A/N: Alright folks! The one thing I am happy about in canon related to April right now, is her growing friendship with Ross, and so I figured, if I must be subjected to knowing what happened when Jackson and Stephanie were in a car together, I am going to write what happened with Shane and April. Don't worry, it's nothing that will fog up any windows y'all. This story will try to follow canon a bit, but also Shane is going to be a little schemer and try to get Jackson and April back together. Apologies for any voicing issues; I don't know Shane very well. I'll update as we learn more in new episodes. Thank you so much for reading, and please to write a few words to let me know what you think!

Shane gulped, and awkwardly glanced over to the driver's seat, where his mentor sat, gripping the steering wheel, keeping her eyes resolutely on the road in front of them. In retrospect, carpooling to the wedding had probably not been the best idea. Only the sounds of their uncomfortable breathing broke the silence in the car. They'd tried the radio, but it turned out that late night offerings were pretty slim.

Dr. Kepner, for her part was being really nice about everything and for that, Shane was really grateful. He felt like a total idiot. Neither of them had gotten stupid drunk. Or danced. In fact, he was pretty sure that he could safely say that neither one of them had had much fun at the wedding at all.

Which was pretty much his fault. He'd over assumed, made his little note cards, and tried to fend off what he'd imagined was an unwanted sexual advance from his teacher. Shane knew that he'd misread the signs, though he did think that it wasn't entirely his fault. After all, in the short time since he'd started the residency program at Seattle Grace Mercy West no less than 4 interns that he knew of had had...liaisons with attendings. In his own friend circle, Leah and Heather had already slept with Dr. Karev.

Add to that, all the rumors they'd heard about things that had happened in this hospital in the past? Shane thought he was a little justified in being suspicious. On paper, everything made sense. Dr. Kepner was a gorgeous woman and she'd looked particularly beautiful that night. He didn't think that he was tooting his horn too much if he admitted to himself that he'd looked pretty dapper in his tux, and he'd known he was handsome since he was a little kid. And the two of them got along and worked together well in the hospital. According to the rules of social culture of Seattle Grace, Shane thought he wasn't completely crazy for being paranoid.

Except that his paranoia had turned out to be just that, and now Shane was afraid he'd blown it with the one attending who'd actually given him more opportunities to learn to be a doctor than anyone else. The other interns might laugh and make fun of how much Shane liked working with 'The Dud", and lumps, bumps, and ER days were infinitely less cool than cardio, peds, or even plastic surgery rotations, but he knew for a fact that neither Jo, Steph, Leah, or Heather had done as many actually solo procedures as he had. It was one thing to observe and possibly assist with a procedure, but actually getting in there and actually learning to deal with patients was a whole other kettle of fish.

Working with Kepner, Shane had learned a lot. It had gotten him an in on Derek Shepherd's awesome nerve transplant. And unlike dealing with some of the other attendings, he always felt like Kepner kind of had his back. If he made a mistake, he knew it wouldn't result in being humiliated for it or put down. Shane had liked working with Kepner. He'd liked having a mentor. He liked being her guy. Professionally, at least.

Only now, he was pretty sure he'd blown it. Shane could tell that things were awkward between them, ever since his outburst at the reception.

April slowly pulled to a stop in front of his apartment building. Shane scowled suspiciously. The place was dark. Looked like Jo and Steph weren't back yet. Which was weird, considering that he and Dr. Kepner had seen no sign of either of them at the wedding. He swallowed. It might not be so hard to guess where they were. The idea was a little sickening. He just couldn't understand how anyone, after working so long and so hard to even get the opportunity to be in the residency program, how someone could put all that in jeopardy over what? A little romp with a superior. He could really see no way that that would end well for the intern. The attending had the control, and the superiority.

Okay, maybe one time in history it had ended well. For Dr. Grey and Dr. Shepherd. But Shane doubted it would work for anyone else. Jo and Stephanie were hardly Meredith Grey. And Dr. Avery and Dr. Karev were nothing like Dr. Shepherd, so-

"Shane?"

It took him a minute to get out of his thoughts and realize that April was talking to him. He shook himself and turned to face her.

"We're here," she continued, with a weak smile. "Y-You can get out now..."

"Oh. Okay, but before I do," Shane sighed, deciding to apologize one last time, and to try to salvage any chance he had to maintain good terms with his mentor. "I just want to say how sorry I am again...for..."

Dr. Kepner shook her head, "Ross, it's really not a problem-"

He held up a hand and cleared his throat, "Please just hear me out: I hope this doesn't make things difficult between us because I really do appreciate everything you've been teaching me and-

"Well it's okay Shane," April said using one hand to play with her necklace. " Some of this is on me. If you are still comfortable working with me then I see no reason why we can't carry on. If you want to."

"Of course I am still comfortable," he replied, shaking his head.

"Okay, if you want to keep working with me," Dr. Kepner sighed and looked at her knees pensively. "But by no means are you bound to. You'd probably be better off on Dr. Yang's service again, anyway. Or Bailey's. It seems like I haven't been doing anything right lately, so why not add teaching to the list?"

"No," Shane didn't even have time to stop and think before his honest words fell from this lips. "You are a good mentor. Really. I've learned so much from you."

Kepner only shrugged, and he sighed. He'd heard that she'd gotten fired before. Though he wasn't sure when exactly. One of the nurses swore it was years ago, and the lady in the cafeteria had told him it was within the past year. And everyone knew that she was the only attending in her year who was not board certified. And Leah had told him that she'd over heard the chief resident joking that even if he did a crappy job, at least he could get people to listen to him. The words, if Shane was remembering them correctly, were, "At least I'm not the Dud."

