The idea for this short story comes from the amazing Carina. Thank you my friend for helping me find the inspiration again! No matter what will happen on the show, these are my Jackson and April and always will be.

I hope you will like this guys! Please leave a review if you feel like it.

It had been a good day until now. Jackson spent the morning teaching Ben new procedures and it made him feel excited and proud. He enjoyed teaching more than he ever expected to, maybe because it reminded him of Mark Sloan and he had never missed him so much as in this latest year of his life. He could really use Sloan's advice right now too, to the point that he almost thought to hear his voice when a "Avery, you're scaring me! You're trying to kill him with your eyes or what?!" woke him up from his thoughts.

"What?" He said, not really paying attention to Callie's comment and not averting his gaze from the cute, little scene that was ruining his day.

"She's right dude! I swear it seems like you're thinking about the most painful way to kill him as soon as possible", Karev said, approaching Jackson and Callie behind the desk to give the nurse some patient files.

"Him, who?" Jackson said, annoyed.

"Freaking Bradley Cooper over there! But relax man, I wouldn't worry. Kepner is totally the prince charming kind of girl, he's not her type".

"You sure?" Callie went on, watching April finally freeing herself from her soldier friend embrace and laughing at something he was telling her "Old Kepner was the prince charming kind of girl, I bet Kepner 2.0 loves the American snipers kind of guy and, by the way, I can't really blame her…look at him! All beard and muscles…He's making me feel straight again".

Alex smirked watching Jackson quickly taking his tablet and mumbling a "shut up", heading off towards the elevator.

"He's pissed" Karev told Callie as soon as Jackson left the room.

"He's jealous! And that's good…This will bring them back together finally."

"If you say so.."

"Wanna bet on it? 100 dollars japril will be a thing again before the week ends?"

"Japril? Really?! You're crazy! You're all crazy here…this hospital is a freaking soap opera!" Karev said, shaking his head annoyed.

That afternoon Jackson buried himself in the OR. He really didn't want to meet April's friend from the army. He knew everything about him, he even met him on Facetime during one of their calls the past year. He always had the feeling that this Jamie was head over heels for his wife and when he saw him picking her up and hugging her tightly that morning he had his final confirmation. He couldn't even think about it without wanting to punch him in the face, really hard.

"Jackson?" He heard Stephanie entering the OR, calling him quietly "You are coming tonight right? I'm booking at Joe's..and Jo said we need to know how many people will be there…".

Jackson closed his eyes for a moment. He had totally forgotten about the party planned for the night. Stephanie and Jo had passed their boards and were officially surgeons at GSMH now. He was happy for them and he was looking forward to this fun night with friends for quite some time now. He always knew April was going to be there too but that wasn't a problem. Not until now.

Knowing she would most likely ask Jamie to join the party too, or that Hunt would invite him anyway, made the idea of attending it suddenly way less promising.

"Uhm… I can't tell you right now.. I have to finish this surgery and check on the patient later… I don't know… don't worry about me, if I can, I'll come after dinner for a drink ok?".

"Oh, ok… hope to see you there then!"

"Thanks…and congratulations again!" he said, already planning to stay home and watch some old games on tv instead.

"I'll be there too…you know?!" Lilly's shy voice forced him to finally notice her presence. Lilly was a nurse and she was always in plastics lately. He knew every male doctor would be happy to work with her, she surely was beautiful, all black hair, green eyes and great cleavage. He also noticed she had a little crush on him, always laughing at his stupid jokes, complimenting him. She flirted but he never flirted back. Four months before he had taken the hardest decision of his life, he let April go. He took himself out of the equation before she could decide to leave him again. He was happy to see that she decided to stay anyway, to put him first, to fight for him. And while he hadn't been able to forgive her completely yet, he had never thought of dating someone else. The suppressed anger and jealousy decided to speak for him now, though. He looked at Lilly, saw the smirk in her eyes and decided that if April could go to the party with Jamie, he could enjoy some flirting too.

Jackson could never be more wrong and he soon realized it. The first hour at the party was actually nice, he sat at the table with Lilly, made some frivolous conversation and truly enjoyed her company until he saw April entering the pub, Arizona, Hunt and Jamie following behind her. She waived at him and he could tell she was taken by surprise to see him with another woman. He knew he hurt her and a part of him was happy to see she finally understood what being left behind meant to him during her army rush. From that moment, he couldn't pay attention to Lilly anymore though…too distracted by April and the way she laughed with Hunt and Jamie, the way she kept on talking, avoiding his gaze, not even looking at him a single time. He left Lilly with her friends and went to the bar counter, hoping a drink would help him get through the night. He was standing there alone, watching April dancing wildly with Arizona and Jo. It reminded him of that party at Meredith's house, after the boards. April was wasted back then, she had lost her virginity to him, failed her boards, and she was trying to drink and dance it out. She was cute, and funny, and frustrating, as always. It was different now. She looked confident, and proud, and sexy, so incredibly sexy. He could tell Jamie was thinking the exact same thing. He kept staring at her, not even listening to Hunt talking beside him. Jackson could tell he was thinking about finally approaching her, maybe dancing with her and even trying to kiss her or something. He had enough. He put down his glass and stormed towards April, grabbing her by the hand "Can we talk?" he asked, quite roughly.

