𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄 ━ jackson avery

034. ━ catherine avery

season eight // episode five
[ catherine avery ]

❝Not everyone can handle the
woman! Oh, I can't do this.❞

ELLIE SAT IN her office, holding her head while watching Jackson pace the length of the room. "Will you please sit down?" she asked with a sigh. "You're making my neck hurt."

"She's coming today, Ellie," Jackson replied, a hint of stress evident in his tone. "Today. This very day. At the hospital where I work."

"It's just your mother, Jackie," she said and he nodded. "You'll be fine."

"Exactly," he agreed, pointing at her. "My mother. Coming to the hospital where I work."

Ellie sighed and stood up from her desk. "Come on, we're gonna be late, so you can keep venting to me while we head over."

"There are just some things that I haven't told her yet," Jackson continued, mindlessly following the blonde out into the hallway and she glanced at him. "I mean, she knows about Lexie but she isn't in town. She's visiting her sister."

Ellie nodded. "Which you surprised her with," she reminded him. "Why don't you want your mother to meet your girlfriend? Your mom is nice."

"Because not everybody is you, Ellie," he said with a frown. "And not everyone can handle the woman!" She sighed and opened the door when Jackson stopped, shaking his head. "Oh, I can't do this."

"You can and you will," she told him, taking him by the arm and dragging him inside. "Come on, you baby."

She steered him down the aisle and into a seat before sitting down between him and April. The Seattle Grace trio, meanwhile, sat in front of them.

"I can't believe Altman postponed our surgery for grand rounds," Cristina complained with a groan. "It's just gonna be a long, boring lecture."

"Your husband said it was mandatory," Meredith told her.

Alex, meanwhile, was rolling his coat into a pillow. "It's one more hour of sleep is what it is."

"Oh, no, it's not gonna be boring," April said, shaking her head. "This is Jackson's mother, Catherine Avery."

Ellie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose while Jackson sunk in his seat. "I don't think you're helping matters," she whispered to April.

"She's a urologist, right?" Meredith asked, turning around in her seat.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah," she answered, glancing at Jackson who looked as though he was thinking of anything but his mother. "We met her when we were interns at Mercy West."

"She's amazing," April added with a bright smile.

"She's a lunatic," Jackson corrected.

April frowned. "No, she's not. She's brilliant. She says these things that shock you, but when you think about them later, they change your whole life."