Thanks for the reviews! Also for the record, I won't be incorporating real butterflies into this story lol... I had the title set before April's wedding idea happened on the show.

Here's chapter 2. Enjoy!


It was a dream. Jackson was pretty sure of it. He fell asleep on the bench and he was having a dream – more like a nightmare – about his father. It had been about 15 years since he last saw Harper Avery Jr. and 11 years since he heard his voice. The older man standing in front of him was simply a figment of his imagination.

But he was real. He wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. The father who abandoned him stood a foot away from him. Harper Jr.'s appearance looked completely different from the last time Jackson saw him. When he was a high school senior his father always came home drunk and exhausted – if he wasn't too drunk to find his way home. Sometimes he neglected to shave his face. He looked sloppy and careless about the world.

Jackson could still remember the day Harper Jr. packed up and left without saying goodbye. He returned home from football practice. Catherine was in the living room, sobbing alone on the couch. He knew something wasn't right because he always saw his mother as a strong woman who rarely let her emotions get the best of her. Of course, he needed to know what was wrong.

First, there was a shouting match between Harper Jr. and Harper Sr. at Mass Gen, according to Catherine's recollection. The older Avery threatened to have his son fired for his disorderly conduct and his alcoholism was out of control. Not to mention he was slowly destroying the respect the Avery name carried in the surgical world. Instead, Harper Jr. quit his job, walking out on his father. Catherine had been in surgery when the incident happened, so she was unable to stop him from leaving. By the time she arrived home, most of his clothes were gone and she found a post-it note from her ex-husband telling her that the divorce papers would be coming soon.

For the longest time, Jackson hated his father for leaving him and his mother like a coward. Samantha and Joslyn were both at Harvard. They weren't far from home, but their younger brother was the person who prevented Catherine from falling apart.

Now, the Harper Jr. he saw was clean shaven, gray-haired and sober. There was a wedding ring on his left finger. Jackson slightly looked like his father, but the latter had lighter skin. Suddenly, all of the hatred he had for him returned.

"Jackson," the elder Avery calmly said and softly smiled. "You uhh… what a surprise. You live here in Durham?"

"No," he sternly replied before he stood up. The two men were the same height as they stood face to face. If they weren't in public, Jackson wouldn't hesitate to beat the crap out of his father. "I'm here for a conference. A plastic surgery conference, actually."

"Plastic surgery," Harper Jr. recited the words slowly. "You're a plastic surgeon?"

"No, I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon attending a meaningless plastic surgery conference," he sarcastically replied. Jackson folded his arms and never let the scowl on his face disappear. "And what are you doing here? Is this where you've been hiding since you left Boston?"

He shook his head. "Oh, no. I don't live in North Carolina. Virginia. Norfolk, to be exact. My uhh, stepson's on a recruiting trip here for basketball. Duke's taking a good look at him, so I thought I'd come with him and check out the campus. Except we got split up and I don't know-"

"Listen, I don't care. We stopped caring about your whereabouts after you left," he harshly interrupted him. "I haven't heard from you in 11 years and now I have to hear that you have another son who you actually take time to care about? Where were you when I needed a father? Oh, yeah. You were busy getting drunk at bars and being a selfish bastard."

Harper Jr. raised his hands in front of his chest. "Jackson, I was a different person then. Everything was complicated and I had to leave. I wasn't alright. I needed help."

"And Mom tried to get you help, but you didn't want it." Jackson pointed his finger at him. "I hate you. I know hate is a strong word and I normally don't feel this way towards anybody, but I hate you. Honestly, I was hoping you were dead, rotting in a ditch somewhere because you were too drunk to find a place to stay. You've been dead to me since my 21st birthday, so let's keep it that way."

"Jackson-"

"Avery!" Mark called out as he ran towards the two men with bottles of Gatorade in his hands. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," he answered and started running alongside his mentor, leaving Harper Jr. behind.

Mark looked back at Harper Jr. wondering why he continued to stare at them. "Who was that guy?"

Jackson never bothered to look back and quickly shook his head. "Nobody. Just somebody asking for directions."


April finished suturing a gash on a young man's leg after a skateboarding accident brought him to the ER. She covered the newly done stitches with a dressing, then she smiled at her patient. "All done, Mr. Simpson. You're free to go. Remember to come back next week for a follow up," she advised. "Oh! And wear a helmet. The last thing I want to see is you back in the ER because you busted your head open this time."

