He woke up first, a little while ago if the fact that the sun is now beginning to move towards its place higher in the sky is to be taken as true.
He looks down at the woman in his arms, in all her brilliant glory.
Even when dead to the world, she still radiates a quiet power. Its beautiful to watch when she's awake and strikes him with awe now that he's seen her asleep but he absolutely lives for when she's dominating a surgery;
(and writhing underneath him is a strong second contender as of last night.
and earlier this morning after they finally made it to his bedroom.)
He takes her in, not for the first time, but is a new favourite activity of his all the same.
From her glowing brown skin that is always warm, no matter the temperature; to the tips of her finger nails, he knows one thing for sure;
She is radiance in her human form.
He adores even much more about her now that they've opened up to one another, in both a physical and deeper emotional sense of the sentence.
The scar right below her shoulder blade, barely noticeable to anyone else but when your job includes having to create wounds with the most minimal scarring, you pick up on the little imperfections people usually want to hide.
That scar reminds him that she's real.
With her fiery temper and vicious tongue when she refuses to hold it for any longer,
she IS real.
He can list so much more he discovered about her within the last 24 hours from how cold Margaret Pierce can truly be when she feels wronged to how passionate she is when she lets down her guard.
From her ability to make HIM, Jackson Avery, feel like a child with her stubbornness and cutting remarks, to how those same lips can light a fire within him he thought long dead. Never there to begin with actually, there is so much he can think of that undoes him about her but his favourite thing to watch (amongst others) has to be her hair.
He never spent much time with his mother's side, family politics he hadn't bothered himself with thoughts of for many years until he laid eyes on his daughter, he never paid a second thought to a black woman's hair.
His mother's was always either in a tight, immoveable ponytail for work or Avery functions or straighter than his maternal cousins hair but usually the first.
And the older he has gotten the more he realises that he loves paying attention to a woman's hair, it says a lot about her.
Cristina's was as dark as she could be when she let herself but controlled.
Lexi's was, admittedly, something he didn't pay much attention to.
Stephanie's (oh Edwards) was similar to the Cardio surgeon's next to him but never struck as much of a chord with him.
April's hair, in all honesty, touched him in a way he didn't think could.
He didn't know what to call it then, confused he was about the sudden lack of vocabulary to describe a feeling his best friend, then lover, then ex, then all of a sudden wife, then mother of his children, then ex again invoked in him.
At the time he was convinced it was love.
Now he's older and realises the term that evaded him for years when he was on and off then on and off again the rollercoaster that is being with April Kepner is called, infatuation.
Her sleek bright red locks resembled a fire, burning, alluring, calling but ultimately dangerous.
Maggie's hair is not as easy to dissect.
It twists and curls in a way that interests him so much now. Her curls have a life of their own in that when she walks into a room with purpose, her hair carries the same agenda.
When she comes in fiery and hot, her hair follows with its own argument within the curls.
Her hair speaks to her power even when she just shakes her head, it moves to beat that her powerful mind set.
Maggie's hair is a lot like her, very misunderstood by those who don't know her/it, very expressive of own views in that it must be curly so it shall curl in a way most people find distasteful but it is it's own direction. His woman's hair reminds him of a darkening sky with thunder when she stomps and it follows whenever she is mad whereas his ex wife's hair was a constant red alarm. A constant;
"WARNING DANGER." sign
Kepner's hair was a warning from the beginning that what they would have would be like a hurricane;
The adrenaline would be fun at first but then it just destroys everything in its way afterwards.
Maggie's hair is a lot of things, a thunderous storm when she's angry but not enough that the destruction is horrible. Her hair sometimes just flows, in its dark brown/black glory, looking like a damn crown on her head and a crown he will bestow upon her if he gets his way.
So April's hair might be alluring in the beginning, it lets you know that it gets dangerous very fast, while Maggie's hair can freely flow for so long that it becomes like Sunday rain on your porch. light. cute. much needed.
Someone might say his ex's hair is easier to maintain as opposed to his (powerful, brilliant) woman's hair but that's because her hair needs more care to be taken. It needs to be looked after. And after all that "hard work" it looks gorgeous, he thinks as he pulls on one of the curls.
It might need more care but damn it, the result is beautiful and pulls him toward her as much as her mind and those beautiful dark eyes do.
Maggie's hair is what his daughter will have and he hopes that after taking care of his and Maggie's relationship, she'll be there to teach Harriet what she knows about taking care of the black woman's hair, the same hair that will carry as much power as her.
The women who have done so much to his heart have their kinky, curly, beautiful hair in common.
The same hair on the quiet Storm that is Miss Maggie, evokes an emotion he quickly and happily identifies as maybe;
Love.
He feels her shift to face him and he sees her open her big dark brown eyes for the first time since the sun rose and all he can whisper is;
"Hi.."
Undone.
(By her beautypowerbrilliance)
She gives him a sleepy smile and in her cute morning voice she says;
"Good morning, Jackson."
He's sunk and not going anywhere.