Chapter 28
Hey everybody I'm back! It has been a crazy year. I recently lost a grandparent to Alzheimer's disease and have been working hard to move forward and raise awareness. But I figured this was the perfect time to get back to writing my story...
It had been a month since the trial had ended. April was downstairs finishing up the decorations for Brooke's birthday party. She couldn't believe that her little girl was already two-years-old; time had really flown fast and she was growing every day. Camden was also growing and would be 5 months old in just a few days.
She and Jackson had put the kids down for their naps before all of their guests would start arriving. If they thought Brooke's first birthday was huge, they were in for an even bigger treat. The bouncy house was back and April had ordered a huge princess cake. It seemed that since the trial was over, she had thrown herself into planning her daughter's party. Hearing the judge deliver the verdict was a shock to her. It felt as if time had stood still for a few moments and it took Jackson touching her arm to bring her back to reality.
"Okay, the balloons are all up and the food is on its way," Jackson had walked into the house, interrupting her thoughts. He walked up and kissed her cheek.
"Thank you, baby. The house is done and I've stocked the bathroom with plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, and hand soap. I feel like something is missing," she kept going on as he flopped down into the nearest chair. He watched as she darted her head in what looked circles, trying to find something to fix or change.
"I think maybe I should—ahh," she yelled as Jackson pulled her down onto his lap. He only got to kiss her for a couple of seconds before she pulled away.
"Okay," she pulled her mouth away, "as much as I am liking this conversation, we still have a lot to do," but her words trailed off when he put a finger to her lips.
"Everything is perfectly fine. You have done absolutely everything, there's nothing left. So can we just relax for a couple of minutes," he asked as he started kissing her neck. But just as he was getting started the doorbell rang. April went to let the caterer in and they let her take a look at Brooke's cake; perfect!
The party went off without a hitch. April had an area for Brooke and some of the toddlers to hang out, a playpen area for all of the babies, and the big kids had free run of the entire backyard. Meredith told her more than once that thanks to her, Zola is going to be asking for the same thing when her birthday rolled around. Brooke loved her cake and really didn't want to share with anyone else. When most of the guests had gone and only their family had stuck around, April was in the kitchen with her mom and mother-in-law as they finished cleaning the kitchen; Jackson and the men had taken the backyard but were now seated around the fire pit out back.
Karen had noticed a slight change in her daughter since the last time she was in Seattle. She and Joe were going to be staying with Catherine and Richard for the weekend while they were in town. April admitted she was a little shocked when her mom had said they would be staying in the city, instead of out in the suburbs with her and their grandchildren. As Catherine finished putting away the last dish, she told the ladies she was going to have a talk with Jackson, she could also sense that Karen wanted to have a chat with April.
"April?"
"Yeah, mom?"
"How are you, sweetheart? Are you okay?" She noticed that April had dropped her head.
"Mom. I'm fine really. I've been keeping up with my doctor's appointments and I am working on talking things out with Jackson more…"
"Honey. I'm not talking about your depression; even though I am very happy to hear you are doing better. I was so worried about you then. But I'm talking about right now. That trial was not easy on you and Jackson, and you have barely mentioned it."
"What's there to say, mom? The judge gave his verdict and we have to live with it. Case closed," she tried to smile, but her face quickly changed.
"Baby girl, you don't have to be strong. I'm your mama; if there's anybody you can talk to when there's no one else, it's me. You can tell me that you're scared." She noticed a tear fall from her daughter's cheek.
"Oh honey," Karen said as she hugged her daughter. They were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat, it was Joe Kepner.
"Karen, sweetheart, we should go. Let the kids talk." Karen nodded her head in agreement and they went to meet the others at the front door. Joe kissed his daughter on the cheek before walking outside.
Jackson put his arm around April's shoulder as they watched their parents leave. When the car was out of the driveway, Jackson closed the door at watched April as she went back to the kitchen. He followed right behind her.
"It was a great party," he told her. "Brooke loved it."
"Yeah, I think so, too." She opened the refrigerator and grabbed a soda.
"Babe, are you okay?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm fine, Jackson," she tried to walk away but he stopped her.
