Chapter 74

"Look, I'm not asking for much. I'm just saying if you use a dish in the middle of the night, wash it before you go back to bed instead of leaving it in the sink." I say to Jackson as we walk up to the front desk.

"Look, I don't like a filthy kitchen either, but a dirty cereal bowl in the sink isn't gonna exactly tip the scale." He says.

"Well it tips the scale for me, so if you mess up a dish wash it Avery." I say as I read over my files.

"Yes ma'am." He smirks, kissing me before leaving for surgery.

"And I thought Meredith and I bickered like a old married couple." Derek laughs.

"Jackson and I do not bicker that much." I laugh.

"Whatever you say." He smirks "Your mother in law is heading this way."

"What? What are you talking about? Catherine isn't even in town." I frown.

"Yes, she is. I'm looking at her right now." Derek says pointing behind me, making me turn around to see Catherine walking my way.

"Oh great." I sigh.

"Have fun." Derek smirks before walking away.

"Hey Catherine." I smile.

"Liliana, sweetheart. How are you?" She smiles as she hugs me.

"Great. I didn't know you were in town." I say.

"Yes. Well today is Richards birthday, so I decided to show up and surprise him." She smiles.

"Well that's very nice. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

"Where's Jackson?" She asks me.

"He's actually in surgery, but I will text him and let him know that you are here." I say.

"Well thank you dear." She says.

"I have to go. It's time for my surgery." I say as my pager goes off before leaving. I text Jackson then I meet Jo since she's on my service today and we get my patient prepped for surgery before taking him to the O.R. Today I have a total tumor resection surgery and I know it's going to take all day since its such a huge tumor, but I'm ready for it. I love big cases like this, since Derek trained me for surgeries like these. Once Wilson and I get scrubbed in we begin the operation.

"Wilson, why is it better to completely resect a tumor then to partially resect it?" I ask as I operate.

"Total tumor resections are more likely to result in extended survival rates." she says

"Correct and does the complete resection of the tumor increase the risk of complications?" I ask.

"Not necessarily. It really depends on the location of the tumor, but in the case of most tumors, yes it raises the risk of complications during surgery." She says.

"Very good." I say "So how are things with you and Alex going?" I ask. I don't really like Jo, but since her and Alex are dating I'm trying to learn to tolerate her.

"Great, I mean Alex is great, it's just...never mind." She sighs.

"Just what?" I ask.

"I love Alex, it's just sometimes I don't know how to read him or how to be there for him in certain situations. It's like he shuts me out."

"Jo, Alex is complicated. He's been through a lot, so he isn't someone who just expresses how he feels. A lot of times with Alex it's better just to be there for him instead of pressuring him into talking to you about things. He obviously trusts you, so he'll open up to you when he's ready." I say. With everything that most of the doctors at this hospital have been through we can be closed off and hard to communicate with, but once we find that person we can trust with anything we learn to open up eventually, it just takes time. I'm so lucky that I have both Jackson and Derek to support me through everything and I want Alex to have that same support. I mean of course he has Meredith, Cristina, and I, but having someone that goes home with him and who makes him their number one priority is something that Jo can give him right now so I'll do anything I can to make them work because Alex deserves happiness. We all do.

After operating for 16 hours, Jo and I successfully totally resect the tumor and take my patient to recovery. After spending so many hours in the O.R. I would love to just go home and get some rest, but I have to wait for Jackson to get out of surgery. I go get changed out of my scrubs and I decide to go take a nap in an on-call room, but before I can get there I'm stopped by Catherine.

"Liliana, dear. Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you." Catherine says motioning for me to come over to the front desk where she stood.

"Yeah, I had a long surgery today that I just finished." I say as I walk over to her.

"Oh, I figured." She says.

"Was there a particular reason you were looking for me?"

"I just wanted to talk, see how married life is treating you." She smiles.

"Oh it's great. Jackson and I are really happy." I smile.

"That's great, I'm happy to hear that. Since things are going so great maybe I can expect a grandchild soon." She says.Of course she had to add that part in there. Ever since Jackson and I got married Catherine has been pressuring us to start family. I guess she assumed we would start having kids as soon as we got married, which isn't my plan at all.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up. Jackson and I don't have plans to have kids anytime soon." I say.

