It had been a long day, and it was only lunchtime. Mark was certainly in need of some respite and so he figured after the morning he had, he could get away with spending his lunch break with the twins down in daycare. He knew that technically they were supposed to minimise their disruptions in day care so that the kids got the chance to be independent, but he didn’t get to see Olivia and Grace as often as he would have liked at home anyway, and seeing their happy faces would be worth the disparaging looks from the nursing staff. After all, he wasn’t going to be seeing them this evening either - not with the night that he’d planned for him and Lexie. Mark was very much looking forward to wining and dining his beautiful partner, and having some proper alone time with her for what felt like the first time in forever. He wanted to make sure Lexie knew how appreciated she was.
He stepped into the daycare, earning a look of exasperation from June one of the workers, “Only this once.” She shook her head. Mark gave her a charming grin, and laughed before looking around, spotting his daughters right away. They’d already seen him though and were running straight towards him. Grace tripped, flying forwards, the edge of her temple catching on a table in front of her, and immediately she started bawling. Mark rushed to her side, picking her up in his arms, trying to soothe her, knowing if she didn’t quieten down Livvy would soon be sobbing her heart out too. “Hey, hey, hey, Gracie, look at me, Daddy’s going to fix it, he’ll make it all better.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, calling out to June, “Get me a suture kit, I’ll fix it.” “Shouldn’t I get Dr Avery?” “No, I’m better than him, and she’s /my/ daughter.” Mark insisted, moving to sit down with Grace still in his arms.
Olivia was clinging to his leg, pulling on his scrubs. “Liv, I need your help.” The little girl looked up at him, trembling, her doe eyes meeting his gaze. “I need you to hold Gracie’s hand and pull funny faces at her, make her laugh, you can do that right?” She bit her lip and nodded, uncharacteristically quiet as she looked at her sister’s forehead. “Atta girl.” Mark patted her on the head, and looked at Grace once again, his hands carefully pushing her hair out of her face so he could have a look at the small facial laceration. Only a few stitches needed. She’d be fine. June returned, passing him a suture kit. Mark cleaned up the wound, numbing the area, and quickly doing the stitches whilst his other daughter kept Grace distracted. He could see a smile forming on both of their faces, and his heart swelled with pride at their strength despite how scared they were. They definitely got that from their mother. He fixed a small bandage over the area, and then kissed Grace on the top of her head again. “All done Gracie, we’ll go see Mommy now okay.” “Me too, me too, wanna see Mommy!” Liv replied indignantly pouting at Mark. He sighed and rolled his eyes at her, giving her a grin, “Fine, fine.” Mark picked her up, hoisting her onto his other hip. Lexie was going to have a field day.
