Hey, folks! As someone who pretty much has to rely on fics for the little AK2 ship that exists, this is my interpretation of how the ending of 7x08 could have gone if Alex was able to apologize to April for the on-call room incident and what develops after that. No shipper wars, please :)
Disclaimer: Don't own Grey's or its characters
"What the hell were you thinking? She's a virgin. Why would you do that?"
That was the problem. Alex Karev hadn't been thinking clearly at all when he attempted to have sex with virginal April Kepner in an on-call room. His day – more like his entire weekend – had been crappy. Family issues at home in Iowa, a new jackass peds attending who was nothing like Arizona Robbins and a hangover that had been bugging him since morning. But there was one glimmer of light that had made him feel good, at least for a moment.
He couldn't quite understand why the typically annoying and perky doctor defended him after Robert Stark stole his idea to use a ping pong ball to preserve an infant girl's liver. While he didn't hate her for doing so – it was his idea after all and that measly grump tried to take credit for it – she was usually the victim of his harsh jokes about her. The whole virgin background only gave him another reason to constantly tease her. Maybe she shared a common dislike for Stark. Whatever.
In retrospect, Alex regretted taking out his anger on April for a variety of reasons. She didn't have a clue what was happening with his personal life and likely assumed she had done something wrong when he blew up at her. And she had been siding with him the entire day, so he just looked like an even bigger douche after yelling at her when she didn't deserve it. He was hoping to apologize to her when he arrived at Cristina Yang and Owen Hunt's housewarming party, but he never got the chance.
The first punch from Jackson Avery was deserved. He was willing to take one for his douchey behavior towards April, but he hadn't expected the pretty boy to continue beating him up. His back ached from practically being thrown onto a coffee table and he suffered cuts above his left eyebrow and on his lower lip from the hits he endured from his coworker. Oh, and his shirt was torn in the front. Alex kept a mental memo to himself to remind that asswipe he owed him a new one. He freaking loved that shirt too.
Now he was outside of the firehouse being scolded by Meredith Grey, but at least he trusted her enough to confess where he had been all along instead of Las Vegas for the weekend. Iowa was the home of his past demons, a place he tried to avoid visiting as much as possible. An abusive father, a schizophrenic mother and his younger brother nearly killed their 16-year old sister prior to being diagnosed schizophrenic too. He hadn't seen Amber Karev since she was about ten years old, but somebody had to be there to ensure she survived. There weren't any other reliable family members to handle the situation except for him. He hightailed it out of his home state as quickly as he could because he couldn't stand to be there.
Alex felt like an ass. Actually, he was an ass in his mind.
"So, what now?" Meredith asked inquisitively. "Will you at least check up on your family, see how they're doing?"
"I send money and my mom's meds every month. Maybe I look like a guy who doesn't give a crap, but I do. It's just my life at home was so freaking messed up that I do my best to ignore it," he muttered, placing a small towel full of ice against his lower lip. "I know that makes me an ass, but I can't focus on becoming a surgeon and worrying about everything that's happening in Iowa at the same time. It's damn near impossible."
Meredith knew a thing or two about living in an unstable home, though she considered him to be the winner of broken households. Alex hardly shared deeply personal information about his life to anyone. None of his friends were aware of the fact that he had siblings until Aaron Karev randomly showed up in Seattle earlier that year. He wasn't one to easily tear down his guard and open up about his crappy childhood, but his guilt forced him to tell her the truth, which was probably for the better.
Their conversation was interrupted by April, who stepped out of the firehouse tightly clutching her purse. She appeared to still be shaken up by what had happened in the living room minutes earlier, briefly glancing at the twosome staring back at her before she turned and walked the opposite direction.
Meredith nudged Alex's side with her elbow, drawing a scowl from him. He was beat up enough. The smallest physical contact made him wince. "Go apologize to her," she advised and returned to the party to give them privacy.
He sighed, grimacing as he shifted awkwardly to stand upright. "Kepner, wait a minute," he called out, too lazy to chase after her. Gingerly walking towards the brunette, he stopped in front of her. "Listen, uhh… I was gonna apologize for the on-call room thing, but Avery kind of jumped me in there."
"I-I I just w-wanted to let you know that I d-didn't ask Jackson to beat you up," April stammered, her eyes filling up with tears. She stared at the ground as she choked back a sob. "I'm- I'm sorry."
"What the hell are you apologizing for? This was all me," Alex muttered, rolling his eyes. He wondered why chicks like Kepner had to be so freaking sensitive over anything that wasn't their fault to begin with. "What happened in the on-call room had nothing to do with you. I had a bunch of crap on my mind and I did a stupid thing. You showed up at the wrong time, that's all."
Slowly nodding her head, she swiftly dried her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. "Okay," April quietly responded and gazed up at him. "Umm… are you staying here or… do you want a ride home?"
The party was already a drag after getting his ass kicked. Going back only for their peers to throw snarky comments about his bruised face was pointless. He did take a taxi to the firehouse, so he could either wait outside for Meredith or head back early with the Virgin Mary.
