This story is a bit AU because it doesn't follow the Grey's timeline as we saw it on the show. If it helps, this could have taken place around season 8, but a few things are different. The merger with Mercy West didn't happen in season 6, but it is about to happen. However, in this reality, Jackson is one of the original Seattle Grace residents and April is a Mercy West resident. I should also mention that Derek, Izzie, and George aren't in this reality. Sorry if that makes anyone sad! If anything else in this reality doesn't make sense, just ask and I will try to make it more clear. Thanks in advance for reading, and I hope you like chapter one of The Choice.

Chapter One

"Evil Spawn, I heard you choked in your surgery." Cristina pops a french fry in her mouth and gloats across the lunch table to Karev as he sits down next to us. She loves to feel superior to the rest us, and maybe she is, but damn it gets annoying.

"Shut – up. I didn't choke. Hunt just expects me to know everything. I'm a freakin' resident. How the hell was I supposed to know how to do an arterial repair?" I can tell that Alex is paying way more attention to his lunch tray than usual, hoping Cristina will just drop it and let him eat his meal in peace.

Instead, she throws her head back laughing so loudly the table next to us turns and stares. "An arterial repair? That's what you choked on?! Oh my God, Karev. We learned that like our second year. Oh this is great. This. Is. Great. Where's Mer? I gotta tell her." She picks up her tray and walks away from us, still laughing out loud the entire way out of the cafeteria.

Once she's gone, Alex looks over at me out of the corner of his eye. "What?" he growls.

I hold my hands up to let him know there is no need to be defensive with me. "Nothin' man. No judgement here. We both know I've had my share of screw-ups."

"Oh, yeah right. Like pretty boy Avery would ever make a mistake. Pretty sure Mommy would ground you if you did." Alex can be an ass at times, most of the time really, but after working with him for five years we've gotten fairly close. I know giving people crap is his way of deflecting attention off himself, so I don't let him get to me.

"Look, I'm just saying, we've all been there. Besides, by the end of the day no one will even remember what happened in your OR. We'll have bigger things to worry about – like keeping our jobs." I take a drink of my orange juice, shaking my head. "I don't know who thought this was a good idea anyway."

"Crap. Is that today? Dude, all I know is that if they are forcing us to merge our hospital with these Mercy West people, they at least better be hot. I need to get laid." He raises his eyebrows to me as if I'm going to agree with him. Karev and I might be friends, but I don't share his affinity for rotating women in and out of the on-call rooms.

"What? None of the nurses will sleep with you anymore?"

"Hey. Plenty of chicks want to sleep with me. I'm just saying, I need a new challenge. Besides, two out of the three of them are chicks. We've got like a 50/50 shot that one of them will be hot."

I lean back in my chair, crossing my arms. "You're terrible, man. Well, I hope for your sake, they are hot and kind of slutty."

"Yeah, well, not all of us can have an arranged marriage. Must be nice to be surgery royalty." He mimics my stance, crossing his arms as well.

"I don't have an arranged marriage. I don't have – anything. I don't even know how I feel about her. I mean, she's nice. She's a good surgeon. Whatever." I shrugged my shoulder not really wanting to talk about it.

"She's nice? Come on, man. Is that any way to talk about the future Mrs. Avery? And don't act like you don't know it's true. Your mom practically fawns over her every time she comes to town. It's like she heard her name and started picturing your name next to hers on a marriage license. She makes you bring her to dinners, she introduced her to your grandfather. And we both know she is going to expect you to bring her to that stupid ball your family puts on every year. Face it man, you and Meredith Grey are headed down the aisle, whether you like it or not." He grabs his tray and stands to leave. "Let me know when the fresh meat gets here, especially if their hot." He claps his hand on my back and yells over his shoulder as he walks away, "Tell Grey hi for me!"

As much as I don't want to admit it, he is right. My mother has been trying to push me and Meredith together since the moment she figured out she was Ellis Grey's daughter. Every time we talk she brings her up. "How's Meredith?" "Have you seen Meredith?" "You should ask Meredith about the double kidney transplant surgery her mother did. I'm sure it's a fascinating story." And then when she is in town, it's even worse. They go shopping together, Meredith is at every dinner at my house, and lately she's been at every Avery function, as well. And it's been going on so long, that I'm starting to get the feeling Meredith is expecting more. I've seen her looking at me a little too long and finding reasons to touch me. I don't know. It's not like I don't like her. She's pretty enough, I guess. She's nice. A good surgeon. I just feel like I can't tell if I'm interested in her or if I'm settling because I want my mom's approval. And I certainly won't be able to figure it out now because I see her heading toward me.

"Hey Jackson," she says sitting down next to me. "Did you hear about Karev? Cristina said he choked in surgery."

"Uh, yeah. I heard that."

"Can you believe it? I mean, come on, we're about to be attendings and he can't handle an arterial repair. What if he fails his boards?" She leans closer to me, eyes wide, and I can tell she is so excited that she has gossip to share with me.

"He'll pass. He'll be fine. God, we all make mistakes. I wouldn't want any one going around hoping I fail my boards." Considering the four of us have made it through five years of residency together, I can't believe Cristina and Mer still get excited about other people's failures. They could at least try to be supportive of the residents who are supposed to be their friends.

