found the most comfort and safety in hiding in her room all day, and Mark hated it.

A couple days had passed since everything had gone down. Mark was under the impression that him and Daisy were alright, but that didn't seem to be the case. That was made apparent in the fact that Daisy avoided Mark every chance she got.

He honestly didn't understand why, though. Mark didn't ground her or anything. He didn't lash out. He had kept the yelling to a relative minimum. For Daisy and Calypso having wandered off the premises of the hospital and walking across Seattle by themselves, Mark thought he underreacted.

And yet Daisy still acted like Mark was the worst person to have ever graced her presence.

The littlest one was okay with Mark though, and that made him feel a bit more at ease. That's just the way it always was, though. Daisy hated Mark, and Calypso didn't.

Calypso had been a tiny bit wary of Mark after everything that had gone down. But after everything had been talked out, Calypso was as comfortable as ever.

Presently, the girl was coloring a picture at the kitchen counter, taking her work very seriously.

Snow White's gown notoriously consisted of only primary colors, hues of blue and yellow and red all mixing together.

That was boring, though, and Calypso decided to make Snow White's gown a mix of purple and orange.

While Calypso colored her picture, Mark worked around the kitchen. He was waiting for his batch of cookies to come out of the oven, and he decided to flip through the mail on his counter as he waited.

Mail was incredibly boring to Mark. The only time Mark found the task fun was around his birthday when his mail pile was littered with birthday cards. Other than that, Mark found the task tedious. There was nothing fun about flipping through envelopes that passive aggressively told Mark to pay his bills.

"Newspaper came." Mark spoke, placing the black and white print beside where Calypso was coloring.

Calypso ignored Mark's words, continuing to let her crayon glide across the white paper. She was in her own little world with her Snow White drawing, she certainly wouldn't let something as stupid as reading exercises ruin her joy.

"Just because you ignore it doesn't mean it's gonna magically disappear."

Calypso was hoping that was exactly what would happen, though. Those reading exercises that Mark made her do with the newspaper was always so difficult for Calypso. Everything was just so mashed up, she couldn't make sense of it. Not to mention she felt like the biggest idiot whenever she stuttered or messed up a line.

"I don't wanna read today."

"That's unfortunate."

Calypso sighed at Mark's statement, continuing her coloring. "I'm making a picture, though."

Mark nodded, sifting through the endless assortment of oven mitts to prepare for the extraction of the cookies in the oven. "We can read it later."

Calypso was hoping to not have to read the newspaper at all. But she supposed she should be grateful that she didn't have to stop her coloring to read.

Mark placed the cookie sheet down on the counter to cool, using his oven mitt to waft the smell of freshly baked cookies down the adjacent hall.

Calypso frowned as she looked up, picking a new shade of lilac to color with. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to lure the teenager out." Mark spoke, continuing his actions. He let out a sigh, his arm dropping down. "God, that's...pathetic, isn't it?"

"Mhm." Calypso confirmed as she kept her eyes glued on her paper, Mark's frown immediately deepening. The six-year-old was usually excessively kind, he was kind of hoping she would lie to his face to make him feel better about himself.

Calypso had been focused on her drawing the entire time she had been sitting at the kitchen counter. She was a frustrated artist, one just simply trying to create a masterpiece.

But the smell of the cookies pulled Calypso's attention to the steaming pan. The air was thickly sweet. Mark didn't really ever bake, and Calypso wasn't used to the sickeningly wonderful smell.

"Can...could I have one?" Calypso asked, her eyes stuck on the golden cookies dotted with warm chocolate chips.

"Sure." Mark confirmed, Calypso immediately smiling as she reached for the pan. "Can you go talk to Daisy for me, though?"

A small grin tugged at Calypso's lips. She thought Mark was being as silly as ever, and it took everything in her to not laugh at him. "Or you could just talk to her."

Mark didn't want to talk to Daisy.

It did seem a little silly. She was thirteen, it's not like she could cause any bodily harm to the man. She was as soft-spoken as ever, she wouldn't really throw any hurtful insults at Mark.

It was just so much work. Too much work. Daisy didn't like him anyway, and Mark knew that wouldn't just magically change with a good old heart-to-heart. Daisy would probably just end up resenting him more, and she would feel even more uncomfortable.

