FOR WHAT SEEMED LIKE THE HUNDREDTH TIME THAT MORNING, Gisele found her head in a toilet and she still hadn't finished her morning rounds.
Jo held her hair back while she continued to dry heave.
After a while, Gisele got frustrated that nothing was coming up yet she continued to dry heave. Her throat felt sore and her eyes were watery.
"Are you okay?" Jo asked.
Gisele let out a groan of frustration, "No," she reached over, grabbing some toilet paper to wipe her mouth before tossing it into the toilet, flushing it before standing up, "I'm not. I can't stop puking and I feel like crying all the damn time."
"Do you need a hug?"
Gisele nodded.
The hug ended quickly due to Gisele's phone going off.
She groaned, "I'm so tired, I just wanna cuddle in bed," she saw she was being paged 911 by Penny, "Gross, why the hell is Blake paging me?"
Jo frowned, "I thought you didn't hate her anymore."
"Never said that," Gisele said, "I have to go, later."
☤
The elevator ride down to the ER did nothing to help her nausea which caused her mood to worsen.
Spotting Penny, she stormed over to her.
"What do you want?"
"I didn't know who else to page, Callie and Arizona are in surgery and..."
Gisele cut her off, not wanting to hear her rambles, "Tell me what you need before I leave."
Penny handed her the tablet, "It's Sofia."
She took a breath, "Okay, let's go," she followed the redhead to one of the beds. She pulled back the curtain. Sofía laid up in bed, her head bloody, "Hey Sof."
"Gigi, my head hurts." Sofía whined.
"I know and I'm going make it better," she quickly put on a pair of gloves before taking a look at the cut, "What happened?" She asked the woman.
"She was having a play date with my daughter, and they were running around, and she tripped. Landed on a rock. I brought her right in. She's okay, right?"
"Absolutely, doesn't look too bad. Not even deep. You'll be out of here so fast. How does that sound?" She asked Sofía.
"Awesome."
"Great."
Gisele ordered Penny to get a suture kit before quickly numbing the area and starting her stitches on Sofía, "How's dance? Learn any new tricks?"
"I'm learning how to spin on one foot."
Gisele gasped, "That's so cool," she tied off the last stitch before cutting the threat, "You're all set."
"That was so fast."
She smiled, "Told you I would be," Gisele's smile instantly faded when she caught sight of Catherine.
Gisele quickly excused herself and went over to the nurses station where Penny was.
"I finished her stitches, you just need to put a bandaid on it. You can discharge her after but I'd page Arizona and Callie before..." she trailed off, walking away before finishing her sentence due to Catherine approaching.
Penny followed after her, "What? Why can't you do it? She knows you."
"Because, I'm going home. I don't feel good, I shouldn't even be here."
"Gisele!" Catherine called after her but Gisele chose to ignore her.
"Just do it, please. I just need to get out of here." She begged as they stopped in front of the elevator, Gisele continued to press the button.!
Penny nodded, hearing the desperation in her voice, "Okay."
Gisele could her Catherine getting closer so she decided not to wait for the elevator and ran to the stair well and up the stairs before Catherine could catch up to her.
☤
After gathering her things, she managed to easily find Arizona on the peds floor at a computer.
"Hey." Gisele said, making herself known.
Arizona stopped typing, flashing a smile at the brunette, "Oh, Hi. Thank you for taking care of Sofia, you being there made it less scary."
"Of course but just a heads up, I'm going home. I don't feel good."
Both Arizona and Jo were immediately concerned.
"You okay?" Jo asked.
"Any abdomen, lower back, or pelvis pain? Vaginal bleeding or uterine contraction?" Arizona listed off.
"No just nausea and vomiting. I keep needing to throw up and it almost happened while I was stitching Sofia up."
Arizona scrunched up her face in disgust, "Okay, just go now. We don't need you throwing up on the patients."
☤
Gisele regretted parking so close to the ER, she'd have to go through the emergency room which meant Catherine could be there.
She looked both ways multiple times before stepping off of the elevator. Her phone vibrated, it was Emmy, she'd been blowing up Gisele's phone all day, before she had a chance to decline the call her name was yelled out from down the hall.
She quickly ran into the ER and into an empty trauma room and crouched down.
Stephanie, who had watched the entire thing hesitantly walked into the room, "What are you doing in here?"
Gisele yanked Stephanie down, "Jackson's mom is here and I don't want to deal with that. All I want to do is go home but she's trying to corner me and I know she'll lecture me. She'll be on Jackson's side and be all... Catherine. Can you please distract her so I can slip out, please."
Stephanie agreed, exiting the room.
