When you think of November, you think of the crisp, orange Fall leaves that scatter on the pavements, the sweet chill in the air that's not quite cold, but not exactly warm either.
But not in Seattle. In Seattle, the seasons didn't matter, all that mattered was the rain, and on Thanksgiving morning, it rained like hell.
"Owen, are we done yet? Madeline complained, she was drenched from head to toe, her clothes were now apart of her and her hair kept getting stuck in her eyes, "You know, in the MLB, they stop playing when it rains like this."
If he had to admit it, he was getting sick of the weather too, but he'd been through worse so he shook his head and threw another ball for the girl to catch, "When you said you wanted practise every Monday and Thursday morning, that means we practise, no matter what the weather."
"But-" She stumbled a little as she caught the ball before instantly throwing it back to him, "But what if I get hypothermia or something?"
"Then you're lucky that you're training with the head of Trauma then, aren't you?" He replied, a grin on his face as they continued to pass the ball back and forth, racing around the pitch to create harder catches.
"This is crazy," She spluttered, slightly out of breath and having to squint not to get blinded by the rain, "You're totally crazy."
"Yeah well- Crazy's gonna get you on that team, when are the tryouts again?"
"The Thursday after we get back from break." She responded, trying to focus on the game and their conversation, not the cold rain biting at the exposed skin on her face.
"You'll be ready by then, don't worry Scout, you're making this team." In any other circumstance, she would've grinned at the affection nickname Owen had coined for her in the past few weeks.
But now, now she just had to practise. A few minutes later, Owen was starting to get concerned, the rain hadn't let out and he'd thrown a completely catchable ball at the girl and she wasn't even close,
"Hey, you okay? You need a break?" He yelled and she shook her head, ball in hand,
"No m'fine, keep going." She threw the ball back, but it was sloppy and didn't quite reach his arms, so now he was starting to panic a little,
"Are you sure? I know what I said earlier but, we should call it a day, i'll take you to that cafe you like before we go to the hospital, the one Lexie takes you to."
But she was adamant in continuing, which is when Owen stopped and really squinted at her, "Hey Scout, you're shaking."
"I'm not," She denied, arms crossed over her chest, "I told you I'm fine, throw the ball back."
Yet he wasn't convinced, so he left the ball where it was and jogged upto the girl, finding her shivering on the spot, and whilst her skin was light normally, it was deathly pale, his suspicions were even further confirmed when he placed his hand on her forehead and had to withdraw it from the icy pain that shot through his fingers,
"Alright, come on, you're freezing let's get you inside." He wrapped his arm around her, dragging her closer to his chest and hoping at least some of his body heat would transfer to her, but she didn't want to move,
"No, Owen, i'm serious, I can do this, okay? Just-"
"-Maddie." He cut her off and she was stunned at his harsh, declarative tone, "You've got mild Hypothermia."
She let out a short laugh, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out earlier, I was just kidding about the Hypothermia-"
"-I'm not." As she looked into his eyes and saw the dead seriousness in them, she felt panic begin to rise through her and he winced, "Don't panic alright just, can you run?"
She nodded, but felt a scared whimper tumble out of her lips but he just squeezed her close to him before they started at a run, "You're going to be fine, just stay calm and listen to me."
Once they got in Owen's truck, she felt the fear truly course through her veins, especially once she started coughing, "Am I gonna die?! I feel like i'm going to die," She cried, and Owen quickly shushed her, turning the heating dial up to max and wrapping his arms around her,
"You're not going to die, you have mild hypothermia, I only asked you to run so you'd get warmer quicker, alright?" He placed his hand on her cheek, pushing away the wet hair which was sticking to her, "You don't need to worry, you're going to be fine."
"Promise?"
"Promise," He grinned, pulling back from her and searching in the back of the truck for something, "You should take off your coat and jumper, they're soaked through so it's making you worse, i'm hoping your shirt isn't too bad."
"What if it is?" She panicked, "What if my tops wet too?"
