What an amazing response to the first chapter of this story! Thank you! I was hoping it wouldn't come off as a Cristina/Jackson story. It's definitely Japril. There will be more Cristina moments in the following chapters though.
In this story we're living in a world where April is more confident in herself. She also is not as much into God as she is in the show. I'm trying to do all of this while not making her too OOC. I figured it'd be nice to see for once. Please leave me a review :)
"Good morning ladies and gentleman." Owen Hunt greeted his group of medical professionals. They were having a morning meeting in the auditorium. It was one of the biggest days of the year for the hospital. The 2013 group of interns start today.
"Everyone knows why we're here. Today we ge-," he started but was interrupted by Cristina and a neuro surgeon he was a little less familiar with as they both shouted "fresh meat". He chuckled and shook his head to agree, though he said "new interns" instead of "fresh meat".
Owen looked down at his notes on the small podium in front of him before he finished his mini-speech. "You'll find your list of interns in your work email. They've been carefully chosen and appointed in consideration to medical school background, experience and preferred specialties. You are to do your best teaching these interns, after all, float or sink, they reflect you. I want everyone on their best behavior because we all represent Seattle Grace."
He stopped when he caught the crowd of doctors and surgeons breaking off into their own side conversations. Honestly, he didn't think he would be able to hold their attention for as long as he had. "I'll wrap this up…. have fun with your new group of interns everyone! Oh. And remember. I don't want any interoffice relations with any interns! None." Owen walked out of the auditorium listening to the cheers and laughter of his co-workers. It really was funny how something so trivial could ignite them.
Cristina found Meredith at the west end nursing station. "You get your list?" She asked her old friend, peeking over her shoulder her friends phone she was looking at.
Meredith glanced behind her at her friend with a grin. "Yep. None of the names sound familiar but that's probably a good thing." She mentioned something more to herself than to Cristina about Derek always getting the good interns and exited out of her email. Cristina didn't find the name on Meredith's list that she was looking for.
Her blonde friend turned around and leaned against the nursing station. "How about you?"
"Yeah. Same group of idiots I get every year. I doubt I'll get someone who is going to be the next Harper Avery or Cristina Yang of Cardiothoracic Surgery," the woman yawned feigning boredom and walked away. It was nothing Meredith hadn't heard before.
Cristina searched out her someone else and the next person she found was Avery. She smiled at him brightly while they walked towards each other down the hall. Jackson was put off by her smile at first and then wondered what was wrong. "Is everything alright?" He asked her curiously, his eyebrows furrowing at the sight of his roommate in such a cheery mood.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" She asked him curiously and her face went back to normal. He shrugged, not wanting to get into it with her. Before Cristina could ask him about his group of interns she was paged to the pit for a 911.
The interns got pushed to the back of her mind, she couldn't even remember the last time she got a 911 page to the ER.
Soon after, Jackson found his group of interns waiting for him. He really did love this day. They were so excited to practice medicine and still enthusiastic about everything. He could give them all scut work and rectal exams and they would still go in smiling at this point. It didn't hurt that interns took all his on-call shifts and charting from him.
"Good morning. I'm Dr. Jackson Avery. Yes, of the Harper Avery Award. No, I don't want to talk about it," He gave the same speech he'd given since his residency. It usually cleared up all the confusion over the surname Avery right away. He hated bringing it up but it was easier than hearing whispers about it for the first few weeks.
"Everyone can introduce themselves on our way to rounds. Go," he said in a polite tone with undertones of boredom.
A few stuttered before the bravest one spoke up. "I'm Emma Ross, graduated from NYU." She was a small blonde with a pixie cut. A little too perky for his taste.
Another went right after her. "George O'Malley, Boston University." Something about the man looked vaguely familiar to Jackson but he couldn't place him.
Shortly after a petite red head introduced herself. "I'm uh, April, April Kepner. I went to med school a UC-San Francisco," the woman introduced herself. She came off shy but anxious as well. Something about her voice actually made Jackson turn around and take a look at her. Her pale complex contrasted with her red hair had her practically glowing. She had dimples that were in the perfect position on her face and her figure was the perfect kind of curvy. She was definitely small, but round in all the right places.
