invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

46

[JACKSON AVERY]
Seattle, Washington

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Bella Ledford remained the mystery she presented herself to be on the very first day she came to Grey-Sloan Memorial. Without fail, she managed to make Jackson feel as though he knew her like the back of his multimillion-dollar hand, only to drop him on his ass and show him he had no fucking idea who she was.

That realisation hit him the hardest.

People had many different sides to them, yes. But how many, truly? How many more could he find in his attempt at learning about the love of his life? Some turns felt smooth and well carved-out like her favourite little things in life, while all the others had angles so sharp and random that he could barely manage to stay alive when coming across them.

"Avery—what did you do?" the Chief had asked shortly after Bella walked off without a second glance at him. Knowing she had it in her to walk away made him happy. Even in his frustrated mind he knew he did not treat her how she should've been treated. Seeing Bella leave meant she knew this and chose to protect herself.

From him.

That, once more, stung.

"Brought up something I shouldn't have," he said in the end. Bella put two and two together and spoke it aloud, yes, but the answer seemed to be written all over his face.

"Well, go fix it," Bailey encouraged, putting her hand in the air to signal towards the path Bella took. "I just got my best neurosurgeon back in the game after two months. Don't let me lose her again."

"Yes, Chief," he replied while Bailey walked away.

Jackson thought he would give Bella time to let her feelings wash over her. Well, in his head, the reasoning made more sense than admitting he needed time for himself to gather what to say. Avery thought that speaking about what had happened would mend the hurt that destroyed him on the inside. He supposed that a few hours of talking things through would allow him to not think about what happened.

Turned out, the speculation was wrong.

Turned out, Jackson failed to get over it and he also went the wrong way about dealing with it.

Bella had been right to lose her mind. They went to bed thinking everything could begin to move back to how things were, only to be faced with that being proved wrong the following day. But how could Jackson move on? How could he sleep on it and hope with his fingers crossed that his hopes and dreams of having his own family one day could potentially never come true?

Maybe he felt entitled. All his life, he had been given everything. Yes, he worked for what he had now but as a child? Jackson most definitely had it easy in terms of getting whatever he wanted. Growing up and maturing into his adult years, he realised more and more that life didn't give out freebies. No, he had to work for it—but that never seemed to be an issue.