"Then it is what it is, you're going to be fine, I'm supposed to be taking you to the hospital anyway so i'll find some spare scrubs, get you a bed in the clinic with lots of blankets and hot chocolate- I'll even make sure there's marshmallows in it, yeah?"
Madeline figured whatever he was looking for wasn't there, as he let out an annoyed sigh and pulled his seatbelt on instead, "...Can It have whipped cream too?"
He looked over to her with a fake irritated scowl, "You're really testing me here, Scout."
She let out a laugh, still freezing and shivering but no longer feeling the cloud of death looming over her, "Sorry, Sarge."
"Um," He raised his eyebrows mockingly, "It's Major, actually."
"Oh okay," She snickered, "Whatever, Major- You know if I told the army that you gave me Hypothermia would they kick you out?"
He pointed a finger in her face, "You keep your mouth shut."
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
Madeline was bored, well and truly bored. She'd gotten over the excitement of wearing the navy blue attending scrubs and her hot chocolate had been drank. Not to mention Owen had to go and actually do his job so he left for an emergency.
There was only a handful of people in the clinic, barely any patients and a few doctors who were just lounging about, lazily checking their pagers. When one of them noticed Madeline and took her chart, flicking through it to try and see if he could find something remotely surgical, only to find nothing at all,
"Your chart is empty." He said and looked curiously at her, "What's your name?"
"Madeline." She responded and he stared at her for a while, before asking the next question as if it was the most obvious thing in the world,
"Madeline what?"
"Sloan."
His eyes seemed to light up and he started to laugh, "Dude, no way, does he know you're here?" She shook her head and he pulled out his pager, beaming at it, "This is crazy, how does this happen twice in a day."
A few minutes later, the doctor was joined by two more, who Madeline recognised and they simultaneously deflated,
"Seriously, Alex?! You said Sloan had a long lost kid down here." Cristina glared at the man, who Madeline now recognised from Lexie's irritated rants about him.
He just glared back, "What?! Her last name's Sloan, why are you two not excited?"
Meredith and Cristina shared a glance, the blonde dropping down on the chair beside Madeline's bed, "Hey Maddie." She said and Madeline smiled,
"Hi Mer."
Alex was shocked, "You know her?!" Meredith just gaped at him in response,
"How do you not know her, she's been here like two months or something." Meredith looked at her puzzled, "Does Lexie know you're here?"
Madeline just shrugged in response, "I don't know, I assumed Owen paged her but he was called into an emergency so maybe he forgot."
"Right, how come you're in the clinic with a mountain of blankets around you?"
"Oh, Owen gave me Hypothermia."
"You got freaking Hypothermia?!" Madeline looked up as Lexie came crashing into the clinic, eyes wide and voice shrill, and Meredith immediately got up and left.
"It was only mild?" Madeline tried a smile but Lexie was borderline furious as sat on the side of her bed, instantly checking her temperature and counting how many blankets she had on her.
"I knew that letting you go to practise this morning was a stupid idea," Lexie scoffed, wiping at her eyes with her lab coat, "I told Owen and I told Mark but no, don't worry Lexie, she'll be fine, you're being overdramatic," She changed her voice to imitate them, "And now you're lying in a hospital bed."
"I'm fine, if you weren't a surgeon then i'd be at home, i'm only here because Owen had to bring me to the hospital anyway."
Lexie bit her lip, and seemed to search for a lie in Madeline's eyes for a moment, "So you're really fine?"
The girl nodded and Lexie sighed, lying down besides her and soothingly running her hands through Madeline's hair, and planted a kiss on the side of her forehead.
After a few minutes, Lexie muttered, "I was really scared, I thought you were dying or something, I totally freaked." She admitted and Madeline smiled, cuddling closer to Lexie and wrapping her arms around her waist,
"I'm okay."
"I know, I know."
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
Safe to say Lexie was not impressed with the whole Owen giving Madeline Hypothermia thing, and she was less impressed by the fact that Mark hadn't even visited her once. So whilst everyone was preparing for Thanksgiving dinner and wearing nice outfits with makeup and skirts, Madeline was wearing baggy pyjama bottoms and an oversized fluffy hoodie, with the hood over her head per Lexie's request.
