Hey everyone here's the next chapter. Thank you for all the reviews and encouraging comments. Feel free to share your thoughts, If there's something you want me to add to the story let me know and I'll see if I can put it in there. Please continue to review, fav and follow. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
Jackson woke up to the sound of a nurse entering the room to check on April's progress which was sadly the same. He got up and stretched, his body sore from sleeping in the chair the whole night. He looked at his phone and saw that he had indeed slept the whole night. It was 7 am. He walked into the bathroom and freshened up some then made his way to his daughters temporary home.
She was awake in the crib just laying there. Water bubbles popping in her mouth as she slobbered over herself. She seemed to have sensed his presence because she immediately got fussy and made her demands clear.
Jackson crossed the room and picked her up, grabbing a cloth to wipe up the drool. "And how's my little girl doing this morning?" Jackson asked in one of those ridiculous baby voices that everyone seemed to adopt when talking to a baby. He used to laugh at parents who did that and look at him now.
Aryn gurgled happily in his arms. "Well, aren't we happy today." He said as he walked around the room with her, bouncing her in a steady rhythm.
Jackson heard a knock at the door and looked up to see Bailey. "Hey," Jackson said as she entered the room. He looked at Bailey and smiled. "Bailey, I'd like you to meet my daughter Aryn." He looked at her nervously, while he knew she supported him, it was still hard for him to remember that not everyone expected the worse from him. She was one of the first ones to show him any respect after he became chairman and he wouldn't forget that.
"Oh Jackson, she's beautiful," Bailey said as she walked over to him and picked her up from his arms. Aryn for her part didn't fuss or cry, she simply relaxed in her hold. "Look at all this hair on your head," she said. "You must have given mommy lots of stomach aches" Bailey bounced her up and down and Aryn seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Jackson watched as Bailey expertly handled Aryn. "I guess no matter how long it's been, you never really forget how to take care of a baby," Jackson stated.
"Nope, it's like second nature" Bailey replied smiling happily at Aryn who was starting to fall sleep in her arms. Bailey gently laid Aryn down. She looked over at Jackson and her face became serious. "I saw April before I came up here. I'm sorry this happened Avery."
Jackson shrugged. "It sucks, but she'll be alright. She just needs some time." He said and he really believed it.
Bailey nodded her head in understanding. "Have you thought about transferring her to our hospital?"
"I've thought about it." He said roughly his face a mask of unrestrained anger.
Bailey got the point and dropped the topic for now. "Alright, so have you contacted your mom? Told her about what's going on?"
"She doesn't even know that we're married. We haven't talked much lately." He explained.
"Well, I think she'd want to know about all of this, she doesn't seem like the type to let anything come between the two of you. Webber told me she spoke very highly of you."
"Yeah, I bet she did." He replied rolling his eyes. "Look, I don't want to get into this right now. I'll tell her eventually." He said running his hands through his hair.
"Alright, so changing the topic. What do you want to know about babies."
"Anything you can tell me." He said chuckling. "I'm kind of clueless here."
Bailey laughed and they both sat down while she began preparing him for life as a parent.
...
A week went by and it was finally time for Jackson to take Aryn home. He was still a little worried, but he spent a lot of time in the NICU with Bailey and the nurses learning everything he could about how to take care of his daughter.
Jackson gently placed the car seat with Aryn inside on the floor next to him and took her out. He walked over to April and sat beside her taking her hand in his.
"Today's the day April, our daughter is going home. I just wish you were coming with us." He said pausing to gather himself up.
He let Aryn touch her mom for a second and then buckled her back in. kissing April's lips he whispered "I'll see you tomorrow" and walked sadly out the room with only one of the two most important girls in his life.
When Jackson got home he put Aryn in the crib he and April spent hours putting together. He laughed as he remembered that day.
~Flashback~
"Who says that it's the guy's job to fix the crib," April argued.
"Probably every handbook for parenting out there." He stated looking at all the pieces of the crib laying around the room. April had tried to put together the crib while Jackson was at work wanting to do anything other than sitting around, unfortunately, it was disastrous.
"I just wanted to help." She said with a hiccup in her voice.
"Aww babe, come on don't cry," he said as he sat on the carpet next to her. He rubbed her arms and kissed her forehead.
