Taking a few liberties here:
For starters, Zola's birthday is in September. I'm not sure when it's supposed to be but yeah. Also, Harriet is 4 years old. Again, not sure how old she's supposed to be but I like 4 for her. Lol
Ellis is 5. Bailey is 7.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GREY'S ANATOMY OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.
"Ugh. This day" Maggie thinks out loud as she as she changes out of her scrubs into her street clothes. She's been at the hospital since 9am and its currently creeping up on 4am. After completing what was supposed to be her final surgery of the day, an emergency call came in for a 3 car, 9 passenger accident on the freeway. Luckily no one died, however, 2 people were in critical condition and in need of immediate heart surgery.
As she walks down the hall she can't help but realize she hasn't seen Jackson in a week. Not since seeing him with Vic that night. Not that she's counting. Except she is counting. One week since she's seen him. Three weeks since he told her they were irrevocably broken. Four weeks since that STUPID camping trip. The one that haunts her the most though? Two weeks. Two weeks was all it took for him to move on. Probably even less than that. From what she's overheard through the Grey-Sloan grapevine, he met Vic the night he abandoned her on the side of the road that dreadful, foggy night.
Camping. Why'd he have to force her to go camping? She told him in no uncertain terms that it wasn't her thing. She knew it'd be a disaster. Could feel it in her gut. But he was just so damn excited. How could she possibly say no when he looked at her with those gorgeous blue eyes with the specks of green in them. They'd been in the best place. She'd just agreed to move in with him after deciding to throw caution to the wind and trust love. Their love. It was worth every risk, considering the rewar-
OOF
"Oh God. I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying attention."
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she bumped right into something, someone. Gratefully there was no embarrassing fall or dropping of anyone's things.
"Oh it's no problem Dr. Pierce." It's Schmidt. "Headed out?"
"Yeah. It's been a long day. Have a goodnight or morning or whatever it is, and sorry again."
Schmidt laughs "Don't worry about it. Thank you Dr. Pierce. Goodnight."
As she continues her walk to her car she decides literally bumping into Schmidt was the universe telling her to get a grip. Enough with the thoughts of Jackson Avery and what they shared. What she thought they shared. No. No. What they shared, no matter how it ended up, she knows it was real. Real complicated, but real love nonetheless. And now it was over. She had to accept that. Had to come to grips with the fact that the man that she loved, and ached for no longer wanted to be with her…. It was easier said than done but she was on the verge of creating functioning rechargeable hearts, getting over Jackson would be a walk in the park in comparison. Right? Right!
4:23am.
That's the time on the clock on the nightstand. He's up before the alarm and he can't fall back asleep. He glances to his right and sees Vic is sound asleep. They had a great night together. A late dinner followed by a few drinks at his place. Drinks that obviously led to more. Things with Vic were going great, especially since they were on the same page about everything. This was fun. This was no strings attached. This was what they both needed after losing their loves. While their losses differed, she lost hers to death, he lost his to his own stubborn stupidity, neither were ready to jump into anything head first. Same page.
4:34am.
He isn't going to fall back asleep so he may as well get up and start his day. As he showers he thinks of all he has to do today. Hospital by 7am for a board meeting, 9am consult, 10am consult, 11am thyroidectomy, 4pm hopefully he can eat, 5pm consult, hang around and work on his spray on skin, meet up with Vic for drinks. This is of course his plan, but he's pretty used to things not going according to plan at Grey-Sloan. So while there's a plan, he's mentally preparing himself for anything.
It's 6am and he's watching the morning news when he hears the shower start running. He starts a fresh pot of coffee & pours it into a thermos for when she comes downstairs. When she comes down she's wearing something different from last night. Strange, he doesn't recall her having an overnight bag. Then she's kissing him and he loses his train of thought.
"Good morning" she says as she pulls back.
"And a good morning to you too. Here, I made coffee but we've gotta get going." He hands her the thermos and they're out the door. Her mysterious wardrobe change forgotten.
"Hey!" He hears Meredith shout from behind him "Jackson!"
He turns around and she's coming towards him. "Hey Mere, what's up? Welcome back."
He's honestly a little confused. Ever since he and Maggie's break up Amelia has barely said two words to him outside of patient care, and he just assumed Meredith would follow suit when she returned. Sisterly bond and all that.
"Thanks, it's good to be back. Anyway, that's obviously not why I stopped you. Just wanted to remind you not to forget about Zola's birthday party this Saturday. The kids are looking forward to seeing Harriet."