And she was boiling, because they were cooking but Lexie said she'd rather she sweat to death than get Hypothermia again.
"Have you talked to your dad today?" Arizona asked and Madeline frowned a little as she noticed Callie try and discreetly elbow her, and the way Lexie stopped cutting up the vegetables,
"Um, no why?"
"Oh no reason," She replied, a little too quickly, "I just uh- I haven't seen him, that's all."
"Well is he okay?" She asked, and it was Callie who answered,
"Yeah he's fine, totally okay, Arizona's just a bit uh..." She looked her girlfriend in the eye who seemed just as interested as Madeline to what she was about to say, "Nothing, don't worry about it."
Just a few moments later, the door opened and Mark entered, causing the occupants of the room to all beam and greet him joyfully, until a girl entered after him, who received much less ecstatic greetings from the women.
Confused, Madeline looked around the room, they all obviously seemed to know who the girl was, but not a single person was willing to look Madeline in the eyes when she stared them down.
"Welcome," Callie said, but it was completely rushed and forced, "Happy Thanksgiving- Who wants wine?!"
The girl responded almost instantly, "Ooh, I do-"
"-No you don't." Mark interrupted her, and Madeline couldn't help but frown, as Mark had stopped her in a paternal way, the way that was reserved for only Madeline, "So uh, the results are in."
Madeline had no clue what he was talking about so she just reached for her glass of juice as he continued to speak, "It turns out Sloan was right about her parentage. I am her dad."
Completely flabbergasted, Madeline began to choke on her drink, making odd sputtering noises until Arizona clapped on her back and she calmed down.
Yet she wasn't really calm, because this woman besides her dad was her sister, and she was gorgeous and Madeline was instantly jealous of her perfect waves of blonde hair.
Once she had a more calm exterior, Mark tentatively said, "Lexie, Maddie, Sloan here is gonna move in with us for a little while-" There was a crunch and a squelch, so Madeline looked over at the noise and promptly screamed when she saw Lexie had sliced off the tip of her finger.
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
"I-I mean it's just a finger, you can put it back on right?" At this point, Mark wasn't sure if it was Madeline or Lexie freaking out and he internally cursed himself for letting his daughter spent so much time with his girlfriend as now all of her crazy, neurotic behaviours had rubbed off on the young girl.
A group of surgeons were already waiting for them when they arrived, some Madeline knew and some she didn't, but Mark swiftly ordered them around, "Avery, you come with me and the finger. Derek, stay with her and check the nerve endings."
Everyone was doing their jobs perfectly, especially Madeline's whose was to cry into Lexie's shoulder and make the woman feel a lot less alone in this scenario, "How do you feel?" She asked and Madeline just scoffed,
"How do you think I feel? We're both sat here crying whilst Derek works on your mangled finger!"
Derek couldn't help but laugh, "She's going to be fine, Maddie," He whispered softly, "It was a clean slice so we'll be able to reattach the finger no problem... Speaking of, how did you manage to cut your finger off?"
Lexie let out an embarrassed chuckle, cheeks glowing red as she leaned her head against Madeline's, "I was helping Callie and Arizona with thanksgiving dinner and..." She trailed off, and Madeline filled in the blank with false enthusiasm,
"Apparently my sister is coming to live with us!"
Derek snorted, now finished working on the finger and more interested in just talking to the two, "Sounds like someone's jealous."
Madeline couldn't even deny it, "I mean have you seen her? She's- She's his twin and she's older than me so she's the first child, that we know of, so he probably already loves her more and-"
"-Woah, woah, woah." Derek immediately put a stop to her rambling and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "He doesn't love her more than you."
"But you don't know that!" She exclaimed, leaning into Lexie's side as the woman stroked her hair, ironically soothing Madeline whilst she was the one without a finger.
"Oh," Derek grinned, "And you do? Do you know everything that goes on inside Mark's mind?" A little bashful, Madeline shook her head and Derek asked, "You wanna know what I think?"
