April was startled awake when she felt Harriet being shifted slightly, her motherly instincts kicked in and she immediately darted her eyes from her little girl to the person who was trying to remove her daughter from her embrace. She was surprised to see that the arms belonged to her ex mother in law, Catherine Avery.
"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I walked in and saw her eyes open and I didn't want her to get her hands on any of your IVs." Catherine immediately stated as an apology.
"No it's fine. Don't worry about it. What time is it?" She asked as she shifted, allowing Catherine to take Harriet.
"It's just after 10am."She responded while snuggling the baby girl in her arms. April could see in just those few moments how much Catherine had missed Harriet. Although her and Richard both considered Seattle home Catherine was rarely here due to her commitments to the Avery foundation in Chicago. Before she had moved out of Jackson's apartment April had allowed Jackson to take Harriet with him to Chicago every now and then so that Catherine could spend more time with her granddaughter, but since the new living arrangements had been established Jackson hadn't taken the little girl. Instead he choose to stay at home when he had Harriet so that he had his own quality time with her.
April felt guilty watching Catherine with Harriet, she knew it wasn't entirely her fault that the woman was being robbed of her time with the baby but it didn't change the fact that it was her decision to move out and therefore limit Jackson's time with her.
"You miss her don't you?" April asked the older woman.
"Of course I do! Who wouldn't miss this precious baby girl?" Catherine responded while bouncing Harriet a little resulting in fully on baby giggle. A sound that April just loved.
"She's been with you all this time? Where is Jackson?" The grandmother asked with concern lacing her tone as she tucked the baby girl back in her arms.
"Yes, but she's been asleep. I actually can't believe that she let me sleep this long. Jackson should be in an on call room. He came in early this morning with her because she woke up wanting me. After he showed up we got to talking and it was an emotional heavy conversation, so after we were done he decided to go get some rest since neither one of us had really slept."
"Oh okay. I guess that's fine since he was still here in the hospital."
"Catherine, please don't start with this right now. It was perfectly fine. She was asleep and there are nurses and doctors covering this area of the hospital. Plus everyone here are all people she is comfortable with, if they had been concerned about her being here they would have paged him to come get her, even if I was against it." April said defending herself and Jackson.
"Okay, I promise I'll stop with the controlling grandmother stuff. I trust you both I promise, but I can't help it if I'm concerned. I almost lost my daughter and I wasn't even here! What kind of person does that make me?" She responded while reaching out to grasp April's hand. Holding tightly, showing April just how much this woman still truly cared for her.
"Catherine, you are an amazing person. You are kind and caring, a little controlling but that's okay its one of the things we all love about you. I love you so much and I thank you for worrying about me, but I'm fine I swear. Please remember Jackson and I are divorced now though, therefore I am no longer your daughter." The redhead said with a hint of sadness lacing her tone while letting go of the older woman's hand. She tried to adjust herself in the bed to try to play off letting go of Catherine's hand, but she knew that her ex mother in law knew exactly why she had let go of her hand.
"You will always be my daughter sweetheart. No papers or courts are going to change that fact or how I feel on the matter. But forget all that, we don't have time to go down that rabbit whole right now. What matters right now is your health and your recovery. Please be honest with me, how are you doing?" Catherine responded to her jab while sitting down in the chair with Harriet.
"Honestly, I feel fine physically. I mean I am a little tired and I still feel a bit weak, but otherwise I feel totally fine." She responded, while wondering if Jackson's mother was the person to talk to about how she was feeling emotionally. Catherine had always been easy to talk to but that didn't mean she was trustworthy with April's secrets. She had proven that when she had used the details of the beginning of her pregnancy with Harriet to get Jackson to fight for full custody while she was still pregnant.
"Well that's fantastic April. After a few days I am sure you will be just fine and will be able to go home with no trouble. But you said that was physically. How are you doing emotionally? You've been through a lot of the past few days. How are you coping?"
"I'm okay. Jackson and I were able to talk a lot this morning and he was my main concern, so now I am doing good." She said hoping that the older woman wouldn't pry any further and would just accept that answer.
"Well I'm glad that you two were able to talk. I hope it was a conversation of significance, though I won't try to get any details. I have already meddled far to much where you and Jackson are concerned, but I will say this. You two still love each other, very much. I can see it on both of your faces when you talk about one another. Even when you want to hate the other person, you still love them very much. Love like that doesn't come around every day and it doesn't just go away because things get hard. I hope you two can figure that out."
April didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to respond to the words that Catherine had said to her, but that was exactly what April had been thinking. She didn't want to give herself false hope. She knew how stubborn Jackson was and she knew how badly she had hurt him. A hurt that didn't just go away because of a near death experience. He was with Maggie now anyways. She had seen the way those two looked at one another, even though they were technically siblings now. She had been the one to tell Maggie that Jackson had feelings for her, that didn't mean April was okay with it, but she was the one who had gotten the ball rolling so to say.
She also didn't want Catherine telling Jackson what April was feeling before she was ready for him to know. She wasn't sure what exactly she was feeling, so there was no point in anyone discussing it with him at this point. No need to discuss it with anyone really. It needed to stay her secret for a bit longer before she could let him in on that, if that's what she felt like God wanted her to do.
Luckily she didn't have to make a decision on how to respond because the man himself had just entered her room.
