If there was one thing Mark Sloan hated more than the Red Sox baseball team, it was waking up early for work: It drained him.
All he wanted was a nice lie in, to wake up at ten, steal breakfast from next door and then have a day full of fun surgeries, like breast augmentations or people whose skin is so shredded they look like mince meat.
But no, he had to be up at six. Which wasn't too early, but he was a complete night owl, so six am was insulting in his opinion. In fact, it was utterly insulting.
Getting up was no easy task, but somehow he managed to drag himself out of bed and meander into the kitchen with little more than a few yawns and eye droops. He wasn't expecting to find Madeline, sat upright at the kitchen table like some kind of possessed doll.
He almost screamed, and Mark did not scream, ever. He was tough, and manly and unafraid of everything, so his heart slamming rapidly against his rib cage was completely normal.
"Jesus, kid!" He held his hand to his chest, breathing heavily, "Why the hell are you up at six?"
"I've been up since half five."
He frowned, clutching the kitchen counter, and exclaimed, "Why?!"
She recoiled, and just shrugged, murmuring, "I always get up at half five."
But that wasn't a good enough explanation to him, and he was still flabbergasted, "Why?!"
"So that I can get my chores done before doing work."
His brain was trying to process why on earth this kid was up at the crack of dawn for chores, when he was a kid, if anyone mentioned chores he'd groan and mope about, not doing them until the absolute last minute.
"But, you don't have any chores- Have you eaten anything?"
She shook her head and replied, "Nope."
"Uhh," He scratched his head, well-aware that none of these boxes contained any kind of food in them, "Tell you what, go over to Callie's place at a normal time, i'm sure Arizona will let you have some food."
"Okay."
He grumbled to himself, stroking his stubble (which he was adamant not to shave, stubble was hot and made his super cute girlfriend blush around him), "And for the love of god, go back to sleep kid."
So instantly, she went back to her room as he asked, and he lightly hit his head against the cold of the refrigerator before going and getting ready for the morning.
By the time he was showered, dried his hair, put product in his hair, rediscovered the aftershave Lexie really liked the smell of and finally hunted down his I.D badge, Madeline was back in the living room, still clad in her pyjamas.
He frowned a little as he noticed, hauling his leather jacket over his arms, "You not gonna get dressed?"
"Oh um, I still don't have any clothes."
He grimaced and nodded, "Right well uh, wear what you wore yesterday for now, okay? I'll leave my keys on the kitchen counter, lock up when you leave for Callie's, alright?"
"Okay, but what time do I go to Callie's?"
"Uhh, I don't know like nine?"
"Okay."
"Alright, i'll see you later kid, remind Arizona that my credit card is in her little black handbag."
"Bye."
He waved before leaving the apartment, hoping to god he'd have at least one fantastic surgery today.
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
Just like Mark had asked, at nine am, Madeline was dressed, teeth brushed, hair brushed, apartment locked up, and knocking on Callie's door.
With a slightly tired grin, Arizona opened it, ushering the girl inside instantly and heading straight to the fridge, "God, I am starving, I would literally kill for some pancakes- Do you like pancakes?"
"Yeah." Madeline smiled, sitting down at the counter and watching Arizona rather frantically grab ingredients from the fridge and cupboards.
"So..." Arizona grinned, her voice perky and cheery, "Are you excited to go to the mall? What kind of stuff do you wanna get?"
"Oh, I don't really know." Madeline never really had the option to pick out her own fashion decisions, so had never really thought of the subject.
"Well we'll just get a bit of everything, I mean i've seen what kids your age wear but I think most of it would probably give your dad a heart attack." She laughed before pausing, holding a measuring jug in her hands, "Wow, that is weird. Mark being a dad."
"Does- Does he find it weird?"
"What, being a dad suddenly?"
"Yeah."
Arizona frowned, now focused on making the pancake batter, "Well yeah a little, I mean it was kind of sprung on him and it's not like you're a baby, you're a fully fledged tiny human." She looked up and saw the crestfallen expression on Madeline's face and quickly covered herself up, "But, I've never seen Mark care about someone so much, and he's not even known you a week."
