April was so tired this morning, Harriet had been colicky all night and Jackson had been at the hospital. She was so tired that she had almost forgotten about her pact with Riggs. That is until a crazy-eyed Arizona came up to her besides April at the nurses station and stared at her without saying anything. Little did April know that Arizona was trying to study April's face to see if there was any noticeable difference. Certain that if her best friend goes through such a life altering experience as falling in love with someone new, Arizona would be able to notice a difference. However, all April could see was an overeager once friend, looking to get some gossip.
"Can I help you?" April asks, feeling uncomfortable with the staring.
"We should talk," Arizona announces.
"What about?" April replies, coldly. They weren't technically in a fight, but things had been frosty since April took the chief job. She knew some people would be mad, but April thought she would at least have her best friend on her side. However, Arizona had sided with the others without even asking for her story.
"We haven't talked in awhile. I want to know how you are? And any life developments? Like, I have a life development that I want to talk to you about," Arizona says nervously.
"Arizona, I can't do this right now. I am swamped,"April which wasn't technically a fib, she had this surgery in a half an hour. Honestly, she just couldn't handle Arizona's falseness right now.
"April…" She could see the hurt on Arizona's face.
"Listen Arizona, there is nothing to talk about. Just drop it." April knew she was being curt. She thought this was better than coming up with a whole out lie about her and Riggs. She already had a lot on her mind and keeping up this pretense was weighing on her. She hadn't told anyone yet that she was looking for a place. That she was going to disrupt her daughter's perfectly nice family life because of selfish reasons. The guilt was eating at her alive. She had talked herself in and out of it a million times. Even when she was surrounded by people at the hospital, April was feeling very much alone.
"Okay, but I'm always here if you need me," Arizona looks at her best friend. April has to fight the urge to blurt it all out, so she walks away instead. Maybe, she was a little angry and hurt about the chief fight. Anyway, more than anything April needed this Rigg's lie to be over as soon as possible.
April finally catches Riggs at the scheduling board. He is writing out the names of his residences when April rushes up to him.
"Hey, how'd the date go last night? Can we call off this charade? Arizona is already hounding me for details," April asks desperately.
"See! Imagine if I told her the real person! She has no filter," Riggs points the dry erase marker at her to emphasis his point, but quickly backs down when he sees April's expression.
"Soooo?" April snaps. She is too tired to have any patience today.
"Here's the thing, the date didn't end up happening," Nathan says apologetically. He had tried, but family comes first. Maggie comes first. Always.
"Nathan!" April can't help but roll her eyes.
"Maggie was upset and Meredith and Jackson had to comfort her. I'm sure she will reschedule for sometime this week. I'm sure," Nathan wasn't certain if he was trying to convince her or himself.
"Jackson was there last night?" April asks confused. Jackson had told her that he had forgotten something at the hospital, not that he was with Maggie.
"Uh yeah, I saw him drive up," Riggs instantly feels like he said the wrong thing. "Keps?"
April is quiet for a moment, thinking about something that Riggs wasn't privy too. Her face drops as if coming to a realization. She remembers this morning when he had come into the attendings' lounge wearing the same clothes that he was wearing yesterday. She had just assumed that he passed out in an on-call room or something. April knows that she shouldn't jump to conclusions. She knows Maggie's mother just died and that Jackson was probably just there comforting her. But he isn't one to lie to her and she had this bad feeling in her gut. April shakes her head. This isn't her business anyway. They are divorced, he can do whatever he wants. She focuses back on Nathan, who is watching her concerned.
"One week. No more, you understand me?" April insists. Riggs can tell that she means it.
"One week, I promise," He holds out his hand to shake on it, but April just huffs past it.
Arizona was attempting to input her patient information into the system, but keeps getting distracted. She was still reeling from Rigg's confession, last night. It's true that her and April hadn't talked in awhile. They had missed a lot in these past few months. April didn't know that Arizona was dating Eliza. And now, Riggs and April? She desperately needed to talk to April, but she didn't know how to bring everything up without breaking her promise to Riggs. And April had all but blew her off this morning. Before Arizona could really begin to spiral, Eliza comes up behind her.
"Hey stranger," She whispers in Arizona's ear.
"Stranger? We woke up together this morning," Arizona laughs as she turns around.