"You haven't been yourself since…" He figured she could fill in the blanks.
"Nine years, Jackson," she said as her voice broke. "Nine years is all she got. Oh, I'm sorry '115 months' according to the judge. We told them everything that happened. Everything she did and said. And what good did it do? Because she'll be out of there in nine years. That's why I did all of this today. We almost didn't have this because of her, she was going to take it all away. And she practically got a slap on the wrist."
"Honey, you heard the judge. She wasn't the one behind this whole thing and because Brooke is alive…,"
"I know what he said!" She didn't want to yell too loud with the kids sleeping upstairs. "I thought if we told what she did, they would see the truth."
"I think the jury did. But you saw everybody's face in the courtroom; they were all in shock at her sentence, even her attorney. I wish I could do something about this for you and Brooke, but I can't. I failed both of you."
"What?" She asked him with a curious expression on his face. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Jackson this isn't your fault. I don't blame you for any of this, and I have said that so many times."
"I know you have, but I can't shake the feeling that this whole thing is because of me."
"Jackson, we've been over this. None of this is your fault. Yes, you broke up with her but that doesn't mean you get to beat yourself up every day because of her choices. We both apologized to her and thought it was all over and done with. But she didn't see it that way." She walked towards him, putting her arms around his waist; and he hugged her back.
He held her so tight. She hadn't really said anything since that day and when the judge read the verdict he could see the light in her eyes fade away, and it hasn't really come back yet. He agreed that nine years wasn't long enough for Stephanie to pay for what she'd done to his family. The judge called himself being kind by sending her to a prison out in Topeka, Kansas, nor was she allowed to return to the state of Washington after her sentence was completed. When he called Mike last week, he explained to Jackson that it seemed as if the judge was making an example of the former doctor because it would be hard for her to fit in or find work after everything was said and done. As April pulled out of his arms he watched her go turn out the lights in the kitchen.
"Sweetheart, we can talk about this if you want. You haven't really wanted to talk and maybe it would be good for you. I mean you don't want…," he stopped himself before he kept going. But he could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew exactly what he was going to say.
"Don't want my depression to come back? That's what you were going to say isn't it?" He nodded his head as a response.
"Jackson, I know that the thought of that happening all over again scares you. It scares me, too, I don't want to go through that again. You have been handling me with kid gloves since this whole trial mess started—"
"That's because I didn't want to stress you out and cause you to lose control all over again. It would be like she's winning; getting everything she wanted."
"I'm fine, Jackson. Really. We should get to bed, we've got a lot to do tomorrow and my parents won't forgive us if we are half asleep while we're at the zoo."
She held out her hand and waited for him to take it. They walked together upstairs, each taking a couple of seconds to check on the kids. Satisfied that they were both out for the night, they headed to bed themselves.
Two Weeks Later…
April's parents had been gone for a few days now. She and Jackson were settling back into their everyday routines again; taking the children to daycare, working, then home. It was like they were getting back to normal. As normal as normal could be. A meeting had been called by the hospital board and members of the Grey-Sloan staff had come to an agreement that the incident involving Stephanie and Leah would be kept quiet to those who were around at the time. Down in the pit, April was running from bay to bay checking on patients. She was ready to fall into a chair until a very loud man came bursting through the door.
"Help! I need a doctor!" The man was screaming while holding a little girl in his arms. April ran up to him while pushing a gurney.
"Put her down here! Sir, can you tell me what happened," she asked while taking the girls vitals.
"We found her downstairs on the floor. She's been lying around on the floor and acting overly-tired, and this morning I found blood in the toilet after she went to the bathroom. But I can't get her to tell me what is going on," the man was talking to April as he put the small child on the gurney.
"What her name and how old is she?" April asked him.
"Ava and she's four. I'm her father, Brian," the man said introducing himself. A woman came running up beside him not long after asking if the little girl was alright.
"Are you her mother?" April was inquiring as she was trying to soothe the crying child.
"This is my wife, Ava's stepmother, Vanessa." April noticed the little girl was clutching her stomach and decided she needed to be taken down to X-Ray and run a blood panel. The results would be shocking.
