A/N: This is a sequel to my story Congratulations and picks off a little after the ending. Obviously it's an April/Stark pairing and the same Stark/Arizona friendship from the last one. All other pairings/friendships are still up in the air. As always, nothing can be fluffy and perfect all the time, so expect some true Grey's style drama down the road!

"You're engaged!"

Robert scowled and shook his head as he shut the door to his office. He and April had agreed - after their professional discussion - that they would keep this under wraps and not tell anyone for a little while; that had strictly been because they were so amused by the bets that were being made about how long they would last. That, and Robert wanted to wait until he had actually bought her a ring, and she had wanted to be there to pick it out with him. With their conflicting schedules, it had been difficult finding a free hour when the shops were open. But they had done it, and now he was engaged to the woman of his dreams.

However, that didn't stop his agitation as he hissed, "Arizona, you need to not broadcast to the world."

"Oh, please! The entire hospital is going to know once they see that rock on her finger!"

"I don't care! That doesn't give you the right to shout it to the rooftops!"

Arizona put her hands on her hips as he sat down in his chair, exasperated. "Oh? And now who's shouting it to the rooftops?"

Robert glared at her. "Look-"

"You're engaged!"

He sighed heavily at the exuberance in her voice before he stared at her. "Do you act like this whenever you hear good news? Because I don't know how Callie deals with you."

Arizona only smiled, knowing his jab was an attempt to get her to go away. Instead of leaving like he wanted, she hit his shoulder with a soft punch and said, "I can't believe you proposed and she said yes!"

He scowled. "You thought she wasn't going to?"

"I didn't mean that," Arizona told him with a roll of her eyes and a sigh. "I just...I can't believe it! This is a big deal! How are you not more excited?"

"Because I'm dead on the inside from this conversation," he responded dryly and scowled when she glared at him. "What?"

"You don't want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about!" He laughed slightly and shook his head. "I proposed and she said she needed to think about it, and a week later she accepted. I bought her the ring and we didn't say anything until to anyone until she had a ring on her finger. There's nothing else to talk about."

"But you're engaged!"

"I know!" After a few moments of silence, he grinned. "I'm engaged."

Arizona laughed at the giddy smile on his face and pulled a chair so she was sitting beside him. "So...Have you guys started planning anything?"

He shrugged. "Not yet. I just put the ring on her finger this morning. But...I'd give her whatever she wanted."

"You'd do a big wedding?"

"If that's what she wanted," he answered honestly. "I mean...It's her first wedding and - hopefully - her only one so I think it should be special. Hell, I'd go to a justice of the peace if that's what she wanted."

"I think it's sweet."

"How many people did she show the ring to?"

"Just me and Callie," Arizona answered. "We caught her in the locker room while she was changing into her scrubs and Callie saw the light shine off her ring. She was more excited than I was - if you can believe it."

"I can't."

Arizona laughed and hit his leg. "Oh, I can't believe you're engaged. This is fantastic!"

"Yeah, which reminds me, her and I are having this dinner-thing tomorrow night as a celebration thing and...And you and Callie can come. So far it's me, April, Jackson, Lexie, Meredith, Derek, and I have no idea who else."

"You don't sound too happy about it."

"Oh, I'm not."

Arizona laughed mockingly. "Does April know that?"

"I can't say no to her," he answered with a smile. "Not with things that make her happy and things that she want. Like I said, this has to be special and be everything that she always dreamed about. It's...It's worth it. Her happiness is worth my suffering for a night."

"You're a good man."

"I know."

"Oh, that's not narcissistic at all."

"Hey." He pointed at her. "You're the one who said it, not me. I was just agreeing with you, which is the polite thing to do."

"Sure." She smiled. "Do you need any help preparing food? Because I can be a mean cook in the kitchen if I really want to be."

"If you want. It's not expected. April and I could have it covered. Which reminds me, we aren't doing it at my apartment - that's way too small."

"So where are you doing it?"

"Meredith offered us to use her house and we're all going to eat in the dining room."

"Well, that's nice of them."

"Yeah. I think they'll enjoy the company. I don't know though." Robert shrugged. "I don't know Meredith or Derek that well, anyway. They probably just did out of kindness and probably don't even want us there."

"Well, if you need help Callie and I would love to pitch in. Just let me know."

"Does Callie know you're recruiting her help for this?"

"No," Arizona answered with a shake of her head and then a smile. "But she won't mind regardless. She's a big girly girl and she'll agree with everything you're saying about how the wedding needs to be special and everything that April ever imagined. She'll be all into it."

