It's been a while since this has been updated, and I posted a few new chapters. so make sure you check out chapter 58-64.

Lyla has to have her tonsils removed and gets upset when Alex isn't going to be the one to perform her surgery.

Jo pressed her thumb into the top of the ballpoint pen and crossed her legs as she sat in the chair, just so she'd have a hard surface to write on. She put the blue clipboard on her lap and mindlessly began scribbling down her daughter's information, bouncing her leg up and down to distract herself from the inherent boredom of sitting and waiting in a bitterly cold, overly bright patient room.

In the chair next to her, Alex adjusted the little girl on his lap and rested his head back against the wall. He watched as Jo wrote their daughter's entire medical history down on one single sheet of paper.

It somewhat amazed him that she was able to memorize everything without so much as taking a moment to think. Every ache, pain, itch and scratch Lyla ever had, Jo wrote it without thought. She rattled her insurance number off without looking at the card and her social security number as well. He always knew she was gold with numbers, but he never truly realized until that moment.

"You need her policy number?" he asked, noting that she paused and stalled progress once she got to that line.

Jo shook her head at him and tapped the pen on the clipboard, deep in thought. He watched her for a few more uninterrupted seconds before tilting his head downward and relinquishing his attention to his daughter, who was sitting cradled on his lap like she was a lot younger than six years old.

He combed his fingers through the locks of her tousled light brown hair and propped his chin atop her head, pretending to be interested in the episode of whatever TV show was playing on his iPad. He recognized the show. After working with kids and having his own, he managed to pick up on some of the television shows that played on the kids' stations, but never once did he bother to learn names. He just wasn't all that interested.

"Daddy?" Lyla lifted her head up a little, tapping the iPad screen with her index finger to pause the show. "What's tontils?"

Alex adjusted the grip he had on her and pulled her up more on his lap so she didn't fall. "Those nasty things in the back of your throat. They help you get rid of the germs, but sometimes germs like to hang out back there and they mess with the tonsils and make the tonsils mad. Then they get infected and gotta be taken out before they make your whole body mad," he explained as easily as he could for a child of her age. "But don't worry. Once they're out, you'll be back to terrorizing the house in no time, nightmare."

Lyla nodded her head. He explained it in such a way that she understood completely.

"Daddy? It's almost time?"

"Almost," Alex lied.

Truthfully, he didn't know just how much longer it would be. They had only been sitting in pre-op for about an hour, and it wasn't like a tonsillectomy was at the top of the list. It was a simple 20 minute same day procedure, but still. There were other procedures that needed to be taken care of and a tonsillectomy was either at or near the bottom of the priorities.

Lyla was growing impatient, though. She didn't understand why it was taking so long, and it never occurred to her that other people might need surgery too. Granted, she was grateful for the lapses that granted her more time on the iPad as she laid in her father's arms with her feet on her mother's lap. That in itself was reason enough to want to stay. But more than that, she was grateful for the prolonged process because she was, in all sense of the word, nervous. The closest she ever got to an operating room was a few months back when she broke her arm and her Mommy had to put pins in the fracture. Even then, that was nothing like having surgery. Even with two surgeons as parents, she didn't know what to expect.

So far, it seemed okay though. They got to the hospital and some nice lady that she never met before gave her a few bracelets and took them upstairs to the room they were currently sitting in. After that, Mommy made her take her clothes off and put on a nightgown with dinosaurs on it and no undies. And ever since then, she had been laying on Daddy's lap with the iPad. It didn't seem too complicated just yet. In fact, it even seemed a little bit...fun. The only part she disliked was the fact that her tummy was rumbling because the last thing she ate was spaghetti for dinner, yesterday.

"Mommy," she called Jo next. Jo stopped writing again and looked at her. "Can you get me food? My belly is growlin'."

"No baby," Jo shook her head and picked up her daughter's sock-covered foot. "I'm sorry. You can't eat anything though. Not 'til after your surgery." Lyla poked her lip out and went back to watching the iPad, a look that broke her mother's heart. Something about starving her child didn't set well with Jo. She knew that people weren't allowed to eat before surgery and that was a very strict rule, but it seemed utterly ridiculous now that it was her child being denied food.