Meanwhile…
"Hey Avery," Derek greeted Jackson as he came into the attending's lounge.
"Oh hey, how's it going?"
"I could be asking you the same question. How are things in the Avery household? You guys holding up okay?"
"Yeah," Jackson answered him, "we are making it work as much as possible. I mean I can tell that the trial got the best of April, even if she won't admit to it."
"Just keep doing what you're doing and supporting her."
"I'm doing my best, Derek. She's been so off since the trial and she's been overdoing everything. I mean look at Brooke's birthday party. I kept telling her that she didn't have to make it such a big deal, Brooke won't even remember the party anyway."
Derek laughed and shook his head, making Jackson curious enough to ask, "What so funny?"
"You know, I'm just realizing how much Meredith and April are alike. April may be more over the top, but they are both just as passionate about their children. Meredith becomes a small version of April when it comes to the kids. She gets secretly, crazy-happy and wants everything to be perfect. Sound familiar?"
"Yeah really familiar. I mean that big party for Brooke was way more than she needed, and I tried so hard to talk April out of it. I had to finally come to the conclusion that it was her way of coping. She's still pretty pissed off about the outcome of the trial."
"Hey, I don't blame her," Derek responded with a serious look on his face. "I mean the woman tried to kill your daughter and now April is being protective all the time. It's normal, Avery."
"Yeah," Jackson responded just as Derek's pager went off.
"Speaking of your wife," he said looking down at his pager then lifted his head when Jackson's went off right after.
They both gave a puzzled look then headed downstairs to see what was going on.
Downstairs...
April stood in the large conference room waiting for the others to arrive. She had paged Arizona, Meredith, Derek, Jackson, Bailey, and Hunt. She started to feel like maybe she was over exaggerating, but this case was bigger than her and she needed to help if she was going to proceed with all it. In the middle of her thoughts, the door burst open and everyone came tumbling inside.
"Kepner," Bailey started. "What's going on?"
Jackson got nervous and asked, "Sweetie are you okay?"
"I'm fine guys, so stop looking at me like that. We have a case that requires all hands on deck." She switched on the large screens and let everyone take a look at the images.
"I don't get it," Meredith said. Looking around the room, April could see that she wasn't the only one who was confused. She pointed over to the scans lining the walls.
"This is Ava Beckham, age four. Her dad and stepmom just brought her in saying that they found her at the bottom of the stairs, completely out of it, lethargic and acting very strange. We've done a complete workup on her and I'm very nervous for her."
"Is that her throat?" Jackson sprang up looking at the pictures.
"Yes, it's completely burned and she has not been able to keep any liquids down so we have her hooked to an IV to keep her hydrated."
"What in the world would cause burns like those on the inside of that baby's throat?" Bailey was curious.
"Battery acid," April said out loud.
"What?" Everyone screamed.
"After we did a full blood panel, it was discovered that she has been swallowing battery acid. It looks to be over a period of a week, in small doses. Someone has been giving her this."
Hunt gathered everyone to come up with a plan. He assigned April, Jackson, Arizona, and Meredith to the case. He asked Miranda and Richard to speak to the parents with him. They found the couple, along with another woman sitting in the waiting area. Hunt looked at the couple sitting together, unsure who to talk to.
"Mr. and Mrs. Beckham?" All three of the adults stood up. "My name is Dr. Owen Hunt, I'm the Chief of Surgery here at Grey-Sloan Memorial. I'm sorry and you are," he questioned holding out his hand.
"Erica Beckham," she gave her hand to him, "I am Ava's mother. Is she going to be alright?" The young woman was in tears. Not wanting to cause a scene he asked if he could speak to the three of them privately. When they got to the conference room, a security guard was by the door.
"Would you all have a seat, please?" Hunt pointed to the chairs around the large table. "I'm sure this is hard to see your little girl in pain, but in order for my staff to do their jobs, we need to know what's been happening. And I need one of you to tell me the truth."
"I'm sorry, Doctor," the father began, "tell you the truth? The truth about what?"
