Originally written as an anonymous Tumblr prompt: Catherine finds out about Jackson and April in the same episode she's introduced to Stephanie, and she gives her son a pep talk.
"There's my baby boy!"
Jackson sighs at the sound of his mother's voice, turning on his heel with a forced smile.
"You're back." He speaks, letting his mother wrap her arms around him comfortably.
She grins with a soft laugh, "Oh, like I'd ever leave you for too long." She smacks his arms and shakes her head, "Anyways, I'm not here for you, I'm here for a surgery. I'm teaching those little interns some new techniques today." Catherine informs him.
He frowns, "Here? These interns?"
Great, so when she finds out that he's been bumping up with Stephanie, she's going to be all over his case again. Just what he wanted.
Catherine raises an eyebrow, clearly amused at something, "What, is there something wrong?" She watches an uneasy look appear on his face and she gasps, "Jackson Avery, have you been getting your busy on with one of these young girls?"
He gulps, "She's, like, twenty-seven... or whatever, that's not young."
She shakes her head and rests her hands on her hips, "It's younger than you! You need to stop messing around and settle down with someone serious." Her lips draw into a straight line as she stares at her son's face, "Is it serious?"
He shrugs, "It's... I don't know, whatever. It's none of your business."
"I am your mother, I didn't raise you to be an idiot. So, this thing is either serious or it isn't. And, if it isn't, then what the hell is the point in continuing? Where is she, then?"
"Oh, no." He grabs her arms gently as she goes off in search of the intern, "You are not doing this again." Jackson shakes his head with a faint laugh.
Catherine brushes him off, "Why do you assume that I'm searching for her?"
"Because you're my mom, and I know you. You pry, and you're nosy, that's what you do." he tells her, matter-of-factly.
"Oh, please. You'd be concerned if I didn't." She rolls her eyes, "Besides, where's that little friend of yours? We've barely had a proper conversation since you made her unfriend me."
"April?" He asks, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. There was enough of a risk last year about his mother finding out about them, but now so much has happened and changed, and the risk is even greater. "She's, uh- I don't know. She's off today, I think. Don't bother looking for her." He lies.
She smiles suddenly, "Don't lie to me, Jackson, you're not good at it. Besides, I can see her." She nods her head down the hallway, grinning as the redhead slowly approaches them.
"Catherine, what are you doing here?" April asks with a smile as the older woman engulfs her into a hug.
She pulls away, "Oh, April! I'm here for a surgery, but join me for lunch? We have some catching up to do... apparently?" She trails off as she spots the glistening ring on the girl's finger. Her smile grows, "A lot of catching up."
April licks her lips and blushes, briefly looking over at Jackson for help. He glances away from her and nervously scratches the back of his head as she replies, "Of course.
Catherine smirks and pats her shoulder a final time before finally walking away, "I'll see you at lunch then, sweetie." She calls behind her.
April's smile fades and she frowns, "I love your mom, but I don't think I can do this."
He raises his eyebrows, "Do what?"
"Are you being serious right now? You want me to talk to your mom about this?" She holds up her hand and throws her shoulders back.
He looks across at her hand with a sigh before replying, "It doesn't concern me." He shrugs, "She doesn't know about what happened between us, and she never has to. Just- Just tell her all about your fiancee and your wedding and everything will be fine." He seemes slightly pissed off when he says speaks, but he continues anyway, muttering under his breath as he walks away from her, "That's all you ever do anyway."
She tries to ignore the hurt look on his face as he turns away from her and heads down the hallway, clearly careless about her inevitably awkward conversation with his dear mother.
"Doctor Avery, I just have to say that I loved your recent article in The Medical Journal. It was flawless." The young doctor speaks and Catherine lifts her head to peek a look at the eager intern.
She smirks behind her surgical mask, and tilts her head to the side, "Flattery won't get you anywhere, Doctor Edwards."
Stephanie slouches with a frown and tugs the corners of her lips. "I wasn't trying to flatter you."
Catherine raise a brow, "I've been in this work for over a good thirty years now, I know flattery when I see it. Especially when it involves my personal life." She tells her, brushing off the slightly offended look on the girl's face.
"Sorry."
A few awkward and silent, apart from the occasional question, moments pass before she takes a final breath and places her tools down. She stretches her hands and tilts her head side to side. "All done."
The doctors make their way out of the operating room and Catherine finds herself alone in the scrub room until the door swings open.
The uncomfortable intern stands still, her arms folded over her chest as she talks, "You intimidate me. You're talented, and famous, and you intimidate me. And yes, I was trying to flatter you, but only because I wanted you to like me. So, I'm sorry if that came across and eager and stupid but I like your son and-"
Catherine turns, "I'm going to stop you right there." She holds up a finger and pulls her scrub cap off with her free hand. She turns the running tap off and sighs, "You like my son, I can understand that. He's handsome and passionate, and he is pretty darn close to perfect, and that's mainly he is my son. And, as his mother, I want the best things for him. And, you are not one of those things. You aren't good for him, you're a distraction. I know my son, Doctor Edwards, and you're just a play thing, a little toy for him to use when he's bored. I'm not sure what you're a distraction from or why you seem to think it'll ever work out between you two, but I can tell you now that it won't."
Stephanie blinks a few times, hurt by the woman's words.
"He needs something serious, something that will last-"
"It is serious."
