A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! By popular demand (sort of), it seems like it's time for another short and fairly fluff filled visit to the Japril familyverse. Not sure how I feel about it, but i gave it a try. Hopefully it can counteract some of the angst (and absence) of Japril in the show these days. For those of you waiting on Breakeven or my AK2 story, know that I am working on them! It's just been a really busy time for me. I also had my final interview for a job out of state and I am going to start there later this month. So I am moving, and packing, and it takes time, lol. Fear not, I am writing, and updates are definitely coming soon. Thank you all for reading and please let me know what you think!
"Now," April explained carefully, pointing out to the three giant bowls of candy on a table near her entry way. "This should be enough supply for as many trick or treaters as we'll get. Based on what we used to get back in the day, anyway. But, I've got a stash of spare Snickers in the cupboard behind the cereal, just in case you run out."
Beside her, Conner rolled his eyes and scratched his neck anxiously, "Mom, it's just passing out candy, not rocket science."
Sighing, April turned around and squeezed the teenager's shoulder, marveling at the fact that now, even in her costume's vintage 50s style heels, her son was still slightly taller than her. Conner had grown up far too fast for her liking. The high school junior had expressly declined from participating in the family's usual group trick or treating. Dressing up was not cool enough, apparently. He'd said he was too old to worry about lame candy mongering.
For years, both Jackson and April had always made a point of getting Halloween evening off from the hospital if they could, so that all the members of the Avery family could enjoy the fun evening together.
This was the first time that a member of the family had willingly chosen not to join. And April could understand that really. Now, Conner was closer to 17 than 15, getting more mature by the day. He was becoming more serious about school, preparing for his SAT and ACT tests, as well as being the captain of the junior varsity rowing team. He wasn't a little boy anymore.
At his age, April had stopped trick or treating. But even so, her oldest son's decision not to join in this Halloween was a stark reminder for April of just how quickly time was passing by.
"I know," she agreed. "I just have go over my list out loud to make sure for myself. I know won't have any problems."
"I won't," Conner mumbled sarcastically and checking the watch on his left wrist.
April shrugged apologetically, "You know how I am."
Conner let out huge sigh. Tucking a bowl of popcorn under his arm and shuffling into the living room, he added, "You worry too much about everything! I'm just gonna give out the candy and watch a horror movie by myself. And, no! It's not going to scare me so you don't need to check in every five minutes. I'm not a baby."
Blinking rapidly at the sharpness of his words, April's face fell for a moment.
He'd been awfully short with her all week, which was very uncharacteristic for her oldest son, despite the fact that he was a teenager. She supposed it was just another symptom of time, but she worried that it was the first step down a path she didn't want to follow. It had taken her husband Jackson and his mother years to (mostly) overcome their turbulent relationship. April didn't want her relationship with Conner to be another copy of Jackson's youthful relationship with Catherine. They'd barely talked and her husband had once gone to extreme lengths to keep his indomitable mother out of his life.
She was probably being paranoid, but April didn't think she could bear the same treatment from her Conner.
"Lucy!" Jackson called out in a cheesy Cuban accent, coming down the stairs with a giggling Riley, Hannah, and Simon in tow. "We're ready!"
April and Jackson were joining their children's trick or treating adventure in costume, going as the classic couple, Lucy and Ricky, from the old tv show 'I Love Lucy'. April thought it was quiet clever for them (and perhaps even very apropos) and all their colleagues at the hospital agreed. Of the children, only Riley knew the show. From books apparently. Jackson had gone all out for the costume, joining her on a shopping trip to all her favorite vintage stores to find appropriate costumes. He'd even invested in a suave black wig, that April thought actually more resembled Elvis than Desi Arnaz, but it certainly did the trick.
She'd curled her hair, and donned her brightest red lipstick, an apron and a set of pearls. Jackson had suit and a used bongo drum strapped over his shoulder. They were decked out, and overall April thought the effect was pretty decent. Perhaps the costume would be lost on the children, but she figured the other parents would recognize the iconic characters.