"Mom? What are you doing here?" Jackson asked settling into the chair on the other side of April's bed.
"Nice to see you to son. I am here because I heard that one of my family members was hurt and I needed to see for myself that she was okay. I also figured you two could use some help with this little one here while April recovered. I assume that you will be helping her once she is released, correct?" She asked looking between the two adults while rubbing the baby's back.
"Well yes I was going to offer to let April stay with me, but we hadn't gotten that far in our discussion yet mother. But why would we need your help with Harriet? I can handle her and April both with no problems." He said sitting up a little straighter, feeling a tad defensive towards his mother's unspoken accusations.
"I know you can handle your daughter while helping April baby, however you shouldn't have to. I am her grandmother and that is what grandma's do. We help with the babies when their parents need help. It may not be necessary, but I would like to help. Plus I don't ever get to spend any time with this angel and I took the week off from the foundation to come and help." She said while kissing the baby in questions head.
Seeing that an argument was about to start and wanting to avoid it April finally spoke up.
"Jackson, stop." She said while sitting up and placing a calming hand on his shoulder "First of all, I don't need any help. Once I'm home I can handle things on my own. Of course I was going to ask you to take Harriet until I was feeling back to normal completely, but I don't need to stay with anyone. So thank you Catherine, but the offer is unnecessary. However you can spend as much time with her as you want as far as I'm concerned." She looked over towards Jackson and knew that the fight was far from over. She could see the determined look in his blue eyes that she recognized from years of working side by side with him. She laid back and took a deep breath before listening to what he had to say on the topic at hand.
"Oh no! Don't even start that crap April. I know you are 'a soldier' and all that bullshit, but there is no way you are going home alone after what just happened. Even if I was okay with letting that happen there is no doctor in this hospital that is going to release you if they know you are going home alone. You have surgical incisions from where Maggie had to do the bypass and you have no idea how your body is going to respond to the shock it went through. You being alone to handle your recovery on your own is completely out of the question. I don't care if I have to come and stay with you there is no way in hell I am letting you be alone. I'm sorry if you feel like I am overstepping, but if it were me you would be doing the same thing." Jackson said shutting down her suggestion of going back to her place alone.
"Fine. I will come stay with you, but if I agree to that then we let your mother take Harriet for the week." She said looking pointedly at Jackson.
"However, if we let you take Harriet you have to promise to make sure that both Jackson and I still get to see her every day. She isn't used to not seeing us both daily." April said swinging her head to Catherine, who was staring at her son with a triumphant grin on her face.
"I am totally fine with that! Thank you! I am going to go tell Richard! Oh he is going to be so excited to have a baby in the house!" Catherine responded while quickly leaving the room with Harriet in tow.
"Well okay then. I guess that's settled." Jackson said while moving around the bed to the chair that his mother had just vacated, closing the door to the room when he passed it.
"Jackson, are you sure it's okay if I stay with you? What about Maggie? How is your girlfriend going to feel about your ex wife sleeping in your guest room?" April asked him.
"It doesn't matter how Maggie feels about it. You are not going home alone after what just happened, so you staying alone without anyone to help you just isn't an option. If she has a problem with you staying with me while you recover she's not who I thought she was anyways." He said while grabbing for her hand.
"My turn for questions now. What about Matthew? Is he going to be okay with you staying at my place for your recovery? Or would he prefer to have you stay with him?" Jackson asked unable to raise his eyes to look at her face, choosing instead to look that the linens on the bed.
"Oh um I guess I forgot to tell you this morning. Matthew and I broke up last night." April said looking at him trying to judge his response at her news, however she was unable to see his face.
"Broke up? How? I mean um why?" He said clearing his throat nervously. "Why did you break up? You just got back together right?" He asked looking up quickly and down just as quickly adding "Never mind. That's none of my business. I didn't mean to pry into your personal life, I'm sorry."
"No its okay Jackson. I don't mind telling you. Matthew and I, we just agreed that we weren't right for each other. We both thought the relationship was good, thought it was the right steps to take before the accident, but after what happened we realized it just wasn't going to work. We realized that we weren't the right people for each other." She started to explain again choosing to watch his face as she explained why her most recent relationship had failed and still seeing nothing in response.
"How did you know it wasn't going to work? Neither of you have even been awake for 24 hours. Don't you think the break up is a little rash?" Jackson asked while still avoiding eye contact.
"Well when you wake up from something like that you should want to see your significant other. Like the only person you should want to see is that person and when I woke up the person I wanted to see wasn't Matthew, so we both agreed it wasn't going to work. And don't push anymore because that's all you are going to get from me." April said before he could ask the dreaded question of who it was that she wanted to see when she woke up. Which of course was him and she had seen him.
She had seen him praying and it made her heart skip a beat and in that moment she knew already there could be no more Matthew. There was no future for the two of them, she just prayed that there was a future for her and Jackson.
"Okay I won't pry anymore about Matthew. But no it won't be an issue for you to stay with me. Like I said if Maggie has an issue then she's not who I thought she was." Jackson said finally meeting her eyes.
"Okay. But promise me you will talk to her about it before I'm discharged. Like right now. Go find her and talk to her because you know she is here in the hospital." she said surprising him with her prerequisite.
"Um okay. Yeah I guess I'll go find her then. But while I'm gone I am going to have Amelia come back in here and check you again." He said smiling to her while leaving the room.