basically, um, a miracle." She smiled softly and glance at Natalie.
"I really like her. Uh, I like her a lot." The guy said. "But we've only had four dates. I'm supposed to have thanksgiving with my family, you know? She was gonna join us. And now she's like a... She can really live without a heart?"
"If you don't want to stay, we have a great nursing staff, great doctors. She'll be in good hands." Natalie reassured him.
"No. You know, she doesn't even have a family. And if it was me, I would want somebody here. So... I'll stay." Natalie nodded her head at him with a smile and then she checked at her pager that was going off like crazy.
Natalie walked out of the patient's room to find Callie. She was the one that had been paging her. "Hey, you paged?" She asked.
"Mark has a visitor and I think you'd like to know." And Callie told her all about Mark's visitor. All about the 18 year old daughter Mark had.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"She's 18." Natalie was rambling at Derek at the hallway, shocked by the news. "That's not very much older than my daughter." One thing those two had in common and no one knew about.
"Well, it's not that shocking actually." Derek told her as they were walking together towards the elevator. Derek was going to the O.R. and Natalie was heading at the room Mark was with his daughter. "I mean, the way Mark got around before he met you, there could be a gaggle of Sloans. Sloan Jones. Sloan Smith. Sloan Sloan." He laughed.
"Mean." Natalie narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll go check on them."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"Hi." Natalie greeted the people in the room. She saw Callie and she saw Mark having a staring contest with a blonde 18-year-old. "How's it, uh, how's it going in here?"
"Great."
"Fine." Mark and Sloan said at the same time.
Callie shook her head at Natalie and she began to take blood from Mark's daughter Sloan, to use as a supply for the paternity test.
Natalie looked at Mark worried that he was not talking at all. "Mark now might be a good place for you to say something." Pause. "Out loud." Natalie added.
"Dude, are you, like, high or something?" Sloan asked and Natalie sighed, she knew it was going to be a long ride.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
Later that night, Callie and Arizona were over at Natalie's house, preparing dinner as Amber was mostly playing with the dog and enjoying her day off school. "I can't believe we're having thanksgiving together again." Arizona commented. "The last time we did Amber was a baby and now she's almost an adult."
"Almost." Natalie repeated, hating even the idea that her daughter was growing up. Because it was happening too soon and too fast.
"Hey!" Mark entered the house. Everyone smiled when they saw him, but then Sloan appeared from behind him and the greetings were not that exciting anymore. Amber looked at the blonde confused, not having the slightest idea who she was.
"Hey."
"Hi."
"Hello." Natalie smiled trying to break the ice. "Welcome. Happy Thanksgiving. Who wants wine?" She asked. "Just me?" She muttered to herself and grabbed the bottle of wine.
"Ooh, I do." Sloan said.
"No, you... You don't." Mark said, thinking it was the right thing to say as a father.
"Don't even think about it." Natalie looked at Amber, remembering the last time she drank alcohol.
"I didn't say anything." Amber rolled her eyes. "Hey, who is that?" She whispered at Natalie, but she was about to find out.
"Um... hey, everybody. Uh, well, the results are in. It, uh, turns out Sloan was right about her parentage. I am her dad. Um, so here's another thing to be thankful for." Mark tried to act like he wasn't freaking out. "Natalie, Amber, Sloan here is gonna move in with us for a little while."
And as Natalie was pouring herself some wine, she held the glass so hard resulting the fragile glass to break between her fingers. And the blood started running and the wine was all over her and the floor.
"Oh, my god." Mark rushed to her side.
"Mom!"
"Bloody hell!" Natalie said under her breath, not feeling anything from the cut. But feeling everything that was going to come from Mark's announcement.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"You couldn't give me a little heads up? Just a little bit." Mark had taken Natalie to the bathroom to check on her cut.
"Hey, stay still." Mark ordered as Natalie just kept moving her hands as she was talking. "That cut is deep. How did you manage to do that?"
"And then you thought that having my ex staying with me was going to be a bad idea." She continued completely ignoring Mark's comment.
"That's my daughter we're talking about." Mark argued.
"A stranger, living in my house with my daughter." Natalie corrected him.
"Natalie please. I could have let her stay at my old apartment, but I don't know how to be her dad, I need your help. Please. Just until Christmas. Please. I need you." Mark pleaded her. She was a good mother and he needed to learn from her everything that he had been avoiding his whole life.
"Okay, fine. Okay." Natalie agreed, even if her tone was still not so friendly.
"Thank you. I love you. You are amazing."
"Don't praise me." She snapped at him.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
Christmas' Eve
And then the little while had turned into a whole month. And thanksgiving had turned into Christmas. And Amber had been threatening her mother that she was going to move into her father's new house if Sloan was going to keep staying with them. The two teenagers couldn't really get along.
Natalie was decorating the Christmas' tree with Amber when Mark walked up to her, needing her help yet again. "So... Have you, uh... I mean, uh, you think you could ask her how long she's planning to stay?" He asked and Natalie instantly knew who he was talking about. The girl that was sitting few feet away from them painting her nails.
"Mark, it's been a month, and you've exchanged three sentences with her." Natalie told him. "Two of them were, 'pass the cereal.' In the spirit of the holiday, maybe you can ask her yourself. She's pretty easy to like once you get to know her."
"Really?" Mark asked surprised.
