invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

57

[BELLA LEDFORD]
Seattle, Washington

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

"I was twenty-seven when it happened. I..." she let out a long, heavy sigh. Opening this part of herself meant the memories came rushing back, and even though she couldn't bring herself to say the name, the thoughts seemed enough to launch her back into the past. "I was at a medical conference with Tom—Koracick. Since I was going to be learning under him for the foreseeable future, he thought it would be nice for us to attend it together, you know, to get to know each other and see if we'll even get along. Even though I knew he was great, and we'd be fine, I never would've turned down the invitation."

Jackson nodded while Bella took a moment to breathe and consider her thoughts.

"Confidence didn't use to come easy to me but I knew how to fake it to get what I want. Most of the time, this was respect but I think others misunderstood me and took it for seeking attention," she said with a faint curl of her lips. Bella's aunt, from her mother's side, happened to be one of the number of people who had some very interesting things to say.

But as always, Bella preferred to not think of her family.

She cleared her throat and refocused her attention on sharing her story. She needed to get it off of her chest then and there, so she said, "At the conference, I was misunderstood once more. I was talking to this person, casually, as you would at one of these things. And then things got a little too comfortable on... their end."

Keep it together, Bella.

"I felt slightly taken by the whole thing because it was my first conference in America, with some of its finest doctors there. As much as I knew how to fake confidence, I was really nervous so I drank, like everyone else," she continued and mentally scolded herself for already defending her actions. None of this could be blamed on her. Bella knew she did nothing wrong and yet... and yet. "And then as my nerves settled, I—um..." her throat tightened and became dry so to ease it, she cleared it right after.

Jackson lifted his hand and smoothened it down her back, his eyebrows furrowed. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yes," she responded and pulled her leg beneath her body. The other stretched across the couch but toes still touching the floor. They were at her place. "I just haven't talked about this in a very long time," she let him know honestly. "Like this has been in the back of my mind for a very long time, and it's not that I haven't thought about it occasionally—not that that'd make it easier to rehash but—,"

"I understand," he promised in a soft, reassuring tone. The warmth of his touch against her knee soaked through the thin pair of pyjama bottoms she wore. Once they finished work, they left together and picked up some Chinese on the way home. "Take all the time you need. And if you don't feel like talking about this, you don't have to tell me."