invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

16

"I do."

And Bella just went, "Hmm," then hopped off of the bed. "If you want some cake, come by my office."

"Cake?"

"Victoria Sponge," Bella said. "The interns and residents did this whole welcome back thing. There's a few slices left."

"Alright," Torres nodded. "I'll come."

And they left. Bella never said when she would get the cake, so since Torres wasn't busy, they chose to go right away. To be honest, after what had happened, they both needed something cheerful. Cake was cheerful.

Neither of them spoke a word until they got to Bella's office. She walked straight towards the mini fridge she had in there and pulled out the box that hid the cake. There were some extra paper plates so she put a slice onto one of them and passed it over, making sure to tell the doctor she had no forks or spoons. Torres didn't seem to mind as she picked up the slice and bit into it.

"Mmm, so good," she moaned after the first bite, making Bella nod in agreement, feeling almost too proud that the sweet treat tasted so good. It wasn't her work at all but it didn't matter. "So, this is what it means to be on your good side."

"You're not," Bella let her know, licking the jam off of her finger. "But you did save my life, therefore I owe you one."

The comment left the room quiet. Usually, Ledford was a sweetheart, booming with kindness and practically bursting with happiness. Tonight, she was the opposite. She felt like death. She was death.

"I came here and you treated me like I was the dirt on the bottom of your shoes for no other reason than taking a job. Yes, it was your friend's job, and that sucks, but that's not my fault and I'm not sorry I said yes," the explanation came out of nowhere, sort of just burst out of Bella. It wasn't planned, and she didn't want to argue with the woman who saved her from doing something stupid tonight, but she felt like she had to say it.

"Listen... when you came here, I wasn't in the right state of mind. I—I felt like too much was happening. Everything was changing, I—I get territorial," Torres said as she put the cake down and placed her paper plate on the desk. She sounded apologetic but Bella didn't know how to feel about it. She wasn't looking for an apology. Simply, she was putting things into perspective.

"Yes, well, that's got nothing to do with me," Bella moved her shoulders up and down quickly. "I can appreciate how hard it is to deal with change, and to have something terrible happen to you. What I won't stand for is being treated like shit for those things."

"You're right," she called. "You're not anyone's punching bag, and I am very sorry for making you feel that way. Taking my anger and hurt out on you was wrong of me."

Should Bella accept the apology? It came across heartfelt. There was nothing that kept Ledford from closing this moment by saying it was all fine. Except the fact that it wasn't all fine. Sure, she was over it all by now but at the time, she felt like she was nothing and she had some of the darkest thoughts for a while. Thoughts that she promised never to think again. Shrugging it all off now that she was fine would've meant she was okay with people walking all over her.

Instead, she resulted to a sigh and, "At least now you know."

Soon after their conversation ended, Torres got paged to the ER. Watching her walk through the door and close it shortly, Bella could finally breathe. The strange sense of choking hold that seemed to tighten around her throat was gone which allowed her to notice the pulsating pain in her arm. It wasn't there, then she focused on it and she was sure, hell had to be similar.