Remember Your Worth | Jackson Avery

forty-one

"There's my girl! Oh, there's my guy!" Catherine smiled at the kids, adjusting herself in the hospital bed.

She had a spinal tumor that would only get worse so she wanted to get it removed before it did anymore damage.

"Let me get him for you. Relax. Did Koracick re-check the CT angio?" Jackson said, taking JJ out of the stroller and sitting him in her lap.

"Yes, and please stop. I appreciate both of you wanting to be a part of this, but I have a crackerjack neuro team. I need you to be my husband and my son today." She told them. Richard nodded, picking up the little girls tugging at his pants.

"And we need you to be our patient." Tom said as he and Amelia came in.

"Hm, Thomas, you're getting ready to cut open my spine. I will be whatever I want." She smiled.

"Oh. Music to my ears. Now, we will go in posteriorly with our stealth system and our newly pilfered ORBEYE scope." Tom started.

"The plan is to go in and remove it en bloc." Amelia added.

"You really think that posteriorly is the way to go?" Jackson questioned.

"Oh, it is fun to have so many surgeons in one family. Remind me, Avery... when did you become double board certified in neuro?" Tom snarkingly replied.

"That's really how you talk to your patient's family?"

"It is, actually."

"We need to go in posteriorly to avoid the carotid and the jugular, and to avoid having to weave through the brachial plexus." Amelia interjected, finishing.

"Look, I know how hard it is to be on the bench, but we are the A-Team, and we don't lose. Just ask Shepherd's tumor. Oh, wait, you can't because I removed it. Flawlessly." Tom bragged.

"Okay, any last questions?"

"It looks like you've got this." Richard said.

"We do." Tom assured. Catherine kissed JJ before sighing.

"I think I'd like to just take a little walk before we get started.. I'd like to go alone, please." She handed JJ to me.

"Okay, then, but no guarantees I won't watch you walk away." Tom joked. Richard and Jackson glared at him as Catherine left the room.

~

"Mind if I join you?" Maggie sat next to Richard.

"I'd like that." Richard said, giving her a small smile.

"How's the resection going?" She asked.

"So far so good." Jackson replied before scoffing and pacing.

"I hate this dude."

"Jackson, sit." Richard told him.

"No, I hate him. I want to jump through this glass and just, like, choke him out." Jackson demonstrated, still pacing.