"That's too much estrogen."

"April's too much for you already?"

"No, no. April I can handle - even when it is that time of the month. I just don't talk to her then," he answered with a soft smile. "It's just her and Callie and you...That's too many women. I'm only one guy."

"Do you want our help or not?"

"Yes, please. I'll die if it's just me."

"Oh, I'm so happy!"

He scowled and watched her walk away, giddy and laughing with the same excitement that he felt, but for a different reason. She was happy because weddings were fun and a good time, but he was happy because this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with; he was looking forward to spending the rest of his life with her and waking up beside her every morning - for good. He was so excited because she was excited, because this was what he was waiting his entire life for.

Getting to - and down - that altar would be hell, he knew; but it would be a hell they'd travel together, and that made it aces with him.

Step by step, he told himself silently; that's how he would survive this. He just hoped he didn't have the urge to kill someone in the process.

There was something about wearing an engagement ring that was so thrilling for April, and she wasn't even sure what it was. There was this air around her - it felt so amazing that she constantly had butterflies in her stomach. Every once in a while she would glance down and catch the shimmer in her glance and find herself smiling softly because she remembered the morning and how he had gotten down on bended knee. It had a simple proposal - just like when he broached the subject in bed.

She was in the bathroom, hurriedly brushing her teeth because she was late for work, and he had walked in, a giddy smile on his face. She could remember feeling confused and then smiling as soon as he bent down on his knee and produced the box. Robert had given a quiet - yet confident - speech about how much he loved her and how much she meant to him and that they had gone from despising each other to this relationship that knew only love but no hate. Somehow - though his words were normal in a proposal - he had brought her to tears and she had accepted even before he had the box completely opened. Robert had smiled before he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her gently before ushering her out the door because she would be late otherwise.

It really was like any other morning.

But it wasn't any other morning. She was engaged to be married! April couldn't help but smile as she turned back to her charts. Nothing could bring this day down for her.

"Hey, April."

Well, maybe nothing.

She turned to face Alex who was walking toward her with a chart tucked under his arm. Ever since she and Robert had moved in together, she had asked him to at least be civil to Alex and let him in on some of his surgeries. He had complied, rather reluctantly, and had started to allow Alex in on more surgeries and cases. However, Alex was still being a jerk to him and made quips about their relationship - even though Alex had no idea that Robert could hear every word he spoke from rumor mills and the shadows that he lurked in sometimes when he didn't want to talk to anyone. April scowled immediately, fearing he was here to cause her grief and try to bring her day down. "What do you want, Alex?"

"That Matthews case you put me on..."

April looked up from the chart when his voice trailed up; he was staring at her, surprised, and she asked, "What about the Matthews case?"

"What's that?"

She looked down to where he pointed and smiled. "It's a ring, Alex."

"You're engaged?"

"No, this is a purity ring," she told him sarcastically - a defensive maneuver she had learned from Robert after being around him so much, at least in the professional arena.

He scowled.

"Yes, it's an engagement ring." The only thought in his head that they were sleeping together was when she moved all her stuff out of Meredith's finally; he had no real concrete proof that they were sleeping together because it wasn't like they had told anyone. April had told Lexie and her sisters, and Robert...Well, she didn't think he had told anyone perhaps Arizona. As far as anyone else was still concerned, she was still a virgin. Now she was certain the rumors would circle about how they wouldn't have sex - probably - until their wedding night because she was a goody-two-shoe and would make him wait.

"You're engaged?"

The surprise in his voice was clear, but it didn't stop a roll in her eyes. Everyone had thought they wouldn't make it, that they were a strange couple, but Alex was the one who voiced the most discontent. If it wasn't for Alex - and her own nervous fears that had been for naught - they wouldn't have spent months without another. But, as Robert had told her frequently, the past was the past and there was nothing they could do to change it. They simply had to move forward as best they could. "Yes, Alex. I am engaged. Some would take that surprise as offensive, you know."

He shook his head. "I just...I can't believe it."

"Well, believe it." She showed him her hand. "Because it's real and there's a diamond to prove it."

"That's quite a ring."

April chuckled giddily. "It is, isn't it?"

Alex looked more dumbfounded than anything else. "Wait...You're engaged to Stark? To...To Stark? The guy who wanted to cut off a girl's leg and can be a complete jackass like one hundred percent of the time."