"It's just these stupid hormones." She said wiping her eyes. It was only partially true.
"I know babe. Here," he said handing her one of the pieces. "We'll fix it together, and if anyone asks you can take all the credit." He smirked.
April chuckled then looked into Jackson's eyes. "How did I get lucky enough to marry the sweetest man alive." She smiled at him. "I'm so in love with you."
Jackson smiled "I love you too." He told her with a kiss to her lips. They spent the rest of the night putting the crib together and decorating the room.
~End of Flashback~
Jackson sat in the rocking chair remembering that night as his eyes dropped shut. He was asleep for 20 minutes before Aryn was up crying her eyes out. "Hey what's wrong sweetie," Jackson asked her picking her up and heading back to the rocking chair.
"I know you probably miss your momma, if I could wake her up I would. As soon as she's better she's gonna give you all the attention that you've been missing from her." Jackson whispered to Aryn while rocking her. She slowly started to calm down and fell asleep.
Jackson kept her with him for a while longer and then placed her back in her crib, and tried for another nap. This time he made it a good hour before he had to wake up and feed Aryn then change her.
He wasn't sure how he was gonna do this. Even when April woke up, whenever that would be, he'd have to help her out too. She wouldn't be able to get up every three hours to take care of Aryn. This would soon become too much for him to handle on his own. He was going to need help, and as much as he didn't want to he knew that he needed his mom. Probably his sisters too, but the latter could wait. So he picked up his phone and called his mom, he'd been ignoring all of her calls recently, so he wasn't sure how she'd react to him calling her.
"Hey, mom." He said nervously when she answered.
"Oh, baby boy. How are you? I'm so sorry for everything I've done, I only wanted you to see how much potential you had. Please forgive me." She begged as soon as she answered.
Jackson was shocked, to say the least. This was not how he expected this conversion to start. He never expected her to apologize for putting him in this position. He did feel a little better now, coming to her for help.
"I understand what you were trying to do, and I appreciate the confidence you have in me. That's not why I called you though. Do you think you can come down here, there are some things that I need you to help me out with. I don't know how long it will take, maybe a few weeks. I'll understand if you can't, but I'd really appreciate-" She cut off his babbling, something he picked up from April.
"I'm already down here for a meeting, but I can cancel whatever I have scheduled for the next few weeks. Your grandfather can handle anything that needs immediate attention. Just give me your address and I'll be there as soon as I can." She said interrupting him.
His mother just kept on surprising him. "Um...thank you." he sais sincerely.
"You don't need to thank me. I'm your mother, of course I'd drop everything to help you. You don't ask for help much, so the fact that you're asking me tells me that it's really important." She said to him.
Jackson told her the address and she promised to be there in 20 minutes.
He had just finished checking in on Aryn when he heard a knock on the door. He grabbed the baby monitor and quietly closed the door behind him.
He put the monitor on the kitchen counter and opened the door after checking who it was.
"Oh, baby how are you doing?" Catherine Avery said when she saw her son. It'd been so long since she talked to him, and she hadn't seen him since she ambushed him into becoming a chairman.
"I'm good mom," Jackson said wrapping his arms around her when she reached out to hug him. They walked over to the couch and sat down.
"Okay, so what's going on. What do you need my help with?" Catherine asked.
"Uh... do you remember April?" He asked her hesitantly, not sure how his mother felt about her.
"Yes, I do. The redhead trauma surgeon right?" She said carefully. Things with her son were still very fragile and she didn't want to say anything that would be taken the wrong way.
"Yeah, well she got in an accident, and she's in a coma," Jackson told her, his eyes tearing up like they always did whenever he thought or talked about her.
"Oh Jackson, I'm so sorry. I know that you guys are best friends. What did the doctors say?"
"They said that they weren't sure when she would wake up. It could be weeks, months, maybe even years." Jackson told her. "With head traumas, it's always difficult to predict when or if the person will get better." He said sadly.
"Okay, is Derek sure that that's all they can do?" She asked wanting to know what the neurologist thought.
"Derek?" Jackson asked her confused.
"Yes, Derek. I'm assuming that he checked her out right? He is the head neurologist right?"
