season six episode twenty "hook, line and sinner"
"We're doctors - we're trained to care for human beings and we're pretty sure we know what to look for. Cuts, infection, genetic mutation. As doctors we have an arsenal of weapons after any. Antibiotics to kill infections. Narcotics to fight pain. Scalpels and retractors to remove tumors and cancers - to eradicate the threat. But just the physical threat, for every other kind - you are on your own."
Adeline made it home before April the previous night and to avoid anymore talking about her near kiss with Jackson, she ordered takeout and went straight to her bedroom to hide away. Throughout her whole day, she had managed to not be spotted by Jackson but she had already rehearsed when she would say when she saw him. She would give him the classic speech of how it was just in the heat of the moment and they're just good friends, no matter how much she wanted to kiss him and not be friends but something more with him.
Upon her arrival to work and leaving the locker room, Adeline's pager started to beep and looking down she was surprised to see it was a trauma coming via helicopter. Adeline had about fifteen minutes to spare but made her way to the elevator to the roof. She walked down the hallways, grabbing a pair of gloves to put on while she waited, smiling when she saw she was the first to arrive. As the minutes went by, Derek arrived first, greeting the girl with a smile and a good morning before they were joined by April, Meredith and Jackson.
Out of habit, Jackson stood by Adeline, offering a small smile. It was the first time the two had seen each other since their 'almost kiss' during their movie night. Adeline's heart raced when she saw him and she quickly looked down when her cheeks began to flush at the memory. April seemed to notice from across the two of them and figured out they hadn't spoken yet.
"Do we know what we have yet?" Derek questioned, looking at each of his residents and his wife as the elevator arrived and they walked in. The chief pressed the button for the roof and it made it's journey up to meet the helicopters.
"It was a fishing boat accident. Two patients, one with a head lac and abdominal pain. The other, they said something about a fish hook stuck somewhere." April looked towards the man she admired so much, her cheeks slightly red.
"Why would they send a chopper for a guy with a fish hook?" Derek asked with confusion, lacing his sentence.
"Maybe they were deep sea fishing. Those hooks are massive and dangerous." Adeline commented, remembering seeing so many boats come into the bay in San Francisco with hooks that were larger than she was. April seemed to ignore her roommate and continued looking at Derek.
"I'm pretty sure they said fish hook, Chief Shepherd." Adeline raised an eyebrow, sharing a quick look with Meredith who just shrugged and rolled her eyes. Adeline would have to ask about it later, to both women and see what was going on. The elevator doors opened and they were exposed to the windy Seattle air, Adeline walking out behind April and Derek. Jackson recalled the conversation he had with Meredith earlier and smirked.
"If I'm wrong, you can spank me. Chief Shepherd, I do hope I'm wrong." He teased in a sing-song way, Meredith smiling slightly.
"Shut up. At least I'm not desperately in love with a girl and won't tell her." It was Jackson's turn to glare at her as the two ran out, catching up to the three others as well as Alex, Lexie and Miranda on the helipad with one of the patients.
Adeline caught up right as Miranda was wheeling the son back to the elevator. Due to the wind, hair was flying all over the place so Adeline was thankful she had her hair up in some braids out of her face. She jumped onto the left side of the next gurney, listening as someone was listing off the details of the patient.
"Fifty-year-old male, penetrating trauma to the chest, hypotensive in the field. Got him two litres of LR en route." Derek took off the straps so they could analyse the chest trauma, April gasping when she saw the hook in the patient. Adeline simply looked at it with wonder.
"Wow." Adeline mumbled to herself before looking up at her coworkers. "Told you!" The group of five wasted no more time and rushed to the elevator, waiting as they dropped the son off with Miranda's group. Within minutes they had wheeled their patient into the elevator and were soon on their way to the Trauma rooms, paging Teddy and Owen for additional help.
"Hold it steady, Hessingon, get in there." Adeline was applying a downward pressure around where the hook was penetrating into the chest as Owen was using some heavy duty cutters to get rid of the hook that was out of the body and would otherwise be an unnecessary obstacle in OR.
"What do we have? Oh, my God." Adeline quickly looked up at Teddy as she walked in, keeping her pressure near the wound. Jackson was holding the other side and snuck a look at Adeline before refocusing. Owen cut the piece of metal off, quickly discarding it in a tray.
"Fishing boat accident. Something fell on him." Meredith explained, Adeline moving out of the way, listening as Derek explained a little further.
"Pressure's at sixty-eight, systolic." Owen announced as the machine started to beep. Adeline was over near Jackson now as he was moving the chart around.