Grinning broadly, Hannah skipped right past April, causing the antennae headband of her bumble bee costume to bounce. Predictably, her small hand was wrist deep into their own bowl of candy before April had the chance to stop the girl.
Hannah's costume was very appropriate. No matter what, from school to ballet, to sneaking through April's snack secret chocolate drawer, the little girl always seemed to be busy doing something. And usually it was some thing she probably wasn't supposed to. She'd come up with the idea for the costume herself, after learning about bees in school. Hannah's thought process, when explaining it to April over dinner earlier in the month, had been very simple:
"I like bugs. Bugs are cool. Bees are the best bugs. Bees are all girls! They get to live with honey and there are no boys. Dat's paradise, Mama!"
April couldn't argue with that really. 8 year old's had solid logic.
"Hold on there, sweetie," she chided gently, guiding her younger daughter away from the candy and towards the front door. "We have to leave those for Conner to pass out. You're going to get your own candy from trick or treating in a minute..."
"I know," Hannah replied, still forlornly gazing at the bowls. "But if there's left overs from ours, we get those candies too, right?"
"We'll see," Jackson countered, rolling his eyes and reaching to the front door handle. "Let's get this show on the road."
Simon and Hannah jumped up and down, squealing with glee while Riley offered a more subdued but still happy smile.
This year, like the previous year, April's older daughter had decided to dress as her favorite character from Harry Potter: Hermione Granger. It seemed that from the girl's very first acquaintance with the magical book and film series, Riley was hooked. Jackson had never read the books, and while April had years ago in med school, she'd never been as captivated with of it all as her daughter. She certainly enjoyed rediscovering the magic of the story with Riley a lot more than Jackson did. He would always prefer watching or reading about wizards who played basketball in DC to ones who fought evil in England.
Frankly, they were both just pleased that the girl loved to read.
When Conner teased her about not choosing a different costume, Riley had logically explained that she was in fact going as Hermione from book 2 this year, and that last year she'd gone as book 1. Not that April or Jackson could really figure out what exactly was different about the wizard character in Chamber of Secrets vs. Sorcerer's Stone. The distinction very clearly meant a lot to Riley. Jackson had joked that her costumes would be set for another 5 years, if she decided to dress up as Hermione in all 7 books.
The costume was easy enough. Riley's hair was already naturally very curly and puffy indeed, so only a little styling and hair spray did the trick. And some of her worn out school uniforms were easy to modify. A few iron on 'Hogwarts' patches, plus a red and gold scarf went a long way. Riley supplemented the look with a thick book that she called Hogwarts, A History (really just a hardcover edition of the fourth book sans dust jacket). Gramma Catherine's birthday gift, a 'real Hermione wand', (ordered off the internet, of course) rounded out the costume.
When she'd opened the box, Riley had been ecstatic, and tonight she brandished the wooden stick proudly, gesturing to both object and sibling alike, whispering spells.
"Alohomora!" Riley said excitedly, pointing her wand at the door as Jackson opened it. He exchanged a bemused glance with April and shook his head as he ushered their two daughters and Simon out the front door.
"Oh wait!" April said, holding her hands to her head. "I almost forgot. Simon look! I got this for you."
Her youngest child grinned and skipped back to her side, holding out the sides of his tiny blue lab coat like wings. She reached into her work bag and rummaged around until she found the object she sought. With a big grin, April pulled out a tiny clear beaker she'd snagged from a supply room at the hospital.
Simon's eyes lit up, "Yay! I can do experiments now."
April laughed and handed the boy the glass, watching as he carefully tucked it into his large lab coat pocket, along with what appeared to be a knotted shoelace, a plastic spoon, and a well used basketball shaped eraser. Who knew what experiments Simon had in mind?
