Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait with this chapter but it took a while for it to come together. And are you actually serious with the response to the first chapter? You guys are AMAZING! Seriously, after I posted the first chapter I had no wifi for a couple of days and when I checked my email again I had like forty about this story. I am actually touched that you all liked the first chapter so much. Here's hoping the rest doesn't disappoint!
Derek definitely wasn't kidding when he paged 911. When Mark and Jackson arrived at the ER, there were bodies all over the place in various states. Their presence was needed so urgently that they didn't even get the chance to change out of their tuxes, instead having trauma gowns quickly put on them but nurses. They automatically went into trauma mode.
"What the hell happened?" Mark asked Yang, an eyebrow arched.
Cristina placed her stethoscope on the bare chest of a man in his mid-twenties who was unconscious and seemed to have some serious third degree burns. She left out a sigh of relief when she found a heartbeat, placing her stethoscope around her neck once again. "Fire in a nightclub. Half the casualties were sent to Seattle Pres. We got the worst."
The attending smiled grimly. "That's because we're the best. Avery, there's a girl over there with second degrees on her face, can you take her?"
Jackson nodded and immediately set off to tend to his patient. Meredith was already by her side, working on a nasty looking gash running the length of her thigh. The young brunette groaned in pain and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry Corey but this going to hurt. You're cut pretty bad," Dr. Grey informed her patient sympathetically.
He caught his ex- housemate's eye and she briefly nodded. "Hi, Corey. My name is Dr. Avery. I'm going to take a look at those burns on your face."
Corey frowned. "It's really bad, isn't it?"
"I've seen a lot worse," Jackson assured her, taking a closer look. "Mostly superficial but there are second degree burns on your jaw line. I'm going to try my best to keep the scarring to a minimum."
The patient smiled. "My hero. I really don't want to end up with a load of scars on my face," she frowned, "That makes me sound vain, doesn't it?"
Jackson chuckled. "Vain? No. Sane? Yes. Trust me, anyone would feel the same. I would know, I deal with things like this on a daily basis-"
"Avery!" Hunt called from the door of a trauma room, covered almost head to toe in blood. "We need you in here, stat!" He barely managed to get out before one of the residents inside the room called for him in a panic.
"I'll be back, I promise," Jackson assured his patient, grabbing an intern who was passing by. "You need to get some non-sticks on those burns. Leave the rest to me"
The small blond woman looked at him almost in awe before nodding enthusiastically. "No problem, Dr. Avery."
He cast his patient a reassuring smile before sprinting off in Hunt's direction, avoiding trolleys and people alike in the process. Jackson liked to think that, as a surgeon, he'd pretty much seen everything but he still got a shock when he caught sight of the patient on the bed surrounded by medical personnel. Burns of different degrees covered nearly every inch of his body. So much so that he had no defining features at all. He was just charred and raw skin.
It was definitely going to be a long night.
It took about three hours for things to calm down. That night over twenty patients were admitted. Another twenty were treated for minor injuries there and then and sent home. Jackson lost count of the amount of people that he had worked on in some way or other. It wasn't until all the rush had died down and he was doing charts that he realised that he was tired; really tired. The thought that he had been dancing with April at the gala earlier that night was almost laughable.
"I'm glad that I only had a glass or two of champagne." Mark's voice came from behind him and he quickly pivoted on his heel.
Jackson arched an eyebrow. "A glass or two of champagne?" He knew that the older man had definitely had more than that but he hadn't been drunk or any way incapable of doing his job.
The attending smiled coyly. "You heard right. Tonight didn't exactly turn out the way I expected but such is the life of a brilliant surgeon. You never know when you're going to have to serve mankind."
"Modest as ever I see," the green eyed resident chuckled.
Mark shrugged. "So when are you going to call April? Not now obviously seeing as it's," he glanced at his watch, "three o' clock in the morning. I really hope that you remember to save her number in your phone before you disinfected."
Jackson glanced down at his arm and saw that the number had in fact nearly completely disappeared. It certainly wasn't legible anyway. "Of course I did. And I don't know when I'm going to call her- if I'm going to call her." Now that he actually had time to think of something other than medicine, he wasn't so sure anymore. April was so sweet and obviously incredibly beautiful but he had this feeling in his stomach that was making him uneasy.
"Excuse me?" The smile disappeared completely from his face. "I'm sorry, I thought I heard you say that you weren't going to call her."
"That's what I said."
There was a brief moment of silence. "Are you out of your mind?! Seriously? She's smoking hot and she's a princess! What more could you possibly want?" Mark asked as if it was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. "I thought I taught you well!"
He frowned. "Yes, she's a princess. I didn't know that when I was talking to her. I thought she was just like any other woman. I mean, I did know that she was different but not in that way-"
"I'm not hearing a valid excuse here. What's really going on?" His best friend eyed him suspiciously.
Jackson paused. He knew exactly why he was dubious. It was because of his own family- what he had to do to get to where he was right now. "I'm an Avery, Mark. I have to deal with enough unwanted attention as it is. I'm sick of people treating me differently because of who my mother is or who my grandfather is. Dating a princess isn't exactly going to help with any of that. It will only be more unwanted attention. I don't think that I want that."
Mark arched an eyebrow, a hint of a smirk on his face. "You really don't see it, do you?"
"See what?" he asked, confused.