"Get me a 14-gauge needle." Adeline looked to her right, grabbing one and handing it to Teddy as Jackson announced it was behind her. She continued to clear more space to free it of clutter and grab other items that Teddy may need. She became alert when a younger patient walked in, the son of the hook patient.
"Grey, get him out of here." Owen looked over as Lexi began to try and usher him out whilst Teddy placed the needle into the patient.
"Oh God! What the hell is that?" The patient moved his head upright, groaning in pain.
"Dad, I don't know what happened. I had the rope in my hand in one minute." The son began, fighting against Alex and Lexie as he continued to apologise. The beeping continued so Adeline moved in to help Teddy, doing whatever she asked and grabbing whatever she needed. "Of course it's his fault. I was thrown on top of the shark hook because he let go of the rope. Who the hell's fault is it?" Adeline couldn't imagine how bad the son must feel but continued to do her job.
"Let's leave the hook in until we get up to an OR." Owen changed the subject back to the task at hand. Adeline grabbed the chart from Jackson behind her, smiling as he was already handing it over before turning back around, filling out what Teddy was telling her to before handing it to the woman, allowing her to sign some things.
Though the operating room was crowded and had a slight mishap after a sneeze on Teddy's behalf, the surgery went smoothly. The air felt different for Adeline whilst working with Jackson, the two haven't exchanged any words except for the case and it almost felt as awkward as watching April laugh a little too much at a very poor joke that Derek had made regarding their patient's profession. Adeline figured that there was something definitely going on that she didn't know about after a couple of days away from her friends and working in Ortho.
Leaving the OR, Adeline stayed behind, waiting for Jackson to come out of the doors. She had to face him sooner or later and she valued their friendship more than to have stupid awkward moments. She would continue to meet Meredith and the others in the cafeteria once she was done. It was only a minute or two before Jackson exited the doors, looking around before noticing it was just him and Adeline. The two were quite nervous.
"So, April's got a thing for Chief Shepherd." Jackson commented, mentally cursing at the awkward opening. Adeline giggled, nodding her head as they began to walk.
"Yeah, I've clearly missed out on something the last couple of days." Adeline responded, turning down an empty hallway before stopping in front of Jackson. "Listen, it's awkward now, and I don't want it to be. What happened the other night, it was a very 'in the moment' type of thing." It was but it pained Adeline to say it. Jackson was dreading this conversation but faked a smile and nodded, grabbing her arm and squeezing it slightly. "And I love you, Jax, I really do." Adeline wasn't too sure if it was just as friends or something beyond that now. Jackson's heart skipped a beat upon hearing it but he continued to act as if everything was normal. "I love our friendship and the past couple of days have been so painful without you so I'm sorry for being a stupid and awkward person. Can we go back to being the Legacy babies?" Jackson's hand on her arm left a burning sensation in the spot, racing to her heart as she looked up at him.
"Of course we can, Addie." Jackson moved his hand up to her shoulder, pulling her in for a hug. He embraced her and took in the moment, savouring every second of it. He didn't want to let go, he wanted to tell her how much he wanted to kiss her. "Hey, don't call yourself stupid. I love you too, sweetheart. Now go to lunch, I'll catch you later." Adeline squeezed Jackson before pulling away, grinning up at him. It took every ounce of her being to not tell him how much she wanted the kiss or to even do the deed itself and kiss him right then and there. But, it appeared that he just wanted to be friends and she had to be okay with that.
* * *
After an eventful day at the hospital, Adeline was reminded why she loved being a surgeon so much; you never know what you were going to get with each coming day, especially if you wish to be a trauma surgeon one day. With having friends and so many other complex friendships with people in the hospital, everyday was always interesting even if it was through word of mouth at a lunchtime chit and chat before getting paged.
During lunch Adeline had learnt that Christina was a cardio God whore and that Meredith was struggling to like Adeline's roommate due to her liking towards her husband. Adeline had promised to talk to April about that night when she got home but she would take a bit more of a nicer approach than from what Christina and Alex suggested, a less aggressive approach.
On their journey home, Adeline and April sat in silence, making it into their apartment before either of them spoke a word. April was sure that Meredith was beginning to clue in on the fact that she may have feelings for Derek and it didn't help when Jackson was actively teasing her about it. They ate dinner in peace, some pizza they got from just around the corner and sat in silence.
