When Your Eyes Speak - Jackson Avery

twenty-two

season six episode twenty-three 'sanctuary' and twenty-four 'death and all his friends'

Adeline grew up with her close family working in medicine which meant a lot of her childhood spent in the hospital. When she wasn't at school or at home, she was in a conference room with her older sister doing homework, waiting for their mother to finish surgery or hanging out in the first row or the side of the stage during lectures. It was completely normal to both Adeline and her older sister Juliette to spend their afternoons waiting for their mother, especially if their father had a later meeting that couldn't be pushed. It was only fitting that Adeline and her sister became surgeons themselves, their hospitals becoming their second home. She has memorized every nook and cranny of the large teaching hospital and has established vital relationships with many workers. It was quite literally Adeline's second home.

"So what? You guys are taking it slow but you're having a date tonight?" Adeline had just scrubbed out of a morning surgery assisting Derek and was making her way to the ER. She had run into Alex on his way out of the on-call room, his hair messy, his scrubs crinkled and his signature stupid grin. Adeline had quickly relayed the past couple of days to him and how tonight was the night she would be spending the night alone with Jackson for the first time since the night of the party.

"No, not a date date, a friends date. People have it all the time, Alex." Adeline reminded him, walking beside him down the series of hallways.

"Same thing, and they don't?" Adeline rolled her eyes at Alex, the male chuckling beside her. "You'll be fine, Addie. Just don't read too much into it, alright?" Adeline knew he was right, nodding her head as they made it near the ER.

"You're right." Adeline stopped and quickly assessed the ER, "I'll see you at lunch." Adeline and Alex split, running to separate areas in the ER. It was unusually busy in the ER for a Friday morning. Owen was in trauma room one with a patient that had a gunshot wound so it was up to the rest of the residents and surgeons to tend to patients. "What do we have?" Adeline approached a bed that her intern, Zeppelin, was standing at and assessing a patient.

"Rico, seven years of age, has had a series of seizures every half hour since midnight last night. Dr. Adamson was supposed to grab more supplies but I don't know where she went." Adeline looked over his chart, nodding along with her intern.

"Page Dr. Robbins and take him to a room on the Peds floor. We need the bed. Stay with him. I'll go find Reed." Adeline smiled softly at the parents, leaving Zeppelin with the patient and two nurses. She walked off heading in the direction of the supplies room where she was sure Reed would be. It was much quieter than the ER. "Hey, Reed?" Adeline called out as she pushed open the door, closing softly behind her. "Reed? Hello?" Adeline moved past some shelving before losing her balance, slipping on a liquid. Wincing in pain as she hit her elbow, Adeline moved herself up into a seated position. Her hands found themselves slipping and it took a moment for Adeline to realise how much of a hazard it was and what the liquid was; blood. Adeline quietly gasped as she found herself in a pool of blood, the red already staining her blue scrubs and coat. Adeline looked around her, finding similar blue scrubs in a heap on the floor, also in the pool of blood. She pulled herself onto his knees, gasping and shaking when she finally saw what the cause was.

"Reed?" Adeline's voice was shaky, her whole body turning cold when she noticed her pale skin and the bullet wound in her forehead. She knew she was dead but that didn't stop her from calling out her name several more times. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the dead girl, looking over her, noticing there was not an ounce of fear. Reed wasn't scared when she was shot. "Reed! Reed, come on! No, no!" Adeline dropped to her knees hard onto the floor, not paying attention to the pain she felt. Adeline's bloodstained hands reached out for the girl, trying to wake her. But she knew. Adeline had to have been the first to notice this, making the harrowing discovery that there was an active shooter in the hospital. Her eyes never left Reed's body until she finally stumbled around the corner and into the hallway leaving a trail of bloody footprints and handprints on the wall to keep her stable. She didn't know how she made it to Derek's office but she found herself leaning on the door, stumbling in shaking and breathing heavily.