"What?"
"I think he's scared. With you, it was easy: you were small and cute and injured, and you had no family left but him so he knew what he had to do," Lexie tucked a strand of hair behind Madeline's ear whilst Derek continued, "But with Sloan, she's big and old and healthy, and she has a mom, so he's got no clue what he's supposed to do, he just wants to do right, okay?"
Madeline smiled, tears being a thing of the past and they saw Mark heading back over with the man called 'Avery' with a huge grin on his face,
"How's things going on your side, Derek? Cause on mine, everything is absolutely perfect." He reached over Lexie's bed to kiss her, which was a little odd considering he had the tip of her finger in his hand.
"Well, Little Grey," Derek clapped his hands cheerily, as if the previous conversation had never happened, "Looks like you're gonna have a finger after all."
Thanksgiving wasn't something that Madeline was used to anyway, but Thanksgiving in the hospital cafeteria eating sandwiches and fries didn't seem like something that anyone else at the table was used to either,
"So um, Maddie," Mark started awkwardly, "How's baseball practise going?"
As Lexie let out an irritated scowl and Madeline shot her a small grin, Mark realised that he'd missed something, and he didn't like the fact that he seemed to be out of the loop entirely,
"Um...It's good, yeah, Owen said we're gonna practise pitching next week." She answered and it took Lexie about thirty two seconds before she blew up,
"She got Hypothermia this morning!" At her outburst, Sloan looked up from her phone for the first time in a few hours and Mark's eyes bulged out of his head,
"Hypothermia?!"
Lexie nodded, and responded in a snide tone, "Oh yeah, and where were you, Mark? She was cold and scared and alone in a hospital bed, and I was there!" Madeline had no clue what had spurred on Lexie's sudden change of mood, but safe to say she was frantic, "Did you know she was asking for you?? Hmm!? Did you know that!? No! Of course you didn't, because you were too busy sat in a conference room with her instead of comforting your sick kid and I-I-"
She let out a shaky breath, "I cant- I'm sorry, I can't do this right now, I mean I just lost my finger for gods sake! And-"
"-Lex, hey-" He reached out to touch her shoulder but instead she abruptly got up from table and shook her head, tears now running down her face,
"-No I-I'm sorry-" And then she just left. Leaving Mark and his two daughters sat at the table, no one really knowing how to talk to each-other after what happened.
If this was how dinner times were going to be from now on, Madeline wasn't sure she liked them.
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
Normally, Madeline loved being in the main room of the apartment, she could watch TV or grab snacks or sit at the counter if she really liked. But now that Sloan was living on the sofa, she hated it, as her peace and quiet was rudely invaded by shrieking and screaming whilst Sloan loudly talked to her friends on her phone.
Every day, her dad would usually greet her with a "Good Morning" but today he decided to mix things up a bit, and say it in Japanese (Although it was barely recognisable as speech, never-mind Japanese, Madeline had never seen anyone butcher a language so badly in her life)
"Was that supposed to be in Japanese?"
"Yeah." He grinned, ignoring Sloan's comment and instead sitting besides Madeline on the sofa, "Well you speak it, right?"
"No."
"What?" He genuinely seemed perplexed, "But you're Japanese."
"Yeah, my grandad is? I'm only like a quarter, I don't speak the language."
"But-" He scratched his forehead, "It's your heritage, you're American so you speak English and you're Japanese so you speak Japanese."
"I don't speak Japanese." She responded and it was like a light bulb went off in his brain,
"You're going to learn Japanese." He declared.
"What?" She shrieked, "You want me to learn another language on-top of all my school work, do you want me to become burnt out?"
"Oh come on," He drawled, an excited grin on his face, "You're telling me that drama and music are making you too busy to learn a language which is apart of you?"
She couldn't really argue with what he was saying so he took her silence as an agreement, "Great! I'll phone your school later, get you a tutor and i'll learn it too," He quietly whispered the last part in her ear, "So when Lex looses her temper in Monopoly again, we can talk about her without her knowing."