"I don't think Daisy wants to talk to me right now."

"Because you yelled at her." Calypso spoke as she shoved a cookie into her mouth, her eyebrows immediately knitting together. "And...I'm supposed to be not happy with you about that. I'm on Daisy's side."

"I yelled because she left the hospital without telling anyone, and she trekked across Seattle alone with you. I feel like the yelling was at least a little warranted."

"Warranted?" Calypso questioned the meaning of the word, her mouth completely full as she spoke, making her words an inaudible tangle of sounds.

"Calypso." Mark frowned, grimacing at the girl that was currently trying to speak with a mouthful.

Calypso realized her manners, knowing Octavia would scold the girl for being so disorderly. She swallowed her food, the confused look not leaving her face as she spoke more clearly. "Warranted?"

"It means justified, or...or deserved."

"Daisy never deserves to be yelled at." Calypso's frown pulled deep as she spoke quietly. "Daisy is...Daisy is the best. Daisy never deserves to be yelled at."

"I didn't say she deserves to be yelled at." Mark tried to reassure, not wanting Calypso to be upset with him too. "I'm just saying...I don't feel like I was in the wrong."

"No." Calypso shook her head. "You made Daisy sad. You were wrong."

Daisy could do no wrong in Calypso's eyes, so Mark decided not to take the girl's comments to heart. Calypso would positively defend her sister to the death.

All this talk about Daisy regressed Calypso's mind a little bit. Daisy had been crying so hard after Mark yelled, he had to have been wrong. It couldn't have been Daisy's fault, she didn't do anything. The silent cries and the thoughts she expressed made Calypso frown as she thought back to Daisy's insecurities.

Calypso hesitated as she tried to decide between cookie and crayon; she wasn't sure whether to finish her drawing or stuff her face with more of the warm dessert.

Naturally, the six-year-old decided on the latter, letting the palm of her hand be met with warmth as she scooped up another cookie.

Calypso let her feet swing as her legs dangled off the high barstool she was sitting in. Her heart ached for Daisy. She wished her sister was next to her eating the cookies instead of being cooped up in her bedroom alone with her thoughts and strangling feelings.

Calypso was brought to a few thoughts of her own.

"Do...do you like me better?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you like me better than Daisy?" Calypso repeated, a small frown coming on as she remembered what her sister had spoken about. "Because...I think Daisy thinks that, and it makes her sad. You're making her sad, you should tell her that's not true."

Mark was confused as to why Daisy would think something like that. He absolutely didn't prefer either girl over the other.

He wasn't trying to play favorites, at least.

It was just so much easier with Calypso. She always kept conversation going, and she was so smiley, and...and she actually seemed to like Mark.

Daisy was a stark contrast. She never spoke if it wasn't necessary, there was a frown on her face far more than a smile, and she strongly disliked Mark. It's not that Mark had a favorite, but how was he supposed to build a relationship with somebody so adamantly against him? Daisy obviously didn't care.

"These are so good." Calypso broke Mark out of his thoughts, a mouthful of cookie yet again as she rambled. "I would eat all of the chocolate chip cookies in the entire world if I could."

Mark couldn't really find it in himself to smile or reply to the girl. His mind was occupied with the Daisy thing, and the fact that she thought that she was lesser than Calypso. There didn't seem to be a sure way to fix that, Mark couldn't think of any sort of resolution.

The man watched as the six-year-old hastily reached for yet another cookie, and Mark pulled the pan away from her. "Haven't you already had three cookies?"

"Uh...five." Calypso spoke sheepishly, wringing her hands as she eyed the golden cookies. She was on a high, and she couldn't stop eating the dessert. "I only want one more, I promise."

But Mark knew that the girl needed to be cut off now, otherwise she would be bouncing off the walls and impossible to put to bed.

"Maybe later."

"Maybe later." Calypso repeated quietly, frowning as she picked up a crayon to resume her artistry. She had noted that there was a particularly large open space on the refrigerator--one that would be perfect for her abstract Snow White. Getting art hung on the refrigerator had to have been the highest achievement in the world for Calypso.

