He grabbed her arm, holding tight, fingers digging in, as he shoved her down an abandoned hallway into a dark store room. A storage room filled with broken and out of date equipment. A room long forgotten about. No one would bother them there.
Jo gasped. He'd come upon her out of nowhere. She rubbed the angry red marks marring the white flesh of her arm with trembling fingers. She scooted to the back of the room putting as much space between them as possible. "L-let me go," she demanded making her voice as strong as she could, cringing at the way it shook.
"You're not getting away from me this time," he said menacingly, turning the lock on the door.
The click sounded deafening to Jo. She couldn't breathe. This is what she had been hiding from for years. This is what she ran from. This is what she had dreaded every day since. She had to get away from him. She had to distract him, get to the door. She crept along the wall trying to make her way back to the door.
He reached out to stop her, "What do you think you're doing? You're not going anywhere," he growled.
"You won't get away with this," she said, a confidence she didn't feel sounding in her voice.
"Shut up!" he grit out raising his hand to her.
Instinctively Jo shrunk down turning her face from him. Before his hand could make contact with her, an explosion rocked the building, startling them both. Overhead alarms and announcements to evacuate the building blared in the distance. They stared at each other frozen.
Jo recovered first. She dodged around him. Lunged for the door unlocking it and throwing it open in one swift move. She ran out into the empty hallway. He was only steps behind her. She could hear his footsteps slapping the tile floor. Could feel his presence. Thick black smoke rolled through the corridors. She pulled the collar of her shirt up over her mouth and nose and squinted against the smoke burning her eyes. And she ran. Faster, harder than she had ever run.
She turned a corner. He grabbed at her waist barely making contact but enough for her to lose her balance. She fell to the floor. She kept moving. Crawling on her hands and knees. She made it to the stairwell throwing the door open. She ran down the steps.
Alex desperately scanned the faces in the chaos outside the hospital. "Where the hell is Jo?" She'd been on his service, but she had disappeared and now she was nowhere to be found. He searched the crowd again and again becoming more anxious with each passing second. A second explosion shook what was left of the hospital and more flames and smoke leapt high into the air. "Jo!" Alex called in a strangled voice. He ran towards the burning building.
"Alex! Stop!" Meredith grabbed his arm.
He twisted out of her grasp continuing forward. He had only made it a few steps when Jackson and Ben caught him holding him back. "You can't go in there, Alex," Jackson shouted over the havoc.
"Jo," Alex moaned.
Jo stumbled out of the hospital just as a third and final explosion annihilated the building. She crossed the street in a daze.
"Jo!" Deluca cried out in relief hurrying to her side.
Jo ignored him, eyes locked with Alex's.
Seeing Jo, Alex was finally able to breathe again. He sucked in a deep breath rushing forward. Jo fell into his arms clinging to him.
In the aftermath, badly burned bodies were pulled from the rubble and laid out in a makeshift morgue to be identified. The staff of Grey Sloan filed somberly down the aisles of gurneys searching for any signs of recognition. Jo gasped and turned into Alex's side burying her face. "Th-that's him," she pointed a trembling finger.
"Who?" Alex coaxed gently.
"M-m-my hus-husband."
Alex's eyes widened in shock, "What? How? Why was he here?" The man was dead, but Alex's fist flexed in anger anyway.
Jo explained that he came as a consultant on a case. It turns out he was the popular new doctor everyone had loved. Well almost everyone, anyway. Alex was stunned. He had had conversations with the man. Jo never said anything. He had never let on.
"Are you sure this is him?"
Jo nodded, "That's his watch. He always wore it. It was his grandfather's. His initials are engraved on the back." She barely got the words out before crumbling back against Alex, sobbing.
"It's okay, it's okay," he comforted rubbing soothing circles on her back.
"I'm free," she choked out between sobs, "For the first time in years, I'm really free."
Alex lead Jo away stopping briefly to talk with the medical examiner.
Weeks later, things had settled down; the doctors were adjusting to their new normal. They had been welcomed by Seattle Presbyterian who were happy to have extra hands to help out with the added patients they were being flooded with while Grey Sloan rebuilt.