At that exact moment, Lexie emerged from the bathroom and Mark let out some low, forced coughs and she just rolled her eyes playfully, knowing that the two had been scheming something,
"When are your friends getting here?" She asked, shooting a few fleeting glances to where Sloan was cackling on the phone at the counter.
"Soon, they're a little late because Dylan's dad put the wrong address into the Satnav."
Lexie nodded, in her opinion the least that Mark owed his daughter was a sleepover with her friends after bringing in an eighteen year-old who had no regard for Madeline's personal space at all,
"Okay, we'll order the pizza when they get here, the place has ridiculously long delivery lines on Saturday nights." Lexie smiled then dropped down besides Mark, kissing his cheek and leaning into his chest, mindlessly flicking through channels whilst they waited.
Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long before a chorus of excited knocks were at the door, Madeline running rapidly to tug it open, where Dylan and Birdie immediately wrapped her in a bone crushing hug,
"Alright, MJ?" Dylan asked and Madeline immediately groaned and pushed her away,
"I told you to stop calling me that." The second that Dylan had found out Madeline's middle name was Josephine, she'd began calling her MJ, and the girl couldn't seem to get the nickname to go away.
As the girls spoke in joyful, hushed whispers and raced to pull all the snacks they'd brought out of their bags and dump them on the coffee table, Mark decided he had to get the awkward meeting out of the way and shook his hand out for Dylan's dad to shake,
"I'm uh Maddie's dad, Mark- Its nice to meet you." He looked over his shoulder to see if Lexie was going to introduce herself but she was too busy adding to the candy pile with things from the cupboard.
Dylan's dad nodded, quickly shaking his hand before thrusting it in his washed out jeans pocket, "Pleasure, i'm Joseph Findlay, but in the nicest way possible, i've got totally no interest in getting to know my kid's friend's dad."
Mark let out a relived chuckle, "Thank god, I don't want to know you either."
"Excellent, hold on a sec and i'll go-" He raised his voice a little, "Dylan!" She looked up and he instructed, "If the man shows you any tapes of his freaky ass surgeries then make sure you record them, especially if it involves guts."
Madeline quickly figured out where Dylan got her well- Dylan-ness from, not only were the pair identical, Dylan's dad having blonde hair sticking up in short spikes and the same cheeky grin as his daughter, but they also seemed to act the same.
"I will!" She replied, "Laters."
"Cool." He nodded his head a few times before turning to leave out the door, "See ya!"
Once the door was shut Dylan laughed, "He's a bit of a freak, I know, but he's got like crippling social anxiety and stuff so it's whatever, but can you show me a super cool surgery?" She looked up at Mark expectantly who immediately shook his head,
"No."
"Boring."
Dylan looked past him and saw Sloan sat at the counter and murmured to Madeline, "Dude is that your new super secret sister Sloan?" When Madeline nodded, Birdie muttered,
"She seems so... Nice."
After a few moments of them all awkwardly staring at Sloan, Lexie suggested, "Come on, let's take your stuff to Maddie's room."
They agreed and picked up their backpacks, running over to the room which she had to admit... was bland. Cream walls and wooden floors, with no decoration around the room, but Mark had promised her that they'd paint it and do it up for Christmas, they just didn't have the time right now.
"So, what are you going to put in your room?" Birdie asked, dropping down on the bed and staring at the empty walls.
"Posters and stuff, photos maybe, I don't know." She replied, and Dylan launched herself besides Birdie, bursting out laughing as she reached for the Lion teddy on Madeline's pillow,
"What is this?" She chuckled, "How old are you, four?"
Madeline glared and immediately snatched it from her hands, "My dad got me that when I first moved in, keep your claws off of it."
In response, Birdie just grinned at Dylan who was acting like Madeline had said the most offensive thing ever with her hand on her heart, "You better start being nice to me, MJ, or else The Chronicles will have a lot to say about Madeline Sloan's furry friend."
And that was how Dylan got a pillow to the face, which, of course, resulted in a full blown pillow fight between the three girls and Mark was beginning to regret this whole sleepover idea.