⇢ CHAPTER 48

Holly complained, holding her phone to her ear as she went through files for April, "This is so stupid."

"" Lexie offered, knowing Holly was struggling with the massive amounts of work April put her through since Meredith, Cristina, Jackson, and Alex all refused to do the work April assigned them.

"They should be doing this." Holly shook her head, grabbing another file, "I hate myself for agreeing to help her."

"" Lexie asked, knowing Jackson shipped Lexie away for the sole purpose of not having his mother bombarding her with questions.

"Nope." Holly sighed, "And I was going to see her for the chance to scrub in on a rare surgery, but of course, April needed me to cover for her."

Holly could practically hear Lexie shaking her head, "

Seeing Catherine Avery approach her, Holly's eyes widened, "Gotta go."

"Holly immediately hung up as Catherine stood in front of her.

"You're... Holly Kepner, right?" Catherine smiled, looking at Holly's white coat to make sure, "Unless you stole the poor girl's coat."

"N-No." Holly shook her head, smiling at Catherine before clearing her throat and sticking a hand out to shake, "I'm H-Holly Kepner-- you're Facebook friends with my sister."

"Nice to meet you," Catherine smiled back, shaking her hand, "I'm Catherine Avery, Jackson's mother... I heard you know a little bit about Lexie Grey."

"Oh," Holly smiled with a nod, "yeah, we're best friends--"

"Great!" Catherine looped her arm with Holly's as they began to walk down a hallway, "Can you tell me about her?"

✧

"Tell me about Plastics." Catherine offered the conversation topic as April walked away with a boy to go play darts after Catherine meddled.

"Mom," Jackson shook his head, "come on. I'm tired. And I don't want to spend all night trying to convince you it's a legitimate specialty."

"I'm asking you to share your interests." Catherine shrugged, "Or you can tell me about this girl you shipped off to another time zone in honor of my arrival. Or the other girl your grandfather was talking about."

"What?" Jackson frowned his eyebrows, "What girl?"

"Kenner." Catherine responded, sipping on her drink as she tried to remember the name Harper Avery told her.

"...Do you mean Kepner?" Jackson corrected, remembering his grandfather only met one of the sisters, "As in Holly?"

Catherine's mouth went slightly agape as she realized she had talked to said girl, "That's the one!" She leaned forward, slightly in shock, "Your grandfather was telling me about the chemistry--"

"Uh," Jackson shook his head after taking a sip from his drink, "there was, uh, no chemistry. She isn't-- wasn't interested. Lexie was. I liked Lexie, simple as."

"Going after the girl's best friend." Catherine shook her head as she leaned back in her chair, "Tsk."

"She didn't like me."

"Not that you know." Catherine quirked an eyebrow, seeing Jackson roll his eyes before changing the conversation topic, "Fine, let's talk about the girl you shipped off."

"Can you blame me? Honestly?" Jackson justified his actions, "I mean, look how you were all over Sloan. I mean--"

"Sloan can take it." Catherine tilted her head, "You're saying this Lexie can't?"

"I like her." Jackson defended, taking a brief pause to collect his thoughts, "A lot. I don't want to start this."

"I'm gonna meddle one more time." Catherine warned, bringing her hands up in surrender as she leaned forward.

"Yeah." Jackson chuckled breathlessly, "See, if only I could believe that, maybe we could talk--"

"Sloan." Catherine spoke, the one word making Jackson go silent, "Be careful of him if you really like her."

Jackson took a sip of his drink before frowning his eyebrows, "Why?"

"Because he talks about her the way should, that's why." Catherine explained, "And that girl, Holly, she talks about that way, too."

Jackson scoffed, shaking his head lightly as he didn't believe it, "They were a thing. That's over now, a-and Holly and I are just friends."

"Mm-hmm." Catherine nodded, playing around with the olives in her glass before looking at him, "Are you in love with her?"

Jackson looked up at Catherine slightly before shaking his head, "We're not gonna talk about this."

Catherine leaned back in her chair, "You didn't even ask which one I was talking about." She points at his face, "You are and you don't want to admit it."

"Yeah," Jackson nodded his head, drinking all of the liquid in his drink, "we're definitely not talking about this."

✧✧✧

who is he talking about

✧✧✧

"Can you, please, pretty please, help me?" Lexie begged, walking into the skills lab Holly was instructing.

