This is my first published story. Please be kind :)
I'm not quite sure if this will have more chapters, I'm just taking this one step at a time.
I've had this idea since seeing Sarah Drew play two different characters on Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.
"Judy? Judy Andersen? It's me, Carrie Sinclair."
"Ma'am, I'm sorry. But I'm going to need you to check in over there first before I can help you" April said breathlessly after running down the pit after receiving a 911 page.
"I can't believe you are a doctor now. I'm so proud. Your studies must have gone well."
"Ma'am, again, I'm sorry but I can't really chat right now." April said while listening to the patient's breath sounds.
Confused as to why Judy was acting like she didn't even recognize her, Carrie Sinclair went back over to the waiting area, with her husband and her young son.
"Was that her hun?" questioned Jeff Sinclair.
"It was!" Carrie said breathlessly. "I can't believe it's been 6 years since this little miracle came into our lives" Carrie bent down to kiss Michael's forehead.
"We don't want to get his hopes up Carrie. We should just wait and see if she wants to talk to us again, and meet Mikey."
What a weird coincidence that that a month after moving from Santa Monica to Seattle the Sinclair's would come into contact with their young sons birth mother.
"Momma my leg still is hurting… when can we see the doctor?"
"Soon sweetie, they are just really, really busy right now."
Michael had injured his leg at his little league practice earlier this afternoon, and as concerned parents they thought bringing him to the ER would be the best thing to do. They had heard great things about Grey Sloan Memorial so they drove 30 minutes across town to the emergency room.
"Michael Sinclair" bellowed the nurse. "Behind curtain 3, a doctor will be with you shortly."
The Sinclair's walked over and the nurse pulled the curtain around them.
A few moments later, a doctor appeared."Hi! I'm Dr. Wilson. How are you today Michael?"
"Oh, he's just doing fine. We were just concerned about some leg pain he has been complaining about after his little league game this afternoon."
Jo sat down in the nearby chair and pulled herself closer to the bed. "Okay big guy, let me just see here. "She began to feel around Michael's leg for anything out of place. "I can't feel anything terribly wrong, but we'll get you an x-ray just to make sure, okay?"
"Thanks again!"
"Sure, not a problem. I'm just going to find someone to help take you up to x-ray."
As Jo headed over the nurses station she spotted April, "Hey Dr. Kepner… are you heading up to x-ray?" She only asked this because she saw a pile full of charts in her arms. "Can you even manage those?" Jo eyed her swollen stomach.
"Yeah, Wilson. I'm good, and I am. Why, what do you need?"
"Oh there's just a little boy, age 6, with what seems to be a break in his leg, the parents are hovering and I thought an x-ray would get them off our backs."
"Yeah, Sure. Just get someone to wheel him up and I'll be able to examine the images."
About 20 minutes later April finally got around to looking at the images of the 6-year-old boys leg. She spotted what looked to be pathologic fracture. How was this little boy even able to put any pressure on his leg she thought to herself. She took the images under her arm and walked towards the waiting area.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Kepner. Sorry about the delay we were kind of backed up down in x-ray. Would you mind sitting down for a moment."
"Judy we are so glad to finally be able to talk to you. We've told Mikey all about you. It is so funny how life can throw all of these things at you, and it somehow turns out great."
"Um ... okay. Well your son looks to have a pathologic fracture, which can be pretty severe. Often a result of osteogenesis imperfecta, since this is Michael's first time here we have none of his previous records. Are you aware of what osteogenesis imperfecta is?"
"Judy, I'm sorry! We've known about Mikey's OI since he was about a year old. He ended up breaking both of his legs while learning to walk."
April was thoroughly confused as to why this couple would not let up calling her Judy. "I'm sorry, I've never met your son before so I don't have any prior knowledge of his medical history. We can set you up with our orthopedic surgeon and she can get a cast on your son, and we can go forward from there. Her name is Dr. Torres and she's great. I'll have her paged and she'll be able to meet you."
April stood up to leave, but Carrie's grasp didn't allow her to get very far.
"Judy, I know this must be difficult for you to process but we did know that Mikey had OI. A very mild form, he has never had any real problems with it. He's lived a happy and healthy life."
"Okay ma'am."
"OI can be very treatable when it is in the mildest form." Carrie placed her had on April's stomach. "We can't believe your having another, this is so great. We are so happy for you. "
"You've achieved everything you could have ever wanted. " Jeff added while glancing at April's large diamond on her left hand.
"Okay." April said bleakly, and turned to walk away.
"Hey April, you busy? Want to grab lunch?" Arizona smiled as she met up with April in the hallway.