And Shane didn't know much about Dr. Kepner's personal life, but he'd always thought she seemed a little sad. Rumor had it that she and Dr. Avery had had. some sort of thing going on for the past little while, but none of his sources had much detail on that. All that was certain was that it had ended. So he could kind of understand, about her feeling all bummed. But, at least in terms of his experience with her teaching, Shane had to set his boss straight.

"I truly mean it," he pressed forward, frowning when Kepner only shrugged.

"If I had a choice of whose rotation I could be on, I would pretty much always pick you. Not just because your...nice," Shane swallowed, remembering his gross misinterpretation of her niceness that evening. "Because, if I work with you, I know I am going to get to try something new for myself."

Judging by the look on her face, Shane was pretty sure that at least some of what he was saying was getting through. Her look of complete skepticism was being slowly replaced by a small smile.

"Not all of the attendings are like that, you know?" Shane continued. "They don't always want to make sure we learn, I mean 90% of the time, everyone else gives us scut work. Worse than scut work. Heather said she spend a whole day answering Dr. Grey's phone! And Dr. Yang doesn't even bother to learn our names, and Dr. Avery just..."

April laughed awkwardly and looked sad again, cutting him off, "Okay...I get it. It's fine, Ross. Thank you. We'll just keep going and pretend this never happened, okay? "

"Okay," Shane nodded. "Tonight was all my fault, Dr. Kepner."

Kepner's arched eyebrows approached her hairline, "How many times to I have to tell you? It really isn't an issue."

The words that came out of his mouth next, surprised Shane, because they were very personal, and he'd really had no intention of sharing them in the first place.

"I just feel so bad that I misread things tonight. I've never been good at...knowing about stuff like that actually," Shane admitted, revealing more about that part of himself than he had to anyone since moving to Seattle. "You know...romantic stuff."

To his surprise, Dr. Kepner only nodded, "Me neither."

Shane found that statement hard to believe, not for someone as good looking and kind as his mentor, so he further clarified how the night's events fit into his broader issues with the opposite sex, "I mean, I've...misinterpreted things before."

Laura Castinelli in med school. Tori Wiggut in high school. Heck, he'd been certain Maya Meyer back in 7th grade history had been all over him. He actually had a pattern, now that he thought of it.

"Me too," April agreed shoulders slumping.

"Really?" Shane inquired skeptically.

"Totally."

It just seemed hard for him to believe, that his capable trauma surgeon teacher would have trouble with this. That just couldn't be true, unless...It must happen to everyone. Shane felt a little less like a fool. He was sorely temped to ask with whom exactly, Dr. Kepner had misinterpreted things, but he deemed the question to be too personal.

Shane joked, "I guess it happens to the best of us."

"I guess so," Dr. Kepner smiled brightly.

They both sat in the car quietly again. This little exchange was the least awkward conversation of the night. Shane was beginning to think that tonight hadn't completely ruined things between himself and Dr. Kepner at all. He thought that it would actually be okay to work together, and he was glad that she seemed willing to continue to mentor him.

Pulling open the door handle, Shane said, "I really am grateful to have you teach me, Dr. Kepner. The ER really was pretty awesome tonight. All those abrasions and stitches and biker's. I never really thought that much about trauma and out-patient stuff in med school, but now that I have done a bit, I must say, it really is interesting."

"Well, back in my intern year, I didn't spare a second thought to trauma either, but it really grows on you. Just wait until another big car crash comes in...then you'll really see some cool stuff," he noted that certain fire in her eyes that appeared when ever she spoke about her specialty. That is job satisfaction right there. Everything he strove for. Talk about loving your work.

Shane leaned toward April conspiratorially, "Is it bad to kind of wish for one?"

She gasped in mock horror and then shrugged, "Every trauma surgeon's dilemma. Better to wish that you happen to be there when a big trauma comes in. Whenever that happens to be...Or whatever it happens to be!"

Laughing at her final addition, Shane asked, "Weird stuff, huh?"

"Everything you can imagine," April said excitedly, smiling and gesturing with both hands. "Probably stuff you can't even imagine. Oh, I have some stories..."

"Cool!"

Shane was smiling too, and he still hadn't completely exited the car. He moved a little bit further, but paused when Dr. Kepner spoke again.

"Actually Ross...I...if you are interested in hearing them...or learning more about trauma oor adjusting to first year at all really," she paused and fumbled, chewing part of her lip with her top teeth. Now, "I don't want you to get the wrong idea, especially with everything that's happened, but...if you'd like we could get coffee sometime? Just t-to talk, you know. About trauma. And stuff. Not like a date or anything."

"Yeah, I'd like that!" Shane agreed instantly. The opportunity to pick an attending's brain on their own specialty, uninterrupted, in a low pressure, stress free environment? Hell yeah. He was down. He thought it sounded like Kepner had a lot of fascinated cases to talk about too.

"Oh," April grinned, clearly relieved that they were on the same page. "Okay! That sounds great. Next week?"

"Sure," he nodded, slipping out of the car.

"Have a good night Ross."

"You too, Dr. Kepner."

Shane slammed the door, and made his way to his apartment door, grinning. The night really had turned around. He was glad that he'd actually talked with his mentor. As far as he was concerned, things always went better in relationships of any sort when all the cards were on the table and all parties knew that they said. No room for confusion.

Unlocking the door and stepping inside, Shane waved at the car. April had stayed idleling on the street as she waited to make sure he got inside. She waved back and the car sped off. Walking inside the living room, Shane smirked.

He didn't care what his roommates had gotten up to tonight. There was just no way that it was better for them professionally than his conversation in the car with Dr. Kepner. He felt certain that this was just the beginning of a beautiful...

Mentorship? They already kind of were on their way to that really, as far as he was concerned. Shane didn't want to over read the signals again, but the first word that came to mind when he completed that sentence was friendship.

He felt like this could just be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.