He shot her his classic Avery smile that made women swoon. Everything in him was telling him to back off because of how frowned upon it was there to mingle with the interns. Hunt had just talked about it at their morning meeting of all things. A little flirting wouldn't hurt anything.
Her face turned beat red and he slightly chuckled once he was turned around again. At least she's humble.
The rest of the interns introduced themselves but he was already unfairly focused on the ginger. He gave them their orders for the day and how they were to start their forty eight hour shift and told them they'd meet back in the same spot in two days. "Oh, and do not page me unless someone is dying."
He watched them all scurry off in opposite directions. His eyes followed April, even though he couldn't understand how he was already infatuated with one. He was never infatuated with anyone. Reality was that some in this group of interns would feel their first long shift sail by, someone would start sinking already and one would drop out before the night was over.
Cristina wasn't going to be out of surgery any time soon since she was in the middle of a complicated bypass and emergency valve replacement. She knew it'd be well into another four more hours before she would be out of the OR. Her sister was roaming somewhere around the hospital and she had wanted to find her before she got too deep into her shift so she could show her the ropes. Besides, she still didn't know who she was working with.
Jackson went about his day like normal. He had a couple skin grafts and a few consultations, nothing too exciting. His mood was still cheery from getting a new group of interns until he saw Dr. Kepner being hit on by Dr. O'Malley. He watched them interact from down the hall, while he pretended to be working on Mrs. Meyers chart.
"If you're not too tired then we should go to that bar across the street for a drink after our first shift ends," he invited her shyly. He could tell the intern O'Malley was trying to be breezy but it didn't look like it was working. April looked up from her chart and locked eyes with him while the other man asked her out. O'Malley was still talking around his question, not shutting up. Her attention went back to George when she noticed he was anxiously waiting for an answer. "Uh, yeah, sure...if we're still around by then." The woman laughed and started walking down the opposite end of the hall. The giddy intern followed her like a lost puppy.
He found himself wanting to talk to her and know more about her than just her name and the fact that she was an alumi of UC-San Francisco. Hours passed before he saw her again.
"Dr. Kepner, how's everything going today? Everyone treating you okay?" He asked, trying to play it casually. Kind of like Dr. O'Malley earlier, though he hoped he was actually succeeding.
She peered up at him and grinned. "Good. Really good," she told him, she seemed surprised. "And I'm flattered you remembered my name Dr. Avery."
He shrugged and chuckled. "How could I not?" He also hated himself for what he was doing, he knew that she was off limits. They all were.
Her face turned red, much like it did earlier in the day and he adored it. She shivered as he winked at her and walked away.
It was nearly nine hours into April's shift before she found the time to eat something. She met Lexie, another intern, in the cafeteria and found a table in the corner.
"I am already so tired! And we still have thirty nine hours of our shift left! I might actually die. Like really die." Lexie rambled and dug into her cafeteria macaroni and cheese. It didn't look appetizing at all, other than the fact that it was something to put in their stomachs to hold them over and hopefully even give them a shred of energy.
"Me too! If I have to give one more rectal exam, I might die. It's like they save them all year so when new interns come in that's all they get to do! Who knew how many people actually came in needed rectal exams? Seriously!" April complained and cracked open a can of Mountain Dew. She wasn't one for sugary and caffeine filled drinks but made an exception for today. Caffeine might be the only thing to help her survive.
"I haven't given any rectal exams. But I've been puked on four times. FOUR times." Lexie told her and April couldn't decide which of them was the lucky one. She watched Lexie devour a Snickers bar. Snickers had always been Lexie's give. When she was eating one, you knew something was wrong or she was stressing out.
"By the way, have you noticed the way Dr. Avery is looking at you? Like you're a piece of meat that he wants to bone. If you know what I mean," Lexie teased and kicked her lightly under the table. April rolled her eyes.
