Liliana's pov
"How long have you been up?" Jackson asked groggily rubbing his eyes as he walked into Isabella's nursery where I sat in a rocking chair holding her.
"I lost track." I said groggily as I gently adjusted in the chair, careful not to wake her. She was so fussy through the night. I could tell that she was starting to teeth because of how much she was drooling and trying to chew on everything, so of course she was irritable. I spent pretty much the whole night rocking her and trying to soothe her.
"What time is it?" I asked closing my heavy eyelids while still listening.
"4:30." He said.
"Crap." I sighed before opening my eyes. I have an early surgery this morning so I needed to leave the house earlier than usual.
"I don't want to leave her while she doesn't feel good." I sighed looking down at Isabella who laid on my chest sound asleep while gripping my shirt.
"Baby, she's teething. She's going to be okay." He assured me walking over me. "I'm going to be here with her until 7 than my moms keeping her for the day. You know that she's going to take good care of her until we get off."
"I know." I sighed knowing that I had no choice, but to get up because I have a tumor removal surgery this morning. I slowly stood up trying my best not to wake her, but as soon as I unlatched her hand from my shirt, she woke up. Normally she was pretty calm when she woke up as long as someone was paying her attention, but since her mouth was hurting because she was teething she automatically began whining. Jackson took her from me and began trying to soothe her while I went to the the room to take a shower and get dressed. Once I finished I went to grab everything that Catherine would need while she kept Isabella today.
"My poor baby." I said walking into the nursery where Jackson was walking around trying to get her to calm down. "Let her chew on this. It'll keep her from putting her hands in her mouth so much." I said handing Jackson her teething ring.
"Thanks." He said.
"I pumped some milk. It's in the refrigerator. I put her some baby food in there too. Cold food will help her mouth feel better. She's drooling a lot, so make sure to tell Catherine to keep wiping her mouth so that she won't get a rash. If she gets a fever, she needs to call her pediatrician, and..." I said before Jackson stopped me.
"Baby, everything is handled. My mom is going to take good care of her." He chuckled.
"I know." I sighed caressing Isabella's face as she laid on Jackson's chest sniffling.
"Mommy's gonna be back as soon as she can. I love you." I said to her kissing her on the cheek.
"I'll see you at work. I love you." I told Jackson before rushing out of the room, quickly grabbing my work bag and keys before leaving. My body was exhausted and even though it was early, I was already counting down the time until I got off of work.
- -
"Keep a check on his post-ops and page me as soon as he wakes up." I instructed Edwards as we walked out of my patients room after surgery.
"Okay." She nodded before I walked away. After six hours, I successfully completed my tumor removal surgery. All I wanted was a cup of coffee and to get off of my feet. I walked to the lounge where Maggie, Richard, Arizona, and Jackson were at discussing everything that is going on at the hospital.
"Did April say anything? Like why she jumped ship?" Richard asked looking at Jackson as he stood at the counter. Since Meredith was suspended, it was announced that April would temporarily be taking her spot as interim Chief of General Surgery.
"Why are you looking at me?" Jackson asked.
"She is your best friend." I pointed out.
"We haven't talked about. I haven't seen her since it happened." He shook his head.
"She knows what she did. She's slinking. Traitor." Maggie said bitterly.
"I can't believe that she would do this." Jackson said as he sat down.
"I can't believe Bailey asked her too." Arizona said.
"How's Grey holding up." Riggs asked Maggie entering the lounge.
"She's bored. She's worried Kepner'a gonna kill all of her patients." Maggie nodded.
"Kepner's a solid surgeon. You have to give her that, no matter how anyone feels about her taking the job." Riggs pointed out.
"Yeah, of course she's a great surgeon." Jackson said. "Guys, we're losing ground here. We lost Grey, now we're losing April."
"And we don't have the residents. They love Minnick and she's about to start phase two of her program." Maggie said.
"Phase 2?" I frowned.
"A resident gets to be a primary surgeon on their own case. One procedure, pre-op to post-op, start to finish.
"Under supervision right?" Richard asked.
"Yeah, but the resident does it all. The attending is there to assist."
"We're supposed to assist the residents?" I scoffed as we all looked at each other, obviously disapproving of that idea. I know Minnick thinks that she knows what she's doing, but it's obvious she doesn't. Residents are residents for a reason. They're talented, but they are still learning, still training. There was no way I would let her boss me around and have me assist on my own surgery. We need to get rid of her quick.
- -
"So you're telling me that your mother knew that Richard was being replaced with Minnick." I frowned as Jackson and I walked through the hallway.
"According to Richard it was her idea." Jackson scoffed as we made it to the front desk discussing everything going on at the hospital.
"That was low even for her and to think I'm trusting her with my baby." I said making Jackson chuckle from my sarcasm.
"I just can't believe she would do this to the hospital and more importantly Richard."