He'd asked her if she could bring him something from Seattle Grace because he wanted an 'actual piece of science' for his costume too make it more authentic. Letting him carry a glass object around the neighborhood was a bit of a risk, but April knew the hospital beakers to be very sturdy, and she and Jackson would be with him and watching him the whole time.
Plus, Simon was quite difficult to resist.
Her youngest child had also decided to dress as someone from a classic television show. In addition to his blue lab coat, he wore khaki pants, a white shirt, and a small red bow tie. A miniature Billy Nye the Science Guy. Jackson had made him a name tag pinned to his chest that contained the iconic catchphrase, "Consider the following:"
Simon had fallen in love with the 90s era tv show when the local PBS station had aired a tribute marathon of the old series. A small corner of the backyard quickly became dedicated to small, and deliciously messy science experiments. It had lead to a bond between father and son, since it turned out that Jackson had been a fan of the show as well. It was a bit of a surprise, given that Jackson probably should have been to old too like the show when it was still on.
Then again, there really wasn't an age limit on the thing was there, and the question April kept coming back to, was simple and explained everything. Who didn't like Bill Nye?
Shaking his head at the stolen beaker, Jackson made everyone giggle, "Lucy...you've got some s'plaining to do!"
Conner's head appeared in the living room doorway, scowling and sullen, "Are you guys going or what? I'm trying to watch a movie here!"
Raising her eyebrows, April opened her mouth to chastise her oldest child. He might be feeling that he was a little too old for Halloween, but there was no reason for him to lash so much. Jackson grabbed her elbow and led her outside behind the younger 3 children.
"Leave it," he whispered gently, kissing April's cheek. "Let's just go have fun. He's just being 16."
Taking a deep breath, April looped her arm through Jackson's and walked along behind the kids as they started trick or treating. She was probably just over thinking things. Just because she was unsettled by Conner's recent behavior, it didn't mean it was all that abnormal. It was certainly nothing to take personally, and nothing to worry about. April forced herself to push her uncertainty aside. There was no reason she shouldn't enjoy the night.
She knew next to nothing about teenage boys, considering she'd grown up with 3 sisters, and was virtually invisible to guys of the opposite sex in high school. Jackson had far more expertise in the area, and he kept telling April that all this recent snarkiness from Conner was just typical teenage angst.
Nothing they couldn't handle.
Or so she thought.
Jackson might have known something was bound to go wrong. They'd had far too long of a good behavior spell from the kids. Hannah and Simon were doing well in school. Conner was back on his crew team. Riley was the top of her class and far less moody than she'd been the previous year.
Yes, the Avery family was well and truly overdue for their very own fiasco.
But as he watched April sputter and stare disbelievingly at the two teenagers on the couch in front of her, Jackson had to admit he would never in a million years have predicted this. Underneath all the righteous indignation, and justifiable anger he felt at his oldest son for the deception, there was also a layer of admiration.
He never knew Conner had it in him. Not mild mannered, soft spoken, generally awkward around girls Conner. Not cautious, responsible, trustworthy Conner.
Then again, it could all have been Mei's 'd long thought that out of the two of them, Mei Grey-Shepherd was by far the more bold of the two. Jackson knew his son was a bit shy when it came to romance. And she'd been the one to ask Conner to go with her to the sophomore formal the previous May. So, Mei could easily have broached the idea first.
Not that it mattered, really.
Either way, the fact that Jackson, April and the kids had returned home early from their trick or treating to discover the two teenagers in a hot and heavy make out session in their very own living room was nothing short of astounding.
And they might have missed it all and been none the wiser, but for a small case of the clumsy.
About halfway through the neighborhood, Simon had hopped up onto a brick wall enclosing a yard, balancing carefully and singing the theme song of Bill Nye, while Jackson and April chatted easily with Hannah and Riley about their own childhood trick or treating adventures.
"And our nanny, Maggie was sick and couldn't watch us and my mother couldn't get out of a procedure," Jackson said wryly as he strolled down the sidewalk, with one hand resting on the small of April's back and the other tightly clasped by Hannah. "So your Uncle P and I had to hangout all night at the hospital wandering around..."