"So... He isn't mad?"
"What!? Of course not, he loves you, Madeline. He's just adjusting, this is new for him- And for you."
"Yeah."
When the two were eating their pancakes, Arizona finally mustered up enough courage to ask the question that had been teetering off the edge of her tongue for a while, (She found it crazy that she was afraid of asking a child a question),
"How are you finding everything?"
Madeline looked up and stammered, "Oh, uh, the pancakes are really nice, thankyou."
Arizona let out a laugh, but quickly stopped when she realised Madeline thought she'd done something wrong, "No-I, uh, thankyou- But, I meant with the whole moving in with your dad thing."
"Oh, sorry-"
"-It's alright you don't need to apologise."
Madeline just nodded, cutting up another piece of pancake, "It's strange."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I mean, last week I didn't even know I had a dad."
Arizona smiled to herself, the fact that Madeline was even slightly opening up to her made her so incredibly joyous, especially if she hadn't talked to Mark or Callie about this; That made her feel even better.
"And how are you doing with your mom? You must miss her?"
Frowning, Madeline avoided eye contact and looked down at her plate, "Sure, yeah."
Arizona opened her mouth to respond, then closed it, opened it again, and then closed it again; Settling on just not responding at all, as she was completely out of her depth in this situation. Someone else was better suited to understand why she wasn't devastated over her mothers death, as Arizona would be crushed if this happened to her.
"Okay well, we'll be going soon, do you know where your dad left his bank card?"
She nodded, "Your little black handbag."
For a few moments, Arizona sat, face scrunched up in thought before she rolled her eyes, standing up, "This is what I mean, Mark has no regard for privacy at all," The woman scoffed, "He just leaves things in area's he shouldn't be accessing at all, I have personal stuff in that handbag! He's so frustrating!"
As Arizona got up scowling and searched for her handbag, Madeline was smiling to herself, trying not to laugh; This was the first negative thing she'd heard about her dad, and it was hilarious to see how much he aggravated Arizona, who, in her opinion, seemed like a difficult person to annoy.
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
"...Okay there's only one store left and then we're all done." Madeline felt relief flood through her body at Arizona's words, it's not like she'd say anything about it, but her arms were practically killing her with the amount of bags she was carrying.
Honestly, she didn't know how Arizona wasn't complaining as she had even more bags on hers, and Madeline felt like they'd been in every store in the world and brought every article of clothing ever.
So when Arizona said one more store, she was expecting another clothes store like Next or New Look, not Toys R us.
"Toys?" Madeline asked, mindlessly following Arizona through the aisles, who had the biggest grin on her face,
"Oh i'm not gonna get you toys- Unless you want them?" She turned to look at Madeline, who just gently shook her head and then continued, "But Toys R us is just about the only place who sell what i'm looking for so..."
As they made their way through the final aisles, Madeline found herself growing slightly afraid of Arizona, who had a constant grin plastered on her face and a slight twinkle in her eyes for a good few minutes until they stopped.
What on earth was a Heely? She thought, as Arizona clasped the box in her hands and thrust it at Madeline as if it was the most exciting thing in the world, "Tadah!"
"What is it?" She asked, trying to reciprocate Arizona's excitement with a false smile on her face.
"Just the coolest thing in the world," She responded with a shrug, "I wear them to work all the time, so I figured it'd be super cute if we had matching ones."
The smile on Madeline's face was no longer false as Arizona dragged her right back down the isles they'd came from, "Yeah, that's cool."
No one had ever brought her anything matching before.
All of a sudden, Arizona's phone started to ring, and she squeezed out a quick sorry before pressing it to her ear,
"Hello, this is Dr. Arizona Robbins..." Madeline thought it was sweet how Arizona was still just as bubbly and friendly in her work voice as she was normally, "...Oh of course, hi! How is he?..." Arizona's face fell as the voice on the other side spoke, and she bit her lower lip, "...Right, I know, and I'm truly very sorry I-..." The voice on the other side spoke for quite a while until, "...I'm going to refer you to Dr. Calliope Torres at Mercy West, tell her I sent you, i'm sure she'll do the tests..."
