I'll Stay Till Sunrise || Jolex

Edges

"Anna."

"Brooke, I need your help. I am begging you." she lifts her hands up together so they make a begging sign. "You have no reason to help me, not after what Paul did to you-"

I wince at her words. It's been a long time since I've thought of my dead husband and his rich parents, accountant siblings and his black sheep little sister. Annabelle Stadler was the only Stadler that accepted me for who I was and where I came from. We used to party a lot together. She was like the sister I never had, until that one night. The night I ran. Did she know he used to hit me? Yes, I think she knew. She knew but she didn't do anything to help.

"-but please help me."

"Why should I?"I say coldly. "You never helped me, you knew what he did to me but you didn't do anything about it. You didn't help me and now you have the nerve to show up at my house-"

Anna takes a step away from me, tears forming in her eyes. She feels guilty, I can tell. But that doesn't stop me from tearing into her.

"-the house where my kids live and beg me to help you! You pretend to be al innocent and hurt, the black sheep of the family you say, but you're just as bad as them! You are a manipulative monster just like your brother!"

A tear slides down her face at my words. "Oh Brooke, what could I have done to help? Yes, he was my brother but he could be as awful to me as he was to you! You're forgetting that I lived with him for years! He was a lovely brother when our parents were around but wh-when they weren't he could get so angry. He'd call me names, break my toys causing mom to get mad at me, he hit me once or twice. I knew what he was capable of and I knew I couldn't help because then I'd get hurt too. He never listened to me, my help wouldn't have mattered!"

"You could have tried or you could have convinced me to leave him!"

"And you have listened?! Brooke, you were as headstrong as they come! But I am sorry, I really am. I can't change the past, you know that." 

I stay quiet my mind spinning and I feel sick. Do I help her? She was my friend and she has a point, I wouldn't have listened and Paul would have been so mad at her if she would've tried to stop him from beating me.

"I have a little girl. She's seven, I adopted her when she was three. She has a malignant neuroblastoma on her left kidney. You're a general surgeon, can you please operate on my baby? If you don't want to can you get another surgeon to do it?"

My heart cracks just a tiny bit. She has a child. A sick child. How can I say no to that? She came here begging for help knowing I would yell at her and Annabelle doesn't beg.

"I'll do it. Meet me at Grey Sloan tomorrow at 11am, I'll talk to the chief and try to fit your daughter in as soon as possible."

Her eyes light up and her mouth forms a smile. "You will? Oh thank you ! Thank you so much! I'll see you tomorrow!" She turns around and makes her way back to her car.

"Oh and Anna, it's Jo now!" I call after her. It hadden't gone unnoticed that she called me Brooke. A shutter runs through my body. I haven't been called that in ages.

"Oh I know Dr. Josephine Wilson. I did my research before I came." she yells back from her car. I can't help but laugh, of course she did her research. She never does anything unprepared.I underestimated her, again. 

"Mommy! Wake up! Alex is coming today!"

I groan as my daughter jumps on me and starts shaking me. My dreams had been filled with memories of Paul. I woke up feeling sick and having to run to the bathroom to throw up twice because of them. I thought I was over it. The nightmares, the memories, I thought it was over. I guess seeing my ex-sister-in-law brought them all back.

"I'm up, I'm up. Go get dressed, I'll meet you downstairs." I say kissing the top of her brown curls lightly.

I look at the time and almost have a heartattack when I see I only have forty minutes until Alex' plane lands. Shit, shit, shit. 

Ten minutes later, I'm ushering a very excited Brooklyn to the car with Robin on my hip. 

"Come on, lady. We're going to be late" I chide as I buckle Robin into her carseat. Brooks is fumbling with her seat belt, not really paying attention to what she's doing out of excitement.

The drive to the airport went pretty smoothly but by the time we got there Alex hd already been waiting for us for a few minutes.

"Alex! Alex! Hi!" Brooklyn yells as soon as she sees him and runs to give him a hug. He smiles and hugs her back.

"Hey, Jo." he smiles at me but I can't help but feel some tention in the air.

"Hi, Alex."

This chapter is a tiny bit shorter, sorry about that.

 So what do you think about Anna Stadler? Hmm, I wonder what will happen when the other doctors find out that Jo is going to helping her abusive husband's sister. Oh wait, I know what wil happen. ;)

Neuroblastoma is a cancer often found in the small glands on top of the kidneys (adrenal glands). It can develop in the stomach, chest, neck, pelvis and bones. <- according to the internet bc no, I'm not a doctor lmao