"Helmets are for pussies," the teenager bluntly said. He slid off of the hospital bed and grinned. "But this scar is gonna look badass. Thanks, Dr. Kepner."

"Wear a helmet anyway!" she called out as he left the ER with his father. She started cleaning up and sterilizing her area when she felt a light tug on her lab coat.

"April." It was Lexie. She was working at the hospital again and finally getting her fifth year as a resident over with. "I uhh, need you… for a consult. Are you busy?"

"No, I can help you unless a big trauma arrives. Banks can cover for me." April walked out of the ER with Lexie, who appeared anxious and in a hurry about something. She typically walked with a slightly visible limp because of her prosthetic leg, but she was walking faster than usual. "Umm… everything okay, Lex?"

Lexie nervously laughed as she dragged April behind her. "Fine. I'm fine. Seriously, I'm fine."

She was completely unconvinced considering their destination was a women's restroom. "Uhh, okay. This isn't exactly the place I thought we would end up. Is there a patient in here?"

Lexie locked the door, then she pulled on April's arm, leading her to one of the bathroom stalls. She pushed the door open revealing various pregnancy tests and their boxes and wrappers on the floor. "Look at that!"

April stared at the pregnancy tests with wide eyes. "There has to be at least 20 tests here," she speculated before she suddenly gasped. "Lexie! Are these all yours? Did you steal all of these pregnancy tests?!"

"Well, I was gonna pay the hospital back," she sheepishly said. "Anyway, that's not the most important thing. Look closer, April. I drank almost two gallons of orange juice for this and they all say the same thing!"

The trauma surgeon crouched down, looking at the result of the closest pregnancy test. Pregnant. The next one had the same result and the one after that and the one after that. "Lexie, you're pregnant? That's great!" she chirped, but she grimaced when Lexie slowly shook her head. "Umm, not great?"

"No!" Lexie began pacing back and forth in front of April. "For the record, I do want to have kids with Mark, but we agreed we would start trying after I finish my residency and pass my boards. I just don't understand how this happened. I'm on birth control, but of course that's not enough for Mark's super sperm."

"Birth control isn't 100% reliable, Lex." She forced herself to laugh when she glared at her. "Okay, not helping you there. Umm… shouldn't you talk to Meredith about this? I mean, she's your sister and all…"

"I can't talk to Meredith about this! Even if she promises to keep it a secret, it's common knowledge that she'll tell Cristina because they tell each other everything. And she'll probably tell Derek, who will tell Mark and then my husband will wonder why I couldn't just tell him. He'll probably assume I cheated on him-"

"Lexie Grey-Sloan, calm down!" April grabbed Little Grey's shoulders to stop her from pacing. "When did you start suspecting you were pregnant?"

Lexie quickly shrugged and sighed. "I don't know. Two weeks ago? Honestly, it's been two months since I got my period, but I didn't want to tell myself that I could be pregnant," she explained, frowning. "I finally decided to take a test. I knew I needed some backups, so I stole a bunch of tests from the supply closet."

April smirked at her. "And you thought 20 tests weren't too much?"

"I was in panic mode, so I grabbed as many as I could hold," Lexie groaned. "Maybe… there was a chance at least one of them would come out negative and it would debunk the reliability of pregnancy tests."

"And did any of them come out negative?"

"No," she replied, folding her arms. "I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant, but I need concrete confirmation." Lexie snapped her fingers and grinned at April. "I want you to perform an ultrasound for me. Like now."

April opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't find anything to say. "I… uhh, why don't you ask Addison to do it?" She cringed and bit her lower lip as Lexie stared at her unamused. "I'm on a roll, aren't I?"

"Please, just do it for me, April. We're the Death Dodging Duo, remember? We're supposed to have each other's backs," she reminded her. "Think about it. If Mark and Jackson were in our shoes, they would totally do it without hesitation. We're not breaking the law. You're a friend helping another friend. Please?"

"Alright, I'll do it." April pointed at the pregnancy tests scattered on the floor. "But umm, you should get rid of the evidence first before we do that."


"Dr. Sloan then used a flap of the patient's abdominal tissue to begin replacing the lost tissue from her breast," Jackson muttered. His eyes were focused on his index cards and never left them. His speech was monotone and barely audible, drawing awkward stares from the plastic surgeons attending Mark's lecture.

