The Missing Sloan

41

"Your mums doing the talk?" Eden asked Jackson as she sat down behind him next to April and Meredith.
"Yes thats why he sent Lexie away"
"You sent Lexie away? Poor lexie" Eden said, she had heard that Jackson and Lexie were together from a heart broken Mark.

"Youve met my mother you know what shes like" Jackson spat at Eden as everyone leant in closer excited to know the history.
"Youve met Catherine Avery, shes amazing isnt she i met her at Mercy west" April rambled.
"How do you know Catherine Avery?" Meredith asked interested

"She and my dad were close, i spent quite a few weekends with catherine and my dad" Eden explained briefly.
"Hmm close" Jackson laughed.
"What do you mean hmm close?" Eden firmly questioned
"They dated" Jackson bluntly told her
"No they didnt i think I would know if my dad had a girlfriend" Eden firmly told him.
"He never told you she was his girlfriend" jackson cleared
"But they never seemed together" Eden said trying to remember her time woth Catherine.
"Oh trust me they were" Jackson said disturbed as he turned back round.
"Why do i not remember" Eden said confused and concerned that her dad kept something like this from her.

"Thats why a plastic surgeon got a Harper Avery then" Karev snuffed
"No they werent together then and the award commitee is seperate to the foundation" Jackson explained.

"But Jackson"
"Shhhh its starting" cristina shhed her as catherine came on to the lecture stage.

Eden wasnt listening to a word that Catherine said she was thinking more like forcing herself to remember the time she spent with averys if there was any glimpse of a relationship.

The first time she meet the averys was when she was 4, at a duck pond near her dads house in manhattan. She didnt remember much about the meeting bits and pieces, she remembers the small boy hiding behind his mums leg who was being pushed to say hello as Eden skipped up to them introducing herself as Eden Louise Sloan-Abbott as she did when she was little, she remembered the shocked expression at the young girls confidence from catherine most 4 year olds are wary of stranger but to Eden strangers was just part of her homelife. She remembered being encouraged to show Jackson the ducks and to share her duck food and the ending their time together with getting an ice cream there was no indication of a relationship that her 4 year old self could see.

The next time she saw the Averys wasnt long after the duck pond the went to the zoo, she spent most of the time enjoying running around with someone else her age showing Jackson all of the animals and all the facts she knew. She remembered getting her face painted as a butterfly and Jackson a Tiger soemthing she would have never done with her mum, but then she rembered something as the memory was replaying when she turned round at the penguins to call for her dad he was holding Catherine's hand when he saw Eden looking at him he pulled his hand away. So he was dating Catherine.

She didnt feel she could trust one memory so she carried on trying to remember.

She remembered the Averys coming to their house for the day, she was about 5 now, her and Jackson built a blanket den and sat in it watching movies then she saw something again something she had never noticed nor remembered in the middle of a film she turns round to say something to her dad and his arm is wrapped around catherine as the two of them were smiling together watching their children.

Most of Edens memories of spending time with the Averys was in New york she was sure that she heard Jackson say he grew up in Boston so how come they were in New York quite abit, she lent forward to ask Jackson but Cristina reached over to Meredith to Pull Eden back.

She carried on going through her memories of the Averys.

There was one memory she had of the averys in Boston and that was for Jacksons 5th birthday, Catherine had hired out a basketball court as Jackson was a big Basketball fan and the party was them being taught by the Boston team, Eden remembered she was the only girl and not sporty she sat on the bench not wanting to play even with Jackson basically dragging her to join in. She spent the rest of the party with Catherine who made the young Eden feel loved and wanted she wasnt told that she was being a nausince which is what she would hear at home, Catherine talked to her about school, about her dreams of becoming a surgeon which she knew the girl aspired to be she spent the whole of her own sons party talking to Eden well her boyfriends daughter.
Eden didnt see this as something Catherine was doing out of obligation or to win Eden over but out of care for the girl.