"Hey, yeah sure! I'm just really freaked out right now. I kind of need to sit down."
"What's up?" Arizona turned to April, with concern on her face.
"There's this 6 year old patient and the parents need to be referred to psych."
"Oh wow!" Arizona chuckled. "That kind of day…"
"They keep calling me 'Judy', and have touched my stomach more today than I have."
"Give them a page. They'll be able to handle them."
"Yeah, I will.
While having lunch in the cafeteria with Arizona, April's pager went off.
"Oh, it's Callie. She wants to me to talk to the parents with her."
"Why Callie?"
"Oh, the kid had a pretty severe fracture. I wanted to her check it out and bandage him up."
"She's a big girl. She can handle it on her own. Don't risk going in front of those parents again." Arizona said with some attitude
April always hated bringing up Callie around Arizona after their breakup. She didn't want to seem like she was taking sides in all of it.
"Yeah, true. Thanks." April looked up from her salad with a half smile on her face.
About 10 minutes later April's phone went off. CALLIE displayed on the screen.
Arizona's eyes looked furious. "Honestly…."
"Let me just take it. Just to see what's going on." April said
Hey Kepner some weird things going on down here.
Is the boy okay?
Yeah he's fine. Good to go. But these parents are going on and on about how you carried their son for them, back in '09, you gave him up for adoption. They really want to talk to you. They want to introduce you to him.
April dropped her phone into her salad.
"April. What's wrong?" Arizona shot up from her seat, running to April's side.
"I have a son?" April could barely get the words out of her mouth.
Arizona looked at April, puzzled. "Yes, we know. We saw him on the ultra sound last week! He's going to have Jackson's eyes…"
"No. Those parents. They think I'm their child's biological mother."
"That makes no sense. Wasn't Jackson your first, at the boards?"
"Yes."
"You are sure right? No drunken nights?"
"Arizona, I would have known that I gave birth."
"Okay, well yeah. But… maybe you need a psych consult" Arizona tried to force a laugh.
"This makes no sense. That was the year of the merger. I was here. You guys know I wasn't pregnant."
"Okay. We can handle this. We'll just call security. Get those creeps out of here." Arizona lifted her phone to her ear. First calling Jackson.
Hey, Avery. We need you.
Oh god is April okay?
Yeah, and – uh, no. Can you meet us?
Yeah, I'm down by OR 2, I'm just about to scrub in. Meet me here?
Yeah, we'll be right there.
April and Arizona left the cafeteria and headed to OR 2.
April was having trouble breathing.
"Arizona, I – I, I don't know what's going on and I can't, can't – I can't breathe."
"April, relax. You have nothing to even worry about. These people obviously think you are someone else, or are just straight up psychos."
"April –" Jackson pulled off his mask and ran toward her. "Is the baby okay?"
"Yeah, everything is fine. We – well," Arizona was trying to put together her words as April sat down in a nearby chair.
Arizona pushed Jackson aside and told him about April's afternoon.
"What? That's nuts. Jesus!" He started angrily dialing on his phone. "I'm calling security and we are getting those people out of this hospital."
"No, Jackson. Wait. Maybe I should talk to them. They obviously think I'm somebody else. Maybe we could help them." April said meekly.
Arizona and Jackson's eyes met. "Only April…." They both said under their breath.
"Okay, we'll - we'll talk to these people. We can tell them about San Francisco if you want, and how about 100 people can vouch for your being here in 2009…. not pregnant." Jackson said while caressing April's shoulders.
The three of them made their way down to the lobby.
"Judy" the Sinclair's exclaimed once seeing April come off the elevator.
"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair. I'm Jackson Avery. I'm a plastic surgeon and a board member here at Grey Sloan. I'm also Dr. Kepner's husband."
They both smiled at him, "We're so glad to meet you!"
"I think we might have some confusion on our hands. This here is April, April Kepner and she has been here at Grey Sloan since 2009, back when we were known as Seattle Grace Mercy West. I've personally known her since our intern days, many years prior to that." She and I, We – uh, April waited until marriage. She could not possibly be your sons biological mother."
"Oh, oh. I'm sorry, but you are identical to Judy. We were apart of a pilot program down in California in 2009 at Oceanside Wellness; we met Judy and adopted her son after she gave birth to him at St. Ambrose hospital. We are sorry for any confusion. We just thought it was something difficult for you to talk about, and we were just so excited to see you again. Mikey has this little picture book that has always carries around with him, with a picture of you – uh, I mean Judy inside of it, when he was born. He always talks about you on Mother's day. We've been very open with telling him about how you helped us make our dreams come true."