It was actually not one of Jackson's most fond memories. He and his older brother had wandered away from their mother's office and into Jackson's own personal Halloween nightmare filled with gore, and screaming and-
"Uncle Parker told us you got lost and saw blood and then started to cry," Riley teased from his wife's side, as she lightly dragged the edge of her stick thing (he refused to call it a wand) along the brick wall of their neighbor's yard.
"I accidentally walked into the gallery!" Jackson defended. "Gramma was doing an operation."
"Was is scary, Daddy?" Hannah asked eagerly.
From his perch on the wall, Simon had piped up, "Dramatizing?"
He snickered, and emphasized his words, "It was very traumatic."
His mother was a urologist after all.
April nudged him and added, "Couldn't have been that bad. Considering your chosen profession..."
"Right," Riley said matter of factly. "Not like you, Mama. You became a surgeon cuz you got scared..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jackson had paused then, raising an eyebrow. He'd known his wife a long time. Longer than he wanted to admit really because when he thought about it all together, the years totally added up. Feeling old wasn't great for his ego. In all those years he liked to think that he knew all his wife's embarrassing Kepner farm stories.
"When Mama got lost in the corn maze, and then she got hit in the shoulder by falling corn and Grampi Joe had mess up the maze to go get her because she was crying so hard and couldn't find the way out..."
Apparently he was mistaken. It seemed his oldest daughter was now the keeper of all embarrassing stories.
"Who told you about that?" April demanded.
Jackson laughed and nudged his wife's shoulder, "And why have I never heard about it?"
Riley shrugged, "Nana Karen told me. That summer before last. When we visited the farm...before..."
The faces of both adults fell. Jackson wrapped a comforting arm around April. Even nearly two years later, the loss of his Kepner in laws was still a tough pill to swallow. The whole family had taken things really hard. April had been depressed and gloomy for what felt like months, and the kids had all grieved in their own ways. Riley's grief had been a source of tension for the longest time, because it had often made her act out. The loss had certainly made Jackson more thankful that he still had his own mother, as much of a handful as she could be.
Sensing the fall in her parents mood, Riley had smiled and leaned into her mother's side, "She thought it was a very funny story, Mommy! She laughed really hard. Remember how red her face used to get when she laughed really hard?"
"I do!" Hannah answered.
Simon nodded, "Me too. Sometimes even hers ears got red! Nana was a good laugher."
Jackson smiled faintly as he recalled the seemingly diminutive Karen belly laughing in her kitchen. The image Riley conjured was pretty much his quintessential memory of his departed mother in law. It was nice to remember her that way.
Beside him April nodded, "Yeah..."
It was still hard for her.
Riley beamed up at her mother and concluded, "Nana said she thought the corn maze incident was probably what put you off farming all together. Which was good because no one ever became a doctor in her family before. It made her happy. You made her happy, Mom."
"That's such a nice thing to say," April whispered.
"It's the truth. Nana told me so."
In that moment, Jackson's heart swelled with pride.
He'd realized right then and there just how much his daughter had grown since April's parent's had passed. He didn't always understand Riley or know what to say to her, or know why the hell she did half of the things she did. He didn't get her penchant for philosophy, her insatiable appetite for books, or her insistence that the stick in her hand was actually different from any stick he could find in the backyard. He didn't get any of that, and he probably never would. But it didn't matter, because Jackson never worried much about the kind of person his 11 year old was turning out to be.
With or without his successful input, she was growing into an admirable human being.
It was a nice moment for all of them, and really Jackson should have been more suspicious. Nice moments always book ended disasters. Sure enough, a moment later Simon's foot caught on a pebble, sending him flying chest first onto the sidewalk.
Predictably, tears followed, not so much over any real injuries, since the boy's candy filled pillow case had broken his fall. The tears in fact were a result of the terrible injustice of ending up with smashed candy. Both Jackson and April had tried to placate him. Jackson had pointed out that at least his glass cup of science wasn't broken. April had offered to try and salvage some usefulness out of the smashed candy by making it into a milkshake for him.