Once the phone call ended, Arizona grimaced, slowly placing the phone back in her coat pocket, "Oh my god Callie is going to kill me."
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
Madeline wasn't sure that she'd ever seen anyone so panicked as Arizona was on the drive to the hospital, one second she'd be stressing about Callie and how she was going to murder her and the next second she'd be worrying about the toddler she'd be operating on once they got to the hospital, apparently she was being called in for some sort of emergency surgery.
As they ran into the hospital, Arizona had thrust her car keys and the Heely's box into Madeline's arms, "I'll page your dad, so he knows that you're here- Stay in the waiting area." She demanded, voice slightly out of breath as they arrived at the entrance, "And tell him that your stuff is in my car and to please put my car keys in my cubby, okay?"
"Yeah."
"Good, I have to go, but i'll see you later, yeah?" Madeline just nodded as Arizona smiled and tied up her scrub cap, being immediately greeted by a herd of what Madeline could only assume was other surgeons and raced down the corridors.
Leaving Madeline sat by herself in the reception with a box of Heely's and car keys that she thrust in the pockets of the jacket which Arizona had lent to her.
"Hey-" She looked up and found Lexie, who Madeline had to admit looked far too young to be a surgeon even in her scrubs, "What are you doing here?" She smiled.
"Oh I was with Arizona but she had to come here." Madeline responded, and Lexie decided to take a seat besides her, placing down a group of files onto the floor,
"How are you?"
"Good, how are you-"
"-Lex, there you are!" Madeline was interrupted by an agitated man running up to them, his lab coat slipping down from his shoulders where it'd been haphazardly thrown onto them, "Where the hell is Robbins?"
"She just got pulled in for surgery-"
"-Dude, are you being serious right now!?" He seethed, and when Lexie nodded he ripped his pager out from his scrubs and seemed to be checking something before angrily declaring, "When I see Robbins, I am going to kill her!"
Lexie tried to get a word in but instead he just ran off, in the exact direction in which Arizona left a few minutes ago, and Madeline looked to Lexie with a confused expression and she explained,
"Arizona always lets him on her surgeries, but he said something and now she's mad at him so isn't letting him do any of the cool procedures that he wants in on."
"Why?"
Lexie just frowned, and debated her words for a moment, "He's just Alex, he has a habit of getting on people's nerves."
"Oh."
The two were in an uncomfortable silence for a while before Lexie noticed the box besides Madeline,
"What's this?"
"Oh!" The girl instantly perked up and grabbed the box, passing it over to Lexie, "Arizona got me them, she said that she has matching ones."
Lexie began to laugh the second she saw them and grinned, "She wears these around the hospital all the time like i'll just be doing rounds and she wheels past me all smiley and happy, and the kids at Peds are all super jealous of them."
"Wheels?" In Arizona's excitement she was still yet to explain to her what the hell Heely's even were,
"Oh my god, you don't know what Heely's are?" When the girl shook her head Lexie immediately started unboxing them, "Come on, you've got to try them on."
"What? Here?" Madeline paled and looked around at the crowded hospital but Lexie didn't seem to mind and pulled out a pair of white and pink trainers with... Wheels on them?
"Yeah, come on, I used to roller skate when I was a kid so i'll teach you."
"I-I'm not sure-"
But Lexie was adamant, and pushed the trainers into the girl's hands, "Don't worry, it'll be fun."
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
"I think Lexie's going to break up with me." Mark was pretty sure of this fact, she'd responded to his texts in short answers and had made convenient excuses about being too busy to kiss him at work.
"Why do you think that?" As far as Derek was concerned, the two were absolutely infatuated with each-other.
"Because she's freaked out, i'm no longer just the devilishly handsome plastic surgeon anymore, now i've got a twelve year old." He sulked, not because he had a twelve year old, he was pleasantly surprised at becoming a dad all of a sudden, but because he wasn't sure his girlfriend liked the fact he had said twelve year old.