"Well I'm going to keep hoping. I already have everything planned out for my future grandkids from the boarding school they'll go to, to their first board meeting. I think it'll be best to start having them sit in on meetings once they turn 15, that's what I had Jackson do."

"Wait, wait, wait. For starters you're getting way ahead of yourself, you're talking about hypothetical children that have not even been conceived yet and who said that my children will go to a boarding school or attend board meetings as teenagers." I frown.

"Liliana, dear. We're talking about future Avery children. We can never plan to far ahead and of course they'll attend board meetings and go to boarding schools. It's the Avery way of raising kids and preparing them for success." She says.

"Well I respect the Avery way, but that's not how I plan for my kids to be raised. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to get some rest because I spent the last 16 hours resecting a tumor." I say before walking away and going to an on-call room. I wasn't trying to be rude, but I just felt like Catherine was really overstepping her boundaries by trying to tell me how my future kids will be raised. As I laid down I couldn't even go to sleep because I kept thinking about me and Catherine's discussion.

"Hey sweetheart, you ready to go?" Jackson asks as he walks into the on-call room.

"Yep." I smile standing up before we leave. We rode home in silence. I was trying not to tell Jackson about the discussion his mother and I had even though it's bothering me, because I know he won't agree with what she suggested so there's no reason for me to bring it up.

"Sweetheart." He says as he wraps his arms around me as we lay down in bed that night.

"Yes." I say not bothering to open my eyes since I'm really tired.

"What's wrong? I feel like something's bothering you. You've been quiet since we got off from work." He says.

"It's nothing I'm just tired." I say.

"Lily, we're surgeons we're always tired. There's something else bothering you."

"It's just, I've been thinking about this discussion that I had with your mom earlier today." I sigh.

"About what?"

"Nothing important, well actually it was about something important, very important, but not anything we need to discuss at the moment." I say.

"Lily, you can't just say it's something important then not tell me what you two were talking about." He says.

"You're mom was just asking when we're going to have kids and then she started talking about how she already has their boarding schools picked out and how they'll start sitting in on boarding meetings when their 15. She just has so many plans for kids." I say.

"Leave it to my mother to try to plan out the lives of our kids that don't even exist yet." He sighs.

"I know. She acts like these are her future children we're talking about. I mean when we have kids we'll be the parent's and we'll make the decisions and I know that we both agree that our kids are going to live normal lives and that we're not going to ship them off to boarding school or have them sitting in board meetings as teenagers instead of hanging out with friends and doing teenage stuff, right?" I ask, but he doesn't say anything. "You know when I end a sentence with right, you're supposed to say yes sweetheart I agree or something along those lines." I frown.

"I agree that my mother isn't in charge of how we choose to raise our future kids, but I just always assumed we would send our kids to boarding school and have them sit in on board meetings while their in high school since they'll have a seat on the board once they turn 18. It's how all of the the Avery kids are raised." He says causing me to unravel his arms from around me and flick the lamp on that's on my side of the bed.

"How could you even think of the idea of sending our kids to a boarding school and what teenager wants to sit at a board meeting, I mean we're adults and we don't even like those meetings." I frown.

"Lily, boarding school isn't some evil place that you ship kids off to. They offer the best education and they look good on resumes."

"I don't care how good it looks on a resume, I'm not planning on having kids just to never see them because they go to school hours away from me." I shake my head.

"That isn't even how it works. It doesn't have to be a boarding school far away it can be close and we will see them. They'll stay with us on the weekends." He says.

"I can't believe that's how you plan to parent our kids." I say shaking my head in disapproval.

"You know what? We don't even need to argue about this. Out kids don't even exist yet, they're hypothetical at the moment." He sighs.

"And they're going to stay hypothetical with the attitude you have towards parenting." I grumble turning the lights off as I lay back down.

"Lily." Jackson sighs as he begins to wrap his arm around me.

"Avery, if you want that arm you better remove it from off of me right now." I say causing him to remove his arm from around me.

"Well goodnight to you too." He mumbles. I know to some people it may seem like I'm overreacting, but I honestly don't feel like I am. Weteytalking about how I'll be raising my future children which is something I'm not willing to compromise on.