NEW YORK
Winters in New York were harsh but still to some extent they were beautiful and perhaps that was the reason Ren had decided to call the city her home, well one of the reasons, the other was the person who was sleeping next to her. She liked these quiet times they had, free from the hospital politics and drams, free from having to go to Addison and Derek's dinner parties, free from everything when they were just the two of them. However, their quiet time was interrupted when Mark's phone went off, he groaned but didn't make any effort to pick the phone up instead buried his head deeper inside the pillow.
"You are not going to pick the phone up?" Renee asked but was responded with a muffled sentence.
"What?"
"Could you pick it up?" he asked. Renee rolled her eyes as she leaned over Mark to take his phone from his side of the bed, she looked at the caller id before pausing.
"Mark I think you should answer this," Renee said seriously.
"Who is it?"
"It's your dad,"
Renee watched as Mark's face scrunched as he got up and ran his hand through his hair, she could see the confusion bubbling in his eyes as he tried to make sense of why his father would call him, it had been years since Mark had been in contact with his family, neither his father nor his mother had bothered to keep in touch.She watched as he picked the phone up and went to the balcony to answer the phone, the anxiety was crippling her as she bit her thumb tip waiting for Mark to return something which she had always been told was a bad idea.
"What happened?" she asked as he entered the room. Something was off, she could tell with the way he entered, there was no anger, no urge to shout or yell at anything or anybody and that worried Ren.
"My dad's sick,"
The car ride to the hospital felt long, ever so often Ren would glance at Mark whose fingers were clutching the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles had started turning white yet Ren didn't dare to speak. Family was a very sensitive topic with Mark, the absence of his parents in his life had always picked him and how they have chosen parties and vacations to forgein countries over him. He hadn't cried and that worried her, he wasn't the sort of person who would openly express his feeling or what he was thinking and instead thought it was best to suppress his emotions inside him, deep inside.
"I think you should go visit your father," Ren said softly.
"I have no interest in visiting that man,"
"What about-"
"Ren, please don't make me do this. He is not worth my time,"
"But he is your father, he's your family,"
"My mom and dad preferred to go to a party or a vacation or get high over spending time with their own son,"
"But-"
"We are not having this discussion,"
Mark turned to look at Ren who was biting her lip as she looked out of the window, he grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before keeping a hold of it in his lap as they continued driving.
"I am sorry. They aren't the greatest parents, they were barely ever home, I was alone at night, they would come home drunk as hell, I have seen them throw up so many times, I have put up with their fights.....I can't do this,"
"I am just saying you'd regret not going to atleast visit him,"
Ren and Mark went their own ways after reaching the hospital, she was scheduled to do a few general surgeries under Richard while Mark had some otolaryngology surgeries, it was distracting for her to see him like that. She couldn't decide what to do or how to make it better, Derek was probably her best shot to get something out of Mark or make him do something, she knew that even though Mark didn't want to visit his family right now, he'd regret it later.
"Ren, what's with Mark?" Derek asked as he joined her by the coffee line.
"His father is sick,"
"What happened?"
"I have no idea, he won't tell me, he refuses to even visit the man,"
"I would understand where he's coming from," Derek said.
"What are you saying?"
"He was negleted a lot as a child, it was not that bad until his mom was alive but it went really bad after that, his father became a drunkard,"
"I don't know what to say to him, I can't force him to visit his dad but I know he's going to regret it if something happens to his father,"
"What are you going to say to a man who watched his father who forced him to smoke pot when he was only ten years old,"
Mark returned home that night to an empty apartment, his day had gone bad, he had patients yelling at him left and right and he messed up a couple of stitches on a very old prissy lady and on top of that his father had called him again to tell him that his condition was getting worse. He threw his coat on the couch, he had been spending a lot of his days in Renee's apartment that this apartment looked like hell compared to hers. But he liked her apartment more than his perhaps because it was more homey compared to his or perhaps it smelled like Renee all the time, he couldn't decided. His eyes were fixed on the storage room where he had kept all of his things, shoved all the things he hated and had vowed to never open it ever again, his steps were tentative and he was afraid that something might jump out of the closet and grab him. Perhaps the little child in him who was afraid of switching off all the lights, he was still there and he was still afraid.
He opened the door to the storage room and stared at a box at the other side of the room deciding whether to probe the past or not but he needed to to dig inside the past to get over with it.
"Okay," he said as he opened box and pulled out all the photographs and the little cards and stuff he had made for his parents on their birthdays or their wedding anniversaries which they didn't even bother to open and look.
He pulled out a frame which had a photo of his family, it was rare moment when his parents had agreed to have a photograph with him, he kept that aside and picked up another photo of the Shepherds and him, all of them giving different and weird poses. A smile crept on his face as he picked up another photo, it was their graduation day, Naomi, Sam, him, Derek, Renee and Addison all in their graduation robes and a huge smiles on their faces. He kept it aside and dig up deep inside the box and found an old teared photograph of his mother and father, kissing each other with him in their lap sleeping. It was probably one of the only times where his parents had felt love towards him, he didn't realize when his eyes started welling but he furiously wiped them not wanting to give them the satisfaction even if they weren't here. But his emotions betrayed him when he felt Renee hugging him from behind, he could her her breath on the base of his neck as she continued hugging him.
"I went home, you weren't there, I thought you went to Derek's," she said as she pressed a kiss to the base of his neck.
"I tried to forgive him, I tried to make myself go down and visit him....but I can't...I can't,"
"It's okay, you don't have to, you don't need to,"
"No, I have to, I don't want to make myself the smaller person, I am a bigger person than he ever was and I will....not become him,"
The subway ride to Mark's parental home was a long one, they had to change trains two times, they both were too tired to drive down to Long Island,by the time they reached Long Island it was late. Mark decided it would be better from them to take a cab to his parents home which would also give Ren and him some time to rest. He had held Ren's hand the entire ride and even when they reached, he refused to let it go.
"This is it," he said as they stood in front of a house, it was a huge house which wasn't a surprise as Mark's parents were from upper class and had a huge bank balance.
"It's..... nice,"
"It was a shit hole," Mark said as they walked away, Ren looked at him with confusion and they walked in the opposite direction.
"The Shepherds used to live here. They were originally from Maine but after Derek's father died they came to New York. Mrs S decided to move back home after all her kids moved out,"
"I spent a lot of time here, Derek and I, we used to play on that swing set," Ren kept a hold of his hand and leaned into him and placed his head on his shoulder.
"Let's go, let's meet Theo Sloan,"
Mark sighed before knocking on his father's door and after a couple of few an aged man appeared on the door, he was quite similar looking to Mark, especially the nose. The man had a glass of whiskey in his hand as he looked at Mark before raising an eyebrow.
"Dad," Mark said hostily.
"Mark, I am surprised you came and who is this young lady, she looks too good to be with someone like you," Theo said as he drank his whiskey. They were still standing on the front porch as the snow started falling.
"She's my girlfriend, Renee Foster,"
"Good evening, Mr Sloan,"
"Tell me girl are your standards so low to be with him?"
"I think Mark's a wonderful person, at least he's better thank you," Renee said as she grabbed Mark's hand and gave Theo a smile.
"I heard you were sick, dad,"
"I figured we could have a couple of drinks, play some poker, you know like fun times,"
"You lied to me and you expect me to play poker with you,"
"I just thought-"
"Shut up!! Fun times, what you and mom called fun were torture for me, you made my life hell, you should be ashambed to even call yourself my father,"