"Oh please. Have you seen him? The man is gorgeous. There's no way he'd be interested in me." April sighed. She thought he was beautiful but didn't think she even had a chance. Lexie groaned. "April, you never give yourself enough credit. You're beautiful. You could get anyone you want."
Lexie and April went to med school together in California and both actually got accepted into the Seattle Grace program and then ironically enough got placed into the same group. The only difference between them was the Lexie wanted to be a neurosurgeon and April was interested in plastics.
April shrugged and tried to drop the subject. "Not to mention George has totally been hitting on you all day and you're completely oblivious to that too."
The red head looked up from her lunch again. "George has?"
Lexie sighed and nodded her head. "Uh, yeah. And didn't I hear him asking you to go get a drink at Joe's after our shift?"
April nodded in realization. Lexie pouted, "He didn't ask me to go get a drink or anything."
The two interns were surprised that they were actually able to finish their lunch. Through all of the advice and stories they'd heard about the legendary first intern shift, they expected to be hungry until it was over.
Shortly after lunch, April found herself checking on one of Dr. Avery's post-ops. She was nearly through with her exam when she heard a nurse call a code blue in the room next to hers. Because of that she abruptly ended her examination and ran out of the room.
The heart monitor was beeping loudly and she took a second to read it. The woman in the bed was convulsing and there were nurses all around. "She's coding! She's in cardiopulmonary distress!"
"Page Dr. Avery!" She instructed and a nurse scurried off to the nurses station outside the room.
She felt to monitor her pulse and didn't feel one. She stopped and froze. Code blues were something they trained endlessly on in med school but she thought it would be days or weeks before she ever had to run one.
A nurse shouted at her when she noticed her staring at the patient nervously. "Dr. Kepner! Start CPR!"
April snapped out of her trance and began her resuscitation. Her chest compressions were short and steady, and she knew they'd have to intubate. It felt like hours before Dr. Avery, the respiratory therapist and the rest of the code blue team showed up. Dr. Avery jumped in.
"Okay April, I'm going to take over CPR, I want you to intubate her." He instructed her diligently. April noticed the amount of confidence he appeared to have in her and didn't question it. She leaned the patient's head back and gently placed the tube in her throat. After what seemed like endless steps, they stabilized her. April instructed the nurses on when to page her and a change in her care following the intubation.
"Great job, Dr. Kepner," A nurse complimented her. The nurse looked like she'd worked at the hospital for forever and it met everything to April that she complimented her like that.
She smiled graciously while walking away, "Thank you."
April noticed Dr. Avery at her side. "Thank you for letting me do that, that was so cool!" She grinned, clearly pumped up on adrenaline. He was too. Even after many years of being a doctor and intubating countless patients, it was still a rush to run in during a code and watch what you do to a patient alter their status in a complete 180.
"You were amazing in there! I've seen so many interns choke during their first time. You knew exactly what to do!" He grinned and shook his head in disbelief. She really did amazing. Her confidence level was strong but not overbearing.
They somewhat unintentionally walked until they stopped in a hallway that went down towards the maintenance rooms. It was disserted and neither one of them consciously noticed they'd ended up there.
Her eyes followed his as he gazed down at her. He was grinning ear to ear at the young intern who had managed to make his day. They were both out of breath, either from walking so quickly or pure adrenaline alone.
He noticed her staring at him and glancing down at his lips and back up to him and he did the same. The attending couldn't think of anything that he wanted to do more than kiss her. The confidence she had during the whole code was unbelievably sexy. Her lips were this shade of light pink that made them look unbelievably soft.
While he was trying to talk himself out of kissing her, he was slowly pinning her back to the wall behind her. Before he realized what he was doing the palms of his hands landed on either side of her and their faces were inches away from each other.
They nearly instinctively leaned in to each other and he rested his forehead against hers. The sexual tension between them was unbearable. Her chest was heaving up and down while his hands slid from the wall, down her sides until they landed on her hips. He mounted his hands on the back of her thighs and wrapped her legs around his waist before he even kissed her.