This was the 9-1-1 emergency April was called home for? Her mouth dropped, and she held her head, nearly ready to pull the auburn strands out. Where they serious? This was what she had left Robert's apartment for? An attempted intervention by her roommates, that barely counted because Alex looked half interested, Jackson looked concerned, Meredith confused, and Lexie like a deer in the headlights.

"Don't shoot the messenger," Lexie pleaded.

"Do you want to sit, April?"

"No, I don't want to sit! I don't—!" She rolled her eyes when, through the living room window, she watched as Robert drove away. "I cannot believe you guys!"

"We just want to talk to you, April," Jackson tried. "Can you just sit?"

"No! I will not! I cannot—" She glanced up at the ceiling, closed her eyes, and exhaled. "I cannot believe you would do this!"

No one moved as she stormed up the stairs, and slammed the door behind her.

"Who's going after her?"

Lexie shrugged, and waved her hand through the air. "This was your brilliant idea, Jackson, you go after her."

"I only did it out of—"

"Dude," Alex cut in, shaking his head, "just go up there!"

"Hey, you don't want them together as much as I do."

"Yeah, but because I want surgeries, not because she's dating someone as old as her father." Alex scoffed. "She's a grown woman, dude. If she wants to get with Stark, that's her damn business. Not ours."

"There's nothing wrong with dating an older man," Lexie commented, but instantly looked down at her shoes when Jackson squinted at her. "Never mind."

Meredith sighed and stood. "I'll go talk to her."

"You don't even like her, Mer," Alex argued as he stood. "I'll go."

"Wait a minute, I'm her best friend—"

Lexie watched them argue over who would confront April over her relationship with an older man, which she felt they had no right intervening. She wondered if they would realize it if she stood and walked up to April's room herself, but kept her place on the couch where Alex, too, once sat.

Lexie looked up when a bedroom door opened upstairs, and then slammed shut. She winced as she heard April storm down the stairs. They had overstepped their place, and for the first time, Lexie realized, April was going to make sure they never did it again.

April cleared her throat, and the arguing stopped. She crossed her arms, glanced at each of the people before her, and sighed. Moments of silence filled the room as they waited, and she blinked repeatedly before commenting firmly, "I don't bother you people about your lives, or your romance, or anything like that. I don't bother you. You don't get to bother me."

"April-"

"No, Jackson! I don't talk about how you and Lexie have sex everywhere and it's rude and disrespectful and frankly, frankly a little disgusting. No one needs to see that, okay? I don't tell you how to live your lives, you don't tell me how to live my life. If I want to hang out with someone, then I'm going to."

"But he's so old."

"So?"

"He's an attending."

"So?"

"He's...a jackass."

"Alex is a jackass. We're all friendly with him," April countered, staring at Jackson in defiance when he shut his mouth and looked down, all of his arguments rendered void by her responses. "You just don't like him."

"You're the only one that does, April," Alex reminded her with a snort. "Maybe he'll be the one you finally take your pants off for."

April's mouth dropped, her throat constricted, and for a moment she forgot to breathe. The panic that overwhelmed her was nothing like the heat she'd experienced only twenty minutes before.

Pants off? Hers? Did that mean sex? Could she even have sex? Did she even want it? Did Robert? He didn't kiss her like he wanted to, or maybe he did. April didn't think she'd even know unless he'd made it obvious, and he had yet to, his kisses romantic and earnest but not enough to startle her. Especially not when she enjoyed them so much. Not when she felt the tingle still against her lips, the heat of a hand that had long since left her cheek, and for the first time hadn't been afraid.

"Shut up, Alex."

April hadn't heard Jackson's snarl. "A-Alex? What did you say?"

"That he's going to be the one who finally takes your pants off. It's about freaking time anyway."

April saw Lexie's face redden while Jackson glared again at Alex, who then responded with a shrug. "You-You really think so? That's his intent?"

"You don't? Jesus, Kepner, you really don't know much about relationships."

"Alex," Lexie cut in before Jackson could, "leave her alone, all right? She doesn't need to worry about - April, you don't need to worry about it. I'm sure he's kind and will respect your-"

"He's an asshole who doesn't respect anyone's decisions."

"But that doesn't make him a bad person, Alex."

"You've never worked with him."

"And you're just spoiled with Dr. Robbins."

April didn't hear the exchange between the once-lovers, as Alex's words played in her head over and over, a broken record that, with each turn, slashed lines across her her she couldn't shield herself from. It panicked her, worried her, and scared her almost as much as the gun Gary Clark held to her head had. Sex? Robert wanted to have sex with her? She couldn't believe that someone wanted that with her of all people. Though the thought thrilled her, it frightened her, too. How soon would he want that from her?