Catherine smiles, "Darling, if he was that serious about you, he wouldn't have tried so hard to keep me from finding out about you. I know my son, and I know what he needs, and it isn't you."
With that, she walks away, leaving the bruised intern alone in the scrub room to ponder her thoughts.
She doesn't feel bad. She's just a mother who wants the best for her son.
"Tell me how he did it!"
April bites her lip, "It was... incredibly sweet and-" She takes a deep breath and continues, "It was romantic."
Catherine frowns, "That's it?" She sounds displeased and miscontent.
The redhead nods with a confused expression, "Well, yeah. What do you mean?" She blinks a few times as she picks at her salad.
The older Avery places a hand ontop of April's, "Sweetheart, that sounded downright boring. Either you're seriously withholding the details or something's wrong. What's the matter?"
April softly smiles, thinking how Catherine sounds so much like her own mother right now, "Nothing's wrong."
"I've been getting to know you for three years now, Kepner, just tell me." She demands, squeezing the younger woman's hand.
"It's, ah- I can't-" She licks her lips nervously and takes a deep breath, "I'm just not all that sure about it, I guess."
"You agreed to marry this man, so how unsure are you exactly?" She raises an eyebrow.
April sighs, "There's just a lot of stuff that you don't know, and that I can't tell you about. It- It's complicated."
Catherine clasps her hand tighter in her own, "April, you're like a daughter to me. You can tell me anything." She urges on, encouraging April to continue.
"I, uh- There was this... thing. This thing with another guy. Before Matthew, before I even met him, and it didn't work out the way I thought it would. We were good but then a lot of crap happened and he ended it, and then I met Mathew and he liked me. He really liked me. And the other guy- he moved on. Then I got engaged and then a bus exploded and I just-" She stops her rant at the mention of the bus, hoping that Catherine didn't catch on.
Unfortunately, the older woman's face stares at her blankly, "A bus?"
"Yeah,"
"And was this other man... in the bus when it exploded?" She pries, her hands gripping the other's tighter and tigher in her grasp.
April fidgets nervously and tries to remove her hand, "I don't- I shouldn't-" She stops herself when Jackson walks into the room, stopping in the line to buy a bottle of water.
He doesn't see them but Catherine turns around abruptly, spotting April's change of focus.
"I am going to kill him." She speaks quietly, standing from her seat and ignoring April's calls.
"Catherine, don't-"
Catherine grabs her son's arm and pulls him out of the room and leads him down ahallway.
"Hey, what the hell?" Jackson shrieks as she smacks him over the head with the back of her hand.
She steams, her face angry and her eyes wide as she watches him under her gaze.
"You stupid boy!" She hits him again and goes to continue until he backs away from her.
Jackson frowns and eyes her, completely confused by her outburst, "What was that for?"
"Well, first, I met that horny little intern of yours. I must say, that I'm not keen, she's a little trollop."
He rolls his eyes at her comments and waves his hand for her to continue.
"And then, I had a very charming conversation with Doctor Kepner about her engagement. Don't you think it was sweet? Were you there? How did you feel?"
Jackson sighs, "It was... whatever, I don't care."
"Did I raise you to be a complete fool?!" Catherine smacks him again and shakes her head, "Don't tell me you don't care about her marrying some other guy. I know all about your thing or whatever it was last year, and I know how close the two of you are, or were. How did you feel?" She repeats her question and he groans,
"I'm not answering you."
"Will you please, for once, just be a grown-up and admit to something? I don't know what happened between you two exactly, nor how it ended, but I'm guessing you took that girl's virginity and left her cold?"
He stares down at her, a furious and pissed off look on his face, "No! It wasn't like that."
"Well, then you tell me what it was like."
"Why are you so determined to know everything about my love life?"
"Because I'm your mother, Jackson! And I want you to be happy, and I want you to settle down and have a family, and I want grand-babies and a daughter-in-law. And because I know that that girl in there used to be your best friend and she made you happy!" She points a sharp finger towards the cafeteria as she shouts.
He licks his lips and closes his eyes for a second before finally speaking, "It's none of your business."
"It might not be, but you are." She shakes her head again, his time tsking him, "That girl in there, the one you seem to think is happy and has moved on, she loves you. I don't know much, but that man she's supposed to be marrying is in for a surprise when their wedding day comes and she backs out. And I don't know what happened, but she still loves you, it's written all over her face. You're just too blind and too much of a coward to see it. You're rather run around with that idiot all day than admit it. Baby, do you love April?"
Jackson sticks his hands in his pockets and takes a deep breath, glancing down at her, "It's not that easy." He informs her quietly like he's going to break and she tilts her head to the side with compassion.
"You need to tell her." She tells him sternly.
"I tried to love her. I did, I tried. I wanted her, but she was constantly throwing that back at me because it wasn't what Jesus wanted, okay? Don't blame this all on me, alright? Because I wanted her, I wanted to be with her, but she didn't. So, I walked away and she moved on, and then she comes back and tells me that she wants me? I can't do all that. I can't handle it anymore, I tried. I tried to love her, but she didn't want me to." He's not going to cry but he's clearly upset and aggitated.
Catherine smiles at him motherly, bringing her son into a hug and rubbing a hand up and down his back.
"Oh, baby, she's just as scared as you are. But you're going to have to try one last time before it's too late."