Paging Payton(A Grey Anatomy/Jackson Avery Fanfic)

T H I R T Y- F I V E

Payton Arizona

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Jackson asked me, zipping up my bag and setting it at the foot of my bed. I walked around the side of the bed and grabbed the discharge papers I needed Bailey to sign.

"Hell yes. I'm sick of these damn hospital rooms." I said. I'd been stuck in the same hospital room for almost a month, and the cable here sucked.

"You do know you still work here right?" Jackson laughed. I shot him a playful glare.

"Yes, I know I still work here." I shot back.

"Besides, you're gonna have to play patient for a little longer. The cut on your face is healing well and we wanna keep it that way. If it keeps on this track there will be barely a scar there." Jackson lectured.

"Yes, Mr Plastics Attending." I mocked a fake salute. It was Jacksons turn to shoot me a playful glare.

"Hey, that's Chief Plastics Attending to you."

"You got the job?!" I yelled and Jackson smiled at me and nodded. Jackson had found out that he was being considered for the Chief of Plastics a week into my recovery.

"Congratulations! How about you sign my discharge papers and we go celebrate?" I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

"You know I can't sign them, Bailey has to." I groaned at him and flopped down on the bed.

"I wanna leaveee." I droned and Jackson laughed, throwing a sock at my head. A few minutes later Bailey arrived and we sorted through all my discharge papers, finally getting them done.

"Freedom!" I yelled as Jackson and I walked out to the car. I was sick of being stuck in a hospital room and was grateful to be discharged but still, as soon as I dropped my stuff off at the house I was coming straight back to work.

"You know, just because you're discharged doesn't mean you don't have to take it easy still." Jackson told me.

"Mmm, I think it does." I said sarcastically. "Besides, I missed out on a whole month of residency. The only reason I'm not behind is because of all the surgeries you let me do and the hours I logged on Pierces situs inverses case. I'm starting my fourth year, I can't fall behind anymore or take it easy. The race for chief resident already started and I've just been sitting in a damn hospital bed."

"Don't even try and pull that on me." Jackson looked away from the road to smile at me. "Even sitting in a hospital bed for the past month, you're still in the race for Chief Resident. You've been doing surgeries most people don't do until fourth year since you were an intern. Don't tell me your behind. Besides, you kind of have no choice but to take it easy. You're not allowed to operate until you meet with the trauma therapist and he clears you for surgery."

"Ughhh." I threw my head back and groaned. "I don't need therapy. Telling or not telling some random guy about almost dying isn't gonna affect my surgical skills." The team of doctors who'd operated on me after the explosion had gotten together and discussed whether I was ready to come back to work or not. Nobody could agree on anything. Some of them thought that I'd been through so much already that the explosion wouldn't faze me, if anything, doing surgery would help me get past it. Others thought that I'd been through so much that the explosion would have tipped me over the edge. I guess that the only way to appease both sides was to make me get cleared by a therapist.