"Your daughter has been slowly ingesting battery acid. It's more than likely been fed to her in food or put into her drinks. Now would one of you like to tell me what is going on? Because until you do, those guards outside will make sure that none of you steps an inch near that child."
Downstairs...
April stood beside Jackson as he made an attempt to repair the young child's throat. Arizona had already scrubbed out, after not finding a lot of damage. Things had gone well and Ava was holding strong and reacting well to the anesthesia. They were hard at work repairing the stomach lining when Meredith told them:
"Alex said that Ava's mom is here. They are holding all three of them in a conference room until somebody tells us what happened to her."
"Well," Jackson started, "it's obvious somebody has been poisoning her. The question is why?"
The three wrapped up and headed down to meet Hunt, who was still sitting with Ava's family. April was the first to speak up when Brian Beckham asked: "How is she?"
"Ava made it through surgery. She had some damage to her G.I. track but that has been repaired and taken care. And Dr. Avery has made some repairs to her throat. She's still on an IV to keep fluids down, just until we are able to see how she does on her own."
"Thank you! I'm Ava's mother, Erica. I appreciate everything you've done for my baby girl. I promise you, I haven't given her anything. She's my whole world and I would never hurt my child," she cried.
April felt for her. She was a mother, too, and seeing someone hurt over their child was becoming more than she could handle. Never one to admit defeat, she said:
"I'll be sitting with Ava until she wakes up. It shouldn't take long for that to happen, probably another hour and a half. I'll take care of her like she was my own." She reassured the young mom by putting her hand on her shoulder and left the room. She took a deep breath when she got into the hallway and quickly headed the nursery upstairs to check on the kids.
Conference Room...
Being a stakeholder in the hospital, Owen had asked Jackson to stay while the investigation was going on. The police had been filled in on the situation and were now in a full-blown investigation, not only at the hospital but at the family's home as well. Jackson couldn't put his finger on it, but he had a feeling that one of them exactly what is going on. He asked them once more:
"Look, will one of you please tell us what's going on? Until you do, we can't let you see her." His eyes darted back and forth between the three adults sitting at the table, but no one budged. It felt like he was talking to his 5 month-old, which probably would've gone better than talking to this crew. Finally, one of them spoke.
"Listen, Dr. Avery," Brian stated in an annoyed voice, "I'm her father. I would never hurt my daughter. Are you even a parent?"
Jackson gave him an angry look before telling him, " Yes, I am a father! But one of you has to know something and the longer you wait to tell us, the worse this could get for you and for Ava."
Just then one of the officers came in and asked to speak to Ava's mother, Erica. As she was leaving the young woman asked to see Jackson in the hallway. Curiously, Jackson stepped out of the door before the officer escorted her to another room.
"Yes, Erica?"
"Please don't let her out of your sight."
"Ava? We won't, Dr. Kepner is with her—"
"Not Ava," she told him before walking into a room across the hall. Jackson was completely confused by her words and didn't know what she meant at first. His fatherly instinct kicking in and headed upstairs to check on Ava. Just as he came barreling through the door, April suddenly sat up and put a finger to her mouth, when he looked at the bed, he saw the little girl sleeping.
"Has she woken up yet?"
"Just for a few minutes. She can barely talk, mostly just a couple of words at a time or nodding her head, but that's it. She was scared so I sang to her and she went back to sleep. What's wrong?" It was obvious to April that something was bothering Jackson.
"Her mom…she said something and I thought she meant to keep an eye on Ava, but she said not her. I think her mom knows what happened. But I can't just—"
"What do you mean?"
"I think Ava's stepmother did this to her. Just the look on that woman's face when she told me to keep an eye on her. I don't know. Maybe we could ask her. I know this hits kind of close to home for us, but if we can help some other family, then we should."
"April?" They heard a tiny voice come from the bed. April walked over and picked up Ava's tiny hand.
"Ava? You have to save your voice okay?" She looked back at Jackson and saw the desperation on his face. After waiting for Ava to close her eyes again, April carefully walked out into the hallway with Jackson.
"Are you sure about this, Jackson?"
"I don't really know. But my something in my gut tells me that woman isn't lying."