"See that by deciding not to call you're doing the exact same thing to her that you just said you hate being done to you. You're making a decision based on who her family are, not based on who April is. You haven't even given her a chance."
That pretty much floored Jackson. That hadn't even crossed his mind. Mark was right. What he was thinking about doing was completely hypocritical. April couldn't help who her family was just as much as he couldn't help who his was. He knew only too well how it felt. The resident decided that it was time he got over his complex and went on a date with the girl that he liked; not because she was in line to a throne, but because he genuinely liked her. "You're right."
His best friend beamed. "Of course I'm right! When am I ever not right?"
Jackson rolled his eyes. "Yeah so I'm going to finish these charts and then I'm going to go home and get some much needed sleep," he said, ignoring the older man's statement.
"Great but you better call her. Tomorrow preferably. She is a princess, you know," Mark said playfully and patted his protégé on the back before heading off to find Shepherd.
The younger man just shook his head and chuckled to himself before making for the elevator to get to the residents' lounge to change out of his scrubs and back into his tux. Or maybe just retrieve his tux. He made a mental note to keep a spare pair of jeans and a t-shirt in the hospital from then on just in case he should ever find himself in a similar situation again. The chances of something like this happening again were extremely high.
It was a very nice change for Jackson when he woke the next day of his own accord rather than being rudely roused at ungodly hours by his alarm clock. He didn't know what time of the morning or afternoon it was but could see bright light streaming in from the gap between the curtain and the wall. He haphazardly threw one arm over onto the locker that stood at his bedside to retrieve his phone. Three o'clock in the afternoon. Jackson really loved his days off. He had just gotten eleven hours sleep which was a once in a blue moon occurrence.
He lay there for another few minutes before leisurely getting up and making his way to the en-suite so that he could take a shower and relax even more. The hot water cascading down on top of him loosened every stiff muscle and rejuvenated him. While in the shower, he had more time to think about April. He was definitely going to call her, he just wasn't sure when yet. It would be soon though. He couldn't risk waiting too long, not with a woman like her. Jackson could still clearly see her fire-like red hair and doe eyes that just made her look like the most innocent and decent person that he had ever met in his whole life and her laugh that chimed like a bell.
The more he thought about it, the more inconceivable the notion that he wouldn't call her became. How could he not? The dark skinned doctor turned off the shower and stepped out, patting his upper body with a soft white towel before tying it around his waist. He made his way back to the bedroom and sat down on the edge of his bed. Jackson picked up his phone, a thought suddenly occurring to him.
He went into google and, after the page had loaded fully, began to type her name into the search bar. His finger hovered over the button for a prolonged moment. Was that really a good idea? Would he want one of his potential dates to google him? The answer was a resounding no. Jackson would actually be pretty annoyed if he found out that one of them did. That made up his mind for him and he quickly closed the page. If he was going to get to know April then he was going to do that through taking to her, not finding out what the internet had to say about her. He owed her at least that much.
The resident doctor decided there and then that it was the right time to call her. There's no time like the present, as they say. Flicking through his contacts, he kept going until he reached her name. Jackson hesitated for a moment before making a snap decision and hit the call button on his screen. He pressed the phone to his ear and listened as the dial tone began to sound. It continued for about fifteen seconds and he was about to dejectedly give up when the phone was finally picked up.
"Hello?" her musical voice descended over the line, sounding a bit flustered.
Jackson smiled to himself. "April?"
"Speaking."
"It's Jackson. Avery. From last night?" he prompted hopefully, not even able to think about the fact that she may not remember him.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case. "Jackson! You called."
He frowned at the evident tone of surprise in her voice. "Of course. I told you I would call."
"I know it's just- never mind… How are you?"
"I'm good. Relishing my day off. I actually got a decent amount of sleep for once. How are you?"
"Great. Actually, how was work? From the hurry you and your friend left in, I guessed it was pretty bad…"
"It was pretty bad. A fire broke out in a nightclub. We had around fifty patients come in at once. Seattle Pres. got around the same. Most of them were okay- only a few knocks and bruises and some smoke inhalation- but there was a few who weren't in such a good state. Thankfully we only lost two."
"Wow. You guys do such a great job. You're heroes," she informed him with clear admiration in her voice.
Jackson frowned. He wouldn't exactly describe himself and his colleagues as that. "A lot of the time we're actually villains. Or the patients think that. We give a lot of bad news… I thought you weren't going to pick up for a minute," he said, changing the subject.
April chuckled. "I hope you didn't think that I was avoiding your call. I just got out of a lecture."
"It was touch and go there for a minute," he joked, "I actually called to find out if you were free tomorrow night?"
"Well, besides a date with the television, I have nothing planned…"
A very large smile appeared on his face. "Great. So how about I pick you up around half seven?"
"Sure. My apartment is on Lincoln Street."
"You're only a few blocks away from me. I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then?"
"Not so fast; would you care to tell me what way I should dress?"
Jackson chuckled. "That would be giving too much away," he told her, knowing that girls hates it when they didn't know exactly what they had to wear. Also, he hadn't really decided where he was going to take her yet so he couldn't really tell her how to dress.
"Of course it would," he could almost hear her roll her eyes. "I'll see you at half seven tomorrow so?"
"Yes, you will."
"I'm looking forward to it," April said with a lot of enthusiasm, "See you then, Jackson."
"Bye, April."
As soon as the line had disconnected he tossed his phone down on the duvet, taking a deep breath. The hardest part was over.
