"Can I go now?" Vanessa asked, slumping in the chair at the therapists office. Everyone had suggested she go and see a therapist, Mark and Owen heading the party - telling her that it would be what's best.
"Doctor Hunt, explain to me what happened on the day your fiance died." The therapist probed deeper and Vanessa sighed, resting her elbows on her knees.
"He was shot and I couldn't save him." She shrugged, not wanting to dwell on the subject.
"And?"
"And? I went out to help someone in the field, a bomb went off and then another and I was buried under the shrapnel for however long. Not able to move or speak as I felt me and my baby dying slowly and I had to listen as my brother screamed and cried, trying to move some of it off of me - they all thought I was dead because I was so deeply buried in the ground that they couldn't see me. They up and left, moved on. I thought I died but I woke up in the hospital." her voice grew gradually weaker as she carried on with her story.
"And who else have you told the full story to?"
"Owen obviously knows it, Mark knows bits, Cristina and Alex know bits." She explained.
"No-one else?"
"Not really something I want to advertise." Vanessa snapped, growing annoyed with the therapist's condescending tone.
"I get that but maybe if you were more open about your story you could heal." The therapist suggested and Vanessa scoffed.
"What? Just start every conversation with my life story? Sure that will get me loads of friends." She commented sarcastically and the therapist just smiled.
"Maybe you could sit everyone who is important to you down in a room and talk to them. Maybe that would help you heal?"
'What a stupid idea' Vanessa thought, 'I don't want their pity.'
"No." She said simply, "I don't want to do that."
"Start small. Explain it all to the people who know bits and then you can start to speak to the other people in your life."
Vanessa nodded, smiling fakely, and stood up.
"I'm going to go." She muttered, walking toward the door, "Thank you." She added, opening the door and walking out as quickly as she could, doubling over and throwing up in the closest bin. The idea of telling people her story mixed with the nausea her baby was giving her was not a very good mix.
"Doctor Hunt, are you alright?" She heard a voice behind her and she turned around to see someone she knew was a Mercy Wester.
"Perfectly fine, Doctor...?" She realised she didn't know his name and she was slightly embarrassed.
"Percy, Charles Percy." He reached his hand out and Vanessa took it while wiping her mouth with her other hand.
"Well Doctor Percy, thank you for your concern but I'm going to go now." She smiled gently, nodding her head once in his direction and walking away, leaving him staring at her as she walked away.
***
"Met Charles Percy today." She mentioned suddenly to Jackson as they were having lunch together - their friendship started to grow as soon as Mark had taken a liking to him.
"Really? He's a funny guy." Jackson smiled and Vanessa shook her head slightly.
"Wouldn't know - he caught me throwing up in the bin." She grimaced at the memory and Jackson cringed slightly.
"Why were you throwing up?" He asked, sounding concerned.
"Hello? Baby." She joked, trying to cover up the main reason but Jackson saw through her lies. He nodded slowly, mentally making a note to tell Mark about it.
"Sure?" He asked and she rolled her eyes playfully.
"Yup."
Silence fell over the two of them as Vanessa stabbed at her salad.
"Hey, you wanna come over my place tonight?" He asked and she snapped her head up, looking at him as if he were crazy. He chuckled, realising how he sounded.
"No! Not like that." He laughed and she let out a sigh of relief, "I mean me and Charlie live together - we have snacks and games. You look like you could use a change in scenery." He explained and she narrowed her eyes at him playfully.
"You realise I'm pregnant right?" She asked and he nodded his head, mouth stuffed with food.
"I can't have a beer with the boys or whatever." She clarified and he swallowed his food, pointing a finger up at her, signalling for her to wait.
"Nothing like that, just having fun - as friends." He clarified and she tilted her head, thinking about it.
It didn't sound too bad and it would give her a better social life - something she was beginning to think she needed - and she didn't think Mark would have much of a problem with it.
"Alright." She said hesitantly and Jackson smiled widely, "But I'm leaving as soon as you guys talk about guy stuff." She added and he nodded, laughing.
***
"Can you page Doctor Avery and tell him I may be a little late?" She asked the nurse, her voice muffled by the mask covering her mouth.
"Okay."
"Great. Grey get in here and watch this." She motioned for Lexie to step forward and she did, peering in to see the work that Vanessa was doing.
"You see how there's a mass here? And now with this," She lifts up the tool and removes the tumour, looking over at to see Lexie's face. Her eyes were lit up and she looked amazed, "It's gone." She concluded, smiling.
"Now all we have to do it make sure the surrounding tissue is healthy." She mumbled, checking the tissue. When she was happy that everything was healthy she ordered another one of the nurses to close the kid up, taking her gloves off and walking out of the room with Lexie on her heels.
"Wow. I mean I know how those surgeries work but it's crazy to me that now the kid is healthy." Lexie breathes, scrubbing out.
"Well, we don't know that for certain yet. We need someone to look over her to make sure everything stays stable." Vanessa told her, drying her hands quickly, "You staying tonight Grey?" She asked and Lexie nodded.
"Great, see you tomorrow." Vanessa smiled, walking out of the room and to the locker room, seeing Jackson and Charles there waiting.