With Calypso occupied with her drawing, Mark thought that would be a perfect time to continue to skim through the mail he had been browsing earlier.

A loud knock sounded against the front door, though, pulling Mark away from what he had been working on.

He was expecting to be met with Callie and Arizona, the couple's vacation having ended. Maybe he was just getting a surprise visit from a friend, maybe Naomi had accidentally left her phone or something at the apartment.

He wasn't really expecting to be met with the girls' social worker.

The middle-aged woman was dressed professionally in a pantsuit, her hair pulled back into a half-hearted ponytail. She looked nice. But she looked angry, her eyes holding a particular sort of contempt and observation, and Mark took that as a very bad sign.

"...Hi." Mark spoke cautiously, feeling a bit confused. "We actually don't have another home visit scheduled until February, unless I got the date wrong, but...I put it in my calendar so the house would be clean, I thought-"

Octavia brushed Mark's shoulder as she walked right past the man and into his home, something that peeved Mark just a bit.

"Where's Daisy?"

"Oh, Daisy's actually-"

"I wasn't speaking to you." The woman interrupted Mark, venom lacing her words as they came out cold and harsh. Mark knew that the woman was protective, but he didn't think that gave her the right to be a bitch.

Octavia turned to the oblivious little girl coloring at the kitchen counter. "Calypso? Where's your sister?"

Calypso looked up from her drawing, her eyes struggling to process the sight in front of her. Seeing such a familiar figure made Calypso beam. "Octavia! I didn't know you were-"

"Where's your sister?"

Octavia was particularly hasty at the moment, something that made Calypso frown as the woman cut her off.

"She's in her bedroom. Why? Is...is she in trouble?"

"She's not in trouble." Octavia reassured, turning to look down the hallway as she called in a loud and uncertain voice. "Daisy?"

Mark's eyebrows knit together as he failed to put the puzzle pieces together in front of him. He didn't know if the social worker was stopping by to say hi to the girls, or if this was some sort of surprise home visit and he'd be relentlessly interrogated. Whatever the case, Mark was over it. The woman being in his house unsettled him, and he wanted her gone.

"Did you come to see us?" Calypso asked quietly, the sweet thought making the girl smile gently. "We...we missed you a lot. I'm coloring a picture, I color pictures all the time. And if I make it pretty, Mark hangs it on the refrigerator!"

Octavia grimaced down at the girl's drawing, not seeming nearly as excited about getting a drawing hung on the fridge as Calypso was.

Mark cleared his throat, wanting an answer. "I'm lost. If I can just ask-"

"You don't need to speak right now." Octavia shut the man down, her tone incredibly demeaning. "Please don't speak right now."

Perhaps if Daisy hadn't chosen that moment to walk out of her bedroom, Mark would've snapped at the woman. The girl was already timid and overly-cautious around Mark, he figured that Daisy didn't need to see him act not so nice towards a woman she trusted very deeply.

Daisy entered the kitchen sheepishly, her eyebrows raised up and a blank look on her face. She seemed to be processing the scene in front of her in the same way that Calypso had, not seeming to comprehend both Mark and Octavia in a room at the same time.

Octavia's entire demeanor shifted when she saw Daisy. She wasn't standing quite so rigid anymore, her scowl wasn't set in place, and that glowering look in her eyes was replaced with a much softer one as a sympathetic smile upheld upon her lips. Her tone was as gentle as ever as she spoke, as if Daisy would break at the sound of her words.

"Go pack a bag for you and your sister, please."

"Excuse me?"

If Octavia heard Mark, she blatantly ignored him. Daisy did too, turning down the hall to do what Octavia had instructed. Only Calypso seemed vaguely concerned.

"You can't...you can't just take them."

"I thought I asked you not to speak."

Mark was baffled at this woman, trying his hardest to bite his tongue as he ignored what she had said. "You can't just waltz in here and force them out, that's not fair."

"So long as you're deemed an unfit parent by the state of Washington, I can do exactly that." Octavia snapped. "You know, I...I liked you. I thought you were so charming and nice and a decent human being. And after what happened last time? You appeared to at least be a semi-okay person, but you're just as awful as he was."