"You know, Meredith is a really good friend of mine." Adeline started, cringing at how the conversation started already. "And I know it's not my place and I don't know what's happened but I want you to be careful, okay. I don't want to see anyone getting hurt. Do you want to talk about it?" Adeline followed April to the living area as she finished her food, sitting on a couch beside her. April looked mortified that she would have brought up the situation. April's cheeks were flushed and she was nervously tumbling her thumbs. "Hey, hey. I'm coming to you directly and whatever you say here will not leave this room. You and Meredith are both my friends. I just want to clean some things up and talk." This seemed to calm April down as she nodded and sighed.
"I-I've just felt this way before, I've never had a feeling like this, Addie. He gave me my job back, he helped me get out of a rut and- I don't know." April seemed frustrated with herself and leaned back into the couch looking ahead.
"And that's totally normal and totally valid, April, I get it. But he's a married and loyal man. You feel like you owe it to him and it's normal to look up to him too. He's an incredible surgeon." Adeline smiled softly at April before continuing. "I think the best thing for you to do is to tone it down a little, ask questions when you need something answered and not because you want him to notice you. Be a surgeon, don't be his groupie." April seemed to be thinking for a moment before she nodded.
"Yeah, thanks Adeline. I'm going to go shower and go to bed. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Adeline nodded and watched as April got up and left for her room. Adeline got up from her position on the couch and decided to just clean up the kitchen a little before they had to in the morning. She placed the remaining pizza into the oven in its box, the dirty plates and cups into the dishwasher and just wiped the benches down before deciding to copy what April was doing. Another early night wouldn't hurt.
Sleep came easy to Adeline once she did her night routine which consisted of a quick but extensive skincare routine, showering, getting dressed and then getting into the bed itself. Once she was asleep, she usually slept like a baby all night; however she kept waking up every hour, finally putting an end to her battle at two in the morning. Adeline crawled out of bed, putting an oversized jumper on and her slippers, walking into the main space of the apartment.
Her mind was racing on one thing; her conversation with Jackson. Adeline was never one to lie but having to say that the kiss didn't mean anything and that she loved him as just a friend hurt. At first, she just liked the guy but now she was convinced she was in love with Jackson Avery. Everything he said or done replayed in her head, all of his kind gestures and actions that he's shown to her since he started at the hospital. Soft touches of comfort turning into hugs and kisses on the cheek. She's made new friends with Charles and has an incredible roommate that she otherwise probably wouldn't have met if it weren't for Jackson.
Adeline's grandfathers word ran through her mind once more;
"Promise me you'll tell him."
"Tell him what?"
"You want to be with him. Tell him that. He's a good one."
So, she found herself in front of Jackson and Charles' shared apartment at two in the morning, knocking softly on the door before getting a little louder. She knew it was wrong and inappropriate given the time but she couldn't dwell on it any longer. She heard movement from behind the door and looked up when it opened, showing a groggy and tired looking Jackson. Upon seeing the female in front of him he seemed to wake up before looking at her worryingly.
"Addie? Is everything okay?" Adeline sighed and pushed herself through the gap Jackson made, nervously playing with her hands. "Addie?" Jackson tried again, rubbing his eyes.
"I love you, Jackson." Adeline spat out, looking nervously up at the man. "I'm in love with you. I was so scared to say because I didn't want to ruin this, our friendship but I just needed to tell you and get that off of my chest. I-I wanted you to kiss me the other night and I avoided you because I was scared and I couldn't sleep and I-"
"Jackson?" Adeline turned to the side where a female voice came from. In the doorway of his room stood a beautiful red haired girl who was presumably naked underneath Jackson's Duke University shirt. Her heart shattered and she looked down at her feet wearing her cringy monster slippers her parents got her as a gag gift for Christmas just a year prior. She looked like an absolute dork compared to the stranger.
"Oh, my God. Jax-Jackson, I'm so sorry." Adeline was horrified and moved to bolt out of the apartment and back to the comfort of her bed. Jackson was just as horrified and embarrassed, grabbing Adeline's wrist before she could leave.
"Addie, hey! Addie, let me explain-Addie." Adeline tore her wrist away, stepping into the hallway where Jackson quickly ran after her. "Fuck! Addie, please wait up." He was too late, stepping to her door as it closed, the lock sounding from the otherside. He stood there still for a couple of seconds, letting out an angry sigh. Adeline clutched onto the kitchen bench to ground her after she locked the door, falling to a heap on the floor and bringing her knees up to her chest.
authors notes:
so i have reached beyond 1k reads and im so so so grateful to all of you! thank you so much xx