April frowned, taken aback "uhm…sure?!" she said, hesitantly.

"Everything's ok?" asked Arizona, worried by Jackson's angry look.

"Yeah…I got it." April replied quickly before following Jackson outside.

Holding her hand again felt too good and too painful at the same time. He let go of it as soon as they were in the empty parking lot behind the bar.

"What's up? Are you ok?" April broke the silence, trying to decipher his eyes.

"You can't do that." He simply said.

"Do what?"

"Dance like that, and laugh like that and being so fucking sexy in front of him! That army dude wants to get in your pants and you can't pretend I will be ok watching you flirt with him!"

April's mouth opened widely "Excuse me?! You did not just said that!"

"Oh, I sure did! You like him? Huh? Don't you? All brave and badass and army-obsessed!"

"What?! Are you kidding me?! First of all, Jamie is a friend! He doesn't think of me in that way and.."

Jackson laughed bitterly "Oh come on! Don't tell me you haven't noticed! You're not that naïve anymore April! You know he spent the whole night thinking about how much he'd like to fuck you!"

April looked at him shocked but he couldn't stop now "Maybe you like it though, knowing he wants to fuck you I mean.."

He finally looked back at her then and he felt like he was seeing her for the first time in months. He needed to let go of his anger and resentment and he felt better now.

"That's not fair Jackson! That's not fair!" she yelled "You perfectly know I'm not interested in Jamie at all. You know I love you, I've been saying it every freaking time you gave me the chance to in these last four months. I stayed, for you. And I'm not regretting it. I never will. I came here with Arizona and I'm going home with her since you don't want me back home, in our house. And that's ok, I made mistakes and you want to hurt me! I get it. But I was not the one flirting tonight! And you know that! You were! You were flirting with that nurse! Do you think I haven't noticed?" Her voice started to break and he knew she was on the verge of crying. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the words. He let her continue instead.

"I did! I noticed!" she said, crying now "And Jackson…I know I hurt you, badly, and I'm sorry, I am. And you know that. You know me, you know I'm sorry. But I can't keep doing this, waiting for you to forgive me while you date someone else. It's too much. And if you want to move on and leave me for good then you should tell me, because.."

"Shut up". He interrupted her. Watching her straight in the eyes.

"No, you have to let me finish now…if you really want to dat.."

He kissed her then. He pushed her against the wall and kissed her. Roughly, desperately. He forced her lips opened and met her tongue, bit her lips, swallowing every sob, every breath, every moan. Kissing her again was enough to break all the walls he had so carefully built to keep her outside, to prevent her from hurting him again.

"I'm sorry" Jackson murmured in between kisses, searching that spot on her neck he had missed so much and drying her tears with his fingers, slowly.

"Me too" she answered, her hands on his face, forcing him to look at her. When their eyes met they both smiled and Jackson felt like a terrible weight had finally been taken off of his shoulders. She kissed him again, then. Passionately. Tasting him as if she wanted to be reassured he was there, that he was real. His hands slowly left her face, one reached her thigh, caressing her under the short red dress she was wearing, the other one went to cup her breast, earning a moan he immediately silenced with his own lips.

April's touch under his shirt was driving him insane and when she unbuttoned his jeans and touched him, slowly, biting his bottom lip while looking him straight in the eyes, not afraid to show him how much she wanted him, he couldn't control himself anymore.

"Turn around" he whispered in her ear, kissing her lobe and slowly lifting her dress, just enough to shift her panties to the side and enter her. The dance music in the background not at all romantic. They could hear people walking and talking not too far from their little hidden corner and the sex was rough and fast and sweaty and not like he had imagined it to be after all this time apart. And yet, it was perfect. He placed a hand over her mouth to keep her from crying out loud when she reached her orgasm, he followed her immediately after, biting her shoulders and brushing her arm, until he found her hand on the wall and interlocked their fingers. She brought it to her lips then, kissing his hand sweetly, while he readjusted her dress and buttoned his jeans again. She turned around, searching for his eyes. No one had said anything yet, afraid to say something that could break the magic. The silence was only interrupted by Arizona's voice, approaching them discretely.

"Uhm…I just wanted to make sure everything was fine…I…uh…guess it is?" she smiled, noticing April's messy hair and the obvious post-coital expressions on their faces.

"It…uhm…yes, it is" April reassured her, not entirely sure about her words.

"Ok…I'll go back inside then, see you at home later?" she asked.

April looked at Jackson, silently asking him to answer.

"No" he said, smiling "I think we will just pass by to take her things and take them back home".

Arizona smiled widely then "Oh, ok! Great! Good! I'm happy for you" she said, turning around and leaving them alone again.

Jackson looked at April, she was brushing away a tear "You ok with that, right?"

"Do you even have to ask?" she smiled, jumping in his arms and hugging him tightly.

They stayed like this for a little while, none of them feeling the need to say anything more. Then Jackson suddenly laughed.

"What?" she asked, amused.

"Sex in a bathroom stall: checked. Car sex in front of the hospital: checked. Sex in a parking lot, almost being caught by your friend: checked. Wow, we're quite the team!"

April smacked him on the chest, laughing with him. It was the first time they actually laughed after a long, long time.

"Well…it's me and you, right?" she asked then, kissing him softly.

Jackson smiled "yeah, me and you".