Even Hannah and Riley had tried to calm Simon down, each offering to share half of their candy to make up for his batch. Which was a huge concession on Hannah's part. Girl loved her some sweets. Her offering to share with her brother was nothing short of true love. But it was to no avail.
Simon's tears continued, and as though the sky was mad about the candy too, a mist of rain started to fall as well. And so the family quintet had agreed to call it an early night, on the condition that the children were allowed access to whatever left over candy Conner had yet to distribute. Seemed like a good enough deal. And fun as it was, Jackson was eager to remove his costume and wig, since he was starting to sweat.
Besides, where once in life Jackson would have given anything to be someone else, today Jackson Avery was more than happy to be just that.
Jackson Avery.
Father, husband, surgeon. Not bad at all.
So they'd taken the quick walk home, Simon sniffling into April's shoulder while Jackson and the girls trailed along behind. They'd reached the house to find the hallways darkened, and the sound of Alfred Hitchcock blaring from the living room. April had flipped the lights on in the living room to find Conner and Mei Grey-Shepherd indisputably lip-locked on the couch in front of the glowing tv screen.
The teenage couple gasped and jumped apart. Conner stared at his hand, looking mortified, while Mei held a hand to her mouth as her almond shaped eyes grew wide.
Jackson swallowed. Great.
"Oh my God," April gasped in shock.
"Oooh!" Riley taunted from the doorway, pointing to her brother in glee. "You're in trouble!"
Tears suddenly forgotten, Simon waved jovially, "Hi Mei! See my costume? I'm Simon Science Guy!"
"Um," Mei replied awkwardly. "Yeah. That's very cool..."
Sliding Simon to the floor, April snapped and pointed towards the stairs, "Kids, upstairs. Now!"
They didn't need to be told twice. Riley grabbed her younger brother's hand, sticking her tongue out at Conner before scampering up the stairs. Hannah soon followed, but only after surreptitiously grabbing a bowl of candy from the entryway table. It wasn't very often April was this stern.
She really didn't get too pissed. Now, Jackson was pretty sure his wife was on the verge of a coronary.
"April..." he ventured tentatively, trying to gauge her level of anger.
While he shared the feelings of shock and frustration over his son's behavior, Jackson knew that part of his wife's reaction would be colored by her more conservative background. Teenagers made mistakes, and liked, and snuck around. Especially teenage boys. Jackson had been there himself more than a few times. And he had not been lucky enough to have a family that noticed. Conner made a typical mistake. They needed to measure their response and discipline so that it was effective, and prevented him from doing the same thing again and from doing something worse to rebel.
Jackson felt that this didn't warrant throwing the book.
"What-What on earth is going on?" April demanded, ignoring him, and keeping her gaze squarely on her oldest son.
"Uh, sorry, I didn't mean-" Mei tried to explain. "We...we were just-"
April held up a finger which the young woman clearly did not want to cross. Mei shut her mouth and swallowed, looking at her hands guiltily. Conner remained still, and had yet to make eye contact with either Jackson or April.
Taking a deep breath, she continued, "Mei, I don't know how you got here, but want you to go into the kitchen, call your parents, and tell them what happened. Then I want you to wait in there until they come to pick you up. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Mei mumbled gratefully before she made a hasty retreat to place her phone call.
Jackson shook his head, imagining exactly how that conversation would go down. He suspected that his friend Meredith would be in a similar situation as he was. When it became apparent that their two teenagers were crushing on each other, Derek and April were the ones who were over protective about it all. Grey wasn't as bothered. Maybe it was because of their super surgeon moms. Maybe it was because Shepherd and April had had much more structured youths.
Jackson didn't think there was anything wrong with two teens making out, so long as they were both responsible. Meredith felt the same way.
Lying and sneaking around on the other hand, that was bad.