"So we obviously can't count on her to be on our side either." I huffed. "This whole situation sucks. Having Minnick here sucks. Bailey sucks and so does your mom."
"She's still my mom." Jackson chuckled leaning against the front desk.
"Sorry." I huffed. "Speaking of moms, do you know if Maggie and her mom ever talked after the other night?" Apparently Maggie and her mother got into an argument before they could even discuss her mother's health at dinner so she still didn't know what was going on.
"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure her mom left right after their argument."
"I hope they work it out." I sighed.
"Since when do you care." Jackson smirked.
"I don't really like Pierce, you know I find her annoying, but her mom is sick. As someone who's had a sick mother, I wouldn't want to have wasted anytime not speaking over a small argument." I shrugged. One thing that I've learned over the years is that life is short, so you don't want to waste time holding grudges against people you love because you never know when it's your last time with them.
- -
"What I'm saying is, the Chief gives an order. You follow the order. You try to make it work." Owen shrugged as we sit in the cafeteria having lunch.
"Spoken like a true soldier." Riggs said.
"More like a former chief." I said taking a sip of my water.
"Right on both counts." Owen agreed
"So you're neutral is what you're saying. You're Switzerland." Maggie said.
"No, I'm saying Baileys the chief, but that doesn't mean that I'm against Webber."
"I get that, but what the hell are you supposed to do when you're completely against the order that you've been given?"
"Well that's called a coup." Owen said.
"Frowned upon but sometimes very necessary." Riggs said.
"Oh, so that's what we're talking about here? Throwing Minnick out or throwing Bailey out."
"No, no, no. It's just we want Webber in. I mean yeah, I guess that means Minnick has to go, so what?" Jackson scoffed eating a chip. We all glanced over as April walked past our table to a separate table to sit by herself.
"Do you guys think that maybe this is getting a little high school?" I asked.
"No, she turned her back on Meredith. On Richard." Maggie said.
"I don't know what we're going to do here, but we got to do something." Jackson said.
"So Hunt are you with us or are you too busy being Switzerland over there." Riggs asked Owen.
"How's Kepner doing?" Owen sighed.
"What do you mean how's Kepner doing?" Maggie frowned. "She's a turncoat."
"She's also a friend." Owen pointed out.
"Yes, she's a friend. A poor, misguided, very confused friend. It's like when you find out that your friend voted wrong." Arizona frowned.
"Can you vote wrong?" Owen asked.
"Yeah. Absolutely." Everyone at the table nodded
in unison.
"I'm sorry, but she was leading the charge and then Bailey dingles a little carrot and it's "See ya, Webber." Maggie said.
"I'm sure there's more to it than that." Owen argues.
"Well it's not right what Bailey did. You can't just throw anybody in as Chief of General Surgery. I mean Keps is good, but Grey put in the time for the job, okay? She deserves it." Riggs said. Meredith truly has worked hard for her job. She's so selfless and dedicated when it comes to her patients. Suspending her was punishing them too.
I finished my food, before leaving to go back to work. I went to do a consult before grabbing my files and packing them up. I had so much paperwork to do, but I was leaving early and finishing that up at home so I could take care of Isabella.
- -
"Hey." Jackson said walking into the living room where I sat on the sofa doing some work on my laptop.
"Hey." I said still focusing on my work. "I picked up some food on the way home. It's in the refrigerator."
"Thanks." He said sitting beside me. "Where's Isabella?"
"In the nursery sleep. Your mom said that she didn't really nap today. She finally fell asleep like 10 minutes ago." I sighed.
"You need sleep yourself. You look tired."
"Well thanks. That's just what every wife wants to hear." I said sarcastically.
"You know what I mean. You slept for like two hours last night."
"Believe me, I know." I sighed running my hands down my face. "I thought I would be able to get these files done early so I could get some rest, but Isabella was not letting that happen." I chuckled. As Chief of Neuro, I don't only perform surgeries. I'm responsible for all of the paperwork in my department, scheduling, surgery approvals and so much more. My schedule is always so packed and it's definitely not easy balancing such a busy home and work life.
"How about this, you focus on getting this work done so you can finish and get some rest and whenever Isabella wakes up, you let me take care of her tonight."
"Jackson, you know I like to stay up with her at night to makeup for being at work during the day." I said. I've definitely dealt with some mom guilt since being back at work. I'm always worried that I'm working too much or not paying Isabella enough attention no matter how hard I try. I'm gone almost all day some days, so when I am home I spend all the time I can focusing on her. I just want to be a good mom to my baby.
"I know, but your body needs rest plus me and Bella need some daddy daughter bonding time." He said.
"I guess I can let go and let you run things tonight." I sighed making him chuckle.
"Thank you." He smirked kissing me. "We're a team. We're in this parenting thing together. You don't need to do everything on your own." He reminded me. And he was right. I had to learn that I can't handle everything myself, no matter how strong I am.
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