"Yeah, no I didn't forget. Although, maybe I could have April bring her. I don't wanna cause any problems."
"Jackson, no matter what's happening between you and Maggie, you and Harriet are family. I mean, do I wanna kick your ass for hurting my sister? Yes. Is it the end of our friendship? No."
Jackson gives a nervous chuckle. He's known Meredith a long time, she's not kidding about kicking his ass, but she's also not kidding when she says they're family, and so he smiles.
"Thanks Mere, I really appreciate that. We'll be there. And look, about Maggie-"
"Aht" Meredith puts her hand up and cuts him off, "none of my business. Later Jackson."
"Later."
She's on the couch with a glass of wine when she hears the door unlock. The kids are home from school. She throws back what's left in her glass, and braces for impact.
"Anyone home?" She hears Zola shout.
"In here ZoZo !"
And before she knows it, there's six feet running straight for her.
"Hey monsters. How was school?"
A collective "GOOOD!" and here comes the inquisition.
"Are you not going to work today Auntie Maggie?" Ellis asks.
"Nope, not today. Did you have something in mind?" she replies.
"Yeah! Can we do science camp in the yard?"
"Oooh. Can you bake us cookies?" That's Bailey. She chuckles, the boy loves his cookies.
She honestly doesn't feel up to science camp today, although she's beyond happy that Ellis loves it so much. Compromise.
"How about this? We'll do science camp on my next day off, and today we'll make cookies and you get to pick what's for dinner Ells."
"PIZZA! From the oven, not the store." Is Ellis' very loud request.
"Alright, you got it!" She looks over at the nanny and tells her she can go if she likes. She's got the kids. Some time with her favorite little humans is just what the doctor prescribed.
After a quick snack, and homework time, she and the kids get to work on dinner and dessert. The cookies are done and they're placing the pizza in the oven when Amelia and Meredith come home.
When the kids are in bed, the sisters plop down on the couch with a bottle of wine for a catch up session.
"So how was your first day back Dr. Grey?" Maggie asks.
Meredith chuckles "Oh. It was great. Although, after picking up trash on the side of the road for the past month, it could've been horrible and still would've been great. I'm still doing what I love and that's what matters." She gets a distant look in her eyes, and they know it's because she almost lost her license to practice medicine all together. "Moving on, what's new with you Amelia? How are things with Link?"
"Things with Link are great. I'm cautiously hopeful" She's glowing and as happy as Maggie is for her, she can't help but be a little envious. As if reading her mind, Amelia looks over at her with a sympathetic smile and asks "What about you Mags? How you holding up? How's your heart?"
She could lie. Come up with a cookie cutter, generic response but these are her sisters. If she can't tell them, who could she tell "I- do- Do you think it was me? Was he right? Do I sabotage the good things in my life and then run?"
Amelia and Meredith glance at each other with that look. The one that says he's right but who gets to tell her? They think she doesn't see it, and if she's honest, it happened so quickly that if she wasn't staring them down she would have missed it.
It's Amelia who finally speaks up "Mags, I don't think you sabotage yourself but you're definitely a runner. You know that already."
"Four gallons of milk anyone?" Mere adds, and that makes them all chuckle.
"Look Maggie, you both said horrible things to one another. It wasn't just you. It wasn't just him. You're both responsible for the way things turned out. But this doesn't have to be a bad thing,"
"I hate someone I used to love. How is that not a bad thing?"
It's Meredith who speaks now "Hate? Mags. I-I didn't realize you felt this strongly. I, uhh, I, DAMN IT!"
"What? What is it?"
"He was going to have April bring Harriet to Zola's party, but I insisted he do it like originally planned. I told him we were all still friends and this didn't have to change that."
"It's fine Mere. I don't expect you guys to stop being his friend."
"No. I know. But maybe it's too soon to have him around for family functions."
"Meredith, it's fine. I'll be fine. It's about the kids."
At the look of doubt and regret on Meredith's face, she leans over and grabs her hand "I'll be fine. I promise. Besides, how awkward would that be? If you uninvite him after re-inviting him. He'll know it's because of me."
At that they all chuckle and move the conversation along. Three bottles later, they all head up to bed.
As Maggie lays in bed staring up at the ceiling, she wonders why she's the only one who seems hurt by this. It's the last thought she has before she falls into a dreamless sleep.
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P.S. #Jaggie will finally interact in the next chapter! I promise!