Kate

Awww :love: They do indeed make a great team! Which means, that they would be great with a kid of their own or maybe Michael will adopt Kate as long as it's okay with Syd. Hmmm....good update.

-erin :smiley:
 
Chapter 19
Thankfully Kate’s cold greatly improved on Sunday so Sydney only had to get up one time on Sunday night. Of course, she had to get up again at five thirty, but at that point she had to get herself and Kate ready to leave. Her morning was hectic, not only because she had lots of things to organize, but she was practically trembling with nerves.

At six forty-five Sydney and Kate left the apartment. Sydney made it to her parents by seven and dropped off Kate with her mother, nearly breaking down into tears twice before she finally forced herself to leave and drive to work. As she rode up the elevator to her office, though, she couldn’t stop a few tears from escaping her eyes. She quickly dabbed them away with a tissue before the elevator dinged open on the floor of her office.

Immediately after stepping onto the main floor, she was greeted with warm smiles from everyone, all of them asking to see pictures of her adorable little girl. Sydney had anticipated this and stashed a recent one in her pocket for easy access. Everyone ‘ooo’-ed and ‘aww’-ed over Kate for a few moments before letting Sydney get back to her office, where, not surprisingly she was met with a mountain of work. Instead of being a burden, that work was actually a blessing, helping her get through the day without missing Kate too, too badly, though she did call her mother five times during the day to check on her.

Sydney drove to her parent’s house at record speed after work on Monday, immediately gathering Kate up in her arms and practically smothering her with a hug, never having missed her so much. Sydney took her home and changed into her pjs at record speed. Then, she refused to let Kate out of her arms for the rest of the evening, trying to cram a days worth of bonding into only a few hours.

Tuesday morning went more smoothly since Sydney didn’t have to leave the house quite as early. She found that taking Kate to a daycare within her office building was actually very convenient because it allowed Sydney to go down and spend her lunch break with her, which she greatly enjoyed.

By Friday, the two of them had fallen into an even pattern and though Sydney still felt slightly guilty about not being able to spend twenty-four hours a day with Kate, she was happy with their situation as it was. Happy, that was, until Thursday two weeks after she had begun working again.

Sydney was late coming out of the office because of a last minute phone call that had run long, so she was practically running from the elevator to get to the day care. She needed to get home as quickly as possible because Michael was coming over for dinner that evening and she needed to prepare. She power walked her way back to the nursery where Kate was the only infant left. She was just about to coo at her when she caught sight of her and let out a piercing wail. “Oh my god MY BABY!”

“Miss Bristow I am so sorry!” the day care director said as she walked quickly into the room. Sydney could barely hear her, though; she was frozen in horror, staring down at her daughter who had the word ‘stinky’ across her forehead in what appeared to be black marker.

“Wha…. What happened?” Sydney choked out.

The day care director cringed. “Well, one of our new assistants was watching her and apparently got distracted and a very creative seven year old boy came in and… well I am so sorry Miss Bristow. Its just marker it’ll come off and she’ll be just fine but I am so sorry.”

“O-okay,” Sydney said distantly. She scooped up Kate and didn’t say another word as she walked quickly out to her car, unable to deal with the mere concept of graffiti on her daughter in her exhausted and distressed state.


Once home, Sydney immediately took a wet wash cloth to Kate’s forehead and tried to remove the marker. Her efforts were fruitless, though, for the word across Kate’s face didn’t even lighten. Fearing she’d break down at any moment, Sydney went into her bedroom to change quickly and begin heating up dinner or else it would never get done because she’d end up crying too hysterically.

Only fifteen minutes later, Michael walked into Sydney’s apartment with the key she had given him a few days earlier. He walked into the kitchen and went straight over to Kate, intending to say hello but the moment he saw her, he burst out laughing so hard that he could barely stand up. Sydney did not find this at all amusing; it only added to her distress, but Michael was practically in tears.

“Syd,” Michael choked out. “Don’t you think labeling her that way is a wee bit harsh? It could affect her self esteem later in life.”

“Michael this isn’t funny!”

“It’s hilarious!”

“Michael!” Sydney wailed, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.

“Aw, Syd, honey what happened?” he asked in a soft tone as he went over and gave her a tight hug.

“Some boy at day care tagged my baby!” she choked out.

“Aww honey it’s okay. We can fix her… but we have to take a picture first,” he said with a grin. She gave him a horrified look. “Syd come on I know you can’t see it now but you will look back on this and laugh.”

Sydney grumbled at him as he snapped the picture of Kate, who seemed oblivious to the whole thing. Michael then grabbed a paper towel and attempted to clean off her forehead. Though this elicited a smile from Kate, it did nothing to remove the marker.

“Oh my god! She’s going to be that way forever!” Sydney gasped in horror.

“Yeah… it’s a shame too… too bad the kid didn’t label her ‘pretty’ or something,” Michael said in a very serious tone. Sydney howled and Michael quickly backtracked, “KIDDNG I was KIDDING!!!” This, of course, earned Michael a smack with the dishtowel Sydney was holding.

“Calm down woman. Do you have nail polish remover? That will get this permanent marker off,” he told her.

“Oh,” she said quietly before retrieving her nail polish remover from her bathroom. Using it and a cotton swab, Michael was able to carefully remove the ‘graffiti’ from Kate, leaving only a faint dark shadow behind.

“There, she’s perfect again,” he smiled.

Sydney gave him a tight hug. “Thank you.”

“Of course… but I think next time we should use paper inst- OUCH,” he moaned when she smacked him again. “I’m done; I promise.”
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top