Title: Out of the blue
Plot: One of Jo's Foster brothers arrives at Grey Sloan Memorial and they reconnect. (One shot)
Those we love don't truly go away. One day soon out of the blue they'll walk beside you and smile, and although things have changed throughout your life, it'll be like they never went away...
Jo looks around the chaotic ER. She could see beds every where. They were overrun with patients. The sound of the machines fill the room and capture all of Jo's attention for a brief moment.
After snapping out of her daze she makes her way to Owen, who was standing at the nurses station filling out a chart on his tablet.
"You paged me sir?" Jo questions as she walks up to him.
"Bed three," he says without looking up from his tablet. The forth year resident nods her head and picks up a tablet from the station before heading over to bay three. She opens up the partition as she logs onto the hospital database.
"Hi, I'm Dr Jo Wilson," Jo smiles. She looks up from her tablet and instantly notices the man laying on the bed. He looked to be the same age as her. He had black hair and was wearing a pair of Jeans and a white t-shirt. Across his head there was a small bloody laceration. From glancing at it Jo could tell that it was a new cut, however the start of the blood crustacean indicated it was now a few hours old.
She looks at the man in awe, never again did she think that she'd ever see him... Not after their time in foster care together. "Bradley Winslet," Jo smiles.
He looks at her cautiously. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't recognise her. Jo couldn't blame him, she introduced herself with a new name and she wasn't 15 anymore, she looked completely different then she did back then.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" He asks confused. Jo continues to smile at him, "or do all doctors smile at their patients this way?" He asks.
Jo closes the partition and walks over to the glove dispenser and gets two medium gloves out and places the tablet down on the counter. She then walks over to the wheely chair beside the bed and sits down.
"No, you know me. We were in foster care together," Jo smiles as she puts on the gloves.
"I'm so sorry, your name doesn't ring a bell," he replies.
"No, it's okay. It shouldn't ring a bell," Jo replies as she pulls over her instrument tray. "Let's take a look at this cut hey?" She asks. Jo gets a cotton tip from they tray and some badadine.
"Your name, why shouldn't I recognise it if we were in the same home together?" He asks curiously as Jo pours the antiseptic onto the cotton tip.
"This is going to sting a little, okay?" Jo says.
Bradley nods his head in recognition of the statement and as Jo begins to clean his cut he flinches. "I changed my name. I wasn't Jo Wilson back then... Back in the home," Jo begins.
"Name change? Well your certainly a very mysterious woman," Bradley replies as Jo continues to clean his laceration.
"You're lucky. This looks to be superficial. No need for stitches... Just butterfly clips. Better to be safe then sorry though so you did the right thing by coming down," Jo praises. "How did you cut yourself?" She asks curiously.
"I was mowing the law. I must have mowed over something because It flung up and hit me," he replies.
Jo nods her head, "when was this?" She asks as she reaches for some butterfly clips.
"About four hours ago," he replies.
"Any headaches, nausea?" She asks as she begins to place the butterfly clips on.
"No," Bradley replies shaking his head.
"Okay, good. No need for a scan then," Jo replies with a smile.
"Are you going to tell me what your name was back then? Or are you going to leave me guessing?" He asks curiously.
Jo looks at him with a smile, "it was Brooke Stadler... Sorry, Lily, Brooke Lily," she corrects herself. "We were 15. We were in the Miller home together," Jo smiles. She pulls her gloves off and places them on the instrument tray.
Brad's face lights up as he remembers her, "Brooke Lily!" He exclaims. Jo holds her hands up in the air, shrugs her shoulders and spins around on her chair happily and gives a small chuckle. "Sister deer... Best friend. You turned out good!" he exclaims surprised.
"Good? Well, I wouldn't say that exactly. It's complicated," Jo admits. She uses the wheely chair and rolls over to grab her tablet before rolling back to him.
"And hot," he adds.
"Hot? Was I not hot back then?" Jo questions with a laugh.
"You had braces and a massive overbite," he reminds her as she fills out his chart.
Jo laughs, "oh god, don't remind me. The Miller's were the only ones to do something to correct that. I had Braces until I was 20 my overbite was that bad," she remembers, "I was such a socially awkward kid, thanks for putting up with me," she laughs. She dims the screen on the tablet and places it on her lap.
