Steph made her way through the hospital lobby, not in the best spirits given her patients from the day before. Their love made her yearn for more, to find someone to be a partner to for the rest of her life. In the mild life contemplation the previous night she decided that if she hadn't found that yet, she was going to fix it for the ones who had.

She was now on a mission, as she reached the attending's lounge and peered inside she was thrilled to see her target there.

"Karev" turning away from his conversation with Meredith her faced Steph, "I need to talk to you".

As he turned back to grab his things for the day Meredith shot him a questioning look to which he could only shrug.

Making their way out of the room he looked over at her. He had come to know Steph very well in his years with Jo, and he always thought she was a good person.

"What's up?" he questioned, as far as he could recall she wasn't assigned to his service for the day.

"Ok, so I have to tell you something and you're going to listen and not talk until I am done" she let out as they rounded to an empty hallway and came to a stop. "Ok".

"I don't know the whole story about what is happening with you and Jo. I know there are issues there and I understand that I may not have the full understanding about the complexity of the situation, but I know that you still love her. I can see it every time you see her and you get all starry eyed like you did before you ever dated."

Looking to the ground Alex let out a sigh. He did still love Jo with his whole heart. She was right, every time he saw her his heart skipped a beat and there was nothing more he wanted to do than take her in his arms and kiss her senseless. He was hoping that was still a possibility, but he didn't think Jo felt the same way anymore.

"I also know" Steph continued, "that Jo loves you too. Like the sickly love that I used to make fun of her for… God you two could be nauseating with all the lovey, dovey looks at the bar" she added seemingly getting off track.

Alex shot her a look as if asking what her point was. Steph shook her head to continue the speech she had thought about a lot over the last 8 hours, "But last night, DeLuca kind of blurted out to me that he thinks he is in love with Jo".

At this Alex snapped his head up. Had he really heard her right? DeLuca was in love with Jo. His Jo? But was she really his Jo anymore? The thought that someone else could be in love with her made him sick. And sad. Yes they weren't together anymore, but was still the notion that someone else thought about her like that made him want to curl up and cry.

"Now, I know that Jo doesn't have feelings for DeLuca, so don't worry. But, I don't want you to throw away your relationship with her over something that 6o years down the track you would regret." Finally Alex dragged his head up from the ground to look at Steph. He didn't know what to say or how to feel.

"What should I do know though?"

"You go and find Jo and tell your girl that you love her. I know that there are probably big issues that you need to hash out and come to terms with, but none of that is going to happen if you keep avoiding her because it hurts too much to see her when you can't have her." Steph held his gaze, making sure he was hearing what she was saying. "You have a chance to get her back, there is nothing stopping you from getting there and I suggest you do it before someone else does"

At this Steph gave him a nod and walked away.

His mind was racing at lightening speed. Steph was right, married or not, in 60 years he wanted to be old and wrinkly, sitting with Jo still telling dirty jokes, surrounded by their children. If he let all that go over one issue that they haven't even talked about yet, he would regret it forever.