𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ━ grey's anatomy

007. ━ the big bad wolf

season six // episode sixteen
[ the big bad wolf ]

𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃, 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 read her many stories before bed in an attempt to get her tired enough to fall asleep. Many of those stories were children's tales, including 'The Three Little Pigs'. If asked, she would say that she hardly remembered the actual story of 'The Three Little Pigs', but she could remember the big bad wolf.

He was the antagonist of the story and London often remembered the antagonists more than the protagonists.

The reason for that was simple. She always felt that her father was the antagonist of her story. For her older siblings' entire life, he had put immense pressure on them to follow in his and their mother's footsteps of becoming surgeons.

Someone to pass the family legacy to.

But Henry refused and instead chose to study education when he attended the University of Oregon, fleeing across the country to escape his overbearing father and his expectations. As a result, he was removed from the inheritance that he was set to receive when Arthur and Josephine Halloway passed away, despite the latter's protests.

"He is still your son!" Josephine would shout at her husband and he turned away from his wife. "Your son, Arthur!"

"Not if he doesn't want to be a surgeon." Is what he would reply.

It was at that moment that McKenna agreed to change her major and apply to college on the pre-med track rather than what her heart truly wanted—to study music. Instead of attending UCLA, she found herself at Columbia University with an overbearing father and stacks of books that seemed to fill every square inch of her small dorm room.

She had hoped that if she followed in her parents' footsteps, then London wouldn't have to. She could be raised in a happy household—with a present father—and choose whatever career she wished.

Unfortunately, that did not happen.

London was five years old when her father began planting the idea that she would become a surgeon one day. She was thirteen years old when her father gave her a pamphlet about her first potential college—Harvard—and the end goal of being accepted into medical school.

She was nineteen when she was accepted to Harvard and twenty-three when she began her internship at Mercy West.

To put it simply, London Halloway never had control over her own life and career path.

"Hey, you two haven't seen Jackson yet, by any chance, have you?" she asked, hurrying to catch up with Meredith and Derek who were walking in the direction of the ER. "Because I've been trying to call him, tell him that I picked up the movies for our little marathon tonight, but his phone keeps going straight to voicemail."