invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

15

[BELLA LEDFORD]
Seattle, Washington

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Dark skies threatened to downpour from the moment Bella woke up and looked out her window. The smell before rain filled her lungs as she walked from her car and into the hospital that day, reminding her of home. This time though, 'home' referred to England. Finding the smell to remind her of home was rare but she welcomed it with a small smile.

Barely having stepped through the front door of the hospital, Bella's pager went off immediately. It was her first day back, so it couldn't have been a patient of hers. Not even if it said 911. It didn't come from the ER, either.

Curiosity drove her as she found the room she was paged to, only to realise it was the resident's lounge.

"SURPRISE!" shouted the entire room of interns and residents as she popped up around the corner. Some of them blew on party horns while others whistled. There were confetti. A cake with 'Welcome Back, Dr Ledford!' written on the top with icing. To say that she was surprised would've been an understatement.

She did not expect anyone to give her such welcome.

"This is for your office," Heather Brooks walked up to her with a bouquet of blood red roses. Those flowers had the biggest heads, and were the deepest shade of red Bella had ever seen. As she took them from Brooks' hands, the smell of the petals hit her nose immediately, and it made her smile while sniffing them. Bella couldn't remember the last time she got flowers.

"Thank you," she smiled at her, then looked to everyone else behind her. "Wow. I didn't expect this at all. You didn't have to do anything, you know that, right?"

"It's your first day back in almost three weeks, Dr Ledford. How's it feel?" Shane Ross stepped forward with a big smile on his face. His hands were locked behind his back.

"Only been back five minutes, and it's already been more fun than I imagined," she chuckled while she shifted the bouquet in her hand, almost cuddling it as though it was baby. Nodding her head towards the table filled with plastic cups and fizzy drinks, she asked, "What cake is it? You have to tell me it's red velvet."

"Hah!" someone reacted right away. Turning to find the voice, it belonged to Edwards. She seemed rather victorious, almost like the comment from Bella was all she needed to be sure she was right about something. "I told you to pick red velvet! Dr Ledford—the final choice was between red velvet and Victoria Sponge, but stereotypically, the majority went with the latter."

"That's okay, Edwards," Bella continued to chuckle at the eager reaction from the young doctors. They all seemed more than excited to have the neurosurgeon around again, and it warmed her heart. She didn't think to imagine how much she was actually missed. "I like Vicky's sponge, too. Although, we don't quite cover it in anything..."