But Derek just fought the urge to roll his eyes as they made their way down the hospital corridors, fresh from a fantastic craniotomy they'd completed perfectly,
"Come on, girls love single dads."
"I'm not sure she does, I mean when we talked about kids she said she wanted them in like ten years! Not in a month."
Derek knew that no matter what he said, his friend would continue to spiral, so he changed the subject, "Speaking of your kid, why is it that Robbins took her shopping today and i've not even seen her yet?"
Marks cheeks turned pink as if he'd just been caught hiding a terrible lie, "Well it'd be a bit weird if you took her clothes shopping, don't you think?"
"Your hiding her from me," Derek declared, pointing a judgemental finger in Marks face, "She's like you, isn't she? I bet she's horrific, the worst kid ever and your little twin, that's why I haven't met her yet."
In response, Mark snorted, he couldn't be further from the truth, "Nope, she's sweet and adorable and looks nothing like me, if she didn't have the Sloan nose then i'd believe she was just a clone of her mom."
"Sweet and adorable?" Derek's eye brows raised as they approached the reception, "Never thought i'd hear those words uttered about a Sloan."
Which is when something clicked in Mark's head, "She's not a Sloan... Not legally, not yet anyway, I've got to change her name and-" Mark stopped as he saw a sight in-front of him that he wasn't sure was even real at first.
Lexie, who he was so sure hated his kid had her hands around Madeline's waist whilst she clutched onto Lexie's forearms for dear life, both of them in heaps of laughter, sounding like they'd heard the funniest joke ever heard.
"Mark?"
Confused, he just gestured to the two, "I guess Lexie doesn't hate her after all." He grinned at Derek, content with just watching the two girls he cared the most about in the world get to know each-other.
"That's your kid?" When Mark nodded, Derek asked, "Why don't you go and talk to them?"
But he just shook his head and leant against the reception desk, "They're bonding, i'll let them have their fun." He had this warm smile on his face, one which Derek was shocked to see on his friend, who he was sure had no paternal bone in his body.
In fact, when Meredith first told him that Mark had a kid, he said he pitied the poor girl, as in his opinion, Mark Sloan was possibly the worst person to have as your father, yet it seemed as if his best friend was going to prove him wrong.
So the two just stood there for a while, watching as the girls laughed, wondering why Madeline was wearing what seemed like roller skates in the hospital and why Lexie was trying to teach her, and failing miserably to do so.
That was until Lexie noticed the two stood there, and beckoned them over, the grin still plastered on her face, and as they approached them they heard Madeline squeal,
"...No, no! Don't let go of me, Lexie!" The girls grip was iron tight on Lexie's arm, who was trying to gently let go of her so she could learn to skate on her own.
"Okay, okay!" The brunette managed to respond through her laughter and reached back for the girl, who through her panic had begun to slip,
"Lexie!"
"Stop- Stop panicking and just stand still, then you won't fall." She laughed, bringing Madeline close to her chest so she could steady herself on her shoulders and stop skidding all over the place.
"What the hell are you two doing?" At the sound of her dads entertained voice, Madeline looked up from Lexie's shoulder, her cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling,
"Arizona brought me Heely's," She explained, speaking at a million miles per hour, "And i've never even heard of them before so Lexie said she'd teach me but she's been doing a terrible job-"
"-Hey!" The woman took mock offence, and Mark just smiled,
"Well, i'll find someone who actually knows what they're doing to teach you-"
"-Oh come on!" Lexie exclaimed, "You're ganging up on me, this isn't fair!"
As another bout of laughter came out of the little family's mouths, Derek couldn't help but think about how that is what they were, a family. Just by looking at them you wouldn't know the kid had been in their lives for less than a week, and that Lexie wasn't in fact her real mother.
"Okay, okay, sorry Lex." Mark shot his girlfriend a commiserating grin, "But Maddie, i've got someone I want you to meet."
Maddie. The girl was surprised her cheeks wouldn't fall off with how wide she was grinning, all her life she'd always been Madeline, but she quite liked how Maddie sounded.