"Ly," Alex jostled her to get her attention. Lyla just looked at him. "When you're done with your surgery, we'll take you to get some ice cream. Since your throat's gonna be hurting."

"From Dairy Queen?"

"From Dairy Queen," Jo confirmed Alex's proposition with a nod.

With a smile, Lyla rested her head back in the middle of her Daddy's chest and unpaused her show again. This day was perfect. She got to hang out with both her Mommy and her Daddy without any interruptions from her whiny baby brother. Mommy gave her all the hugs and kisses in the world. Daddy was letting her lay all over him. She was allowed to play with the iPad, she was allowed to lounge around in no undies AND she was getting ice cream after?!

Surgery was sounding better and better by the moment.

After yet another hour of enjoying the complete serenity of being doted upon by both her parents, Lyla was halfway through an episode of Shake It Up when the sound of gentle knocking on the glass door to her room startled her.

"Little miss Lyla, we're all ready for you!" The gentle looking nurse came into their room with a pink surgical cap in his hands. He seemed bright and cheerful and for some reason, he reminded Lyla of Olaf, the snowman from Frozen.

Jo sat up straight and smoothed her own hair back, finally being pulled out of playing an hour straight of Candy Crush. She stuffed her phone down into her purse and stood up. Finally, the waiting game was over. Being a surgeon herself, she knew just how long patients could end up waiting before being taken back to the OR on same day procedures, but it never seemed that bad until she was on the receiving end of the wait. She made a mental note to be more time-efficient to her own patients, eventually.

Alex stood up and walked his daughter over to the bed she hadn't sat in since they were admitted. Lyla was content to lay in his arms and on his lap and though he wouldn't admit it, Alex liked the fact that she would rather lay on him than in the bed too. The bed just didn't have much use. He deposited her safely on the bed and took his iPad out of her hands, eyeing the loose French braid he spent the last hour doing and undoing in her hair.

"Alright, just gotta give you this one last stylish little bracelet," the nurse said. He gingerly strapped it around Lyla's wrist and gave her a smile. "I like your braid. You look just like Queen Elsa."

Letting her shy, timid nature overcome her, Lyla lowered her head and gave him a nervous, but not at all forced, smile. When she was younger, most people mistook her shyness for brattiness because she rarely ever spoke to people when she was spoken to. She had gotten better with it though. She no longer needed to look toward her parents for approval when someone spoke to her, which was a big deal.

"Thank you," she whispers softly, touching her fingers to the braid intricately woven into her light, golden hair. "My Daddy did it."

"Really? Excellent!" The nurse smiled. He was one of the few people that understood the difference between a child being shy and a child being a spoiled brat. Lyla was sometimes both, but at the moment, she was just shy. "You think maybe your Daddy can do my hair sometime?"

Lyla giggled and shook her head. "Yours is too short!"

"Yeah I guess it is, isn't it?" He laughed too. "It was worth a shot." Still laughing, he put the pink cap down on her bed and took the brakes off so he could wheel it. "Let's get you on back to the operating room now."

Lyla excitedly nodded her head and crossed her legs as she sat in the middle of her bed. She hadn't been this excited about something since her birthday! She knew that her throat was going to hurt, but she could handle that. She was tough, just like her Mommy. And besides, Daddy was going to be there so it wasn't going to be that bad. As the nurse began wheeling her bed out of the room, she turned her head and looked around. And that's when it dawned on her. Why was Mommy standing up but her purse was on the floor? Why was Daddy leaving his coat on the chair?

"I'll see you when you wake up, okay?" Jo stood beside her bed and grabbed ahold of Lyla's hand. "Mommy'll be right here when you wake up. I'll be here when you get back. Gimme a kiss?"

Confused, Lyla just nodded her head. She elevated her chin and allowed her mother to give her a quick peck on the lips. It sounded like a goodbye… But why? Why was Mommy kissing her goodbye? Jo stroked her cheek. Why did she do that?