"Go get it!" Carrie urged Jeff. Jeff went back over to the waiting area and rummaged around in Carrie's bag. Michael was just sitting there playing on his iPod with ear buds in his ears.
"Here! Here is it." Carrie opened to the third page of the small book.
In unison, Jackson, Arizona and April looked up at each other. The small crumpled image of what looked to be April holding a small infant in her arms wrapped in a blue blanket. It eerily resembled April back in 2009, in the early days of the merger.
"Well this is unexplainable." Arizona stepped forward, speaking on behalf of Jackson and April who were unable to form words.
"I'm sorry, but April is not the women that you think she is. I'm terribly sorry to get your hopes up, and we hope you are able to find Judy someday." Arizona placed her arms around April and ushered her away from the commotion.
Moments later, in the attendings lounge Jackson was trying to comfort April; "Do you have any family members that look just like you?" Jackson asked as he rubbed April's thigh to comfort her.
"Jackson, that's not really helping. If I knew, this wouldn't be an issue in the first place." April rolled her eyes. "My sisters, my mom, my dad, other than that we don't have anyone else really. My grandparents passed away when I was young. My mother had a brother but he passed when she was young, and my Dad had two brothers, none of which married. It is honestly only my sisters and I. I have no idea who this 'Judy' person is."
"That girl looked so much like you. I know people say you have doppelgängers out there, but that girl looked identical to you. She has to be related. If not, she took a picture of your beautiful face and brought it to a pretty handy plastic surgeon."
"Jackson, please. This is just some weird mix up. I'm going to get to the bottom of it."
Later that evening at home April picked up the phone to call home to her mother, she ended up calling around twice a week - especially now with being pregnant, her mom and dad often wanted updates on the baby.
April filled her mom in on everything that was going on, and finally got around to what she made the call for in he first place. Filling her mother in on her drama filled day with that couple, and the little boy. "They thought I was his mother. It was the craziest thing. They showed a picture that they had of his biological mother and she looked just like me. Apparently her name was Judy and she gave birth to him in California back in 2009. Mom - mom…?" Karen did not reply "You still there?" April said with worry. She heard her mom crying on the other line.
"Judy" she managed to speak.
"Yes, her name was Judy… Did I already tell you that?"
"No, sweetheart. Judy. Our other daughter."
"Other…. Daughter?" April could barely form a sentence.
"Yes, we always wanted to tell you, we just didn't know when. It it was so very difficult for us. You know back when Daddy had just got the farm when Libby was a baby, and then I was pregnant with you and we weren't doing so well. We didn't have much money, and babies were very expensive. The farm, you know, that was before it took off and started doing well. You and your sister were born, and we had to do what was best for our family. We couldn't afford to have three small babies. I wasn't working, and it was a struggle to make ends meet at that time. We desperately wanted to keep her, but we did what –"
"Another child? I had a twin sister that you just gave away?"
"We didn't give her away easily sweetie. It was hard. We don't like talking about it."
"Why me, why did you keep me and not her?"
"You were born first. That's how we decided. We never even held her because we didn't want to get attached. She also had a small medical issue." Karen mumbled.
April was too hung up on the first part of the sentence to be able to catch the second half.
"So you give away a child, and then you had Kimmie like a year later? How does that make any sense?"
"Sweetie. The farm started doing well. Everything started falling into place a few months after you were born."
"So why didn't you try to get her back?"
"It was a closed adoption at the request of her new parents. We only got one picture of her, on her first birthday. All we knew was that her name was Judy and that they had moved to California."
"So, when were you planning on telling me this?"
"We never wanted to hurt you, or your sisters."
"Well mom, this hurts. This is a huge part of my life that I knew absolutely nothing about, and this poor family wanted their son to meet his birth mother. I just thought they were crazy people." April hung up on her mother, furious about her discovery and threw the phone across the room.
"April?" Jackson looked out the bedroom door. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, sure, everything's fine. I just have a twin sister I didn't know about for thirty-three years."
"A twin sister?"
"Yes, and her name is Judy. Those people thought I was my sister. Who I didn't even know existed. She gave birth to the Sinclair's son. That's my nephew that I met today." April began to break down into tears in Jackson's arms.
"April, it's okay. It's not your fault."
"It is my fault. I was born first. That's the only reason why my parents are my parents. I could have easily been the one given up for adoption. Who even knows if she had a good life? Was she happy? What was she like?"
"Don't talk like that April. I'm sure we can find her and you can meet her."
"I'm not sure if I even want to meet her. She'll hate me."