"Please, we we're both socially challenged. That's part of the reason we got along so well together," he reminds her with a laugh.
"And then your social worker found a permanent home for you in California and because we were so socially challenged despite being best friends we couldn't figure out how to be friends over long distance," she laughs.
Scene break
"We can sit just over here," Jo says as she points to an empty table in the middle of the busy lunch room. Brad follows Jo as she weaves her way through the lunch room and they sit down.
"This is a very busy area," Brad replies shocks as he picks up his sauce packet and pours it all over his hot chips.
"It's always busy. I mean think about it, we have thousands of people walk through the hospital doors everyday and hundreds of staff members that look after them. So food is a very important item. It also gives comfort," Jo explains as she peals her banana.
"Wow. There's science to everything, including lunch," Brad laughs. He picks up a chip with his fork and eats it. She looks up at him and smiles. "You never returned my letters. Did you get them?" He asks curiously.
"After you moved I was placed into another foster home. The Miller's were probably the best foster family that I was ever placed into and the first one that cared... But then Allison was diagnosed with cancer and they couldn't look after me, or Sarah any more. So as I said I had to be placed in another foster home. They kicked me out after two days and I lived in my car. So no, I didn't get them," Jo says shaking her head. She takes a small bite out of her banana.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," he replies.
"It's fine. I don't live in my car anymore," she laughs, "I have a house and a family," she smiles.
"A family?" Brad asks as his eyes grow wide in surprise. He quickly pops another chip into his mouth.
Jo nods her head, "a family," she smiles. "My husband Alex and I have twins; a little boy, Jacob and a little girl Maddison They are 12 weeks old. Today is actually my first day back after having them," Jo smiles.
"Wow, congratulations. That's massive. I never pictured you to have children," He muses.
"I was so messed up back then neither could I. I would have been the first one to say that I'd kill my child. But that person isn't me anymore," Jo replies. "What about you? Do you have a family?" Jo asks curiously as she continues to eat her banana.
"My Girlfriend Kate is six months pregnant. We're having a little boy," he smiles. Jo takes the final bite of her banana and places the banana peel on her tray.
"Wow, that's so amazing. What does Kate do?" Jo asks curiously.
"She's an supermodel," Bradley grins.
"Woah! Wow, now that's something I didn't expect," she laughs.
"Me either. She was way out of me league and yet she fell for me," he laughs.
"Well, you do have great hair now," she muses laughing.
"And Alex? What does Alex do?" He asks curiously.
"He is a Paediatric surgeon here," Jo smiles, "and he's the best person to have ever of happened to me. I was in a dark, dark place when we met and he helped me to see the light," Jo smiles. Jo looks around the room and scans for Alex. She knew that he should be on lunch right about now.
"Well he should a like a very special guy," Brad smiles.
"He is," Jo replies nodding her head.
"I never imagine that you'd be a doctor. Not I'm a million years did that ever cross my mind," he says amazed. He picks up a hot chip and eats it.
"Surgeon," she corrects. "And at 15 I didn't have my shit together. I was a mess and as were you if I recall," she laughs.
Jo takes a bite of her banana. "Well, I think that saving lives is a wonderful thing to do. Busy, I'm sure," he replies.
"It keeps me on my toes, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love what I do and I love that I get to do it beside Alex. It makes me so happy," she says with a radiating smile, "now what did you need up doing?" She asks.
"I'm a contractor. It's actually how I met Kate. She hired me to fix her porch swing and I just never left," he grins.
"Typical," Jo chuckles. "Well, she's a real special lady. You'll make a great dad," she smiles. "Hey, hey, maybe we can do family dinners together every second week?" She says getting carried away.
"That would be really great," he says. "So why did you change your name?" Brad asks inquisitively.
Jo takes a deep breath, "My husband," Jo replies. She knew he would be confused by that statement, considering she told him that she was engaged.
"Your husband? Why would he make you change your name?" He replies confused. "If he made you change your name Jo then..."
"Alex and I aren't properly married," she interrupts. "We're engaged. I am married to somebody else and I'm also not divorced from him. He was an abusive man. So I ran away and I changed my name. I can't get a divorce because he'll find me and he'll hurt me... He'll take away the life that I've worked so hard to build with Alex," Jo explains. She looks down in shame as she remembers the darkest days of her life.