"Yeah, let's go," he agreed, following his coworker to her car.
The drive home was unsurprisingly awkward. If it weren't for the radio faintly playing Alicia Keys in the car, the silence would have been unbearable for either of them. April's hands were glued to the steering wheel as she stared straight ahead without ever looking at Alex, who continued to ice his face. He rested his head against the window, shutting his eyes to calm himself until they arrived at the frat house.
April parked the car in front of the house, but not without purposefully stepping on the brake pedal causing Alex to lunge forward in his seat and waking him up in an instant. If he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, his face would have become best friends with the windshield.
"We're home," she sarcastically chirped.
"Dude…" he grumbled, removing his seatbelt as she got out of the car. Following her into Meredith's house, he headed for the kitchen to dump whatever ice was left in his towel. "Hey, you think you could check the cut on my brow? Like if I need stitches or whatever?"
Instead of receiving a response from his roommate, Alex heard her scurry up the stairs and enter her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. She was obviously still pissed at him regardless of the apology, but he wasn't going to lose sleep over it.
It was just Kepner for crying out loud.
Lying face down on her bed, April desperately wanted to erase the entire day from her memory. She had endured numerous humiliating moments in her lifetime, but this one would be difficult to live down for a while. Lexie Grey and Jackson had warned her not to go there with Alex because he was most definitely not the type of man she should be losing her virginity to. And he was obnoxious and rude to her almost all of the time. She was the goody two shoes who barely had anything in common with him. Her crush on him didn't make much sense to anybody.
But deep inside, she believed there was a good person inside of that stubborn mule. If only everyone else would take the time to notice that, then maybe they would understand, she thought.
However, April felt more idiotic than ever after she had convinced herself that Alex had mutual feelings for her. The kiss in the on-call room immediately drew her in. She had always expected her first sexual experience to happen in a much nicer – and cleaner – bedroom, but she couldn't help herself. He wanted to have sex with her!
Or at least that was what she assumed. It seemed he simply needed sex from somebody to temporarily forget about the crap that was internally bothering him. He didn't actually want her. Thinking about that stung. It was senior year of high school all over again.
The guy's name was Vince Davis, one of the popular athletes in her class. He needed a tutor for Physics and of course, the science nerd in her volunteered. Although not as blunt and rude like Alex, they had gotten along and he even asked her out to prom to show his gratitude for helping him pass his class. She was a naïve 18-year old who hardly dated in high school because she was awkward and an "in betweener" – not a part of the popular crowd, but not a loner either. She had her group of friends, though none of the boys she was friends with were anything like Vince.
But the joke was on her, simply a pawn in his plans to make an ex-girlfriend jealous when they arrived at prom. He saw her as a safe choice that he could easily take advantage of. Once the football player's plan successfully worked and he won back the girl, she was left behind to celebrate the night with her friends – and their dates, making her the pathetic loner who thought she had a legit chance with Mr. Popular.
And they also warned her that it likely wouldn't be the fairy tale date she envisioned in her head.
Why were her friends always right about these things?
None of April's sisters had problems with the opposite sex. Libby married her college sweetheart and they already had two children with a third one on the way. Kimmie was engaged and Alice… well, she had a carousel of boyfriends, but at least she was dating people. The only doctor in the Kepner family? She was surrounded by attractive men every day, yet she had trouble speaking normally to most of them.
A knock on the door forced her to sit up on her bed. Quickly wiping away the tears escaping her eyes, she cleared her throat and sighed. "Come in."
Anybody but Alex. Anybody but Alex.
Fortunately, it was only Jackson when the door opened. He walked into April's bedroom, closing the door behind him. "You left. I was going to check on you after I iced my hand, but you were gone," he softly said and sat down across from her on the bed.
"Umm… there was no reason for me to stay. I shouldn't have showed up in the first place," she tearfully replied. "I didn't ask you to punch Alex. You're lucky the Chief wasn't there to see that. You could've gotten in trouble."
Her best friend dismissively shook his head. "It happened outside of the hospital, so he wouldn't be able to do anything about that if he had been there. And Karev deserved it, April. He had no right doing what he did to you. The guy's a douche. I'd hit him again if Hunt let me."
She picked up his right hand and examined the minor cuts on his knuckles. It was still swollen despite icing it earlier. "Well, he apologized – sort of. I mean, for a guy like him to at least say he's sorry-"
"Don't defend what he did," Jackson interrupted, furrowing his eyebrows at her. "It doesn't matter if he's sorry. He shouldn't have tried sleeping with you in the first place."
"But… I umm, I kind of wanted to," April murmured, dropping her head to avoid eye contact with him. "I thought maybe he… for once, I really wish I could be right, that a guy I have zero chance with actually likes me."
He sympathized for her because she wasn't a hot commodity at Mercy West either. It was her constant perkiness and high strung attitude that turned a lot of men off, but she had always been a caring friend to him, so he felt it was his duty to protect her. And after Charles Percy and Reed Adamson were murdered earlier that year by Gary Clark, they really only had each other, at least from a Mercy West perspective.