"Oh, Jackson, lighten up. I never said I hope he fails. I'm just saying it's possible. But at least we know you and I will be fine, right? I mean, we were born for this." She smiles at me and places a hand on my leg. I have to fight the urge to move it, but I don't want to hurt her feelings.

"Yeah." Not knowing what else to say, I decide this is a good time to exit. "I, uh, I've got a consult with Sloan, so I should go."

"Sloan? Jackson, you're not seriously considering specializing in plastics, are you? I mean, you're an Avery. Don't you think you could do something more…challenging? Do you really want to spend your life giving women nose jobs and fake boobs?" The judgmental look on her face is all I need to scoot my chair back, intentionally causing her hand to fall to her side.

"More challenging? More challenging than reconstructing the face of a child who has been in a car accident? Or who was born with a cleft lip? Or maybe you mean more challenging than giving a burn victim a chance at having a normal life again? Giving them the opportunity to go in public without being stared at and ridiculed? What exactly do you think would be more challenging than that?" I know my tone is angry, but I don't care at the moment.

She scoffs, brushing me off. "You know what I meant, Jackson. Geez. What's gotten into you today?"

"Nothing Mer," I say with a sigh. "I'll see you later."

I can feel her eyes following me as I walk away, but I don't look back.

"Avery! My man! You ready to change someone's life?" As usual, Sloan is way too excited to see me. He has some weird, paternal feeling about mentoring me, I think. And if I'm being honest, I don't really mind.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm ready"

"Man, what happened to you? You look like someone ran over your dog. Can you at least pretend to be excited about the magic I am about to show you?" He looks slightly offended, and now I feel bad.

"Sorry, Dr. Sloan. I'm excited. I am. I just ran into Meredith and-" He cut me off before I can finish.

"What she wouldn't give you any? Are you losing your touch, Avery? Come on, you're one half of the Plastics Posse. Women love us…and we love women." He's raising his eyebrows in a way that I'm sure women must find creepy.

"What? No! No. I am not trying to get in Meredith's pants. It's not like that."

"Well, it should be. She can't stop ogling you every time the two of you are in the same room together. You could definitely get that if you want it."

The only thing I want right now is to change the subject. "So, anyway, what's this magic we're doing today?"

Sloan crosses the room to pick up a stack of photos off the table. "You and I, are building some ears."

"We're what?"

"That's right. You heard me. We are gonna build a kid some ears. He doesn't have any, wasn't born with them. And you and I, are gonna change that. What did I tell you, Avery? Magic, right?"

I can't help but smile. "Definitely magic."

"Dude are you hiding?" Alex comes around the corner of the shelf I'm leaning against in the research library. I'm sitting on the floor surrounded by stacks of books, reading everything I can about constructing ears.

"No, I'm working. Why aren't you?"

"I'm working. I'm just taking a break." He leans over to see what I'm reading. "Ears? You're doing an ear surgery with Sloan?"

I don't look up from my page, hoping he will get the hint that I need to concentrate. "Uh, yeah. We're building a kid some ears."

"Huh. Maybe I should-" Whatever he was going to say is interrupted by both of our phones going off. We check them at the same time, and I see that I have a text from Meredith.

Meredith – The Mercy Westers are here. Meet me in the lobby. Should be interesting to see what we got stuck with.

"Did you get this text from Mer?" Alex holds up his phone to show me his screen says the same as mine. I nod, and he stands, pulling me up by the arm. "Let's go. I need to meet my future one night stand."

I leave my notepad and books there on the floor, and follow him to the main lobby. All I see when we arrive is half the employees of Seattle Grace staring at a group of people in orange scrubs. That must be them.

Meredith and Cristina spot us and half walk/ half run to stand by us. "Orange? Orange? Oh, I can already tell this is going to be fun." Cristina is giddy with the idea of torturing the new residents and, as usual, Meredith just smiles and nods at her suggestion.

Chief Webber is directing our new coworkers to meet the doctors in the section they will be working in, and when he sees the four of us standing nearby, he walks over to three of the Mercy Westers and after speaking to them briefly, points to us. As they walk toward us I can see the rumors were right, if these are the other fifth year residents, there are only three of them – one guy and two girls. They stop in front of us, and I immediately size up the guy. He's tall, looks strong, could be intimidating if he's a good surgeon, but we'll see about that soon enough.

"Charles Percy." He says extending a hand to each of us.

Next, a girl with short brown hair speaks up, introducing herself, her gaze lingering on Karev a little too long.

I should catch her name, but I don't. All I can do is stare at the other girl, the one standing a bit behind the first two. She has long, deep red, hair that hangs in curls down her back. Her eyes flash to me, and I can see they are green which contrasts against her hair in a way I've never seen before. She steps forward, extending her hand to me, and with a shy smile says, "I'm April. April Kepner."

"Jackson Avery."

She moves on, introducing herself to the others, but I don't hear her. All I can think of is how her hand felt in mine, and how Karev was right. We had a 50/50 shot that these girls would be hot, and at least in April's case, she definitely is.