A/N: Hi there!

This story is meant to be like a Christmas themed episode focused on Jo. It will have 4 chapters, that I plan to update every other day, until 25th (let's pray together that I'll have time to write everything?), each chapter with 3 independent scenes. Almost every character of the show is here. I was trying to include everyone, but they're too many, so there are a few that I still don't know if I'll be able to fit. If everything goes as planned, we'll have Stephanie, Meredith, Amelia, Maggie, Arizona, Callie, April and Jackson.

If you recognize a name from one of my other stories on the third scene: Yes, it was on purpose. I'm using the same context that I "created" a while ago, because I'm too lazy to think of something new. If you don't, don't worry, it's not that important.

Since it's all focused on Jo, there's something about her past as a foster kid, which is making me a little nervous, because I know nothing about that topic. I apologize in advance for my mistakes. I apologize as well for any grammar mistakes or mispelled words, since I just had the idea I wanted to finish this chapter and decided to publish it in like 5 minutes that I could take off at work.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, unless you count my love for messed up people that don't really exist.


Holidays. Everybody loves holidays. The family gathered around a table full of food, the kids running and playing and yelling, relatives coming from all over the country, gifts you'll pretend to like, the mostly-annoying-yet-funny carols and the snow and the pine tree and the mistletoe... It's the most wonderful time of the year. Everybody loves holidays. Right?

Wrong. What is there to love when you have nobody to celebrate with?


Boston, December 24, 1990.

"I can't believe you brought another child, Bob, I only have gifts for four. What am I gonna do?" From the bedroom, the little girl with smart eyes could hear the woman yelling at her husband in the kitchen. She had no idea what was happening, she only knew it was a new house, with new parents. She looked around; it was a big bedroom. One, two, three, four, five. The number of beds matched the number of fingers in her right hand, the same amount that she used when someone asked for her age. Her latest mom had said that after her next birthday she would have to start using the other hand too. She didn't know how long it would take until her birthday. Now, she was five. And there were five beds in the bedroom.

"We have room for five, Marti, we are supposed to be prepared for five kids. The social worker practically begged me to take this one for two weeks, what was I supposed to do?" The man's voice was loud, but he wasn't yelling. He seemed nice. Miss Andrews said he would be her father for a while and that he was as a good man. The woman was scary, but not too scary. She had seen worse.

"I don't care! What I want to know is what am I supposed to do now. I can't give the presents to the other kids when I have nothing for the youngest one. You just ruined Christmas for all of them." She yelled, again. The girl tried to stop listening, but she couldn't. She didn't like when the dads and moms fought. Were they fighting because of her? Sick of waiting, she sat on her small luggage and put her hands on her face, making her elbows touch her knees. She wanted to sit on a bed, but she wasn't sure if she could. They were all so pretty! The first three were red, such a beautiful color! The other two, next to the window, were green. There was a small Santa on each one of the headboards. She had never been in a place like this. So pretty.

"Lah-lah-lah-lah-lah... " As the woman kept talking, the girl closed her eyes and sang, as an attempt to take her mind out of whatever they were fighting about. That's when she heard a sound. The door was unlocked and four kids entered.

They all looked scared at the presence of the stranger. The tallest, a black skinny boy, soon lost his interest and walked past her towards the green bed next to the window. The second, who looked like his younger sister, was the first to speak, as the girl stared at them with her eyes wide open.

"What's your name?" The black girl asked. The newcomer liked her voice.


Seattle, December 24, 2014.

"Josephine. Josephine Wilson." Jo replied to the black skinny woman with a nice voice at the CD store. The woman typed the name on her computer, smiling to the customer as she found her name, them she went to the back of the store to take the album that had been ordered a few weeks ago. Jo paid quickly, eager to get out of that crowded place and took her cell phone out of her pocket to check one more item of her to do list app. That's when she saw a missed call from Stephanie. Jo sighed. How she wished she was at the hospital! It was ten in the morning and she'd been through more stress than in one entire day at the ER. She dialed her friend back, on the way to the parking lot - she didn't want to keep carrying all those fancy bags.

"Hey! Where are you? I thought you'd be working today." Stephanie said.

"I thought that too. Until Dr Karev paid our chief resident to put me on his service and gave us both a day off to work on the Christmas dinner that Robbins convinced him to host." Jo answered, frustrated. She still couldn't believe Alex had done that.

"No, he didn't." Stephanie's surprised voice was an expected reaction. When Alex told her, the night before, she was more surprised than her words could describe.

"Yes, he did." Jo opened the car door and tucked the bags in the backseat, before going back to the mall. Only three more presents, and she'd be done.

"Alex definitely doesn't look like a Christmas person. Neither do you." The chocked tone was off, and Jo could feel that her friend was trying not to laugh.

"He isn't. We aren't," she entered a department store a few feet from the place she'd parked. She already knew that there she could find the things she still needed. "Two days ago, Robbins brain washed him, by saying that he was her only hope to spend the night with Callie and Sofia. Now, she is working and I have to help him to keep his promise."