"Dear, have you seen Gisele? I've been meaning to talk to her but she just disappears." She heard Catherine say.
"I haven't but I'm rethinking of picking urology as my specialty." Stephanie said.
"Is that so."
"Yes, it was such a rush."
"I'll be happy to discuss this with you later but I have to find Gisele."
"Last time I saw her she was in the lobby. I'll help you find her."
"Oh nonsense, you were headed to the ER."
"I was but I was just going to troll for cases. I think she's on peds with Dr. Karev," Gisele peered her head out into the hall. Catherine's back was to her, Stephanie subtlety nodded, signaling it was safe for her to go.
Gisele mouthed a quick, 'Thank you' before rushing out of the trauma room and the ER. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going and rammed into somebody.
"Woah," it was Carson, "Gisele. Are you okay?" The surgeon seemed frantic.
Gisele nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure?" Carson noticed how Gisele kept looking over her shoulder, "Because you don't seem totally fine."
"I am, I'll see you tomorrow." Gisele said before her therapist could say anything.
☤
Catherine and Stephanie made it up to the peds floor, easily finding Alex.
"Dr, Karev," Catherine said, "Do you happen to know where Gisele is?"
He shook his head, "She's not with me today, she's on fetal."
Catherine gave Stephanie an unimpressed look.
"Apologies, it was yesterday that she was on peds." Stephanie said.
"Karev," Arizona called putting as she approached them, "I need your help. One of the moms is in preterm labor, she's 26 weeks and it looks like the baby is going to be born today."
"Where's Gisele?" Catherine asked Arizona.
"Oh, she went home..." she trailed off, seeing Stephanie shake her head but continued, "early, she wasn't feeling good."
With that, Catherine left.
Stephanie waited till she was down the hall to speak, "Do you not know what shaking my the head means?"
Arizona frowned, "What's your deal?"
"Gisele went home because she's trying to avoid Catherine."
"Oh. oh," she sighed, "Great, now she's gonna hate me too."
☤
Gisele barley managed to put the car into park before throwing the door open, her stomach contracted expelling vomit onto the driveway. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, feeling another wave of nausea overcame her and she quickly into the house. She hadn't expected anyone to be home and was surprised to see Amelia, Alex, Meredith and Maggie. Maggie and Amelia watching Meredith as she vacuumed frantically, and Alex snacking away.
Before getting the chance to ask questions, she threw up a little in her mouth, pushed past them straight to the restroom knowing she would've make it up to her own.
Moments later, she emerged to see that now her sister was the one vacuuming while Meredith watched, Maggie kept rambling on about Andrew and her not being on the same schedule.
"What are you people doing here?" She looked over at Alex, wondering how he got there first, seeing how she had seen his car at the hospital when she left, "How did you get here before me?"
Alex chuckled, "You were the one puking on the side of the road. I knew I recognized your car."
Gisele rolled her eyes, on the way home she had to vomit and knew wouldn't make it home so pulled off to the side of the road had, "Shut up. But why are you all here?"
"Because Mer had a freak out." Alex said.
"There's a stain on the carpet." She said.
Gisele furrowed her brows, "Okay..." she looked over to her sister, "What are you doing here?"
"Something happened with Owen." Maggie answered.
"Maggie. Now I'm really regretting telling you."
She frowned, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You've had a rough week. I didn't want you to have to deal with my problems too."
Maggie groaned, "No one brushes me off. I brush. I'm the brusher," she got her shoes on and headed for the door.
Gisele was confused, "Who is she brushing off?"
Amelia shook her head, "No, no, no, no," she turned to look at Meredith, "You want to jump in here."
Meredith turned off the vacuum, "The stain is not coming out." She said before walking away.
Amelia looked over at Gigi, instantly knowing something was wrong, "What's wrong with you? You're not supposed to be home yet."
Gisele didn't answer, instead walking away and into the kitchen where Meredith was, "I know how to take out the stain," she opened the cupboard under the sink, pulling out two empty spray bottles filling the first one up with cold water, "you just mix 1/4 teaspoon dish soap and a cup warm water," she went back to the hallway kneeling down, "I need a dish towels or some absorbent cloths."
Meredith went and grabbed a cloth, returning and handing it to her, "Here."
Gisele took it, spraying the stain, "You spray the detergent solution on the dish towel then dab."
They watched as the stain began fading away.
"It's actually working." Meredith said, amazed.
"Where did you learn this?"