"Listen, there will be someone for you. Who knows? Maybe it'll take time to meet him, but it'll happen," Jackson assured April and leaned in for a hug, soothingly rubbing her back. He let out a chuckle. "C'mon, you had to have at least felt some satisfaction seeing Karev get his ass kicked."
Playfully shoving him away from her, she softly laughed. "Fine. A little," the brunette doctor admitted, rolling her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to get ready for bed before everybody's home."
"Seriously? You're going to bed now?" he skeptically asked. "We have the night shift tomorrow. If you sleep now, you won't be able to sleep throughout the day and you'll be snoozing at work instead."
April grimaced, slapping her hand against her forehead. "I forgot. Tomorrow's gonna suck. Facing everybody again after what happened with Alex today – not an ideal situation."
"Nah, don't worry about it. If anything, they'll probably remember me bruising up his face than the on-call room incident," the pretty boy insisted, slowly opening and closing his right hand and wincing. "Hopefully, I can operate."
"You couldn't have just kicked him in the nuts? It would've saved you damage to your hand," she teased.
Jackson sheepishly grinned at his friend. "Well, I had some alcohol in my system before you arrived. I was worried about you, then Karev showed up and I lost my cool. I wasn't having a very good day either." He stood up, tugging April's wrist. "Let's go downstairs. Find a movie to watch or something."
"I'm not ready to show my face to anybody. You have no idea how embarrassing today was for me, Jackson."
"Like I said, don't worry about it," he reassured her and forced her to stand up. "By tomorrow, nobody will remember it."
"Alex Karev is not the boy you want to take your maiden voyage with."
Even a drunk Miranda Bailey was aware of what happened in the on-call room. One thing April learned quickly about working at Seattle Grace Mercy West was that gossip spread fast like the common cold. And even in her inebriated state, her superior managed to offer harmless, yet uncomfortable sex advice.
But on the plus side, Bailey's advice to use soap and water with acetone to separate her super glued patients worked. At least something helpful came out of that bizarre encounter with the general surgeon.
It was a long, slow night at work. As much as April wanted to pass out on her bed at 7 AM, she needed to take a shower. That distinct hospital smell filled Meredith's car on the way home and it wasn't going away until she washed it out of her hair. Thankfully, she had called first dibs on the shower, but she literally sprinted into the house just to be on the safe side. A nice, warm and quiet shower was more relaxing than ever and she had the bathroom all to herself.
For about five minutes.
Alex casually barged into the bathroom, swinging the door open and startling April when the doorknob banged against the wall. He snickered after she screamed at the sight of him inside.
"Alex!" she shrieked. Although the glass doors of the shower weren't completely transparent, she felt compelled to cover herself as much as possible. "Get out! I'm trying to take a shower!"
"So, it's okay for you to occupy the bathroom when other people are showering?" he amusingly asked, walking towards the sink. "You need to freaking relax. We're all adults here. Besides, I've seen worse boobs."
April's eyes widened as she glanced down at her chest. "What's wrong with my boobs?" she panicked. "Do you stare at my boobs when I'm not looking?"
"I stare at all boobs," he muttered while he brushed his teeth.
"Well, these boobs are not for you to stare at. You lost that privilege," she scolded him, turning off the shower. She partially slid the door open to reach for her towel, but it dropped onto the floor when she tried to grab it. Now, her body was left almost fully exposed for Alex to see. "Umm… can you get my towel when you're finished?"
He peered down at the purple towel on the floor and chuckled. "Why can't you get it yourself?"
"Because I… do something nice for me just this once, okay? Please?" Opening the door wider for her to reach down for her towel meant he would see more of her naked body and she refused to let him stare at her. Instead of helping her, Alex walked over to the toilet. "What are you doing now? You're seriously testing my patience."
"Dude, I gotta hose out the tank. Give me a second," he retorted.
April groaned as the sound of Alex peeing echoed in the bathroom. "You're doing this on purpose," she irritably replied. His playful whistling annoyed her even more. She decided to stop waiting for him and swiftly reached for her towel, successfully grabbing it and wrapping it around her body. "Thanks for the help."
"Whatever," Alex nonchalantly answered and flushed the toilet. He returned to the sink to wash his hands as his grumpy roommate stepped out of the shower. "See? And I didn't even peek this time."
"Okay, on a serious note," she stood beside him and whispered, "What's wrong with my boobs?"
"Honestly?" Drying his hands on another towel, he smirked at her. "Nothing. They're… you. They're perky."
April hesitated to respond, opening her mouth and quickly closing it afterwards. "O-okay, umm… can you leave now?" she bashfully questioned and nervously bit down on her lower lip.
Alex rolled his eyes as he headed towards the door. "I'm telling you, Kepner. You need to lose the uptight thing or you'll never get laid," he advised and left her alone in the bathroom.
Folding her arms tightly against her chest, she rushed out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She leaned back against her door and sighed. "Stop thinking about him, you idiot," she scolded herself. "Just because he complimented your boobs it doesn't mean anything. He's Karev for crying out loud."
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