"No. She's a vapid, vapid girl, and I'm really glad my daughter is not like her." Natalie whispered and Amber pretending she wasn't listening to their conversation and carried on with untangling the Christmas lights. "But she's your daughter, okay? So... So try. Okay? Try to be her dad. Go." Natalie pushed him towards her direction.
Mark stayed still, just looking at Sloan and she noticed. "What are you looking at, you old perv?" She asked and Natalie rolled her eyes defeated.
"Mom, can you give me a ride to the mall on your way to work? I need to buy some last presents." Amber told her mother.
"Yeah, sure." Natalie agreed.
"Sloan should tag along, right?" Mark chimed in. "You could show her around a bit." He was hoping that if his daughter could hang out with Natalie's daughter then maybe he was going to find out how long Sloan was planning to stay.
"Why?" Amber muttered.
"Amber!" Natalie hissed at her daughter, being the only one who heard her.
"Yeah, sure. You can come in the spirit of the holidays!" Amber put a fake smile on. "No present for you this year." She whispered at her mother.
"No money for you this year." Natalie snapped back.
"Oh you don't mean that!" Amber followed her as Natalie left to put her shoes on. She was going to finish with the tree later.
"Or maybe I am." Natalie shrugged. "Put your coat on, it's cold outside. And a beanie, and definitely get a scarf. I don't want you getting sick on Christmas like every other year."
"I'm not five anymore, you know. I'm turning 16 in two months." Amber reminded her, not liking when Natalie was turning to that mother.
"So?" Natalie asked sarcastically. "Come on Sloan." Natalie gave Mark a look telling him that she was tired of having to deal with two teenagers at the same time. And she was indeed very tired.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"I really can't stay, but, baby, it's cold outside, I've got to go 'way, but, baby, it's cold outside..." Everyone was gathered at Meredith's house, at least everyone that was not working. Others were singing and playing the guitar. Others were chatting and enjoying their drinks. And Natalie was pissed off because Amber and Sloan were fighting about something.
"You're not serious." Amber argue with Mark's daughter. "You got him a snow globe of Seattle?"
"What?" Sloan scoffed. "He likes Seattle."
"I gave you 50 bucks, and I wanted to buy my mother something with that. Where's my change?" Amber yelled and the argument carried on.
"Guys ... your kids are bickering." Derek told Mark and Natalie, not helping but laugh at the whole scene.
"You are so funny." Natalie did a fake laugh before she walked up to where the girls were. "Hey, cut this crap both of you. You're not five. We are guests here, act like it."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
"Why are you abducting me away from everyone?" Natalie chuckled as Mark leaded her outside at the porch, wanting to be with just her for a second. The dinner inside was very intense with Bailey having to give her father a whole speech about her decision to get a divorce.
"Because I wanted to give you something." Mark gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh but Mark, I have your gift at home. Laid in bed." Natalie smirked.
"You're playing dirty." Mark groaned.
"I've learnt from the best." She teased him. "So?" She asked excited to see the gift Mark had bought her.
"Okay, so I know that it's not much, but I wanted you to have a piece of me with you. But it's beautiful and classy like you." Mark pulled out a velvet box and opened it, revealing a simple gold lariat necklace.
"Oh I love it. Put it on." Natalie turned around and pulled her hair up so Mark could put the necklace on her neck. Mark clipped the jewellery around her neck and place a kiss on her shoulder. "Thank you. Merry Christmas." She turned around and their lips met for a brief but passionate kiss.
"Merry Christmas. I love you."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
New Year's Eve
"It's New Year's Eve." Natalie pointed out as her and Mark were looking at Sloan reading a magazine as she lied down at the couch, still at Natalie's house, driving her and Amber crazy.
"I know." Mark nodded. He hadn't been able to talk to her. Natalie was the only one doing the talking and most of the time it had to do with stopping a fight between Amber and Sloan. And Natalie was glad in that moment that she never had a second child with Isaac back then.
"She shows no signs of leaving..." Natalie continued. "No suitcase packed, nothing. My daughter went to her father for the rest of the holidays because she couldn't handle this. Talk to her right now, or no more sex for you." Natalie threatened him and walked upstairs to give them some privacy.
Few minutes later Mark found Natalie in the bed reading a book. He sighed knowing that he was going to ruin the peacefulness that she was feeling, because he knew that she was not going to be okay with any of it. "Nat"
Natalie put a bookmark on the page she was reading before tossing the book on the empty side of the bed. "Did you talk to her?" She looked at him, hoping that they could actually enjoying their lives together without any more interruptions.
"Uh yeah..." Mark scratched the back of his head. "Um, I can't ask her to leave. S-she's pregnant. I can't... You can kick me out if you-"
"I am not going to kick out of Mark." Natalie interrupted him. And even if the news were shocking to her, she was going to support him like he had done so many times. "We're together and we're gonna help your daughter together, okay? At least until she can figure out what to do."
She could see that Mark was really trying to be better than back when he knew about the pregnancy and hoped for an abortion. And she didn't want to take that part away from him, she was going to give him some more time. But she didn't know then how much time Mark was going to need.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆
ʜᴇʟʟᴏ! ɪ ᴀᴍ ꜱᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅʏ ꜰᴏʀ ᴄʜʀɪꜱᴛᴍᴀꜱ ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ʟᴏʟ