Since his encounter with Harper Jr. his head wasn't in the game. It had become a huge distraction for him and it showed through his parts of the presentation. And Mark had had enough of his half-assed effort to impress their peers.

"Thank you, Dr. Avery," he intervened, taking his index cards from him. "Step aside now. I'll take it from here."

Jackson moved to the side, but not without noticing the quick glare from his mentor, which clearly told him he was a dead man at the conclusion of the lecture. He knew he screwed up badly. He never wanted to embarrass Mark, but it was a little too late for damage control. He had been pissed and hurt during the rest of their morning jog. All he really wanted to do was punch someone, specifically his father.

He decided he wasn't going to tell anybody about what happened. Not his mother, his sisters or even April. As much as it bothered him to see his father apparently happy with a new family, he just wanted to forget it happened. He would rather move on than let an unexpected encounter with his estranged father ruin his weekend. But trying to forget didn't work. All he could think about was Harper Jr. and how he was alive and well – and it only made him even more upset.

Mark was able to save his presentation with his smooth talk and cheesy, yet effective jokes. At the conclusion of his lecture, he spent about 20 minutes chatting with other plastic surgeons, while Jackson waited outside. He used the free time to call April.

She was prepping Lexie's ultrasound in a locked examination room when her cell phone started ringing in her lab coat pocket. Pulling it out of her pocket, she smiled when she saw her fiancé's number and immediately answered his call.

"Hey, Jackson," she greeted him, checking the time on her watch. "Did your presentation just end? How did it go?"

"It went great," he lied. His portion was awful. "We uhh, kicked ass."

April wasn't convinced based on the disappointing tone in his voice. "Oh, really? Because you don't sound very excited right now. Is everything okay over there?"

"Fine. Tired." He sighed. "I just wanted to hear your voice for a couple of minutes."

"I'm actually with a patient right now," she regretfully said. She was missing his voice too. "Can I call you back later?"

"Sure," he replied with a frown. "I won't be busy."

"Jackson, are you sure you're okay? Whatever's on your mind, we can talk about it later when I call back. I gotta go now."

"I'm fine, April. I'll talk to you later then. I love you."

"Love you too. Bye," she said, then she hung up her cell phone and put it away in her pocket. April finished setting up the ultrasound machine and wore a pair of disposable gloves. "Ready, Lex?"

Lexie nodded, taking a deep breath. "Actually, I don't want to see the screen. Turn it around until it's official that I'm pregnant, please." She sort of hated herself for being so negative about the whole pregnancy issue because she wasn't like Cristina Yang, who didn't want children. She wanted children, just not at the moment.

April sat in front of Lexie's examination table. "Jackson sounded weird on the phone," she blurted out. "Like, he was pretending to be fine, but I could tell he wasn't fine."

"How did his voice sound?"

"Kind of bummed and mopey, I guess. He claims he's tired." She raised her eyebrow curiously. "What if he did something stupid and is afraid to tell me? What if he cheated on me?"

Lexie shook her head. "Jackson would be incredibly stupid to cheat on you. He knows he's a dead man if he ever did. Mark would kick his ass. Maybe he's seriously tired. Jet lag or whatever." She waved her hand. "Don't think about the worst case scenario, April. It'll screw with your head."

"Yeah, you're right. Anyway, the probe might be a little cold, but try not to move," April advised as she began the transvaginal ultrasound. She stared at the screen for a clear view of Lexie's uterus. When she found what she was looking for she slightly gasped. "Oh…"

"Oh? What's oh?" Lexie asked concerned. She grew impatient as her coworker quietly stared at the screen. "April!"

She looked back at her friend, forcing a smile. "Umm, well… you're definitely pregnant. I'd say about six or seven weeks." Turning the screen towards Lexie, she pointed at the two little nuggets inside of separate gestational sacs and sheepishly grinned. "Twins!"

Lexie stared at the screen with her mouth dropped open. "Aww, crap!"

April ignored the long line of profanities coming out of Lexie's mouth and smiled. "Well, I'll be the first one to congratulate you. Despite how pissed you are right now, this is great news. You're gonna be a mom, Lex!"

"Oh, kiss my ass, Kepner!" she snapped, then she cleared her throat and sighed. "Sorry. Since you're the person sticking a probe up my vagina and the only other person in this room, I have to yell at you."