"Sorry you guys." She laughed, "Surgery ran long." They both nodded and she grabbed her clothes, walking over to the other side of the room to change, not needed their eyes on her and her scars.
"Alright." She walked back over, grabbed her stuff and walked to the door, "Let's go."
***
"Woah! Uncalled for." Vanessa laughed as she had a crisp thrown at her by Charles.He laughed as she threw a pillow at him. The three of them had quickly become friends despite her outsider position.
"Guys lets play a game of truth or dare." Charles suggested and Vanessa laughed, shaking her head.
"That's a kids game. Besides - it's hard to play with just three people." She argued but the two boys had already decided that they were going to play.
"Alright, since you didn't want to play. You get to go first Hunt." Jackson teased and Vanessa sighed, still smiling.
"Bring it on."
"Alright, truth or dare." Jackson asked and Vanessa thought about it, truth was the easy way out but surely they couldn't make her do anything too bad for a dare? She decided it was best to be safe until she got a feel for the type of dares they were giving out.
"Truth." She stated and they both grumbled something about being a wuss before Charles came up with a question.
"What brought you to Seattle Grace?" He asked and the room went silent. Jackson closed his eyes, knowing the question was a mistake. He had tried to ask it before and it had made Vanessa very angry at him.
Vanessa's body tensed and she took a deep breath in.
"Work. My brother." She offered, shrugging. It wasn't totally a lie but it wasn't the whole truth either. That was something she swore she'd never say to anyone, not even Owen.
"Okay. Avery, your turn."
---
After chugs of beer, shouts out windows and many secrets revealed by the two relatively drunk men in-front of her, the attention turned back to her once again. She had managed to survive her truths or dares with minimal answers and activity - a strategy that seemed to be working.
"I'll do truth." She said, leaning back onto the sofa as they were all sat on the floor. In doing so her top lifted slightly, showing a nasty scar on her stomach. She hadn't realised what had happened and so she just waited for either of the boys to come up with a question.
Jackson knew she wouldn't want to speak about the scar but he also knew Charles would ask about it so he had to come up with a good question before Charles asked the one thing he just knew would drive Vanessa out of the door.
"Wha-" He started but Charles cut him off, his voice being much louder and prominent than Jackson's.
"What's that scar? On your stomach."
Vanessa looked down and covered her stomach quickly, looking up at the men. Jackson just looked away, Charles hadn't sensed the situation and was looking at her intently, clearly wanting to know the answer to his question.
Vanessa's phone beeped and she looked down at it, thanking God for the distraction. It was Mark texting her.
'Hey, where are you?'
She smiled upon seeing his profile picture on her phone and texted a response while the two men whispered to each-other, the tone in their voices insinuating an argument.
'Avery's. Why?'
She texted back and waited for his response, looking at the two men and clearing her throat gently, grabbing their attention.
"Surgery." She said quietly, "The scar is from a surgery." They both nodded, sensing that she wasn't going to say anymore.
'Come home, please:)'
As soon as she received the text from Mark she stood up, a small smile on her face.
"Looks like I'm going." She breathed and Jackson stood up as well, stumbling a little bit as he walked her to the door.
"Thank you Jackson." Vanessa smiled at him.
"Your welcome." His eyes darted down to her lips and she picked up on the energy. She quickly moved away from him, clearing her throat gently and reminding herself that he was drunk.
"Bye." She waved, walking down the street to where Mark's apartment was located - she had been living there as she couldn't be bothered to find her own place when her boyfriend had a perfectly good one.
---
She reached out to the door knob and twisted it, opening the door to the apartment. She took off her coat and placed it on one of the stools. She walked back and put her keys in the bowl next to the door and took her shoes off, placing them neatly next to where Mark's were, smiling at the sight.
"Mark?" She called as she noticed the bathroom light on she padded over to the bathroom and opened the door, spotting Mark in the tub.
The bath was filled with bubbles and rose petals and surrounded by candles, adding to the wonderful scent of the room. She smiled at him and undressed, getting in and sitting in-between his legs, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"What were you doing at Avery's?" He asked, no hint of jealousy in his voice.
"Just...chatting and stuff with him and Percy." She whispered, too relaxed to speak any louder.
"Okay." He whispered back, placing kisses on her shoulders and neck as his fingers traced the scars on her stomach and her legs.
"If I'd have done these you would have no scars." He mumbled against her skin and she laughed lightly, closing her eyes.
"You weren't in the army." She said simply, "You would not survive a day in the army." She added and he splashed her gently, showing he disagreed.
"Actually you're probably right." He admitted, still kissing her skin.
They spent the rest of the night in the bath until the water ran cold, just talking about nothing at all, splashing each-other - pretty much anything you can think of doing in the bath they did. And it would go down as one of the greatest nights in their history.
Which was a good thing, because they wouldn't have another night like this for a while.
************************************************************
A/N: If i put '***' that's like a big time skip whereas '---' is a smaller time skip :)
This one is quite long
to be completely honest i have no idea where this story is going - it will not stick to the timeline at all so if you don't like that then stop reading - I'm literally just taking events that actually happened in the show and jumbling them up a bit for example in the next chapter i'm thinking of introducing Sloan whereas it wasn't anywhere near this point in the actual series.
Thanks for reading and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask :)