Astrid and Echo had hardly left the house for the last month; it was a endless cycle of them both being unwell, it began with Echo and then Astrid caught whatever Echo had, it just went round and round, however they were both feeling so much better now so Astrid was back to work and Echo was back to daycare.

"Come on Echo, we have to go. Uncle Mark is waiting" I said to my two year old daughter as I was trying to make sure I had everything. I was back to work at Seattle Grace after a month off, first I was unwell and then Echo was unwell; it was just a long cycle of one of us being unwell but luckily I had Mark, he came by every day when he wasn't working and helped with Echo.

"Mama, me take Lily to day care?" Echo asked Carrying Lily the Lion, her favourite teddy, she had a lion and a dog but her lion was almost always with her.

"Yes baby you can. Now shall we go, uncle Mark is waiting in the car" I smiled

"Uncle marky" Echo giggled happily, she had always been close to my brother and that was nice, especially since I was close to him too, he always did his best to protect me especially when I'm suffering with my mental health especially like I did after giving birth Echo.

"Up mama?" Echo asked reaching up to me so I smiled, picking my two year old up I felt a sense of normality hitting her. Echo clung to her lion teddy as I made sure I had everything before leaving the house, my bag on my shouder while Echo's was on my arm while I locked the door.

"Uncle Marky!" Echo practically shouted in my ear when she saw mark who was stood by his car.

"Go on then baby, go say hello to uncle mark" I said putting my daughter on the ground, she ran over to mark who picked her up and gave her a hug.

"Are you feeling better Coco" mark asked Echo, coco was a nickname he started calling her.

"Me better. Mama better too" Echo said resting her head on Mark's shoulder.

"That's good, shall we put you in your car seat while mama puts the bags in the trunk" I listened to mark say as I walked down the pathway towards the car. I opened the trunk and put my bag and Echo's in too.

"Thanks for the lift today, just my luck our car broke down yesterday" I sighed after Mark had put Echo into the car seat which he kept in his car.

"Ash' it's fine. You can't help your car breaking down" Mark said, mark and I were always close, he was protective over me, Derek was too.

"This year can't get any worse can it, first Echo gets poorly, then me and once again Echo and then the bloody car! I swear the world is against me" I complained while running a hand through my own hair while getting into the passenger seat of the car. Mark laughed as he buckled his seatbelt.

"Mama don't be silly" giggled Echo.

"Yeah listen to your daughter Astrid! Don't be silly" Mark laughed again, I rolled my eyes while bucking up my own belt. Mark began driving and we were soon on our way to drop Echo off at the day care before we went to work. Around fifteen minutes after we left my house we arrived at the day care

"I won't be long" I said as I climbed out of the car and went to the back, i unbuckled Echo from the car seat and picked her up to my hip before I then got her bag from the trunk.

"Bye Bye uncle Marky" Echo shouted to Mark once again while she was on my hip.

"Trying to make me go deaf baby girl" I asked gently tickling Echo's sides, she giggled as I walked with her to the daycare. I opened the door and went inside.

"Good morning Mrs Sloan, I'm glad you are feeling better, we've missed having Echo around" the head of Echo's daycare teacher smiled happily.

"Thank you June, It was just a annoying cycle of Echo being poorly and then me" I exclaimed with a sigh

"I was like that the other month with Oscar, Olivia and Luca, Oscar got it, he went back to school and then both him and Luca got sick, then Olivia and then I did, it went round our house for two months. I think we went through a life time amount of tissues in the two months" laughed June.

"I know that at feeling" I admitted.

"I best get off, my brother is waiting in the car" I quickly said to the head of the daycare

"You be a good girl today Echo. I love you" I said kissing my daughters forehead.

"Wove you mama" Echo said I quickly said my goodbyes before practically running back to the car.

"Shit, I've got a scheduled surgery in fifteen minutes" I groaned as I got into the car.

"We will make it to the hospital with time to spare" mark tried to reassure me.

"Mark the hospital is 20 minutes away from here." I complained which was true, I knew this from the amount of times I've done the journey.

"Who's scrubbing in with the surgery? Call them; let them know you will be late, it can't be helped when you have a toddler" mark reminded me, I knew he was right, I've been late a few times because I've had to drop Echo off or because I overslept after being up half the night with Echo who would refuse to sleep.

"Meredith, I'm sure she's scrubbing in" I said as I thought out loud.

"Phone her!" Mark told me.

"Sir, yes sir" I laughed as I unlocked my phone and scrolled to find one of my best friend's phone numbers

"Ash' where are you?" Meredith asked me

"I'm currently in the car with Mark, we've just dropped Echo off at day care and I'm going to be five minutes late. Please can you reassure Mrs Wilkinson I will be there. I don't want her to think I've just abandoned her" i asked Meredith, I had to reschedule the surgery from last week because I was unwell and didn't want to let my paitent down, this is the third surgery I'm doing on her, it's heart surgery and although I'm not a cardiothoracic surgeon I'm still trained in all areas and I've scrubbed in with countless of surgery's during the past.

"I'll let her know and get her prepared." Meredith informed me and I thanked her before we said our goodbyes.

"What a way to start my first day back to work" I sighed as i leant back in the car seat and sighed, it was just my luck to be late on my first day back but what can you do about that, toddlers are a handful but I wouldn't change my life, not for anything.