Flatline ~ Jackson Avery

TWENTY-SIX

  It had been three hours since he went into surgery, and we were all waiting in the halls for news. We as in Alex, Meredith, Cristina, April, Lexie, and some others, who were banned from that O.R. Some updates came, like how he coded again on the table, how his broken arm turned out to be worse than all of us initially thought, his heart was overworking and they were trying to slow it down, and that there was a brain bleed.

Alex took his seat beside me, and I didn't even look at him. "Kylie..." He started. I could tell he wanted me to look at him or say something, but I couldn't. He took a breath. "Jackson told me..." He trailed off and I looked in the other direction.

Bailey came through the O.R. door and we all looked at her. "He's fine and coming out of surgery. Now you all look just sad, clean yourselves up and report back to me for work." She turned around. I heard people breathe sighs of relief, but I just kept thinking...How am I not over him yet?

Lexie saw me and put on her best smile. "Hey, he's okay." She began.

"Yeah." I sighed. Her smile faded.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but, you were the one who dumped him, so I don't understand why you're so upset." She started with the impression that she was very, very annoyed. "I'm always there when he needs me. You're...nothing. Nothing to him in his love life. He thinks of you as a friend and nothing more. It bothers me how much you care about him and how much you want him, so leave us alone. He's happy, and so am I." She growled. I nodded as I tried to hide the tears.

-----

I was sitting beside Jackson's bed all night. I didn't dare fall asleep, in case he woke up and saw me waiting for him. Lexie went home, so I thought he might have needed some company. He was beside my bed the other two times. I watched his heart monitor as it showed the pretty pattern of a healthy heart. I began humming a song... The one I loved to sing when I was in med school. I forgot the name of it.

...Where did I go wrong?

I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness,

And I would have stayed up, with you all night,

Had I known,

How to save a life...

Unfortunately, I nodded off beside his bed after a few minutes...

I opened my eyes to see the inside of O.R. 2. Jackson was standing against the wall, which made me sit up.

"J-Jackson!" I almost got off of the metal operating table, but before I did, I saw thick, red blood covering the floor tiles. Jackson was standing on the only spot on the floor that wasn't covered in blood. I looked up at him and he put on a an operating mask. "W-What's that for?" I couldn't figure out his expression, and he didn't say anything. The next thing I knew, he was tearing through my abdomen, taking out my organs while I was not under anesthetics. I was screaming so much I couldn't hear anymore. The pain was unbearable. My arms were tied down, and so were my legs. All I could hear was the dripping of my blood to the blood on the ground. He tore out my heart. It was beating in front of my eyes. The sound of the beating heart filled my ears...

I opened my eyes and almost yelped. I was in Jackson's room, and blood was all over my cheeks from the cut on my arm that I forgot to stitch up. Jackson was still asleep. I wanted to run out of the room, but I stopped myself. It was just a bad dream, right? While I was thinking, Jackson woke up and took my arm. I looked over.

"H-Hey Jackson."

"What happened to you arm?" He asked worriedly.

"I cut myself with a scalpel." I replied a little too confidently. "Oh, I mean, accidentally." He touched the cut, which didn't hurt at all and was clotting pretty well. "I'm sorry, Jackson. I didn't mean what I said in the ambulance." I tried to apologise, but Jackson just smiled.