Making small changes within all chapters, just to make sure everything's consistent. Working on a new chapter too, promise.
Jackson hurriedly opened the door and ran behind April, who was busy chopping up carrots for a salad. "I missed you so much today wife." He spun her around. She squealed.
"Jackson, I have a knife, careful." He kissed her, his tongue forcing her mouth open, took the knife from her, and fumbled with the drawers in front of him, his lips never leaving hers. Then he slid the cutting board out of the way and lifted her on top of the marble counter. Without a word he pulled her skirt up and slid her panties off. Her toes curled. "Jackson," she gasped, in mock protest.
He kissed her neck, whispering into her hair. "I've been wanting to do this all day." He turned his attention elsewhere, spreading her legs and letting his tongue explore her.
"Oh god, oh…god, oh…" April's hands gripped the edge of the counter as she arched her back. Jackson moved his attention to her thighs, placing kisses on her beauty marks. He caught her watching what he was doing and grinned mischievously, deciding to visit her neck again. "NO!" she screamed as she realized what his destination was. Jackson smiled. She had never before given him orders. In on-call rooms and hotel rooms she had mastered silence, at times guiding him in the right direction, never telling him what to do.
"What was that?" he asked, brushing her hair behind her back and tracing her collarbone with his tongue.
April put two fingers inside herself. "More please…I want…I need you…" There was desperation in her tone that made Jackson listen. He was having fun, but this meant more to her. Immediately his tongue found her spot again, and he didn't stop what he was doing until he heard her familiar "Ohmygaaaa….Jaaacckson!" And the catch of her breath as she came.
It wasn't until he slid her underwear back on and lifted her of the counter that he realized she was crying. He pulled her close and kissed her. "Hey, Bean, what's wrong?" Married life brought with it nicknames. He'd learned that April was insanely jealous, and jumpy, along with her sweet innocence. Hence, "Jellybean" or "Vanilla Bean" or "Bean" happened. He liked this, the secret nicknames and intimacies of married life.
She sniffled, nodding her head against his shoulder. "Just, I missed you too…so much." She walked into the living room and put on his "Grey-Sloan Memorial" sweatshirt, curling up on the couch. "I just…I'm sorry."
Jackson went to the wine cooler across the room and pulled out a bottle of Rose, her favorite. He poured it for her, taking a wine glass from the open box on the floor. When she found out he didn't have wine glasses she insisted they keep those, but he hadn't had time to find a space for them, so they lived in the living room for now, along with the wine fridge his mother bought him two Christmases ago, which his wife had finally freed from the back of his closet. He grabbed a Carona from the kitchen and motioned for her to sit on his lap. She obliged.
"Hey, none of that…remember rule number three."
She rolled her eyes but recited, "Absolutely no more apologizing for emotional sex…" He waited, staring at her, a grin on his face. "April."
"Thank you," he said, clinking his bottle with her glass.
"Welcome." She tied her hair into a ponytail with her a rubber band and lay her head on his chest, yawning. "We don't have to talk about it, " she tried.
"Or, how 'bout we do." She put her wine glass down and framed his head with her hands, kissing him, but he wouldn't be distracted.
"I saw you today…all day, pretty much. There was a fire, remember? Lots of burn victims? Mr. Clayton kept crashing as I was trying to leave and only Ben and Stephanie were on that floor, so…"
"Oh Stephanie. How was that for you, awkward?" Biting sarcasm laced within a subject change. He was not going to fall for it.
"No. So…I got out late but I saw you all afternoon."
"Oh yes, but I didn't see my husband, I was working with Dr. Avery."
He shook his head, defeated, and took a sip of beer. "Bean, we agreed. It's way too soon. It's only been five days. It's your second day at work."
"Don't you 'Bean' me right now, Dr. Avery." She bottomed up her Rose, poured another glass.
"We agreed not to let this be our first fight. It is what it is right now."
"We're not fighting, we're discussing how I didn't get to see my husband all day, so when he got home, I needed him to…" Her voice trailed off and her cheeks turned the blush pink of the wine in her glass. Jackson smiled up at her. He'd noticed a lot of ways in which marriage made her more confident. But he loved when he got a glimpse of that innocent farm girl from Moline, his best friend.
"Riiight…did he help?" Jackson asked, a bit suggestively.
"Well, yes. But no…" Jackson raised his eyebrows, eager for her to go on. "I'm still going to miss him at work tomorrow, and the next day, and the next…"
"But that's part of the fun isn't it? It makes everything sexier," he whispered the last word on her ear, then nibbled her neck, causing her to jump.
"But it's really not practical, Jackson. There's always Board stuff you could be doing if our shifts overlap and yours ends earlier. And you know I'd just wait for you. We could really save money on gas…"
"April, I know you hate it when I bring this up but you really don't have to worry about money for the rest of your life. Seriously, I'm not trying to be obnoxious. Just get that through your head. I'm going to make sure of that myself, but there's also the fact that my name has a Harper and an Avery in it…"
She seemed to be ignoring him completely. "…And you know I have to deal with those wedding gifts soon, and I want to go out with you to get furniture, and that green in our bedroom is horrible, no offense to your mom, but it is. And I don't have my clothes here. Or my pillow. Or my Bible. And I don't know how to face Matthew. I know what we did was right, but it was wrong too. And so now we're paying for it, which I could do, with you. I could do this my whole life if that's what you wanted, but hiding a marriage is exhausting Jackson, all I want to do is tell everyone we're in love and you're mine. But we can't. Not until Stephanie talks to you. Oh God, what if she never talks to you ag…."
