Chapter 21

Teddy walked up to the nurse's station setting down her tablet. She saw Maggie sitting behind the desk holding her head in her hands. She said, "Whoa, is pregnancy kicking your ass already?"

Maggie looked up at the Trauma chief. She said, "I'm typically a high energy kind of person, but this baby has zapped me of all of my energy. I can imagine it's only going to get worse with time. I don't know if I am ready for all of that."

Teddy chuckled. She said, "Yes, this is only the beginning, but you'll be just fine. Just take breaks when you can and make sure you eat your high protein snacks."

Maggie smiled at Teddy as her phone began to ring. She looked down noticing that Catherine was paging her to OR two. It looked like her patient was going into cardiac arrest on the table.

Maggie jumped up making her way to the OR as quickly as possible. When she made it to the OR floor she quickly put on her booties and grabbed a mask walking directly into the OR with her mouth and nose covered.

She said, "Dr. Fox, were you able to get him stabilized?"

Catherine said, "Yes, Maggie baby. Do me a favor. Scrub in so that you can jump in if he starts to decompensate again."'

Maggie walked out tying the mask into place and started the process to scrub in for the surgery. Maggie walked back into the surgery allowing the surgical nurses to gown and glove her. She walked over to the operating table and looked down at the patient. She asked, "What cool surgery are you doing today, Dr. Fox?"

Catherine peered over her glasses to look at Maggie. She said, "Baby, relax. You don't have to make small talk with me. Did Jackson tell u to come see me?"

Maggie picked up the suction and started clearing the area where Catherine was stitching so that she could have better visibility. She said, "He told me that you said that I didn't have to make an appointment. He said that I could just come over or join you in surgery."

Catherine asked, "Are you able to talk now?"

Maggie looked at Catherine all of a sudden feeling overwhelmed. She said, "Uh, sure."

"What does your schedule look like for next week? Because I would like for you and Jackson to come out to Boston with me. We are having a board meeting and we need to go ahead and get you two acclimated. Jackson used to attend, but he's slacked off. We- "Catherine was saying when Maggie cut her off.

She said, "Wait, Catherine. You're going too fast. What is happening?"

Catherine asked, "Jackson didn't tell you? When I'm no longer able to run the foundation you two will take over. I'm going to leave the foundation to you."

Maggie started to suction again asking, "He told me that, but I thought that there were conversations that needed to be had. I didn't know that it was a sure thing and that the transition would be starting so quickly."

Catherine said, "Well, with my uncertain future I don't want to wait."

Maggie looked Catherine in her eyes. She asked, "Catherine, did something happen with one of your scans? Is the cancer spreading? Please don't keep this from Jackson. He will need time to prepare himself for what's coming."

Catherine stopped what she was doing and looked at Maggie. She said, "Look, stop acting like Jackson. Everything is fine, but you and I both know that the reality of my situation is that I could go get a scan one day and it could spread. I don't want to wait until I'm in a dire situation. I want to handle this proactively."

"Catherine, I'm willing to help in whatever capacity I can with the foundation but are you sure that you want to leave it to me and Jackson. I mean, Jackson and I were just broken up. We literally just got back together. Yes, we see it as a permanent arrangement and if he asks me to marry him I will say yes, but what if things don't work out. Do you still want me to be attached to your foundation?" Maggie said as she continued to assist Catherine with the surgery.

Catherine said, "Maggie you're always going to be family to me. It doesn't matter if you are with my son or not. Not just because you're having my grandchild, but that's just how I see you. As a part of my family. Plus, I think that you running the foundation would be a sound business decision on my part. Jackson would do fine by himself, but his heart isn't in it. I know that whatever you decide to tackle you would put your whole heart into it. You also push him to do better and be better and that's what he needs. Someone to push him that isn't me."

Maggie said, "Catherine I don't want you to put anything in writing yet. I need time to think this over, but if you still want me to go with you next week to the meeting I'm willing."

Catherine said, "Maggie, suction. What is there to think about? This is a huge opportunity for you too. It's not like I'm the only one benefitting from this."

Maggie adjusted the retractor saying, "I get that Catherine, but I just like to properly think things through before making decisions."

Catherine said, "I understand that. I will allow you time, but I am pretty sure you'll see things the way that I do, so I am going to start speaking to my attorneys. Don't worry nothing will be official until the paperwork is signed."

Maggie looked up from the surgical field saying, "Catherine."

"I'm not going anywhere and you're not going anywhere. We'll get through this together. Stop worrying so much and live a little."

Maggie started to feel angry. She wanted to be respectful to Catherine because she liked her. She wanted to be respectful because she is Jackson's mother and because she is Richard's wife; however, it didn't feel like Catherine was respecting her at that moment.

At that moment it was like she was looking at Jackson. She could see where he got his patronizing demeanor from. His mother. Maggie gave Catherine a tight smile and she was thankful that she had on the mask so that Catherine couldn't see that it wasn't genuine.

Jackson was doing better to accept her the way she was. He wasn't as patronizing and yet here she was having to deal with it from his mother. Maggie sighed. Her life was getting complicated right after she had gotten it back on track.

Later that night when Jackson got home, he kissed her as she sat on the sofa working on her laptop. He said, "Hey babe, why'd I get an email from mom about us going to Boston?"

Maggie closed her laptop and scrubbed her hands down her face. She said, "I had a talk with your mother today. She wants us to start getting involved, and before you ask, no she's not sick. She's just extremely pushy and only wants things her way."

Jackson cuddled up with Maggie kissing her neck. He said, "Well, that's Catherine Fox for you. Pushy is an understatement. Settle in and enjoy the ride. It's not going to change."

Maggie listened to what he said. Catherine was indeed who she was, and she was never going to change, but so was she. The question was would she be able to live with that?