invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

17

[BELLA LEDFORD]
Seattle, Washington

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Bella Ledford had absolutely no idea what day or what time it was when she woke up. Regaining consciousness in a hospital bed didn't surprise her as much as it should have, though it definitely wasn't because she happened to be used to them. Maybe the sight of these wheely creations was familiar, but not the feel of them. Still, she awakened like a princess would in a movie, completely refreshed and ready to take on life.

Though, before she could've even tried to let anyone know of this plan of hers, she managed to catch onto a voice as it called out. Very high pitched, indeed.

"Jackson! Here you are," Catherine Avery sighed in relief, walking into the room which Bella knew from the clicking of her shoes against the floor.

"Mum? What are you still doing here? It's late," Jackson replied. Hearing his voice after what felt like days almost brought a smile to Bella's face. She couldn't break her act, though, so she tried her best to bite it away.

"I wanted to find you before I left. You should be getting home, Jackson."

"Yeah, I will be," he reassured his mother. "Just wanted to check in..."

"What happened?" Catherine ended up asking the question, and thank the lords above she did because Bella also wanted to know the answer to this. Although, she kind of already worked it out.

"She fainted," he gave the short answer, some concern coating those words. He continued to say, "She's been in and out of multiple surgeries since she came back so she was severely dehydrated, has been awake and standing and rushing around for hours. The storm has just been so stressful for everyone, so add that on top—and the fact that she apparently felt more than okay to run into the fire that happened a couple of nights ago when the bus exploded."

"Oh, poor child," she responded with what had to be genuine worry in her voice. Bella couldn't help but wonder if a silly little faint deserved quite so much empathy from the Avery woman, and whether that comment had anything to do with the past. "How long has she been here?"

"Well, she had some tests run from what I saw in her chart, and got some pain meds. One of the nurses said she was awake for about an hour before she fell back to sleep and the meds been keeping her down ever since," Jackson informed his mother from the top of his head. He sounded a lot like how he just talked normally, as opposed to reading information off of something. "So, I'd say she's been asleep for almost an entire day."

"Goodness gracious," she replied. It was then, then Bella smelled Catherine's perfume. She must've been standing much closer now. "And how are you, son? How was the board meeting?"

"Fine," Jackson replied, his answer short, flat, dry. He sighed and added, "We agreed on a fundraiser gala to help finance everything, so I may need you to pick up the phone to some of your richest friends."