"Uh," Holly looked at the group of interns, "practice finishing the appendectomy and don't choke and don't perform it on yourselves."

The interns looked at each other, not understanding the inside joke as Lexie chuckled, "What--"

"Work!" Holly instructed, making the others quickly go back to their skills lab as Holly looked at Lexie, "What's up?"

"Wow." Lexie nodded, "I didn't know you could be mean."

"I'm not mean." Holly defended, "I'm instructing, I'm... trying not to be a pushover anymore."

"Mm." Lexie nodded again, squinting at Holly, "You're trying to not be a pushover as you do all of your sister's biddings?"

Holly squinted back at Lexie, "What's your problem?"

"Derek's trying to kill me." Lexie sighed, "killing me, he has so many 'quirks' as Meredith puts it-- they're scary, nitpicky rules that he has to drive me ."

"They're not that bad." Holly shook her head before looking at one of the tables, "I said don't choke!"

The intern looked up, "I--"

"Your patient is bleeding, are you going to look at me and come up with a response or save him?" Holly quirked an eyebrow, making the intern go back to fixing their dummy as Holly nodded at Lexie, "Continue."

"Like what's the deal with him needing sixteen towels in the O.R. at all times?" Lexie asked, making Holly snort.

"He needs it to position his arm on the microscope." Holly answered, "You'll get it all down, in case you forgot, you have photographic memory."

Lexie deadpanned as Holly laughed at her own joke, "Ha ha."

"He did the same thing to me when I first started on his service--"

"No, he didn't!" Lexie reminded, "You two have this Neuro bond and I'm just starting."

Holly looked at Lexie, bringing her hands to Lexie's shoulders as she spoke, "Don't choke under the pressure."

Lexie nodded, taking a few breaths, "Thank you."

"No problem." Holly smiled before looking at the interns, seeing most of them finish the skills lab, "I am an excellent teacher."

Lexie chuckled, "Yeah--"

"Oh, damn it!" An intern cried out, trying to stop the fake bleeding and Holly facepalmed.

Holly looked at Lexie through her hand, "There's always one."

✧

Resting her head on the bar, Holly lightly closed her eyes and Jackson and Alex listened to Lexie.

"He just went in blind and he hit the ventricle." Lexie spoke in awe of Derek's performance in surgery, "It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen."

"Here you go." Joe passed over a small bowl of fries to Holly, who tiredly sat up straight and smiled at him.

"Thanks."

"Are you sure you don't want to go to sleep at home?" Joe offered, "I can get you a cab."

"Nah," Holly shook her head, not wanting the workload April brought on her down, "I'm good."

Joe nodded and walked away as Jackson went on, "All Sloan taught me today was how to brine a chicken."

Alex added, "Altman called me a chicken."

Holly sighed, looking down at her fries before plopping them in her mouth, "I wish I had chicken."

April rushed over and grabbed Alex's beer from his hand as she began her ramble, making Holly's eyes widen from her sudden appearance, "What you said to me the other day was horrible, mean, and--"

"All right." Alex groaned, "You're doing it again. You're like a friggin' mosquito."

"Hey," Holly tiredly muttered, "don't talk to her like that."

"Holl," Jackson chuckled lightly, putting an arm behind her so she wouldn't fall back on her seat, "you need to sleep."

"I'm good." Holly assured, plopping another fry in her mouth.

"Well, that's all changing." April deepened her voice as she looked at the doctors, "Lexie, you're leading pre-rounds tomorrow. Jackson, you're touring med students, and, Alex, you've got nights in the E.R. for the next week. Any of you argue with me, and I'll take you off the O.R. board indefinitely."

Holly raised her hand, "What about me?"

"You're free from duties for the next month." April went back to her cheery voice, "Thank you for helping me."

"Yes!" Holly smiled as Jackson, Lexie and Alex lightly groaned once April went away, "Freedom!"

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next chapter... ADFKAJHSF i'm excited for y'all to read it :}

also, i had my first day of school... I DECEASED BUTT WAS SHAKINGGG i couldn't turn my camera on cause i felt MAD anxious but thankfully i had a class with a teacher i knew next period so after that i was fine and everything was okay :} 

i hope the school year goes well for me and for you guys :} 

ight, ima go back to playing minecraft before i have to go to sleep :{