"It's okay. I'm used to you guys yelling at me for no reason," she nonchalantly said. "When are you telling Mark?"

"After he returns from North Carolina. Until then, nobody finds out I'm pregnant." Lexie held out her pinky in front of April. "Even little Jordan can't know about this."

April softly laughed as she locked pinkies with Lexie. "I promise I won't tell anybody, but you better not chicken out and wait until you're showing underneath your scrubs."

"I'll tell him next week. Are you sure I'm having twins? Did you use the probe correctly?"

"Yes, you're having twins," she replied, rolling her eyes. "If you're still not convinced, I'll page Addison and have her join us. Want me to do that?"

"No, no. Let's keep Addison out of this for now." Lexie stared at the two nuggets on the screen and groaned. "I'm gonna kill my husband."


Jackson sat alone at the hotel bar, drinking his second glass of whiskey. Mark had been invited to dinner by plastic surgeons he knew when he lived in New York. He invited his student to tag along, but he politely passed and chose to return to their hotel. Seeing Harper Jr. had ruined most of his weekend. There was still another full day of conference lectures and presentations tomorrow, but his interest level dropped.

He hoped he and April could talk for a long time, but their conversation was cut short by incoming trauma after 20 minutes. Part of him wanted to ditch the rest of the weekend and return to Seattle early. He wanted to be as far away from his father as possible. However, that thought was destroyed when a familiar face sat beside him at the bar.

"Ginger ale, please," Harper Jr. ordered from the bartender. He looked at Jackson, who was clenching his jaw as he stared at his glass. "Whiskey?"

"Are you stalking me now?" the plastics fellow asked, ignoring his question.

"No, I didn't know you were staying here too." He grabbed his son's wrist when he began to stand up. "Jackson, I know you're angry with me and you have a right to be. Just let me explain myself first, then you can go."

Jackson sat down again, avoiding eye contact with his father. He thought he might punch his face in if he looked at the man who never really was a father to him. "Talk."

Harper Jr. sipped his ginger ale before he spoke. "First of all, I'm sorry for never being there for you. None of it was your fault. I was a sick drunk. All I cared about was escaping into my own world and forgetting about the fact that I was a famous surgeon's son," he explained. "I left Boston to get away from the pressure. Alcohol made me feel better, so I pushed away your mother and anybody who tried to help me. It took a very long time for me to accept help."

"When I first arrived in Norfolk I went to a diner. I was really drunk, but I was starving," he continued. "There was this waitress. At first, she didn't want to serve me. Instead, she threatened to call the cops on me because I was being obnoxious and idiotic. I don't know why she changed her mind. I guess she could see I needed help. She convinced me to join Alcoholics Anonymous. She said she'd sponsor me. It was a long process, but I sobered up. I haven't had a drink in ten years."

"Good for you," Jackson murmured. "That doesn't excuse you from completely disappearing after my 21st birthday. No phone calls or even a crappy birthday card."

"I umm… after I got sober, the waitress – her name's Farrah – and I got married. We fell in love during my process to sobriety. She had a little boy named Dean. He's my only stepchild," he added. "Dean gave me another chance to be a good father. I wanted to make up for the mistakes I made with you and your sisters, do the things I never did with you."

"So you decided to erase us from your family history and pretend we never existed," he bitterly said.

Harper Jr. quickly shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant."

"Oh, please. You haven't contacted Sam or Jos or myself in more than a decade, Harper." Jackson glared at his father. "I can't even call you Dad because you were hardly around to act like one."

"How's your mother?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"She's doing well without you." Jackson finished his whiskey and cleared his throat. "Transferred to Seattle Grace Mercy West to involuntarily torture me. She's shacking up with Richard Webber."

"Richard Webber?" Harper Jr. softly chuckled. "I haven't seen that man since the mid-90's. How's he doing?"

"Alright, I guess." He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "We don't exactly meet eye to eye these days."

Harper Jr. slowly nodded. "Understandable." He was interested in Jackson's decision to choose plastics, but his son rudely brushed him off earlier that morning. "Tell me more about plastics. I think it's good that you passed on cardio."

"Because it means I won't turn into you, right?" he answered with a smirk.

"Jackson, I'm trying to make nice with you. Can we have a civil conversation?" the elder Avery pleaded.