Stephanie laughed. "And by help him, you mean you're doing everything and he brings the alcohol?"

Jo laughed too. "No. Actually, he is doing most of the work. Since he wouldn't let me go into the woods to find a tree, I'm just handling the gifts - for me, for him, for Robbins and for Grey. And the mall is a complete nightmare."

She passed by a few busy salesmen before she found what she wanted. She looked at the long lines. It's the last one, Jo. You can do that. Then she just had to pick up Alex's present on the postal office box she'd rented and go home. As Stephanie kept talking, Jo grabbed a pair of beautiful silver earrings and a leather hand purse. Only one more.

"Wait, wait," Stephanie said. "It sucks that you're buying presents for the whole hospital, but the most important piece of information here is: You're having a tree? Oh my God, I can't imagine Alex decorating a tree. Am I invited to the dinner? I need to be there to see when it's done."

Jo looked at both sides, to see where she had to go now. "No, you need to be there to bring me my booze, or I surely won't survive this night. It's probably gonna make my list of the worse Christmases ever, and we have a massive competition here."

"You know you're overreacting right? I mean, it can't be that bad. If Alex is going after a tree, maybe a Christmas miracle already happened and Grumpy is becoming a real nice person," Stephanie teased.

Jo shook her head, even though her friend couldn't see her reaction. "Sometimes, I wish my boyfriend were the jerk my best friend thinks he is. It would be less scary than dating a soft big bear who surprises me deciding we're hosting a dinner two days before Christmas." She said and heard a beep on the background when it seemed that Stephanie was starting to say something.

"Sorry, I got a page," Stephanie apologized. "But you know I would love to spend hours hearing Fiona's complaints about how Shrek is actually a real Prince Charming."

Jo snorted, catching the attention of a customer that was trying to get to the same aisle as herself. "Shut up! You will or not be there?" She asked, glad that she had finally put her hands on the last gift: A big umbrella that, if she remembered correctly, was from Grey to her new discovered sister who was living in Seattle for months already, but still didn't know that city was made of rain.

"I will," Stephanie replied, her tone still not free of her usual sarcasm. "I was going home, but my mom decided to come tomorrow, so I can stay sober and make sure that as soon as you finish a drink, there's another one in your hands. Then, if you need, I'll also be there when you start puking, to hold your hair and make jokes."

Of course you will, Jo thought, almost approaching the big line. "Don't you get tired of making baby jokes every time my stomach says I drank too much?"

"No. Why would I? It's so funny to see how terrified you are to even think about having a family. Gotta go. Bye!" With that, the resident hung up, leaving her friend alone with a thousand people before her.

Almost there. I'm almost there.

It was faster than she thought. Twenty minutes and she was already in the car. She drove to the post office, that felt like a desert compared to the mall, and said her number to a blond girl that looked like she would rather be dead than working - which was ironic to her client who just wanted to work to avoid all the holidays traditions she wasn't used to. After what seemed an eternity, the girl came back with her package, and Jo thanked her. Out of all the presents she had bought that morning, only two were hers - a rare CD from the early days of Stephanie's favorite band and the earrings for Torres, because she wanted to stay in the good graces with the Orthopedic surgeon. But the most important gift was already safe in that package for almost a month. He's gonna love it.

Feeling less bummed than she was before, Jo put the box on her trunk, so Alex wouldn't see it if he was at home when she got there, and turned the radio on.

Maybe it was because of the festive songs coming out of the speakers, or the fact that her backseat looked like a wrapping paper factory, or the thought that she had managed to buy her boyfriend the first item on his wishlist, but on her way home, Jo was starting to enjoy everything. The morning hadn't gone so bad, after all. And the dinner, well, she just wanted to have a normal night, but Alex's friends were always at the house, anyway. Not that she loved that, but she couldn't really blame him for offering a place that was too big for two people who didn't even stay home this much.

It was funny how the roles between them were reversed at this time of the year. It was actually their first time, since last year he was too busy pretending not to care about his father dying and she was busy taking care of him without being too intrusive. But this year was different. Besides a few bumps on the road, they were in a much better place. He was trying to do a nice thing and she was being a Grinch. The rest of the year, he was the cranky one. Although that gave her some credit to be bad humored when she wanted, she also knew that it would be nice if both of them could simply enjoy this thing.

The problem was: Jo didn't know how to enjoy Christmas. She didn't know normal Christmases. She had been disappointed so many times, that she gave up on trying. Back when she still lived in foster homes, when she had the luck of being with a family that would afford a nice dinner for the kids, she usually managed to mess things up herself. Then came the two years she lived on her car. The first one, she spent all her bare money trying to buy fancy food and parked on a nice neighborhood to pretend she belonged to family a place like that. Her fantasy lasted less than one hour; someone saw her, called the cops and she spent the rest of the night in jail, which ended up being better than her original plan. The captain was a fifty years old woman whose computer broke and she asked Jo for help. She couldn't fix the problem, but they played cards and she even stole a donut from one of the guards. After that, nothing memorable. The next year, she was studying and that became her tradition during college and med school. While her roommates went home, she enjoyed the silence.

