Giving Back
Jo trudged through the door and unceremoniously dropped the heavy box she had been lugging collapsing on the floor beside it. "Ugh... That's it; that's the last box," she called down the hall to Alex who was muttering to himself in another room. She blew a few strands of hair out of her face that had come loose from her hurriedly tossed up ponytail and wiped the sweat from her brow making a disgusted face. "What are you grumbling about? We're almost done. The only thing left to bring in is the couch," she once again hollered to her husband of two and a half years; she could still hear him growling and griping.
"Yeah the only thing left to bring in, what about all these damn boxes in the living room? They all have to be moved. If you would have just hauled everything to the room it belongs in like I did, like I told you too," he fumed widening his eyes with emphasis, "then we really would be almost done. As it is we still have to move everything again," he continued his tirade.
"Well, not everything," she squeaked sheepishly interrupting him, "Only the boxes I brought in," she gave a small shrug looking down at the floor. She didn't want to admit he was right, but he was right, not that she would ever say those words to him.
He smirked briefly, acknowledging her almost admission that he had in fact been right this time, before diving right back into his rant, "There's not even room in here to put the couch right now. How the hell did we accumulate all this shit anyway?"
"We've been together for eight years, living together most of that time, stuff tends to collect," she soothed reaching up to him. He grunted in response and grabbed her hands to help pull her up off the floor. "Settle down, Alex. You're worse now than when we were packing," Jo rolled her eyes patting him on the shoulder as she passed by to start clearing a place for the couch.
"Instead of just pushing these boxes around, why don't you actually move them to where they belong?" he questioned exasperated lifting up a box and carrying it out of the room.
"Dude," Jo grit out, her own annoyance starting to show, "I'm just trying to make room for the couch so we can unload it and get the freaking moving truck out of here."
"Fine!" he growled and dropped the box he was holding right where he stood in the hallway of the mid-sized four bedroom house. He walked back into the living room and shoved a few boxes out of the way. Jo threw her hands up shaking her head and rolled her eyes.
As they were carrying the couch in Jo asked, "When is your sister supposed to get here?"
"How the hell should I know? She talks to you way more than she ever talks to me."
She shrugged her shoulders at the true statement and muttered under her breath, "Such a grump today."
It's true, the first time Jo and Amber met they hit it off immediately. Three months before Alex and Jo's wedding, Amber had reconnected with her brother when their mother had died suddenly. Jo, of course, accompanied him back to Iowa for the funeral. It was under strained and sorrowful circumstances that the two women met, but they looked back at the time as bittersweet because they had forged a friendship they still enjoyed and the brother and sister were kindling a bond they never got a chance to share in childhood.
They set the couch down in the empty spot in the room and sank down into the cushions next to each other. After a brief moment of resting with her eyes closed and head tilted back Jo sneaked a look at her watch. 12:12. "So I guess we should get this truck to the Uhaul store and grab some lunch," she ventured glancing at Alex's relaxed face.
He grimaced, opened his eyes, and said, "Yeah, we are supposed to meet the realtor at 3:30 to pick up keys to the clinic and have a look around. They had better be finished with the renovations."
"They said they would be, didn't they?" Jo replied encouragingly as she stood up and offered him her hand.
"You never know," he grumbled getting up and heading to the door. "You're gonna follow me and pick me up after I drop the truck off, right?" he asked with mock suspicion narrowing his eyes at her.
"The way you're acting today, you're just lucky I love you," she gave back in response playfully swatting him on the butt as they made their way outside.
Jo looked around taking everything in as she drove, familiarizing herself with her new home. A few months earlier, Alex had come home from work upset about an especially trying case he had been working on. He told Jo about Max, a fourteen year old drug addicted runaway that had been brought in off the street bloodied and beaten. He became a ward of the state when his parents abandoned him at the hospital claiming he was too hard to handle and they couldn't have him in the home with their two younger children. They couldn't afford to pay his medical bills and just left him there. "They're going to bounce him around group homes until he's eighteen. Then they'll boot him out with no job and no skills and no way to make it on his own. If he even makes it to eighteen; he'll run away again and end up back in the hospital beaten or worse," he raged pacing the length of their kitchen. Jo listened sympathizing with her distraught husband. "There has to be something better, some way to rehabilitate kids like him, to help them make a life for themselves." And that's where the idea was born; they came up with a plan to open a free clinic that would serve underprivileged and at risk kids. They would offer not only medical care but also psychological counseling and education in life and career skills. It would be a safe haven for those in need.