Would he push and then retract brutally as Alex had? Would he be the selfish, inconsiderate Alex supposed, or kind and respectful as Lexie had argued? April didn't know. She wasn't sure she even wanted to know.

Her heart fluttered, and the panic nearly paralyzed her in her spot. As the group chattered, back and forth about all of Robert's flaws, about all of the ways he was horrible, April couldn't tune them out. The words sunk beneath her skin, infected her blood, and nearly destroyed her heart as she began to fear she'd made a big mistake in this entire courtship.

Robert wasn't the monster they made him out to be, she'd learned that first hand. But words, April had learned, were the hardest barrier to break. The words of her fellow, more experienced colleagues haunted her until she couldn't bear the comments and the bitter remarks anymore. Before she realized she had moved, April dashed up the stairs and slammed the door shut behind her.

April leaned against the wood that offered little emotional support, only something to stop her body from sinking to the ground. She tried not to cry, because even behind closed doors she didn't want to give them the satisfaction of victory.

They had won, after all.

Their goal, to get her to break up with her boyfriend for reasons April couldn't understand, was working.

She now doubted everything, every touch, kiss, smile, look, or even the words that had left Robert's mouth. It had all felt so amazing only an hour ago. April had felt happy, content, wanted for the first time in such a long time that she hadn't been able to catch her breath.

Now she lost her breath for an entirely different reason, a horrible, new feeling that crippled her. Her head rested against the door behind her, and she attempted to suck in gasping breaths as tears overcame her. Hot, angry tears slid down her warm, red cheeks as she screwed her eyes shut and whimpered. Any attempt she made to calm herself failed.

She missed Reed in times like these, when no one downstairs really understood or supported her. Alex's comments hadn't surprised her; he hated Robert anyway. But Jackson and even Lexie...She'd never thought they'd turn their backs on her, corner her so cruelly like that, especially since they had no right telling her how to live her life when they screwed all over the house with no regard for roommates.

What she did or didn't do with Robert was her business, but they had all made it their business.

Reed would never have done that to her. If Reed were alive she would have sat with April as soon as she returned home from her date, and they would have gushed about the details. April would have swooned over the date properly, like she should have done, and Reed would have listened, offered words of support, and given encouraging tips.

She would have been there.

Reed wouldn't have been downstairs telling April she shouldn't be dating a man simply because of his age or because of one facet of his personality.

Missing her friend only amplified April's tears as she fought to catch her breath.

April had just about had enough when her phone vibrated in her hands. What she thought was a text from someone downstairs was actually a phone call.

From Robert.

Considering not to answer it, April opted to quickly wipe her tears, take in a deep breath, and answer as best she could, "Hey, there."

"I just wanted to..." A chuckle rang through her ears, and April laughed, too. The fresh smile on her lips made some of the tears sting less and less. "I just wanted to say that we should definitely do something like tonight again. Without the sex art, maybe. Or maybe not. We can do whatever. I just want to..."

"Want to what, Robert?" she asked seconds later, when he didn't finish and her fear began to grow stronger than the joy she felt just by the sound of his voice.

"I just want to spend time with you."

April's eyes closed, and she sniffled away new tears. How wrong she wanted to believe they were downstairs, but how right it started to feel. "What, um...What does that mean?"

"Wha-?" There was a pause on the other end before he answered, "I just want to be with you, that's all. Hang out. Spend time together...You know?"

"Can I ask you something, Robert?"

"Of course."

April couldn't stop the tears in her eyes from raising her voice an octave, breaking as she finally found the courage to ask, "Can we just take things slow?"

Silence on the other end told April she had lost him. They were right. He didn't want slow, she could tell now. He wanted fast, and hot, and heavy, and all of the things she wasn't prepared to give. Her own stupidity hurt her harder than his silence did. How could she not have seen? How could she have hoped so blindly that he was different, that his kisses meant more?

"April, are you still there?"

"Yeah," she choked out and screwed her eyes shut, shaking her head and she mentally chided herself. "Still here."

"My phone cut out. What did you ask?"

April took a heavy breath, and tried to stop her voice from shaking as she asked again, "C-Can we j-just take t-things slow?"

"We can take it as slow as you want."

His immediate response calmed her. "Thank you."

For a few seconds he didn't respond, but then she heard over the cackling of bad cell reception, "April? Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"You don't sound okay. I'll...I'll come over if you want."

She sniffled, and wiped away fresh tears. "I'm fine, Robert, really. You don't need to come over."

"Okay." In the moments that he didn't speak, April tucked the phone against her shoulder and took deep breaths to calm herself so that the next time she spoke, she didn't sound as bad as she felt. When she brought the phone back to her, he asked, "Will you call me if you need me?"

"Of course." She'd already considered that once, but he'd beat her to it. "Hey, Robert?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for tonight."

"I had fun, too."

She could see his smile in her head, and smiled, too.