Jackson is walking down the hallway, reading a chart in hand. Then he looks up and sees Callie and Shane talking by the nurses' station. Confused, he walks over to them.
"Prep Mr. Roberts and get an OR ready, I'll meet you there." Callie orders to Shane Ross, who nods his head.
"What is going on? Why are you ordering my intern?" Jackson asks as he closes his chart.
Callie furrows her eyebrows. "Get your own intern."
"I did and I got Ross, which reminds me," he turns to Shane, "where the hell were you during rounds?"
"He was with me and he will be for the whole day." Callie counters.
Shane now looks hesitant on what he should do.
Callie eyes him. "Get your ass moving, Ross, unless you want the patient to die."
Shane nods quickly and walks away.
"That was my intern." Jackson glares at her.
"Oh, boo hoo." She turns her head and sees Stephanie on the other side of the station, writing on a clipboard. "Just get Edwards."
"Who?" Jackson asks.
Callie rolls her eyes. "Edwards!"
Stephanie looks up. "Yes?"
"You're with Avery today." Callie turns to Jackson. "Problem solved." The she walks away.
Jackson just rolls her eyes as Stephanie walks over to him. He looks at her for a second before moving again. Stephanie follows him.
They enter a patient's room. The patient smiles widely at the sight of the doctors, particularly at Jackson, who smiles back. She tucks her blonde hair behind her ear.
"Why, hello, Dr. Avery." Her southern accent is very thick in her voice.
Jackson leans his elbow on the table by the bed. "Back again, Miss Baxter?"
"Oh, quit it with the 'Miss Baxter' thing. Don't make me sound so old." The patient laughs. "Call me Annie."
"Noted." Jackson replies lightly.
Stephanie is a little surprised that the two know each other, which Annie notices.
"I was his patient before." She explains. Then she turns to Jackson. "It's a shame about Dr. Sloan." She nods sympathetically.
Jackson stands up straight and looks a little uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"He's a wonderful doctor." She goes on. She turns to Stephanie, "And, mind you, a lovely man, inside and out."
Stephanie just nods, even though she doesn't exactly know who Dr. Sloan is.
Jackson clears his throat. "Alright, Miss Baxter –"
"Annie." She reminds him.
"Annie." Jackson nods. "We should talk about your operation –"
"I gotta say, boy, being in this hospital again, I keep expecting I will see Dr. Sloan again. As if he will just pop inside the room and take over." She laughs wistfully.
Jackson purses his lips. He is about to go again but Annie beat him to it.
"He's such a good doctor, really did fix me up." She shares to Stephanie. "Every dime I've spent in this hospital is worth it because of him." She adds to Jackson, "And Dr. Avery, too, of course. You two were just…how do I say it? Compatible?" She waves her hand in question. "Yes, I think that's it. It's just a shame, it really is."
Jackson takes a deep breath, as if trying to suck it all up, his jaw clenches. Stephanie can't help but think that he's a looking, for lack of better word, irritated. She averts her stare to Annie again when he meets her eyes.
"My gals were jealous that I was in the good hands of 'The Dr. Sloan' –"
"Now, Annie, we really need to discuss the operation that you're going to have this afternoon." Jackson presses on.
Annie didn't notice the sharpness in his voice. She just smiles sweetly. "Alrighty, then. Fire away, Dr. Avery."
Jackson sighs then goes on to the explaining.
•••
Stephanie closes the door behind her as she and Jackson leave the room.
"Prep Miss Baxter and have an OR ready for this afternoon," Jackson orders.
"Who is Dr. Sloan?" She asks suddenly. He raises his eyebrows at her, questioning if that should really concern her. She adds hastily, "If you don't mind my asking."
He considers ignoring the question, but he has no reason to do it. He just shrugs. "He's someone I used to work with."
"Oh, so he's a plastic surgeon, too, I suppose? Is he really that good, by the description of Annie?" She asks eagerly.
"He used to work here, Edwards." He answers rudely. "Just leave it at that." Then he walks away.
Stephanie furrows her eyebrows, wondering what is up with this Dr. Sloan that makes him all riled up.
•••
Jackson is sitting on a chair at the nurses' station. He sips the coffee in his hand and blinks hard, trying to clear his mind. But all he could think about is Mark.