"If we accuse her, you do realize we could start some big problems between her parents?"
"I know, but I can't just ignore it. What am I supposed to do, April?" She responded by hugging him tightly, causing him to embrace her back. When she pulled back, April looked into his eyes.
"You have to do what you feel?"
Later…
Jackson was sitting in his office with Owen telling him what Erica said. Shaking his head in disbelief, Owen said, "Well, either way, we have to figure out who did this."
"Yeah. I've already spoken to the police about checking out the parent's houses. They agreed after hearing what happened to Ava. I can't believe someone would try to hurt that innocent little girl," he said looking out the window.
"Jackson," Owen said. "If this case is too difficult for you and April, I don't want to push you guys. I mean it wasn't that long ago, you two were going through nearly the same thing."
Understanding where he was coming from, Jackson replied, "Trust me, I've thought the same thing. But, maybe that's why April is the one that got the case. She can relate to it. And, I think it may help her to know she can fight for another child, just like she did for Brooke." Just then, his phone started ringing. It was the Seattle PD.
"This is Dr. Avery." Owen studied Jackson like he was under a microscope, giving him look of desperation, itching to know what was being said. After a few more minutes on the phone, Jackson finally hung up.
"What did they say?"
"They want us to take more precautions with Ava's security, maybe put someone outside of her door."
"Okay." Owen could see the sad look on his face, so he kept probing, "Jackson what else did they say?"
"Uh, they think it could be her dad that's doing this." But Jackson still had a strange look in his eyes.
"Jackson!"
"I'm sorry," Jackson replied to him. "I don't think it was him. No father would do this to his own daughter."
"You think it's the wife don't you?" He watched as Jackson nodded his head to the question. They both took off down the hall. As they got into the elevator, Jackson made the decision to call the police department back.
Meanwhile...
April looked up from the files on her tablet. She decided to stay with Ava for as long as she could. Catherine had come by earlier and offered to take the kids home, she would also stay the night with them in case April and Jackson couldn't get away from work. It had been hours, and Ava was still groggy from all of her pain medicine. She started to think back and remember when Brooke was fighting for her life in that incubator just two years ago. How could this be happening? This shouldn't be happening to another mom? To another little girl? It was then that she started to think there may be something to Jackson's theory. But why would this woman try to hurt her stepdaughter? She carefully made a call down to Psych to see if they could assist with her next idea.
A couple of days later, April's consult from psychiatry had come through, now that Ava's pain medication was getting lighter. She kept asking for her mother and April felt guilty lying to the small girl. During their initial workup of Ava, it was discovered that there was milk and some form of juice in Ava's stomach contents. She stood near the doorway as Dr. Havens, the child psychiatrist showed Ava a picture board; she was trying to inconspicuously use her cell phone to video the session.
"Okay, Ava, I'm going to show you some pictures." Showing her two pictures of milk and juice she asked, "Which one's your favorite?" Juice.
"Good job! Now which one makes you feel sick?" Juice
"Wow, your favorite makes you sick? Why does mommy give it to you?"
"She not give me."
Just then, April's body stiffened as Ava said, "Vivi said it big girl juice." Dr. Havens' eyes grew wide. Getting a hunch, she did a search of sports drinks on the tablet and let Ava pick the one 'Vivi' gives her.
"Ava, do you feel funny when you drink the big girl juice?"
"I get sleepy."
Stopping the recording, April ducked around the corner as she couldn't stop the tears from streaming her face.
"April?" It was Arizona. "What's wrong?" Giving her the phone, April played the video for her friend. "Oh my God!"
"I've gotta get Owen. We have to contact the police. Will you stay with her for a few minutes, she knows you?" Arizona could only nod her head as she watched April quickly run over to the elevator.
Jackson was in a trauma room when he saw April speed by. "Tanner," he said to one of the interns giving him a clipboard, "get this to the lab for me."
April had just made to Owen.
"I know who's poisoning Ava."
Okay, so I wanted this to be a crazy long chapter but I needed to head out and wanted to post something today. I promise I'll be back soon and this part will all come full circle. Until then take care...