"So you don't know if you'll ever be able to get married to Alex," he finishes.
"We are what we like to call 'post it on the wall' married," Jo replies. "On the night we got engaged we had a mini ceremony with just the two of us in the residents locker room. We held hands and said 'I do'. We then wrote our vows on a post it note and signed it. It's now hanging in a photo frame above the bed," Jo smiles happily.
"Wow, that's some story," Brad smiles.
"Hm, it is isn't it? We pulled a Meredith and McDreamy... Derek. You don't know who they are so you won't understand. But they got married on a post it note and only only got married for real when they were adopting a baby," Jo smiles. She looks up and once again scans the room for Alex. She notices him over at the lunch counter. She watches as Alex pays for his lunch and then scans the room for him. Jo stands up and waves her arm so Alex would notice her.
He nods his head and heads over to Jo, "hi baby," he says as he kisses her on the lips.
"This is him, this is Alex," Jo smiles excitedly to Brad as she points to Alex.
"Yes I am Alex. And this would be?" Alex asks confused.
"Alex, this is Bradley Winslet. He was my foster Brother while I was living with the Millers. He was also my best friend. The Ying to my yang," Jo explains excitedly with a grin on her face. Alex sits down.
"And your the fiancé. That's assuming that Bambi here doesn't know two Alex's," Brad replies.
"Bambi?" Alex questions.
"Oh god. I haven't heard that in years," Jo chuckles.
"Bambi? Why Bambi? Bambi is a sweet innocent deer and that's definitely not you," Alex remarks.
Jo and Brad chuckle as Alex looks at them. "Back then I was. After I got kicked out of my last foster home I became badass," she laughs.
"I was looking through our year ten yearbook two nights ago when I found this," Brad says. He pulls out his wallet and opens it. He takes out a small photo. Jo wasn't sure of the exact size of it, however it looked larger then a passport photo. He hands it to her.
"Oh, my, God," Jo says laughing at the sight of the photo. "Look at that, how embarrassing is that overbite. And that was at the year ten dance too," she says as she points to the picture. Jo was dressed in a simple knee length blue dress. Next to her stood a tall brunette man.
"Who's that?" Alex asks as he points to the man in the photo.
"Ah, that would be Grover. He had the biggest crush on me and looking at this photo I don't even know how because sesh, that overbite is something else and he was on the football team as the water boy. Anyway, he was my first boyfriend," Jo explains.
"Wow babe, you weren't kidding with that overbite. It's horrendous," he laughs playfully
"Shut up jerk face," she laughs as she playfully hits him on the arm. She looks over at Brad, who was confused. "Oh don't worry, this is just us," Jo laughs. "Now Grover, do you know what happened to him?"
"I don't know how he turned out. I haven't seen anybody from high school since I left," he admits.
"Remember the pig snort laugh I used to do?" Jo asks with a laugh. She loved going back and reliving her childhood memories with Brad, especially as her time with him and the Millers was the only happiness she had as her 18 years as a child.
"God, yes. It always cracked me up," Brad laughs.
"Mrs McWalker would always call it the Peppa pig snort. But thank god I grew out of that phase," she laughs.
Jo looks down at her watch at notices the time. "I'm so sorry. But Alex and I really have to go. We need to start prepping for surgery. We're doing a Esophageal Atresia and Tracheoesophageal Fistula repair on a newborn and Alex is letting me take the lead," Jo says excitedly.
"Wow, that sounds complicated," Brad remarks.
"Well, it's not really. This is only a very mild case so it sounds worse then it is. But we've got to go prep and go through the steps in the skills lab. Hand me your phone," Jo instructs.
Brad hands Jo his phone and Jo hands hers to him and they exchange numbers and they hand the phones back.
"How about this Saturday at 6?" Jo asks curiously.
"Sounds great. Text me the details," he replies. Jo nods her head and smiles. She stands up as does Brad. They walk over to each other and they hug. "It was great seeing you again," he smiles.
"Well thanks for hurting yourself so we did," she says with a laugh.
"You haven't changed a bit have you?" He asks with a laugh.
"No I haven't," she smiles with a grin.
Family, like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one