"Yeah, but it has been a few hours. It felt like eternity." Eliza smiles and begins to rub Arizona's arm. Arizona enjoys the touch, until a few residences walk by and she takes a few steps back. Now that Webber knew, they were less discreet about their flirtation, but Arizona wasn't ready to fully go public yet.
"What's wrong? You've been distracted since yesterday," Minnick had noticed that Arizona was unreasonably quiet all through dinner and even breakfast this morning.
"Nothing. I mean I just learned that one of my friends is hiding this huge secret. And I found out from someone else so I can't even tell her that I know. It's a mess," Arizona sighs.
"Why don't you just talk to her, get her to tell you herself?" Eliza suggests.
"Because I took someone else's side in a fight, when I should have at least talked to her. And now she won't even tell me when she is in love with someone new," Arizona realizes what she let slip too late. "Crap! You did not hear that."
"My lips are sealed," Eliza gestures the zipping of her mouth. They start walking down the hall when they spot Jackson and Warren going over a chart.
"Doctor Avery!" Eliza calls out.
"Yes?" Jackson says barely looking up from his chart. He was still frosty towards her, one of the last to warm up to the Minnick way.
"Murphy said you let her take charge of the burn unit last night. Thank you. She learned a lot," Eliza smiles with an air of professionalism.
"Yeah, well. You're welcome?" Jackson says suspicious of what she was going to ask next.
"I was hoping you'd let Doctor Warren take charge of the nerve regrafting this morning," Eliza looks down at her notes to make sure she had the right surgery.
"I was going to do that anyway," Jackson says, exasperatedly.
"Great! I can't wait to watch. Warren, I'll see you in the surgery." Eliza nods to Arizona as she leaves. Before she even rounds the corner, Jackson grimaces.
"I still don't like her. Even if her and Webber are working together now." Jackson states.
Arizona does what she has done for weeks now, which is make noncommittal noises and hoping no one would explicitly ask for her opinion.
"I like her," Ben says enthusiastically.
"I know. You've said that. A lot. Go do a full patient work up, Mr. Lead Surgeon," Jackson says, sarcastically. However, the sarcasm is lost or ignored by Ben who happily grabs the chart and saunters away. Arizona was going to leave too, when she suddenly has a very bad idea. She was going to try and get information from Jackson.
"Hey!" She stops Jackson from walking away.
"Hey?" He responds, he turns back around.
"How are you?" She tries to sound normal, but that was a question they had never really asked each other. When he looks confused, she plays it off, "I mean. What's up? How's Harriet?"
"Um, nothing is up. And Harriet is great. Growing a mile a minute. April swears she starting to speak. But I think she was just making gurgling noises," He smiles thinking of the other night.
April was with Harriet on the rug while Jackson sat down beside them on the couch. April was playing a game of peek-a-boo that Harriet was enthralled in. Jackson was sure that Harriet's laugh may be his favorite thing in the world, well besides April's laugh. The baby was making gurgling noises, when suddenly April eyes widen and she turns towards Jackson.
"Did you hear that?" April asks, excitedly.
"What?" Jackson was pretty sure he just heard spit leave his daughter's mouth.
"She said tortoise! She said tortoise! Our baby is genius," April holds up her daughter and starts giving her kisses. "Yes, you are. Yes, you are."
Jackson didn't have the heart to tell her that she definitely did not say tortoise. Or anything. At least for a few more months. But, he loved watching April glow with pride. They both couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the night.
"Oh, good so April is still living there?" Arizona sighs with relief.
"Yes. Why?" He turns toward her seriously. He was confused by this line of questioning. There was no way that Arizona learned about last night, but she was acting extra squirrely.
"Oh no reason. I just hadn't heard much. I wasn't totally sure. That is great about Harriet! We should have a play date between Sofia and her when Sofia is in town," Arizona starts to back away down the hallway.
"Uh. Sofia is seven and Harriet is still a baby," Jackson looks at Arizona like she has gone crazy and maybe she has.
"What? Sofia loves babies. Okay, I'll see you later.," Arizona yells before she turns the corner.
When she is out of sight, she finally lets out a breath. Wow, she has to be better at these stealth missions. However, Jackson seemed generally unaware of any changes in the water. Or he was very good at hiding it. That means that Riggs and April were happening without his knowledge. Arizona was not going tell another secret of April's to Jackson, she had learned her lesson the last time. No, she was going to have to get the information from the source.