"I-" April sputtered, gesturing with her hands for Jackson to take over. "I don't even know what to say."
Time to step in.
"Conner?" Jackson prodded. "You didn't have permission to have someone come over, did you?"
The boy didn't answer.
"Did you?"
"No."
"We're very disappointed in you, bud," Jackson continued.
April crossed her arms and nodded emphatically. Conner still didn't look up.
"We don't mind you having dates with your girlfriend..." he explained carefully, knowing this was not the reprimand his wife was expecting him to give.
Blinking rapidly, her glare turned to Jackson, "We don't?"
The teenager's head shot up, "You don't?"
Jackson shook his head, "I mean, I get it. Really, I do. You want to spend time together. You maybe even wanna kiss sometimes. That's normal. And it's fine, so long as you are responsible about it."
Speaking sharply, April demanded, "Jackson!"
Ignoring her indignation, and continuing to take the lead, he added, "But lying to us about what you are doing, and bringing someone into our house without our knowledge, is categorically not okay. It makes me question how responsible you are. We trusted you to be in the house while we weren't here, sometimes we've even trusted you to be here alone with your sisters and brother without us here. That's a big responsibility and now it's a privilege we have to reconsider."
Conner bit his lip and looked up at Jackson pitifully, "Sorry."
"I know, Conner. But for now, you are grounded. No driving, no hanging out downtown after school. No internet. Starting now. You go to your room."
Nodding the boy rose from the couch, and headed to his room turning to eye his mother nervously, "I'm really sorry, Mom." He lowered his voice, "About everything. Even earlier."
April's face softened slightly, and she nodded, "Apology accepted. Now, I want you to go and think about everything you've done and-"
"Everything he did? You want him to think of everything?" Jackson couldn't help the little chuckled that escaped his lips, gleefully watching the horror spread on both his wife and son's faces. They were so easy to mess with.
Conner just shook his head violently and ran upstairs. April watched him go in disbelief before she flopped down on the couch.
"Oh my God," she sighed. "He...he was...and she...oh my God."
"They're 16," Jackson soothed, sitting down next to his wife and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"But...but they're too young to be- to..."
"That seemed pretty PG. It's not like they are having sex yet, April."
Her eyes widened, "Yet? They can't-"
"I don't think they will anytime soon. Seriously, I was a real player in high school, and Conner and Mei definitely don't fit that profile. I'll have another talk with him when things cool down a bit. See where they're at. Make sure they make good choices. But you know, someday, whether it's Mei or not...Conner is going to have sex with someone. It's a fact."
"I-" Eyes still wide, April shook her head. "I don't want to think about that, or...see what I just saw..."
Jackson chuckled again, rubbing a comforting hand down April's arm. He supposed he was just more used to talking about this kind of thing. His mother was never one to shy away from talking about romance and sex. She'd even badgered him into revealing his threesome virginity story eventually. Jackson might be more like her as a parent then he realized.
"Well, I can understand that. Don't worry. I've got this."
April rested her head on Jackson's shoulder with a sigh, "Thanks for that."
"No problem," he replied, snuggling closer to his wife, "You just have to promise to take the lead when Riley's a teenager."
"I don't know if I can. Not for this kinds of stuff...I never...I mean, not that I am judging, but Jackson when I was in high school, I never-"
"Right. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
"I guess."
Jackson laughed at how shocked April still sounded, using his over arm to pull off his sweaty wig, and laughing at how funny they must have looked, yelling at Conner and Mei while dressed as Lucy and Ricky. Not exactly very stern looking.
"Well," he said seductively, leaning in to kiss his wife's neck. "Not condoning what happened, I can kind of see the appeal. This couch is very comfortable."
"Jackson," April giggled, batting him away. "This kind of example is probably why Conner even got the idea in the first place..."
He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips, "Probably. But I think it'll be okay."
April pursed her lips and considered his words before replying.
"Me too."
Some Halloween.