He'd had enough. He kissed her. A long, slow, sensual kiss, just to shut her up. "Rule number five…" he said, and waited.
She rolled her eyes again. "When your wife spins out of control, you have the right to shut it down, by whatever means necessary. Fine Jackson. Consider me shut down. But when all of this blows over, I want another wedding. Not because I'm greedy, or because the first one wasn't enough. Because I want people to celebrate our love with us."
"Done deal," he said, kissing her forehead. "Now, can we order pizza? I think something kept you from making dinner…"
"Oh darnit, I had a baked ziti all ready to put in the oven." Jackson laughed, kissing her quickly before picking up the phone to order. Pepperoni and olive, extra cheese. It was that kind of night.
The sound of April's tapping fingernails filled the room as she paged "912" from their supply closet on the dermatology floor and waited. He'd come. "912" was secret marriage bubble code for "I'm horny". April bit her lip so hard she felt the skin break and tasted blood. She was feeling a lot of things right now. Horny was not one of them.
Two minutes later Jackson arrived, tapping out the code they came up with, just in case. Two knocks, a pause, knock, pause, enter. No one in dermatology bothered them or even knew they frequented the supply closet these days, but April was a big believer in precaution.
"Already…I just got…" Jackson started, but April didn't give him a chance to finish.
"Your mother asked me how many penises I've seen in my private time lately, this morning," she said, matter-of-factly as he reached over her head to hold the shelf and pin her into place. Jackson's green eyes widened and he raised his eyebrows. April thought just maybe he'd share her fear, but instead…
"And what'd you tell her. Dr. Kepner-Avery?" he asked, leaning in and placing a deliberate kiss on her lips.
She smacked his shoulder. "Jackson, it's really not funny…"
"Oww, woman, that hurt." He rubbed his shoulder, but caught the look on her face. His poor wife looked like a deer in headlights, petrified by the thought of what was coming next. "Look, I had no idea she was coming, I promise. But I'll take care of it. You just go home, relax, take a bath. I'll handle her and I'll cook tonight. One more hour, right? Just avoid her and if you can't…talk about gardening or something. I gotta go though, I'm supposed to be in surgery in five minutes."
"Gardening? She gardens?" April wrinkled her nose in surprise. Jackson reached for the door and she stopped him, grabbing his hand. "What do you mean 'handle' her? Are you going to tell her, or…"
"Look, Bean I don't know but you don't worry about it. I gotta run. Love you."
"I…" before she could finish her sentence he was out the door. April waited ten seconds, took a deep breath and turned the doorknob of the supply closet. One more hour of avoiding Catherine, she could do it. And when in doubt talk about rose bushes, apparently? No matter if she liked what he said or not, her husband definitely had a way of calming her down.
April had just finished pouring her third glass of Rose when she heard Jackson storm inside, slamming the door. She took one more sip and tried for a seductive face, arranging the bubbles around her body in the tub just right. But she knew all bets were off as soon as Jackson bolted into their room, looking frantic and a little disheveled. The bathroom door was wide open, but he didn't notice her perfectly placed bubbles. She stood up, letting the suds fall around her, and started toward him, concerned.
"My mother…." Jackson panted. "Right now, coming for dinner."
It took a minute for his words to register and then, "Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no." Her wet hair was falling out of the messy knot it was in, she was shaking her head so vigorously. She grabbed a towel and walked into the room to face him, reaching the bed in three strides. "You promised you would take care of her. You promised you would take care of her and cook. So, I cleaned a little bit. And then I drank a glass of wine and decided you should be rewarded for your efforts. Then I drank another glass and opened up the bubble bath set that I should've returned. And got naked and drew a bath so my husband would know that I appreciate all of his hard work when he got home. I'm sort of drunk and now you're mother's coming? " Her tone was frantic now. "I am not leaving. This is my apartment too. I am an Avery now and you're just going to have to tell her because…"
"April," Jackson screamed and grabbed his wife's shoulders to ground her back into reality. "April, nobody's leaving. But you should probably get dressed. And I told her you were cooking salmon. I bought it, it's downstairs."
"You told her what?" April asked, her eyes widened and her nose did the thing it always did when she thought he was being ridiculous. She went to the closet and pulled out a floral skirt and a black tank top, and then to her drawers to pick out more suitable underwear than the ones she had planned for tonight. Jackson cringed when he saw her toss aside the ones she thought she'd be wearing. "I don't know how to cook salmon," she said.
"You grew up on a farm…." Jackson started.
"A farm has cows, not fish, what did you drink today? Besides, you volunteered to cook. And you know we were supposed to take lessons together because I'm not the greatest…"
Jackson cut her off, exacerbated. "It's fine, I know how to make salmon. Just get dressed," he told her, leaving the room.
"You're welcome for the bubble covered naked body I tried to give you," she called after him.
"I had to tell her, OK? She would not stop insisting on coming over for dinner," he answered. In her room, April tilted her head back and massaged her temples, trying to take a deep breath. Dressed, she walked down the hall with bare feet and faced Jackson in the kitchen.
"So she knows?"
"She knows."
"How mad?" April asked, biting her lip.
"Pretty mad, hard to tell. But when I tried to tell her not to come she said, 'Surely your new wife will love the chance to impress her mother-in-law with a nice meal, Jackie. I'm coming over.'" April groaned in defeat and pressed her wet head onto her husband's shoulder. There was a knock at the door.