Silence was something she was sure she wouldn't get this year. Well, she could just stay in the bedroom - and she thought about the possibility - but Alex wanted her there, and she wanted to get along well with his friends. I can do that.

After fighting against the bad weather for a while, it was almost noon when Jo arrived home. Alex's car wasn't there and neither were the things he was responsible for - the food and the tree, without the decorations that Callie would do later. Grey would bring the beverages. She hoped he didn't forget to buy food. Even against her will, Jo had offered to help him with this too, but he said he had everything under control. Apparently, Meredith had given him some instructions, since she knew a thing or two about receiving people to have a real meal without actually having to cook anything.

Jo left her bags on the couch, so Torres would see them when she arrived. Then, she went back to the car and took the box she'd hid in the trunk. She stopped to check if Alex wasn't arriving, and since she didn't hear the sound of any cars in the neighborhood, she entered the house again and went upstairs. She looked at Robbins' bedroom, only to be sure that the blond wasn't going to surprise her, and when she saw that she was really alone, Jo went to the empty room. Alex never entered that place, so it would the perfect spot to hide her gift. Of course, she could just put it with the others with no identification, but she didn't know if she would want to give it in front of everyone. It wasn't anything special, but she wanted it to be their moment.

Looking up, Jo stopped in front of a bookshelf and saw that there were a few things on top of the old piece of furniture. Mostly, things that wouldn't fit in the shelfs, but there were about seven books piled up on the right corner. Since there was plenty of space for them somewhere else, she stood on tiptoes to take them. She calculated their weight wrong, though, and in one second, everything came down. She noticed that there was something above the books, but she couldn't exactly see what, since she closed her eyes during the avalanche. Why would Alex put something here? It had to be him, right? It wouldn't make sense to be Robbins, since she had her own bedroom that they didn't enter and with her prosthetic leg it could be difficult to reach that height. There was only one reasonable explanation for Alex to use that place, the same reason why she was trying to use: He was hiding something from her.

Crap! Bummed for having spoiled his surprise, Jo opened her eyes to gather the books and the mysterious thing from the floor. That's when she froze.

A little red velvet box.


Seattle, December 24, 2020.

"The red one, Alex. Always the red one," Jo said, laughing at the resistance of her husband towards their daughter's favorite color. It was good that she was still able to laugh, being at a department store on Christmas eve. She hated doing that, but things were crazier than normal this year, and they had no time to buy all the gifts before, so they had to face that war zone. At least, they had managed to take that time off together and she could count on him to reach the highest shelves without bringing everything down.

"Here," he said. "Claire knows that there are other colors in the world, right?"

Jo slapped his arm. "Yes, my child is not color blind," she replied. "You can run a test, if you want. I'm not the kids doctor of the family."

Alex made a face at her, but Jo knew very well how terrified he was at the slightest possibility of his little girl having some medical condition.

"Come on, did we take everything?" He asked, putting his hand on her back to lead her to the register.

They stood at the end of a line that seemed longer than the way back home, Alex complaining about everything. They were together for seven years and she still found it funny how he liked to play tough, when she knew very well how sweet he really was. He would spend a whole week on that line if that's what it took to make happy someone that he loved, specially his wife or his daughter. She smiled at this thought - maybe for too long.

"What are you smiling about?" Alex asked.

Jo shook her head, but still not able to be completely serious. "Nothing."

Raising an eyebrow to her, Alex put his hand on her waist and squeezed a sensible spot. "Alex!" She said, trying to be discrete.

"Tell me," he demanded, with a smirk complementing his evil look.

"Fine," she gave up. "I was smiling at you. You're so good at playing this bad mood attitude of yours that I could really believe it if I didn't know you too well."

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up. Look at this line! How am I supposed to be in a good mood?"

Jo laughed. "But you still like doing that. April offered to come with me and you didn't let her," she pointed. April had a day off too. She was taking care of the kids and getting the house ready for the dinner that Alex and Jo had been hosting for the last six years. Since none of them had family traditions and expectations to fulfill, they always opened the house to whoever of their friends were staying at the city too. April and Jackson usually spent the holidays between the Kepner's farm in Ohio and the Avery's empire in Boston, but this year April couldn't travel, so they decided to join the other couple with their tradition. All of the other friends, though, would either be out of town or working. Jo decided that she could do the remaining shopping for the four and April immediately said that she could come too, but Alex took his keys and said that was better if the redhead stayed.

"She is pregnant with twins. Eight months pregnant with twins. Jackson was going to kill me if I let her come to this pandemonium," he explained, shaking his head like they were crazy for even think about that possibility.

Jo couldn't help thinking he was even more sweet worrying about their friend's well being. "Oh, sorry. You didn't come because you wanted, but because you care about April and the twins. Adorable."

Alex squeezed her waist again, making her laugh. "Shut up."

"Adorable," she repeated and, ignoring that they might be observed by that crowd, she turned to face him. "And I love that. I can't imagine a better person to share these boring lines with."