"Emmy and I were at the Miami house, there was this expensive rug and we spilled wine on it. We googled how to get it out before abuela saw it," once the stain was gone, Gisele used another dish towel but this time sprayed it with the cold water before dabbing the carpet to get the soap out. She then used a dry cloth to dry it. She got up, "Now, just pile a stack of paper towels on the wet spot, place a heavy pot on top. You leave it overnight so the towels soak up any residual stains that are deep in the carpet," she sighed, "I fled the hospital because Catherine is here and I'm pretty sure she knows I'm knocked up with her son's offspring. Also pretty sure she wants to sue for custody or whatever."
"You fled the hospital?" Alex asked.
"Yes, because you all know what she's like and I didn't feel like dealing with her, especially not right now." Gisele explained.
☤
After having cleaned the entire house, it was dark when Amelia and Gisele volunteered to pick the kids up.
"You said Catherine would sue for custody, does that mean you made up your mind?"
Gisele shook her head, "No, but I wish I was a nun."
Amelia raised her brows in confusion, "A nun?" Gisele nodded, "That's very... unique choice for a person who doesn't totally believe in god."
"I'd be living in a convent where there's no men and the love I would've had for God would've exceeded my desire for anything, including sex."
"And you wouldn't be pregnant."
Gisele nodded, "Yup," she sighed, "It's just that I'm the most indecisive person on the planet, I can't make up my mind and it's not like I can let you, Addie, or mom make the decision for me. It's not that hard I've done it before."
Amelia slammed on the break, surprised. Never having heard about her sister having an abortion before, "You what? When?"
"What the hell? Why'd you break so fast?" She began feeling nausea, she rested her head against the window closing her eyes.
"Gisele."
"What?" She snapped.
"When?"
"I was 16 and I didn't tell you because you were at Hopkins then when you came home I just forgot about it."
"You forgot about it?"
Gisele nodded, "Honestly, yeah."
Amelia smiled, "That doesn't even surprise me."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're just very forgetful."
"No, I'm not."
"Gisele, when you attempt to cook you forgot your cooking and end up burning everything." Amelia said.
"Whatever."
Amelia started driving, "For someone with a photographic memory your memory sucks."
"I choose to remember the important stuff."
"Wait, 16... that means Adam or was it Adrian?"
"Adrian, I know not my best decision."
"Well, you're not 16 anymore." Amelia said.
"Exactly, I'm 25. I'm not broke, I have billions." Gisele said.
"If you don't think you can be a good parent and you don't want to, then don't," Amelia told, "Look, all I know is that your whole life you've never wanted to be a mom, even when you were little you hated baby dolls. You'd always melt them."
"I did not."
"You'd get the iron and melt them."
"It was annoying how everyone wanted me to play with them. Especially, when Kathleen said it was a reflection of how I saw myself, that the dolls are an extension of myself when all I wanted was Doodle Bears, Beanie Babies and Polly pocket."
Amelia laughed, remembering how pissed Gisele would get when she received baby dolls, "You used to get so mad when they gave you baby dolls."
"I honesty think they gave them to me on purpose," there was a long pause, "Just tell me something to take my mind off of it... like what did Owen do to make you so freaked out that you stayed on the couch and didn't even come up to sleep with me."
Amelia sighed, "I showed up to his trailer with lobsters for his birthday that he was supposed to cook... but he was drunk."
"How drunk?"
"Very."
"Want me to kick his ass?" Gisele said, half jokingly.
"No, it's fine. I'm just avoiding him for now."
"My offer stands if you ever want to reconsider."
Amelia smiled, "I'll take that into consideration."
☤
After getting home and unbuckling the kids, they walked to the front door. Right as Amelia was unlocking it Zola noticed someone coming towards them.
"Someone's here." She said.
It was Owen, causing Gisele to groan inwardly.
"You okay?" She asked Amelia, she nodded, Gisele grabbed hold of the kids hands, "Remember, mama made the place clean so let's try hard to keep it clean."
Once inside, Gisele feed the kids some leftovers before helping put them to bed then ran to her room and changed into her favorite comfy clothes before joining everyone downstairs in front of the fireplace. She laid down on the floor, her head on Amelia's lap, her sister combing her hair with her hand.
Maggie joined them, sitting on the couch next to Amelia, "This looks cozy," she reached over grabbing the bag of chips from Amelia, "What are we doing?"
"Enjoying the clean, clean house," Meredith said, "Look at your crumbs." She scolded Alex.
"How's DeLuca?" Amelia asked.
Maggie sighed, "He's a... a non-issue now. How's Hunt?"
"Also a non-issue."
Maggie grimaced, "What am I eating? I'm gonna need something way less healthy than this."
"Pizza's coming," Alex said right as the doorbell rang. He stood up, making his way over to the door, "Neither of you are pizza." They heard Alex say.
"No, we're not." Gisele heard Catherine.
Gisele shot up and ran out of the living room.