"I'm not..." Mark blinked, trying to keep up with all the words being thrown at him. "I don't understand. I didn't do anything, why...why are you-"

"Spare me the pity lecture, Mark Sloan." Octavia snapped. "I promise I've heard it all before, and I promise my opinion of you won't change. You're a vile human being."

"But I'm not-"

"Good, you're ready." Octavia spoke as soon as Daisy appeared.

For just having been told to pack up all of her and her sister's belongings a minute prior, Daisy had finished packing in record timing. Perhaps if Mark was thinking clearly, he would've noticed how convenient it was that Daisy was all packed and ready for a seemingly surprise visit.

Having absorbed every ounce of the conversation between Mark and Octavia, Calypso sat at the kitchen counter as confused as ever. That disorientation radiated even further when she saw the two suitcases her sister had on either side. "Where are we going?"

"Come on, Calypso." Octavia urged, obviously wanting the girl to just be quiet and obligate.

"A vacation? Are we all going on vacation together?" Calypso suggested the possibility. That was the only possible reason Octavia could be taking the girls: a short vacation in which the girls would promptly be returned within a week or so.

"Something like that." Octavia nodded to appease the girl, trying to be as gentle as possible. "The three of us are going to head over to the facility. You can say goodbye to Mark, and then we'll get going."

"No." Calypso's eyebrows furrowed as the fear filled in her body at the mention of the holding facility the girls regularly stayed at. "No, no, I...I don't want to go."

Octavia let out a loud sigh, she didn't have time for this. "Calypso-"

"No. Nothing bad is happening, Mark isn't mean. It's very good here." Calypso promised. "Daisy can leave but...but I want to stay here."

Octavia knew about the psychology surrounding abuse. She knew that victims were likely to protect their attackers out of fear, she knew that Calypso was scared because Mark was present.

Daisy was somewhat hurt by Calypso's words. It sounded to her like Calypso was choosing Mark over Daisy, and Daisy didn't think her sister should ever choose Mark over Daisy.

Octavia pursed her lips, going back to what she had said before. "You can say goodbye, if you'd like. We need to get going."

Calypso was incredibly confused. She thought the worst thing that would happen today would be a tummy ache from too many cookies, and now Octavia was going to shove her back in the holding facility.

"But...but I don't want to-"

"Say goodbye, Calypso."

Calypso felt her lip quiver. She hated the holding facility. It was always so sad, you could sense it in the air. Everyone was so miserable there. There weren't any freshly baked cookies, no spots on the refrigerator for drawings to get hung up. It was bleak, and cold, and it made Calypso sad.

The girl made her way over to Mark, giving the man a hug. She wasn't quite sure how permanent of a thing this would be. She had gotten comfortable with this placement, and she hated moving so often. The mental toll of packing up just to unpack and then repack and then unpack and then repack was far too heavy a burden for Calypso to carry. She couldn't do it anymore.

Silence engulfed the room as Calypso hugged Mark goodbye. She wasn't actually letting go though, and Octavia cleared her throat to interrupt the hug that seemed to be more of a desperate cling.

"That's enough."

Calypso didn't budge. She didn't want to leave. Her emotions were running rapid.

She was angry at Octavia. She was so angry that the woman would come out of nowhere and mess everything up.

"I said that's enough, Calypso." Octavia spoke a little firmer this time.

Calypso was sad. She was sad about having to leave such a familiar place, she was sad about having to go back to the holding facility until Octavia half-heartedly stuck the girls into another placement. It was a never-ending cycle. Why couldn't it just stop?

"Caly. Come on." Daisy spoke up quietly this time, feeling nervous about making Octavia angry.

Calypso was angry at Daisy. She knew that her sister was scared, and she knew that her sister had good intentions. But this was messed up. Calypso never got a say in whether they stayed at their placement. It was always up to Daisy.

Does Daisy like the placement? Is she feeling comfortable with the placement? Is she happy with how the placement is going? It never matters if Calypso is happy, Octavia only cares about how Daisy feels.

Octavia scowled impatiently as she reached for Calypso, trying to get the girl to come on, but she was legitimately clinging to Mark's leg.

"I don't want to!" Calypso cried somewhere between a sob and a scream.