"Alex," she turned to him, "you can be a complete jackass one hundred percent of the time but someone is going to want to marry you one day."

"But why him?"

"Because I love him."

"God, you do?"

"I do," she answered, ignoring the disgusted look on his face. "Now, Alex, if you don't have anything else to discuss besides my engagement and how happy you are for me, then I think you should turn around and walk away."

"You're turning into him."

"Some of the things he does here work, Alex. You might not like them because you don't like him, but it's effective. He gets things done."

"He's willing to cut off girls' legs!"

"So you're going to hold one thing over his head the rest of his life? That'd be like me hating you because you freaked out on me when we almost had sex. It's ridiculous and stupid and it'll only end up hurting you in the end." She shook her head. "It's already hurting you, Alex. Because you could learn a lot from him but you're not because you can't be civil with him."

"April-"

"If you can't be happy for me - for the fact that I've found a relationship and I'm happy - then I don't have anything to say to you outside of work."

"Wow."

"Don't wow me," she told him, more upset now than anything else. "This is supposed to be a good time for me, okay? And if you're going to be negative, it's not going to be a good time for me. I'm engaged to be married, damn it. And if you aren't going to happy for me - if all you're going to do is bring me down - then I don't want to talk to you unless it's about work. Because I don't need that."

"What has he done to you?"

April only scowled as she watched him walk away, angry and frustrated. She shook her head before she turned back to her charts, but she couldn't get his words out of her head. She couldn't forget, and it bothered her that she couldn't push the comment from her brain; it bothered her because she didn't want it to poison her and therefore poison the only amazing thing besides becoming Chief Resident that had ever happened in her life.

When she found him later that night in bed, curled up with a novel by Twain, she leaned against the doorframe and watched him read; he didn't know she was there, the book practically pressed to his nose because the font was so small, and he continued to read undisturbed. April decided that she loved watching him in these quiet moments which were rare but powerful. She felt like a bystander at the zoo, who had the luck to see the lion come out of his fighting mode to relax, finally. This apartment was his den, a place where he could relax and be himself free of outside judgment, where he didn't have to put up a facade of distance. He could let his walls down and not care.

She was the only person he could be himself around. Although there were times when that bothered her - because she wanted him to have people to be open with - she didn't mind it now; she felt honored, in fact, that she was the one he chose to expose his soul to, that she was the woman he loved. April realized now that what Alex had said - about him doing something to her - was all a lie. If Robert did anything to her, it was make her thankful that she lived and breathed on the same planet as he did. He made her feel like she was on cloud nine, that she was the only woman in the world that mattered.

And that was enough to remind her why she had accepted his marriage proposal. "Hey."

He looked up from the book, his glasses sliding off his nose. Robert only stared down at the fallen glasses and scowled. "Hey."

April chuckled and pushed off the doorframe, moving toward the edge of the bed. "You really need to get those tightened, honey."

"Oh, yeah?" He picked them up and placed them back on the bridge of his nose. "This coming from the woman who constantly complains about her bike but never goes in to get it fixed?"

"Please, I have a month or two to wait before the weather is nice enough to bike outside. You need your glasses fixed as soon as possible." She didn't say anything else as she crawled up the bed, moving so she was straddling him; she smiled and gently pulled his glasses off, putting them aside before she turned back to him. He stared at her, patient and not agitated that she had stopped his reading. "We should stop by tomorrow morning."

"Before work?"

"Yes. They're open then, aren't they?"

"I guess we're going to find out," he answered with a smile. Robert sighed and leaned his head against the plush headboard when she rested her hands against his chest. "How did your day go?"

"Good, I guess."

He could sense by her tone that something had happened that she didn't want to tell him. "April."

"What?"

"What happened?"

"Nothing happened," she answered, her voice reaching a higher octave - his way of knowing, too, that she was lying to him. "It just...It wasn't the best day on record is all."

"Did something happen?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary." April sighed when he stared at her gently, though persistent. She began to gently trace the outline of his collar and told him, "Okay, just promise me that you won't freak out."

He scowled. "I can't make any promises."

"Please?"

Robert sighed. "All right, fine. Just tell me."

"Alex was giving me some crap about our engagement earlier, and-"

"Karev?" He sounded disgusted. "This is about Karev?"

"Robert-"

"April, come on. I thought we were past that and his butting in and that having an affect on your-"

"He doesn't have an affect on me, Robert!"