Jackson stood up, making sure Harper Jr. couldn't stop him this time around. "Go to Hell," he sternly replied and left the bar angrier than before their talk.


The next day, April stood outside of the pit with Owen Hunt, Kevin Banks, Derek and a few residents. Most of their Sunday afternoons didn't have major trauma coming in, but Owen had received a call about an incoming patient in need of special treatment. He wasn't given the details over the phone other than it was a neurological issue and a high profile status.

"Who do you think it is?" Kevin asked curiously. "Maybe a celebrity? A hot model?"

"Whoever it is, they don't want it getting heavy attention from the press until we have a diagnosis," Owen answered. "I've already asked security to keep nosy news reporters out of the hospital. So yeah, whoever's in that ambulance is apparently a big deal."

They waited for another five minutes before the sirens of an ambulance were within earshot. Owen led his team towards the back of the vehicle as the doors swung open. A male paramedic pushed the gurney out, while a man wearing an Arizona Cardinals polo and black pants followed him from behind.

"Barry Evans, 31 years old. Took a hard hit to his back in the 2nd quarter of the Cardinals and Seahawks game, lost feeling in his legs," the paramedic explained. "Patient is conscious and stable. Says sensation in his legs comes and goes, but his reflexes failed to respond to neurological tests."

April nearly choked on her own saliva. Barry Evans, her high school crush who made her feel like the most pathetic girl in the world, was her patient… sort of. She hadn't seen or spoken to him since high school. She was able to attend her 10-year high school reunion, but he wasn't there. He was the starting quarterback for the Cardinals, so people who followed the NFL knew him well, but she knew him on a personal level.

She would never admit it to anybody, especially Jackson, but she used to know everything about him in high school. She didn't consider herself to be a stalker, more like a casual observer. And he was the most popular boy in her class. It wasn't hard to find out information about him. Seeing him again in person made her feel a little nervous.

Owen and Derek pushed Barry's gurney into one of the ER's trauma rooms. Their patient was strapped down to prevent him from moving and the brace around his neck was for precautionary reasons.

"He never saw it coming," the man in the polo shirt said. "The sack came from his blind side. I'm Dr. Phillips, the team's doctor. We ran every test we could on his legs and feet. He was barely responsive to them. Will he be alright?"

"We'll need to run some tests on his back to find out if he has any structural damage to his spinal cord," Derek answered. He stood beside Barry's head and smiled. "Hello, Mr. Evans. I'm Dr. Shepherd. I'm a neurosurgeon at this hospital. We're going to do everything we can to help you, okay?"

Barry looked at Derek worriedly. "Am I paralyzed? I'm paralyzed, huh?" he groaned. "Shit, my damn left tackle can't ever fucking give me breathing room. The dude sucks. Damn rookie."

"We don't know yet. We have to do an MRI scan to determine what type of damage you sustained from your hit." Derek moved down to his legs. "Can you wiggle your toes for me?"

Barry stared at his feet, but he shook his head. "Nope. Can't feel anything," he answered, then he looked at the redhead trying to hide her face behind Kevin. "April Kepner?"

April stepped to the side to get a better view of Barry. She shyly smiled and bit her lower lip. "Barry, hi."

Kevin smirked at April. "You two know each other?"

"We attended the same high school," she muttered. "I had to tutor him because he was a dumbass."

"April Kepner, holy crap," Barry chuckled. He looked the same to her. He had the same dirty blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and a smile that used to make her legs grow weak. She, on the other hand, had changed a lot over the years since he last saw her. "You… you got hot."

"Uhh, thanks." April's eyes wandered towards Derek, who was testing Barry's reflexes. It was clear to her that he couldn't feel anything from the waist down since he continued to stare at her. "By the way, it's Dr. Kepner when I'm working."

Barry grinned. "Dr. Kepner. Has a nice ring to it. I always knew you'd become something great. Most of the nerds in high school are the successful ones," he noted. "I'm actually glad to see you again. It's been what? Is it 13 years now?"

April slowly nodded. "Yes. It's been a while." She softly laughed. "For someone who just suffered a major injury, you should be more concerned about your career than anything else."

"I was- I mean, I am." His eyes were trying to check her out, even though there wasn't much to see. Her navy blue scrubs were covered by the yellow hospital gown she wore for incoming trauma cases. "But uhh… I'm feeling a little better now."


Lemme know what you think please :)