Mark wrapped his arm around Dereks shoulder and said, "This is my best friend Derek, you met his wife Meredith when you were in the hospital, she was the one who did your stitches."
"Oh," Madeline smiled at the man, who was beaming at her, "Hi."
"Hi, it's nice to meet you Maddie, Mark hasn't stopped talking about you just about all day." He laughed and shot his best friend a pointed look who just shrugged,
"What? I've got a lot to say about you, kid."
She leaned a bit closer into Lexie's arms, enjoying how she truly felt like part of her dads life in this moment, whenever her mom or grandparents used to have friends round, Madeline was never involved, and was always told to stay to one side. But here, her dad was always making sure Maddie was getting to know his friends, his family.
"He really does, honestly, no offence," By the glint in his eyes, Maddie knew he wasn't really insulting anyone, "But it's starting to get very annoying."
Mark looked at Derek as if he'd just killed his entire family and the man just laughed and clapped him on the back, "Well, i've got to go, my wife will kill me if i'm not home on time, it was lovely to meet you."
"You too."
"He's not kidding, Meredith is terrifying." Mark stated, leaning in to whisper to the girls, "Honestly, i'm kind of afraid of her."
The two didn't notice the way Madeline seemed to pale and Lexie agreed and continued, "Oh yeah, she's my sister and i'm absolutely petrified of her sometimes."
"Meredith's your sister?"
Lexie nodded, "Half-Sister, I have another sister as-well, Molly, but she lives in Bahrain."
Madeline turned to Mark and asked, "Do you have any siblings?"
He grinned, and took one of Madeline's arms which was currently plastered onto Lexie, "Dereks my brother, now come on, let's teach you how to skate."
"I-I don't think that's a good idea-"
He shut her down instantly and instead dragged her away from Lexie, "Come on, you'll be fine." Then he pushed her right back to his girlfriend, forcing Madeline to use the wheels on the back of her sneakers to stop her from falling.
Shes was furious when she slammed back into Lexie, but her anger was quickly dismissed when the two started cheering, "You did it!"
"Yeah." She grinned and Lexie quickly span her around, ready to push her again,
"Now do it again!"
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
To say Mark was shocked at how much Arizona had brought Madeline was an understatement, he'd made some joke about having to get a second to job to pay for it, but when Madeline seemed upset, he assured her that today wouldn't even make a dent on his account (Which was true, the man was loaded)
They were sat on her bedroom floor, sorting the clothes out into piles of whats going in the wardrobe and what's going in the drawers, neither of which were actually in the apartment yet.
When Mark came across a crop top, "Hey kid, what's this?"
She looked over at him and just shrugged, "Um, wardrobe, maybe? I don't know, what do you think?" Clearly not understanding what he meant.
"No." He glared at the top, it had small smiley faces all over it, but Mark didn't feel so smiley, "What is it? I mean it's tiny."
Madeline looked again, "Oh! Arizona said all the kids wear them, it's got really cute smiley faces on it, see?" Grinning, she pointed to the yellow blobs until she saw her dads face, and then her smile dimmed a little, "Why?"
His jaw ticked and he asked, "Robbins picked it?"
"Yes." She felt a sinking pit in her stomach that she'd finally done it, she'd finally annoyed her dad and now he was going to realise he didn't want her and was going to send her to some orphanage and-
"I'm gonna kill Robbins, she's dead." He was yet to notice Madeline's existential crisis as he continued to shoot daggers at the shirt, "You're my kid, my kid, you're tiny! You shouldn't be wearing crop tops, you're too little." He seethed, and Madeline calmed down, realising it wasn't her he was angry at.
"I don't have to wear it-"
"-No. No you don't, and you're not going to." He stood up from where he was sat on the floor and made his way into living room, Madeline quickly following him and watching as he stormed through the front door, leaving it wide open so she heard as he barged his way into Callie's apartment and yelled,
"Robbins!? You are dead!"
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
A/N: Wow. Thank-you for all the votes and reads this is crazy! I also wanted to apologise for the very, very late update, but I want you all to know that I have not given up on Madeline and have a lot more in store for her!
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