"Clearly he does," he answered quietly, gently moving so she would slide off him as he moved from the bed, into the bathroom; he wasn't surprised when she followed him in there and leaned against the doorframe. No words were spoken, but he could feel her gaze on him, concerned and apologetic. After a few moments, he leaned his hands against the sink and looked into the porcelain bowl. "All right, I'm sorry, April. It's just...He's still somewhat of a sore spot for me."

"I know." April moved so she was behind him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin against his shoulder as she stared at them in the mirror. He was staring at her, his eyes emitting calm though she knew he was tense. "And I'm sorry I brought it up."

"I'm not." He covered her hand with his as it gently rubbed circles on his chest. "I just...I wish he would mind his own business."

"If it makes you feel any better, I told him off."

"Yeah?"

She nodded and smirked when he smiled brightly at the thought. "He didn't look too happy after I did it, either."

"Good."

She smiled and kissed his shoulder gently when the smirk persisted on his face. "I don't want you confronting him, Robert. I handled it."

He only stared at her through the mirror before he sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"All right. I can respect that." He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently. "But if he causes any more problems for you, I want to know about it. Because I'm going to say something if this persists."

"Going to be my big, bad protector?"

"I'm not just protecting you, April. I'm protecting us."

April found her heart melt at his words - at how strongly he wanted to protect and preserve their relationship. However, she couldn't help but ask, "You honestly think that I would let him get to me that much that it would threaten what we have?" She knew her track record wasn't supporting her, but times had changed; she had changed. She no longer cared what Alex Karev thought about her relationship. All that mattered was what she - and Robert - thought about it. The only other opinion that perhaps mattered was her family's. "Robert-"

"It's a fear of mine," he cut her off gently. "Because people talk. And talking and comments can hurt and make you think about things in a different light."

"Have some faith in me, please."

He sighed. "It's not that I don't have faith in you, April. I just...I know what people say. I hear them as much as you do. But I'm different than you. I don't care about what anyone thinks of me personally or professionally - besides you. But you...You care about what other people think of you."

"Is it so bad that I want people to like me?"

"Not at all."

"So what's the problem?"

Robert turned to face her before he picked her up and gently placed her on the countertop so she could wrap her arms around his neck while he wrapped his arms around her waist so she didn't fall. "I don't want something to happen to us because people can't mind their own damn business."

"I won't listen to them," April told him, kissing him gently in reassurance. "It's just words. What you and I have...No words could destroy that."

"April?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how much I love you, right?" He laughed when she extended both her much, as if that was the limit of his love. "I love you more than that, honey."

"Yeah, but that's as far as my arms can reach."

"Well I'll have to make you a machine that'll make your arms stretch to the moon and back," he whispered gently before he kissed her, smiling against her mouth when she chuckled. She tasted like chocolate and he pulled away slowly. "Honey?"

"Yeah?"

"You had a piece of that cake on the counter, didn't you?" That cake had been a gift to him from his next door neighbor whose young child he had agreed to babysit for a few days while she took a class.

"No."

Robert tilted his head to look at her after she scoffed. "April."

"I didn't!" She sighed when he glared and smirked at her, eying her carefully as if he didn't believe her. She couldn't help but laugh. "I swear, I didn't!"

"Then why do you taste like chocolate?"

"Because..." She paused to think for a moment, and in that pause he pulled away from her to walk back into the bedroom where he would soon enter the kitchen to find that she had - in fact - taken a slice of the cake. April jumped from the counter with a groan and grabbed his arm, spinning him around and pulling him back into her. She threw her arms around his neck and wrapped one leg around his so he was forced to hold her up and couldn't run away from her.

He only stared down at her. "You think I can't carry you into the kitchen like this?"

April laughed. "I'm sure you could, but you won't."

"Oh, no?"

"No." She shook her head. "Because I can think of something better to do than worrying about that chocolate cake which was so-so."

"I haven't tried it yet."

"It was just okay," April told him. "I've had better."

"It's still cake. And-" He stopped his rant into how cake was fine with him as long as it wasn't dry and gross when her words registered to him. "And what's something better to do than worry about my cake-stealing girlfriend?"

"Having sex with your cake-stealing girlfriend."

"Well that's nice, too." He smiled when she rolled her eyes with a shake of her head.

"Come on." She moved away from him but grabbed his hand. "Let me show you how thankful I am that you're letting me do a big congratulatory dinner tomorrow night."

"Oh, yeah." He chuckled softly as she pulled him into the bedroom. "Definitely better than cake."