"Um, April isn't at GSM. She's at Seattle press" Jackson told her forgetting that she didn't know.
"Oh, well, ok then. I still think that he should check her out, he's the best in the country, but that's completely up to you. Actually shouldn't that be up to her parents? Did they choose to bring her to Seattle press? They're a really great hospital too."
Jackson's eyes widened. He had completely forgotten to call April's parents. It slipped his mind, though he hadn't gotten a call from them either, he had April's phone and it hadn't rung once. That was over a week ago.
"That's just where she was heading when the accident happened." He told her.
"Have you two kept in touch since she left?" She questioned as she saw how affected he was by this.
Jackson let out a chuckle "Yeah, we have. Mom, we're married." Jackson said his fingers nervously turning the ring on his finger. "We live here together."
Catherine looked down at her son's hand, and there was indeed a band on his left ring finger. "Wow, I didn't know," she said surprised.
"Yeah, we kept it quiet. No one really knows."
"I just thought that me being your mom and all that you would have told me sooner than this." She said sourly. Jackson could hear the hurt in her voice.
"I'm sorry mom. When we decided to get married we weren't exactly on speaking terms. April isn't really a big fan of her family either so it was just us and we decided that that was all we needed." Jackson told her.
Catherine looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry that our relationship was so broken that you felt the need to hide this from me." She told him taking a hold of his hands. "Okay, that's not what I'm here for. Enough of this pity party. You called me to help you so that's what I'm going to do. So what is it you need? Do I need to contact the hospital and get April transferred? Do you need me to-"
"Waaaa waaaa waaaa..." They hear.
"Jackson? Why is there a baby crying in your house?" Catherine asked her son slightly concerned.
Jackson scratched his head and chuckled nervously. "Well, mom remember me saying that I needed your help? Well.. " he said getting up and walking towards Aryn's room, he opened the door. Catherine followed her son into the room and was shocked for the second time today.
"Mom meet your granddaughter," Jackson told her, picking Aryn up and handing her to his mom. Catherine was completely taken off guard.
"Jackson, oh my... why didn't you tell me? Scratch that. I'm so sorry that I hurt you so much that you felt the need to keep your family from me." She said with tears in her eyes. She slowly walked around the room with Aryn, rocking her and whispering in her ear. A huge grin on her face.
"I didn't want you judging my family, or trying to tell us what to do. She wasn't planned, but that didn't matter to us. I just, I can't do this alone. There are only a few people that I even trust telling all this too, but I won't keep taking them away from whatever they may be doing because I'm too stressed. I just need a few days of rest. Can you please help me with this?" Jackson all but begged his mom. He was desperate or else he wouldn't be caught dead doing this. His daughter was more important than his pride though, so he would suck it up.
"Oh baby, you don't have to ask me to help you with this. I'm your mother, April is my daughter now, and this beautiful little girl is my grandbaby. Whatever it is you need I will always be there for you. All of you." She said looking him in the eyes so that she was sure he understood.
"You know your sisters have been calling me constantly about you. They can't get a hold of you and they miss you." Catherine told him.
"Yeah well, I'm not exactly ready to see them." He said stubbornly.
"Jackson, I don't want to lecture you, and I know you had every reason not to speak to either one of us, but don't deny this baby her aunts. Or April sister's. You guys need to talk this out. Yes, they were wrong, we all were, but If you can forgive me then you can forgive them. We are family and family always comes first. They know that now." She told him determined to get her family back together.
Jackson nodded his head. He still wasn't ready to talk to them, but his mother was right. He wouldn't deny his daughter her family, and if April could have some sisters that might actually give a crap about her then who was he to take that chance away from them. They were all adults now and he was willing to hash everything out if it meant his family would be happy. "Alright, I'll call them." He decided.
"That's my baby," she said rubbing his face. "Now, go get some sleep. You look about ready to drop." She shooed him.
"Thanks, mom," Jackson said relieved. Giving his mom a kiss on the cheek. "Everything that you'll need is right in here," he said pointing to the rack.
"Go ahead and get some sleep baby. I know how to take care of a baby. I had three of them you know." She chastised him.
Jackson laughed, "Okay." He said kissing Aryn on the head.
He walked to his room and dropped to the bed, he was out before his head even hit the pillow.