As much as he tries to not over-think it, he really does miss his mentor. Seeing Annie Baxter again brought up a lot of things. Particularly the time he spent learning from Sloan. It really was the best time he had in his medical career. He was taken under the wing of the best in the field, he couldn't ask for more.
And now, there are days that he didn't know what to do with a patient. He would second-guess every decision he would make. But Mark…Mark always knows what to do – an ability that Jackson had always been jealous of, something he can't just learn, despite Mark's incessant teaching in the world of plastics. Jackson may have passed the boards and got promoted in his job, but as much as he wants to deny it, he still needs his mentor.
He imagines the both of them working on Annie Baxter again, side by side. It would be smooth-sailing, as always. They complement each other. He wants to be confident in working alone. He wants to comfortable with his newfound independence. He wants to think like Mark. But how can he learn more on how to do that if the man himself is gone?
April walks by the nurses' station and sees Jackson. She purses her lips and walks over to him, across the counter. She leans her elbows on it and calls, "Jackson."
He didn't realize he is staring at the empty computer screen in front of him until he heard someone call him. He looks up and sees her. "Hey."
"What's wrong?"
Jackson looks at her in amazement. They broke up weeks ago, and yet, they both found a way to be back to where they came from – or at least in that direction. He feels somewhat sad that they failed when they tried to date, tried to make each other happy. But in times like this, when he needs his best friend, he's happy that she's willing to put everything aside and just knows what to do when he himself don't. He knows that she's the kind of person that you rarely find in life. He'd already lost Sloan; he can't lose April, too.
"Jackson?" She raises her eyebrows.
"Nah, I'm just trying to think about this case – how I am supposed to do it." He shakes his head. "And I'm not even sure about it."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." She says reassuringly.
He laughs in a hollow sort of way. Then he stops. "I've been thinking about Sloan." He blurts out.
April herself is a surprised by the confession since Jackson is pretty much closed to all the sentimental stuff. It took him a while to admit that he has – or rather, had – feelings for her. And he did it in a vague kind of way. She pushes that thought far away – she doesn't have to remember that. "Really? You miss him?" she asks.
He raises his eyebrows. "I really don't have to answer that, do I?"
She shrugs a little. "It's okay to admit it, Jackson. It's just me."
"There's just this patient, she was a former patient of mine and Sloan's and now she's back so I just kind of…remembered him." He tells her though he's sure she's not satisfied with the answer.
She cocks her head to the side and raises her eyebrows. "Jackson."
He stares back at her. It's something in her expression that makes him say things to her. "Yes," he replies in a low voice.
She smiles a little. "Hey, it's not a bad thing to think about him and miss him. He's important to you, you can't deny that fact."
"Yeah, but he's gone."
"So? Just because people left us doesn't mean they're less important. It's okay to think about them sometimes, especially when thinking about them can help us move forward with our everyday lives." She tells him.
He looks doubtful. "Yeah, but that's not enough, is it?"
"Jackson, you knew him pretty well. You can use your memories of him." She tells him like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm sure there'll a lot."
She's right, he thinks. He finally smiles. "I don't know what I would do without you, April."
She smiles also.
"Wanna go get a drink tonight?" He asks. For him, being all sentimental and crap is a cry for alcohol in his system.
She nods. "Yeah, okay—shoot."
"What?"
"I'm covering the night shift. Rain check instead?"
His expression fell. "Oh." He shrugs. "Alright, then."
She's about to walk away but he stops her.
"April, wait."
She turns back to him. "Yes, Jackson?"
"Thanks. For the, uh..."
She already knows what he's talking about. "Sure, anytime." She smiles before going back to her work.
•••
After their surgery – albeit a very quiet one – Jackson and Stephanie enters the patient's room for post-ops.
Jackson walks over to Annie's bedside. "Annie." He gently shakes her shoulder. She wakes up and instantly smiles at Jackson.
"Why, hello, kid, how was it?" She asks groggily.
Jackson smiles at her. "It was very successful."
Stephanie proceeds to checking her heartbeat, among other things and writes on the chart in hand.
"Thank you." Annie says to Jackson.
"Don't thank me, thank Sloan." He tells her.
Annie looks confused. "I don't understand," then her expression shifts to hopeful, "did he make an appearance to you?"
He laughs a little. "Sadly, no."