One evening after work, Jo was walking out to her car with Deluca. They were heading to Joe's for a drink. She stopped to pluck a note out from under her windshield wiper. 'Jo can we talk?' was scrawled across the paper. It wasn't signed, but it didn't need to be. She would recognize that handwriting anywhere. "Can I take a raincheck?"
"Is everything alright?" Jo nodded as she slid into the driver's seat. "Yeah, okay," Andrew said disappointment evident in his voice. He closed the door behind her and sulked off to his own car.
She didn't know where or when he wanted to meet, but she took a chance. She pulled into Meredith's driveway and parked behind Alex's car. Nervously she made her way to the door, taking a steadying breath she raised her hand hesitating a few seconds before knocking. Much to her relief, Alex answered. He stepped out onto the porch with her and firmly closed the door. They sat down on the porch swing; the silence stretching between them.
"Alex?" Jo said in a quiet tortured voice.
"I.. I don't know what to say. I don't know why I asked you here," he felt the swing shift as Jo started to stand, "I miss you… and.. and I love you."
Jo dropped back heavily onto the swing and said the words she had uttered so few times when they were together, "I love you too," she wiped at a tear as it cascaded over her lashes. "But I don't know how we move forward." A long silence settled over them again; the creak of the swing, and the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze the only sounds. "I'm sorry, Alex. I did you wrong. I let you believe that you could marry me; I let us get this far…" her voice trailed off.
"I don't know why you didn't trust me; why couldn't you just tell me," he ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
"I did trust you, Alex, I do trust you, more than anyone. I've never had anyone I could trust, no one… until you. And I gave you so many pieces of me. I told you things no one else know about me, but not that. When I left, when I changed my name and started a new life, I promised myself I would never let anyone know about that part of my past. I couldn't, it was too dangerous. I didn't see you coming, Alex," she got up from the swing and paced the porch agitatedly. "I didn't anticipate anything close to what we have, had…" she shook her head. "And I wanted it so badly. You told me, when we were still just friends, you told me you probably would have killed Jason. How could I tell you this? I couldn't risk losing you. And then time passed, and the longer I didn't tell you the harder it became. When we were together, when we were good, I could almost convince myself that it was all a nightmare, almost," she stopped and looked back at him. "Do you think I didn't try to tell you? I started to so many times, but the words froze on my tongue. I was paralyzed with fear whenever I would think about him. Whatever you believe," she pleaded with him, "please believe me when I say that I trust you, Alex," she sank back down on the swing defeated, "And I can't go back and make it right, but I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."
The damp breeze stirred the air on the porch and a low rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. Jo swiped at her eyes, waiting.
Alex got up, it was his turn to pace the length of the porch trying to release his nervous energy. He leaned his forearms on the porch rail his back to Jo. "I guess we weren't really in a good place before all of this, and that's my fault," he started quietly, baring his heart, "I didn't see it then, but I've had a lot of time to think and reflect, and I see now." He'd laid awake many, many nights reliving the moments of their relationship the good and the bad. And regardless of where this night left them, he had to tell her this.
"Alex," she started to protest.
"No, let me say this, Jo," he stopped her. He turned around and met her eyes, "You are the strongest person I know. And you told me a hundred times with yours words and with your actions that you can take care of yourself."
"But…"
"But," he didn't let her continue, "I know now, that you shouldn't have to. I let myself get preoccupied with taking care of everyone else. Everyone else needed something from me, and I gave so many pieces of me to them, that I neglected you. I didn't think you needed me. But I've always been on your side, Jo. Believe me when I tell you, I've always had your back. I'm in your corner, Jo, and I'm not moving."
They stared at each other through the darkness settling over them, thunder rumbling ever closer. Alex took Jo's hand pulling her up. "You said earlier that you didn't know how we move forward; I think there is only one way to. We can't change the past, we can't heal old hurts, we can only accept what has been, we still love each other so we honor that, and decide to move ahead, to let go of the past. We start right now, knowing everything, and we do better."
Jo nodded up at him. They fell into the arms they had each been aching for for so long. And it finally felt like the missing pieces were coming together. They were finally home.