No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

83 | I Need Time

Despite my efforts of trying to help out with Micheal, the light-headedness and dizziness kept coming back. So much so, that Bailey noticed and told me I needed to lie down. Even worse, she told me she was going to tell everyone in the hospital not to let me work on any cases; so here I was, making my way down to the pit to get looked at.

Sighing, I sat down on one of the beds and waited for someone to come take a look at me. "Hello." one of the doctors I had never really worked with before came over to me, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Oh, um, I was one of the surgeons that was just in that ambulance accident on the highway." I told her, "One of my superiors told me I needed to come and get myself checked out."

"Oh, I heard about that," she told me as she felt around my head. As her hand reached the back of my head, I winced in pain. Concerned, the doctor looked back there, "I'm assuming this large gash is the cause of our problems."

"Large gash?" I asked, "W-what large gash?"

"The one on the back of your head." she said as if it was obvious, "None of your co-workers noticed this? You didn't notice it?"

I shrugged, "Guess not."

About fifteen stitches later I made my way up to one of the galleries where Teddy was doing a surgery. Upon walking in, I saw April and Jackson. Turning to me, Jackson stood up, "Oh, my God. You're all right. One minute we were on the phone with you guys and the next the call was dropped."

I nodded and sat down next to him, "Ugh, yeah, a van full of people hit us. Three kids, parents, and a Nana. Nana died on scene and mom was confirmed dead about an hour or so ago. Alex and Meredith are okay, too. Worst injury I suffered was this cut on my head." I turned around to show them the back of my head.

"Are you okay?" April asked.

I sighed, "Yeah, but Bailey didn't think so and booted me off her case. Then made sure I wouldn't work any more cases tonight."

Looking down at Teddy and Cristina, I remembered Henry. "So, how is Henry?"

April looked to me and her face dropped, "He, uh, he didn't survive."

My eyes widened, "No! W-what? No, I was just talking to him when he came in."

"Cristina operated on him." April said, "But there was nothing she could do."

I looked down into the O.R., "But Cristina's in there with Teddy."

"Teddy doesn't know yet," April informed me.

I sighed, "So, what's up with the girl they're operating on?"

"I put screws into her spin and one of the screws ended up stabbing and ripping her heart." Jackson huffed.

"Rough," I remarked.

I stayed and watched the surgery for a while longer before deciding to take a nap in one of the on-call rooms. Standing up, I took a breath as the dizziness came back a bit, "I'm gonna go sleep for a while. Wake me if anything exciting happens."

"Will do." April agreed as I took off.

Soon enough I found an empty on-call room and crawled into the bottom bunk. Just as I was about to fall asleep, the door creaked open. "Ellie?" I heard Jackson ask.

Rolling onto my other side to face the door, I looked up at him, "Did anything exciting happen?"

Jackson chuckled and shook his head, "No."

"Then why must you disturb my slumber?" I asked.

Jackson stepped inside and closed the door behind him, making the room once again almost pitch black. "I want-no, I need to talk to you." I could only hear Jackson due to the darkness. "Can't it wait until later?" I begged, "I was literally just in a traumatic car crash. Can't you tell how traumatized I am?"

I felt the bed slowly sink down as Jackson sat on the edge, "We need to talk about Lexie and I breaking up."

Sitting up, I sighed, "Really? This again?"

"Please." I could barely make out his eyes in the dark.

"A little birdy told me that you broke up with her to focus on plastics with Mark," I said.

He nodded, "That's true."

"Then what else is there to be said?" I groaned.

"We need to talk about a phone call that I got in the middle of the night a few months ago." he looked to me and I felt my heart drop.

I shook my head as my eyes started to adjust to the extremely low lighting, "No, you know what? We don't ever have to talk about what was said. What you said...more importantly, what I said, isn't important anymore."

"Ellie, you told me that you loved me." Jackson reminded me as if I didn't think about that every single day.

I was silent for a moment, "Yeah, well, you told me that you loved me during a make-out session when you were dating Lexie. Obviously, 'I love you' doesn't mean anything between us. You know, the Lexie that you cheated on me with."

"I didn't mean for it to happen like that." Jackson sighed.

I looked to him, "So, how was it supposed to happen, huh? Never the less, you were going to break up with me. You don't break up with someone you have feelings for. So, it's very clear that you didn't have any feelings for me."

"That was then," he argued.

"And now?" I questioned, "Is it different now?"

"Yes."

I scoffed, "Bullshit. Look me dead in the eyes and tell me that it's any different now."

Almost forcefully, Jackson grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes, "Ellie May Forrest, I have loved you ever since we went on our first date at Joe's together. I loved you then and I still love you now; the only difference is, I realize it now. I can't stand it any longer seeing you in this hospital and not being able to walk over and kiss you if I want, because I always want to kiss you. I miss you, Ellie."

I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes, "How the fuck do you know my middle name?"

Jackson chuckled, "I know a lot more about you then you think. So, what do you say? Do you forgive me?"

I thought for a few moments, "Yes, I forgive you; but this doesn't mean we're getting back together."

"W-why?" he seemed dumbfounded.

"Jackson Avery." I took a deep breath, "You made me fall in love with you. I tried to keep my self together, but you stole my heart; and then, you ripped it out. And after us, you had Lexie. I didn't have anyone to go to. Sam left and I was still living under the same roof with the guy I loved. You can't just expect me to come crawling back after you break up with her and apologize. I need time to...to think about all of this."

Jackson stood up and headed for the door. "You know, I'm thinking about going into Trauma," I told him before he left.

"That's really good." he forced a smile, "I'm, uh, still in Plastics."

"That's good," I said.

With that, Jackson opened the door and walked out. Lying down, I tried to go back to sleep, but I just couldn't. So, instead, I decided to head back to Meredith's house and crash there.

After changing out of my scrubs and getting into my car, I drove back. Sighing, I walked up the walkway and opened the front door. Looking up, I saw Meredith and Derek standing in the hall, Zola cuddled up in Meredith's arms. They looked up at me, "We got Zola back!"