"Where are you going?" Amelia called after her.
"What's wrong with her?" Maggie asked.
Amelia sighed, "Catherine's here," she got up and went to the front door.
While Amelia was talking to Catherine, Gisele went out the back door over to the tree by the attic window, climbed up the tree and into the attic. She really didn't want to have a conversation with her godmother especially not about her relationship with Jackson or her pregnancy, so she crashed into bed and crawled under the comforter.
Back downstairs, Amelia greeted Catherine.
"Catherine."
"I'm here to see Gisele." She said.
"She doesn't want to talk to you."
"I'm just here to have a civilized conversation with my godchild, I have no ulterior motives. I promise, I just want to make sure Gigi is okay after what Jackson's idiotic self did."
Amelia reluctantly stepped aside letting Catherine inside.
Catherine made her way up the main stairs before climbing the the attic stairs. She was surprised to see the decor and how modern it was, she expected it to be boho chic. Walking further in, she chuckled when she saw the swinging bed. Of course she'd get one, she remembered how she always begged for one.
Seeing the lump in the middle of the bed, she walked over and tugged the covers till it revealed Gisele's face.
Gisele tugged it back over her face.
"Come on, now. Sweetheart."
"Go away, I don't want to talk to you." Gisele said though it was muffled by the comforter.
"Now that it no way to talk to your nina."
Gisele sat up in bed, throwing the covers off in the process, "That's the problem. I know you're not here as my nina, you're here as Jackson's moms. You're obviously on his side and probably here to get some evidence you can give him so he can sue me for full custody when there might not even be a child to sue custody for."
Catherine scoffed, "I'm not here for Jackson, I'm here for you. What Jackson did was awful, incredibly childish, and shouldn't have happened. You both should have sat down like the two grown adults you are and had a rational discussion about the situation."
To say Gisele was surprised was an understatement, knowing how fiercely protective of Jackson her godmother was, "I don't know what to do."
"I nor anyone else can make that choice for you, now get off the bed so we can sit down on that couch because this damn bed will give me motion sickness."
They went over and sat on the couch, Gisele leaning her head on Catherine's shoulder.
"How far along are you?"
"Six weeks, almost seven." Gisele answered.
"And the morning sickness?"
Gisele groaned, her throat felt sore and irritated from the nonstop vomiting, "Constant and won't stop."
"I'm sorry baby," Catherine said, "I need you to remember that even though you aren't my blood I consider you my daughter and you are important to me. Also just because Jackson is my son that doesn't mean I'll take his side when it comes to you. I've got you, so does your sister, and Emmy certainly will."
"I know... I'm just surprised our fight wasn't on the news or anything."
"That's because when the Harper Avery foundation bought the hospital I made sure every employee signed a non disclosure agreement."
Gisele smiled and hugged her, "You're the best, nina."
"I know."
☤
Jackson had been relaxing on the couch watching tv when the door bell rang, he groaned in annoyance as he got up. He hadn't been expecting anyone. Opening the door revealing his mother, he sighed as he opened the door wider letting her in.
"Mother." He was annoyed how she had ignored his wishes and spoke to April.
"I just came from Gisele's—"
He was instantly enraged, "Why would yo do that! It's bad enough you went and spoke to April—"
Catherine scoffed, "It's my god given right as her godmother. Which means I can speak to her whenever I damn well please."
"Not if it's just to get evidence—"
"I wouldn't do that to her, she's been through enough already."
"I know." Jackson said.
"Do you? Because your behavior says otherwise," she scolded, "Her birth mother was awful to her, she never wanted Gisele, even tried aborting her herself. She had a terrible start in life being born to a woman who didn't want her then drives the whole family off a damn bridge. After that, the poor girl was in the middle of a terrible custody battle between an emotionally unavailable woman and an elderly woman who couldn't give Gisele what she needed to thrive in life. I would've taken her but I was too busy raising you, making sure to keep you out of trouble when that's all you and your little friends used to do."
"We weren't that bad."
"I beg to differ." Catherine said, "I was also in the process of taking more of a roll in the foundation. I knew I couldn't give her what she needed to heal, to thrive. She's not a traditional girl Jackson, you had to know that from the very beginning, never wanted baby dolls, hated them. Always said weddings were a waste of time and money. She's never wanted kids. She's allowed to have reservations about bringing a human into the whole after her upbringing."
He sighed, realizing he never considered how Gisele was feeling, "She's right. I am a jackass."
"What?"
"She called me 'Jackass Jackson' I just got angry and sad when she just blurted out about wanting an abortion, especially after what happened with Samuel."
"I get it baby. I do but what you did was uncalled for and if I were you I'd apologize abundantly."
"I know."