The couple could have gone anywhere they chose; nothing was tying them to Seattle, so they decided to move back to Iowa to be closer to the family Jo was getting to know and Alex was getting to know all over again. It was only fitting to be back where it all started where a good part of the inspiration had come from in the first place. Alex wanted to give back and to help make a better life for the kids than he had had growing up.
They stopped off at a deli and got sandwiches for lunch on their way home. They ate in silence for awhile before Jo mused, "I thought it would be harder to move, to leave everything behind." She swiped the pickle off Alex's plate, "I really thought I would miss it more, that loft had become home, our first real home of our own."
"Yeah," Alex agreed chewing thoughtfully, "I never thought I would end up back here. Never thought I would leave Seattle."
"I remember," Jo snickered, "guess it helps that all your friends have moved on. Dr. Yang has been in Switzerland for years and now with Meredith in D.C. to carry on Dr. Shepherd's legacy with the brain mapping thing, there's no one to hold you back."
"Shut up," he ground out, "it's not..."
Jo held her hand up stopping his words, "I'm just kidding, Alex. They're your family, I get that. I didn't for a long time, but I do now. I never knew what a home or a family was or could be. You taught me that," she explained sincerely before stealing his last chip.
"Hey," he scolded chuckling at the innocent smile she gave him. Sobering up he went on to say, "The thing is, I realized that home isn't a place; it's a person. It's you. And you're the only family I need."
She smiled over at him meeting his eyes tears shining in hers, "And we'll be together forever. You and me." They leaned in towards each other as if drawn by magnetic force. He pulled her close and her arms clasped around his neck. Their lips met in a smoldering kiss.
The minutes passed as they continued to make out until they heard a quiet cough and then a louder voice chiding, "Hey, you two, get a room will ya? There are young impressionable eyes watching you."
Jo jumped away from Alex and scurried over to the woman standing in the doorway. "Amber!" she squealed hugging her, "You made it." The younger woman laughed and returned the hug waving over Jo's shoulder at her brother. Finally Jo pulled away and squatted down eye level with the little girl cowering behind her mother's legs. "Hi, Mekenna. I'm glad you're here." The girl remained silent and buried her face. She hadn't seen her aunt and uncle in over a year and at five years old that was almost a lifetime. Jo knew she would warm up to her it would just take time. She stood up ruffling her niece's strawberry blond locks.
Amber looked around, "Is this everything?" Alex and Jo glanced at each other and nodded. "You have no furniture, except a couch?" her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.
"We sold everything instead of moving it halfway across the country," Alex explained, "Except the couch; the couch is special," he shared a meaningful look with his wife.
Amber shrugged, "Whatever. I brought our bedroom sets, but that's all. I sold the rest of my furniture too. I kinda thought you guys would have it."
"We will. We're gonna buy it here," Jo waved off her concern.
They worked together and got all of Amber and Makenna's things moved into the house. They scattered around the living room to relax and cool off until they had to leave to meet the realtor. "So wait a minute," Amber said with a quirked eyebrow, "You don't have a bed or a mattress. Where are you sleeping tonight?"
"We'll throw some blankets down on the floor, it'll be fine," Jo shrugged, "and tomorrow we can go furniture shopping while Alex unpacks all these boxes."
Alex snorted and scoffed, "Don't hold your breath," causing the women to laugh at him. "Are you coming down to the clinic with us?" he changed the subject looking over to his sister.
"Well, yeah," she answered, "I can't wait to see where I'll be working." Amber had been working as an addiction counselor and jumped at the chance to work in the new clinic with her brother and sister-in-law. She and her daughter would be living with them for the time being also while she went back to school to get her degree in psychology. "I don't get it," she said as they were leaving, "you could have picked anywhere to open this clinic. Why did you choose here? Why come back to Iowa? I know I sure could have used a change of scenery. We should have gone somewhere like California or Florida, beautiful weather, beaches..."
"Don't mention the beach to Jo."
"I hate the beach," the husband and wife spit out at the same time, interrupting the younger woman. She looked between the two with the infamous Karev smirk on her lips. "You look so much like your brother," Jo laughed.
The siblings looked at each other and then said simultaneously, "nah, I don't see it."
Jo laughed even more and ushered them all out the door. This was going to be interesting living with two, make that three, Karevs, she thought as Makenna placed her tiny hand inside her aunt's. As Alex backed the car out of the driveway, Jo looked at her new home, new neighborhood and her family around her and smiled, "Here's to new beginnings."