Her face falls. "Oh. Well, what did you mean, then?"
Stephanie discreetly watches Jackson as she writes on the chart. He's no longer uncomfortable with talking about this Dr. Sloan.
"He helped me be what I am today." He tells Annie, simple as that.
Annie just smiles at him.
•••
The two doctors leave the patient's room. Jackson looks at Stephanie, who is now walking over to the nurses' station. Without thinking, he walks over to her.
"Stephanie," he tells her first name for the first time.
She looks at him. "Yes, Dr. Avery?" She bits her lip.
He looks at her like he'd never seen her before. His lips part in embarrassment. He brings his eyes up at her. Her curly hair frames her face, that face that's full of determination, something he always sees in Cristina's. He finds himself looking at her frame, the way her scrubs hugs her body in all the right places…
He didn't realize he is staring for too long until Stephanie clears her throat awkwardly.
"Dr. Avery, is everything okay?"
It snaps him back to reality. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He meets her eyes. "Would you like to go get a drink?"
She almost drops the chart in her hands. She's taken aback. "Are you…?"
"Nothing's going to happen," he adds hastily. "I'm just in dire need for a drink and I don't feel like having it alone."
"Oh." She nods. "Okay."
•••
After their shift, the two are in the bar. At first, it's silent. But Jackson decides to break the ice.
"So," he clears his throat. "You know what field you wanna be specializing in?"
"I don't think I can actually know that in my intern year." She tells him.
He laughs a little. "I guess." He sips his beer.
"Have you always wanted to be in plastics?"
He shakes his head. "Not really. Truth be told, I didn't even expect to be a plastic surgeon."
"Funny how things turn out, right?"
"Yeah,"
"Can I ask again…" she uses her words carefully, "who is Dr. Sloan?"
This time, Jackson decides to tell her. "Well, like I said earlier, he was a doctor at here. A plastics surgeon. He was my mentor."
She furrows her eyebrows. "Was?" Then her eyes widen in realization. "Oh."
"Yeah," his voice is bleak.
Stephanie turns to him and holds on his shoulder comfortingly and confidently. "I'm sorry. You must be very close to him." He hand stays longer than it should.
For the first time, he actually stares at her. He thinks that she's actually beautiful. And then he blames the alcohol for that thought. He shakes his head a little, clearing his head. She finally brings down her hand.
"You know, most of the time, back then, Sloan would unknowingly remind me why I do this job in the first place, since there are so many times I questioned my decisions. If I'm actually cut out for the job, that it's not just the Avery in my name that brings up to the next level. He has this thing, as if he actually sees what I'm actually capable of, even I myself haven't seen that yet." He sighs and sips his drink.
"I've always wanted to be a doctor." Stephanie blurts out.
"How so?"
"It's just how it is. I want to succeed in what I'm great at and I've always been great in science."
He laughs at that and she joins him.
After a moment, their laughs falter. She downs her beer and asks for another one.
"But it's not always about that," she twirls her bottle absentmindedly, "succeeding. I've always been competitive in advancing in this career but at the end of the day, the most important part of the job is saving lives. Not the income or the experience or level at work."
He nods. "That is true."
"You're an amazing doctor, you know." She looks at him directly in the eye. "You're an amazing doctor and teacher. I really am learning a lot from you."
Jackson couldn't explain what is about Stephanie but he sees her in a different light all of a sudden.
He takes a deep breath. You can't go there, he thinks. You're nothing like Karev.
She just smiles at him.
•••
He drives her home that night. When they reached her house, he offers to walk her up. They walk in silence, but this time, it's the comfortable kind.
"Well," she says as they reach her doorstep, "that was fun."
"Surprisingly fun." He corrects her, she laughs. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
"Right." She nods. "At work."
He smiles at her. Then, all of a sudden, she kisses him but abruptly pulls away. She's clearly embarrassed by her straightforwardness.
"Oh, my god, I should not have done that –"
But Jackson, surprised also, but pushes all thoughts away from his head and kisses her again.
•••
Author's Note: Since I don't know the real shit when it comes to medicine, I can't exactly draw the perfect case scenario for Annie Baxter, why she's in the hospital and under Jackson's care and for that I am very sorry. Not one of you is madder than me for my lack of medical information that compromises my vision for the story.