"Be tough in there, monster. Ice cream when you get out." Alex offered her his fist to pound as his own personal form of goodbye. Lyla tapped her fist to his. "See you later."

See you later?! Why?! The nurse began wheeling her bed out the door again, and when she saw that yes, Mommy and Daddy were staying behind, that's when something snapped. It was like a lightbulb went off in her head, a string was cut, the lock was unlatched and the floodgates were opened. She pushed herself up onto her knees and turned her body all the way around, only to see her parents still standing in the room while she was in the hallway.

"M-Mommy!" She yelled, tears running hot and thick down her cheeks. "MOMMY! MOMMY!" She turned back toward the man that was wheeling her away. "STOPPIT! I WANT MOMMY! STOPPIT! DADDY!"

Just then, both Alex and Jo came rushing out of the room and to the bed. The nurse stopped wheeling Lyla's bed and took a pause. He knew how to deal with kids that were scared. Sometimes they just needed a little extra comfort.

Lyla held her arms up like a toddler and sniffed. "Daddy?"

Jo put her hand on the back of her head and stroked her hair to calm her down, an action that almost always worked but was failing this time around. "La, you said you were okay… You were doing so good baby, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Why you guys leavin' me?!" She rubbed her eyes hard and coughed. Her bright blue/green eyes welled up with tears again and she sniffed. "Come!"

"Butthead, we can't…" Alex shook his head. "We can't come with you. You'll be fine, alright? We can't come with you."

"But you come with everybody else! You told me I was gettin' surgey but you a surgeon for babies so why can't you come? You come with everybody else…"

"I'm not… I'm not working, Butt. See? I'm not wearing scrubs today. I'm not working. I can't come back with you."

"No, Daddy! Please?!" Lyla stood up on her knees and wrapped her arms around Alex's torso. "Why? You come with other girls… You my Daddy… Why not me? Don't leave me Daddy… No. No… Daddy…" She sniffed again. "Just come…"

Alex sighed and looked at Jo, who was watching the scene with her own tears in her eyes. She couldn't stand seeing her daughter so scared. He looked back down at the top of Lyla's head and once again fingered the braid he put in her hair. He wasn't working and he knew that it be a huge liability for him to go back into the operating room with his own child while he wasn't working. But it was his child. It was his daughter, his little girl. And she was right. How could he be there for dozens of strangers every day and not her? He was there for many kids, none of which were his own. He couldn't do that. She was his little girl and the center of his universe, along with his son.

"Alright," he sighed and picked her up. Lyla put her head down on his shoulder and rubbed his ear with her thumb and index finger, something she always did when she needed comfort. "Hey… Thompson," he mumbled to the nurse. "You think maybe… I could just come sit with her? You know, until she falls asleep? I'll leave once she's out, I swear. I won't stay."

"I dunno Karev, that's breaking so many policies…"

"I know what it's doing," he spat, growing annoyed. He didn't ask for a lecture. Obviously he already knew that he was breaking rules, otherwise he wouldn't have even asked. "She's not gonna go without me. I'll just sit there by her head and hold her hand. Once she's out, I'm out too. It'll be quick… Just lemme go in."

"...Alright," nurse Thompson nodded. "You have to make it quick though."

"I will," Alex promised.

I don't update this story as much as I used to, but as I've said before, this story is interactive. I've made it even more interactive over the last few weeks, too. For those of you that don't follow me on tumblr:

If you'd like to keep up with Jo and Alex & their two kids from this story, you can now follow them on social media. "Jo" has an Instagram and a Twitter, which she uses to post updates of the kids & interact with "Amelia", who is the mother of Lyla's best friend Ava. Alex also has an Instagram, which he-of course-doesn't use much.

Jo's Instagram name is _Jo . xo and her Twitter is _Jo_xo. Both her accounts are private but she'll accept you pretty quickly as she's somewhat of a social media addict!

Alex's Instagram is simply alexkarev112 and since he's not on it very often, he might take a while to accept you lol. I hope you guys have fun with them!