A/N Thank you for the response!

April hadn't slept for 72 hours. She would lay down only to be swallowed by memories that she thought she had healed from. Seeing him at the hospital caused her to feel the wave of emotions that had been building up for the past seven years to come crashing down. After that first night she hadn't even tried to return home, she would kick back a redbull and offer to cover someone's on call shift.

April took a last nibble of a rice cake as her pager went off. she hadn't managed to stop her grimace. If her lack of sleep went any longer she would have to ask someone to sedate her, though it was more likely that she would just take some Nyquil. But right now sleep was a distant longing.

He was still there, and avoidance made her even more irritable. April would see him touring the hospital and would run the opposite direction before he could see her. She gave up good cases so he wouldn't wander into her gallery. The Jackson she remembered would love to watch a good surgery.

April told herself that this wasn't going to be a long term arrangement. She told herself that as soon as he had an idea of what they needed from the Foundation that he would be gone. She found it ironic that he was finally in the family business, the one that he once said, 'demeaned medicine'.

"Avery." Jackson looked up from his book, he took a breath and took another sip of his latte, he had been waiting for a chance to tell her. He wanted to be honest with her, knew he needed to be if she were ever to accept his affection . "Your name is Jackson Avery."

Jackson closed his eyes in frustration, "Ape, it doesn't matter what my last name is."

"How can you say that, I thought we were friends, I-" April flustered, her voice raising in pitch. Jackson cringed as he heard the tears in her voice. He stood up but made no move to comfort her.

"Hey, no, no, no. Don't think like that." April didn't even hear his interruption.

"I mean I know that I am just this brace faced redhead from Ohio, but God Jackson. I thought you were my friend. I guess that's on me. My only friend during my first term of college, and I didn't even know his last name. This one's on me." She backed up as his hand reached up to stroke her cheek. He let it drop.

April looked at Jackson with such disappointment, and it wasn't disappointment in him, it was disappointment in herself. Jackson felt like he was being punched in his gut. He was used to people looking at him like he was a screwup, but seeing her look like that, because she was mad at herself, he knew he couldn't let that stand.

"I'm pretty. In my family, I'm the pretty one. My eyes and my smile, my body. I mean, you should see me without a shirt on. It's kinda ridiculous. But my family is smart, driven, and crazy over-achievers. And they look like they're smart. They don't look like me, which has its perks. Except that my family treated me like I was pretty. They expected nothing from me, ever. Never pushed me, never thought to. So I had to push myself. Hard."

April heard the vulnerability in his tone, but he didn't stop there, he kept going, choosing to put it all out there, "No, I didn't tell you that I was an Avery, but that wasn't you. That was me, basking in the fact that to someone, I wasn't Harper Avery's mediocre grandson."

"And you see me April, not just the superficial stuff but me. Jackson, the guy who drinks way too much Mountain Dew and loves to binge watch 'I love Lucy' when he gets stressed. I guess I didn't want to lose that. I didn't want to lose the person who in 10 weeks, has managed to become the person who knows me better than anyone. Ten weeks April, and you are already the most important person." By then he was looking at April with such blatant adoration that it took her breath away.

Jackson waited for her to speak. Standing there in a campus coffee shop he waited for her to respond. For her to understand what he was telling her. April got it but her fear was nearly enough to suffocate her, she pushed it down. This man was choosing her, he was choosing Duckie. She couldn't contain the grin that came to her face, braces bared and all.

Jackson gave her an answering grin, it got even bigger at her next words, barely above a whisper. "I am going to fall in love with you."

Jackson saw the nerves in her eyes. He knew time would reassure her, and he knew he would enjoy the chase, the romance. Jackson leaned forward and pressed his lips gently to her forehead, he answered her whisper with one of his own, "I'm counting on it."

April felt lethargic as she made her way to the ambulance bay. She was barely on time in meeting the ambulance in the cold weather,"What do we have?"

"16 yr. old male, fell out his window and onto a bamboo stake in his backyard. It want straight through the lower left lobe of his lung." April nodded as they pulled him into the heat of the hospital.

"Page Doctor Altman to OR 2. He is critical." April struggled to remain unemotional as she struggled without an attending, eventually she was joined by Dr. Webber. Her hands rushed as she tried to keep up with the ever growing list of surgical steps. Richard kept a visual on the redhead.

After 15 minutes of being observed by the chief of surgery she looked up at him beseechingly, "You have this Kepner. Doctor Altman will be out of her meeting any minute now and you are doing fine on your own."

Hunt had told him that she had shown an aptitude for trauma. As he watched her he could see that Owen had been right. Kepner had steady hands, and at his words she looked like she had waged war with death. Though she looked like she might fall over at any moment, her work spoke for itself, Webber had made a grave mistake in underestimating Kepner.

When Teddy Altman finally joined her in the OR, she wasn't alone, behind her was April's husband.

April looked down immediately, refusing to make eye contact, barely containing her tears. She breathed and pushed through the shaking of her hands. She felt his gaze boring into her, and she felt naked in the room. took over, and April gave her brief answers to her questions on the patient's status.

If April looked at Jackson, she would have found a small smile and tears of relief in his eyes. Seeing her had nearly brought him to his knees. Under the pretense of observing the surgery he took the time to study his bride. She looked thin, she looked exhausted, and in a way she looked like she had seen a ghost. He was the ghost he thought grimly to himself.

Jackson decided that he had had enough of silence, "So Teddy, did you hear the one about the guy who invented the knock knock joke?" Dr. Altman glanced at him with a comical expression, April looked like she wished she could be anywhere else. She probably did. "He won the 'nobel' prize. Don't look at me like that, I'm in peds, and that is some grade A humor." Teddy shook her head comically.

Jackson was shocked as he heard April shout with laughter. She removed her hands from the patient as she laughed hysterically. Every doctor in the room heard the moment when her laughs turned into sobs. Jackson felt dangerously close to tears as well. As she struggled to catch her breath, April looked at her husband directly in the eye for the first time in nearly 8 years.

"Jackson?"

"Yes April?"

"I think that I am going to pass out." It was fact, and Jackson reached her just in time, holding her up with an extraordinary ease. He marveled at having her in his arms. There was a flurry of activity in the room, and Jackson noticed none of it. Allowing himself to be ushered into a private room, with the most precious of cargo in his arms.

A/N I love using direct quotes from the show. I think it adds tension! Have a great day y'all :)